The Baby Who Regressed Refuses Childcare - Chapter 118
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
“Do you think this is funny right now?”
Armin immediately responded coldly.
I quickly shut my mouth and hurriedly shook my head.
“No? Of course not…”
However, Armin still had sharp eyes.
I felt wronged and drooped my eyebrows.
“It’s really not funny…”
Rather, I almost teared up a little.
At that moment, Armin suddenly shot up from his seat.
“If it’s not funny, why are you making jokes about trade and whatnot?”
“Eek.”
“Stop it, Armin.”
Dimas blocked in front of me.
“Princess Abner, no, Annellia is right about everything. You shouldn’t carelessly talk about dying.”
Armin’s eyes widened and soon filled with tears.
It seemed the reality he had momentarily forgotten came flooding back.
“Is that something for you to say to me, brother?”
“It’s because I’m the one who can say it.”
At the firm answer, Armin closed his mouth.
“Don’t even mention things like dying together. Don’t you think about Mom and Dad?”
“Don’t you think about me?! What have you been seeing me as all this time! If it happened because of me, you should have at least let me know!”
“Armin!”
“W-wait a minute. Both of you calm down.”
I quietly stepped forward in front of Dimas as the atmosphere heated up.
Standing between boys who were vastly taller than me made my heart pound.
“You two aren’t putting on some play right now…”
The way they were talking about dying looked exactly like the melodramatic plays on Main Street of the Empire.
Armin scowled deeply.
“What do you know to keep butting in!”
“Well, if neither of you die, that solves it…”
However, at my following words, his expression became blank.
Dimas also hesitated and looked at me.
I let out a sigh.
“I know how to detoxify it.”
The wind whooshed past between us.
Armin froze in place like a statue.
“Wh-what. What, detox, poison, de, tox. Poison, what?”
“What are you talking about, Annellia?”
The one who asked a comprehensible question was Dimas.
The saying that there’s no sibling like an older brother wasn’t for nothing, it seemed.
I turned to Dimas and said.
“Red-ringed sea snake, I know how to detoxify it.”
“Hello, Your Majesty the King of Marque!”
When I bowed my head toward the magic mirror, bewilderment filled the face of King Teorakan of Marque.
However, I didn’t panic and quickly said the next words I had prepared.
“I’m Annellia, who beat Armin to become top student! Dimas, Armin, and I are all in the same group.”
The King beyond the magic mirror looked at the Queen beside him as if he didn’t understand.
Of course, the Queen had a similar expression.
[Dimas? What is this…]
When the Queen finally opened her mouth, Dimas spoke to the magic mirror.
“Miss Annellia knows that I’ve been poisoned by red-ringed sea snake venom.”
A small gasp could be heard from beyond the magic mirror.
I quickly added clearly to the magic mirror.
“I also know how to detoxify it!”
The Queen let out a scream.
Surprise and wariness appeared in the King’s eyes.
I spoke loudly so both could hear clearly.
“Your Majesty! I saw in a book that there are several Cesia shark habitats in the Marque Archipelago.”
The King’s eyes widened slightly.
Cesia sharks were a type of small shark that inhabited archipelago regions.
Their habitats were mainly secretive areas with few people, such as below cliffs or densely packed coral reefs.
Thanks to this, they rarely caught people’s attention.
But the important thing was that these sharks were natural enemies of red-ringed sea snakes.
“Cesia sharks eat tons of red-ringed sea snakes.”
The Queen shot up from her seat.
The King also didn’t hide his flustered expression.
After being silent for a moment, he soon tried to hide his trembling voice and said.
[Th-that fact has never been revealed. Cesia sharks are a rare species. Even fishermen who’ve spent their whole lives at sea can hardly find Cesia sharks…]
[Listen, Kan! If what she says is right? If it’s true that those sharks eat sea snakes…!]
I spoke to the noisy other side.
“They really eat them! So red-ringed sea snakes are highly venomous, but Cesia sharks don’t die even if they eat them.”
