Star Child's Parenting Diary - Chapter 22

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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 22
Chapter 6. The Missing Mage’s Trail (2)
“Power calls forth desire. We are not swayed by it, but humans are different.”
“Then shouldn’t we teach them to channel their desires healthily? If you give great power to the virtuous, the world would become more……!”
“The world doesn’t flow so simply.”
It was Marius’s principle that great power could be taught for righteous ends.
Yet humans had repeated the same sins hundreds, thousands of times across the ages.
Why dragons did not privately impart knowledge to humans.
It was why they refused to teach mankind scholarship and magic.
But Marius, using the excuse that he was half-human, had slipped clean out of dragon law, and in the end had settled into human society like this.
And surprisingly, he was still running the Temple well without causing any major incidents.
‘A promising one,’ Argares thought, keeping his feelings hidden as he watched the young dragon trembling before him.
“You’ve reached about one hundred fifty years old this year, then?”
“I’ve already lived one hundred eighty-two years.”
“You still have much growing to do.”
“I’m not growing anymore…….”
Marius replied with a shriveled tone.
“Since you mention two years, something comes to mind.”
“I see you’re getting straight to business—your senses really have returned.”
“Enough nonsense. There’s a two-year-old child. Star Clan.”
“You… what?”
Marius’s eyes, which had been chattering away, widened dramatically.
Argares’s form was reflected in those vertically-slit golden irises.
“Small as a fist, I’d say.”
“Not quite that small.”
Argares denied the young dragon’s assessment.
“Palm-sized.”
“……Isn’t that the same thing?”
“You’re still as quick to talk back as ever.”
“I’ll hold my tongue.”
Tap.
Marius covered his mouth with his palm.
Confirming the silenced hybrid dragon, Argares summarized and explained what had transpired until now.
“We need a Magical Device to help the last remaining Star Clan child learn to control Ether. I hear there was once a man called Bai’les Code who researched Ether among the spirit folk. He even designed a Magical Device to aid in Ether attunement.”
“Mm.”
Marius pressed his temples repeatedly, searching his memory as if it didn’t come easily.
Unsatisfied with that, he began twirling his long red hair around his fingers, pondering for a long stretch…….
“Ah!”
Finally, he found the answer.
“That brilliant lunatic!”
“……?”
“That man isn’t here. His research materials are gone too.”
“Gone?”
“Yes. Sixteen years ago? Seventeen? In any case, not long after he set fire to the Research Lab and fled.”
Marius’s face crumpled as he recalled the incident.
“Even among our odd lot, he was considered eccentric. I caught him once sneaking into the Temple, pretending to be a priest, poking around everywhere.”
Bai’les Code was eighteen when he first entered the Temple.
He wasn’t recognized as a priest until he turned twenty-five.
“His mind was exceptional.”
Bai’les Code could solve difficult advanced mathematics in mental arithmetic in less than a minute, was steeped in astronomy, and was the sort who could explore ten principles from the teaching of just one.
“He was naturally a genius mage…….”
Then one day, out of nowhere.
Bai’les Code suddenly threw himself into Ether research.
He labored over Ether research day and night, producing a stream of novel interpretations and results.
In particular, the Magical Device that allowed one to control Ether was nothing short of revolutionary.
It was not uncommon for beings to be unable to control vast Ether on their own.
Especially among dragons and the spirit folk.
Marius, a dragon hybrid himself, had experienced this personally, so he could recognize at a glance just how extraordinary that device was.

