The Baby Who Regressed Refuses Childcare - Chapter 150

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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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“…Your, Your Majesty?”

The Dowager Empress slightly opened her eyes at the distant voice reaching her ears.

At the same time, the thick law book that had been precariously balanced on her fingertips fell with a thud.

“Oh my. I must have dozed off for a moment.”

“I apologize. Since you had fallen asleep in the chair, I was worried your neck might get stiff like before…”

Countess of Rieri, Melissa, approached and draped a thin shawl over the Dowager Empress’s shoulders.

She picked up the law book that had fallen to the floor and placed it on the table as she spoke.

“If you’re tired, shall I escort you to bed? I’ve lit the scented candle that Miss Annellia gave you at the last tea party.”

The Dowager Empress shook her head and turned her gaze toward the window.

Despite it being close to noon, the sky was gloomy and dark.

It was because rain was beating against the window through the clouds.

“Edward and Tian will be busy again today.”

“Pardon?”

“When it rains this heavily in the capital, the river below the city always floods. Building dams doesn’t help either, really.”

The Dowager Empress sighed and asked while keeping her gaze fixed on the workers creating drainage channels in the garden.

“How is it? Is Edward’s dizziness severe again today?”

Melissa’s expression became serious.

“It seems so. The butler pleaded to bring in a new doctor, but even that doctor seems unable to do anything…”

“This is troubling.”

Just as the Dowager Empress was about to pick up the water glass on the table.

“Um, Your Majesty.”

“What is it, Melissa.”

“If you’re truly worried, how about paying him a visit?”

“A visit?”

“To the Imperial Palace. I’m sure His Majesty the Emperor would be pleased as well…”

The Dowager Empress let out a small laugh.

Then she spun the water glass around and said.

“Melissa. Edward and I don’t have that kind of relationship.”

“…”

“Let me tell you something interesting.”

The Dowager Empress put down the water glass and smiled somewhat bitterly.

“Edward and I are the closest yet most distant relationship in the world.”

“Your Majesty…”

“It was good when Miraena was alive. That child was quite kind, wasn’t she? People say she was under my protection, but I think it was the opposite.”

The Dowager Empress’s gaze quietly turned toward the window again.

“It was when Edward was seven years old, I think. That was the last time we ever shared a meal together.”

“…”

“But then Miraena, who was pregnant with Tian, said to Edward that she wanted to go on a picnic with me, this old woman. So Edward had no choice then.”

The Dowager Empress’s eyes became distant.

A faint smile spread across her wrinkled lips.

“Because we all had meals together with Miraena back then, I can occasionally see Edward’s face now.”

“…”

“If it weren’t for Miraena, I would never have had the chance to carefully observe Edward eating even once.”

Melissa silently bowed her head.

Just as silence was settling in, a butler’s voice was heard from outside the door.

“Your Majesty. Duke Abner’s daughter has come seeking an audience.”

The Dowager Empress’s eyes widened.

“Annellia? Oh my, bring her in immediately.”

Melissa stood up to make room, and soon the door to the Dowager Empress’s audience chamber opened.

What peeked through was Annellia with her adorable twin braids.

“Grandmother! I’m here.”

“Oh my, our little puppy has come! What brings you here in this heavy rain? Your feet didn’t get wet, did they?”

Annellia laughed cheerfully and entered energetically.

“Uncle Logrio carried me, so I was fine!”

Then she ran toward the sofa where she always sat and plopped down into it.

The Dowager Empress was watching this scene fondly when.

“Huh?”

Annellia’s eyes sparkled as she discovered something on the desk.

Soon Annellia pointed at it and exclaimed.

“It’s a law book!”

The child’s fingertip was pointing at the thick law book the Dowager Empress had been reading all morning.

A slight bewilderment crossed the Dowager Empress’s expression.

“It’s nothing special.”

She muttered and quickly got up from her seat to hide the law book in her sleeves.

But Annellia approached and began bouncing in front of the Dowager Empress.

“I know this! This is the book Your Majesty wrote!”

The Dowager Empress’s expression became blank.

