Chapter 207: White Christmas
Isaac’s childhood home had been almost completely transformed by the time he arrived. Sure, his parents had always put up plenty of Christmas decorations, but that was a far cry from the efforts that had been made this year.
Tree branches hung from every place on the house where something could be attached, the sides of the roof were covered in ornaments and a dog-sized Santa statue proudly sat upon the chimney.
Isaac grinned as he saw that. Being able to clamber up the outside of your building without needing a ladder or being in any danger from the fall meant that decorating had just become a million times easier.
Well, the people hadn’t been in any danger. A handprint that clearly belonged to one of the twins marred the house’s façade and unless Isaac was wildly off base, that had been caused by one of the little ones slipping and failing to contain her strength when grabbing at a handhold.
The only thing missing was the snow.
Sure, you’d get the occasional snowflake in December, and maybe even a couple of days where enough snow lay on the streets to require a snowplow, but Isaac could count the number of white Christmases he’d seen on one hand and was looking like tomorrow was going to be another holiday without snow.
Actually, he realized it was after midnight, so it was already Christmas, but only technically, so he still had time.
“Are things ready?” he asked the police officers currently barricading off the street.
“Sure.” One of the officers called.
Arranging to have the street barred to cars for the day had been easy, terrifyingly so. Normally, German bureaucracy was a byzantine maze of infinite forms and other staggeringly unhelpful office drones.
Isaac though, he had connections with the police, and he’d dealt with officers from the nearest precinct a few times.L1tLagoon witnessed the first publication of this chapter on Ñøv€l--B1n.
On one hand, seeing things go so smoothly had been nice.
On the other, seeing how much personal favors could change the situation was absolutely terrifying on a deep level. This wasn’t corruption in the legal sense and also probably morally in the clear, but things should be equal for all, shouldn’t they?
Except the thing he was doing was most definitely a universal good. Eh, the occasional car driver might be mad at having to take a slight detour, but most of the people affected would also benefit. Even the officers who had to “work” on Christmas had volunteered for the sake of their kids.
Isaac grinned and pulled the first storage ring from his jacket pocket and thrust it in the direction of the cordoned-off area.
The water contained within sprayed out in a fine mist, passing through the frost flame he’d projected in front of the ring. At first, the fresh snowflakes melted the instant they hit the ground, but by the time the first ring was empty, a couple of centimeters of snow covered the road.
“Do you have any more of those?” the nearest officer asked.
“Of course I do.” Isaac grinned. He’d borrowed a million from the university. They were still far from perfect, being too small, too hard to access, or having some other flaw, but they wouldn’t blow up in his face, which made them good enough for the task at hand.
Three rings later, there was enough snow on the ground for a decent snowball fight. Nice, but still nowhere near enough.
By the time 4 a.m. rolled around, Isaac used [Blessing of Innovation] to borrow a couple of structural engineering [Skills]. He used a standard flame to melt small portions of the snow castle he’d created, then re-froze the area to turn it into a solid chunk of ice sturdy enough to carry even a grown-ass adult.
Isaac took several steps back, wiped non-existent sweat from his brow, and grinned up at the twin, two-story castles he’d built with around ten meters of space between them, each complete with a stash of snowballs and sand spread on top of all walking areas to make them less slippery. The no man’s land between them had knee-deep snow for the kids to play in before the castles were opened for battle.
It was around 2 in the afternoon when the press showed up.
Either someone wanted a cute feel-good story to air on Christmas, or someone wanted another story about Isaac himself.
It didn’t matter, though. He floated the pot over onto the windowsill of his room and headed towards the newly arrived group. The press team was pretty bare-bones, consisting of just the camera person, the reporter themselves, and some manner of assistant.
“Merry Christmas,” Isaac called out as he approached them.
“Merry Christmas.” The reporter responded, pausing for a moment as she realized his current outfit was better suited to a Caribbean beach than Germany in the middle of winter.
“Can I ask you a couple of questions?” she asked.
“Of course,” Isaac said.
“What is all this?” she asked.
“A winter wonderland for the kids. Everything I wanted to play with on Christmas when I was a kid.”
“Well, it looks amazing.” She said, only to let out a startled squeak as Isaac exploded into motion to swat a snowball out of the air in order to save the camera.
“Kids, mind the electronics.” He called. Of course, a couple of the little monsters decided to take that as a challenge.
“Do you think we could continue this somewhere out of range of the castles?” Isaac suggested, facing the reporter while smacking snowballs out of the air, still not even looking at the incoming projectiles.
***
One interview for a feel-good press story later, Isaac went back to supervising the chaos unfolding outside his home.
Eventually, night fell, and everyone headed home. Isaac demolished the castles to ensure that no one got hurt using them unsupervised.
Christmas dinner was a lively affair and then, it was finally time for presents.
Just as he’d requested during his last birthday, Isaac didn’t get any big presents, just good food he wouldn’t normally buy and some nice clothes.
The present he’d gotten them was a family trip to Seoul. He really wanted to show them the city he’d spent so much time in since the [System] had appeared.
And, of course, there were the guinea pigs he'd bought for the twins on behalf of his parents.
***
And then, after a wonderful holiday, on January second, Isaac headed straight back to work. The winter holidays had been fun, sure, but there was vital work to do.
