The Baby Who Regressed Refuses Childcare - Chapter 142

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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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“Wahhh- Euriko!!”

“Lia!!”

As soon as Euriko arrived in the Imperial Capital, we embraced tightly and had a tearful reunion.

The moment Euriko saw me, she smiled brightly and hit me right where it hurt.

“My goodness! How did you manage to not grow at all?!”

I clutched my chest and staggered in place.

“H-how could you say such a thing…”

Then I stared at Euriko in a daze.

“But why did Euriko get even taller…? Are you a giant?”

Throughout our time at the Prodigy Academy, Euriko maintained her position as ‘tallest in the entire school.’

She was taller than Armin, Dimas, and all the other well-built male students, so it was only natural.

“I’m in my prime growing years!”

“Not everyone grows like Euriko just because they’re growing.”

“No way! You just need to drink 2 liters of freshly milked goat milk every day!”

I made an “ugh-” sound and took a step back.

Once before, I had tasted some goat milk and cheese that the Barkin Tribe had sent to Euriko.

That taste was truly… beyond imagination.

“You drink 2 liters of that every day…?”

“Yeah! Isn’t the freshly milked kind especially rich and delicious?”

“I thought it was too fishy…”

Euriko laughed and nodded her head.

“I understand! Lia has only been drinking processed milk all this time! I’m the opposite – Empire milk doesn’t taste very good to me, hehe.”

We faced each other and nodded our heads.

Just then, Euriko asked.

“By the way, I was really surprised! This is our first time meeting since graduating from the Prodigy Academy, right? Right?”

“Yeah. We graduated this spring and now it’s fall, so it’s been about half a year.”

“Ugh, I missed you so so much!”

Euriko hugged me tightly again.

Her strength was so incredible that my body immediately floated up into the air.

“Isn’t the carriage too stuffy? I’ll carry you to the townhouse. Okay?”

Looking at Euriko’s face full of excitement, I reluctantly nodded.

“Mm-hmm, well…”

Right away, Euriko began walking down the street carrying me.

Abner’s guards surrounded us at regular intervals.

Behind them, I could see the carriage that had brought Euriko.

Around the carriage, several people who appeared to be Barkin Tribe members were following behind us.

“Who are those people?”

Euriko answered without even looking back.

“Mm-hmm, my cousin and the attendants my cousin brought along.”

“Cousin?”

“Yeah. The chief forced him to come with me. I kept saying I wanted to go alone.”

I frowned and asked.

“The chief – that’s Euriko’s grandfather, right?”

“Right.”

I turned my gaze back to the man who was Euriko’s cousin.

He was a skinny, slender man.

His sunken under-eyes, hollow cheeks, and murky pupils felt somehow unpleasant.

After staring at him for a while, I tilted my head.

“But that person, for being Euriko’s cousin, he’s too…”

“He looks old, right?”

I hesitated then nodded.

As Euriko said, the man looked to be at least in his mid-thirties at the youngest.

Then Euriko continued.

“It’s because our father was the chief’s very last child.”

Euriko’s grandfather, who was also the current chief of the Barkin Tribe, was an old man well over seventy.

He had nine wives, and each wife had children of her own.

Euriko’s father was the child born to the very last wife among them.

“Since there’s a big age gap between our dad and my aunts and uncles, naturally my cousins are also older than me.”

“But the successor is Euriko’s father, right?”

Euriko glanced back consciously then nodded.

“Right. The lightning god chose our father.”

My eyes widened.

“The lightning god… Ulgen?”

“Yeah.”

Ulgen, the lightning god.

The name of the deity worshipped as creator by the Barkin Tribe and several other tribes on the Eastern Continent.

Ulgen, also called the ruler of the heavens, was a mysterious being who had been selecting the chiefs of the Barkin Tribe for generations from ancient times to the present.

“I know! They say that when a chief’s child is born in the Barkin Tribe, they build a huge altar on the grasslands.”

“Lia really doesn’t know anything she doesn’t know, does she? Right. At the very top of the altar, they must place a birch tree cut from the sacred forest.”

The Barkin Tribe’s territory was located on vast grasslands.

To the south were wastelands, and to the north was a mountain they called the ‘Sacred Forest.’

