Star Child's Parenting Diary - Chapter 14

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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 14
Chapter 4. Shushu’s Warning (4)
Berdia shot Ethan a sharp glare for spouting such nonsense.
“Stop calling me an idiot. Just eat this.”
Ethan set a sandwich on Berdia’s plate.
It was carefully stacked to a thickness that even a small child with a delicate appetite could manage comfortably.
Berdia’s eyes lit up at the sight, and she reached for the plate at once.
“Wow—”
While Berdia stretched her mouth wide and busied herself filling her belly, the adults returned to the grave matter at hand.
“To put it simply, it means the child must learn to control Ether.”
Ethan’s displeasure was written plainly across his face as he glanced down at Berdia.
“You’re telling me this pebble of a child is supposed to handle something so horrific?”
Berdia, catching that he was talking about her, paused mid-bite and looked up at him.
“Wha—ba.”
“Finish chewing before you speak.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Ethan wiped the drool sliding from Berdia’s chin, his voice taking on a scolding tone.
His movements had grown so practiced in caring for the child—skilled, almost second nature.
Argares’s eyes darkened as he watched the scene unfold in silence.
“Destiny, we might call it. Yet it’s a burden far too heavy to place upon a child.”
“Destiny be damned. Adults are supposed to protect children, not whine at them to do the protecting. It’s absurd.”
Tsk.
Ethan clicked his tongue harshly.
Berdia, methodically picking out only the ham from her sandwich, watched him with curious, rolling eyes.
‘There’s that look again.’
Ethan’s face bore the disgruntled expression of a child denied candy.
“It is merely my conjecture, but Berdia’s parents may have accepted this fate long ago. They sacrificed themselves for the last bloodline of Astega, perhaps.”
“Who told you that?”
“Berdia. The spirit who remains at her side convinced me with those words.”
“Could there be a connection to my Ether Core breaking as well?”
“Possibly.”
Argares gave Setia a short nod in answer.
Berdia, following Argares’s example, nodded once as well.
In doing so, a few vegetables tucked into her sandwich tumbled onto the table and her skirt.
‘Oh no! My greens!’
Berdia quickly reached down to gather them up, intending to pop them back in her mouth.
“Hey, no.”
“Mm! But—”
It’s mine! My vegetables!
If only Ethan hadn’t stopped her, she could have salvaged every precious bit.
Berdia shot Ethan a reproachful look as he brushed the fallen vegetables away.
“Look at that face.”
Ethan poked gently at Berdia’s furrowed brow and placed a soft potato salad on her plate.
‘Mm.’
An apology accepted, then.
Berdia took a bite of sandwich, then a spoonful of potato salad.
She stuffed both her cheeks full until they swelled.
Argares, watching Berdia eat with obvious affection, returned to the subject at hand.
“He said the vessel was not yet complete. I wonder what it was meant to hold.”
Every living thing in existence possessed Ether.
Ether was the source of life itself—and its power.
The vessel that held it was the Ether Core.
The size of each vessel differed, as did the quantity and purity of the power it contained, but anything living possessed an Ether Core.
If an Ether Core did not exist, then what possessed it was not alive.
And if it shattered, death inevitably followed.
Yet Setia had remained perfectly intact, living as she was now.
“How you have managed to endure without perishing all this time is abundantly clear to me.”
Argares held up a red crystal that resembled a grain of salt, studying it closely.
He had set it aside separately from the doctor’s bag earlier.
Why had she lingered at Setia’s side, donning a human guise and aping human behavior?
Argares gripped the Red Crystal tightly.
From it, he could sense his companion’s Ether.
“You’re certain he began caring for your body only after the Calamity?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Then who was your physician before that?”
“He… that person…”
He had been swept up in the Calamity and died.
“Did he prescribe anything like this?”
“…I’m not certain.”
Setia bowed her head low like a criminal, her answer hesitant and vague.
Every assumption she’d held until now had been twisted upside down, and she didn’t dare answer carelessly.
“Perhaps there’s another reason hidden behind what they were after.”
Argares took a moment to consider the timeline.
