The Baby Who Regressed Refuses Childcare - Chapter 184

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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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Theo walked frantically through the already open door.

With each step, broken vases and shattered wood fragments caught under his feet.

“Bell….”

With trembling hands, he gently shook the shoulder of the fallen Isabel.

“Please….”

Isabel’s complexion was pale.

Her lowered eyelashes showed no movement at all, and her skin felt cold to the touch.

“Bell, no. This can’t be happening.”

Theo’s voice trembled precariously.

Just before the groans flowing through his clenched teeth turned into sobs.

“…Theo?”

Isabel opened her eyes.

Theo froze like ice for a moment.

But the eyes shining right in front of him were unmistakably Isabel’s.

Theo let out the breath he had been holding and pulled Isabel into his arms.

“You…!”

Isabel struggled to sit up.

She still held Annellia in her arms.

Theo cupped Isabel’s cheeks and asked urgently.

“What happened? All this blood on your clothes….”

Isabel stared blankly down at her clothes.

As Theo said, her garments were completely soaked with dark red blood.

That wasn’t all.

The floor was covered with water flowing from broken glass and vases.

Broken furniture.

“Are you hurt?”

Deep anxiety and worry seeped through Theo’s voice.

Isabel blinked slowly and shook her head with a confused expression.

Then she answered in a hoarse voice.

“I’m fine… in the end.”

“What do you mean?”

Isabel checked Annellia’s face in her arms.

Despite the chaos, the child was sleeping soundly, breathing peacefully.

“…An assassin came. Early this morning.”

Theo’s face turned white.

“I woke up to the sound of the door opening, and there was a masked man holding a weapon….”

Isabel gestured toward a broken chair lying on its side.

“I tried to block him with a chair. I also threw vases and experimental tools, whatever I could grab.”

Theo’s lips parted slightly.

“Then his mask came off.”

Isabel’s eyes slowly darkened.

“…It was someone my brother had with him. When our eyes met, he seemed shaken.”

Theo’s expression hardened.

“Your brother, you mean Jayden Abner?”

Isabel nodded.

She didn’t have many memories with Jayden Abner.

They seemed quite close when they were young, but Isabel and Jayden Abner grew distant as they got older.

At some point, Jayden Abner began intentionally avoiding Isabel.

Especially after the previous Duke Abner died.

“Since we knew each other, I tried to persuade him at first. I told him I’d give him money to just leave. I begged him to just go back, promising I’d never follow him.”

But the man was stubborn.

Even with guilt flickering in his eyes, he ultimately plunged the blade deep into Isabel’s body.

The bloodstains on Isabel’s clothes were from that.

Fear slowly crept into Isabel’s voice as she recalled that moment.

“I, I thought that man would hurt Annellia too….”

The memories after that were fragmented.

She desperately crawled across the floor to Annellia.

And with the determination to protect her no matter what, she held the child tightly.

But the man didn’t attack Isabel further.

Instead, he thoroughly searched the house, gathered letters and miscellaneous items, then disappeared.

“Did he need proof that he killed me? I thought he’d attack Annellia too, but he didn’t harm Annellia….”

“You said you knew each other.”

Isabel nodded.

“He couldn’t bring himself to harm the child because of guilt.”

Isabel bit her lip.

Perhaps Theo was right.

No, that seemed to be the only way to explain the situation.

“But what about you?”

Theo asked in a serious voice.

“That bastard attacked you. You said you were injured while holding Annellia.”

“Yes… I was.”

Isabel looked down.

Her chest was still damp with blood.

Clear marks from being slashed by a blade remained on her clothes.

But the skin visible underneath didn’t have even the smallest wound.

As if it had healed completely in a short time.

“Theo, I….”

Isabel slowly met Theo’s gaze.

Then she added in a whisper with a trembling voice.

“I think I did something, something incredible.”

“Gasp!”

My eyes snapped open.

The scene I had been seeing scattered like pale smoke.

