The Baby Who Regressed Refuses Childcare - Chapter 77

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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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“Your dress is really pretty.”

“Yes.”

“What’s that decoration in your hair? Is it silver?”

“Yes.”

As I only answered the questions asked, Bella smiled silently and then asked.

“This is your first time in the Imperial Capital, isn’t it?”

The young ladies around Bella covered their mouths and giggled among themselves.

I stared up at Bella intently.

‘This is strange.’

Lady Larienne’s words, which she had repeated until my ears were worn out, automatically replayed in my head.

‘Being so naive will only make you pitiful prey in this treacherous social world.’

I hadn’t understood it until then, but coming to the Imperial Capital, I felt I was beginning to grasp the meaning of those words.

‘Right. I was a naive fool.’

As evidence of this, I couldn’t figure out at all why Bella and the other young ladies had approached me.

Lady Larienne had clearly said that every approach and greeting would have meaning.

“Your eye color is so pretty.”

“Your hair too. How does it shine so brilliantly?”

I tilted my head.

In a way, these young ladies seemed like they just wanted to become friends with me.

It was the moment I lowered my guard and nodded.

“Actually, I brought a corsage today that would go perfectly with Princess’s dress.”

As Bella’s eyes lit up, another girl behind her held out something.

It was a simple corsage decorated with silver beads on a red ribbon.

My expression hardened.

“This, Annellia is fine…”

“Here.”

But Bella forcefully pinned the corsage to the front of my dress.

I frowned and looked up at Bella.

Because I had now completely figured out Bella’s intention.

‘A red ribbon corsage.’

This decoration was a kind of ticket that allowed entry to the Imperial Palace Party.

However, the problem was that it was an item used only by commoners, not nobles.

“It’s not pretty.”

I tried to remove the corsage Bella had pinned on while keeping my expression stern.

However, she had secured it so firmly in such a short time that the pin embedded in the dress fabric wouldn’t come out easily.

“Why not! It suits you so well. Don’t you all think so?”

“Yes! It looks like it was originally attached to that dress.”

Giggles erupted among the girls.

They had cleverly surrounded me, so Sharon Abner was no longer visible.

My voice came out trembling with anxiety.

“Annellia wants to go.”

“You want to leave already? We just introduced ourselves.”

Bella bent her waist mockingly.

“Then while you’re leaving, let me pin a corsage on your left side too. Having one on each side would be more balanced, don’t you think?”

Another young lady came forward with an identical corsage as if she had been waiting.

“Since you’re the great developer of that medicine, we should at least put on two.”

“Aha, ahahaha!”

The girls burst into laughter.

I clenched my fists and glared at Bella.

“…I won’t put it on. I’ll take this one off too!”

“Then try taking it off.”

Bella teasingly lifted one corner of her mouth.

I struggled to remove the corsage and then froze in place.

Looking closely, something was glistening around the silver pin.

‘It’s adhesive.’

I was so dumbfounded that I frowned.

Taking advantage of that moment, another young lady grabbed the hem of my dress.

“If you don’t like it, shall I pin the other one here?”

“Don’t!”

The moment I shook off her hand and tried to step back.

“Ah!”

I bumped into someone and swayed in place.

When I staggered and turned around, the first thing I saw were sparkling green eyes.

“Little one!”

Immediately, I heard someone else’s voice.

“I told you not to wander around alone. It’s dangerous with so many people.”

I stepped back step by step with my body stiffened.

A boy approached and embraced the young girl who had bumped into me.

“Are you okay, Hiana?”

Hiana.

The pink-haired girl who bumped into me was Hiana.

And the boy who held her was Lewis, the third prince of Longton.

The person who had been my brother in my previous life.

I froze with a tense expression and then turned my body around.

I could feel Bella looking down at me with a curious face, but I began walking unsteadily.

With each step I took, the corsage dangled from the bottom of my skirt.

‘I need to get to Sharon Abner…’

Even in the midst of confusion, I felt upset.

‘I had boasted to Lady Larienne that I wouldn’t be looked down upon.’

In the end, I couldn’t fight back against Bella’s group at all.

