The Baby Who Regressed Refuses Childcare - Chapter 16

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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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“R-Ruby, miss?”

Miel and Soya looked up at the doorway in surprise.

There stood Ruby in an imposing posture.

Ruby quickly scanned the inside of the lounge and soon approached me leaning against the sofa.

“Wow, I found you really fast, faster than I thought!”

However, she soon stopped in place, unable to take a few more steps.

Her sparkling eyes frowned as they turned toward the surroundings.

Modest furniture compared to other spaces.

Faded wallpaper and a floor covered with an old rug.

This was the employee lounge.

Ruby covered her nose with one hand and muttered.

“…Ugh. The smell of commoners.”

I unconsciously opened my mouth slightly.

‘Like mother, like daughter indeed.’

While I was thinking, Ruby waved her hand at me.

“You. You come here. I don’t want to go in any further.”

I quickly hid my expression.

And pretended to give in as I got down from the sofa.

When I obediently approached, a strange victorious smile spread across Ruby’s face.

“You’re quite obedient, aren’t you? I was worried you might act arrogant.”

“Umm… but you know…”

When I timidly opened my mouth, Ruby frowned.

I hesitated, then gestured for Ruby to come closer.

Ruby seemed to hesitate for a moment.

But soon she cautiously leaned her head toward me.

I spoke into her ear.

“Could that smell possibly be coming from you, sister…?”

Ruby froze stiff.

She looked at me as if she couldn’t believe it.

“What?”

I scratched my head as if troubled.

“Well, you said it smells here. But Annellia doesn’t smell anything.”

And I stared intently at Ruby.

“So that means that bad smell is probably…”

Ruby’s face turned bright red from the bottom up.

I smiled at Ruby with a very generous expression, as if telling her not to worry.

“It’s okay, sister. You didn’t brush your teeth, right? Don’t worry! I’ll lend you my toothpaste!”

“M-M-Mother!”

Camilla quickly turned her head at Ruby’s voice.

At the entrance to the reception room, her daughter stood with a bright red face.

“Ruby!”

Camilla jumped up from her seat and quickly approached the child to check her condition.

She had told her to go sightseeing around the manor, but wherever she had been running, her prettily braided hair was slightly undone.

“Th-that child. Really, really…!”

Ruby, who had been stammering as if unable to contain her anger, screamed like a shriek.

“A mere commoner, a mere orphan, to me!!”

Camilla’s eyes widened greatly.

“What did she do to you! Don’t tell me that crazy brat hit you?!”

Ruby hesitated.

Then she recalled the situation from a moment ago.

“Wh-what did you say?!”

Ruby Coel.

The precious only daughter of the Countess Coel family.

The smart and clever girl who had always gotten everything she wanted from birth until now.

‘Duke Abner? In the end, that woman was just an ordinary social circle extra who cleaned up after her husband.’

Ruby had always trusted and followed her mother Camilla.

‘Money exists to be used for things like this, Ruby. You show off your power.’

‘Show off?’

‘That’s right. There’s nothing in this world that money can’t buy! Look at your mother, I even won Sharon Abner’s heart with money!’

Sharon Abner.

Currently the duchess of the Abner family, but strip away that shell and she’s just a powerless old woman.

‘That woman has too much useless ambition to give up the family, right? At least it means she’ll never pass it on to Jayden Abner.’

What if her smart and pretty self appeared before such a woman?

‘Just do it like you do with your mother. Do you think a dukedom is easily obtained? Sharon is a woman after all. With her real daughter dead and living with that violent son, how much her head must ache.’

‘Is that so?’

‘Of course! And given her age, the rumors about her looking for a successor must be true. In your mother’s opinion, that position is yours.’

Ruby believed it firmly.

‘Where would you find someone who doesn’t like a child as pretty and smart as me?’

That she would someday come to live in the Abner family.

And thus all the precious things of the Abner family would become hers.

