The Baby Who Regressed Refuses Childcare - Chapter 132
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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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“Princess Abner is also ten years old, isn’t she.”
Jas leaned against the lobby railing, sipping sour apple champagne.
Kilios, who was beside him, looked at Jas.
“I heard her birthday is a few months earlier than Hiana’s, so that would be right.”
“I know I shouldn’t say this as a Longton Prince, but she is impressive.”
Jas continued speaking as he set his champagne glass down on the railing.
“She’s only ten years old, yet she’s the president of the Abner Academy. I heard she even has a Mage Tower Lord under her. Personal connections, apparently.”
“What are you trying to say, Jas.”
“Brother. Do we… really need to keep things this way with Abner?”
Silence fell between the two. Kilios followed Jas’s lead and set down his glass.
“You’re right. If it weren’t for the conflict between our families, Princess Abner could have become a good friend to our youngest…”
“…”
“Strategically, the time to keep Abner in check seems to have passed too.”
Kilios remained silent for a long while.
But eventually, he nodded very slowly.
“You’re right. Abner has grown too large to keep in check now.”
Abner had been trailing behind Longton for the past few decades.
For two families that had been evenly matched until then to tilt so dramatically to one side was unprecedented.
The situation had reversed in an instant.
“Do you remember when Father first tried to adopt that young lady?”
Kilios nodded.
“…How could I forget. We three made a pact that we’d treat her really well if she came, you, Lewis, and I.”
At those words, Jas’s gaze slowly dropped as well.
“Right. We even went out together to buy her gifts, didn’t we. You were sixteen, and I was thirteen.”
“Yes.”
Their father, Lambert Longton, had been out of his mind for a while right after losing youngest daughter Hiana.
He had searched the entire continent thoroughly to find Hiana somehow, but she was nowhere to be found.
Lambert Longton and the three princes had given up on Hiana like that.
Kilios too had slowly worked through the sense of loss that tormented him every night.
That his sister had never existed in the first place.
So he shouldn’t be sad anymore.
Then one day.
“You’ll have a sister soon. I want you all to know that.”
Lambert Longton said he planned to adopt a girl around Hiana’s age.
But on the scheduled day, that child didn’t come to the Longton Estate.
The only one who arrived home was Duke Longton, furious with rage.
“That damn assassin bitch. Playing dirty tricks like this?!”
The adoption couldn’t proceed because the child had already been designated as a ward of the Abner Family.
Duke Longton was consumed with anger for a while.
While Kilios and Lewis felt somewhat disappointed, they couldn’t easily understand the Duke.
“It’s not really something to get that angry about.”
“Maybe he really liked that child, brother.”
“…Actually, I liked her too.”
The three brothers would look at Annellia’s photo they had received in advance every day.
“Look, her eye color seems really pretty. Like pumpkin cream with just a tiny bit of purple berry juice mixed in.”
“Isn’t her nose cute too? How can it be so small and round.”
Perhaps because she was a child who had almost become family, they felt drawn to her despite never having met.
Strange things sometimes happened to the brothers.
“Brother, what’s wrong with under your eyes? Didn’t you sleep last night?”
“…It’s nothing. I had some nightmares.”
Annellia, that little girl who had now become Abner’s ward, kept appearing in his dreams.
“I’ve been having nightmares frequently lately too. That’s strange.”
However, the brothers didn’t tell each other what nightmares they were having.
Because the content of the nightmares was too strange to tell anyone.
‘Annellia. Why are you so selfish.’
‘B-Brother.’
‘I regret it. Taking you in as my sister.’
‘What are you saying…?’
‘If I hadn’t been so obsessed with you, ■■■ would have found her way home in time.’
‘…’
‘Then that child wouldn’t have had to live as a slave for 7 years, wouldn’t have had to live apart from her family in hardship.’
‘Brother, I, I…!’
‘And you get upset just because that ■■■ asked you about homework, that selfish personality of yours.’
‘…’
‘I should have recognized it earlier and kept my distance.’
