The Baby Who Regressed Refuses Childcare - Chapter 117

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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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Armin recalled what had happened several dozen minutes ago.

“Hi, Armin!”

After finishing the meeting, he was sitting alone on the garden bench when the five-year-old who had cheated his way to the top rank came over to talk to him.

“You hate me, don’t you?”

Hitting the nail on the head so casually.

“What? Go away.”

Armin replied coldly.

But the kid acted like it was nothing, crossing his arms and even standing on one leg.

“Just because you couldn’t do it doesn’t mean others can’t either – that’s very narrow-minded thinking.”

“…What?”

“The last question on the entrance exam. Armin, you haven’t learned advanced tool-based sorcery theory yet, have you?”

Armin closed his mouth in a daze.

Then he frowned deeply and asked back.

“Are you saying you’ve learned that now?”

“Yep!”

Armin let out a “Ha!” sound and stood up from his seat.

“Keep your lies within reason.”

“It’s not a lie though?”

“Tool-based sorcery theory is the highest level among advanced theories. Even decent academies would need years of dedicated research to understand it, if at all.”

“I know that! But I’m smart and clever, so I just learned it a little faster than others.”

“How old are you!”

“Did you forget? I told you when we first met… I’m five years old.”

Armin was so frustrated that he beat his chest with his fists.

It had been a while since he’d met someone who made him more exasperated than his brother Dimas.

He glared at Annellia with fierce eyes.

“I don’t know what tricks you used, but I absolutely won’t acknowledge you.”

The kid tilted her head.

“I can tell just by looking. Even if you fool everyone else, you can’t fool my eyes.”

“Really?”

“Yes! Really!”

“But then why don’t you know that Dimas is sick?”

At those words that followed, he closed his mouth in bewilderment.

The top student kid was staring at him intently without blinking an eye.

Armin doubted his ears for a moment and asked back.

“What did you say?”

“Why don’t you know that Dimas is sick?”

“…No. I mean, what are you talking about exactly.”

The kid let out a deep sigh.

“Dimas is your older brother. Armin is the younger brother. But why does the younger brother keep being mean to his sick older brother?”

Those words reminded him of what happened during the day.

As princes of Mark, the Apothecary Dean wanted to see him and Dimas separately.

And Armin knew how important that meeting was.

After all, he and Dimas would have to stay in the Academy of Pharmacy’s dormitory for the next three years.

Armin put his heart and soul into his words, expressions, and actions from the moment he entered the reception room to make a good impression on the Apothecary Dean.

But Dimas…

Remembering Dimas acting carelessly even in front of the Apothecary Dean made him frown again.

“If something is pathetic, I call it pathetic. What else should I call it?”

The kid’s eyes widened.

“Mind your own business. Your brother is so healthy it’s a problem.”

“That’s not true! Dimas is sick.”

At that point, it was getting ridiculous.

Armin unconsciously took a step forward.

“What are you really? Where exactly is that idiot sick? Even today he couldn’t get his act together…”

“What will you do if I’m right?”

“What?”

“Go see for yourself right now. Whether Dimas is sick or not.”

That’s how he ended up following along.

But Dimas wasn’t in the dormitory.

Euriko, whom they met in the corridor, told them she had seen Dimas in the garden.

So they arrived at the garden.

“This is, this is impossible…”

His hands were trembling.

His voice was the same.

Armin had completely forgotten about the top student kid’s presence and fixed his gaze only on Dimas.

No matter how much he tried to process the communication he had just overheard, he couldn’t make sense of it.

He also remembered what the kid had said on the way here.

‘Dimas has so many bruises on his arms too!’

Looking again, the kid was right about that too.

Dimas’s arms were covered with purple and red bruises from above his hands.

“Why…”

Armin bit his lips hard.

The reason why Dimas’s arms were in that state – the puzzle pieces started fitting together in his head one by one.

“Tell me quickly!”

Armin shouted in shock.

“Don’t tell me it’s from that day five years ago?! The day I fell off the cliff, is it that day?!”

