The Baby Who Regressed Refuses Childcare - Chapter 137
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
“Huff-!”
Hiana, who had been groaning in pain, suddenly opened her eyes.
Everyone who had been watching her condition was startled and rose from their seats.
“Where is this….”
Whether she had been having a nightmare, Hiana’s eyes were filled with fear.
“The Crown Prince’s Palace.”
Hiana looked at me.
“…You hurt the back of your head. When you fell from the window. Do you remember?”
There was no response.
Hiana was just staring at me blankly.
Avoiding her gaze, I hesitantly added.
“Your head was torn a little, but after applying medicine, the bleeding stopped. The other wounds too.”
“….”
“…Can you get up? Are you hurt anywhere, or dizzy….”
“What about you, sister?”
Suddenly Hiana interrupted me.
“Huh?”
“I’m asking if you’re hurt anywhere, sister.”
I closed my mouth and reluctantly nodded.
“…I’m fine.”
I stepped back from the bed and went to Tian’s side.
I could feel Tian examining my expression.
Hiana got up from the bed unsteadily without anyone’s help.
When she stood on the floor, I could see more clearly how completely disheveled she looked.
Logrio whispered.
“…I don’t think we can send the Longton young lady back like this, Miss.”
I nodded.
The conversation between Karin and Jayden that I had heard just before falling flashed through my mind.
“It happened when I entered the palace. Someday I, this me.”
“….”
“I promised to give you Abner, and to give this empire to your child.”
The child in Karin’s womb was very likely not the Emperor’s child.
‘It must be Jayden’s illegitimate child.’
And that’s not all?
The story Jayden had told Karin Empress.
“That’s why I said I would kill the Emperor for you too.”
“….”
“If you want it, I can kill anything.”
That was clear treason.
And treason isn’t something that would only trouble Jayden alone.
‘Not only Jayden, but all of Abner could be executed for treason.’
My stomach churned and I clutched my forehead.
Meanwhile, Hiana, who was casually calling me ‘sister’, was the same.
‘I wasn’t mistaken when I was five years old.’
The day of the Emperor’s birthday celebration.
I had made eye contact with Hiana in the busy district of the Imperial Capital.
And at that time, I clearly saw Hiana’s mouth moving as if she was calling me ‘sister’.
‘I hoped it wasn’t true, but.’
When I unconsciously let out a groan, Tian approached.
“Annellia. Are you okay?”
I nodded and raised my gaze.
I could see Hiana still fixing her eyes on me.
‘…Hiana must have heard it too, right?’
The conversation between Jayden and Karin.
That’s why she took me and threw herself out the window.
Because if it was revealed that we had heard their conversation, who knows what would happen next.
I was barely swallowing the rising sigh when.
“First, contact Duke Abner.”
Suddenly Hiana spoke up.
I opened my eyes wide and raised my head.
Hiana pointed at Logrio.
“The fact that he’s here means Duke Abner roughly knows about this situation, right?”
“…Right.”
“Then contact him again and ask him to secretly send two dresses.”
“And then?”
“You and I became friends today.”
I unconsciously frowned, but Hiana was calm.
“We were walking together in the garden and got lost, and somehow ended up at the Crown Prince’s Palace.”
Listening to it, it sounded credible.
After thinking, I asked back.
“…Should we say we slipped and rolled down the hill behind the Crown Prince’s Palace?”
Hiana nodded.
For a moment, our gazes met.
There was actually a quite large pond below the hill behind the Crown Prince’s Palace.
It was a place with deep water and steep slopes where people occasionally fell in.
So if we said we fell in there and ruined our clothes, it wouldn’t be strange that we were wearing new dresses.
I finally nodded.
“…Uncle Logrio. Contact Grandmother. Quietly, of course.”
While Logrio was connecting the communication device, Tian spoke sternly to the medical officer and two other knights in the bedroom.
“You must keep complete silence about what happened today. I swear on your oath of loyalty.”
The knights all bowed at once.
It took quite a while for the dresses Grandmother sent to arrive.
And finally, when we received the dresses,
“…It’s short.”
We were standing in front of the mirror, looking at Hiana’s clearly exposed ankles.
The dresses Grandmother sent were all too short for Hiana, who was taller than me.
I diligently rummaged through the basket containing the dresses.
Then I finally found something and held it out to Hiana.
It was a dress with a unique design where the hem was rolled up to create pleats and secured with ribbons.
“How about this? If you unfold the folded part and let it down.”
Hiana nodded.
We awkwardly untied all the ribbons attached to the hem and smoothly unfolded the rolled fabric.
“Try it on first, and if it’s still too short this time….”
“It’s fine. I think it’ll fit.”
Hiana took the dress.
Then she casually took off the torn clothes she had been wearing.
I awkwardly turned my gaze away to look elsewhere.
We had declined Tian’s offer to send a maid to help us dress and were left alone in the room.
I thought it would be better to have as few people involved in the situation as possible.
We could help each other with things like ribbons and buttons.
“This dress is fine. It’s not too small.”
Hiana said after trying on the new dress.
I went to Hiana’s side and looked in the mirror together with her.
As Hiana said, the length of the dress was just right.
“I’ll tie it up in the back for you.”
When I gestured toward the ribbons at the back of the dress, Hiana hesitantly turned around.
I carefully tied the ribbons starting from the bottom.
However, I stopped halfway through tying them.
Through the gap in the open dress, I saw something on Hiana’s body that shouldn’t be there.
‘…Scars?’
There weren’t just one or two scars either.
My brow furrowed without me realizing it.
‘This can’t be right?’
There was absolutely no reason for Hiana in this life to have such wounds.
In my previous life, it was because she became a slave because of me.
But Hiana in this life came straight to the Longton Family at age five and lived there, right?
“Why.”
Then Hiana asked.
I was startled and let go of the ribbon.
Hiana turned around to face me.
“Because of the scars on my back?”
Hit right on the mark, I closed my mouth.
Hiana looked at me silently, then reached her arms behind her back and began tying the ribbons herself.
“…I can finish it for you.”
“It’s fine. I do it by myself every day at the manor anyway.”
By herself?
I closed my mouth at her words that suggested there was no one to help her dress even at the Longton house.
An awkward silence fell for a while.
Soon, Hiana finished tying all the ribbons quickly, stared at me intently, then said as if throwing the words out.
“They’re scars from when I was young.”
“Huh?”
“The scars on my back. I got them when I was young.”
Blinking blankly, I asked without thinking.
“When you were young, how young exactly?”
“Before I was five years old.”
My head felt numb.
All those wounds were from before she was five years old?
What could have happened at such a young age to cause injuries like that?
And if that’s really true, then what were all the wounds I saw in my previous life?
I thought they were wounds from being dragged away by slave traders because of me.
I suffered so much guilt because of that.
Who did I think I was making scar-removing medicine for…
“I can see all the gears turning in your head, sister.”
I looked up with a start.
Hiana, now fully dressed, was staring at me intently.
“You don’t know this about yourself, do you, sister? You have no talent for managing your expressions.”
“…What?”
“But what you’re thinking right now in your head. Most of it is probably correct.”
My heart sank with a thud.
Hiana, who had been quietly staring at me, passed by my side and said.
“So if you’re going to feel guilty about what happened today, don’t.”
Hiana paused briefly at the door and added in an even lower voice.
“What happened today. It was all for my sake. Not because of you, sister.”
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————