The Baby Who Regressed Refuses Childcare - Chapter 123

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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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The Dowager Empress didn’t even glance at the other tables and took a seat next to Annellia and the Lieri sisters.

Then she looked at Laura and said.

“Lady Lieri, when your friend is overexerting herself like this, you should stop her.”

Laura’s eyebrows drooped.

“But Your Majesty, these days it’s hard for us to even see Annellia.”

The Dowager Empress shook her head as if she couldn’t help it.

“…Don’t I know that well. Actually, that’s why I called you here today. To feed Annellia something delicious after so long, and to see everyone’s faces.”

The young ladies who had claimed this gathering was for selecting the Crown Prince’s bride all fell silent.

The Dowager Empress’s voice continued.

“Come to think of it, Tian is also very busy these days. I’m extremely worried whether he even sleeps four hours a day.”

Annellia’s eyes widened.

“Gasp, Tian… I mean, His Highness the Crown Prince?”

“Yes. But now you’re making me worry too.”

Annellia, who had been blinking, quickly placed her hand over the Dowager Empress’s hand.

“Grandmother, Annellia was wrong. I won’t do so much research anymore, okay?”

The Dowager Empress’s eyes narrowed at the affectionate voice.

But her lips were honestly twitching upward.

“Enough! How much longer do I have to live? My only wish in my old age is to see you and our Tian growing up healthy.”

“Oh my. Why do you keep saying such things?”

“Since you won’t listen to me, I won’t listen to you either.”

“Grandmother!”

Christine tried to ignore the conversation she could hear.

Various sweet-looking desserts were placed in front of her, but she couldn’t bring herself to reach for them.

The young ladies beside her whispered while reading the atmosphere.

“Wh-what should we do? It seems the rumors about Princess Abner being close to the Dowager Empress were true.”

“R-right. I thought it was just talk…”

“Could the rumors about her being close to His Highness the Crown Prince also be true?”

“But Lady Christine…”

Christine slammed her cup down with a loud thud.

The young ladies immediately fell silent.

‘How foolish they all are.’

Christine glared at them once and stood up from her seat.

Then she walked toward the table where the Dowager Empress was sitting with a bright smile.

Judging the situation roughly, it seemed she needed to change her plan.

“Your Majesty, if it’s alright, may I sit here?”

There were a total of five seats prepared at the table.

This meant there was still one seat left besides the chairs occupied by the Lieri sisters, Annellia, and the Dowager Empress.

“It’s an empty seat, so there’s no reason you can’t sit.”

The Dowager Empress smiled readily and gestured to the seat.

Christine waited for the butler to pull out the chair and quickly sat down.

Across from her, the Lieri sisters looked at her with puzzled expressions.

And Annellia Abner,

‘Ha. Someone came but she won’t even acknowledge it?’

Without even glancing her way, she was picking something out of a cupcake that had been served as dessert.

‘What is that? …Candied carrots?’

Christine frowned briefly in bewilderment.

However, she soon wore a perfect smile as if painted on and spoke sweetly.

“Lady Abner, you must dislike carrots.”

She wasn’t a child.

Just because the other person was acting childishly didn’t mean she had to respond the same way.

“I also dislike carrots. Should I say I feel a bit repulsed by their distinctive smell?”

Annellia Abner slowly raised her head.

Eyes of a mysterious color turned toward her.

Christine suppressed her laughter inwardly.

‘What, did I hit too close to home?’

To survive in high society, reading situations quickly and flexibly like herself was essential.

As proof, the Dowager Empress’s expression, which she glimpsed, was very pleased.

A gathering arranged for the young ladies to build friendships.

There was no way she would look bad for approaching first despite the awkwardness.

“Perhaps we could become friends? Since we both dislike carrots…”

“I like carrots though?”

She fell silent.

Annellia placed the last carrot she had picked out on top of the other carrots and said.

“I was gathering them to eat all at once.”

“Pfft.”

Laughter burst out from another table.

It was the sound of young ladies who had been eavesdropping on their conversation bursting into laughter.

“G-gathering them…”

Christine blinked blankly.

She could understand not knowing etiquette since she was a commoner, and from an orphanage at that.

But in front of the Dowager Empress, scraping together carrots from a cupcake to eat them all at once?

Christine reflexively checked the Dowager Empress’s reaction again.