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

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

“There’s no antidote.”

He definitely heard it.

Dimas talking into the communication stone about snakes, poison, antidotes and such.

Then there was only one answer.

“That day, really because of me… I…”

Armin staggered where he stood.

From some point on, images of Dimas acting pathetically flashed through his mind.

Dimas suddenly quit all his successor classes and only did useless exercise.

During royal tutor lessons, when he looked out the window, he would often see Dimas running in the open field until his body was soaked with sweat.

Armin couldn’t understand such a Dimas.

Because Dimas had always been perfect until he became so strange.

Perfect enough for him to always look up to and follow.

“When you become a great king later, Armin will become a great prince and help you rule the islands well!”

That’s why he was angry.

Even in his sleep, feelings of resentment would suddenly arise.

He had always been such a reliable older brother.

Wherever he went, he was always his pride, his one and only treasure and friend.

So he treated him even more harshly.

Hoping he would come to his senses.

Even when he said he had come in last place on the Academy of Pharmacy entrance exam, he deliberately said cruel things for him to hear.

He called him pathetic and ignored him.

“But….”

During the season when red-ringed sea serpents came ashore, even adults avoided the rocky crevices along the coastline.

The reason the forbidden cliff was forbidden was because it was an area where serpents frequently appeared….

Thud-

Armin struck his own head with his clenched fist.

“Armin! What are you doing!”

Dimas immediately rushed over, but Armin didn’t stop.

Thud, thud.

His head hurt and rang.

But his arms kept moving on their own.

Armin himself was the most wicked, foolish, and worthless human being in the world.

“Red-ringed sea serpents have no antidote… After a 5-year incubation period, the nerves become paralyzed and you die….”

His whole body trembled.

Between his quivering lips, creeping sobs leaked out.

“It’s not just being sick, it’s not just being bedridden for a few days… you die….”

While he muttered as if his soul had left him, his arms were restrained.

He saw Dimas gripping his wrists tightly with a pale, hardened face.

His gaze naturally went to Dimas’s forearm where the sleeve had rolled up.

The slightly tanned skin was still densely covered with dozens of bruises.

Armin’s pupils gradually lost focus.

He had seen it in a book the royal tutor had given him to read.

“When the incubation period ends, the pain is so severe….”

“….”

“There are patients who self-harm to try to endure the pain….”

Just like how Dimas had made such a mess of his own arms.

Armin slowly raised his head.

He could see Dimas’s face.

‘Brother is going to die.’

Once the incubation period ended, the snake venom spread very quickly through the body.

The fact that the pain had started also meant there really wasn’t much time left.

‘Because of me, because of an idiot like me, brother is going to die.’

And he hadn’t even noticed it until now.

It felt like dozens of spears were piercing through his entire body.

Armin gripped Dimas’s chest tightly and sobbed.

“I, hic… I’m going to die too.”

Dimas gave no answer.

Armin burst into tears, streaming down his face.

“I’m going to die too! You idiot!”

He should have said he was sorry, but strangely those words wouldn’t come out.

“If you die, I’ll follow and die too. I’m really going to die too! Just die!”

“Armin. Try to calm down a bit.”

Dimas slowly patted the back of Armin, who was crying out like he’d lost his mind.

Dimas was always more mature than himself like this.

That fact made him cry even more.

“Sob, waaah! I’m also, I’m also really going to die…!”

That’s when it happened.

“Um, excuse me.”

A young voice was heard from beside them.

When he turned his head, he saw the Young Child he had completely forgotten about.

The child scratched his head as if quite troubled, then said.

“You know. You two don’t both have to die. It would be a big problem if Prince Marque all died at once!”

The child stretched out his arms toward the stunned twins and said.

“Because, you know, the Marque Kingdom is a holy land of trade. It’s a dock where all the ships of the continent stop at least once. But what would happen if the royal dynasty collapsed.”

“….”

“The trading ships would have nowhere to go right away, right? Then all continental trade would just! stop.”

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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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