Star Child's Parenting Diary - Chapter 21

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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 21
Chapter 6. The Vanished Mage’s Whereabouts (1)
It was simply that Ethan wasn’t inclined to agree.
“I’ll get His Majesty’s permission soon enough. But for research to proceed, there are procedures that take time. What about that?”
“That’s no problem.”
Argares spoke with certainty.
“I’ll handle the Temple side. It’ll be good to see Marius after so long.”
“You know someone at the Temple?”
“Know him very well, actually.”
As Argares nodded, Setia’s expression brightened.
Though she’d mentioned using her position, the Temple’s rather insular atmosphere had left her quietly anxious about the whole affair.
All that remained was persuading Ethan, who still appeared decidedly unconvinced.
“Useful help from the most useless lizard imaginable.”
“Ethan.”
Setia rose and moved to sit beside him.
She laid her hand atop his clenched fist around the cup, and he gradually released his grip, intertwining his fingers with hers.
“I won’t push myself too hard, so don’t worry.”
……
Hmm?
When she tilted her head and leaned closer, Ethan’s eyes squeezed shut.
“You know you’ve already won this argument with me, don’t you? You’ve been thinking about what you said this afternoon the whole time, haven’t you?”
“Caught.”
Setia laughed playfully and kissed his cheek.
This was always the most effective way to persuade her husband when he refused to let go of his worries.
“You’re incorrigible. And it’s all His Majesty’s fault for spoiling you so.”
Ethan returned her kiss, and reluctantly accepted her wishes.
Belle, watching the two of them exchange a kiss from the side, pressed her lips together.
A kiss!
Belle mimicked them, and Setia let out a soft laugh before leaning over to kiss Belle’s cheek as well.
The first family meeting of the Aivec Duchy had concluded.
* * *
When one speaks of a Temple, one typically envisions a sacred place dedicated to the worship of the divine.
The Temple of the Oriana Empire, however, was somewhat different.
The modest brick buildings that eschewed ostentation and the hollow-eyed priests dressed in black suggested something more akin to……
“……my…… thesis……”
“So if I feed this output variable back into the calculation, it corrupts everything? The data format is identical, so why won’t it execute? I even wrote the formula to retrieve the value!”
……scholars laboring under an enormous burden of learning.
And indeed, they were far more scholar than priest.
The Temple had been established with faith in the Creator God as its foundation, created to care for the daily lives of common people.
They undertook all manner of service work, including medical care. Some hundred years ago——
“Idiots.”
“If staffing makes it difficult to provide services, you find a more efficient way to operate, don’t you?”
With the ascension of a new Pontiff, the Temple had transformed into a research institution.
Now it bore far greater resemblance to an academy, delving into Magic alongside medicine, accounting, philosophy, literature, and virtually every other discipline.
Since all research conducted at the Temple was pursued for altruistic purposes, it strayed little from doctrine.
The only fault one could identify, if pressed, was that it had gradually become a breeding ground for eccentrics.
“I did everything you asked, so why——”
“There. You misspelled that character.”
……!
Argares pointed out the error without ceremony.
The priest, who had been hunched in a corner of the corridor tearing at his hair in despair, suddenly lifted his head.
“You don’t even check the basics, and then you wonder why the wrong spell gets cast.”
Haaa——
Despite the rebuke, the priest’s eyes glistened with admiration.
Argares took a step back from the two-handed clasp of gratitude pressed to the chest before him, eyes glistening with moisture.
‘Peculiar little fellow.’
The priest appeared to be in his forties.
Of course, to Argares’s eye, that meant nothing more than a piece of meat just barely worth noticing.
“Those eyes. Are you, perchance, a Dragon?”