That child in the nightmares was always crying.
The reason was always because of Kilios himself.
His dream self would slash at that child’s heart with blade-like words just from seeing her.
“…When I become Duke.”
Kilios muttered in a sunken voice.
“I’ll end this tiresome relationship with Abner.”
Jas’s eyes widened.
He remained silent for a moment, then nodded.
“Yes.”
Then he looked at Hiana, who was mingling with various people in the hall.
“For our youngest’s sake too.”
Their youngest was still so young, wasn’t she.
That child, who was only ten years old, already had far too many burdens on her shoulders.
Because Lambert Longton had pressured Hiana in order to keep Abner in check.
The brothers’ gaze lingered in one direction for a while.
Hiana, bursting into laughter as she mingled with young ladies her age.
And a little further away from that.
It was the direction where Annellia was dealing with elderly gentlemen.
“I read ‘The Opening and Transformation of Magic Power Devices Based on Spell Circuit Principles’ thoroughly.”
I showed an awkward smile to the people who had gathered, my eyes sparkling brightly.
“You submitted a similar paper as an assignment when you were at the Prodigy Academy, didn’t you?”
This person who was all excited in front of me now was a professor from the Prodigy Academy who had been in charge of a different group.
“At that time, there were no horizontal lines in the magic power device designs. But looking at the paper, those horizontal bars were made by precisely calculating the pathways where magic power circulates.”
“Yes…”
“How on earth did you come up with such an idea? You didn’t know this even when you were attending the Prodigy Academy, but did you suddenly gain enlightenment one day after graduation?”
Just as I was about to answer after rolling my eyes around for a while.
“Princess!”
A noblewoman pushed through the crowd of scholars and approached me.
Then she grabbed my hands tightly and her eyes welled up with tears.
“You’re the one who developed Solutio a year ago, aren’t you?!”
People stirred at the mention of Solutio.
Solutio was the sixth medicine announced by the Abner Academy.
digestive system, especially focusing on treating illnesses of the stomach area.
“Oh my, look at me. I’m late with introductions. I’m Valeria from Countess Kirabelle’s house in the Western Region.”
Valeria continued speaking in a trembling voice while firmly holding my hand.
“I have a young son, and the poor child has had stomach problems since birth…”
The lady roughly wiped her eyes with a handkerchief.
“For a while, I searched for various medicines and called in physicians, but nothing worked. The child would cry every night saying it hurt…”
Sighs could be heard from the surroundings at the story of a young child crying in pain every night.
The lady who had to watch such a child must have been terribly heartbroken as well.
“But when I heard that the person who created Lubarinna and Lubaven had also developed stomach medicine, I thought maybe there was hope and immediately purchased it through the trade caravan…”
Despite having just wiped away tears moments before, Valeria’s eyes quickly filled with tears again.
“*Sob*, every night… my child who used to cry for me in such pain, goodness, now sleeps through the entire night…”
Valeria smiled with tears welling up in her eyes.
“You don’t know how much I wanted to meet you. I’m so grateful I don’t know what to say or how to say it…”
Meanwhile, I found myself trapped within a wall made of people.
“Princess, you cured not only my child’s illness, but also the illness in our hearts as a couple.”
“…”
“Thank you so, so much for using your noble abilities to help children like ours…”
I looked anxiously at Valeria, who had started sniffling again.
She wasn’t a child but a grown adult crying like this, so I had no idea what to do.
After hesitating for a long while, I finally raised my hand and gently patted the lady’s arm.
“Um, please let me know if you run out of medicine.”
“…Pardon?”
“If the pain is severe or the medicine doesn’t work, we also have products with slightly higher ingredient concentrations.”
Valeria’s eyelashes trembled.
I smiled as brightly as possible to reassure her.
“I’ll package it nicely and send it to you! So don’t worry, and please don’t cry either.”
“Pr-Princess…”
I had really told her not to cry.
But the lady began wailing while pressing her hands to the ground.
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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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