The Baby Who Regressed Refuses Childcare - Chapter 281

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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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“Honey! Come put some balm on me here.”

The warm afternoon sunlight shone down on the lakeside.

At Isabella’s voice calling him, Theo jumped down from the branch.

He opened the bottle of balm placed on the trunk, poured some into his palm, then gently rubbed Isabella’s shoulders.

“Bell. You should stop sunbathing now. You’ve gotten too red.”

“It’s fine. Might as well get a tan while I’m at it.”

“Getting a tan is fine, but I’m worried you’ll get hurt.”

“You can just apply balm like this every day. Why? Am I too enchanting for you to handle?”

“Those of us without husbands are so pitiful we can’t even sunbathe, Isabella!”

Just then, someone lying in the distance shouted out in complaint.

It was the Dowager Empress, wearing a flowered hat with a thin handkerchief covering her face.

Sharon, lying beside the Dowager Empress, also poked her head up and said.

“That’s right, Bell. Please save your romantic displays for when we’re not around. Just watching Annellia and Tian is killing me already.”

Theo and Isabella’s eyes widened.

The two who had been giggling quietly soon cleared their throats and replied.

“We’ll be more careful from now on~”

“Enough, enough.”

The Dowager Empress removed the cloth covering her face.

Then she walked toward the lake, saying.

“I’m just saying. I’m not dissatisfied with my life either. All the noblewomen in the Imperial Capital are amazed. When I tell them I go swimming at the lake at my age.”

Sharon also slowly got up.

“You should have mentioned that you go hunting with me too. They’d probably be even more shocked.”

“I couldn’t tell them about catching that bear last year – they might have fainted! Hahaha!”

“Hahahaha!”

Sharon and the Dowager Empress looked healthy even after 9 years had passed.

Having retired from their respective positions, they seemed satisfied with their increased leisure time.

“Speaking of which, should we try going to the Eastern Continent this year?”

The Dowager Empress asked while soaking her body in the shallow water.

Sharon nodded as if it made sense.

“I heard expedition hunting is fun too. Since Annellia has connections there, we might be able to find good hunting grounds.”

“But we’d have to take a ship for a long time. I’d get restless.”

“You don’t even get seasick, yet you complain so much. If you want to have fun, you have to endure that much. Or just use a teleportation circle.”

“Oh, will you pay for it?”

Sharon looked at the Dowager Empress as if she were being ridiculous.

“You know I don’t have any income since I retired.”

“I know all about your rich granddaughter giving you spending money every day.”

“If you put it that way, Your Majesty the Dowager Empress gets spending money too. Annellia said she gives you the same amount she gives me?”

Silence fell between the two old women.

It was then that Theo and Isabella were shaking their heads.

“Brother! Brotherrr!”

Someone came running from the end of a small path at the edge of the lake.

Theo frowned.

“Rico?”

The one who came running was Rico, who had been lounging around all morning saying he wanted to rest at the Duke’s Castle.

“Emergency! It’s an emergency!”

At the word emergency, the Dowager Empress and Sharon turned their heads.

Isabella also got up.

“Miss Yuri broke into the Imperial Capital research institute, and brought all the people from the Imperial Capital with her!”

The Dowager Empress narrowed her brow.

“When you say people from the Imperial Capital, who do you mean?”

“Uh, um.”

Rico frowned and began counting on his fingers.

“His Majesty the Late Emperor, His Majesty the Emperor, the twenty-four Imperial Nobles, Prince Ruel, Princess Rion…”

Isabella shot up from her seat.

Theo, as if accustomed to it, wrapped a thin cloth around Isabella’s body.

The Dowager Empress and Sharon also became busy.

The Dowager Empress strode out of the lake with flashing eyes.

“That boy Tian, no matter how much he adores his daughter, this is too much. Abandoning state affairs?!”

“How many dangerous things are in that research institute, and Yuri went there! Prepare the teleportation circle right now, Rico!”

Sharon was already putting on her robe.