“So. Where is Pope Marius?”
“Just shake my hand once, I beg you.”
“No.”
“Please, become my master.”
“That too, I refuse. Just show me the way.”
“Would you look over my thesis?”
“The way… Fine. I’ll find it myself.”
“From this day forward, I shall revere you as a god.”
“Spare me such sacrilege. Leave at once.”
Argares fled from the priest spouting nonsense, his footsteps hastening down the corridor.
He was bewildered.
‘That man isn’t eccentric — he’s mad.’
This Marius was truly impossible.
His pace quickened as he crossed the hallway.
“Oof!”
As he rounded a corner,
a small shadow burst forth and crashed headlong into his stomach.
It was a child.
“Are you hurt?”
“Ow, ow, ow…”
Hurried footsteps came running, and a hand firmly seized the boy’s shoulder.
“How many times do I have to tell you not to run in the halls? Apologize at once.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“No matter. We both ran into each other. Let me see your face.”
“I’m fine.”
“So it seems.”
The boy who had collided with Argares grinned brightly.
Argares smiled warmly in return and gently ruffled the child’s hair.
One could tell without asking that these were orphans cared for by the Temple.
“Are you… a dragon?”
“I am.”
“Wow! Did you come to see His Holiness the Pope?”
“Yes. Do you know where he is?”
“Of course! He was just teaching us!”
“We’ll show you the way!”
“I’m grateful.”
The two boys scampered ahead eagerly.
Thanks to them, Argares found the Pope without difficulty.
“Your Holiness! You have a visitor!”
“We brought him to you!”
The two boys flung themselves at the young man in the black cassock.
The Pope and the children seemed quite close.
“Well done! Good children deserve Stars of Praise.”
“Two for me! Two!”
“Greedy thing.”
The Pope playfully mussed the boy’s hair, and only then did he notice Argares.
“Ah…”
And he froze.
“It’s been a long time, Marius.”
“A-a-a-a-a…”
“Don’t stammer.”
“Ahhh!”
“That noise is jarring.”
Argares calmly made a gesture of covering his ears.
Meanwhile, the Pope facing him was trembling visibly.
“W-w-w-w…”
“Why am I here? I came because I had business to discuss.”
“Th-th-th-th…”
“That’s right. First, we need somewhere quiet to talk.”
The matters at hand were hardly suited for discussion in a cheerful, bustling classroom full of children.
Shiver.
The Pope’s face drained of color as he shuffled forward and gestured toward the door beside him.
“I, I…….”
“Stop stammering.”
Argares cut him short with a curt remark and strode into the adjoining reception room that doubled as his study.
The Pope hurried after him, hastily prepared water for tea, and sat across from him.
Clink-clink. Making a racket, the Pope barely steeped the tea and set the cup before Argares.
“So then.”
Argares sipped the tea with elegant grace.
“How fares your grand ideal?”
Gulp-gulp.
The Pope downed the scalding tea as if it were cold water, then finally managed to speak properly.
“No, Elder. Have you come to your senses?”
“You speak to me as though I were a senile old man.”
“Well, given your age, it wouldn’t be entirely surprising…….”
“Insolent.”
Chuckle.
Argares let out a faint smile at the Pope’s unchanged demeanor.
The Pope—Marius.
He was a Hybrid, born some five hundred years after the taboo had been broken—a child of both human and dragon.
“Do not despair. Whether dragon’s blood flows in your veins or not, you are the fruit of your parents’ love.”
It was Argares himself who had once sought out this parentless child and brought him to Dragon’s Fortress.
Argares had raised the young hybrid dragon with care and taught him many things.
“Your mother was human.”
“Humans are curious creatures—foolish and fleeting, yet fragile and steadfast, wondrous in their way.”
“I will live among humans!”
But Marius had fled the fortress before even reaching his hundredth year.
“Sharing dragon knowledge with humans—the mad fool.”
“This is why hybrids are……!”
“Leave him be.”
“Pardon? But, Elder!”
“That child is both dragon and human. It is no strange thing for a human to wish to live among humans.”
Argares was the only dragon who had stopped the others from immediately capturing Marius, supporting his choice instead.
He wanted Marius to discover for himself how foolish his ideals truly were, and to learn through failure.

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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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