"Happy Birthday and congratulations on turning fifteen years old, Young Master!" Amelia said, placing a cake with fifteen candles in front of Caecus.
His room wasn't decorated, due to him not being able to see it anyways, but music played in the background, making the celebration just as good.
"Thank you, Amelia!" The black-haired boy's expression was clearly happy and a small smile lifted the corners of his mouth.
He blew on the candles and extinguished them all in one breath. Then he made a wish.
'I wish that I, Caecus Caelum, will get strong enough to stand up for myself. I wish to stop being treated as less by my corpus, because of my blindness!'
Amelia clapped, the sound of it spreading through the room. This was the first birthday party in years he didn't celebrate alone. Even though it was just with Amelia, spending it with another person made him extremely happy.
Then suddenly he felt arms slinging around him, he was being embraced.
"H-huh?!"
Amelia hugged him and patted his back. After a few seconds, she released him from her grip, and Caecus' face was beet red.
"Of course I brought you a gift."
The servant took out something from the handbag she had strapped around her shoulder.
"It's something I requested to be made specifically for you."
The form of it was quadratic, resembling a phone. She placed it into Caecus' hand, and he felt a few buttons on the side of it.
"Is this a phone? I can't use phones though…"
"It's a phone, yes. But something special. Try augmenting it with your soul essence."
Caecus followed her commands and drew out the soul essence from his soul core. A warm feeling started to linger wherever his soul essence traveled. When it reached the palm of his hand and entered the phone, something weird happened. It's like I can feel the insides of the phone.
"This allows you to partially 'see' what's in the phone. Uh, think of it as a virtual reality for blind people."
Caecus was intrigued. He unlocked the phone, which didn't have a password yet, and looked through it. When he reached the "Contacts" app, one number was saved: Amelia.
"I already entered my number into your phone, so we can stay in contact while you're in the academy. And it's important to have a phone, how else are you gonna socialize?" she asked, a smile etching into her face.
"..."
"What's wrong?" Her servant was confused by her master's sudden silence.
Tears started welling up in Caecus' eyes, which he quickly wiped away.
"Th-thank you, Amelia. For everything. I… I still don't know how but in the future, when I grow stronger, I'll repay you. Somehow."
A warm genuine smile appeared on Amelia's face, and she patted Caecus on his shoulder.
"Don't worry. I won't expect anything in return."
"W-what? No! I… I won't let the efforts that you put into me go to waste. Trust me, I will grow strong enough to repay you in some way!"
She looked at him for a few seconds, not saying anything. Then she turned her head sideways.
"How about making that a goal for now? Grow strong enough to honor my teachings, and never give up. If I see you getting far in life, that's enough repayment for me." This time Amelia patted his head and flashed him a warm smile again.
Caecus eagerly nodded. "I will do my best!"
With that, the both of them each cut out a piece of cake and ate it silently, just enjoying the moment.
'Mmm chocolate cheesecake, my favorite.'
In the past, it may have been awkward for him to sit there silently and eat with someone, but Caecus got so used to Amelia's presence that they didn't need to exchange words anymore.
Relishing the cake's flavor, the fifteen-year-old cut himself another piece of it, this time a bigger one than before.
"This is really good!" he said with a satisfied expression.
"I'm glad you're enjoying it," Amelia replied, seemingly deeply in thought.
A while later, the both of them finished eating, and just a quarter of the cake was left, which Caecus asked Amelia to store away so he could eat it after the entrance exams.
'Hmm… what should I do now that it's my birthday…?'
Caecus took out the phone Amelia gifted him and explored the internet a little. He had never really been on the internet and was deeply intrigued by it.
'What is this app? Soulgram?'
Amelia had installed a few supplementary apps for him, like Soulgram, Soulstube, and other apps.
Caecus tapped on it, and it opened. After a second, a screen appeared:
Log InSign Up
Since he didn't have an account, Caecus pressed 'Sign Up'. After he put in his information, he finally got access to the app.
Several different news channels, along with different influencer accounts, popped up.
"Nyx Noctis, the Noctis corpus heiress just announced that she broke through rank three a little over eight months ago. She is our best bet for this year's first place in the Psychéion entrance exams!" the voice of a young influencer was heard through the phone.
'Noctis corpus? Isn't that the top-ranked corpus in Anima?' Caecus bit his thumb.
'This year will have a lot of prodigies as it seems, if she and my sister are attending…'
Caecus scrolled a little further and noticed that for mundane people, heirs from the major corpora were like celebrities. They were treated like huge actors, with their lives deeply reported on, heirs of the different corpora having almost no privacy.
And in the middle of it all… the academy.
Many students of the academy had their own accounts, all of them with huge followings. They reported the news of what happened in the academy, their daily lives, and other events.
Amelia was right when she said that social media is a very good way to inform yourself about what's happening all around the world…
After a few minutes of scrolling, Caecus got tired of all the drama on the internet and decided to listen to some audiobooks while practicing his soul essence control.
Spending the rest of his day doing things that were fun for him, along with playing some games with Amelia, he thoroughly enjoyed it.
Eating his dinner, which was solely composed of his favorite foods, Caecus chatted a little with Amelia.
When he was done, he went to take a shower and changed into his sleeping garments.
Tired but satisfied with the day, he fell asleep.
Five days left until the entrance exams.