The Baby Who Regressed Refuses Childcare - Chapter 6
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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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‘Where am I?’
I looked around.
I could see a small window positioned much higher than my height.
‘Ah, this is my research room.’
I got up.
I placed both feet on the dusty floor.
Checking the clock, it was almost noon.
“…I’m thirsty.”
I turned my gaze to one corner of the desk.
On a chipped tray, there was stale bread and half-cold coffee for some reason.
“My goodness.”
After muttering, I hurriedly grabbed the bread and took a bite.
I drank all the coffee with its mild acidity in one go and set it down.
Once my thirst was quenched, I could see other objects on the desk.
The desk was a mess with medicine bottles, old books, and half-scribbled parchments.
Among them, I could see several magical formulas I had been developing recently.
My gaze scanning through them suddenly stopped.
In the upper right corner of the magical formula.
There was a cute memo left in handwriting that wasn’t mine.
Sister, this is good. I’ll take this for Hiana. Thank you!
My mouth turned bitter.
The moment I picked up the parchment with trembling hands.
Thump-!
Suddenly my heart beat loudly.
I froze in place and blinked.
Thump-!
At the same time, something surged up from the root of my tongue.
“Ugh.”
I hastily covered my mouth.
But I couldn’t stop whatever was dripping between my fingers.
I slowly removed my hand from my mouth while bending over.
My palm was completely covered in bright red blood.
“…What is this.”
Only then did the unpleasant sensation coursing through my body become clear.
Pain, it was definitely pain.
“…Ha, ugh!”
I tried to support myself on the desk but fell backward with a crash.
Several flasks fell to the floor and shattered into pieces.
“Ugh, uugh…!”
Even during this, the blood rising through my throat wouldn’t stop.
I held onto my fading consciousness and stared blankly at the coffee cup I had just drunk from.
“…Poison?”
Perhaps it was thanks to my diligent study of pharmacology.
I knew all too well the symptoms appearing in my body right now.
‘This is poison.’
Among poisons, it was the deadly poison from the Midia cactus.
This poison causes hemoptysis symptoms like this the moment you drink it, and the pain intensifies from within.
A few minutes later, you lose consciousness, and finally…
“I’m going to die?”
I looked down at my clothes soaked with blood with bewildered eyes.
An indescribable emotion washed over me.
‘Who on earth, who would go this far.’
My lips trembled, and my breathing became rapid.
Since everyone at Longton Estate hated me, I had thought that if I was unlucky, someone might try to harm me.
But I never expected it would be this way, this sudden.
“Ha, haha…”
My body slowly tilted backward.
It was a ridiculous end.
It was also an end befitting me.
The feeling of my head hitting the floor with a thump, the cold sensation in my hands and feet.
My thoughts became dull, and I felt like my body was sinking into deep water.
The tinnitus in my ears disappeared, and complete silence descended.
Just like that, the moment my vision turned white and died.
I felt the vibration of someone bursting through the door against my back on the floor.
‘Someone’s coming.’
Since I couldn’t see or hear anything, only my skin’s sense of touch became acutely sharp.
Definitely someone, and they weren’t just coming—thump, thump, they were running quickly.
Soon warm hands touched my shoulders, arms, and back.
The hands gripped me tightly, then released, and immediately began shaking me roughly.
A mangled cry reached my dead ears, so distorted I couldn’t distinguish the voice.
“…lia, …ah! …ni, …no!!”
And then everything was over.
“Gasp…!!”
I bolted upright and blinked blankly.
Inside a room decorated with luxurious furniture.
The glossy wooden floor that had been consistently oiled and maintained, and the fur carpet laid on top of it.
“You must have had a nightmare.”
Across from me.
Sharon Abner sat with her legs crossed in an armchair on the carpet.
“What kind of dream was it that made you talk so loudly in your sleep?”
I exhaled roughly and covered my mouth with my hand.
‘It was a dream. Yes, it was all a dream.’
Wendel beside me offered a cup filled with water.
But I couldn’t easily accept the water glass.
Looking outside the window, it was already late at night.
I was in an unfamiliar place, and I was with Sharon Abner.
Once I barely grasped the situation, a frightened voice naturally leaked out.
“Is, is this now…?”
One of Sharon Abner’s eyebrows rose slightly.
Wendel also looked down at me with puzzled eyes.
I continued speaking hesitantly.
“That letter… from the orphanage… you haven’t asked anything yet…”
A few days ago, I had written a letter to Sharon Abner.
It was asking her to take me with her since I would be helpful to the Abner Duchy.
And Sharon Abner had responded to my request.
The fact that I was here instead of at Longton Estate was proof of that.
But there was still an unresolved issue between us.
“Y-Your Grace.”
When I called out to Sharon Abner, her face stiffened slightly.
I swallowed nervously inside.
From now on, I had to be calm and composed.
“Y-you must have a lot of questions about me. I know everything too.”
Sharon Abner frowned.
However, she soon answered with her fingers interlaced.
“That’s right.”
Soon her slender upper body leaned toward me.
“It would be strange if I weren’t curious, wouldn’t it?”
I nodded as if I had expected this.
And after taking a deep breath, I answered.
“But Lia already said it in advance.”
Wendel looked at me once again.
I pointed to the crumpled parchment Sharon Abner was holding in her hand.
It was the letter I had written.
If you just promise not to ask anything, I’ll be of great help to the Abner Duchy.
At first, I had worried about it.
I knew how to send the letter, but what exactly should I write?
The biggest problem was that I was currently four years old.
What a four-year-old could say to a territorial lord was extremely limited.
But I had to somehow make Sharon Abner visit Evehill Orphanage.
What should I write?
What should I write to make Sharon Abner interested enough to come save me?
But no matter how hard I tried, good ideas wouldn’t come to mind.
So this was the conclusion I reached.
‘First, let’s not lie.’
If I made up various things, I’d likely get caught later.
If I made a mistake, there was even the risk of being misunderstood as a spy from the Longton side.
‘Then there’s only one answer left.’
To willingly become a child who keeps secrets.
Rather than rambling on with lies, being honest would be better.
I thought it would be better to cleanly draw the line with ‘don’t ask’ and then start from there.
“Just who do you think I am?”
Sharon Abner’s tense voice reached my ears.
“Ibrhill Youth Research Center, the fabric shop at the end of Alley 2. Even the fruit shop.”
Her voice was very low and cold.
“The places you mentioned in your letter. Every single one was where Longton’s spies made contact. Even the fruit shop worker was someone dispatched directly from their leadership.”
“…”
“But the one who provided all this information is a four-year-old from a rural orphanage. How could I not be curious?”
Cold sweat began seeping out from under my clenched fists.
“But still…”
The reason I remembered this information was simple.
In my previous life, I had once crossed the territorial border and returned to the Ibrhill region.
At that time, I had accidentally discovered that Longton’s spies were staying in large numbers in the vicinity.
‘Back then I passed it off without much thought.’
But from the current point in time, all this information was very useful.
Especially to Sharon Abner, who was in an adversarial relationship with Lambert Longton.
‘Also, there was nothing better for gaining trust in me quickly.’
Sharon Abner was a woman with tremendous ambition to place her family at the pinnacle of the Empire.
To do that, she first had to suppress her rival, the Longton Family.
I spoke in a voice trembling like a little lamb.
“B-but still, a promise is a promise.”
And then, looking at Sharon Abner who gave no response, I barely managed to continue speaking.
“I-if you chase me away, it’ll be bad for Your Grace too, right? I’m really smart. Everyone says I’m a genius. Really.”
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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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