The Baby Who Regressed Refuses Childcare - Chapter 78

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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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“Duke Abner!”

Viscount Howell shouted vehemently, but Sharon Abner lightly ignored him.

Then she easily plucked off the two corsages attached to my clothes with a snap and flung them toward Bella’s feet.

“If you’re going to lecture me about manners, you should have properly taught your daughter first.”

That voice was ice-cold yet carried tremendous authority.

“Or would you prefer that I personally teach her?”

Viscount Howell’s face turned ashen.

Only after the Dowager Empress patted her shoulder a couple of times as if to calm her down did Sharon Abner turn her gaze away from Viscount Howell.

From her expression, she still seemed tremendously angry.

The Dowager Empress looked at me and asked.

“Child, are you alright?”

I could feel Bella looking at me.

I glanced at Bella once before answering.

“I’m fine.”

“How brave, not even crying.”

“Annellia doesn’t cry when there’s no need to!”

The Dowager Empress’s eyes widened.

“No reason to cry?”

“Annellia is the victim but I’m smart and wise so I don’t cry. If anyone should cry, it should be Lady Bella.”

Feeling everyone’s attention focused on me, I quickly continued.

“Lady Bella has a bad personality and is stupid, and now everyone knows it, so Lady Bella should cry.”

Then Bella really did burst into tears.

“Wh-waaah! Trash, you say! You’re calling me trash!”

“Lady Bella, please calm down.”

“How can I calm down! To be humiliated like that at none other than His Majesty the Emperor’s birthday banquet!”

Bella Howell roughly wiped her tear-stained face.

Her eyes turned red and her nose ran, but she couldn’t easily stop crying.

“Sniff, and what did I say wrong? That young lady is from commoner origins, isn’t she! Not just any commoner, but an orphan who doesn’t even know her real parents!”

“That’s true, but now she’s a daughter of Abner…”

“Why are nobles nobles? If it could be achieved so easily, why would nobles be nobles, huh?!”

“Lady Bella…”

Bella blew her nose loudly into her handkerchief.

“Honestly, how many ladies in the Imperial Capital would be able to acknowledge that young lady!”

“…”

“She said I have a bad personality and I’m stupid! In front of everyone! How can I treat someone who’s not at all like a noble’s child as a young lady!”

The Howell Family was renowned as one of the most prestigious noble families in the Imperial Capital.

They had always formed marriages only with other distinguished families, and had produced quite a few empresses.

Like a noble, like a lady.

For Bella, who had grown up hearing “befitting noble blood” her entire life, the earlier situation was absolutely incomprehensible.

“Besides, corsages weren’t even that excessive! Did we spill juice on that young lady, did we step on her feet? Just teasing her a little with corsages!”

“That’s true…”

The other young ladies hesitantly nodded.

Bella’s words had some validity.

A commoner, and an orphan from an orphanage at that, had become a daughter of Abner.

A position that all young people in the Imperial Capital had dreamed of at least once was occupied overnight by a commoner.

Therefore, the nobles of high society had inwardly expected that Annellia’s first Imperial Capital party wouldn’t be entirely peaceful.

Even if that child was only five years old.

“Everyone welcoming that young lady is what’s strange! This is an initiation, an initiation, waaah…!”

Bella was still young but led her own group in her own way.

She had become a leader among her peers with the skillful techniques learned from her mother’s mother, and her mother’s mother before that.

Thanks to this, any young lady in the Taranta Empire knew her and wanted to join her group.

Naturally, she thought Annellia would be the same.

“Since she came out into society anyway, I was trying to properly teach her as noble blood, as a real noble! Why is everyone!”

The other young ladies fidgeted restlessly and offered handkerchiefs to Bella.

But no one could tell Bella to stop crying or to cease her tears.

The level of humiliation she had suffered in the hall was quite high.

“The Dowager Empress too, and Duke Abner! You were once in society yourself, so you know how shameful that was…!”

Her voice, mixed with indignation, grew louder.

Not only was it not enough to be called trash by Duke Abner, she was also insulted as having a bad personality and being stupid.

And by a commoner-born duchess she had so looked down upon.