“There’s a researcher at the academic society who studied law, and she told me!”

Annellia looked at the law book with sparkling eyes.

“This law book is the foundation of current Imperial Law! It was the first law book that began protecting the rights of commoners and lowborn people who suffered under the class system.”

The strength reluctantly left the Dowager Empress’s hands that were holding the book.

Annellia immediately pointed to the thick leather cover at the front.

Below the title engraved on the leather, two small words were visible.

“Alexandra Minerva.”

Annellia smiled brightly.

“Wow! Your Majesty, no, it’s Grandmother’s name!”

The Dowager Empress unconsciously closed her mouth.

And soon she hesitantly lowered her gaze to the law book.

Chief Justice, Alexandra Minerva.

It was indeed her name that she had momentarily forgotten, deliberately covered up.

“You want me to tell you about my days as Chief Justice?”

“Yes!”

Alexandra turned her troubled gaze to the dessert placed before her.

Annellia was hugging the law book tightly while her eyes sparkled.

“They said it’s difficult for even high nobles to become Chief Justice despite lifelong efforts. How did you become Chief Justice, Grandmother? You met His Majesty the late Emperor after becoming Chief Justice, right? May I ask how you came to marry?”

Alexandra put down her fork at the flood of questions.

And reluctantly answered.

“…I hadn’t decided to marry from the beginning.”

“Then?”

“Diego, the late Emperor, proposed to me on his own.”

A faint smile finally spread across the Dowager Empress’s lips.

“Do you know how old I was then? I was almost forty. I had already decided not to have children, and I had only one goal in life.”

To create just laws.

And thus to establish a fair legal system in this Taranta.

And Alexandra had been moving quite quickly and accurately toward her goal.

Until the late Emperor Diego proposed to her.

“So you didn’t want to marry the late Emperor, Grandmother…?”

Alexandra smiled and shook her head.

“Annellia. I’m the type who won’t do what I really don’t want to do, even with a blade at my throat.”

“Then….”

“Yes. Actually, I liked Diego too. Not from the beginning, but as he kept proposing, I gradually grew to like him. I suppose my heart had softened.”

Diego was four years younger than Alexandra.

He was someone in an infinitely high position, but equally lonely as well.

He was a person who had seized the throne through blood among thirteen half-brothers and sisters.

“At that time, it truly wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say the entire country was in an uproar because of Diego and me.”

At the time, Diego already had two wives.

But they were all empresses, and the empress position was vacant.

This was because Diego had left the empress position empty for a long time.

“He said the empress is the emperor’s true companion, and therefore it’s a position that shouldn’t be filled haphazardly without love.”

“….”

“He also said that if the empress is inadequate, succession fights break out among the children. So there must be strict hierarchy between the empress and the other wives.”

A faint smile finally spread across Alexandra’s lips.

“People were saying just what kind of woman from what amazing family, how young and beautiful a woman Diego was trying to make empress that he was taking so much time.”

But the person Diego chose was Alexandra, a former Chief Justice who lived buried in work.

Someone four years older than Diego, someone who couldn’t even be certain of bearing proper heirs immediately.

“That’s how I knew it was love.”

“….”

“No matter how much I thought about it, the only reason Diego could be so desperate for me seemed to be love alone.”

Alexandra looked at Annellia with a faint smile.

Annellia was listening to her words intently with wide eyes.

“Fortunately, I conceived quickly. All the officials who had constantly objected, saying I wouldn’t be able to bear heirs, shut their mouths.”

“….”

“That’s how Edward was born. He was healthy, and oh how pretty he was, resembling Diego and me half and half.”

However, Alexandra’s expression as she traced the edge of the plate with cake gradually darkened.

“…But the problem was something else.”

“Ugh, uhhgh… I can’t live like this. Like this, like this I can’t breathe, Your Majesty!”

“Sandra, I’m sorry…. I’m sorry.”

Alexandra had lived more than half her life only as a judge.

Was that why?

All the changes that began from the moment she conceived Edward, Alexandra simply could not accept.

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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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