The first damaged dragon corpse had been discovered more than twenty years ago.
Whether it was natural death or murder remained unknown, but all the damaged bodies had one thing in common—they lacked hearts.
The reason for the mutilation was clear.
“Dragons carry two Ether Cores. One in the Inverse Scale, and the other in the heart.”
When a dragon dies, the Ether contained in the Inverse Scale dissipates, but the Ether in the heart remains.
In other words, the mutilation of dragon corpses had one purpose: to harvest the Ether left within the heart.
But why?
He hadn’t found that answer back then.
‘Perhaps the Calamity was something prepared over an extraordinarily long time.’
After a moment of reflection, Argares pressed a small glass vial he’d been rolling in his palm into Setia’s hands.
“For now, consume this.”
“…What? This?”
Setia received the red crystal and gasped in surprise, but he remained composed.
“A life already lost cannot be restored. If this can extend yours, there’s no reason not to use it.”
“But…”
“Don’t concern yourself. The fault is not yours.”
Argares assured her that one piece a day would suffice, his blue eyes growing distant.
“Those dwelling in the Dark Realm wanted you alive for some purpose. Now we must discover what that purpose is.”
His gaze, marked by those vertically slitted pupils, pierced through the walls of the mansion toward somewhere far beyond.
It had been two days since Berdia was adopted by Ethan.
It was only yesterday that he’d used the spirit’s power to purify Argares’s curse.
Yet inhabitants of the Dark Realm had found Berdia within a single day and launched an attack.
This fact suggested a great deal.
‘Were they merely circling our vicinity, or…’
Whether they had sensed Berdia’s power would determine their next move.
As if in agreement with Argares’s words, Setia nodded and withdrew a small pouch from her pocket.
It was something Shushu had given her just before disappearing, calling it a gift.
“Then what should I do with this?”
She gazed at Argares as if expecting an answer.
But the answer came from an unexpected source.
“Kaw!”
Berdia, who had been absorbed in eating, suddenly raised both hands.
“Kaw! Tai-tai!”
The moment Setia pulled out the pouch, Berdia swallowed what was in her mouth and hastily voiced her demand.
The problem was Berdia’s pronunciation.
“Kaw…?”
“What’s ‘tai-tai’? Tai? Does she want us to wash her or something?”
“Why are you looking at me?”
Aspega protested with the full indignation of someone misunderstood.
Realizing the adults hadn’t understood her, Berdia tried again, enunciating carefully.
“Kaw. Tai, tai.”
“Kaw, kaw… kaw-kaw? Does she want chicken?”
“In any case, always eating. Take it to the kitchen.”
“No, wait—”
Sigh. These frustrating adults.
Berdia let out a long, exasperated breath.
“What? She’s sighing? Ah, is that so.”
“Ugh.”
While Ethan fed Berdia a spoonful of potato salad, Argares examined the contents of the pouch Shushu had left behind.
“Flowers and seeds, it seems. Or perhaps it means we need to sprout them.”
Centuries of accumulated child-rearing experience had not gone to waste.
Thanks to Argares, Berdia could finally express her thoughts, and her face showed perfect satisfaction.
“Mm. Ko. Sometimes.”
“It appears that planting these and nurturing the sprouts will grow flowers. And those flowers will be the key to restoring your Ether Core.”
“Mm. Wish.”
That’s right. It’s a flower that grants wishes.
Berdia nodded vigorously.
Convinced by Berdia’s response, Setia took the seed pouch back.
“I’ll have a botanist investigate these seeds. We’ll look into their growing conditions as well.”
“I’ll do it.”
Ethan sprang to his feet and started to leave.
But Berdia was faster.
“Me!”
I know!
Berdia threw both hands up in the air and declared with absolute confidence.
Ethan swiveled Berdia’s high chair around to face him.
The two of them stood in a stalemate for a moment, and then Berdia opened her mouth with a solemn expression.
“Moon.”
“Moon.”
“Wish.”
“Beef?”
“No!”
Berdia let out a long, exasperated sigh and scrunched up her face.

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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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