Reborn After Betrayal: The Frail True Princess Decides to Give Up

Chapter 273 : Put the Child Down

Despite sensing something was wrong, Celitia didn't have time to investigate what exactly was amiss at this moment.The male owner of the wooden house quickly cleared out a clean bedroom and had Ariel place Marianne on the bed.

The woman of the house hurriedly went to call for people and prepare the tools needed for delivery, with Dorothy also going to help.

Ariel was still trying to use healing arts on Marianne, her palms continuously glowing with white light.

Celitia lay by the bedside, tightly gripping Marianne's hand.

"Your Majesty..."

Looking at that weak, pale face covered with sweat from enduring pain, Celitia felt deeply sympathetic, her eyes gradually reddening.

"...Mama..."

The title she had been holding back finally couldn't be contained, escaping from her throat and floating very softly in the air.

Marianne seemed to hear it and forcefully squeezed her hand back.

"Child, don't worry... I've always been blessed with good fortune and especially good luck. I'll definitely be fine."

She spoke intermittently, "Besides... since you're here, it proves my child will be fine too, right?"

"Yes, you'll be fine." Celitia answered firmly.

Marianne was comforted and slowly closed her eyes, gripping Celitia's hand even tighter.

After a while longer, the woman of the house and Dorothy, along with several other people they had found, rushed into the bedroom carrying hot water and tools.

The already small bedroom was suddenly packed full.

Celitia knew she couldn't help and voluntarily stood up, retreating to the doorway.

Ariel wiped the sweat from her forehead and also followed her out.

"I used healing to treat mother many times. Her physical condition is acceptable now. Given mother's usual strength and endurance, she should be fine."

"That's good," Celitia relaxed slightly. "I also believe that Ma... Her Majesty will be fine."

Ariel didn't hear her near slip of the tongue, her attention falling on the arm Celitia kept holding.

"What's wrong with your arm?"

Ariel hurriedly reached out to support her arm, but as soon as she touched it, Celitia let out a small cry of pain.

Ariel was startled and quickly withdrew her hand: "Does it hurt badly?"

"It might have been hit too hard during the bumping around just now," Celitia explained. "My arm might be cracked or somewhat fractured."

"Why didn't you say so earlier?" Ariel said angrily. "You actually endured it the whole way, still pretending to be fine?"

"Because Queen Marianne's situation was more urgent." Celitia said righteously. "It's just a fracture—enduring it won't kill me."

Ariel glared at her, completely speechless with anger.

What did she mean "enduring it won't kill me"?

This was the first time she'd heard such righteous sophistry!

"Come out with me!"

The Saintess had never been one to reason. She wrapped her arms around Celitia's shoulders from behind and forcibly led her away from the bedroom door with a combination of pushing and carrying.

Pressing Celitia to sit down in a wicker chair, Ariel maintained a stern face as she began using healing arts to treat her.

"You must be very tired. Why don't you rest for a while first?"

Looking at Ariel's slightly pale face, Celitia felt somewhat guilty.

"I'm alright, I am indeed a bit tired, but not to the point where I can't hold on." Ariel said with a fierce expression. "Besides, being tired for a while won't kill me."

Celitia was momentarily speechless.

She threw the words right back so quickly—the Saintess's vindictiveness was really something!

Under Ariel's treatment, Celitia felt her arm's condition gradually improve considerably. At least moving it wasn't as painful as before.

"I only treated it a little, didn't completely heal the wound." Ariel released her hand. "Be careful and don't exert too much force."

"No problem." Celitia readily agreed.

"Also, in the future, if you're injured, you're not allowed to endure it without saying anything." Ariel's face became even more stern. "I don't want to hear words like 'enduring it won't kill me' again."

Wasn't the Saintess being a bit too controlling?

Celitia secretly grumbled in her heart, but her face showed increasing helplessness as she could only answer: "Understood."

"Good, then I'll let you off this time." Ariel was finally satisfied.

If she wasn't letting her off, what was she planning to do?

