Of course, it was also possible that Chloe was not the Secret Witch, and the Hermit card had been placed in the gift by the Secret Witch.

Regardless of what was really going on, getting the Hermit card was a good thing.

Loren glanced at the Hermit card. Its front depicted a person covered by a cloth in a bustling marketplace, with the surrounding pedestrians ignoring him and going about their own business.

【Tarot Card - The Hermit】

Effect: Eliminates one's own or another's sense of presence.

Description: If I don't see it, it doesn't exist.

Judging by the description, the Hermit card's effect didn't seem particularly strong, even somewhat overlapping with the effect of Loren's black robe. But thinking that would be a mistake.

Whether it was the dragonhide of the Murmuring Dragon or Night Magic, what they could do was merely reduce one's presence. If someone paid special attention or used some detection magic, they could still be noticed.

The Hermit card's effect, however, was to *eliminate* presence. Even detection magic could not find it. That wasn't the most crucial part. The most overbearing effect of the Hermit card was its ability to completely erase someone's presence.

To the point where the entire world would forget them. No living being could see, hear, or touch them. They themselves could not interfere with anything, becoming utterly meaningless wandering souls. In the end, they would even forget their own existence.

Of course, truly achieving that level would undoubtedly come with a significant cost, so its frequency of use certainly wouldn't be high.

In a short time, Loren had obtained two Tarot cards, bringing him one step closer to collecting them all. Loren was growing increasingly curious about what would happen the moment they were all gathered.

"After eating, let's decorate the house. Today is Anna and Naclis's birthday. The cake I ordered should be delivered soon."

After the meal, Seraphina took a few maids to wash the dishes, and Loren simply took the others to start decorating the house.

By the afternoon, people had begun arriving at Loren's house one after another to deliver gifts. In this world, Christmas was equivalent to a combination of Christmas and the Spring Festival, which was a bit strange, but not that strange.

Soon, the large cake Loren had custom-ordered in advance also arrived. Anna was thirteen this year, so the cake had thirteen layers. This was already the pinnacle of this world's baking industry. In fact, quite a few bakers had come from the Nofica Theocracy to make the cake for Loren.

Moreover, the cake was escorted by Scarecrows. Thankfully, the door to Loren's new house was large enough, otherwise it wouldn't have fit through.

Since the two children shared the same birthday, Loren didn't try to get by with just one cake. He also bought a cake for Naclis. Although it was far smaller than Anna's, it was exquisitely made. Loren even personally wrote "Happy Birthday Naclis" on it.

Anna was exceptionally happy today, her energy seemingly endless. By evening, three layers of the thirteen-tier cake were already gone.

Loren didn't say anything about it. After all, the cake was for Anna. Even if she ate it all in advance, it didn't matter. She probably couldn't finish it anyway.

"Make a wish, then we can start eating the cake."

Loren placed candles on both Anna's and Naclis's cakes, turned off the lights, leaving only the candlelight in the room.

"I'll pass. I'm the happiest little girl in the whole world. All my wishes have already come true. Let's just start eating!"

Anna directly blew out the candles, but she didn't rush to eat. Instead, she waited for Naclis to make her wish.

Naclis usually acted very mature, but at this moment, she was quite childish, making her wish with extreme seriousness.

After a long while, she finally blew out the candles. At the same time, Anna let out a cheer:

"Woo-hoo! Time to eat!"

With that, before Loren could even turn the lights back on, Anna grabbed a handful of cake with her hand.

"Everyone, eat first. I've prepared gifts for you all. I'll give them to you in a bit."

Those delivering gifts had already come in the afternoon, so no one disturbed Loren in the evening.

"The lives of people in the Royal Capital are still much better than in the border regions..."

In previous years during Christmas, a few pitiful children would always knock on Loren's door, wanting some food.

If Loren didn't give them anything, he'd feel sorry for them. But if he did, he'd be pestered by even more children.

In the end, Loren wrote a letter and gave it to them, telling them to take other hungry people to the Church to eat. The Church had plenty of stored food, more than enough to feed them all.

As a result, the Church near Loren's house now had a fixed activity of providing free meals on Christmas. When Christmas came, few people ate at home. Eating at the Church also allowed for more devout prayer, a win-win situation.

The food provided by the Church was terrible, but it filled you up, which also served to filter out quite a few people. Even so, most people chose to eat at the Church.

"Sigh..."

Loren suddenly sighed. In this world, even on Christmas, the vast majority of people couldn't celebrate it properly. There were even many who would starve to death on Christmas day.

...

"Going home for Christmas! The chef at home has already prepared the meal, just waiting for us to return."

Within the borders of the Uridia Kingdom, a man in a suit was driving a car. In the passenger seat was a child holding a new toy. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"Doesn't the chef go home to be with his family?"

The child asked with an innocent smile.

"No, he wouldn't dare ask for leave today. The wages deducted for taking leave would be enough to plunge him into a vicious cycle."

Hearing his father's explanation, the child breathed a sigh of relief:

"That's good. I was afraid we wouldn't have food to eat today."

The man smiled and patted the child's head, stopping the car in front of a villa.

This villa used to belong to a vampire, but after that vampire was killed, the villa was sold at a rock-bottom price.

When the man reached the door, he discovered someone lying there, blocking the entrance.

"What bad luck. What are the police doing, letting a homeless person come to my doorstep?"

The man impatiently kicked the person on the ground. He was careful, afraid of dirtying his leather shoes.

"You've finally returned..."

After being kicked, the person on the ground finally stood up. Only then did the man see his appearance. His head of white hair had turned grayish. His eye sockets were deep, the area around his eyes completely dark with circles, devoid of any vitality, like a wild dog with a broken spine on the verge of death.

He was emaciated, skin almost stretched directly over bone. Anyone seeing him for the first time would wonder why he wasn't dead yet.

And now, the man had recognized who was standing before him.

"Noah? What are you doing at my door? Why aren't you going home for Christmas?"

"I have no home. My family died long ago. You already owe me three months' wages. I just want to buy a boat ticket to the Eastern Continent... You only need to give me one month's wages, thirty silver coins, just enough for the lowest class ticket. My wife's grave is over there, and a very important person has asked me to go there..."