The Baby Who Regressed Refuses Childcare - Chapter 273

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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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“Gasp…!”

My eyes snapped open.

The scene that had been unfolding before my eyes just moments ago was gone.

I saw a single ladybug crawling up the pillar supporting the center of the tent.

The dark, gloomy heavenly realm overlapped with the black spots carved on the insect’s shell.

And the light that had filled that place completely.

[Farewell, Lasandra.]

My throat stung.

‘…No. That can’t be.’

Lasandra’s extinction.

That Lasandra had sacrificed herself as the price for eliminating the interdimensional space and rift, and pulling Tian out of it.

I got down from the bed, replaying the vivid scene in my mind.

But I stopped mid-step as I tried to move.

It was because my left hand, which I hadn’t been conscious of, was caught on something.

When I turned my head, I saw another hand gripping mine tightly.

A large hand, full of calluses from holding a sword for so long.

A hand whose every protruding knuckle was familiar from being gripped so tightly.

“Tian….”

I turned my body around.

Then Tian, who had been lying on the bed next to mine, slowly opened his eyes.

He frowned as if the light was blinding, then slowly turned his head toward me.

“Annellia.”

My breath caught in my throat.

It was unmistakably Tian’s voice.

Tian was right there before my eyes.

The events that had happened before I collapsed came flooding back into my mind.

I gasped and said,

“Lasandra has been extinguished.”

Tian’s eyes blinked slowly, then his pupils dilated weakly.

I staggered over and crouched down beside Tian’s bed.

“Lasandra sacrificed herself to get us out.”

I had destroyed the entire interdimensional space and rift where Garou had been, and pulled Tian out from within it.

I had done so even while anticipating what kind of consequences it would bring.

‘…Theoretically, it’s possible to endure the rift and return.’

But it’s impossible to break through the rift and escape.

Rifts are entities that originally formed to supplement the causality distorted by regression.

If such a rift is destroyed, the timeline that was recovering becomes distorted once again.

It meant that Tian and I could have been trapped forever in yet another void.

“Lasandra gave herself up and freed you. To the other divine dragons, that person….”

My fingertips holding onto Tian trembled.

The scene I had witnessed while unconscious wouldn’t leave my mind.

The heavenly realm where all the divine dragons had gathered.

The conversation between Lasandra and Ulgen.

As I bit my lips with a complicated expression, Tian carefully pulled me closer.

He spoke in a low, calm voice.

“I saw it too.”

I looked up with a start.

“You saw it too?”

Tian nodded.

“That Person went to a place where she can rest peacefully.”

I closed my mouth.

The story of the past that Lasandra had told Ulgen replayed in my mind.

“…I thought Lasandra would be different.”

The ancestor of Michaeliann and the most powerful mage in human history.

I had only thought that such a person’s beginning would have been glorious too.

I had dared to assume that she had enjoyed happiness without any lack throughout her life.

[How adorable, is it because you’re my descendant that you’re so pretty!]

Because she was such a bright person.

Because she seemed to have not even a speck of darkness in her heart.

But Lasandra had simply been hiding it.

She had only been concealing the dark side behind her bright expression.

“Annellia. That person was a god.”

Tian spoke again.

“In some ways, she was more absolute and noble than other gods.”

Tian gently stroked my hunched back as if to comfort me.

“She probably anticipated this kind of future. Yet she still acted. She was someone who calculated all possibilities before acting anyway.”

My eyes grew heavy.

Tian was right.

If it was the Lasandra I knew, she would have roughly guessed how the situation would unfold even before the final battle occurred.

Perhaps she had even seen this kind of future in that process.

“At least in my eyes, in that person’s face at the final moment.”

Tian, who had paused to catch his breath, slowly said,

“…There was no regret or lingering attachment. Not even a single trace.”

Finally, the tears I had been holding back came pouring out.

They weren’t tears shed only from sadness.

Lasandra’s words echoed in my ears.

[I want to rest now.]

I murmured in a wet voice.

“Yes. You’re right. So she’ll be happy.”

Tian, noticing that I was crying, pulled away from me.

But after wiping my tears, I embraced Tian’s neck once again.

I could feel his flustered hands hovering around my back.

“From now on, that’s the only thing I have to do.”

What I had wished for most in my first life was recognition.