Knock her unconscious with one punch?

Celitia only dared to complain about this in her heart, not daring to ask Ariel.

Looking at Celitia's expression, Ariel knew she wasn't entirely convinced.

What else could she do?

This person was like this—agreeing nicely with her mouth, but when it came to critical moments, never truly repenting.

Her forehead was also injured, with a blood scab formed at her temple and traces of blood still not wiped clean between her brows.

"Don't move."

Ariel instructed her, then used the water pitcher on the table to pour some water, wetting her own sleeve.

Then, carefully avoiding the wound, she used her sleeve to wipe Celitia's forehead bit by bit.

Celitia cooperatively lowered her head halfway and sat obediently without moving.

The water-dampened sleeve felt slightly cool but not cold, rather quite comfortable.

She smelled the faint soap fragrance on the clothes, clean and fresh.

Ariel was different from those nobles - she didn't use perfume or like incense, always carrying only this light scent.

Very much like her.

As Ariel wiped, she also became somewhat distracted.

When this person sat quietly without moving, with downcast eyes and a peaceful demeanor, she was quite deceptive - cool, weak, and pitiful.

If only her inner self matched her appearance and she was a bit more obedient, then she, Sophia, and others around her could worry less, right?

"Ahhhhh—"

A scream from the delivery room interrupted both Celitia's and Ariel's distraction.

Encouraging voices rose one after another:

"Keep going, Madam!"

"You need to push! Push!"

"You absolutely cannot give up!"

Hearing this, Celitia and Ariel looked at each other, both seeing the pallor on the other's face.

"It's quite..." Ariel searched for an adjective, "thrilling."

"Yes," Celitia replied, "but also so strong and great."

Feeling that the fatigue and pain in her body had mostly subsided, Celitia stood up from the wicker chair and said to Ariel:

"You stay here and watch over the delivery room situation while resting. I'll go walk around this farming household."

Ariel asked: "Do you sense something wrong?"

"A little," Celitia nodded, "but I'm not very certain, so I need to investigate further."

"Alright, go ahead. Tell me immediately if there are any problems."

Celitia wandered around the farming household twice, as well as the grassland near the house.

The magical essence was very dense with faint traces of magical flow, but she found no traces of formations.

This wasn't actually strange - in places where magical essence was naturally dense, such phenomena easily occurred.

But Celitia couldn't ignore her intuition.

There was another possibility: the person who set up the formation was highly skilled and had hidden the traces so well that even she couldn't detect them.

Although she hoped in her heart it was the first situation, Celitia understood the second possibility was much more likely.

To be able to research magical formations to such a pinnacle level, generally only those few scholars dedicated to deep research could achieve it.

But how could they be involved in scheming against Marianne?

Celitia couldn't understand.

Having wandered around twice with no results, Celitia felt frustrated and increasingly anxious.

As she entered the door, Celitia happened to see Ariel excitedly stand up from the wicker chair and rush toward the delivery room.

Then, a loud cry dispersed the irritation in her heart.

It was the cry of new life, also "her own" cry.

So loud and moving, full of vitality.

Celitia also rushed over, excitedly looking toward the bedside.

The woman of the house lifted up the baby, used a cloth to wipe the baby's dirty face, then picked up scissors to cut the baby's umbilical cord.

Marianne on the bed was completely exhausted, eyes closed, her chest rising and falling regularly.

Mother and child were safe.

Seeing this scene, even knowing the outcome, Celitia felt the heavy stone in her chest finally drop.

"Look, Madam!" The woman of the house happily held the child, wanting to show the baby to Marianne. "It's a daughter! So beautiful and healthy!"

"Daughter... my daughter..." Marianne called out weakly. "Let me see... my daughter..."

"Yes, yes." The woman of the house beamed with joy, preparing to bring the child to Marianne.

The next moment, as if water ripples spread out, everything in the delivery room suddenly froze.

Time stopped, space solidified.

A slender, pale hand reached over and took the baby girl from the woman's hands.