I couldn’t scratch them or splash drinks on them.

‘And to think I’d run into Hiana and Lewis…’

My heart was pounding violently.

It was the moment I was trying to completely escape from their group.

“Hmm, I want that too.”

An innocent voice rang out from behind me.

When I turned my head, Hiana was staring intently at Bella while being held by Lewis.

“Hiana is a princess too. Give Hiana that too.”

As if surprised, Bella’s complexion turned bad.

“Y-Young Lady. That’s…”

She looked around at the surrounding young ladies as if asking for help.

But no one readily opened their mouth.

“What. Now that I look at it, that’s a commoner’s entry corsage.”

Soon Lewis, who had noticed the corsage attached to my skirt, frowned.

“Why did you attach that to Princess Abner?”

Lewis put Hiana down and strode toward me.

I hesitated and stepped back, but Hiana was faster.

She crossed beside Lewis and came right up to me.

“Wow, there are two pretty ones! Hiana wants one. But… huh?”

Hiana, who had been carefully observing the corsage on my chest, widened her eyes.

“It’s grass!”

Her voice was so loud that I could hear the surroundings suddenly fall quiet.

“Who stuck grass on a ribbon! There’s grass on the pretty sister’s dress?”

Lewis sighed as if he had expected this, while Bella and the young ladies’ faces turned pale.

Soon, someone who had come upon hearing the commotion revealed themselves among the crowd.

“What is the matter.”

It was the Dowager Empress.

The Dowager Empress widened her eyes the moment she saw me.

“Child!”

Her gaze slowly fell to the corsage attached to my dress.

Her surprised mouth closed, and soon anger rose in her eyes.

“Whose doing is this.”

The Dowager Empress looked around and commanded coldly.

“I asked whose doing this is.”

While the Dowager Empress asked again, Sharon Abner also approached with a pale face.

She quickly lifted me up and made me lean against her embrace.

Thanks to this, the corsage on my chest and dress became hidden from view.

“…It’s alright. Let’s remove it right away. It’s good that I brought plenty of your new dresses.”

I nodded hesitantly.

Sharon Abner gently stroked my head soothingly.

“Just because you heard crude mockery doesn’t make you crude. Just remember that. Understood?”

“…Yes.”

“Are you upset?”

I quietly buried my face in Sharon Abner’s shoulder.

And murmured.

“A little…”

“There’s no need to be upset. If you get upset over such tricks, that’s truly losing.”

“Yes!”

I tried to answer energetically and nodded my head.

Then I turned my gaze toward Bella’s group.

They were still trembling before the Dowager Empress.

“Did the young ladies really have to do such a thing to a five-year-old child who hasn’t even properly had her debutante?”

“Your, Your Majesty the Dowager Empress…”

“Nothing in this world is as useless as birth status! Yet you had to give such vile humiliation over just that? This child has contributed greatly to the Imperial Court and even received a gift from His Majesty today!”

Bella bit her lips while gripping her skirt.

Sharon Abner, who was holding me, added.

“It must be because aside from birth, there’s nothing better about you than my granddaughter.”

Everyone looked at us at her heavy and dignified voice.

“You have to cling to birth status to look even slightly less like trash.”

“Ab, Abner Duke!”

Then someone who had turned deathly pale came running from a distance.

Bella’s face contorted the moment she saw him.

“Father!”

The man wrapped one arm around Bella as if to hide her, then looked at Sharon Abner and me.

“Calling her trash! Aren’t your words too harsh!”

The Dowager Empress pressed her forehead and let out a deep sigh.

The man continued speaking.

“It’s children’s quarrel. We adults shouldn’t lose courtesy and politeness over children’s quarrel!”

However, Sharon Abner didn’t bat an eye.

She simply lifted one corner of her mouth as if astounded and spoke coldly.

“Stop your useless talk, Viscount Howell.”

“Wh, what.”

“Since the unification era, we Abners have always stood at the front of battlefields, cutting off enemies’ heads.”

Viscount Howell closed his mouth with a bewildered expression.

“Yet courtesy? Politeness? Who do you think you’re talking such naive nonsense in front of.”

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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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