“White snow comes, see it falling ♫

Cold is in the air, next year is calling ♫

It’s time for a fest ♫

Let all your family be bless ♫

A great Origdiviel Arashan to you all ♫”

“Happy Origdiviel Arashan to all of you!”

Ahhh, Peolyncian Christmas. Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!

Snow was coming down, the air was cooling down, and there were plenty of people celebrating in the street market for this one special winter holiday. The day of the Origin Gods, it was a time to celebrate together in your home with your family, all cozied up next to a warm fireplace while drinking hot sweet choco. Well, that’s at least how I imagined it would be!

“Origdiviel Arashan!” I heard people calling out, while kids would sing a carol praying for the happiness of their families from the Gods.

“The Gods watch over us as the earth turns heavenly white ♫

To honor our patrons, we servants feast in their name, praying and praising their name with every bite ♫

They blessed us with shelter, food, friendship, love, and life ♫

So in their name, we shall live good lives, so our faith may fuel their power above in their domain ♫”

Celebrating this festival in a village was nice and wholesome, but seeing all these people celebrating in a city was also a good experience. Still, if I’m promoting spending this time with family, I better do the same! Buying the last few presents, I rushed back to where our RV was stationed in this city.

“Merry Christmas and Happy Origdiviel Arashan everybody!” I announced with a fat grin as I entered the communal room inside our subspace. There, I saw Tasianna and Svena putting down food on a large table fit for over twenty people. Of course, two people would be too little to prepare the table, but no worries, for we had some good helpers.

““Merry Christmas and Happy Origdiviel Arashan, Hestia!”” One of them replied while handing me a warm fragassa milk. Sadly, we had no access to chocolate yet, but strawberries were better anyways!

“Yes, you too! Thanks for the drink, Kyouy—”

[“CUT! CUT! CUT!”]

“““Whaa—?!”””

A loud trembling voice suddenly erupted in everybody’s heads, spooking people into stopping what they were doing. We all looked around, thinking it came from Klea’Hatma, but that voice sounded different. Less sultry.

[“Hestia, you’re not supposed to spoil things! Didn’t you read the damn script!”]

… Oh, it’s you…

“Is that the author, Lady Hestia?” Tasianna asked me with a brow raised, and I nodded.

Yes, good ol’ author finally spoke to us after how many years of writing this story and only including me in the author’s notes. Only now does he speak.

[“It’s been nearly two years, okay? And, yes, if I had spoken to you during a normal chapter, it’ll be called breaking the fourth wall. Hello? Didn’t you read the script? You weren’t supposed to spoil things for the Royal Road folks!”]

Ahhh, there he goes again.

[“It’s supposed to be a Christmas special for everybody so you can’t go around spoiling stuff!”] The author continued lecturing me, to the point I told Kyouya to go back to Tatsuya.

[“Oi, you did it again! That hasn’t happened yet in the Royal Road chapters! This is supposed to be a time-skip so I don’t have to name the city you’re currently in for a future arc. You avoided the name up until now, why did you have to mention the students?!”]

“See, people, this is your author. He can’t handle non-canon stuff at all,” I joked about the author, causing him to send me a frown emoji to my head. “I mean, this is all non-canon anyways. We’re celebrating with everybody who has appeared in the story, right? So just let me celebrate. You cannot control me!”

[“… Why are you being like that?”]

“Hey, that’s how you wrote me. Anyways, go back to your family and celebrate the holidays with them! I’ll get back to my festivities, alright?”

[“…”]

“Perfect.” I pointed a thumbs up towards the ceiling, not knowing where exactly the author’s voice was coming from before returning to the main special of the day. “Well, the cat’s out of the bag, so no need to hide anything. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you! All of you readers out there!”

“Happy Origdiviel Arashan to all our supporters! Lady Hestia and everybody welcomes you to his short but timely chapters!” Tasianna wished.

“We’ll be going and get Sensei, Ellaine, and Grimnir. See you guys during the meal,” Tatsuya suddenly said.

“OI, where the hell are you guys going! Wish them Merry Christmas! You don’t need to go!” I protested, but the students were adamant about leaving.

“Wrong story, Hestia-san,” Kyouya argued. “You five are the main characters and this chapter has a word budget so the author doesn’t have to write much. Not enough screen time for everybody and this isn’t canon. So we’ll make way for the five main characters.”

What the hell are you guys, side characters?! That’s so cliche to say!

“Hey, we can read what the author is writing. We know what you thought, Hestia.” Tatsuya countered before disappearing into the word pile courtesy of the author’s intentions. One moment you’re here, the next, you’re gone! Writing sucks with how it can make people vanish like that.

“Yo, we are here.”

“WAAAAAH! Saori?!”

She suddenly appeared from thin air with Ellaine and Grimnir.

“Yeah, the author wanted us to appear so we are here. Anyways, Merii Kurisumasu from your wolf Sensei! Wrooooh!” Saori suddenly made a pose, absolutely out of character.

“… Saori what are you doing?” Ellaine asked with confusion on her face.

Saori stopped and coughed, her face reddening in embarrassment. “Ahem! W-Well, since the author said we could do whatever during this special, I thought it would be okay to act more weirder? You know, for people to laugh.”

