The Baby Who Regressed Refuses Childcare - Chapter 221

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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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“Ah, ahhh-!”

The pure white light bursting from my hand burned the man’s wrist black.

“The reason you can’t stand seeing your child eat well and live well is because you’re rotten to the bone.”

“Let go! Let go right now-!”

“How dare you pretend to be a father, pretend to be family!”

The man staggered greatly and backed away from the iron bars.

And he stared at me like I was a monster while clutching his wrist that had clear black marks on it.

I quickly turned around and met eyes with Jayden who was crouched down.

“Are you okay?”

Jayden was looking up at me with a dazed expression.

However, he clearly seemed to know who I was.

I placed my hand on the prison cell floor and extended one hand to Jayden.

“Get up, quickly.”

Jayden hesitantly took my hand.

“Don’t stay here anymore. Don’t even talk to that man.”

“He’s my son! He’s my son!”

The man’s desperate cries could be heard from behind me.

He had retreated to the very corner of the prison cell but was still shouting toward Jayden.

“Who are you to take my son away! No matter what anyone says, he’s my child! No matter how much you deny it…!”

But at that moment, his body was engulfed in massive white flames.

I was startled and gripped Jayden’s hand tightly.

For an instant, I had been thinking that I wished the man would just disappear.

‘…Did I do that?’

I looked down at my hand, recalling the white light that had burned the man’s wrist black just moments ago.

But there was no change in my hand at all.

After swallowing my saliva, I took Jayden’s hand and began walking down the corridor.

Following the familiar path up the stairs, the surface finally came into view.

“Let’s get out quickly. That person isn’t your father. You don’t need to listen to such nonsense until the end…”

But soon I closed my mouth.

Jayden, who had definitely been holding my hand tightly, had disappeared somewhere.

‘What?’

I looked around with anxious eyes.

Blue sky, with clouds slowly drifting above it.

Air filled with the scent of spring and green grass sprouting between the stone paths.

“…This is bad.”

I began walking quickly along the stone path.

In the distance, I could see one of the servants who worked at the Duke’s castle walking toward me.

My expression brightened as I recognized that face.

“Aunt Marenese!”

I ran over quickly and grabbed Marenese’s shoulder.

“Aunt…”

But my hand passed right through Marenese’s shoulder and became blurry.

She passed by me carrying a basket of groceries as if she couldn’t see me at all.

I looked up at the sky again.

The blue and beautiful sky felt somehow ominous.

I stared at the tall spire of the Duke’s castle with shaking eyes.

“…There’s no way out?”

“Wake her up. We need to wake her.”

“No, that’s dangerous.”

Owen shook his head at Isabella’s words.

Sharon was shaking her leg with an anxious expression.

“There’s no precedent for magic that lets a person enter another person’s consciousness! At this rate, at this rate, if something happens to our Annellia…”

“Calm down, Isabella.”

Theo wrapped his arms around Isabella’s trembling shoulders.

“Jayden’s heart rate has stabilized. Color is starting to return to his body too. Whatever it is, it means Annellia is doing it right.”

Isabella began to sob quietly.

During that terrible silence, Sharon, who had been silent the whole time, muttered in a cracked voice.

“…I gave birth to a dead child.”

Isabella raised her head.

Owen’s hand, which had been checking Annellia’s condition, also froze momentarily.

Sharon was staring at the floor with a blank expression.

“I thought I’d be okay, but I wasn’t okay.”

Her voice trembled helplessly.

“It was Lloyd’s first child, and my… first child. So I couldn’t tell anyone about the stillbirth.”

“Mother.”

Isabella slowly got up and went to Sharon’s side.

And she held her wrinkled hands tightly.

“The vassals kept pressuring Lloyd, asking why there was no news when the due date was approaching…”

Hot tears began flowing from Sharon’s eyes.

“I was lying there like a corpse, so Lloyd took me to the northern forest. He planned to go to the lake. He said I’d get better if I went there to see the water, trees, and sky. But there… there we met Jayden.”

Theo silently turned his gaze toward Jayden’s bed.

