Tia’s Smooth Life After Regression - Chapter 29

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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 29

“Ah, that’s… that’s a nickname only family calls me… so it’s a bit embarrassing. So for now, could you just call me Valentina?”

Was it a mistake? For a moment, Valentina’s expression seemed terrifyingly scary.

“Mm, okay.”

“Thank you, Tiya.”

With just that one word ‘Tiya’, the disappointed feelings melted away without a trace.

“I’ll think of a cooler nickname too!”

Lev, who had been watching this the whole time, crunched on his cookie and casually threw out a comment.

“Ugh.”

* * *

Late evening. On the way back to her room.

Winter spoke to Tiya, who was already worrying about Valentina’s nickname.

【You go back to your room first.】

“Hmm, Titi seems fitting too… Huh? Where are you going?”

【I have something to check.】

Winter’s gaze as he gave his brief answer was directed toward Valentina entering the room at the end of the corridor.

He had been bothered by Lev’s changed attitude in just one day.

‘He’s not a kid who opens his heart to others that easily.’

Something was there.

Winter, who felt this instinctively, decided to handle the matter he had been putting off today.

【Don’t wander around and go straight to your room. I’ll check your homework as soon as I get back.】

“Belina, Linna too… Mm, okay, I’ll be waiting.”

Tiya waved her hand lazily with a face that showed not even the slightest intention of doing homework.

Winter watched Tiya’s retreating figure heading to her room for a moment, then turned around.

Like that, step by step, as the distance between the two gradually widened to more than twenty steps apart.

“Ow.”

Tiya clutched the area near her heart at a needle-like stabbing pain.

“Huh, huh?”

The sharp pain gradually became more acute. It felt as if a needle was slowly boring deeper into her heart.

Even breathing became frightening and painful, so Tiya clutched at the fabric of her clothes over her chest.

“Ugh!”

Finally, when the needle of pain invaded where it shouldn’t reach, Tiya, sensing something was wrong, opened her mouth to call for help.

“…!”

However, no sound escaped from her throat.

Tiya made rough metallic wheezing sounds as if she might stop breathing at any moment, then lost consciousness while still clutching her chest.

* * *

Winter headed straight to the room where Valentina was staying.

As time permitted, he planned to monitor Valentina and catch decisive evidence.

Valentina’s face as she sat alone in her room seemed to have a completely different impression than before. Her expressionless face looked strangely sensitive and sharp.

【She should have seen this face.】

No. Maybe she would have sparkled her eyes saying this was pretty in its own way as another image.

A moment later.

Fortunately, luck was on Winter’s side.

Valentina, who had been staring only at the window as if waiting for something, suddenly stood up and opened the window that had been closed to keep out the winter wind.

Immediately, as if it had been waiting, a bird flew into the window.

It was very suspicious.

It definitely seemed trained, but it was too small to be used as a messenger pigeon and too plain to be ornamental.

Winter was carefully observing the bird perched on Valentina’s finger.

Suddenly the bird’s beak opened wide,

“Password. Password.”

And it spoke words.

The pitch and intonation were monotonous and somehow unnatural, but it was definitely human language.

【This… it’s a mimic bird, isn’t it?】

A mimic bird. A bird that imitates human speech, mainly used for espionage and such a rare species that even Winter was seeing one for the first time.

Valentina whispered the password.

“Five leaves, thirteen thorns, one heart.”

The bird chirped once, then eventually produced a middle-aged man’s voice.

“Report the personnel within the manor.”

Valentina unhesitatingly conveyed the number of employees at Vladijef Manor and even the security personnel.

A calm expression with mechanical tone.

She seemed to feel no guilt about leaking information about those she had just been with.

【This cunning thing, with a face that looks like it couldn’t kill a bug…】

Grind. The sound of Winter grinding her teeth leaked out.

It was as she expected. Valentina Dantal. He was a spy sent by Dantal.

Just then, the corridor became noisy.

Not only Winter but Valentina also held her breath and watched the corridor’s movements.

Between the sporadic sounds, voices looking for the family doctor could be heard.

Winter was about to dismiss it casually, thinking Lev’s fever had flared up again, when a chilling sight caught her eye.

【Why…】

Her fingertips, which had been translucent to begin with, were slowly becoming blurry.

The next moment, Winter immediately rushed out of the room.

Her ominous premonition was not wrong.

In the middle of the corridor, at the spot where she had parted with Tiya. Between the feet of the employees surrounding that place, one small hand was hanging limply.

“Oh, what do we do! Her breathing is too shallow!”

“Doctor! Haven’t you found the doctor yet?”

Among the flustered maids, Winter swallowed her breath.

Tiya’s condition, having lost consciousness and collapsed, was clearly serious at first glance.

【Tiya?】

Winter quickly tried to check Tiya’s condition but hesitated.

Only then did she realize there was nothing she could do for the child.

Then, a calm yet firm voice rang out.

“I’ll take a look.”

It was Valentina.

He quietly approached, pushed the maids aside, and sat beside Tiya.

Then he calmly checked Tiya’s condition and took out a seed the size of a fingernail from his handbag.

The seed became a flower bud containing an air sac in Valentina’s hand.

Valentina placed it in Tiya’s mouth.

In the silence where everyone held their breath.

The moment Tiya’s eyelids, which had been breathing heavily, trembled, the tightly closed flower bud slowly began to open.

Then her lips, which had turned blue, regained their color, and her breathing gradually stabilized.

At the same time, Winter’s hands regained their form.

She looked back at Valentina with clenched fists.

The spy who had just been selling Vladijef’s information without any hesitation had a rather desperate expression.

If he hadn’t been there, Tiya wouldn’t have been safe. The worried look in his eyes didn’t seem completely false.

Was his intention to send military support to the North in the future really genuine goodwill?

Or was this current face of his the mask?

She had spied to dig into Valentina, but it had only become more incomprehensible.

* * *

It felt exactly like she had chugged down a whole barrel of growth potion.

Her body ached as if her bones were growing all at once, and her vision was hazy with fever.

Tiya groaned constantly in pain, and each time she opened her eyes, she could vaguely guess how much time had passed by seeing the different faces sitting beside her.

Mia and Lev, and sometimes even Valentina.

They all had shadows cast over their faces.

She wanted to tell them she was okay.

But her swollen throat wouldn’t allow even a single word.

At such times, Winter, who always stayed by Tiya’s side, would speak for her instead.

【Don’t worry. Everything will be fine. I’m right here beside you.】

Each time she heard those words, she felt strangely reassured, and Tiya could close her eyes without worry.

As she drifted between the boundaries of dreams and reality, she heard a familiar melody.

Just before falling asleep to that soothing sound, she thought hazily.

‘I’ve heard this music somewhere before.’

Lightning struck her consciousness that was about to completely sink into drowsiness.

‘The memorial box!’

Perhaps she had wound the spring in her sleep.

‘No! I don’t even know how many uses are left!’

Tiya struggled to raise her upper body.

As expected, she was in the middle of remnants from the past.

Dawn, inside a room with the lights off.

She could see the young ducal couple standing beside the cradle.

However, Tiya wasn’t the only one viewing the past memories remaining in the memorial box.

Two figures standing blankly in the darkness.

One was Winter, and the other was…

“Father?”

It was Shurkha.

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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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