So much so that Bai’les Code’s salary was even increased as recognition for his service…….
“Fire!”
“Your Highness! The Research Lab is burning……!”
“Damn it! Are any of the children hurt?”
For reasons unknown, Bai’les Code destroyed all of his research findings and disappeared without a trace.
“How could you not remember an incident of that magnitude?”
“There’s been so much on my plate.”
Marius laughed sheepishly.
“So you’re saying there are no research results left?”
“That’s correct. There aren’t.”
“And who remembers them?”
“I do retain some fragments of the work, but…….”
Marius’s shoulders slumped.
“As you know, most mages perished on Calamity Day. Most of those who understood Bai’les Code’s research died then as well…….”
There was no need to hear the rest.
The Temple had been the institution that saved the most lives when the Calamity struck.
Mages had mobilized in full force to hold back the raging dragon.
For the wounded, physicians trained in medicine at the Temple worked without rest, day and night.
Yet the Calamity lived up to its terrible name—mages and physicians were nearly all lost, and every Magical Device lay shattered beyond recovery.
“Truthfully, there is almost nothing left for us now. We must nurture new talent—those whose skills were insufficient or who were too young to help then.”
Somehow that made sense.
Argares exhaled deeply, recalling the priest who had tore at his hair over a single typo.
“If the child cannot learn to control Ether, danger will come to her again.”
“That adorable little thing?”
“How do you know she’s adorable if you haven’t even seen her?”
“All children are angels—adorable, soft, and cute…….”
“Enough. Stop.”
Argares cut off Marius before his stream of sentiment could flow any further.
He’d nearly forgotten.
Marius was utterly helpless when it came to anything cute.
“The child’s stepmother is of royal blood. It should be possible to arrange for research on Bai’les Code’s Magical Device.”
“Of course. For such an adorable baby, I would do anything. I’ll search for the materials at once and restore whatever parts were lost to the best of my ability.”
Marius clenched his fist with determination.
With his business concluded, Argares rose from his seat without hesitation.
Marius followed at his heels like a shadow.
“Go home alone.”
“I’ll just see you to the door.”
“No. I know you just want to chatter away at my side.”
“Yes, that’s fine with me too.”
Marius stubbornly kept pace beside the retreating Argares.
Then, clinging to his side as Argares hurried along, he began to pry shamelessly.
“Surely I’m allowed to know her name, at least?”
“Berta Astega. Everyone calls her Bel.”
“Ahhhh~. Bel, you say. How perfectly lovely a name.”
‘This is exactly why I said I’d go alone.’
Argares glanced sideways at Marius, who was contorting his body in exaggerated delight, and swallowed a sigh.
They had reached the building entrance.
The two came to a natural stop at the same moment and faced each other.
“Please take care on your way home. Don’t worry—I’ll do my best with what you’ve asked of me today.”
“That’s precisely what worries me, you young fool.”
Argares gave Marius a light rebuke, patting his shoulder gently.
Marius promised to recover as much as he could recall and restore the lost Design Blueprints from memory.
Since he retained at least half of it, he said, running additional experiments on the rest should yield even imperfect results within three months at most.
“Still, while research can proceed readily enough, removing the Magical Device will require the Crown’s permission as well.”
“I’ll find another way around that, so don’t concern yourself.”
“Then that’s fortunate. I’ll do my very best for the little one’s sake.”
“……Never speak that pet name in front of her adoptive parents.”
A dragon could perish for less.
Argares offered the advice in perfect sincerity, genuinely worried for Marius’s neck.
“Please give my regards to our little one.”
Yet Marius remained steadfast.
* * *
Night fell, and the moon rose.
Bai’les Code finished the day’s final ritual—making a wish upon a new shoot—and returned to the bedroom with Ethan.
Freshly bathed and settling into bed, sleep began to drift toward her, yet something felt amiss—an emptiness in her chest.
What could it be?
“You understand, don’t you? It’s a promise.”
Oh, how careless of her—Pupu!
She’d made a promise with Lily too!
“Why are you getting up?”
All this time, sleeping in the same bed as Ethan, she’d forgotten entirely.
Pupu, her precious friend.
Bai’les Code decided then and there that she must find Pupu and sleep together with him, and she roused Ethan once more.
“Sir. Wait, Pupu.”
“Yes, yes. Go back to sleep.”
“No. Pupu.”
“What?”
“Pupu!”
“What exactly is Pupu?”
The conversation, going nowhere fast, prompted Ethan to voice his frustration.
Bai’les Code, for her part, was equally dissatisfied.
A battle of wills ensued between them.

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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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