The Dowager Empress seemed to have a slightly more rigid expression than before.

‘Even though it hurts my pride, I was trying to humble myself and get along with her. But this is too low-class.’

No matter how much favor she received, if she did such barbaric things right in front of her, surely the Dowager Empress would also…

“Here, eat mine too.”

However, the Dowager Empress’s next words were equally absurd.

The Dowager Empress looked at Annellia with an expression as if she found her adorable to death and said.

“Was it since your days at the Pharmaceutical Prodigy Institute? When you always gathered the garnish to eat it all at once.”

“Hehe. The snacks from the Academy, you know, had way too much garnish.”

“That was only your snacks though, right? Because the Apothecary Dean openly favored you.”

Mica Rierie chattered as she joined in.

Christine watched this scene in a daze.

Annellia Abner was a dark horse, unlike what she had simply thought of as a mongrel.

The Dowager Empress was doting on her far too much.

‘What should I do?’

Even though it was somewhat distasteful, should she continue to get along with them?

It was when she lowered her gaze to her teacup while thinking.

“That Apothecary Dean too, really. He’s taken with you.”

The Dowager Empress burst into laughter and patted Annellia’s head.

“Come to think of it, I heard you met with the Apothecary Dean today too, is that true?”

“Yes! Their research team is developing a reagent, and they want to register it as a material for the magical formulas that Abner Academy is planning…”

“So did you agree to it?”

“No. I said I need to consult with the Academy’s research team first, so I’d give them an answer in three months!”

The Lieri sisters were shocked.

“Th-three months?”

The young ladies at other tables who had been eavesdropping felt the same way.

“Making the Apothecary Dean wait three whole months…”

Who was the Apothecary Dean?

He was the head of the Academy of Pharmacy, which was renowned as one of the top academic institutions in magical studies along with the Magic Tower.

Though he had briefly faltered due to the meteoric rise of the Abner Academy, he was still a major figure in the Empire.

“There’s nothing I can do about it. Everyone’s busy these days with creating safety devices for the Southern Gold Mines.”

“Gold mine safety devices?”

“Yes. This time we replaced all the mine carts inside the gold mines with magical power engines, and the core technology is mine…”

“The one you were developing a few months ago when you got nosebleeds?”

As the Dowager Empress’s expression grew serious, Annellia quietly averted her gaze.

Then, as if remembering something, she suddenly lifted her head.

“Oh right. Grandmother, I have a small favor to ask…”

Christine pretended to eat her dessert while perking up her ears in that direction.

“Is Lady Rieri very busy these days by any chance?”

At the mention of Lady Rieri, she even subtly raised her head.

The Dowager Empress made a humming sound.

“If you mean Melissa, she’s resting these days. I haven’t assigned her any particular tasks.”

“Oh my, really…! Actually, there’s something I absolutely need Lady Rieri’s help with.”

Melissa Rieri.

Just an ordinary count’s wife with origins as a poor provincial noble.

Though she was the Dowager Empress’s maid, the work she was actually assigned was all menial tasks, so Christine had openly insulted her for quite some time.

‘What on earth could she be asking such a woman for?’

The moment she blinked anxiously.

“The gold mine owner I mentioned earlier wants to build a Gold Museum in the South.”

“A Gold Museum?”

“Yes. It seems he’s planning to develop several abandoned mines as tourist attractions while also building a museum. He asked me if I knew anyone suitable for the interior design.”

The Dowager Empress nodded.

“Indeed. Melissa was born with that kind of aesthetic sense.”

Then she looked at the Lieri Sisters with a pleased expression and said.

“Laura, Mica. Didn’t you know?”

“Pardon?”

“Thanks to your mother Melissa, my palace was featured in a prestigious magazine from the Eastern Continent. As the most beautiful ancient palace in the Western Continent.”

Christine nearly spat out the dessert she was eating.

The Dowager Empress’s Palace was featured in an Eastern Continent magazine thanks to Melissa Rieri?

“Now I’m not satisfied unless it’s a garden designed by Melissa. What remarkable talent.”

So those rumors about furniture arrangement and garden management were…

“But who keeps saying such things to Sister Laura?”

At that moment, Annellia stared directly at Christine and said.

“That Lady Rieri is just a maid doing menial work in the Imperial Palace.”

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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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