Tia’s Smooth Life After Regression - Chapter 145

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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 145

Shurkha neither comforted Tiya nor scolded her to stop crying.

He simply stood there until her sobs subsided, focusing on the sensation of a small heart fluttering like a baby bird in his arms.

As he concentrated on that heartbeat, the strange tension that had been urging and driving him gradually settled.

His breathing became steady and his vision, which had narrowed from running forward with tunnel vision, widened again.

It was when he had completely regained his composure and recovered his usual cold rationality.

“Sniff!”

“….”

“Sniffle!”

“….”

After wiping her nose on Shurkha’s clothes several times, Tiya peeked her head up and asked.

“Sniffle. Father, do you have a handkerchief? My nose keeps running.”

As she said, the child’s face was a mess of tears and snot.

Shurkha took out a handkerchief from his inner pocket.

He was about to hand it to Tiya when she suddenly grabbed his hand and brought it to her nose. Then she buried her face in the handkerchief and once again-

“Sniff!”

She blew her nose refreshingly.

Now I feel a bit better.”

A faint wrinkle formed between Shurkha’s brows as he held the handkerchief that had become damp in an instant.

Instead of putting it back in his pocket, he called for Jarek.

At the same time the sand spirit peeked its head out from the ground that had swallowed the assassin, a deep pit formed.

The unconscious assassin’s head was visible inside, but just as he was about to throw the handkerchief in without caring-

Something strange caught his attention.

“Ugh, my nose keeps running, Father.”

What had stained the plain handkerchief red.

It was blood.

Shurkha’s head turned toward his arms.

Tiya was roughly rubbing her nose with her hand to wipe away the runny nose.

The more she did so, the more her hands and the area around her nose became covered in blood.

Tiya, who belatedly noticed this fact, was startled and opened her eyes wide.

“Huh, huh? Blood?”

Tiya’s head turned toward Shurkha.

Blood trickled down from the child’s nose.

“Father, I have a nosebleed-“

Before she could finish her words, Tiya’s upper body weakly bent backward.

Shurkha quickly supported the child’s back and embraced her.

“Astiya.”

He called Tiya’s name, but the usual response didn’t come.

She had seemed so fine just moments ago. Looking closely, her breathing was shallow and irregular.

Shurkha laid Tiya down on the lawn.

The prominent traces of veins on her neck.

Her bluish lip color, cold sweat, and even slight muscle spasms.

Everything pointed to one thing.

Symptoms of poisoning.

“When on earth did this….”

He looked down at Tiya, who was beginning to groan in pain.

For a moment, he completely lost track of what he should do.

He just stared blankly at the child, then belatedly lifted Tiya into his arms again.

The gears of reason that had completely stopped began to move again with a creaking sound.

First, first he had to save the child.

* * *

Identifying the type of poison that had affected Tiya wasn’t difficult.

A poisoned dagger was found at the scene, and a very small wound caused by that dagger was confirmed on the child’s body.

Moreover, the assassin had also been captured alive.

Furthermore, Shurkha was one of the most knowledgeable people in pharmacology in The Dominion.

All circumstances were hopeful.

However, in the face of one single fact, all of that became meaningless.

The fact that a young child’s body was too fragile to withstand poison.

Tiya was immediately moved to the palace, and the Princess’s personal doctor directly took charge of her treatment. Fortunately, they were able to get past the critical moment, but that was all.

Tiya couldn’t regain consciousness easily.

Even after being moved from the Princess’s Palace to Vladijef Manor, the situation didn’t change.

Shurkha knew well that in such cases, one could only wait for the body damaged by poison to recover and for the patient to regain consciousness.

Because there was nothing else that could be done besides waiting.

So Shurkha chose work.

His workload had originally been heavy, but after this false accusation incident, even ten bodies wouldn’t have been enough.

He had to restore the data that was lost while away from the manor, and he also had to closely examine the subsequent movements of Count Montes and the Prince. The Emperor’s mood was also far from normal. As if he would dismiss him at any moment.

When he was under house arrest, he thought it didn’t matter when he died, but now that he had managed to preserve his life, he definitely wanted to complete the cure for White Flower Disease, which was his long-cherished wish.

‘At the very least, until I can see Astiya wake up-‘

Stop.

Shurkha’s pen, which had been moving non-stop since early evening, stopped moving for the first time.

Shurkha raised his head like someone awakening from a long dream and examined his condition. He had been so distracted that the skin touching his pen was worn away and bleeding.

To think he had been working without even noticing that.

“…I’m not in my right mind.”

He remembered the words of Rodion, who had come to see him earlier that day and shouted.

“With Tiya in that state, can you really focus on work right now?”

“I feel sorry for Tiya, who thinks of you as her father. You disgusting human.”

Shurkha, who had shaken his head, got up from his seat.

In the late dawn hours, the manor was as quiet as if holding its breath, with even the lights in the employees’ lodging turned off. He crossed the corridor without even carrying a lamp.

Walking through the darkness, he suddenly remembered the day Tiya had run away from home.

It was clearly his daughter who had left home without a word, but when Tiya returned, she asked something unexpected.

“…Father, are you angry?”

Then and now, he wasn’t angry.

Because he didn’t know what emotions were.

When Tiya collapsed for an unknown reason.

The day he visited the child’s room, deceived by his aide’s words that the young lady might die and he should see her face one last time.

That day, Tiya made a request.

“Stay by my side until I fall asleep. Even after I fall asleep, please don’t leave.”

Even though he considered it pointless and useless, he stayed by his daughter’s side until she fell asleep. Because there was a contracted time between him and Tiya that had to be kept.

And currently, he still didn’t understand emotions or the meaning of staying by the child’s side.

Yet why did he find himself standing in front of the child’s room like this when deep dawn came?

It was when Shurkha opened the door to Tiya’s room, repeating the unanswerable question to himself.

As if a nail had been driven into his foot, he couldn’t move from the doorway for a long while.

Only after quite some time had passed did he finally manage to step inside, muttering quietly.

“This time, I really thought she might die.”

It had been a week since Tiya failed to wake up.

Though it was only a week, he had a strange premonition that perhaps she would never wake up and would simply stop breathing one day.

Perhaps he was visiting Tiya every night like this to confirm that strangely intense premonition.

“I was certain she would die…”

But the moment he discovered the child groaning and fidgeting with her body.

He realized that what had been binding him was the final image of his wife, Tatiana.

Shurkha approached Tiya’s bed.

The child’s lips were moving constantly. As if she lacked the strength to make sound, no words came out.

It was when Shurkha leaned his head toward Tiya to hear what the child was saying.

“Fa… ther…”

A completely hoarse voice.

The child’s trembling hand brushed against his cheek as if groping for it.

And Tiya asked.

“Father… are you crying?”

To ask such an absurd thing again.

Shurkha didn’t answer.

He simply wiped the cheek where the child’s touch had lingered with his hand, then stopped the motion completely.

A drop of moisture was crushed at his fingertips.

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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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