Star Child's Parenting Diary - Chapter 10

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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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Episode 10
Part 3. A Colorful World (4)
Edan, watching the scene with a sullen expression, held a forkful of cake right in front of Bel’s face.
“Come on, Dad. Say ‘aah.’ Open wide.”
……
“What’s this? Shutting your mouth completely?”
The child still hadn’t given in.
“Leave him be,” Argares said, the Dragon Race representative offering his counsel.
He’d had somewhere to be and had excused himself briefly before joining the welcome party late.
“Children need time to adjust, after all.”
Argares clicked his tongue loudly, adding that forcing the matter would only breed resentment.
Aspe nodded beside him, lending weight to the Dragon’s opinion.
“That’s right, Edan. Once enough time has passed and Bel opens his heart, he’ll call you then.”
Even Setia sided with the Dragon.
Left alone in his defeat, Edan shoved the cake into his mouth with a rather irritable jab.
“Hmph.”
“Try to get along, won’t you?” Setia laughed, watching her sulking husband.
In the meantime, now that Bel had obtained a fork, he began feeding himself cake with apparent satisfaction.
“Yum.”
Argares watched the child nod in contentment with a pleased expression.
“Little one. Would you like more of mine?”
“There’s plenty, Argares. Have some yourself.”
“I don’t care for sweets.”
Setia spoke respectfully, but the Dragon declined gently.
Having already heard about Bel, Setia treated Argares with an unflustered manner.
The Dragon, observing her attitude carefully, asked quietly.
“Have you made any inquiries about the child’s parents? It seemed you’d sent people to investigate.”
All eyes turned toward Bel at once.
Noticing their gaze, Bel blinked with cream smeared liberally around his mouth.
“Huh?”
“Wipe your mouth.”
Edan roughly wiped the child’s mouth with a napkin, answering curtly.
“Yes.”
Of course they had investigated.
When Aspe returned to the Orphanage last night, Director Terisa had divulged everything about the circumstances of Bel’s arrival.
She’d dismissed the question of why she’d hidden his identity with “just to be safe.”
Understanding the unspoken meaning behind those words, Edan hadn’t bothered to blame her.
‘She must have worried I’d use the child’s power as a tool of authority.’
For her part, she would have wanted to hide it as much as possible.
And in fact, Edan himself was now hiding Bel from the Council of Elders.
“Have you found out anything?”
“We’re still tracking it down.”
They hadn’t discovered anything yet.
They’d only confirmed the definite death of the woman presumed to be Bel’s mother.
But Edan had hastily assembled a search team, hoping that by tracing her movements, they might find the child’s father.
There was also a faint hope that since Bel had survived, perhaps another member of the Star Clan might have as well.
“I see.”
The Dragon nodded simply, his eyes shifting toward Edan.
“May I ask you something? You needn’t answer if you’d rather not.”
“Then why ask?”
At Edan’s gruff reply, the Dragon spoke.
“Why weren’t you contaminated?”
……
Edan’s hand, which had been toying with his cake, froze mid-motion.
Setia glanced at Edan’s face, gauging his reaction.
……”I suppose I must have undergone Purification once before,” Edan answered casually after a moment’s silence.
“I went blind as a child, you see.”

