The Baby Who Regressed Refuses Childcare - Chapter 136

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

Time at the Longton Estate passed quickly.

One late night, Hiana lay in bed and spoke.

“Squirrel gave me her homework.”

Philomena, who was sitting in the armchair, looked at Hiana.

“Annellia gave it to you?”

“Yeah. When I said I couldn’t do my homework, she said she’d give me hers.”

A knowing smile spread across Philomena’s lips as she paused.

“It must be because of guilt.”

“Guilt?”

“Yes. Look at those scars on your body.”

Hiana blankly looked down at her arm that was outside the blanket.

The arm was clearly not clean at first glance.

It was full of torn, gouged, and burned scars everywhere.

Some were from being beaten by her father when she was very young.

The rest were from living in the forest.

She had injured the back of her hand with an axe while chopping wood, and torn her leg rolling down a mountain.

She had also burned the top of her foot while boiling water in the kitchen.

“…These aren’t scars that Squirrel made.”

“No. Those are scars that Annellia made.”

However, Philomena was firm.

“I’ve already told them that. That all those scars on your body came from the slave trader.”

“…”

“You were sold to slave traders because you were separated from your family due to Annellia. You became such a mess from suffering all kinds of hardships there.”

“…”

“So you must never forget your duty, Hiana.”

Hiana met Philomena’s eyes.

Her pitch-black pupils were gleaming in the darkness.

“You are broken. You’ve been broken since we first met. Because everything you saw and experienced until then.”

“…”

“Was the kind of thing that once experienced, you can never return to how you were before.”

Philomena rose from her chair and went to the window, drawing back the curtains.

Immediately, moonlight obscured by clouds poured into the room.

“I bought you in that state. From your father.”

“…”

“I’m also broken like you. Since we’re both defective products who can’t live normally anyway, I felt sorry for you.”

Philomena turned around with the moonlight behind her and looked down at Hiana with a gloomy gaze.

“Do you know what the one way to add meaning to this kind of life is?”

“…No.”

“Revenge. Revenge against those who made us this way.”

Philomena looked at Hiana, who gave no answer for several minutes.

And finally, she quietly left the room.

Philomena’s voice continued to echo in Hiana’s head.

‘You are broken.’

She buried her face in the pillow.

‘…I know that too.’

As Philomena said, Hiana had been a defective product for a long time.

She also knew that she could no longer return to how she was before.

At some point, she had become a person with an empty soul, only a shell remaining.

Thinking about it, that seemed to be why Philomena had chosen her too.

A person who is only a shell can become someone else at any time.

Just like how she had been able to become Hiana Longton without any trouble.

The reason she could smile warmly at the servants of this castle,

The reason she could call Lambert Longton ‘Dad!’ without any trouble was also that.

Because there was no real self left inside her at all.

Hiana fell asleep with great difficulty that day.

The next morning, she greeted the servants with a bright smile as if nothing had happened.

She hugged those who attended to her in the morning and kissed the cheek of the person called Wet Nurse.

Such days accumulated one by one.

People gave Hiana more and more affection.

And Annellia became isolated from the manor by exactly that much.

“Try asking it for one of the magic formulas it developed. You never know. It might readily hand it over.”

One day, Philomena gave such an order.

Hiana did as Philomena instructed.

“You want me to give you a magic formula…?”

“Yeah. It’s an assignment for the Academy, and the deadline is next week. Can’t you help me just once, sister?”

Her smiling lips felt heavy.

Throughout her speech, she had to hide both hands behind her back because she was clenching her fists.

‘Say no. Say you can’t give it to me.’

She repeated it over and over.

But Annellia, that foolish squirrel.

“…Alright. Will this do?”

She nodded her head all too easily.

Hiana took the magic formula.

One favor became two, then three, then ten.

Sometimes she would go to Annellia’s research room and take a few without permission.

It was because Philomena had instructed her to.

“A mere fourteen-year-old winning at an academic conference! Hiana, my daughter! You are Longton’s future!”

It didn’t take long to win the first academic conference.

Of course, the award-winning magic formula belonged to Annellia.

A grand party was held at the Duke’s Castle.

Hiana wore splendid clothes and received congratulations from countless people.

