The Abandoned Prince’s Ghost Bride - Chapter 170

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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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The Abandoned Prince’s Ghost Bride
Special Side Story — Chapter 4

“Goo-goo, ah…….”
As Persio ate his meal eagerly and even burped, Lia couldn’t help but let out a quiet laugh.
“Who does he take after to be so adorable, our little one?”
At her touch, Persio’s eyes grew misty, and he broke into a toothless grin.
Following his laughter, Lia and even Lucian and Beatrice beside her smiled broadly.
“Lia, let me hold Persio now so you can rest a little.”
“No, I want to put him to sleep today. It’s been so long since I’ve held him like this for such a stretch—everyone else has been doing the rocking.”
Lia declined Lucian’s offer and patted Persio gently in her arms.
To be honest, even during her pregnancy, it hadn’t felt quite real that she would have a child.
She had spent three hundred years as a ghost, after all.
But now, feeling the child’s warm body heat, his soft skin, and the unique scent of a baby, it struck her anew that she was no longer a ghost—that she was human.
“Is it because he’s my child? Persio seems so beautiful. Don’t you think he’ll break many hearts when he grows up?”
“Not break—he will. Just look at those long eyelashes and those honey-colored eyes. He already wraps adults and even a dragon around his little finger; how easily will he captivate mortal hearts?”
Beatrice swept back Persio’s black locks with obvious affection.
“Beatrice is right. Whose son is Persio? He’ll grow into a handsome child, taking after you.”
As Lucian nodded in agreement, Lia tilted her head thoughtfully.
“Really? I think he looks more like you than me.”
Though Persio had only been born days ago, looking at him brought back memories of young Lucian when he first arrived at the Ghost Mansion.
“Those round eyes, those chubby cheeks, even the little mole behind his ear—it’s all you.”
As Lia gently caressed Persio’s ear and then brushed Lucian’s in return, his cheeks flushed a deep crimson.
At once, he buried his face in her neck, embarrassed, and clung to her.
“You two really do have the best rapport. Well, Persio’s sleeping now. I’ll take him to the crib.”
Beatrice carefully lifted Persio using magic and carried him from the room.
Lucian seized the moment, climbing onto the bed and settling beside Lia.
He opened his eyes wide and leaned down for a deep kiss.
“……Why so sudden?”
“Just because Lia is so beautiful.”
Where the spark came from, he couldn’t say, but his kiss felt wonderful, so Lia let her lips curve upward.
“Persio is so beautiful. I want to have a second child.”
Lucian paused mid-kiss against her cheek and looked at her.
“Didn’t you say when Persio was born that you’d never have another child because the pain was too much?”
She certainly had said that just days ago.
She’d thought her body was being split in two from the pain, the worst she’d ever known.
But perhaps because Beatrice and Kaiser had cast Healing Magic on her right after, or perhaps simply because Persio was so beautiful, she had already forgotten.
“But Persio is this beautiful—don’t you think a daughter would be even more beautiful?”
Lucian suddenly imagined a daughter who was the spitting image of Lia.
True, Persio was precious enough that an eye wouldn’t ache even if he sat on it, but—
‘Just imagining it is wonderful.’
Sons and daughters are fundamentally different, or so they say.
And since Lia had broached the subject first, having another daughter……
Slap—
Lucian struck his own cheek, and Lia’s eyes went wide.
“Sigh…… Lia, you need rest right now. At least until Persio turns one—let’s think about it again then, yes?”
Lucian gave her a light butterfly kiss and patted her reassuringly.
Knowing he was being considerate, Lia nodded.
The two of them leaned against each other and drifted into a leisurely afternoon nap.
Even though the others helped care for Persio, his feedings had to be handled by them, leaving them chronically sleep-deprived.
As they finally slipped into deep sleep, some time passed.
“Lia, Lucian! Something’s wrong!”
Kaiser burst through the door.
Lia and Lucian jolted awake, rubbing their eyes as they sat up.
Evening had fallen; the room was now dim.
But before that registered, the sound of a child crying pierced their ears.
“Waaaahhhhh!”
“Persio!”
Without hesitation, they sprang from the bed and rushed to check on the child.
Persio’s face had flushed crimson, and his eyes were swollen from crying.
“Persio, what’s wrong? What happened?”
“We… we’re not sure. We put him down for a nap, and when we were about to wake him because he’d probably be hungry soon, he suddenly developed a fever……”