Meanwhile, her father Viscount Howell’s inability to properly defend her dealt a major blow to Bella’s lofty pride.

Her insides felt like they were burning with rage at this shameful situation she was experiencing for the first time in her life.

It was the moment when Bella was gripping her skirt hem as if to tear it.

“Sister. Don’t cry.”

Suddenly, a young voice came from across the way.

When she looked up with a start, someone came into view.

“…L-Lady Longton?”

Lush pink hair and green eyes.

When had she arrived? Hiana Longton, the youngest duchess that Lambert Longton had recently reclaimed, was standing before them.

Bella felt her tears dry up and bolted upright from her seat.

‘Could she have come to worry about me?’

Hiana was still young but she was a daughter of Longton.

Since she was real nobility, it would be obvious who she should be close to in society.

Bella drooped her eyebrows in gratitude.

“Lady Longton. How could you be so…”

Then she quickly turned her mind.

‘If I get close to Lady Longton at this opportunity, that would be good. The Longton Family doesn’t get along well with the Abner Family, so if I include her in my group for now…’

Bella sent glances to the other young ladies around to back away.

The young ladies reluctantly got up from their seats and cleared the way.

Only after they had all left did Bella speak with a trembling voice as if moved.

“Don’t worry about what happened earlier. You didn’t know those corsages were commoner entrance tickets, right?”

“…”

“The situation got a little chaotic because the young lady asked for them, but I’ve forgiven her. Honestly, I’m a little grateful that you’re worrying about me like this.”

But Bella, who had lifted her head with a dignified expression, soon flinched.

Hiana was making a strange expression.

It was too full of amusement to be called expressionless, but somehow a little chilling.

Just then, Hiana opened her mouth.

“Hmm, do you think I’m worried about you, sister?”

Bella blinked in confusion.

“I am worried. If sister bothers that squirrel even one more time, I’m planning to bury you.”

Bella’s lips slowly parted.

“…What?”

Hiana was slender and tall for her age.

She had the complete opposite build from Annellia, and her impression was somehow cool and cold.

Bella unconsciously took a step back.

Hiana spoke softly again as if to remind her.

“Don’t you understand what I’m saying?”

Bella couldn’t give any answer.

Something was wrong.

Wasn’t Hiana just a young lady who had been pestering her brother for a corsage until just moments ago?

The image of her saying ‘I have two pretty ones!’ so innocently was still vivid in her mind, but suddenly what was this…?

“If you bully that kid, I’ll bury you in this social circle.”

Eventually, Bella’s legs gave out and she staggered.

In that instant, Hiana grabbed both of Bella’s wrists and pulled her close.

Bella was startled and tried to shake off her hands, but the grip was too strong for her to move at all.

“Don’t bully the squirrel.”

“Wh-wh-what…?”

“Don’t do things like hazing. Just don’t do anything to her at all.”

“I mean, what is that supposed to—!”

“If you keep doing things like this, I don’t know what I might do. I could make it so you can’t live with your feet planted in the Imperial Capital. Making it so no one stays around you, sister—that’s easy for me, you know?”

Hiana smiled sweetly as she released Bella’s hands.

Then she softly added one last comment.

“If you understand, don’t even come near the squirrel from now on, okay? Make sure not even a strand of your hair is visible to her.”

“Hic, hiic!”

As soon as Hiana let go of her hands, Bella collapsed to the ground.

Hiana stared at her intently before turning around and walking away leisurely.

Her steps were as if nothing had happened at all.

“Right now, this is…”

Bella muttered to herself, pressing her trembling hands against the lawn.

Currently, there was no one around her.

Thanks to having dismissed all the other young ladies, not a single person had witnessed this incident.

“Is she really five years old?”

She had heard that the returned Princess of Longton had just turned five a few days ago.

In other words, she was nothing more than a young child not even half her age.

“But what was that…?”

Her body still trembled from the chilling sense of intimidation she had felt when their eyes met.

Hiana Longton was strange.

She didn’t seem like a typical five-year-old child.

Bella abruptly stood up, intending to confide this fact to her father, Viscount Howell.

However, she couldn’t take a step and stood there blankly, frozen in place.

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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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