CHAPTER 407: CHAPTER 348: GIFT AND RETURN GIFT

The handkerchief smells a bit?

Hearing his younger brother’s muffled voice under the cloth covering his face, Leon suddenly remembered that the handkerchief, which he had just used to wipe the "treasure" Melanie discovered, might not smell so great. Hastily, he pulled it away and used his sleeve to vigorously rub William’s face, chuckling awkwardly and deflecting,

"Maybe it wasn’t wet enough, I’ll go wash it first. Senior Emma, where’s the water?"

"I’ll do it."

After shooting Leon a slightly reproachful look, Emma, who had finished wiping her daughter’s face, did not reveal the secret of Leon’s handkerchief. Instead, she beckoned to William, used the clean part of the cloth, and gently began to wipe his face again.

With the strong bodily control of the Cleaner, Emma’s movements, although tender and gentle, seemed to effortlessly remove the dirt from William’s face with the naked eye. Witnessing this, Melanie, who was enduring the "torture" in agony, couldn’t help but protest again,

"Sister Anna, see, you don’t have to be so rough. How about I..."

"How about you either sit quietly or I deduct your pocket money for the week after next as well? Your choice!"

"Oh..."

As Anna brutally quashed Melanie’s rebellion, the newly restored porcelain doll-like Ellie curiously approached Leon, examining this mysteriously endearing uncle.

"What’s the matter?"

Although he knew that little Ellie wasn’t truly a child but an anomalous object born from Senior Emma’s longing for her daughter, Leon couldn’t help but feel a surge of affection as he looked at the timid little girl trying to move closer to him.

Squatting slightly to level his eyes with little Ellie, Leon smiled and asked,

"Did you want to tell me something?"

"Uh..."

Still unaccustomed to conversing with people older than herself, Ellie timidly blinked and glanced back at Emma. Encouraged by Emma’s look, she mustered the courage to say,

"I... I drew a picture a few days ago, it’s... of you, and I wanted to give it to you..."

She drew a picture of me?

Hearing little Ellie’s words, Leon couldn’t help but be slightly taken aback, then felt a warm sensation in his heart as he nodded appreciatively, smiling and responding,

"Thank you... Where is the drawing?"

"It’s in my room..."

Seeing that Leon didn’t refuse, little Ellie breathed a sigh of relief, then nervously fiddled with the hem of her skirt with her small hands, hesitantly asking,

"If it doesn’t look very good, would you still accept it?"

"Of course, I would."

Observing Ellie, who seemed so different from his own two mischief-makers at home and was so well-behaved it made his heart ache, Leon couldn’t resist gently patting her head through the wide-brimmed soft hat. Then, getting up, he took her gloved little hand and made a courteous gesture.

"Miss Ellie, would you be willing to take me to see your artwork?"

"I am!"

Upon receiving Leon’s positive response, little Ellie immediately broke into a big smile. Under Emma’s gentle gaze, she led Leon inside and handed him a slightly crumpled piece of drawing paper.

The drawing, done in a naïve style, featured a large rectangular frame that slightly resembled a toppled-over coffin with a large dark hole at the top. In front of the frame, a mishmash of colors, reminiscent of paint factory waste, was spread out.

Three stick-like figures connected by lines floated above these dizzyingly colorful blocks, seemingly engaged in an evil ritual around a round, fiery object.

So... where am I?

Not daring to admit he didn’t quite understand the piece, Leon bravely pointed to the only element he could identify, and complimented,

"Not bad, very bold color usage and an avant-garde style... um, are those flames?"

"They’re candles!"

Candles, really!

Upon getting the hint, Leon secretly breathed a sigh of relief and continued guessing with the information.

Could this large round object, resembling a barrel of fuel with a horizontal stripe in the middle, be a birthday cake? Are those stick figures people holding hands?

And those colorful blocks beneath their feet, are they the garden? Is the toppled-over coffin a small wooden house? So, the true meaning of this painting is that people celebrating her birthday are dancing hand in hand around a birthday cake in the garden?

"It looks... It looks a little off... I’ll fix it!"

