The Baby Who Regressed Refuses Childcare - Chapter 182

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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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“Wait a minute. So you’re saying you’re more than twice my age right now?”

“I told you. Age is meaningless to me.”

Isabel and Theo walked across the field all day long.

When their legs hurt from walking, they would rest, and sometimes Theo would carry Isabel in his arms or on his back.

“That’s impossible! I thought you’d be around the same age as me or my brother at most!”

“…That’s unlikely.”

“Do you have any siblings? Probably not, right?”

Theo finally let out a small laugh.

They were currently taking the first step of a major plan.

And yet here they were having such trivial conversations.

“I don’t. I’m my father’s only child.”

Isabel made an “Ah…” sound and rolled her eyes.

Then she asked somewhat timidly.

“Can I ask if your mother is still alive?”

Theo nodded as if it was nothing significant.

“She existed. She was an ordinary human.”

“Really?”

“She died right after giving birth to me.”

Isabel awkwardly looked straight ahead.

Her face showed she didn’t know what to say.

“It’s fine. I have no affection for my mother. More precisely, I never had the chance to develop any. We never spent time together.”

“…I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

“It’s alright. According to my father, she was an annoying and crazy human.”

Isabel looked at him again.

Theo slowly traced through his memories.

“What was just a game to my father wasn’t the same for my mother. That’s probably why she gave birth to me.”

“….”

“Seeing how she insisted on giving birth even while dying, she probably had quite a bit of affection for me.”

“She definitely did. What parent doesn’t love their child?”

Theo smiled without realizing it.

Perhaps because he wasn’t an ordinary human, he didn’t really understand what forgetting meant.

He could vividly recall the temperature, humidity, everything from the moment he first came into the world.

“The way she looked at me… I do remember that.”

His mother’s eyes as she looked at him when he was nothing but a bloody mass.

Those eyes blazed intensely for a few seconds before losing their strength and going dark.

Crookiatus found the remaining Theo bothersome.

He considered him a useless existence and didn’t even give him a name.

Theo was called “that thing” for several days before being locked in a solitary confinement chamber in the basement of the Magic Tower with a single gesture from Crookiatus.

And he spent the first 20 years of his life there.

His half-divine body felt neither hunger nor sleepiness.

He simply sat quietly in the room and grew slowly.

“My father realized my usefulness after annihilating the Michaeliann Clan.”

Crookiatus felt ecstatic that his decision had been correct.

[To become strong, you must first abandon greed, my son.]

Crookiatus was paradoxically a being who gave up power to gain more power.

He had exchanged all his magical power for a human army.

But ultimately, that choice led Crookiatus down the right path.

[I’ve realized that humans are more useful than I thought. Perhaps, my son, you might be too valuable to be locked away in that room.]

That’s how Theo came outside.

Nothing changed much.

He still didn’t eat or sleep, just like when he was confined to the room.

However, he had many conversations with Crookiatus and learned about what his existence meant.

After Theo took on an adult appearance, he stopped aging entirely at some point.

During this time, Crookiatus realized there were Michaeliann who had escaped from his grasp.

[From now on, it’s your job to eliminate the bloodline of those escaped Michaeliann brats.]

Theo was given an inescapable destiny.

[I am still incomplete. Because of my hideous appearance, I can’t even properly venture outside. But you’re different, Theo.]

[In the distant future, when I completely dominate the human realm. The Magic Tower will become a temple that serves me from the closest position.]

[As my son who inherited my blood, you shall remain at the top of that temple.]

“A temple, my foot!”

Isabel, who had been listening, fumed.

“He neglects a child for 20 years and what? Now he calls you ‘my son’?”

She was looking at Theo with an extremely angry face.

“Why didn’t you tell me this earlier? Not knowing this, I just cursed at you and hit you!”

Theo frowned.

The cursing and hitting seemed to refer to the day they returned to Abner a few days ago.

“I understand that day. The sense of betrayal you felt was natural too.”

