The Baby Who Regressed Refuses Childcare - Chapter 116

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Dimas spoke dignifiedly into the communication magic device.

“Armin is doing well.”

A deep sigh could be heard from the other side.

[…How are you doing, Dimas.]

“I’m fine too. The pain has really been less lately.”

Silence continued from beyond the magic device.

Then finally, the sound of quiet sobbing came through.

“Mom… I told you not to cry.”

However, the sobbing only grew stronger.

[Dimas, my child. How could I… when I sent my sick boy to that distant foreign land…]

[Claudia, calm down.]

[I think we made the wrong decision after all. We should bring Dimas back. There might be some other way, we should just tell Armin the truth too…]

“That won’t do. You promised me.”

Dimas, who had been listening to the continuing conversation, spoke up with a deliberately stubborn voice.

Dimas took a breath and continued speaking.

“Armin shouldn’t know. There’s no need for Armin to suffer because of me. Absolutely not.”

[But Dimas. Like your mother said, if you come back to the Kingdom and we search for an antidote again…]

“We searched for 5 years and there wasn’t one.”

The other side of the magic device became quiet. Dimas spoke with his lips pressed tightly together.

“Mom, Father. That’s enough now. We’ve really done everything we could.”

[….]

“There is no antidote. The Marque Archipelago is a place that every ship on the continent passes through at least once. So if our Kingdom couldn’t find it either, it means it truly doesn’t exist in this world.”

Feeling pain again, Dimas habitually pinched his wrist.

“It’s not your fault. I was just unlucky… But how fortunate are we? We have Armin.”

From the other side, Claudia burst into tears once more.

The sound of her wailing, unable to breathe properly, came through clearly.

The King muttered in a devastated voice.

[Dimas. I am a sinner…]

Dimas blinked silently.

Then he shook his head and spoke.

“Father. I think it was actually a good thing. That it was me who got bitten by the snake, not Armin.”

From a very young age, Armin loved going to the Forbidden Cliffs behind the Palace.

This was because the small, Cozy Cave behind the cliffs was Armin’s treasure vault.

However, that was a dangerous place.

On windy days, terrifying whirlpools would often form at the bottom of the cliffs.

Nevertheless, Armin ignored the adults’ warnings and continued to visit that cave, and one day he slipped due to the sea breeze.

Armin was helplessly sucked into the waves.

If Dimas hadn’t discovered him, Armin, who couldn’t swim, would have died.

“Gasp, huff! Brother, cough…! Cough!”

“Armin! Huff, are you okay?! Are you okay?!”

Fortunately, everything happened during a brief moment when the waves were calm.

Armin, barely pulled out of the winter water, kept spitting out seawater and crying loudly.

Dimas held the pale Armin tightly and didn’t know what to do.

Soon the Palace soldiers and their parents arrived, and Armin began crying even harder.

He was so shocked that his arms and legs were trembling uncontrollably.

The anxiety that something terrible had almost happened, the relief that he was still alive.

But also the worry that Armin might have been hurt somewhere.

The sound of his own pounding heart was so loud that Dimas didn’t even notice.

That there were small tooth marks on his ankle, and that they were bite marks from a red-ringed sea serpent called the ‘Messenger of the Sea’.

“Armin shouldn’t know. We should just keep him from knowing.”

Dimas spoke in a voice filled with firm determination.

The sound of his mother, the Queen, continuing to sob could be heard from the other side.

“If he finds out I was bitten that day, Armin won’t be able to handle it.”

Armin was Dimas’s younger brother, his best friend, and the person Dimas treasured most in the world.

Dimas always believed that he shared half his soul with Armin.

“Please do as I say. I just want to spend even a little more time with Armin…”

Three days after Armin fell into the sea, when Dimas suffered from severe fever.

And when they finally learned that Dimas had been bitten by a red-ringed sea serpent.

He still remembered what the doctor had said.

“The incubation period will be 3 to 5 years. The younger you are, the longer the incubation period tends to be, so Your Highness will likely live without any symptoms for about 5 years.”

“What about a cure? Isn’t there a way to cure it?!”

“Currently, there is none.”

The doctor was firm to the point of seeming heartless.

“But no one knows if that will remain the case in the future.”

“What do you mean? Are you saying an antidote might be discovered?”

“That’s right. If we find one before the incubation period ends and symptoms begin, Your Highness could recover…”

The doctor said that when the poison begins to damage the nerves, physical strength greatly influences that speed.

“It would be best to build up your strength as much as possible. If your body is weak, the paralysis will progress faster. From now on, move as much as possible and eat well…”

From that day, Dimas’s life changed completely.

The succession lessons he received weekly were replaced with physical activities like spear fighting and swordsmanship.

Of course, the details were kept strictly secret.

There would be nothing good about it becoming known that a prince was infected with snake venom.

Of course, the same applied to Armin.

“I hope Armin doesn’t know.”

“But, Dimas…”

“Armin will definitely think it’s his fault. I hate seeing Armin sad. Okay?”

If they don’t find an antidote, he’ll die within 5 years.

That was a little scary, but for some reason, Dimas felt relieved on one hand.

‘I’m glad it’s not my younger brother.’

I’m rather glad it’s me who’s sick.

But Armin couldn’t understand why he stopped all succession lessons and devoted himself only to physical activities.

“Brother, what’s wrong? Don’t you want to become a great king later?”

“Armin. I…”

“What is this! Your scores are much lower than mine! You used to do better than me, why!”

Dimas couldn’t understand why Armin was angry.

He thought Armin would be happy to beat him, but Armin only kept growing distant.

“Brother, you’re the crown prince, the person who will become King!”

“….”

“Brother is the crown prince. Brother was someone who thought deeper than me, had a more handsome face, and was faster at running, so why….”

As time passed, as Armin gradually grew up.

Strangely, their relationship kept growing more distant.

Dimas deliberately smiled more often and pretended to be optimistic.

If he didn’t, he would think about his steadily decreasing lifespan and become unbearably terrified.

Unaware of these inner feelings, Armin began looking at Dimas with contemptuous eyes at some point.

“Dimas. Just confess the truth to Armin. At this point, that method is….”

“It’s better to just become a pathetic and stupid brother.”

“What?”

“Rather than a brother who died because of him, it’s better for Armin if I become a pathetic and stupid brother.”

It was strange.

Armin looked at him pathetically every day, hated him.

Yet Dimas couldn’t bear how precious the remaining time he could spend with Armin was.

Following Armin all the way to the Taranta Empire was purely because of that feeling.

From around the time the incubation period ended, his parents began granting almost all of Dimas’s requests.

So convincing them wasn’t difficult.

“When my condition gets much worse, I’ll definitely tell you then.”

[Dimas….]

When his physical condition deteriorated further, Dimas planned to return to the kingdom.

Since Armin would remain in the Empire, it was actually for the best.

This way, Armin wouldn’t have to see him dying.

Dimas quietly ended the communication magic device.

He was trying to compose his gloomily sunken expression when.

“What are you talking about… is this all true?”

Suddenly a familiar voice came from behind him.

Dimas hesitantly turned around.

“What was that just now?”

Behind him stood Armin with a rigidly hardened face.

“…Armin.”

Dimas opened his mouth in a daze.

He could see the Young Child next to Armin.

For some reason, the child subtly avoided his gaze.

“Are you crazy, brother?!”

Armin, who had approached shortly after, grabbed his shoulders.

His blue eyes were brimming with shock.

Dimas reflexively opened his mouth.

“Armin. No, it’s not like that.”

“What do you mean it’s not like that!”

Armin roughly pushed Dimas away.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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