The Baby Who Regressed Refuses Childcare - Chapter 49

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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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“Why is that….”

Tian muttered gloomily as he arrived at the Crown Prince’s Palace.

The butler beside him looked at Tian with curious eyes.

Tian was buried in the large sofa, staring blankly up at the glittering ceiling.

“Why indeed.”

“Your Highness, is something the matter?”

The butler, unable to bear watching any longer, asked.

Tian immediately lowered his gaze to look at the butler.

Then he nodded with a serious expression.

“Jeremy, was it?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Jeremy was the new butler who had taken charge of the Crown Prince’s Palace after Butler Jack left.

Since he was someone the Dowager Empress had placed there, he was serving Tian with utmost sincerity.

“I have something I’m curious about.”

“Yes, please speak.”

The Crown Prince, who would soon turn nine, had an extremely serious expression as if something was deeply troubling him.

“I couldn’t give her the gift again this time.”

“Ah, I see… Pardon?”

Startled, Jeremy’s eyes widened considerably, especially being in front of the Crown Prince.

Tian spoke again in a dejected voice.

“I said I couldn’t give her the gift again this time.”

Then he took out a small box from the luxurious side table next to the sofa.

It was the gift box the Crown Prince had been fidgeting with for the past few weeks.

Jeremy hesitated, wondering how to respond, then asked tentatively.

“How, um, how did that happen….”

“I don’t know. My lips just wouldn’t move.”

Tian placed one hand on his forehead with a very, very complicated expression.

“Annellia always just says what she wants to say. As soon as she arrived, she said she was hurt, so I was surprised and rushed to her room….”

“Yes, yes.”

“Suddenly she started telling me how badly she had been injured, then said she developed medicine. And then she asked me to write her a recommendation letter to register that medicine with the Academy of Pharmacy.”

“I, I see.”

“Then she said it was getting late so she was going to study.”

Jeremy unconsciously closed his mouth.

Tian sighed again.

“When she says she’s going to study, what can I say? I said okay, study hard.”

“Well, that’s….”

“But her birthday passed, so she’s five years old now.”

Tian placed the gift box on the table and tapped it with his fingers.

“When a kid three years younger than me is that diligent, I couldn’t tell her to study a little later.”

“That’s right. It would look strange.”

“At the end, she said ‘You must be incredibly busy, but thank you so much for coming all the way here. Well then, please go safely,’ and I had nothing to say.”

Jeremy nodded with a solemn expression.

Then after thinking, he said.

“Your Highness, it seems the timing was a bit off this time. Since she hadn’t recovered for long, perhaps she was being considerate of Your Highness.”

“You think so?”

“Yes. Next time you see her, if you find a good opportunity when you’re alone together and bring up the gift….”

“…No. Somehow I don’t think it’ll work.”

Jeremy’s eyes widened.

Tian said hesitantly.

“Actually, the words won’t come out. When I’m talking with Annellia.”

“The words won’t come out easily?”

“My tongue just feels completely frozen. My walking becomes strange for no reason, and I just end up staring blankly at her blinking and smiling.”

Jeremy’s eyes grew large.

Though the Crown Prince looked troubled beyond measure, Jeremy was beginning to understand the situation somewhat.

“You know, a smart kid like Annellia would probably like someone as smart and confident as her, right?”

“Well, I think everyone has different preferences.”

“No… I must have looked really stupid all this time.”

Jeremy, quite shocked by this rather extreme assessment, immediately did his best to deny it.

“No, no, that can’t be true.”

“It’s true. Looking back, from our first meeting I only showed childish and foolish behavior. Even though I’m the older one.”

Embarrassed by showing such behavior initially, he had tried his best to appear dignified during their second meeting.

But even that day, he was the one who ended up being comforted.

Because Annellia came to find him and suddenly showered him with praise, saying he did well to tell the Dowager Empress.

Even talking about baby elephants.

But what was really amusing was that he felt quite happy and proud of that praise.

“So this time I was determined to seriously thank her….”

But on her actual birthday, he only had a battle of nerves with that fox-like Prince Dennis or whatever his name was.

‘Since I’ve never mingled with peers of noble birth, I just followed Annellia around. And while doing that, I couldn’t even start a single conversation.’

Tian’s expression darkened.

“What kind of Crown Prince is this… No wonder the people call me a.”

“Your, Your Highness.”