“So you went looking for the Star Clan.”
“Not me. My father.”
A flicker of longing crossed Edan’s eyes as he stared blankly at the mangled frosting.
The memory of his father’s final moment—stained crimson—rose unbidden, and heat bloomed in his chest.
Edan gripped the fork tightly, fighting down the nausea.
“Eat. Come on.”
Just then, Bell’s small hand brushed the back of his hand—a gentle tap.
Amethyst eyes blinked clear and bright.
Edan poked the child’s innocent cheek with his knuckle, gathered up the mashed cake, and swallowed it in one bite.
‘Small as a pebble, and thinking what?’
What could you possibly know.
It struck him as almost absurd—this ignorant child trying to comfort him, and he found himself laughing.
“Didn’t you say you hated me just the other day?”
“Ugh!”
He kneaded Bell’s cheeks, tormenting her, and the child’s brow furrowed.
Her small nose wrinkled indignantly, but there was nothing truly threatening about it.
A rabbit’s hind kick would be more menacing.
‘Those old fools won’t even notice something like this.’
Edan recalled the oppressive air of the Basement.
Somewhere in it, the stench of mold lingered.
‘I need to eliminate the immediate threat first.’
When he slowly closed his eyes and opened them again, the murky aura that had settled over him vanished entirely.
“Bell.”
“Mmm?”
“Copy me.”
Edan kept his grip on Bell’s cheeks as he moved his lips deliberately, enunciating each sound with care so the lisping child could say it clearly.
Taking the utmost care so that even a child who slurred could pronounce it distinctly—
“Get. Lost.”
“Get.”
He was teaching her to curse.
“Edan!”
Setia gasped in horror and quickly clapped her hands over Bell’s ears.
“You, you—!”
The Dragon grabbed the back of her head,
“What fine instruction you’re giving!”
and Aspe leveled a fierce rebuke at her superior.
But who was Edan?
“Tell any strange old fools who think they know better to get lost.”
He paid no heed whatsoever, saying only what he pleased.
“Understood?”
“Bad. Words. Don’t. Say.”
“Sometimes you need them.”
“Huh?”
Bell tilted her head in confusion, then poked at a grape on the cake with her fork.
She opened her mouth eagerly, but Edan stopped her.
“Will it fit?”
He took the fork from her, quartered the grape, and handed it back.
The natural ease of his care brought a smile to Setia’s lips.
“My lady.”
At that moment, her personal attendant approached quietly and announced the Doctor’s arrival.
“The Doctor is waiting for you.”
“I’ll go now.”
“I’ll come with—”
“You stay here with Bell.”
Setia pressed down on Edan’s shoulder as he began to rise, keeping him seated.
By his own reckoning, Setia still took precedence over Bell.
But Setia hoped that ranking would reverse soon.
“Bell. Keep eating cake with your uncle. I’ll be back shortly, all right?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Bell nodded her head briskly.
Edan reluctantly took his seat beside Bel once more.
As Setia rose and the Dragon watched her empty place being cleared, he posed a question.
“Do you have a chronic ailment?”
“I don’t know the name. Just… my constitution has always been frail, since childhood.”
The Dragon nodded as though he understood.
“That’s why you adopted the child, then.”
“I don’t need—… I said it’s fine.”
Edan had begun to speak out of habit, then caught himself and changed course.
The Dragon smiled faintly at his gesture.
“Have you tried everything within your power?”
“I’ve done what I could, naturally.”
“Has the Dragon Race sought you out?”
“They don’t involve themselves in human affairs on a whim—…”
Edan’s words trailed off as his irritation gave way to silence.
Argares, the Dragon, folded his arms with ease.
“Just so. As you say, the Dragon Race does not casually impart knowledge to mankind.”
If spirits specialized in resolving particular problems—curses and the like—then the Dragon Race possessed abilities more grounded in reality.
Exceptional scholarly knowledge, for instance.
Medical Arts were certainly among them.
“I haven’t the skill to restore eyes faded as completely as those of the Star Clan, but I can slow the progression of illness.”
With that, Argares rose from his seat.
“Treating the guardian of a young Star Clan member is no trivial matter. Would you guide me to where the Duchess is?”
The moment Argares stood, Bel quickly stuffed the remaining Cake into her mouth.
“Me too!”
At her insistence on joining them, Argares’s smile deepened.
“I’ll wait for you, little one—do wipe that cream from your face first.”
* * *
The Doctor moving his Stethoscope back and forth across Setia’s back released a quiet sigh.
“It appears there is Lung Inflammation collecting in your lungs.”
“I see.”
“When you breathe, don’t you have considerable phlegm? And no signs of coughing up blood?”
“…Yes. Don’t tell him.”
Setia smiled like a flower fading at any moment, pressing her index finger to her lips.
It was only a matter of time before Edan’s ears caught wind of it.
Yet she wanted to delay that moment, even slightly, even just a little longer.
Edan is a man of deep feeling.
He takes after his parents in that way.
Though his manner is rough, once he gives his heart, he is the sort who would pluck out his own liver and gallbladder for another.
“How much time remains?”
“…My lady…”
“Still, I do hope for at least a year.”
Berta, the sweet child who has only just entered the Duke’s Residence.
She wanted to watch over her during that adjustment, there by her side.
If only until Edan and the child grew closer to one another.

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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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