It had been only three hours since Beatrice brought Persio to the room.
Worried that he’d sleep too long, she had been about to wake him when his face turned beet-red and a raging fever took hold.
They’d even summoned a physician to determine the cause, but he’d found nothing, so they’d finally come to the parents.
“Baby, Mama’s here. Where does our little one hurt, hmm?”
Lia did her best to stay calm, patting Persio’s back and trying to soothe him, but his wailing only continued.
The longer he cried, the more her own heart felt torn.
“What if something happens to the child? Lucian, what do I do?”
As Lia’s face went pale, Lucian’s hands trembled, but as the head of the household, he couldn’t let his fear show.
He bit down on his soft cheeks, studying Persio, when suddenly—
“……Isn’t a lot of Mana coming from Persio?”
He noticed something strange.
At his words, Lia and Kaiser looked down at the child.
A witch and a dragon—the two of them had far superior Mana sensitivity compared to Lucian, an ordinary Magic Knight.
Panic had clouded their judgment before, but now they could clearly sense the Mana surging violently from Persio.
“What… what’s causing this? Why would such a thing happen to a newborn Persio?!”
“It doesn’t seem to be a simple fever. Wait here. I’ll bring an expert.”
With that, Kaiser vanished using Teleport, leaving Lia unable to carelessly place her hands on Persio’s turbulent Mana, unsure what to do.
Leopold and the others soon hurried in as well.
It seemed Kaiser had arrived here first by using Teleport.
They’d learned from Lia and Lucian that Persio’s Mana was running wild.
“……Could it be Mana Sickness?”
Beatrice murmured quietly.
“Mana Sickness?”
“It’s a kind of growth pain that dragons experience.”
Dragons are a race beloved by Mana. Because of this, their bodies are designed to embrace all Mana, yet there are occasionally children whose bodies are too weak to withstand excessive Mana.
When these children suffer from not being able to hold so much Mana, it’s called Mana Sickness.
“But Persio doesn’t have dragon blood mixed in… So why……”
“I brought the expert!”
Just then, Kaiser appeared from thin air alongside someone.
The other figure was Age, dressed in sleeping clothes.
Still wearing an eye mask on his head from having been about to sleep, he stared blankly at the human faces surrounding him and at Kaiser gripping his arm.
Immediately, a sinister Aura rose from his entire body.
“You red lizard! Where the hell have you dragged me to?!”
“Argh! Wait, wait, Age! Just listen to me!”
“Age! A human has Mana Sickness!”
Age, who had been about to hurl an Ice Spear at Kaiser, froze at Beatrice’s words.
“Beatrice? What are you doing here……”
“White Dragon, I humbly beg you to examine my nephew. The situation is most urgent.”
Seeing that even the Emperor Leopold was present, Age finally recognized the faces around him.
And he sensed an ominous presence emanating from the infant.
Age finished hurling the Ice Spear at Kaiser and approached Persio.
“Hmm, I heard the news about the pregnancy, but you’ve already had the child. So this little one has Mana Sickness?”
“At least that’s what it appears to be. But isn’t it strange? Mana Sickness only affects dragons like us—it doesn’t occur in mere humans.”
At Beatrice’s words, Age narrowed his eyes and gestured to Lia, taking Persio into his arms.
His cool body temperature seemed to comfort the child; Persio’s wailing subsided somewhat.
He still whimpered and sniffled, but it was less intense.
“It’s definitely Mana Sickness.”
“Really? But why in a human……?”
“Mana Sickness occurs regardless of race when the body possesses more Mana than it can handle. Especially in newborns.”
“Is there a way to subdue the Mana Sickness? Please, tell us!”
Age regarded the desperate Lia and Lucian with an indifferent gaze.
“Dragons put afflicted children into forced sleep.”
“……Pardon?”
“The core problem is that the body can’t keep pace with the Mana, so the body simply needs to grow. We force the child into deep sleep until their body reaches the physical condition to overcome the Mana Sickness.”
“How long would that sleep last?”
“Twenty to fifty years.”
For a dragon who lives a thousand years, that’s merely a brief span, but for a human, it’s an impossibly long time.
“But we can’t do that to a human child. We’d have to find another way for humans to overcome it.”
“Is there no way? More than that, why has our child been afflicted with this……”
Lia’s eyes glistened with tears, and Age tilted his head.
“Are you truly asking because you don’t know?”
“Pardon?”
“Because you’re a witch.”
At this unexpected answer, Lia’s eyes widened in shock.

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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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