Come to think of it, today was the same.

‘Father said he used the imperial seal from an even younger age than mine.’

The current Emperor was said to be so exceptionally gifted that he received teachings about state affairs from the previous Emperor starting from Tian’s current age.

The previous Emperor also trusted the young current Emperor and allowed him to observe and learn from an early age.

Actually, that was normal when you thought about it.

It might be different for just any prince, but it was common for the Crown Prince to receive teachings about state affairs from a very young age as part of succession education.

But he was an exception.

From the moment his mother passed away, he had been branded as an unnecessary Crown Prince by everyone.

Thanks to Karin Empress constantly reminding him of this fact, Tian knew his situation quite objectively.

‘No, Your Highness. Since you’ve never used the seal before, you can just try using it this time!’

But even to such a pitiful him, Annellia smiled brightly.

Saying she absolutely needed his recommendation letter, that it had to be him.

Thinking about that seemed to make his gloom lift a little.

Tian nodded.

“I really want to write a good recommendation letter for Annellia.”

Jeremy looked at the young Crown Prince who had suddenly become serious.

“Since it’s medicine Annellia made, there’s no way it wouldn’t be effective.”

Tian, who had been thinking deeply, suddenly stood up from his seat.

He had heard countless times about the things his father, and his father’s father, the previous Emperors had accomplished at his age.

Tian approached Jeremy and handed him two bottles of medicine.

“Send these to Logrio in the Widonnen region as quickly as possible.”

“To Lord Logrio?”

“I heard he was injured. Tell him to try this medicine and if it shows effects, to record his condition thoroughly without missing anything.”

Jeremy nodded.

However, Tian’s orders didn’t end there.

“Also, I want to meet with the nobles of the Nemped region.”

Jeremy’s eyes widened once again.

“If you’re referring to the Nemped region, you mean the west….”

Western Nemped was the hometown of the late former Empress Miraena.

Since Miraena was from House Orgon, a great noble family among Nemped, she naturally had connections with other nobles in that region.

“I used to see them often when Mother was alive, but it’s been far too long since I last saw them.”

Jeremy felt goosebumps rising on his arms.

“You’re saying you’ll send Imperial Palace invitations to the western nobles. Of course, you’ll affix your seal as well.”

Affixing a seal to the invitations was tantamount to making the meeting completely official.

In Jeremy’s mind, the words the Dowager Empress had entrusted to him before coming to the Crown Prince’s Palace came flooding back.

‘If it seems like there’s been a change in Tian’s state of mind, you must inform me. Especially if he seems to want to find or meet someone.’

Jeremy quickly responded.

“Yes, Your Highness. I will do so.”

Then he left the Crown Prince’s Palace, carefully holding the medicine bottle.

Other conversations he’d had with the Dowager Empress were swirling in his mind.

‘That Karin moved much faster than I thought. While I was confined, she cut off all of Tian’s limbs.’

She had even sent Logrio, who served Tian, to the frontier by manipulating the Emperor, and made it impossible for other Empress’s faction nobles to communicate with Tian.

‘I’d like to step forward myself, but having entered the Dowager Empress’s Palace to avoid that Karin, what more can I do?’

The Dowager Empress wasn’t actually secluding herself by choice.

It was because someone suspected to be Karin Empress kept sending assassins.

There had already been dozens of assassination attempts so far.

‘Still, I thought she wouldn’t be able to touch Tian. According to Imperial Law, if the Empress dies and there are also problems with the heir born of the Empress, the Emperor must immediately take a new Empress.’

But having a new Empress enter the Palace wasn’t what Karin Empress wanted.

So the Dowager Empress thought Karin Empress wouldn’t easily lay hands on Tian.

‘But I never expected her to be rotting him from the inside with such vicious methods. If not for that child, he would have been completely played by Karin’s hands.’

‘That child’ referred to Annellia, Duke Abner’s ward.

‘There was a reason I visited the Abner family prepared to risk my life.’

Jeremy’s steps quickened.

‘Partly because that child is lovely, but also because I saw hope. Hope that the Abner family might become our Tian’s backing.’

‘….’

‘If we could start with them and recover the power we lost, nothing would be better than that.’

From Jeremy’s perspective, the future the Dowager Empress hoped for seemed closer than expected.

Boldly enough, he had no idea that Abner’s ‘that child’ was thinking exactly the same thing about the Dowager Empress.

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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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