Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 168

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 168

Rasper was momentarily confused by the problem that surfaced in his mind. But the sensation passed quickly—he recognized that the problem was a metaphor for the situation he now faced.
Three Mana Stones corresponded to the number of buttons on Rasper’s clothes, and three was the number of people who had kidnapped him.
Insufficient Mana…
Rasper pressed his struggling hands against the carriage frame.
A carriage passing through Castrain Family Territory couldn’t use just any wood. It wouldn’t survive the cold. So either they’d applied some magical afterwork, or they’d used wood that endured even in the depths of winter—and such timber was extraordinarily expensive. Which meant someone had embedded a magical ritual into the carriage. Someone had.
Rasper wracked his brain. It was something he’d only ever thought about, never actually attempted.
He would trace the Mana flowing along the rituals inscribed in the carriage, divert it elsewhere, and merge it with the Mana contained in the small Mana Stone buttons on his clothes. Then he would calculate the rituals engraved in his mind and force them into that combined pool….
Cold sweat drenched his entire body. Nausea washed over him. He’d never truly felt Mana before, and drawing it out, guiding it, and channeling it was far from easy. Yet Rasper managed it. In less than a minute.
‘Ugh, what—what is this? I can’t—hck, kkhack!’
‘Ahhhhh!’
Three bodies went rigid, and the racing carriage overturned. Crash!
The carriage smashed against stone and shattered to pieces. Rasper, having struck his head hard watching the kidnappers crushed beneath the wreckage, lost consciousness.
And when he opened his eyes again:
‘Damn it, Rasper, are you alright?! Those bastard kidnappers caused an accident while taking you, and you’ve been in a coma. Really…. How many days has it been since you woke up?’
Rasper had returned to his family’s embrace.
And Rasper thought to himself:
Ah, so that’s how it was. I didn’t do it properly. If I had done it ‘properly,’ they would have died right there on the spot.
His whole body ached and tingled.
After his entire family’s worry and fussing had finally passed, Rasper recovered and crept back into the Treasure Vault to gaze upon the Waves of Oceanos.
He tapped the orb lightly with his fingertip.
The smooth sphere, which he’d thought was nothing more than an ordinary orb, suddenly churned with white foam.
Then droplets of water scattered into the empty air, and bubbles began to form letters in the void.
-The Mana you lacked came not from the carriage’s ritual, but from your own life force, little one.
The words were in an ancient script.
Most people would have been unable to read it, but Rasper could.
‘You chose me?’
-You are far too inexperienced to wield me now.
‘So you did choose me.’
-You are too weak and too fragile a vessel to contain me.
‘And the way this works… it’s just like magic….’
-It is not ‘like’ magic. It is magic. You are far too inexperienced to handle the Power of Water, which can transform into any form and flows freely without bound…. What?
‘If I study, I’ll manage.’
Rasper fully understood why the Waves of Oceanos had not ‘completely’ chosen him.
Rasper was simply too weak.
Though the Waves of Oceanos was indeed a weapon imbued with the Power of Water, it was not so much an instrument to command water itself as it was a mage’s weapon symbolizing water—freely transforming into anything, seeping through all things.
The weapon’s name was no accident: it was called the Waves, and the Power of Water that could be wielded on land rather than in the sea had inherent limits.
The Waves of Oceanos was a Multiple-Formula Simultaneous Casting Wand that every mage would go mad chasing after. It supported the simultaneous casting of multiple rituals at once.
Of course, this required a user who was a prodigy capable of performing multiple calculations simultaneously, swiftly, and with perfect accuracy.
No one from the Castrain Family had ever become a mage. Consequently, this weapon had never been properly studied.
If he revealed this fact to his family, they would seek help from the Mage Tower. They would fret endlessly about whether he ought to be sent there for proper development.
But….
‘I think I can do it alone. I’m confident in my studies.’
-…
‘If it’s just calculations, what’s so difficult?’
-…
Rasper was a genius in an eccentric direction.
Unlike other weapons, closer to an auxiliary tool—a tool that directly aided its master—the Waves of Oceanos had, through countless ages, gained the capacity for indirect expression. Now it was at a loss for words.
This master… what kind of… little thing was he?
‘I don’t want to worry my family. I’m still inexperienced…. Yes. Once I can handle it properly.’
