Tia’s Smooth Life After Regression - Chapter 4

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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 4

“Forget what I just said. I’m not curious about Winter’s face at all. Even if Winter looks like dough that’s been kneaded and thrown away, I don’t care.”

【….】

“…?”

Winter showed no reaction to Tiya’s words.

Tiya glanced around nervously, wondering if Winter’s feelings were hurt by her request to see her face.

【Ah, I see you’re done babbling now.】

Winter spoke as if she hadn’t been listening to Tiya’s words at all.

【Have you ever heard that the Vladijef family receives the protection of a Great Spirit?】

Though it was a sudden topic, Tiya, being an excellent listener unlike Winter, nodded and pointed to a massive tapestry decorating one corner of the room.

“Of course! That’s the Great Spirit.”

A silver ornamental fish swimming upstream against fierce currents.

The symbol of the Vladijef family and the great spirit that the first family head supposedly subjugated.

However, it’s said that no one knows the true identity of that spirit.

【That Great Spirit’s true identity is the Spirit of Time.】

Until Winter spoke up.

“The Spirit of Time?”

A spirit that tells time?

Tiya tilted her head in confusion.

【That’s right. I am the last head of the Vladijef family, who came from the future guided by the Spirit of Time.】

Tiya couldn’t understand most of what Winter said. However, she pointed out the most absurd part and asked back.

“The last head?”

【In 12 years, the Vladijef family will be completely destroyed.】

“…?”

Tiya’s bright eyes wavered aimlessly.

I’m 8 years old now, so in 12 years… that means…

She tried to bring her hands behind her back and use all her fingers to calculate, but unfortunately, Tiya only had 10 fingers.

After spinning her head around with a serious expression that created a small dimple on her chin, Tiya confidently shouted.

“I’ll be 812 years old…!”

【Twenty years old.】

“Th-that’s what I was going to say. So when I turn twenty, the family will be destroyed… destroyed?”

Tiya’s eyes widened as she belatedly realized what “destruction” meant, then narrowed.

Though she was a bit weak at math, she still knew how awesome the Vladijef family was.

The Vladijef Frost Castle, called the Empire’s ice barrier.

Grandmother, who was a war hero and a living legend herself.

Even the continent’s strongest Northern Knights, composed of knights who commanded spirits.

“Winter. You’re really bad at lying. Who would believe such a thing?”

Just as Tiya nudged Winter’s body with her elbow, telling her to say something that made sense.

“Huh?”

Tiya’s body passed through Winter and tilted, then fell endlessly downward as if being sucked somewhere.

Tiya squeezed her eyes shut and flailed her arms and legs while screaming.

【Kyaaaaaaah!】

However, when she felt no pain even after a long time, she cautiously opened her eyes.

【…Huh?】

Blue sky, white castle, flags bearing the Vladijef crest fluttering in the wind.

【This is… Frost Castle?】

Tiya was now standing atop the beloved northern Frost Castle.

As she unconsciously took a step, her body felt strangely light.

Tiya was startled when she looked down at her feet.

【Wow! I’m flying!】

Her feet were floating about a span above the ground, and her body was translucent. Just like Winter!

Her excitement from bouncing around was short-lived.

Something about the castle’s atmosphere was different from usual. Tiya unconsciously looked outside the castle walls and froze.

A moat flowing with blood and corpses, and half-destroyed spires.

Even barbarians trampling the beautiful snowy landscape as they surged forward like a black wave.

This place was already in the middle of a battlefield.

【Gr-Grandmother! Sasha! Knight uncles!】

She urgently searched for the adults, but no trace of people could be seen.

Then she spotted a familiar figure in the distance.

Where the castle wall was broken.

Though covered in wounds with broken arrows embedded in her…

【Winter?】

That back was definitely Winter’s.

Tiya ran toward Winter, who was standing precariously as if about to collapse at any moment.

Winter, who had been looking down at the battlefield, raised her hand above her head. The family ring on her index finger glowed palely.

Soon, she spoke in a hoarse, cracked voice.

“According to the contract, I command a summoning.”

A tiny voice that had no effect on the battlefield filled with screams.

However, at that moment, time in the world stopped.

The only things moving were Winter, Tiya, and…

【You know I cannot promise that the contract will be fulfilled as intended.】

Only a pitch-black ornamental fish that emerged from the ring and floated around Winter.

She realized instinctively.

‘That’s the Great Spirit of Time…’

“I don’t care. So take me back to the past, three years ago.”

As soon as Winter’s words fell, one of the spirit’s scales peeled off and fell like a dried leaf.

Winter caught it without hesitation and put it in her mouth.

Soon, Winter’s upright form collapsed.

Tiya, who had barely reached the castle wall, reached out to Winter, but her hand could grasp nothing.

【Winter! Are you okay? Does it hurt a lot?】

Even Tiya’s voice couldn’t reach her.

As Winter endured the pain, scratching the stone floor until her nails turned back, she struggled to lift her head.

【The contract is established.】

Crack.

Tiya thought she heard something shatter from within herself.

“Gasp.”

It felt as if someone had grabbed her heart and crushed it. Her breath caught and she couldn’t maintain her balance, falling backward.

Thud!

Tiya was lying in her room at the Vladijef Manor in the Dominion, gasping for breath.

Winter also seemed startled, touching near her heart before looking down at Tiya.

“Wh-what just happened…”

【…You saw it.】

Tiya realized.

What she had just seen wasn’t a dream or illusion, but Winter’s memory.

Tiya barely managed to sit up.

Though the pain had already disappeared, her heart was still pounding.

The collapsed Frost Castle, the blood-stained earth, and even the family ring Winter had been wearing.

All of it pointed to one fact.

【There was a massive barbarian invasion. Strangely enough, they were armed with the Empire’s modern weapons. Normally, barbarians wouldn’t have been a problem, but the North at that time was different from the North you know.】

That Winter’s words were the truth.

Winter spoke in a dry voice about his past, and about Tiya’s future that had yet to come.

Soon a plague called the ‘Mark of Death’ would sweep through the North, and it would take years to develop a cure.

The moment the plague broke out, the Royal Court would seal off the North, and in that isolated land, many people would lose their lives in vain.

The barbarians, who had been strangely quiet all along, would strike during that opening.

【All of Vladijef’s direct lineage died, so I, who was from a branch family, rose to the position of family head, but it was beyond salvaging.】

Vladijef’s direct lineage. Our entire family dies.

Tiya’s chest, which had been moving slowly, began rising and falling faster and faster.

Even so, Winter didn’t stop speaking.

【What happened after that is what you saw. At the very end, as a last resort to turn everything back, I made a contract with a spirit of time and came to the past, but…】

Suddenly Winter extended his hand toward Tiya.

It seemed like he was telling her to grab it and stand up, so Tiya unconsciously grasped that hand.

But just as it had been in Winter’s memory, Tiya’s hand couldn’t hold onto Winter.

No, Winter’s hand couldn’t hold onto anything.

【As you can see, I failed. With a body like this, I won’t be able to change the future. But…】

Winter looked down at Tiya.

Though his eyes weren’t visible behind the veil, Tiya instinctively felt that she was making eye contact with Winter.

【If there’s you, who can see my form and hear my voice, then the story is different.】

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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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