The Baby Who Regressed Refuses Childcare - Chapter 258
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
“What are you talking about?”
I grabbed Tian’s sleeve with an angry voice.
“Why would you go there!”
However, Tian didn’t budge at all.
He ignored me and spoke quickly toward Rikentia.
“Reverse it right now. I’ll enter the chasm.”
I urgently blocked Tian’s path.
“Stop saying strange things! That’s nonsense-!!”
“Why is it nonsense.”
Tian gripped both my wrists tightly.
Something unknowable was swirling in his eyes as they met mine.
“Get a grip, Annellia. You can achieve it all again.”
“…What?”
“Everything you wanted to do, everything you desired can be achieved. All of it, without exception.”
The next moment, Tian let go of my hands without hesitation.
I staggered in place and reached out toward Tian again.
“No, no Tian.”
But Tian didn’t take my hand.
He just stepped back and looked at me.
Anxious, I rambled incoherently.
“Don’t do this. If you get trapped there, none of that matters….”
“It matters to me.”
His low, earnest voice made me close my mouth involuntarily.
“To me, to me. You are more important than anything else.”
I couldn’t give any answer.
Tian’s eyes were filled with that much conviction.
“…It’s a life that wouldn’t have existed without you anyway. So I’ll use it for you.”
Tian turned around.
And he began walking past me toward Rikentia.
“No. No, Tian.”
I desperately reached out toward Tian again.
But I couldn’t go far before collapsing to the floor.
My legs had no strength at all.
I heard Tian’s short, low voice as he stood before Rikentia.
“Do it.”
Beyond Tian, Rikentia’s eyes quietly met mine.
She maintained her silence then nodded slightly.
“No, Rikentia! Don’t do it! Tian-!”
My body began trembling violently.
I crawled toward Tian, supporting myself on the ground with my shaking arms.
My vision blurred from tears I couldn’t wipe away.
When I squeezed my eyes shut and lifted my head, I saw Rikentia’s body slowly rising into the air.
A massive seal of light I had never seen before was being carved in the sky.
“No, no….”
Tian slowly turned his head to look at me.
“Annellia, it will be okay.”
I couldn’t take my eyes off the smile that appeared on Tian’s face.
It was the same gentle, peaceful smile he had given me when handing me the necklace in our childhood.
“I love you.”
With those final words, a strong light covered all of Abner Territory.
And when that light completely faded.
Everyone who had been collapsed, including Sharon, began opening their eyes one by one.
Imperial Capital, the solemn Imperial Palace.
“Sharon Abner’s title is elevated to Grand Duke, and the northern frontier purified from demon beasts is granted to her.”
The officials gathered bowed their heads at the Emperor’s words.
Sharon walked forward with a tense expression and stood below the imperial throne.
The Emperor descended the red-carpeted stairs and held something out to Sharon.
It was a staff decorated with gold and diamonds, and a red tapestry folded into a square shape.
The staff’s handle was intricately carved with a lion’s head, considered the symbol of the Abner Household.
“Without the Duke’s help, it would have been difficult to repel this demon beast attack.”
Sharon bowed even deeper.
She felt another inexplicable pain in her left arm, but it wasn’t unbearable.
One month ago.
It was phantom pain that had begun without warning around the time the war that started with the demon beast attack ended.
The Butler unfolded the tapestry and began reading the text written inside.
“The Abner main force led by Sharon Abner protected the Empire and its citizens even in chaotic circumstances….”
Everything was merit the Abner Family had established during the war.
They had sent armies to support the Taranta Empire and the entire continent, and had also won the fierce battle that took place in Abner Territory.
After the war ended, the territory and palace were in a terrible state.
The highest citadel had completely collapsed, and the Grand Assembly Hall where retainer meetings were held had vanished without a trace.
Though it was quickly rebuilt with Imperial support and help from mages, there was something strange about it.
Throughout all the battles, not a single person had died.
‘…It’s a strange matter.’
When the family’s mages began recovering people trapped under the debris.
Sharon had expected corpses to fill the courtyard and more.
However, the knights carried out on stretchers were all still breathing.
And they all said the same thing.
They thought they were surely dead, but when they came to, they found themselves breathing again.
