The Baby Who Regressed Refuses Childcare - Chapter 209
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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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Imperial Capital.
“Breaking news! Breaking news!”
A newspaper delivery boy quickly crossed the bustling Main Street from early morning.
“A deposition discussion has opened regarding the Second Prince! Deposition discussion!”
Every time his booming voice rang out, merchants opening their stalls looked up.
Passersby walking through the streets did the same.
“Who’s doing what now?”
“They say the Second Prince is being deposed…”
When one person who couldn’t contain their curiosity bought a newspaper, other people gathered around them.
“What is this about? An emergency council meeting?”
“It seems like the first one in seven years…”
“Why are they suddenly deposing the Second Prince? He’s still just a child.”
“Even if he’s a child, if he lacks the qualifications, he must be deposed.”
Then someone spoke with an air of importance.
It was a merchant famous for his usual interest in politics.
“Isn’t that right? There’s a saying that when you’re around five or six years old, you can see the next eighty years. How bad must it have been for even Crown Prince Tian to have talk of deposition and such around that age.”
The man tapped the newspaper while stroking his long mustache.
“Come to think of it, I’ve never seen the Second Prince in the newspapers. If he had been good at anything, the Imperial Court would have actively promoted him…”
“Would have?”
“Someone who deserves to be deposed, someone who inherently lacks the qualifications of a prince… Gah!”
However, the next moment, the man clutched his forehead and sat down hard on the ground.
At the same time, a fist-sized jeweled hair ornament that had flown from somewhere rolled across the floor.
Bright red blood trickled down from the man’s forehead.
Just as the gathered crowd screamed and scattered.
“The Second Prince, what?”
A woman walked through the gap in the dispersed crowd.
She stood in front of the merchant who was supporting himself on the ground, then without hesitation stomped on his hand with her boot.
“The Second Prince, my son. What?”
The merchant looked up with a face gone white as a sheet.
And immediately began trembling like an aspen leaf.
“Em, Em, Empress…”
Slap!
Before the next words could follow, Karin’s hand flew to his cheek.
“Say it again.”
Slap!
“My son deserves to be deposed? That he lacks qualifications?!”
With the first, second, and third slaps, the merchant’s cheek swelled up enormously.
The merchant squeezed his eyes shut and curled up, covering his head with his arms.
“I, I was wrong! I misspoke…! Please, please!”
However, Karin kept striking the merchant’s cheek again and again.
Until he fell backward and eventually lost consciousness.
“Hah, hah, hah…”
Karin’s eyes glowed red as she glared at the merchant as if she would kill him.
“Put him in the prison cart.”
At those words, the knights standing awkwardly behind her looked at each other.
“Take him away and cut off both his arms and legs, put him in right now!”
Terrified gasps erupted from among the gathered crowd.
Karin acted as if she didn’t care, removing the rings and bracelets she was wearing and throwing them on the ground.
“My son.”
And with her bare hands, she picked up the newspaper that had fallen to the ground.
“Will not be deposed. Will not leave the Imperial Palace.”
She tore the already tattered newspaper, tore it, and tore it again.
“Adrian is my son. I am Adrian’s mother. So Adrian, my son will not be deposed!”
Torn pieces of newspaper fluttered from Karin’s hands.
She haughtily tossed her hair back and climbed into a carriage parked on the roadside.
After the carriage left, people who had been holding their breath crowded around.
“Th, that just now…”
“Was that really the Empress? That vicious woman was really that benevolent Empress?”
“Running a business right in front of the Imperial Palace, you see all kinds of things.”
“Even if she’s royalty, isn’t that illegal?! After the Dowager Empress established proper Imperial Law, we were happy that the nobles’ tyranny had lessened!”
“Will she really cut off his arms and legs? He’s an illegal herb dealer, ignorant but good-natured at heart…”
People whispered until Karin’s carriage disappeared around the corner.
“Are you out of your mind!”
Etian’s scream-like shout echoed through the lobby of the Empress’ Palace.
“In a situation like this, to do this to a person, and a commoner at that, what are you trying to accomplish?!”
