The Baby Who Regressed Refuses Childcare - Chapter 28

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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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“You people! You so-called administrators! You so-called judges!”

Thwack, thwack, thwack.

A bundle of papers performed a dazzling vertical dance above the judges’ heads.

“How could you sleep soundly at night while doing such filthy and despicable things! Huh?! Huuuh?!”

The Chief Justice, who had been helplessly taking the beating, slid down under his chair.

“Your, Your Majesty the Dowager Empress, we’re sorry…!”

“Since when has this been going on! Since when did you turn this sacred courtroom into a cesspit!”

Even after all three judges had collapsed to the floor, the Dowager Empress couldn’t contain her anger and continued fuming.

Beside her, Jo muttered with a dazed expression.

“What… am I even looking at right now?”

I nodded in agreement with his words.

Tap-

Just then, someone lightly tapped my left shoulder.

I turned around in surprise.

In the seat next to me that had been empty just moments before, someone wearing a robe embroidered with the imperial crest was sitting.

Judging by their build, they looked like a kid about three or four years older than me.

“Uh, who…”

When I asked with curiosity, the kid slowly removed their robe.

My mouth fell wide open.

“Tian the Crown Prince!”

“…”

“Your Highness!”

Jo looked this way and hurriedly stood up from his seat.

“I greet His Highness the Crown Prince!”

The others sitting in the gallery did the same.

Only I remained seated, facing Tian directly.

‘Wait, why did he grow so much?’

Three months ago, he was definitely only about a span and a half taller than me!

“Annellia.”

Then my name came from Tian’s lips.

I blinked, forgetting to respond.

“Your name is Annellia, right.”

“…”

“You didn’t tell me your name, so I couldn’t even write you letters all this time.”

My eyes widened.

He wanted to write letters?

We weren’t that close, were we…?

But Tian spoke calmly, as if reading my thoughts.

“I did what you told me to do.”

“…”

“And everything really turned out just like you said.”

Ah.

Only then did I smile slightly.

This meant he had listened to my advice and asked the Dowager Empress for help.

It also meant the Dowager Empress was currently protecting Tian.

Come to think of it, the Crown Prince had gained some weight and grown taller than before.

As if he had been eating and sleeping very well for several months.

I was about to respond that he did well, but Tian continued speaking.

“…I wanted to say thank you, but I was busy with various matters.”

I opened my eyes wide and waved my hands.

“Oh no, Your Highness! It was nothing…”

“I kind of missed you.”

Gasp.

I closed my mouth.

‘He missed me?’

Unlike his gaze that looked directly at me, Tian’s ears were somehow slightly pink.

Then the back of my head tingled, so I slowly turned my head.

Sure enough.

Sharon Abner and Wendel.

Jo beside me, and countless other people.

Even the Dowager Empress on the platform.

Everyone’s gaze was directed at Tian and me.

“…Don’t worry. I’ve ordered House of Coel to cough up everything. They’ll repay the money they’ve stolen over the past 12 years, plus interest accounting for inflation. Of course, they’ll also pay compensation.”

I gulped while watching the Dowager Empress drinking tea.

Sharon Abner beside her answered briefly in a subdued voice.

“…I am deeply grateful.”

The Dowager Empress put down her teacup and clicked her tongue.

“You boldly inherited the ducal title, and this is what you do? Miraena would be so pleased to see your state from heaven.”

Miraena.

That was the name of the late Empress who had passed away.

The late Empress had publicly supported Sharon Abner in high society when she inherited the head position of House Abner.

That support had actually been quite a great help to Sharon Abner.

“How could a person not know they were being robbed while having that enormous fortune stolen?”

“…”

“The trial too! When those corrupt Chief Justice and his cronies were pulling their dirty tricks, you should have jumped up and overturned the table!”

My body shrank at the booming voice.

It definitely wasn’t because I was scared of the Dowager Empress, just a little nervous.

I was just looking down at the juice cup clutched tightly in my hands.

“Ahem. Come to think of it, overturning the table wouldn’t have been a very good method.”

The Dowager Empress added in a much softer voice.

I slowly raised my head, then froze again.

The Dowager Empress was looking at none other than me.

And with a smile on her lips.

“Yes, indeed such behavior would have been wrong. It would have frightened this lovely child so much.”