“…Therefore, today the northern frontier is declared Abner territory, and Sharon Abner is granted the position of Grand Duke.”
The Butler’s reading ended.
As if they had been waiting, thunderous applause erupted from the hall.
Sharon stepped back and sat in the most ornate chair that had been prepared.
“Congratulations, Mother.”
Isabel spoke in an affectionate voice from beside her.
Sharon smiled warmly and patted Isabel’s hand a few times.
Her pregnant daughter’s face was improving day by day lately.
Her body, which had grown thin during the war, was gaining weight again in a healthy way, and the child in her belly was growing healthily.
“Is Annellia feeling unwell again today?”
Isabel’s eyebrows drooped.
“It seems so. She’s been like that continuously lately.”
“I wonder why she pushes herself so hard….”
Sharon sighed.
Her only granddaughter.
A child she wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.
Annellia was truly the one who had led this war to victory.
Perhaps because she had pushed herself so hard, she had barely come out of her room since the war ended.
As the nobles began chatting among themselves, the Dowager Empress walked toward them.
“Sharon, congratulations.”
The Dowager Empress called her name familiarly and smiled brightly at Isabel.
“Congratulations once again to the Young Duchess as well. I pray that a healthy heir will be born.”
Isabel smiled and clasped the Dowager Empress’s hands.
“Thank you so much for your concern, Your Majesty.”
“By the way, are you looking into the empress candidates I mentioned?”
Isabel nodded with a smile.
“I’m looking into intelligent and virtuous women primarily. As it turns out, there are several good candidates at the Academy of Pharmacy as well.”
The Dowager Empress’s expression brightened.
“Really? That’s wonderful! The crown prince position has been vacant all this time since Miraena left early without an heir.”
“It would be more fitting to say it was waiting for a worthy master.”
“Hahaha! How does the Young Duchess speak so beautifully? I guarantee the child to be born will be absolutely adorable, taking after you.”
Sharon quietly lowered her gaze while watching the two people laughing brightly.
The Emperor and Dowager Empress had always been favorable toward Abner.
In a way, it was natural.
Abner had been a military family that had closely assisted the Imperial House from long ago.
‘But to maintain a friendly relationship with us even after Jayden’s incident…’
Jayden, who was executed recently, had committed an unimaginable grave crime against the Imperial Court.
Not only had he had an affair with the Empress and fathered a child, but he had also deceived everyone by claiming that child was an imperial prince.
That wasn’t all.
Jayden was also connected to Karin killing Dowager Empress Miraena and using dark magic to control the Emperor’s mind.
The Imperial Court could have used this as an excuse to destroy the entire Abner family.
They could have treated Jayden as a traitor and made everyone in the family take responsibility.
But the Emperor and Dowager Empress did not do so.
‘Well, I suppose. The Dowager Empress’s affection for Annellia is so great that even her own children would pale in comparison.’
That’s why it was sometimes even more puzzling.
Because she couldn’t understand where the bond that connected Abner and the Imperial House so closely came from.
Annellia grew close to the Dowager Empress.
Furthermore, Abner and the entire Imperial House developed a good relationship.
There must have been some catalyst that led to all of this.
It was at that moment of contemplation.
“Speaking of which, I’m also looking for someone to be Annellia’s match, Sharon.”
Sharon’s eyes widened at the Dowager Empress’s words.
“Pardon?”
“Just as I said. Annellia has also reached marriageable age, so shouldn’t she find a wise and virtuous partner?”
Sharon unconsciously opened her mouth.
Come to think of it, Annellia was already eighteen.
As the Dowager Empress said, if she had reached marriageable age, she was old enough to find a partner.
‘Why haven’t I thought about finding a match for that child all this time?’
Of course, no ordinary young nobleman would satisfy Sharon’s heart.
Anyone she could think of would fall far short of Annellia.
But still.
Somehow, it seemed like there had been a child she thought would be suitable as Annellia’s match.
“Don’t worry too much. I’ll soon find the perfect spouse for Annellia.”
Sharon stared blankly at the Dowager Empress’s retreating figure as she walked away with hearty laughter.
When she turned her head, for some reason Isabel was also blinking and gazing at the Dowager Empress’s retreating figure.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————