As Julius spoke up, two male servants brought out a wooden box.
Julias opened the box and pulled out a piece of clothing - a dark-grey robe.
"This is... A Magician's robe?" Mordred said, raising his eyebrows.
"Correct. It's a fully enchanted Magician's robe, along with a Magician's pointed hat and leather shoes," Julius said with a gentle smile. "Although you will grow out of those eventually, you'll need it when you go outside with Grandmaster Sofia. You have to look presentable when you do so."
Mordred heard this. Feeling grateful, he smirked, thinking, 'Are you my mother?...'
Julius did seem like one.
Sofia spoke up, "This robe is not the highest grade, but I've enchanted it myself. The robes help to retain body heat, same as the shoes. And the hat was enchanted to repel water. All the pieces also have a level of natural resistance to Fire Magic."
"Ah, I see… Thank you, Master. And thank you, Julius. I always wanted a real Magician's robe." Mordred expressed his enthusiasm, which was not fake.
It was a real enchanted Magician's robe – how cool was that?
Charlotte approached him next. "Prince Mordred, this is my humble gift for you. I once heard that you wished to have one for your own use."
What she took out turned out to be… a detailed continental map! It consisted of several leather pieces that displayed all the world's continents in as much detail as it was known.
'Oh, that's useful.'
Mordred felt grateful again - it was a map that was fully his own. He could sketch on it and make notes however he pleased.
"Thank you, Nanny Charlotte. I really wanted one of those." Mordred received the leather map with a grateful smile.
Sofia spoke up jokingly, "Hey, boy! With all that gear, are you planning to sneak away somewhere or something?"
"Haha…" Mordred received it as a joke. It was true that the storage pouch was something he wanted for future travels, but it was just a coincidence with the other gifts.
After Charlotte's gift, the maids of the tower approached Mordred and also gave him a shared present. It was a set of two robes seemingly sewn together by their combined efforts. These robes were made from ordinary materials, but Mordred felt he would find a use for them to wear them inside the tower.
Soon enough, Mordred was asked to open the other gifts. Apparently these gifts came from a few of the Princes and Princesses, as well as from Mordred's tutors.
Starting with the one that stood out the most, Mordred began to unwrap a present that looked like a quarter-staff or a broom.
After opening it he saw that it was indeed a staff!
It was not the size of a full staff, but was significantly longer and thicker than a wand; it was a half-staff.
At the end of it there was a large round gray sphere similar to the B-rank Magic Stone that Mordred was familiar with but far larger. The core of the wooden stuff was also gray, even though the staff was clearly new.
Julius explained, "This gift came from the 1st Prince after he heard that you were still using a B-rank Magic Wand. It's a short staff made from ashwood with an A-rank Magic Stone that came from an adult King Dragon. It's a good staff that provides boost to all Magic types without any preference. Its name is the [Ashen Sage]."
Mordred hummed in acknowledgment.
He knew that just the staff's Magic Stone would be worth around 100 Kingdragon gold coins. Perhaps to the First Prince's faction this amount was nothing, but Mordred was in truth penniless despite being a Prince, so it was a valuable gift.
He finally had an A-rank staff!
Although the truth was that Mordred did not need a Magician's staff as much as others might think. It's because he learned that all that a Magician's staff practically does is reduce the cost of spells.
For ordinary Magicians with limited amounts of Magic Power, a staff is a must; by reducing the cost of spells, it would boost their power and endurance when casting spells. For aspiring Saint-ranked Magicians, it would also provide the necessary extra Magic Power to finally bring forth a Saint-ranked spell.
But what it cannot do is raise a Magician's maximum output and the maximum strength of spells for a Silent Caster; it only improves efficiency.
As Mordred's Magic Power reserves continued rising, a staff would become less and less useful.
In addition, he was a born swordsman, so he'd likely hold a sword in his hands anyway. There might be no place for a staff there.
It only felt nice to receive the staff for a completionist sake. Owning an A-rank staff, it now felt that he was a proper master Magician, even if he'll rarely use it in serious combat.
After putting the staff aside, Mordred opened the gifts from the 12th Princess and the 5th Prince.
The 12th Princess's gift was a Magic Tool imported from the Magic City of Sharia - it was a decorated golden badge that looked like a compass with a small chain. Its function was to show the time; it was essentially a pocket watch.
It had more of an aesthetic value than value in gold, which Mordred didn't quite care about, but he still appreciated it. It was a useful gift.
Meanwhile the 5th Prince gifted him with a bunch of Magic Crystals which seemed to amount to a worth of around 300 gold coins. These would be useful for a variety of purposes, like creating Magic ink to be used in Magic Circles or serving as batteries in Magic Tools like in the pocket watch.
