I'll Stop Regressing and Raise a Baby Dragon - Chapter 39

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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 39
The more our tastes align, the better we understand what the other person loves.
But it seems the Princess and I stand at opposite ends of the spectrum.
“You find this entertaining?”
It’s just a tearful love story between a Young Noblewoman from the Count’s House and a common man.
In the end, the man dies and the woman marries someone she doesn’t even love!
‘How can an ending be this unsatisfying?’
The more I read, the wider the emotional gulf between the Princess and me grew.
“Ugh…….”
It was bleak.
I couldn’t empathize with a single character—seriously.
“This won’t do.”
I had to consult someone.
I sprang up—
The moment I finished brooding, I grabbed the book and left the bed in search of company.
My first target was Annie.
Since Annie couldn’t read, I summarized the key points for her.
“What do you think of this book?”
Annie, hearing the question, clutched her heart with the hand holding the Broom.
“The heroine is so pitiful…….”
“Why, though?”
She has neither the conviction nor the will to forge her own path.
She just says she loves him, then chooses money and status instead—is that right?
If anything, I feel worse for the poor male lead, coldly abandoned.
“He suffered his whole life, yearning and longing, until he died……,”
“……I see.”
Annie really does have rich emotions.
We talked a few more times after that, but it didn’t yield much insight.
Next were Theodore and Edward.
They were resting at the Hideout they’d shown me a few days ago.
“That book’s famous. It got adapted into an opera, I believe.”
Edward spoke in an unhurried drawl, breathing in the scent of tea.
“Is that so, brother?”
Theodore broke into a bashful grin, looking utterly witless.
He seemed pleased and delighted that his brother came across as intelligent.
I glanced between their faces and asked.
“Have you read it?”
Edward nodded; Theodore shook his head emphatically.
“Didn’t stir much in me. I couldn’t relate to it.”
Edward sipped his tea and continued.
“A Count’s only daughter can’t distinguish public from private matters just because of love? Wouldn’t it be better if she spent that time taking even one more lesson on succession instead?”
He voiced his opinion in measured, unhurried tones.
Then he closed his eyes and savored his tea.
“But what’s the story about?”
Theodore, who had been listening with his mouth hanging open, now asked.
Edward gave him a fleeting, melancholy look.
Then he explained the plot with genuine kindness.
“Oh…… it’s quite a tragic tale.”
Theodore marveled, his face completely absorbed.
“What do you think of it, then?”
“Well, it’s tragic.”
Right, I’ll stop asking.
“……But.”
Edward let slip a remark in his careless tone.
“Why the sudden interest in that book?”
“The Princess said she enjoys it.”
“That makes sense. Young noblewomen of that age are particularly fond of it, I hear.”
He glanced at me sideways as he added.
“……Though there are always exceptions, of course.”
Edward tapped the sofa lightly.
It felt like a signal urging me not to stand there, but to come and sit down.
I shook my head lightly and replied,
“I’m planning to ask Kai about it too, actually.”
“He’s read it?”
Theodore interjected loudly, surprised.
“What? I’ve never even read it myself, and Kai has?”
“Yes. He said it wasn’t very interesting.”
Edward, who had been listening quietly, let out an amused laugh and spoke with a sardonic edge.
“That’s rough. You’re surrounded by people who are utterly useless.”
He had a point, but I couldn’t go back empty-handed.
“Could you at least analyze why people enjoy it so much?”
You’re good at that sort of thing, aren’t you?
“Analysis, hm.”
Edward rested his chin in his hand, thinking.
“Most people read romance novels for vicarious satisfaction.”
“Vicarious satisfaction?”
In a story where no one can possibly be happy—a sad ending?
“They want someone who loves them enough to give their life for them.”
Really, now.
Where is anything more important than life itself?
I swallowed the dissatisfaction welling up inside me.
“Or the male protagonist is handsome, impressive.”
Edward continued his explanation.
“When someone loves you so earnestly like that, it’s all the more appealing.”
……So then.
If I introduced her to a good man, would the Princess like him too?
‘That’s rather a wild idea.’
I studied both Edward and Theodore seriously, considering this.
When our eyes met, Edward’s cheeks flushed and he slowly looked away.
“What, what are you looking at?”