[Yes, so that means…]
“I heard that neutralizing fluid that neutralizes snake venom comes from inside Cesia sharks’ stomachs.”
Suddenly, the sound of something breaking came from beyond the magic mirror.
It seemed the King suddenly stood up, shaking the table and causing something to fall.
[Search the entire archipelago immediately and find Cesia sharks!]
The magic mirror’s screen kept shaking, then abruptly ended.
I shrugged my shoulders looking at Dimas.
Dimas was looking at me with a somewhat dazed expression.
Time at the Academy of Pharmacy passed quickly.
The Prodigy Program wasn’t conducted with specific classes to begin with.
Team members autonomously decided on experiment topics, and whenever they got stuck, they would schedule meetings with the Academy’s faculty.
It was literally a way to experience the lives of researchers affiliated with the Academy of Pharmacy.
“When will Dimas come back?”
Euriko stretched and muttered beside me.
In front of Euriko lay papers covered with squiggly formulas.
I had been completely exhausted for weeks teaching Euriko basic formulas and theories.
“You don’t understand this?”
“Yeah, I don’t!”
“…Okay, let’s look at this part again?”
I worked hard, remembering when I taught addition and subtraction to my siblings at the orphanage.
Since we were in the same group, I had to somehow carry Euriko along.
Fortunately, there wasn’t much I needed to teach Armin.
As befitting the second-place student, Armin often handled difficult assignments quite well on his own.
Dimas returned to the Marque Kingdom the very next day after we connected the magic mirror.
This was because King Teorakan and the Queen succeeded in capturing two Cesia sharks alive within 12 hours.
‘Not just one, but two of them… parental love really is amazing.’
Sesia sharks were so rare that they were called symbols of good fortune.
Finding two such sharks in just 12 hours couldn’t have been easy.
‘It was to save Dimas, so what. They probably would have searched the entire archipelago if they had to.’
I was shaking my head in amazement at how incredible that was when it happened.
“Your Highness Armin?”
Three boys approached the table where we were sitting.
They walked up to Armin, who was sitting across from Euriko and me, their eyes lighting up with delight.
“It’s been so long since we’ve seen you!”
“How are you adjusting to life in the Empire? It must be quite cold compared to the Marque Kingdom.”
Then they glanced at Euriko and me and lowered their voices.
“We heard rumors that you’re in the same group as the Barkin Tribe successor. And with that princess too…”
“Heh heh, the princess who lost her front tooth on opening ceremony day?”
“Hey. Keep your voice down.”
At their whispers that I could hear perfectly well, I glumly turned toward Euriko.
Naturally, there were some kids at the Prodigy Academy who looked down on me.
Actually, it wasn’t anything new.
I was a little kid who would turn six in a month, while all the other kids here were eleven to twelve years old.
‘Kids that age usually think they’re adults anyway.’
And they tend to subtly ignore and look down on younger kids.
‘Can’t be helped, I guess.’
Just because they said a few words about me didn’t mean I should confront them – those kids were still just kids after all.
I was hanging my head low, unconsciously probing the gap where my front tooth used to be with my tongue, when—
“If Taranta nobles are coming to chat me up, it’s probably one of two reasons, right? Either they’re curious because I’m a foreign prince, or they want to curry favor with our Marque Kingdom for some benefit.”
I heard Armin speaking in his characteristically cool voice.
Euriko and I simultaneously looked at Armin.
Armin was sitting in his chair with his arms crossed, looking at the three boys sideways.
“Didn’t you guys lose teeth when you were little?”
“Y-Your Highness?”
“You all went around missing one or two teeth when you were five or six years old too. Didn’t you?”
When Armin tilted his head slightly, his blonde hair sparkled as it reflected the sunlight.
Armin stood up from his seat with the truly noble face of royalty.
“But you know what? Back then, unlike Annellia, you guys probably looked really stupid.”
“…”
“It’s not like you were top students at the Prodigy Academy at that age either.”
I blinked with a bewildered expression.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————