Tia’s Smooth Life After Regression - Chapter 11
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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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Tiya’s Smooth Regression Life
Chapter 11
A single tear from Tiya’s wide eyes finally rolled down her cheek.
“Saving the family without my brother would be like cream puff without cream!”
The tears pooling in her blazing eyes sparkled like gold dust.
For the first time, Winter discovered something familiar in this eight-year-old child who had seemed so foreign.
A stubborn obsession that would never bend once she made a decision.
Knowing that her resolve couldn’t be broken, Winter finally surrendered and lowered herself to meet Tiya’s eye level.
Then, as carefully as panning for gold in muddy water, she asked.
【Is Lev’s life worth more than the family’s fate?】
It didn’t sound like a question meant to test her, but rather one asked because she truly didn’t know the answer.
Frustrated, Tiya shouted back as if yelling.
“What kind of question is that? Of course! Lev is my family!”
Family. A bitter smile crossed Winter’s lips.
【Well. Unlike you, family means less than a snowflake to me. So I can’t really understand your feelings, but…】
Winter’s lips curved into a strange arc as she seemed to contemplate, trailing off her words.
Because of the black veil, it was impossible to tell whether that smile was self-deprecating, pure joy, or mockery.
However, the words that followed made the nature of that smile meaningless.
【If you want to save Lev Vladijef, there is one method worth trying.】
Sniff. Tiya wiped her nose and asked, unable to hide her slight suspicion.
“What is it?”
【If Lev’s high fever is caused by a fire spirit, then we have no choice but to solve the problem with a spirit that opposes it.】
A spirit that opposes fire spirits…
“A frost spirit?”
Lightning of realization struck above Tiya’s head.
Right. If Lev could subjugate a frost spirit to cool the fire spirit’s heat!
【Of course, subjugating multiple spirits requires special talent. But the people in this house, or more precisely, Rodion Vladijef, hadn’t been sitting idle until Lev died.】
How could Rodion not have thought of what Winter was thinking?
Spirit mages who had subjugated more than one spirit were extremely rare throughout history, but he had bet everything on that possibility.
The only problem was—
【Humans cannot choose which spirit to subjugate. Even so, Rodion prepared a spirit ritual hoping for a miracle, and performed it just before Lev’s breath stopped.】
Even though she already knew how this story ended, her heart seemed to tighten with tension.
【The result was reportedly successful. But even so, Lev Vladijef died. Why do you think?】
The answer came to mind with cruel ease.
“A frost spirit didn’t come.”
【Right. So praying for a frost spirit to come through a spirit ritual would be foolish. We need to use a different method.】
“A different method?”
【Think carefully. There isn’t just one way to become a spirit mage.】
Ways to become a spirit mage.
Besides using spirit stones to summon spirits, what other method could there be…
“So she really did go in to steal a spirit egg.”
“A spirit egg?”
【Correct.】
“B-but no one knows what kind of spirit will be born from a spirit egg. Without seeing what’s born—”
Ah. There is someone. Someone who might have seen what would be born in the future. Right in front of her.
Tiya looked up at Winter with eyes that sparkled, her tears having evaporated.
This time, Winter’s lips curved in an arc that clearly meant affirmation.
【That’s right. I know the location of the spirit egg from which a frost spirit will be born.】
“Winter…!”
Tiya unconsciously leaped forward to hug Winter, only to tumble straight to the ground.
Her knees hit the floor hard enough to make a thud, but Tiya didn’t even notice the pain.
Winter sat down beside Tiya, who was sprawled on the ground with her face flushed red from excitement.
【Don’t celebrate yet. There’s still one problem with this too.】
Tiya nodded without worry.
Whatever the problem was, she felt like she could overcome it together with Winter.
【Spirit eggs are so rare that they only occasionally appear even in black markets. Why do you think that is?】
“Because they’re super super super hard to find?”
【That’s part of it, but it’s also because you need a mage to harvest a spirit egg rather than absorbing it on the spot.】
Suddenly, a mage?
Tiya slowly sat up.
She rubbed her knees, which were now starting to hurt, and tilted her head.
She had naturally heard about mages before. But she had never felt any interest or curiosity about them.
“Oh~ those weaklings who wave wooden sticks around?”
【…】
Winter’s jaw tensed.
Then Winter muttered in the most ominous voice Tiya had ever heard from her.
【…You’re going to regret saying that.】
It would be a little while before Tiya understood what those words meant.
* * *
The next day.
Since arriving at The Dominion, Tiya went on her first outing.
Mia, Tiya’s dedicated maid, had planned the perfect course to tour all the tourist attractions of The Dominion for her young mistress.
However, there was something she hadn’t anticipated…
“Do you really like that pebble—I mean, gemstone? There are plenty of much shinier and prettier ones available.”
“It’s not just a gemstone. This is a shooting star, isn’t it?”
It was Tiya’s rather peculiar taste.
Tiya’s lap in the carriage was full of crude gemstones she had personally bought while going around the market stalls.
‘No matter how I look at them, they just look like pebbles.’
Tiya held each stone up to the sunlight and polished them with her handkerchief as if they were the world’s finest jewels.
Rather than making the pebbles—no, meteorite fragments—shine, only the handkerchief made of precious silk was torn to shreds.
Tiya’s head, which had been seriously working on the meteorite fragments, suddenly turned toward the carriage window.
At that moment, The Dominion’s famous landmark, the Magic Association Headquarters, was sparkling brilliantly under the bright sunlight.
Tiya couldn’t take her eyes off that building gleaming entirely in pure white for a long time.
“Are you interested in mages?”
“…I’ve been interested since yesterday.”
Mages were certainly beings that children of that age would admire, but she hadn’t expected the young lady to take interest in them.
Mia, who had passed the notoriously difficult Vladijef employment interview, was actually more knowledgeable about spirit mages than ordinary people.
Thanks to that, though she didn’t know the detailed reasons, she knew that spirit mages and mages were opposing existences.
‘What was it again? Something about spirits disliking magic?’
Most high-ranking noble families employed at least one mage in their manor, but the reason Vladijef Manor had no mages was because of that.
“Does Mia know much about mages?”
“Of course. Believe it or not, my childhood dream was to become a mage.”
Mages were a regular subject in children’s fairy tale books.
Chosen by the stars, they could fly through the sky, create golems loyal to them, and make the world more prosperous.
Though she couldn’t tell the young lady, mages were overwhelmingly more well-known than spirit mages.
Both are rare abilities, but in The Dominion where natural forces are weaker than in the North, it’s harder to see Spirit Mages, and most importantly, their social contributions differ.
Magic tools exclusive to nobles, magical potions, and barriers protecting bank vaults were all creations of mages.
Of course, now that I’m fully grown and thinking back on it…
“In short, they’re chosen weirdos.”
I could now see that most mages were either social misfits, mad scientists obsessed with research, or reclusive loners who had seizures when exposed to sunlight.
“That’s why I think Spirit Mages are much cooler.”
I was confident that even my final comment was perfect.
“Weirdos… So mages really are…”
For some reason, the young lady’s expression became unspeakably gloomy.
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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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