Isabel shook her head back and forth.

Then she sighed and stood up from her spot.

“What’s the point of talking with you. Let’s hurry up and start moving again. Didn’t you say we need to enter the forest at night?”

Theo also stood up and gathered his belongings.

“That’s right. The field is too open to spend the night.”

“You know what? We call this place the Ivehill Plains.”

“Ivehill Plains?”

“Do you see that cottage in the distance?”

Theo’s eyes narrowed.

Far in the direction Isabel was pointing, on a slope, he could see an old cottage and a yard surrounded by a fence.

“There are quite a few children in that orphanage, and a young teacher takes good care of them.”

“How do you know that?”

“It was in the news when I was young. Something about an eighteen-year-old girl inheriting an orphanage from her relatives and running it.”

Theo nodded.

The two slowly began walking again.

“Once the house is built, I’ll start my research right away.”

Isabel said.

She wanted to first research the power possessed by the Michaeliann Clan.

If there was something only the Michaeliann Clan could do, they might be able to seal Crookiatus more easily.

During that time, Theo planned to buy time from Crookiatus.

He had managed to get Isabel out of the Duke’s Castle, but he would say he needed time to eliminate her safely.

After that….

‘Trust me.’

Whatever it was, I was determined to follow Isabel’s lead.

‘You too must be freed from that monster someday.’

‘Be happy. You can do it.’

It was the first time he had heard such words.

Someone wishing for his freedom, his happiness.

Saying so casually that it could be achieved.

Theo looked at Isabel’s back as she began walking ahead of him at some point.

The life that would begin was happiness with a set deadline.

Even knowing this, his heart raced uncontrollably.

For Theo, all of this was the first freedom he had ever felt in his life.

Time passed, and the year changed.

Isabel often went out to Evehill Town to gather materials needed for her research.

Theo went back and forth between the Magic Tower and the cottage, continuously feeding Crookiatus false information.

With words about the Michaeliann hiding something, or that Isabel Abner possessed special powers.

Crookiatus pretended otherwise, but he was afraid.

[Yes, if those creatures have hidden abilities… then it might be better not to kill them hastily.]

Isabel’s research was actually making progress too.

“Honey! Look at this. I figured it out!”

Around the time the season when they started living in the cottage came around again.

Isabel’s research was nearing its final stages.

“The Michaeliann bodies have vessels for magic power! It must be because they’re Lasandra’s bloodline!”

Unlike other humans, the Michaeliann bodies still had vessels for magic power remaining.

But the problem was not knowing how to open these vessels.

“If we could just open the vessels, we might be able to use magic without magic stones… maybe even find a way to seal Crookiatus.”

“Don’t think too hastily about it. Come sit here first, Bel.”

Theo called to Isabel who was pacing near the desk.

He made her lean her head against his chest and offered her warm bread.

“Eat something first. You haven’t eaten a single meal again.”

Isabel hesitantly took the bread.

“Did you go to the marketplace?”

“I stopped by on the way back.”

“How’s Crookiatus?”

“Strangely, he seems to be getting weaker. Before, he would recover his magic power by resting in the Nest, but lately the speed seems particularly slow.”

Isabel nodded.

And as she brought the bread Theo gave her to her mouth to eat.

“…Ugh.”

She made a small retching sound.

“Bel?”

While Theo froze, Isabel hurriedly ran to the wooden bucket next to the foyer.

Then she began vomiting up what was in her stomach.

“Ugh, urgh!”

“Bel, what’s wrong all of a sudden. Are you okay?”

Isabel only got up from her spot after vomiting for a while.

Then she stared blankly at Theo and muttered.

“…Come to think of it, I didn’t.”

Theo wiped Isabel’s mouth with a clean cloth and asked.

“Didn’t what?”

Isabel whispered while looking at Theo who began massaging her hands.

“…What should we do, Theo?”

At her trembling voice, Theo looked up.

“A baby… I think we’re having a baby.”

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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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