Theo asked Isabella while packing their things.

“When did Ruel and Rion go to the Imperial Capital? Weren’t they supposed to be at the castle?”

“I don’t know either. Annellia must have called them. I bet she was tempting Rion with talk of getting her a sword instructor.”

“But Bell. Can’t we just let Rion do what she wants this time?”

“Honey. She’s only nine years old, what’s she learning swords for! If this were wartime it would be different, but it’s too dangerous, absolutely not!”

Theo closed his mouth.

Starting to walk ahead, Isabella continued.

“She’s just like her sister – once she gets obsessed with something, she has to see it through to the end. If we teach her swords, she’ll definitely want to join a mercenary group or something.”

“Couldn’t she just become a palace knight peacefully?”

“With that adventurous personality, a palace knight? She’s already going around begging everyone to spar with her, fat chance of that!”

Theo nodded timidly.

Rico looked at Theo with pity.

Soon everyone began hurrying toward the Duke’s Castle.

Meanwhile, at the Imperial Capital, Abner Research Institute first floor.

A clear voice echoed through the main hall where magical devices invented by the academy were displayed.

“What’s this?”

At Yuriadne’s question, her eyes sparkling brightly, third-year researcher Stella wiped away cold sweat.

“Th-that’s a power engine. It’s a device first invented 20 years ago.”

“It looks cool! Who made it?”

Stella hesitantly turned her gaze.

A little distance away from Yuriadne.

She could see Annellia standing there holding her forehead.

“That… the Director, no, Her Majesty the Empress made it.”

“Gasp! Mom did?”

Yuriadne opened her mouth and ran a few steps forward.

Then she pointed to the barrier circuit board displayed next to the power engine.

“What about this? Who made this?”

“That was also made by Her Majesty the Empress with the Vice Director…”

“Then what about this one?”

“Similarly, Her Majesty the Empress…”

“Alright, alright. Yuri. That’s enough now.”

Then Annellia intervened.

She gestured slightly to Stella to step back, then firmly grasped both of Yuriadne’s hands.

“Everything here was made by Mom. Some things she made alone, others she made together with the research institute staff. Now are all your questions answered?”

“No!”

At Yuriadne’s spirited answer, Annellia laughed, “Hahaha.”

Her smiling cheek twitched slightly.

“I see, our Yuri still has many questions? Then can you quickly tell me what they are? Mom has a very busy day today.”

“Mm-hmm, Yuri is curious about what’s on the second floor of the research institute!”

At those words, the other researchers standing behind exchanged uneasy glances.

The building operated as full-scale research rooms and laboratories starting from the second floor.

From the circuit development department’s research room that developed magical formulas, to the drug manufacturing department’s laboratory that handled toxic substances.

The laboratories handling dangerous materials had double and triple quarantine systems installed.

Such places couldn’t be entered even by Tian, the Emperor of the Empire, unless one was a research institute staff member.

This was because a single mistake could cause serious safety accidents.

Stella unconsciously swallowed her saliva.

‘But a three-year-old princess in there…’

Yuriadne’s vigorous curiosity was already known to everyone at the research institute.

This wasn’t the first time the child had broken into the Institute of Institutional Studies.

“Yuriadne. As I’ve told you before, the second floor of the research institute is not a place for you to go.”

As expected, Annellia spoke in a stern voice.

Yuriadne’s eyes immediately filled with disappointment, but Annellia didn’t budge.

“You promised with Mother before, didn’t you? Everything else is fine, but from the second floor of the research institute onwards is not allowed. I said I’d show you there when Yuri turns ten.”

Silence fell over the hall.

The research institute staff looked back and forth between mother and daughter with tense eyes.

At that moment, Yuriadne raised her hand high.

“But Mother entered the laboratory before turning ten!”

And she pointed to the first power engine she had seen and said.

“Mother can do it, so why can’t Yuri? Is Yuri not a smart child like Mother?”

Annellia shut her mouth with a start.

Soon, her face was filled with an expression of anguish.

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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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