Glancing up at Leon and then down at the stick figures in the drawing, little Ellie’s face turned slightly red. She quickly took back the drawing, put a black coat on one figure, and placed two dots where the face would be, drawing a short downward-curved line for a mouth.

After modifying Leon’s image, she decided to go all out. Gripping a crayon, she drew a tree in the garden, added a small stick figure on the tree reaching for a bird’s nest, and placed a larger stick figure under the tree with hands on its hips, angrily looking up.

On the other side of the tree, in what appeared to be a bush, she drew a small stick figure with half its body diving into the bush, wiggling its backside furiously, capturing the entire stick figure family... capturing Leon’s whole family in the drawing.

"This looks... it looks a little better now..."

After drawing some small black dots next to Melanie to imply the precious treasure she found in the secret passage, little Ellie finally sighed in relief after completing her second creation. With a flushed face, she handed the very abstract-looking drawing to Leon.

"For you, thank you for coming to celebrate my birthday."

"You’re... you’re welcome..."

With the corners of his mouth twitching slightly, Leon earnestly accepted the stylized piece of avant-garde art titled *"Tentacle Monster Ravages the Waste River,"* putting it away. He then crouched down and smiled as he said,

"I really like your gift, and I happen to have a birthday present for you too."

"Really?"

Hearing Leon’s words, little Ellie asked with eyes full of surprise,

"What kind of gift?"

"It’s not time yet~"

Feigning a mysterious smile, Leon didn’t bring out the overnight custom-made fireworks but instead asked,

"Ellie, before I give the gift, could you take off your gloves and shake hands with me?"

Shake hands?

Hearing Leon’s words, little Ellie hesitated slightly, then timidly nodded, taking off the gloves meant to block out the sun and placing her small hand into Leon’s palm.

[Name: Jewel Flower’s Woe (Soul, Life and Death, Reflection)]

[Appearance: A well-behaved girl who, although can grow normally, can only appear near the Treasure Flower Manor, temporarily turns transparent with excessive sun exposure]

[Ability: Soul Stabilization (limited), Resurrection (limited), Wish Reflection (region restricted)]

[Cost: None]

[File: After realizing the execution of the Bauhinia Family was inevitable, to save her daughter, Emma Alman used the location of the Bauhinia Family’s Secret Vault as a price to demand protection from Leonard Kuko for her daughter.

To obtain the Bauhinia Family’s amassed wealth, Leonard Kuko agreed to the deal. However, after confirming the vault location was accurate, and fearing the King’s disfavor for sheltering the Bauhinia remnants, he directly broke the promise, personally drowning the less than one-year-old Ellie Alman in the lake...

...

When the naive soul returned to the world with her mother, the bodyless Ellie Alman could not revive and was on the verge of dissipating under the sunlight.

To keep her last family member, Emma Alman’s strong wishes actively partitioned part of the "Sin of the Precious Flower’s" power, combining the souls dispersed after the deaths of a large number of blood-related kin, creating this special anomalous object only "usable" within the Treasure Flower Manor...]

[Evaluation: When together with "Sin of the Precious Flower" Emma Alman, it should have gained the ability to regrow and repair from physical deaths six hundred and sixty-six times; however, due to its missing original body, this trait has never been able to activate]

[Contamination Value: 0.1]

*As I suspected, but even better than I thought.*

After reading little Ellie’s "description," Leon couldn’t help but smile. The shiny button on his cuff glimmered slightly, and a small children’s firework appeared in Ellie’s palm.

Next, the Desire Dream Invader, handcrafted by the Third Generation Director, activated, and a dreamlike flame quietly appeared, igniting the petal-like small colored paper at the firework’s end, causing a small burst of splendid fireworks to spray from the gaps.

"Wow!!!"

"The real gift might not arrive today, so I’ll give you this for now."

Holding Ellie’s tiny hand, teaching her to use the end spark of the firework to trace circles in the air, Leon looked at the delighted little Ellie before him and extended his right pinky finger to her, smiling warmly as he said,

"If Ellie can do me a favor, and when you blow the cake candles tonight, wish for Senior Emma to stay home with you all day tomorrow, then I’ll give you an even better gift. How does that sound?"