Rasper had resolved thus, unaware that his definition of ‘properly’ was at a level that would make others think, ‘That kid’s insane.’
It was the sort of judgment error peculiar to prodigies who hadn’t been exposed to diverse perspectives.
From that point forward, suffering repeated kidnapping attempts both inside and outside the territory, Rasper quietly grew—working hard without drawing notice, living as the ‘still unremarkable’ youngest son.
If Lisianthus had merely dropped his rose-tinted glasses about his ‘clever but sickly younger brother’ even slightly, he might have suspected—just a little—how a physically weak boy being targeted from all sides could keep returning unscathed with barely a scratch.
‘What exactly are you doing, you little thing?’
When Rasper, studying magic diligently on his own, hit a wall, fortune smiled upon him. He met Pan, who had been hired to work at the Castrain Family under a false identity and ultimately became his teacher—a tremendous stroke of luck for Rasper.
‘Ehehe.’
‘No, don’t laugh. Is this really the time to laugh?’
‘Master, I’m stuck on this part….’
‘…What kind of thinking even leads to conceiving a ritual this vicious? The Mage Tower people would be horrified.’
‘It’s for repelling intruders….’
‘Intruders? If someone makes it past the Protection Ritual you’ve laid down, they won’t be an intruder anymore—just the ghost of what used to be an intruder, wandering as a spirit. Why not just use a Spirit Purge Ritual instead?’
Yes, it truly was fortunate.
Rasper grew diligently. Though he couldn’t undergo formal training, he never missed his walks and always ate well. With so much money, he could buy all sorts of rare texts indiscriminately—it was wonderful.
The Castrain Family spent vast quantities of Mana Stones purchasing and employing all manner of rituals, yet they didn’t employ a mage capable of recognizing an off-spec prodigy like Rasper.
Properly trained mages never left the Mage Tower, and those who couldn’t enter the Tower were unremarkable—it was unavoidable.
In any case, once Rasper resolved to do his best alone, he adored his newly born youngest sister, Bibi, more than anyone else.
So he claimed he’d bought them in secret from his father, but he inscribed rituals several times stronger than those placed by external mages and gave her a Protective Doll as a gift. And the way Bibi took such exceptional care of Rasper’s health was endearing.
Even after Titania saved Bibi’s life and the atmosphere changed, it had been fine.
Rasper had barely known anything about his eldest brother’s betrothed.
Lisianthus was the one who’d always gotten worked up about news of Titania, grown angry—and yet he’d never bothered to confide such matters to his younger brother. So when that very Titania came all this way to hold the Dedication Ceremony early, he’d felt genuinely grateful.
But to have her suddenly uncover the fact he’d been desperately hiding….
“…How did you find out?”
Titania shrugged. Rasper, who’d just been raising his eyes with some intensity—normally appearing as docile as soft tofu—regarded her, unconcerned.
“The guardian mage I brought with me this time is your teacher. And I use the Power of Light too, so it’s not like there’s no way to recognize it.”
“Ah….”
It was an ‘Ah….’ that carried much weight. The Rasper who’d just been bristling with wariness deflated like a balloon, exhaling with sudden resignation.
“I was worried that he might… one way or another, end up destroying his own life later, so as his student, I felt I should establish some direction before it was too late….”
“You, this student of his…!”
A door beside the Library burst open with a bang. It was the temporary passage Pan had secretly created when teaching Rasper.
Pan entered, muttering sourly as though he’d heard every word exchanged between Rasper and Titania. Rasper greeted him cheerfully.
“Ah, hello, Master. Hope you’ve been well?”
“Well? Do I look like I’m doing well? Traveling with someone I’ve never met before, looking like this? And I only said you were a prodigy! I didn’t know you’d hidden being the master of the Waves of Oceanos! You hid it even from me?!”
“Ah… I, I’m sorry, but Master, you kept going on about ‘I’m a prodigy, even this Mage Tower Master can’t keep up with me, so you’re lucky to learn from me’…. Since you’re such a prodigy, I thought maybe you were letting me hide it even though you knew everything, so…. I apologize….”
“Don’t apologize! And don’t you dare sigh at me sincerely over a genius missing this one thing!”
Titania, observing the chaos before her, decided to check the Library’s soundproofing ritual. Fortunately, it held firm.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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