Next came the gifts from Mordred's various tutors.
Unlike one might expect, the gifts were not mostly books.
All books in this world are written and copied by hand, so the value of a book is very high. Many of Mordred's teachers' monthly salary from teaching him might not amount to the value of a book, so how could they afford to give him books as gifts this easily?
Mordred received only two books while the other gifts were small things like empty notebooks, a calendar, pencils, a chessboard, rare herbal tea and so on.
After all the gifts were unpacked, the official party started and the chocolate cake was cut up.
As he had revealed at one point, chocolate was one of Mordred's favorite flavors, which he rarely had a chance to taste because cocoa powder was expensive in this world.
Apart from the chocolate cake adorned with fresh strawberries, there were also small chocolate bites. Clearly these were prepared especially for him.
'That's nice…'
Mordred felt grateful. Having this kind of birthday party being thrown for him by something like a loving family was what he never experienced before.
He'd say he didn't care, but he appreciated this new life as he re-lived his childhood years.
…
After the party ended and Mordred returned to his room with the various gifts and his stomach full, he was then approached by his Master.
Throughout the birthday party Sofia did not give Mordred her gift yet, seeming to delay it until now.
After entering Mordred's room, his Master did not say anything, looked at him meaningfully and silently took out an item from her chest pocket.
It was a ring with an expensive-looking large green gemstone.
Sofia said, "We Magicians are the most vulnerable to sudden attacks up close. This ring is a Magic Item I've acquired in the past. It can instantly create a powerful barrier where it's pointed that will block both physical and magical attacks. The strength of this barrier can withstand up to two Saint rank attacks. I have no use for it anymore, so I want you to have it."
Sofia spoke in a neutral tone, but when Mordred heard it, he was slightly shocked. He instantly realized that this ring was a great treasure!
It had to be said that Magic Tools are items created by human hands and can be produced en masse, like the Magic handwatch from the 12th Princess, but Magic Items could only appear in labyrinths.
Although there were duplicates, Magic Items were rare and nearly unique objects. Most were useless, but some of them had very useful effects and were highly valued.
In contrast to Magic Tools, Magic Items also did not require any Magic Power from the user or Magic Crystals and instead had their own power supply which would recharge over time.
The self-filling quill that Mordred received from the 1st Prince's faction was like that. It could be seen from it how cunning the person who sent it as a gift was - this kind of gift would accompany Mordred throughout all of his studies and entire life, a rare, valuable and very practical item which at the very beginning he received from the 1st Prince.
But the value of a magical quill could not compare to the value of Sofia's ring at all!
A Magic Item ring that can create a Saint-rank barrier instantly, with no cost on the caster's side. This kind of item would certainly cause a fierce fight among nobles to get their hands on! It was a priceless life-saving treasure.
The ring's worth would not be counted in hundreds, but probably in thousands of gold coins! This amount of money was enough to buy several mansions!
It was a very extravagant gift.
"What are you dozing off for, boy? Say thank you," Sofia scolded, but her face expressed satisfaction.
"... Thank you, Master," Mordred said as he received the ring. "I only thought that it's a very valuable gift."
"It is. But I think you'll put it to better use than me."
Sofia originally thought to give the ring to Mordred on his 10th birthday party, and blow everyone's mind, but earlier was better than later since it affected Mordred's safety. And for a ring like this, it was better that its existence was not known by the public anyway.
Additionally, humans in this world rarely live past the age of 70, and especially if they abused Magic like he did, so Sofia was not even entirely certain if she would make it until Mordred's 10th birthday.
Mordred hesitated for a moment, then placed the ring over his left hand's ring finger.
The ring was far too big for his little fingers, but once he put it on, it shrunk down to fit his finger perfectly.
'Oh… It's a Magic ring, alright…'
It is only that the gem's size didn't shrink and now he had a large expensive-looking gem sticking out on his hand
For the most important things, on his birthday he received: a storage pouch, an A-rank staff, Magic Crystals, pocket watch, Magician's robes and a continental map…
And this time it was a Magic Ring with a Saint-rank barrier. He really received some good stuff!
Later, he did some testing. His staff Ashen Sage staff turned out to boost magic spells by a little over 3 times regardless of type, but that was not all.
While others might not be aware of it, Mordred discovered that it also significantly strengthened and lowered the cost of his Gravity Magic -- by 5 times!
Kingdragons were dragons that used Gravity Magic as their Inherent Magic, so it was understandable.
It was a perfect staff for him!