Child Rearing Journal of the Strongest Wiseman～About My Daughter Being the Cutest in the World( Saikyou Kenja no Kosodate Nikki ～Uchi no Musume ga Sekaiichi Kawaii Ken ni Tsuite～) - Chapter 26

I open the window and invite my shisō’s messenger, Orba, into the house.

Next, I looked at Chloe.

Chloe nodded slightly, saying she understood, and turned away.

She gracefully flips on her maid’s uniform – or rather, her apron dress – and heads downstairs to grab some pork from the ice spirit refrigerator on the first floor. It’s a raw one.

I stabbed it with a fork and gave it to Orba.

Orba pecked at it without any expression on her face.

Generally, owls don’t fly over long distances.

They are not migratory birds or giant birds of any kind. They settle in the forest, moving through trees and preying on small animals such as rats.

To make it a messenger and force it to travel a long distance, her owner is quite crazy, or rather, defies the logic of living things.

She must be very tired. I fed her with that thought in mind, but instead, Orba swallowed the pork like crazy.

Afterwards, I let Fiona fluff her all over, then Orba’s body was covered with red magical power.

Could it be that “she” had timed it just right? Or perhaps “she” was taking a bath and just now realized that the messenger had arrived at her destination.

Orba’s body was then filled with her owner’s will.

She started off with an opening remark.

“It’s been a long time, all of you.”

Orba, no, its owner, Iris Seymour. My shisō looked around at all of us and said in a pompous tone.

I don’t really mind, since it’s my shisō’s words and that’s the kind of person the 《Senketsu no majo》was.

In the first place, she is more than two hundred years older than me.

Even an impolite wiseman like me would naturally lower his head.

“It’s been a while, Shisō.”

When I say this, Chloe and Fiona followed suit.

Chloe holds the hem of her apron dress with doll-like movements and lightly bows her head.

Fiona gave her a hug, just like she used to do when she lived with the shisō. Although to Orba, since the person is not here.

There was no way she could have felt that, but it was easy to imagine the witch’s cheeks loosen.

Her voice was full of smiles and softness.

“Oh, Fiona. You’ve gotten bigger.”

“I’m not getting any taller, you know.”

“Oh, yeah? Are they feeding you well?”

A question that is rather rude.

“That’s uncalled for. I have never made Fiona suffer the inconvenience of food, clothing, or shelter.”

Chloe also comes to my defense.

“Aruji-sama still spends his research money like hot water, but it’s better than it used to be. He spends his meager salary on food for Fiona-sama first. I also make sure that she wears good clothes.”

Hearing these words, the owl turned towards Fiona.

She looked at Fiona’s fashion for a while, and then made this comment.

“Umul, I see that you bought it from a well-known department store in the capital. It’s very trendy.”

“I had the store clerk pick it out. Since my fashion sense is a fossil.”

“That’s wise. Indeed, you are too unconcerned with fashion.”

“That’s bound to happen if you live for a thousand years. Shisō is an exception though.”

People, after living for a thousand years, will no longer give a damn about fashion.

A linen shirt to keep out the heat in the summer and a thick coat or robe to keep out the cold in the winter would be nothing to complain about.

Alternatively, as long as it was functional and provided magical powers as well as cooling and heating functions, no matter how old the design was, it was fine.

In fact, the clothes I’m wearing right now are just a pair of outdated robes I bought at a second-hand clothing store in the capital.

On the other hand, my teacher, Iris Seymour, was different.

She has been alive for 1,200 years and still is very fussy about fashion.

The revealing clothes were custom-made, and said to have been custom-made by a famous designer in the Imperial Capital.

I suppose, even after 1,200 years of life, a woman will always be a woman and will never be able to give up her obsession with what she wears.

That thought earned me a scolding from my shisō.

Or, rather, she played it off.

“Now, I’ve only been alive for seventeen years, isn’t it natural for a seventeen-year-old girl to be particular about what she wears?”

I had no idea how to respond to such a statement.

“………”

Everyone is silent, including me.

Even Fiona, who has become somewhat able to read the air, remains silent, indicating that shisō’s seventeen-year-old syndrome was quite severe.

Orba, whose consciousness had been taken over by her owner’s will, coughed lightly, “Kohon”.

In addition, she deliberately put the conversation back on track.

“Anyway, I’m impressed that you only spend money on your daughter.”

Chloe agrees in response.

“Yes, Aruji-sama is certainly a research freak, but he’s not obsessed with things.”

“I guess.”

“For Fiona-sama’s clothes, he spends so much time choosing that the department store clerks have a hard time, whereas for his own clothes, he just buys a ready-made shirt from a wagon.”

“Indeed, this man has always been like that.”

My shisō followed suit.

“I’m just not interested in clothes. And stuff.”

It wasn’t humility, it was simply the truth.

As a sorcerer, I’m quite fond of collecting materials and laboratory equipment, but I’m often told by those around me that I lack the desire for other things.

Furthermore, I have no particular attachment to spell books or the laboratory equipment.

I just want to be able to read books, and I don’t have any preference for collecting books that are first editions or in good condition.

I could eat a sandwich on a book and spill bread crumbs all over it, nor did I care if the lab equipment was used or not.

My philosophy was that as long as I could read and get information from a book, it would do its job, and as long as the lab equipment met its performance requirements, there was no problem.

But, despite having such a philosophy, he does not hesitate to spend money on his daughter, just as his shisō says.

I wanted her to always wear good things, and it made me happy to see her in pretty clothes too.

The smile on Fiona’s face when I bought her new clothes or stuffed animals made her look like an angel and brought me more satisfaction than the money I paid.

Plus, my daughter is beautiful.

This was not a result of parental favoritism, but rather a fact.

Her golden hair was as beautiful as if it had been spun out of gold thread, and her figure was so lovely that I wanted to capture it in a painting.

In short, if you dress her in pretty clothes, she becomes prettier.

If I had to describe her in one word, I would say that she is a worthwhile investment.

Aren’t you spoiling her a little too much? Chloe and the owl stared at me with that expression, but they wouldn’t listen to my defense.

They were whispering in each other’s ears as if they were working together, deliberately and loud enough for me to hear.

Chloe said to my shisō as follows.

“He put up a lot of excuses, but the bottom line is that he’s just a doting parent, right?”

The owl also nodded in affirmation without any expression.

“If I had to describe my foolish disciple in three words, I can’t think of a better one.”

T/N: 3 words = 親馬鹿/Oya-Ba-Ka

She whispered back to her.

“………………”

It would be fine if I could protest that it was simply untrue, but there was no excuse for the fact that the words they were whispering was the truth.

In this kind of situation, the basic rule is to keep silent.

Besides, even if it was true, what was the problem?

I knew that there were parents in this world who were not doting parents, but there was no such thing as a parent who did not become a doting parent when they had a daughter as lovely as Fiona.

–However, that kind of thinking is what makes one a doting parent, I guess.

With this thought in mind, I rejoiced with my daughter at her first reunion with my shisō in a long time.