[“Dear, it isn’t gap moe if you force it. Forcing it is how you fail at seducing people since they’ll see through it,”] Klea’Hatma commented, causing Saori to hide her face in shame. [“Anyways, I’m not exactly a main character, but I am part of Ellaine right now so let me use this time to make our story even more irresistible. Me-rry Christ-mas. Everybod—”]

“Alright, alright, stop it Klea!” Ellaine threw away the demon’s sentence, stopping her from describing what the hell she was intending. This story isn’t PG enough to have a succubus lap dance in front of our readers. How the hell am I supposed to describe that to everybody?!

“In any case,” Ellaine cleared her voice. “Origdiviel Arashan, everybody. Well wishes from House Helvas and ‘A Dragon Idol’s Reincarnation Tale.’ It warms my heart to see everybody having fun with the story! Please, take care of yourself and stay healthy. Master Grimnir?”

“Origdiviel Arashan, you lads and lasses reading this story. Toast to all of you able to legally drink and enjoy the festivities,” Grimnir raised his tankard of beer. “Hmm, you know, this is supposed to be a time for me to wish you people well, but I’m not gonna let this opportunity pass! Author, I demand you increase my screen time! I have my own character arc, too, you know!”

[“… You know my storyboard. You will get your moment when it’s time. I’m not gonna forget you, Grimnir.”] The author tried to appease Grimnir but failed.

“Yeah, yeah, bladdarg! The only times where I had a chance to shine were when I got introduced and during the crafting chapters. Otherwise, I’m stuck in the back while the lasses are shining! Do me a favor and get things rolling, yeah?”

[“… I’m pretty sure I gave you enough moments to show off your wisdom in the story. In any case, you know my storyboard! You know when you’re coming in so shut up already Grimnir!”]

“Bladdarg, you better not forget me!”

“Grimnir, we will forget about everything once this chapter ends,” Saori threw cold water on him. “Yeah, that is what a non-canon chapter does to everybody. But, well, it is still nice to be with everybody for now. Two years have passed since this story was first written. I do feel a bit emotional about what we have experienced together everybody.”

Saori's aloofness broke as tears started streaming from her face. She turned around, saying, “Pardon me” as she tried to hide her crying.

“Hiehie, it’s all right, Miss Saori. This is more fitting for your personality,” Tasianna slightly teased Saori. “But, it is true. Without this story, I probably wouldn’t have met anybody from Aurora. Especially Lady Hestia.”

Tasianna suddenly kneeled down before me. “Lady Hestia, another year will pass soon. For that, I thank you for allowing me to stay with you. Like always, my life is yours to use and I will continue serving you with the best of my abilities. Thank you for everything, my lady.”

Even Tasianna’s eyes were starting to water. This is supposed to be our first holiday special, but everybody is crying! This is supposed to be a happy moment! I had to pull Tasianna up to calm her down.

“That is how it is, lass,” Grimnir stated.

“I agree. Meeting with all of you has changed my life, so it’s only natural to feel slightly emotional on this day. This is the first special we will spend together,” Ellaine added. She hadn’t started crying yet but her words were starting to affect me now.

“Well, you heard it, everybody!” I turned to a wall, believing the author will describe me facing the readers to not embarrass me. Hey, wait a minute, these are my thoughts right now. Author, make me face our damn readers!

…

I face the readers. With a wide smile, I spoke to them, “Happy Holidays to all of you. Thank you very much for all your support up until now. I honestly wish all of you great health and a great next year. Hopefully, all of you will stay with us and we’ll have more fun together. I love you guys! All of you!”

I held my fingers together, showering the readers with my hearts.

“AND A MERRY HOLIDAYS FROM THE WHOLE CAST OF ‘A DRAGON IDOL’S REINCARNATION TALE!’”

“WWAAAAAAAAAAH! Fucking hell! Stop appearing and disappearing like that! It fucking sucks for me!” I shouted at how the room was full to the brim with every ally who has appeared in the story. Some of them are people I haven’t met up again yet, like Master Kush and the saurians!

But do you know what's even more tortuous? I can’t hug any of them since this special is almost at its end. We are reaching the word budget soon! But, it can’t be helped. The author needs to rest for the holidays, too.

Hold on, isn’t somebody missing?

I noticed somebody very important missing from the cast. I couldn’t see her around in the mass. I began looking around as everybody greeted me until I heard a knock on the door. I rushed towards it and opened it up.

There, the last person was standing.

“I’m sorry, I overslept.”

I smiled.

“Come in—”

[“Word budget reached. Okay, everybody, go have fun and let’s wrap this up.”]

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Fuck you, author!”

And that is how this non-canon chapter will end.

Once again, from all of us, thank you very much for your continued support. Of course, you guys should be curious about who this person will be, at least, the Royal Road peeps should be. It will be special and it will be awesome.

As such, I hope you guys enjoyed this small present and look forward to more of our adventures! Once again, from ADIRT — this acronym is so shit, but our word budget is empty — Happy Holidays!

Thank you for reading! Love you all!