But what was this…

“Are you crazy?! How dare you, how dare you say such a thing?”

Ruby’s eyes rolled back as she roughly pushed Annellia.

The child, much smaller than herself, was immediately pushed back and staggered from her spot.

However, she didn’t avert her eyes until the end.

“A filthy commoner reeking of foul smells, where do you get off saying such things!”

Sparks flew from Ruby’s pupils.

Due to her impatient nature, she swung her hand first, when…

“Waaaaah!”

Before her hand could even reach, the child collapsed backward helplessly.

“Oh, young miss!”

The two maids rushed over with pale faces.

Ruby froze with her hand still raised in the air.

And she slowly blinked while looking at Annellia lying flat on the ground.

‘What, did I actually touch her?’

Ruby, who had been thinking hard, belatedly understood the situation.

“Ha! This is…!”

“Ruby, miss! Even if you are a young lady, this kind of behavior is unacceptable!”

The maid glared with wide eyes as she stepped between herself and the commoner.

“I didn’t hit her!”

“Wh-what are you saying? We, we saw everything from over there! A-Annellia, are you alright?!”

The other maid held the fallen commoner and examined her face from side to side.

“I really didn’t hit her…!”

That’s when it happened.

Drip, drip.

Water droplets began falling one by one onto the commoner child’s clothes.

Ruby was so dumbfounded that she lowered the hand she had been holding in the air.

In the maid’s arms, the commoner child was curled up and trembling with sobs.

“A-Annellia is fine…”

It was such a pitiful voice that just listening to it made one feel sorrowful.

“Annellia did something wrong. Because Annellia is a commoner…”

The child forlornly wiped her cheek.

Ruby’s eyes immediately turned triangular as she watched that sight.

“You’re really disgusting.”

Ruby imitated her mother’s usual tone and took a step forward.

“Fine. Let’s say I hit you. But what are you going to do by crying?”

Then she pointed at the two restless maids.

“If you were a noble, those things would have called for guards immediately, right? But look. Just like you said, you’re a commoner!”

And this time she really pushed Annellia hard.

The child who had barely gotten up staggered and fell on her bottom again.

“Even if I do this, your maids can’t make a peep at me. What are you going to do?”

Ruby placed her hands on her hips with a triumphant expression.

“When the Abner family was in trouble. The reason they could survive was because of me! Coel!”

“…”

“And you dare say what to me? The fact that Abner could discover multiple magic stone mines was all thanks to our mother’s help!”

Ruby grabbed the fallen Annellia’s face.

“Just because you got some sponsorship. Do you think Lady Sharon would favor you more than me? Is that why you’re acting up like this?”

“…”

“But look at your clothes. What exactly are you wearing? Did you pick up some rag from somewhere?”

When she pulled at the white clothes that had no decorations or patterns, there was a ripping sound from the seam at the neck.

Ruby sneered inwardly.

‘I was a little worried when I heard there was another child at the Abner house besides me.’

Looking at this child’s state, that sponsorship must be merely formal.

‘Otherwise, there’s no way she’d be in this condition.’

A lady’s standing within a manor could be known just by looking at the clothes she wore.

All the ladies who taught her etiquette had told her so.

The trace of guilt remaining in Ruby’s heart disappeared like that.

“Since you’re not a noble and don’t know well, I’ll teach you from now on.”

Ruby raised one hand.

“According to my mother, commoners aren’t people. That’s why you have to discipline them with beatings for them to barely understand.”

This time Ruby’s hand really flew toward Annellia’s cheek.

However, it wasn’t Annellia who got hit.

“…What.”

Ruby looked with puzzled eyes at the maid who had suddenly intervened in front of her.

“What are you? Won’t you move aside?”

“I-I’ll take the hit instead.”

Ruby’s eyes widened, then soon turned menacing.

A sneer spread across her face that was more vicious for being innocent.

“Fine. Then go ahead.”

Behind them, Annellia was looking at her with shocked eyes.

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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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