[Are you okay?]

Someone tapped my shoulder from beside me.

When I turned my head, Lasandra was staring intently at me.

I felt my heart pounding and murmured softly.

“…It was Mother.”

[Huh?]

“Mother was the one who cast the regression magic on me.”

It was Isabel.

While dying from her injuries, Isabel held me and repeated over and over.

Not my baby.

Never my baby.

And in that moment, the vessel of magic sealed within Isabel opened.

The finally freed magic healed its master’s wounded body.

And it fulfilled Isabel’s deepest longing and wish.

“Mother cast regression magic on me. And Theo, Father….”

I stopped mid-sentence as my throat caught slightly.

The scenes I had just witnessed came flooding back.

‘If regression is triggered, a temporal rift will form. I can’t leave Annellia there.’

‘Then you’re saying you’ll intervene? That you’ll experience that rift in her place?’

‘I’ll be fine. I’m used to it.’

Theo had spent the first 20 years of his life alone in an empty room.

‘Of course I hope Annellia won’t regress. But if she ever does, I want to make sure she doesn’t experience something like a rift.’

‘…Theo.’

‘It’s something I can definitely do. Let me handle it.’

“You said regression magic inevitably involves rifts…”

My voice came out trembling.

“There was nothing like that when I regressed. I died and immediately opened my eyes to find myself back at age four.”

My head felt dizzy, and my vision blurred.

“But to think that someone else experienced it in my place…”

I bit my lips tightly and held my breath.

Then I roughly rubbed my eyes.

That wasn’t all I had seen.

I raised my head and stared at Lasandra.

“Lasandra. My mother didn’t make a foolish choice.”

‘Isabel Abner made a very foolish choice for you.’

Those were the words Lasandra had said before showing me all the scenes.

But that wasn’t true.

“Mother made the best choice possible.”

Lasandra looked at me with a curious expression.

I continued speaking in a small but clear voice.

“Crookiatus had the artifacts you left behind at the Magic Tower. Those artifacts all react sensitively to the flow of magic.”

Lasandra nodded.

[That’s right. They can specifically detect powerful magic in particular.]

“Exactly. Crookiatus would have already known through the artifacts’ reactions.”

The fact that Mother had cast some powerful magic.

And once that happened, Theo was no longer safe either.

Theo needed concrete results he could show Crookiatus.

“He couldn’t keep making excuses forever. There are limits to creating confusion with plausible lies too.”

The longer time dragged on, the more disadvantageous it became for Theo.

The probability of Crookiatus discovering his betrayal was steadily increasing.

[Yes, yes. Good analysis! You’re absolutely right.]

Lasandra laughed as if she couldn’t help it.

As she spun around, the eyes of Ulgen, Hegatan, and Ricaruss appeared one by one in the empty space.

Ulgen spoke.

[Isabel was the one who first proposed to Theo Lirquian. She asked him to bring her before Crookiatus. It was quite sad.]

Ricaruss nodded.

[But thanks to that, Theo Lirquian was able to escape Crookiatus’s suspicion. After that…]

I said.

“Mother was the one who first proposed to Crookiatus, wasn’t she?”

Not to kill her.

Instead, to absorb her magic power on set days.

That it would be much more efficient for Crookiatus too.

Lasandra slowly nodded.

[That’s right. For Isabel Abner, that was the best option. It was the way to protect both people she loved – Theo Lirquian and you.]

After much deliberation, Crookiatus accepted Mother’s proposal.

And Father.

‘…Annellia. Just wait, just wait a little longer.’

The very last scene I had witnessed played back faintly.

‘I’ll come get you. Your mother will definitely come get you…’

In late spring, on the Ivehill Plains where wildflowers bloomed abundantly, Theo was holding me.

He gazed endlessly at the orphanage standing tall in the middle of the plains, then set me down on a forest path that looked like people had traveled it.

I lay quietly among the flowers without crying.

Until Teacher Ann found me.

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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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