Magic Caster of Destroy

Since he was his son, that meant that he must have some measure of talent. Or rather, it didn’t matter even if he didn’t have talent, but as his parents, they had an obligation to discover or cultivate their child’s abilities. As such, being a bad influence on him was unthinkable. Still, he would not give up the pet names for him.

Love was the best teacher, after all.

“Isn’t that right, Rii-tan? What’s the matter? Do you want to tell Papa something?”

Raeven ignored his wife’s perturbed expression and asked again.

“Ehehehe, it’s about that~”

He looked like he wanted to share a secret of some sort, judging from the way he covered his mouth with his little hands. As he saw that movement, the corners of Raeven’s eyes relaxed, and he made a face one would never expect of the man who had been referred to as a snake.

“Well, what is it? Can you tell Papa~n? Uwah~ what is it?”

“Tonight’s dinner~”

“Mm, mm!”

“It’s Papa’s favorite!”

“Mm! Papa~n will be very happy! What’s for dinner tonight?”

“It’s Gabra fish à la meuniere.”

“Is that so― What’s wrong? Rii-tan?”

Raeven saw the unhappy expression on his son’s face and frantically followed up with a question.

“I should have been the one to say it!”

A bolt of lightning seemed to flash across Raeven’s back.

“Is that ~chu er, I mean, is that true? Well, then it’s Papa~n’s fault. Please forgive me. Rii-tan, do you want to tell me anything?”

As Raeven looked at her with furrowed brows, his wife, not knowing what to do, covered her face.

“Rii-tan, why don’t you tell Papa~n?”

With a hmph of annoyance, the boy jerked his head aside. The small motion had a massive impact on Raeven. With his despair-filled face, he looked like he had just been ordered to commit suicide.

“I’m really sorry, Rii-tan, Papa~n is a moron and forgot everything, could you tell me?”

His son glanced at him from the corner of his eye. He didn’t seem ready to make a decision yet.

“Not telling Papa~n? Papa~n’s going to cry~”

“That ― About that, it’s Papa’s favorite fish~”

“Really now? Papa is so happy to hear that!”

Raeven couldn’t help kissing his son’s pink cheeks. Because it tickled, the boy laughed innocently.

“All right, then let’s go have dinner!”

“―-I don’t think it’s ready yet.”

“―What.”

An annoyed expression spread over Raeven’s face, as though a basin of cold water had been dumped over his head. Although it was an easy matter to order the chefs to hurry up, they still needed to follow the appropriate steps to do their work, and those steps had to be executed with specific timing. Thus, if he selfishly disrupted their routine, the food would not be as good as it could be.

As such, even if he was not happy about the wait, Raeven did not give those orders. It was also because he wanted his son to have the best meal possible.

“All right, your father needs to work. Let’s go.”

“Kay~”

Raeven could not hide the despondence he felt as he heard his son’s lively reply.

“Koff! Wait, actually, I’m done with work.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. Don’t worry, work is over.”

“…Is that so? It’s not good to procrastinate.”

“…”

Even if his wife turned a cold stare on him, Raeven would not let his son go. He clutched the boy tightly, and sighed as he felt the heat from his son’s hot body flow into him.

“…Well, I was already at a dead end anyway,” he muttered. “Not like I could finish it in a day.”

This was not an excuse. He did not have anything urgent to take care of.

His wife nodded in acknowledgement.

“I understand, but still… it seems really troublesome.”

“That’s what I said. I don’t need more arms or legs to do my work, just good heads.”

“How about my brother?”

“He’s talented, but given that your family’s busy enough with its domain as it is, I don’t think I could call him over, right? Do you know anyone else who can be trusted?”

Raeven had already asked this question several times, and his wife had given him the same answer; there’s no noble who can deal with these matters like you can.

The truth was that if someone else was like that, his life wouldn’t have been as difficult as it was now. In the end, all that he could do was to look among the commoners. If this was a place like the Empire, where there was a centralized system of education that trained people up for public service, it would have been fine, but in the Kingdom, looking for hidden talents was like finding a needle in a haystack. All he could do was listen to rumors of talented people and recruit them.

As he thought of how much time and effort this would need, Raeven’s heart sank. At this moment, his son had a good idea.

“Papa~n, I want to help you to work too~”

“Uwah~ Rii-tan, thank you very much! I love ~chu most of all!”

Raeven did not stop kissing his son as he continued his baby talk. This was without doubt the happiest moment of his life.

He could forget the stress of his daily life and achieve a small measure of peace.