At Etian’s feet lay a bloodied man sprawled out and groaning.
Etian, conscious of the surrounding gazes, shouted sharply.
“What are you all looking at!”
The maids who had been wandering nearby quickly disappeared from sight.
Etian walked past the fallen man to Karin and snatched the decorative whip from her hands.
“Since the Dowager Empress established Imperial Law, such punishments have been prohibited! Even the Emperor cannot impose sentences without a proper trial!”
Karin took a trembling breath and shouted.
“This man said Adrian would be deposed, that he lacks the qualifications of a prince…!”
“That’s exactly why! You can’t do this to a person over one comment!”
Karin glared at Etian with clenched teeth.
The next moment, Etian grabbed Karin’s cheek with one hand.
“Just what, what is it that you do properly, Karin?”
“Uncle. Have you gone senile? Just who do you think I am…”
“The one who’s gone senile isn’t me, it’s you! Do you think you’ll be young forever? Do you think you’ll always be strong!”
When Etian released Karin’s cheek, she staggered backward.
“You couldn’t awaken the sacred object again in the end. The ritual altar no longer responds either, what have you been doing all this time!”
Etian clutched his forehead.
“What will you do now? The Dowager Empress’s intentions are obvious! Now that our faction has completely collapsed, she wants to depose Adrian and drive you out!”
“A prince cannot be deposed so easily.”
“Even if you say that, it’s too late! The Dowager Empress has already sent official documents to all the nobles, and rumors that Adrian will be deposed have spread far and wide!”
“So! Even so, Adrian cannot be easily cast out!”
Karin’s eyes rippled, filled with rage.
“Lacking qualifications? How can anyone reasonably test the qualifications of a seven-year-old child? I will not just stand by and watch Adrian be pushed out with such low-grade excuses!”
Etian froze with his brow furrowed.
Then he spat out in a voice mixed with contempt.
“Then try doing what you can.”
Karin glared at Etian.
“But you don’t believe this upheaval will stop with Adrian, do you?”
“I already know that.”
“What I mean is, even if you know, confirm it once more.”
Etian approached and gripped Karin’s shoulders tightly.
“Make sure of everything. Whatever the Dowager Empress’s nobles find fault with, leave no flaws. Do you understand?”
Soon he removed his hands from Karin and walked away roughly.
Only after Etian had gone far did Karin clench her fists hard enough to make a grinding sound.
“…Make sure of it?”
Though it was frustrating, there was nothing wrong with Etian’s words.
Karin had to prepare for the war that was to come.
She quietly approached the display case and this time picked up a dagger instead of a whip.
Then a sharply honed blade was revealed from within the sheath.
‘To eliminate any flaws, I must deal with those who know him first.’
First would be Kanaelle Victor.
With her naive personality and being mute, she had been a convenient girl to keep around for the past 7 years.
‘She kept coughing up blood every other day. Yet she survived until the crucial moment to create this troublesome situation.’
It was when Karin began moving toward the second floor where the bedroom was located.
“Kyaaaah-!”
A sudden scream echoed from upstairs.
“Ka, Kanaelle! Kanaelle!”
Then with murmuring sounds, several maids rushed toward Karin’s bedroom.
Karin’s eyebrows twitched.
Soon the scene unfolding in the corridor came into view.
“Y-Your Highness! Kanaelle is…!”
Karin set the dagger down on the floor.
She could see her maid, Kanaelle, held in the butler’s arms.
Kanaelle was limp and lifeless.
Her pale skin and bloodless fingernails were clearly not those of a living person.
Karin unconsciously let out a faint smile.
‘As expected. God is still on my side.’
She commanded in a dry voice.
“Clean it up. Keep it out of my sight.”
The maids sobbed.
“Th-the funeral….”
“There’s no need for one. Just send her back to Victor’s territory, won’t that suffice?”
The maids fidgeted and cast their eyes downward.
Karin stared at the maids and coldly added one more thing.
“The moment today’s events leak outside, you too will die, so keep that in mind.”
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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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