He could see his face that resembled Sharon remarkably.

“Until I faced that child, he wasn’t my child. He wasn’t my baby that I had given birth to. But the moment I saw that face, that baby who still had blood on him.”

Sharon closed her eyes tightly.

“From that moment, Jayden was just our child. I believed that heaven had returned the baby I had to send away without even being able to hold.”

Sharon raised her head.

“What happened to Jayden might be partly my fault too.”

“…Mother, what are you saying?”

“Lloyd didn’t die from illness.”

Isabella’s eyes wavered.

“Father didn’t die from illness? Then what on earth…”

“It’s true that his health was very poor. It’s also true that he didn’t have much time left. But the decisive cause of death wasn’t illness.”

Sharon quietly took Isabella’s hand.

“Jayden’s biological father climbed up a tree and snuck into Lloyd’s bedroom. Out of resentment.”

When the child was around five years old.

There was a time when Jayden disappeared for a whole day.

When the child returned, his whole body was covered in dirt and filth, and most importantly, his eyes had completely changed.

After several days of investigation, Sharon and Lloyd figured out where Jayden had been.

“His biological father was the worst kind of human being. When we investigated, he was a cruel man running a mercenary business in the back alleys of the city.”

“…”

“The death penalty was the principle. But Lloyd couldn’t do it.”

A painful groan escaped from Sharon’s mouth.

“Because Lloyd loved Jayden as much as I loved Jayden.”

Lloyd was someone who believed that a person’s soul could change too.

He believed that people don’t become evil because they’re evil, but that circumstances make people evil.

“He said that for Jayden’s sake, we should give his father a chance at least once. I knew it was a foolish thought, but I just agreed to it.”

Sharon’s voice trembled.

“Back then I was immature too, and that child who was already distant. My son who kept going astray after that day when he was five…”

“…”

“I was so afraid that someday he would completely distance himself from us, saying we killed his biological parents. I was terrified he might leave…”

But Jayden’s biological father who gave birth to him never changed.

Contrary to Lloyd’s wishes, his soul remained corrupted as it was.

“Looking back now, when Lloyd died. At that time, I had one more chance…”

Sharon covered her face with her hands.

“I shouldn’t have announced that Lloyd died of illness. Protecting Jayden wasn’t the same as protecting his biological father.”

If Lloyd’s true cause of death were revealed, Jayden’s biological father would also be exposed to the world.

Sharon was afraid of that fact.

She was scared that Jayden would collapse.

She was terrified that the storm she thought would only briefly sweep over Jayden might continue forever.

“I hoped that through that incident, he would trust me a little… rely on me.”

With that single wish, she had pushed through countless thorny paths.

She inherited the ducal position in place of the unstable Jayden and worked desperately.

Sharon loved Lloyd and Abner, which had been his background.

She wanted to raise the household and make it a stronger, safer sanctuary just for them.

She planned to step back after creating positions for Jayden and Isabel once they became stable in the future.

But Jayden never became stable.

His storm never ceased, and instead only grew larger.

“It’s because I’m inadequate… Because I’m incompetent and foolish, I’m making things difficult for you all.”

Sharon began to let out painful groans.

“Annellia shouldn’t get hurt because of this. I shouldn’t make you all receive the punishment that I should bear…”

“Annellia will be fine.”

At that moment, Theo placed his hand on Sharon’s back.

“Your Grace must pull yourself together.”

Sharon lifted her head with difficulty.

Isabel’s eyes, which had been silent, were also now directed toward Sharon.

“Theo is right. Annellia seemed to know. What kind of existence her brother is to Mother. That’s why she stepped forward.”

Isabel took a deep breath and wiped away the tears from her eyes.

“Still, Annellia is a smart child. She’s my daughter. Truly, if it had been a path too dangerous for her to handle, I believe she wouldn’t have chosen it.”

“Um, um, excuse me. I’m sorry to interrupt such an important conversation.”

But at that moment, Owen hesitantly stood up from his seat.

Then he looked around at the three people with a flustered face.

“I think we have a big problem?”

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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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