The Dowager Empress laughed heartily.

She leaned toward me while holding her teacup.

“So, Annellia.”

“Y-yes…!”

My words got tangled in my confusion.

After all, this was my first time meeting royalty up close.

‘The Crown Prince is still a kid, so I wasn’t that nervous.’

Even just sitting still, the Dowager Empress was radiating an aura that screamed ‘I am the royal elder of the Imperial family!’

“Our Tian missed you terribly. He said you were very close friends.”

At those words, Sharon Abner’s gaze turned toward me.

That made sense since I had just passed three months since coming to Abner Manor.

It would be puzzling to hear we were close friends when I had never officially met the Crown Prince.

I spoke while watching Sharon Abner’s reaction.

“Uh, well, before, when His Highness the Crown Prince came to Abner Manor, we played together briefly then…”

The Dowager Empress’s eyes widened.

“Oh, really? What did you play together?”

My thoughts came to a complete halt.

I sent a desperate look to Crown Prince Tian next to the Dowager Empress.

However, the Crown Prince was just silently drinking his juice.

I stammered.

“We, we shared some dried meat together.”

I obviously couldn’t tell her about the slip of the tongue,

“We, we had a consultation about worries…”

“A consultation about worries! So you gave some advice to our Tian? I heard you’re quite clever.”

“Uh, um…!”

After racking my brain desperately, I finally squeezed my eyes shut.

“About, about how to lead the people as the Empire’s Crown Prince, that sort of, monarchical discussion…!”

“You can tell the truth.”

Suddenly Tian set down his juice glass with a clink.

“You advised me to confess the butler’s misdeeds to Great-grandmother, didn’t you.”

I stared at him blankly with my mouth closed.

“Until then I was afraid of Jacque, but after hearing that story I found the courage to tell Great-grandmother.”

“…”

“After mother passed away, I was alone the whole time.”

“…”

“It was good that you encouraged me to rely on Great-grandmother, saying she would gladly accept me.”

Tian’s red eyes were very serious as he spoke.

“Ha, hahaha!”

Suddenly the Dowager Empress burst into laughter.

She gently patted Tian’s shoulder before turning her gaze to me.

“Really. This old woman owes you a debt.”

“…”

“You also blocked with your body when the butler tried to lay hands on our Tian, didn’t you?”

I looked back and forth between Tian and the Dowager Empress in a daze.

‘No, I did tell him to go tattle quickly, but…’

I really didn’t expect him to spill absolutely everything that happened with me.

I thought the Crown Prince was very blunt and sharp-tongued but shy by nature!

Sharon Abner also asked from beside me.

“Is that really true?”

When I turned my head, she was also looking at me with a surprised face.

I nodded awkwardly.

“Yes…”

“That was the day Karin Empress visited. Why didn’t you tell me.”

“I, I thought it wasn’t a big deal…”

That was a lie.

Meeting the Crown Prince was actually a huge deal.

But I deliberately hid it.

At the time, I didn’t want to cause any commotion within Abner Manor.

“How truly lovely! Sharon, how did someone as stone-hearted as you come to have such a child by your side!”

Sharon Abner silently drank her tea.

The Dowager Empress looked at me again.

“You can’t imagine how surprised I was when I first heard the story. How old are you?”

“I’m four years old, Your Majesty.”

“Four years old?!”

I quickly added to the shocked and frozen Dowager Empress.

“But I’ll be five years old in a few days!”

“I see, then… we must throw a birthday party.”

I blinked and froze momentarily.

‘A birthday party?’

Come to think of it, I had never had a proper birthday party.

Not even when I was a young lady of the Longton Family.

‘Come to think of it, Hiana always had parties.’

Even right after I was adopted, on my birthday I would just have a quiet dinner with the Longton people.

‘I didn’t realize it then, but now I understand.’

Even such trivial things were different between Hiana and me.

Feeling strange, I hesitantly opened my mouth.

“Uh, um, I probably won’t have a birthday party…”

“I was already planning to hold one. Very grandly.”

Sharon Abner cut off my words.

Then the Dowager Empress frowned as if disappointed.

“Oh my! If you didn’t have plans, I was going to throw one at the Dowager Empress’s Palace.”

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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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