Star Child's Parenting Diary - Chapter 17

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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 17
Chapter 5. Sprout, Seed, Flower (3)
Her eyes clenched shut with such intensity it looked like she was wishing upon something.
“Wish.”
Berdia had taught Ethan to close his eyes tightly and make a wish as well.
It was childish make-believe, true enough, but he wasn’t ignorant of Berdia’s power.
If even a wisp of pale hope could be grasped, he was willing to indulge in the most trivial of games.
The moment Ethan closed his eyes and followed Berdia, summoning some thought—
Whoooosh!
A vast tide of Ether erupted from his body.
The uncontrolled Ether began pouring out of him in torrents.
It felt like his very soul was being torn from him by force.
The sensation was utterly vile.
“Damn it!”
“Ethan?”
He tried instinctively to pull his hand away, but it wouldn’t budge.
His palm seemed welded to the earth itself.
Berdia, by contrast, remained perfectly composed.
She looked as though this sensation were familiar to her.
“Deeper.”
As Berdia murmured, the flow of Ether intensified.
“Ethan! Berdia!”
“Don’t come closer—it’s dangerous!”
He was helpless, swept up as though by an unstoppable wave.
Berdia was in no better state.
The halo of light surrounding her small frame flowed down into the earth.
Her violet eyes had changed color, now gleaming like moonlight itself.
‘What in the world is happening?’
As Ethan strained to make sense of the situation, a pale pink mist appeared in his vision.
It was certainly that spirit—Berdia, or something of the sort.
[……ther’s…… so much……!]
The spirit’s voice came in stuttering fragments, as though its form was flickering.
“What are you saying?”
[……Ether!]
A desperate cry answered his irritated outburst.
Now Ethan understood.
An unidentified seed, planted beneath the high-hung moon of night.
The spirit, absent all this time, now manifesting.
Uncontrolled Ether churning and writhing as it was drawn into the soil.
‘It could fix the broken Ether Core.’
How could such a thing be possible?
The answer was simple.
Because it was a seed bloomed from Ether itself.
“Berdia!”
“Mm?”
Ethan reached out his free hand toward the child.
“Eh?”
And grabbed her by the scruff of the neck.
Berdia’s eyes went wide in shock, and Ethan lifted her far from the ground.
Knowing what needed to be done, the action itself came easily.
“Fall back.”
Aspe, catching on somehow, rushed over and swept Berdia into his arms.
Ethan watched from the corner of his eye as they retreated, then straightened his posture.
Whoooosh!
A brilliant light tore through the Garden, now shrouded in deep shadow.
Ethan had deliberately released every bit of his Ether.
The Ether rippled like a massive sun, seeming to swallow the Mansion whole.
Then, in an instant, the Ether was absorbed completely into the earth below.
The light that had engulfed everything around them slowly faded.
“Phew.”
Ethan exhaled the breath he’d been holding and collapsed where he stood.
His heart hammered far too fast, his breathing ragged and shallow.
He’d burned through nearly all his Ether.
“Damn it.”
He tried to steady his blurring vision, but it was no use.
His body began to crumble beneath him.
“Ethan!”
Through the dimming haze at the edge of his sight, all he could see was a mound of earth, gleaming faintly in the moonlight.
No flower had bloomed.
‘A failure.’
Before disillusionment could even touch him, consciousness shattered completely.
“Ethan? Ethan! Come on, wake up. Darling!”
Setia shook Ethan’s shoulders urgently, but he didn’t stir.
‘Is he just unconscious?’
She couldn’t make sense of any of it.
One moment he’d insisted on planting a Seed, the next his Ether had surged like a runaway torrent, and then……
he’d collapsed.
“Shusu, what’s happening here?”
She turned to Shusu, but the child’s only response was to point at where the Seed had been planted.
“Tee-tee…….”
A Sprout should have grown, but it hadn’t—Shusu seemed just as bewildered.
Setia let out a long breath and forced herself to her feet, trying to assess the situation.
“Aspe, let’s get Ethan inside to a bed.”
“Ah, yes. I was about to go fetch someone, but it seems that won’t be necessary now.”
“My lady!”
“Madam!”
The knights and hired hands who had witnessed the tremendous light came pouring out of the building.