He didn’t have the first letter of love in him—he was the sort to be buried with the family name. Disqualified.
And Theodore was…….
“And don’t you dare meet some strange man who does nothing but run his mouth, you hear me?”
He poured out unsolicited advice, which was unlike him.
“That stuff only looks cool in books, doesn’t it? You need to set different standards—”
“I’m perfectly capable of handling it myself.”
“Tch, don’t get snippy with me…….”
My soft smile made his voice fade bit by bit.
“Theodore, that’s enough.”
Edward finally stepped in to mediate, and that was the end of it.
“I should get going now.”
I seized the moment and hurried out of the Attic.
“What? Wait, I still have things to— Eria!”
Theodore’s voice echoed after me.
I hadn’t realized it, but Theodore was just as much of a nag as Edward.
Deliberately ignoring him, I went downstairs and found Kai.
As expected, he was in the Library.
“Kai.”
I called softly to him as he leaned against the bookshelf, sitting on the floor.
“Ah, Eria.”
He set down the book he’d been reading.
And as always, he offered me that beautiful smile he reserved for me.
Warm sunlight overlaid his soft, smiling eyes.
He squinted slightly.
The light seemed to be bright for him.
As I sat down beside him, he reached up and placed his hand above my brows.
He seemed to want to shade my eyes so the light wouldn’t bother me.
“What were you doing?” he asked softly.
His voice was barely a whisper.
“Self-examination.”
“You came to ask me too, then.”
“Yes, I hope you’ll help.”
“Of course.”
I handed over the book without hesitation to his cheerful reply.
“If you like this book, I was curious what draws you to it.”
Kai took the book from my hands.
He tilted his head slightly as he studied the cover for a moment.
His eyes rolled upward, as if recalling the contents briefly.
“When she was with him, she felt free.”
“When she was with him?”
“When the woman was with that man.”
Kai took my hand and drew me up.
As I rose to follow him, he began walking slowly.
“Like she could go anywhere, become anything.”
“The woman felt that?”
“That’s how it seemed to me.”
Kai stopped still and ran his eyes over the books lined on the shelf.
“Maybe he wanted to feel that way too.”
“…Because the princess never had that freedom.”
Kai answered with a light nod.
He rose onto his toes and pulled down a book for me.
It was Midday’s Wish.
“This is…”
The same author.
A sequel?
“How did you find it?”
I asked in surprise, and Kai only gave an enigmatic smile.
“Shall we read it together?”
At his suggestion, I pointed to a chair without hesitation.
Kai took my hand again and walked me to a corner of the Library.
Watching him, eager at the thought of reading together, I suddenly remembered.
Kai, no less than the princess, had lived confined to the Mansion—never truly free.
For some reason, my chest ached at the thought.
***
The day of the ball.
Harrison clutched the soft Silk Dress tightly in her hands, hidden from view.
‘This time, I must win the princess’s heart.’
That shameless Young Noblewoman’s tea party—barely worth mentioning for her breeding, yet cunning as a viper.
After what happened then, the other Young Noblewomen had begun to shun her subtly.
And each day the slight grew sharper until last night she’d even suffered nightmares.
To restore her ruined reputation, winning the princess’s favor was her only chance.
“Eria, that brazen little thing…”
She muttered a curse under her breath, then started, glancing around.
Fortunately, the ball had begun and the loud chatter seemed to swallow her words.
“Oh my, Lady Harrison.”
An unpleasant, sharp voice came from behind her.
Jeniel Stefan.
At Eria Croiman’s tea party, she’d been the first to spread all manner of gossip.
Then she’d quietly slipped away, leaving Harrison to face the consequences—a traitor through and through.
Harrison’s eyes flashed with fury as she fixed her gaze on her.
Stefan laughed awkwardly, covering her face with her Fan.
That innocent smile was surely nothing but deception.
“It’s been so long.”
“…It has been a while.”
She answered through gritted teeth, barely containing herself.
Stefan’s eyes fell on the box Harrison held.
“Is that… a gift for the princess?”
“It’s nothing for you to concern yourself with.”
“How lovely and delicate.”
Stefan laughed—a trill of “hee-hee-hee”—and behind her stood a box as tall as she was.
Harrison was about to step forward when
Eria appeared, holding a box smaller and plainer than the other two.

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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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