"Happy birthday, Philly!"
In the first-floor hall of the villa, after everyone offered their congratulations, they gathered around to watch Philly blow out the candles on the cake, close her eyes, clasp her hands, and make a wish.
"So this is what a birthday ritual is like," Igula said. "I've learned something new."
"Huh?" Philly said. "You've never celebrated a birthday?"
"We all grew up in a Nurturing Home. You can think of us as natural-born orphans. Where we came from, a birthday was just an utterly ordinary day, and no one went out of their way to celebrate it," Igula said. "And honestly, preparing a cake and a number of candles matching your age on the day you were born, blowing them all out in one breath, then closing your eyes and making a wish... I would never do such an eerie ritual. Who knows what might happen?"
"But the Necromancy Faction does have a ritual similar to birthdays, called Sacrifice Day," Harvey said. "On the day a corpse transforms into an undead, a Sacrifice Day ritual has to be held every year, stuffing large amounts of maggots into—"
"Vishy, did birthdays exist in your era?" Ash swiftly cut Harvey off.
"They did, but how should I put it? We didn't celebrate them. They were more like a kind of consolation activity." Vishy spread his hands. "We Evernight Elves would hold a festival together on the last day of every year, grieving that another year of our lives had slipped away. You humans actually celebrate aging by one year. It's truly hard to understand."
Rose shook her head. "Because humans are too fragile, too easily hurt, too easily killed, so every year they get through is worth celebrating."
With that, she twisted open a bottle of liquor by hand