Meanwhile, Annellia lingered in a corner of the banquet hall where no light reached.

Only one person approached and spoke to her.

Sharon Abner, the Lord of Abner whom Lambert Longton constantly cursed.

That night.

Hiana happened to overhear a conversation while passing by Lambert Longton’s office.

“Your Grace. Actually… about Miss Hiana’s magic formula that won this time. It’s similar to the magic formula Miss Annellia showed me last year.”

“Similar, you say.”

“Well, I wonder if Miss Hiana might have copied or taken Miss Annellia’s magic formula…”

It should have been a heart-sinking situation, but her mood was strangely calm.

Hiana unconsciously pressed her ear to the door.

“If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be something that shouldn’t happen ethically?”

That’s right.

That’s actually not mine.

I stole it from Squirrel.

I forcibly took it from that clueless child.

“I think Miss Annellia, who actually developed the magic formula, should be the one receiving the award…”

Yes, that’s right.

From the beginning, the one who should receive awards, who should receive people’s congratulations and love, was Squirrel.

So, so….

“I know too. That that magic formula wasn’t created by Hiana.”

“Pardon?”

“But what does that matter.”

I slowly closed my mouth.

“Hiana is my biological child with my blood mixed in. Annellia is just a lowly orphan brought here for usefulness.”

“Y-Your Grace.”

“It might have been different before, but now I have my real daughter Hiana.”

“….”

“That means there’s no problem giving that lowly thing’s achievements to my daughter. Rather, it might even be for the best.”

It was around that time that Hiana began suffering from insomnia.

She was just a soulless shell anyway.

She couldn’t understand why everything hurt and felt so sad.

The following year, Hiana’s name was listed as the developer of a remarkable medicine that would be widely used throughout the nation.

She had luxurious meals with the Academy of Pharmacy professors, and scholars from across the continent visited the Longton Academy.

One day when everyone was praising Hiana.

Philomena called for her once again.

“Now the time has come.”

And she said casually.

“I’m thinking of eliminating Annellia soon.”

Hiana doubted her ears.

“Eliminate her? Why Squirrel?”

“Because Lambert Longton is receiving far too many benefits because of that child.”

Philomena’s eyes rippled darkly.

“This level of profit is beyond expectations. Also, we’ve already extracted enough of what we needed.”

“…That’s ridiculous. Even so, even so….”

“I knew you would react like this. From the time you kept calling that thing, which is merely Lambert’s chess piece, Squirrel, Squirrel.”

Hiana closed her mouth at the cold voice.

“Stop acting spoiled, Hiana. The die has already been cast.”

“…What?”

“She’ll go peacefully enough. For that child too, this path would be more comfortable than being used for a lifetime under Lambert Longton’s grasp.”

“…No. No.”

Hiana staggered to her feet.

“Hiana!”

Leaving Philomena calling her name behind, she flung open the door.

Servants scattered and tumbled in the corridor to avoid her, and porcelain decorating the walls shattered to pieces.

‘No, no. No.’

Annellia’s room.

That narrow, dusty research room was located in the most remote corner of the palace.

It was unfortunately far too distant, too unreachably far.

Each step she took running with all her might was hot and painful, like walking on heated stones.

Suddenly, she remembered what Annellia had said on the day they first met.

“I’m Annellia.”

I’m Hiana.

I should have answered like that then.

“You’ve had a really hard time, haven’t you?”

Yes.

It was really hard… I was cold and scared.

I actually wanted to say that.

“From now on, I’ll be a good older sister to you.”

…Older sister.

Though there was only a few months’ difference in age, that voice that cheerfully declared herself the older sister.

“Let’s get along well together!”

I should have taken the hand you extended then.

I should have….

Hiana opened the tightly closed door.

Soon she saw a small, thin body collapsed on the floor.

She rushed over and embraced her shoulders.

Tears that hadn’t come even when her mother died, even when her father died, poured down her cheeks.

“Hey, Squirrel….”

“….”

“Annellia, Lia… Sister Lia….”

Hiana pulled Annellia closer with trembling hands.

She sobbed while caressing her gradually cooling cheeks.

“Sister! I was wrong… So please, please open your eyes! Sister!!”

In doing so, she failed to notice the light beginning to seep out from Annellia’s body.

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