“The mountain is sacred. So you must never carelessly touch the big trees. But when a chief’s child is born, they can cut down just one and place it on top of the altar.”

The altar built by the tribe members was as magnificent in size as any manor in the Imperial Capital.

They would bring large rocks to form the perimeter, create wind passages inside, then gather reeds and low bushes.

Once the altar was somewhat complete, they would place a tall birch tree at the very top.

“The moment when the chosen child is born is truly incredible.”

Euriko’s voice became serious.

“I heard the moment our father was born was really amazing too.”

“Why? What happens?”

Euriko grinned and looked at me.

“The moment the baby is born and lets out their first cry, lightning strikes down from the sky.”

“…Wow.”

“A baby born without lightning cannot become chief. That’s Barkin tradition.”

As I was rubbing my goosebump-covered cheeks, Euriko playfully added.

“Did you know that because of this, twins aren’t born in our tribe?”

“Really?”

“Yeah! Actually, Armin and Dimas were the first twins I’d ever seen.”

“I see…”

I was answering absent-mindedly when my eyes widened.

“Wait a minute. But Euriko is also a successor, right?”

There was a fact I hadn’t known at first but naturally learned while attending the Prodigy Academy.

The fact that Euriko was also called a ‘successor’ in Barkin.

More precisely, the ‘successor’s successor.’

“Right. Our father is the next chief successor, and I’m the successor to our father.”

“Did lightning strike when Euriko was born too?”

“Yeah. That’s also why I’m an only child. Since lightning already struck when I was born, father didn’t need to have another child.”

“…Wow.”

I swallowed hard at Euriko’s appearance, which seemed different to me now.

“Um, Euriko. When you become chief later, you’ll invite me to Barkin, right?”

Euriko smiled brightly and adjusted her hold on me.

“Of course! I’ll show you around the old ritual altar site and the Sacred Forest too!”

“Wow, great! That’s amazing!”

It was when she was excitedly swinging her legs back and forth.

“Euriko.”

Suddenly, someone called Euriko’s name in a low voice from behind.

I turned my gaze toward where the voice came from and froze in shock.

The man who was supposedly Euriko’s cousin was standing behind us with a gloomy expression.

“What is it, Shahma?”

When Euriko asked back, Shahma frowned.

“You haven’t forgotten what I told you on the way here, have you.”

Euriko closed her mouth.

“It’s the chief’s order, so you’d better not think about defying it further.”

Shahma glanced at me and moved away toward where the other tribe members were.

I had been frowning, but I unconsciously hesitated.

It was because Euriko’s expression when I turned to look at her was quite serious.

“Euriko, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

But Euriko quickly erased her expression and smiled brightly as if nothing was wrong.

However, I couldn’t easily take my eyes off Euriko as she started walking again.

Though it was brief, the emotion that had lingered on Euriko’s face was unmistakably deep disgust.

“This is what I brought!”

That evening.

I opened my eyes wide as I looked at something inside the golden jar Euriko was holding out to me.

“Wow! So this is…”

“That’s right. Ulgen’s gift that you requested.”

The lightning that Ulgen, the god of thunder, sent down when choosing a chief was white.

This lightning always created huge flames that burned the entire altar.

When the altar finished burning, something special was always found in the ashes.

“I heard it’s also called angel’s remains.”

In the Empire, angel’s remains.

In Barkin, Ulgen’s gift.

It was a pure white, very fine powder of unknown identity that was too white to be ash.

“But what are you going to use this for?”

At Euriko’s question, I silently gulped.

Ulgen’s gift has special power.

It was a hypothesis I had formed while investigating Crookiatus.

The speculation began with a piece of information Dimas had found for me at the black market.

The content of an ancient oracle from the god worshipped in the Eastern Continent desert region.

[I shall choose a pioneer with light.

Wherever I have passed, there shall be sacred objects to purify you from darkness.]

“Master. Doesn’t darkness seem to refer to black magic?”

“That’s right. Darkness, evil dragons, and black magic are all in similar contexts.”

“Then, you know, what do you think about the hypothesis that Ulgen’s gift has the ability to purify black magic?”

When Owen heard my words back then, he couldn’t close his mouth for a while.

My entire plan had started from this hypothesis.

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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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