I wanted to do well at what I loved, and be recognized for it by the people around me.

Then belatedly, only as I was dying from drinking poison, I realized.

That what I had wanted wasn’t simple recognition.

I was lonely.

So achingly, so terribly lonely that I didn’t even know what I wanted.

My second life was therefore more difficult, and sometimes easier.

Thus, my goal in this life was singular.

I wanted to live among people I loved and who loved me.

“You said so before you left alone for the rift. That if only you sacrificed yourself, I could achieve everything.”

Tian’s rising and falling chest stopped for a moment.

“Do you know why you’re an idiot?”

Tian had no answer.

“What I wanted to do, what I desired. You boasted loudly that I could achieve every single thing without exception.”

“….”

“For me, all of that was you.”

I tightened my grip on the hands that held Tian.

As I buried my face between his lengthened hair, my eyes stung again.

“From now on, I won’t let anyone go. I’ll be as happy as Lasandra carried for us, no, twice as much.”

Tian slowly pulled away from me.

And he stared down at me intently.

A gentle tremor rippled in his eyes.

“It’s all over now, so fulfill your promise.”

“…Promise?”

“We agreed to get married. Don’t you remember the contract where I was party A and you were party B?”

Tian pressed his lips tightly together.

I continued stroking his hair, then leaned my head against his firm chest.

“I want to put aside the busy stuff and rest a bit too. I haven’t been able to do that even once since I was five. Sleeping in until the sun is high in the sky, eating snacks in bed. A lazy and indulgent life where I sleep again when I’m full.”

A small laugh finally burst from Tian’s lips.

I lifted my head.

Then I wound his hair around my fingers, spinning it around before poking his shoulder playfully.

“Since I’m party A, you have to do everything for me.”

“Of course. I could serve you so well that your feet never touch the ground.”

“Eh? That’s a bit….”

“Annellia, when I look at you closely, you drive people crazy.”

Then he quietly murmured and pressed his lips to mine.

It was a different kiss from before—thirsty and rough.

As my body tilted backward, Tian supported my back with his arm.

I said breathlessly.

“…Tian. I know it’s been a while, but there are people outside.”

It was a bit funny, but it was true.

While we were having our quiet conversation, familiar voices kept coming from outside the tent.

Among them, the loudest were definitely Owen and Rico making noise.

“I don’t care.”

But Tian kissed me even more intensely as if he didn’t mind.

The hand stroking around my back felt strange somehow.

Sensing the odd atmosphere, I began to hesitantly pull away from him.

But Tian persistently followed me.

Then, just before I fell off the bed, he lifted me up and laid me down on the bed instead.

He skillfully continued kissing even in the reversed position.

I placed my palm on Tian’s chest and frowned more clearly.

“Um, Tian?”

“You said let’s get married. Did you expect me to stay still after saying that?”

“That’s one thing, but I’m telling you there are people outside! Grandmother really kills people when she’s angry!”

“I don’t mind dying. Do you know how much I’ve been holding back?”

A helpless laugh finally escaped my lips.

I wiggled my fingers for a moment, then wrapped them around Tian’s neck.

Tian’s lips searching for me desperately, his warm hands cupping my cheeks—it wasn’t bad.

Rather, it was good enough to make my lower back tingle.

Oh well, whatever, I thought as I closed my eyes.

“…Wendel. Go get my gun.”

Suddenly, a chilling voice came from the tent entrance.

We both froze stiff and turned our heads toward the entrance.

“Sharon! What are you saying! Are you planning to shoot the Empire’s Crown Prince right now!”

The Dowager Empress was scolding Grandmother with a pale face.

“I’ll only fire a warning shot.”

Grandmother answered the Dowager Empress dryly.

“Unbelievable! Honey, were we like that at their age?”

Mother shook her head disapprovingly,

“Mother-in-law. Instead of a gun, there’s a crossbow here. Shall I give it to you?”

And Father, who cleanly ignored Mother and handed a crossbow toward Grandmother.

A smile gradually spread across my lips.

Tian had moved far away from me and was looking down with an expression of annoyance.

Suddenly, my fingertips and toes tingled.

‘…I’m back. Really back.’

I was finally feeling it for real.

The preparation to be completely happy was truly coming to an end.

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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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