"Come to think of it, today was Monday. I left early this morning and still haven't collected this week's gift."
So before taking Iluna and Luvia to the third floor, Shade went down to the basement and carried out the Gift Box again. Since the Green Lake Region incident had already ended, he had no plans for any adventures lately apart from visiting Miss Goode. He therefore was not expecting to receive anything particularly remarkable.
And that was indeed the case. He had drawn another ordinary item, and it was an ordinary item he found very familiar. Written on manuscript paper in blue ink were elegant flowing Delarion letters, with the title "Family's Past":
"This is... the handwritten manuscript of the twenty-fourth story in the Detective Hamilton Story Collection?"
Inspired by the Edwards Family's two centuries of love, hatred, and entanglements, Dorothy had not used the real relationships between its members. Instead, she devised another complicated set of connections, having "Detective Hamilton" one day receive a commission from the lost youngest daughter of that declining, mysterious family. He was asked to find her parents' missing photograph in the Family Old House, gradually uncovering the story of the entire family.
Making use of her "vacation" time at Green Lake Inn, Dorothy had written an exceptionally long story this time. Its serialization in the Steam Bird Daily would not be finished in just two or three installments. Before the Battle of Green Lake, she had entrusted Shade with mailing the opening portion to the Steam Bird Daily editorial office. The editors who read it all sang its praises, believing it would become another peak among the Detective Hamilton Story Collection.
More importantly, this handwritten manuscript of the story, signed by Dorothy herself, had already been given to Iluna as a birthday gift