Little Shanna's Christmas

Little Shanna's Christmas

December 25, 1990, 6:00 a.m., Menethil Family Castle.

As usual, Little Shanna went to Gege's bedroom. When she opened the door, she found that Gege was not there.

"Was he earlier than usual today?" Little Shanna muttered to herself.

Little Shanna looked beside Gege's bed, where there was a small pile of gifts, even fewer than the ones she had received.

Little Shanna knew that aside from the gifts from Dad, Mom, and herself, those gifts could only have come from relatives far away in the United States.

Over the years, she had met several Little Witches she got along with at banquets, and they had reached the point where they exchanged Christmas gifts. Gege, however, chatted happily with many people at banquets but did not have any particularly close friends.

When Little Shanna was four, she went to the United States with Dad, Mom, and Gege, and only then did she meet the relatives she had heard so much about. She had heard that Gege had never met them before either, which made Little Shanna rather happy. Hehe.

"Bell, Shanna, this is your grandfather—Aoun Menethil; your grandmother—Bernice Menethil; your aunt—Lina Menethil; and your maternal grandfather—Drude Jeslav, maternal grandmother—Clara Jeslav, and Aunt Helena Jeslav."

Dad, William, introduced the relatives before them.

"Oh, Bell, you had only just been born the last time I saw you. In the blink of an eye, you have grown so much. I'm so happy. It's wonderful to see you able to move about freely outside. My poor child."

Grandmother Bernice hugged Bell, then hugged Shanna as well.

"Shanna, I'm so sorry we were never able to visit you. There were too many troublesome matters here in the United States. I hope you can forgive us."

Only later, while chatting, did Little Shanna learn that several years ago, in order to escape a very, very bad villain, her Grandparents and maternal Grandparents had taken the still-young Lina and Helena to the United States, leaving only her parents in Britain to take care of the family business.

Little Shanna knew of that big villain. She had seen his name in a book before. It seemed to be called Voldemort... or was it Double Socket Hero? Little Shanna tilted her little head.

How could anyone have such a strange name?

But once, when Little Shanna mentioned that person's name in front of Dad and Mom, they both cried out and told her that she could not say that name. She had to call him "Myth... Mythical Man?" Another strange name.

Later, Little Shanna asked Gege why everyone was so afraid of that Mythical Man. Gege said it was because the man was too ugly, so whenever people saw him coming, they all ran away.

Sure enough, Dad and Mom were both scaredy-cats. Little Shanna would not be afraid of someone just because they were ugly. Before, Gege had found some ugly thing called a Grindylow from who knew where, and she had not been afraid of it... Well, maybe she had been just a tiny bit scared. Really, only a tiny bit. So Gege was definitely the bravest, and Little Shanna felt very proud.

Everyone who had not seen one another for so long chatted together for a long time. At first, they discussed ordinary things like, "How have you been lately?" But gradually, they began talking about things like "businesses" and "there still aren't enough hands," topics Little Shanna could not understand at all.

Little Shanna was a little unhappy because she did not want anyone to know that she could not understand what they were talking about. She wanted everyone to think she was a smart girl, so Gege would be proud of her. She tried hard to join the adults' conversation, but unfortunately, she failed very quickly. Everyone merely smiled at her and said nothing, but Little Shanna was still unhappy.

Something even more upsetting came afterward. When everyone parted to rest, only Gege and Little Shanna were left alone together.

"Shanna, why were you pretending to understand when you didn't?" Gege asked sternly.

"I'm sorry, Gege. I... I just wanted everyone to think I was a smart girl. I wanted Gege to be proud of me."

Little Shanna felt terribly wronged.

Please provide the text you would like me to translate and revise.

But all her grievance vanished the next moment, because Gege pulled her into a tight hug.

"I will always be proud of you, Shanna." Gege stroked her head. "So don't do something like that again. Being brave enough to admit what you don't know is what makes a truly smart girl."

"Mm!"

My Gege really is the best Gege in the world, Little Shanna thought.

In the days that followed, Little Shanna and Gege went to many places to have fun under Lina and Helena's guidance.

Little Shanna's favorite place was called Disneyland. She heard it was a Muggle amusement park. There were many attractions there, such as roller coasters and haunted houses.

Of course, Little Shanna did not like Disneyland because she liked those rides, since she did not find them very fun. In particular, she could not understand why all those Muggles screamed so miserably. At such a low height and such a slow speed, Little Shanna only needed to release her magic, and no matter what happened, she would not be harmed.

However, there was one exception: the haunted house.

While they were going through the haunted house, Gege held her tightly the entire time and kept telling her, "Those aren't Dark Magic Creatures. You can't kill them."

Actually, after Gege explained it to her, Little Shanna already knew that the monsters in the haunted house were Muggles in disguise, just like during Halloween.

But because she had been startled at first, Little Shanna instinctively wanted to attack.

The reason Little Shanna liked Disneyland was that there were so many people there that she and Gege successfully got separated from Lina.

Little Shanna had an extremely happy day, though she felt somewhat guilty afterward when she saw Lina drenched in sweat from anxiously searching for them.

"Do you require anything, Miss Shanna?"

Lim's shrill voice suddenly rang out beside her, interrupting Shanna's memories.

"No, it's nothing. Has Gege already gone for his morning training?" Shanna shook her head and asked Lim.

"Yes, Miss. Young Master Bell got up ten minutes earlier than usual today."

After bidding Lim farewell, Shanna left the castle and headed toward the two warehouses in the corner of the garden.

Gege had hired people to build these two warehouses several years ago. They were specifically meant for training.

Though they looked like small cubes from the outside, only around ten meters long, wide, and high, their interiors had been expanded with the Undetectable Extension Charm. Inside was actually a vast space more than a hundred meters in length, width, and height, where Gege's various training programs could be carried out.