"Mmm... it's a newly born human cub. Dirty, with red skin, and all wrinkled, like an ugly little monkey."

Dorothy giggled as she held up the baby girl with both hands, examined her carefully for a while, then hugged her to her chest.

"No matter how many times I see them, I always think human cubs are so ugly. But somehow, they're loved by many people.

"Oh well, it's not like I need to raise her anyway. I just need to complete my agreement with her."

Pretending to adjust non-existent glasses at her eyes, Dorothy held the baby girl and leisurely walked to Celitia's side.

She peered at Celitia for a while, then looked at Ariel beside her, talking to herself:

"Where on earth did these children come from? I specifically kept you around and studied you for quite a while, but still couldn't figure it out.As a result, you accidentally ruined my first plan—the carriage didn't travel to the designated location as predicted. Fortunately, since I was in high spirits, I made many preparations. If plan A doesn't work, there's plan B... it's the same here! Anyway, as long as nothing went wrong, otherwise if I messed things up again because of studying new curiosities, she'd get angry again."

Speaking of this, Dorothy looked up toward the sky outside the window.

"Hmm, still need to wait, wait until both sides' progress is coordinated... this word makes me somewhat irritated. The world needs harmony, but I only like chaos. Oh my, what should I do?"

Dorothy held the baby girl and, not minding the mess on the bed, casually sat beside Marianne.

"Hey, little thing, although you probably can't hear at this time, how about a lullaby?"

She began humming with interest.

After an unknown amount of time passed, Celitia gradually felt her eyelids becoming very heavy and her mind very sluggish.

Like being thrown into the deep sea, everything before her eyes was dark, with only invisible pressure constantly pressing against her entire body.

Something's wrong, something's wrong.

She screamed in her heart.

Willpower broke through all obstacles, her body barely obeyed, her eyelids forced open, and she vaguely saw the scene ahead.

She saw the blonde maid sitting by the bed, holding the baby girl, humming while playing with the baby's tiny feet.

Celitia opened her mouth with difficulty: "Let go... let go of her...!"

Dorothy paused, turned her face in surprise, her gaze revealing some incredulity.

"You can actually wake up from my space-time stasis formation?"

Celitia didn't respond, only repeated: "Let go of her."

"I won't. This child is ours now." Dorothy answered with a smile. "In exchange, we'll return a similar one to you."

"Stop dreaming!"

Feeling she had recovered some mobility, Celitia forcefully pulled at Ariel beside her.

Ariel's body swayed but remained in a daze, not waking up.

"Although I don't know how you broke free," Dorothy observed casually, "waking up your companion like this is useless."

Seeing Ariel had no reaction, Celitia temporarily gave up trying to wake her.

"Give the child back to us, back to Marianne!"

Celitia swayed as she walked toward Dorothy, reaching out to snatch the baby from her arms.

Dorothy only moved aside slightly and easily dodged, casually mocking her:

"Hmm, maybe you should consider sleeping a bit more, or eating more, before trying to snatch the child from me?"

She turned to look outside again and smiled: "Time's about up, and my magic formation is completely ready too."

As Dorothy spoke leisurely, a blue, ghostly circular light suddenly appeared beside her.

"Alright, just one last step and the exchange can be completed. As for your memory, we'll just erase it later."

As her words fell, that ghostly blue circle suddenly blazed with light, and the entire delivery room filled with dense runes.

Celitia stared unblinkingly at those rapidly flowing runes, analyzing the formation's structure.

A dual-attribute stasis formation of time and space, then layered on top was an extremely precise spatial jump formation.

Who exactly was this Dorothy?

No, the so-called blonde maid Dorothy should be the other party's disguise, just for infiltrating Marianne's side.

But to be able to research rare conceptual attributes to this degree, even wracking her brains, Celitia couldn't find corresponding suspicious persons among existing famous figures.

Seeing Dorothy about to place the baby into that blue circle, Celitia became completely anxious.

Calm down, must stay calm.

Celitia secretly warned herself.

She must try to invoke the power within her body.