The knights carried swords; the hired hands hauled buckets of water.
“Is it an attack?”
“Where is the enemy……!”
“Is there a fire?”
The murmuring crowd of knights and servants turned their gaze as one toward a single point.
“Gasp, there!”
“Oh.”
There lay Ethan, unconscious.
The eyes of those who had witnessed such a rare sight went wide.
“Ethan’s fainted.”
“Oh.”
“My.”
“Aspe, have you finally decided to commit treason?”
The first to speak was a knight bearing an enormous sword at his hip.
“Good heavens.”
“No matter how deep your grudge against him runs, striking him down in front of our lady is unseemly!”
“And with the young miss present, no less.”
Quite right!
The servants and attendants nodded vigorously in unison, condemning Aspe’s supposed mutiny.
But the knights’ reactions were entirely different.
“How did you manage to knock him unconscious?”
“Please teach us your method later.”
“I’d like a sparring match with you.”
Judging by how their eyes gleamed and each added their own comment, it seemed they harbored considerable grievances toward Ethan.
At that, Aspe’s face darkened considerably.
“Miss, one moment.”
“Hmm?”
He reached out and gently took hold of Shusu’s hand, then pressed her small ears firmly shut.
Then……
“Listen here, you lunatics! Have you all lost your minds?”
He unleashed a torrent of fierce rebukes at the knights.
“How in blazes am I supposed to knock out a monster like that? Use some sense! Now hurry up and carry him inside. He’s already too tall and heavy for me to move.”
After grumbling at length about how he’d get blamed for leaving his superior sprawled on the dirt ground,
Aspe removed the hand that Berdia had been holding over his ears.
“That should do it.”
“Mm.”
Freed of hands and ears, Berdia blinked a few times.
His ears had been covered the whole time, yet they still felt oddly numb.
“Berdia, let’s head inside for now.”
Setia extended her hand to him.
But instead of taking it, Berdia crouched down in front of the bare earth where nothing had sprouted.
“Mm-mm. Like this.”
This time Argares approached the child’s side.
“The Sprout should have grown, but it hasn’t.”
“Mm.”
Berdia nodded glumly.
Argares, observing the child’s determined expression, asked carefully, “Have you tended this Sprout before?”
“Mm. Papa. Sick.”
“Someone was ill, and you made a wish for them.”
“Mm.”
Argares fell into thought.
What had worked then would not work now.
There were two possible reasons.
The weight of his wish then and his wish now were vastly different.
Or perhaps there was something wrong with Berdia’s Ether.
Back then, there had likely been a spirit by Berdia’s side, so most difficulties could have been resolved by the spirit.
But now, after purifying curses and contending with those who dwell in Dark Night, the child had not yet recovered.
‘As long as the child cannot control his Ether, there is nothing to be done.’
That was probably why Shusu had issued that warning.
Argares placed his hand back on the earth.
The moment his hand touched it, he felt the buried Seed desperately drawing in his Ether.
“I see.”
With wisdom accumulated over long years, Argares grasped the situation—and supplied the Seed with Ether only enough to keep it from withering completely before withdrawing his hand.
Fortunately, the Seed still showed signs of life.
“Little one.”
“Mm?”
“Don’t be too disheartened. Come here with me each day and make your wish together.”
“……Mm.”
“Now, come inside and rest. That’s how you’ll grow tall and strong.”
“Mm.”
Berdia, answering reluctantly, stirred and rose to his feet.
Argares gently coaxed the worried Setia and ushered her into the building first, then followed behind.
Watching over Berdia’s sleep naturally fell to Argares.
* * *
The next day.
Ethan, whose Ether had been completely depleted, only came to his senses as evening fell.
“So?”
He pressed his aching temples while asking the question.
Dinner was laid out before him, but he had no appetite for it.
The splitting headache was to blame.
It was a side effect of pouring out his Ether.
Ether was a force bound to life itself.
Of course his body ached when he’d given it all away.
“Mm?”
Beside Ethan, Berdia was eagerly tearing into a duck leg nearly the size of his own face.
“Nom nom.”
“That’s right, eat up.”
Ethan managed a hollow laugh and scrubbed Berdia’s cheeks with a napkin.

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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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