Tia’s Smooth Life After Regression - Chapter 53

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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 53

 

The night before. After hearing from Erin, her dedicated maid, she had gone to see the spirit egg in the forbidden room.

 

But she ended up trapped in the room and fell asleep there… When she woke up, the spirit egg had already disappeared.

 

All the adults were convinced that she had stolen the spirit egg.

 

“I’ll ask again. Did you absorb the stolen spirit egg?”

 

Even Father believed it.

 

“I didn’t! I just looked at it, but it disappeared… If, if I took it, there are sick people, so… so…”

 

She wanted to argue back clearly.

 

But with feelings of injustice, sorrow, and fear, her words got all tangled up in her mouth.

 

Right then.

 

Clang.

 

A heavy key was thrown at Astiya’s feet as she couldn’t even make a proper excuse.

 

“That’s the key to that room that disappeared from the butler’s quarters the night before. How will you explain that it was found in your pocket this morning?”

 

“I, I…”

 

I really don’t know anything about this.

 

I didn’t steal the key, or the spirit egg, or anything.

 

“Please believe me, Father.”

 

Astiya, who had been looking around as if seeking help, looked straight up at Shurkha.

 

Mother and the employees of Frost Castle had told her that Father used to be someone who only cared about family.

 

Though she had never seen Father’s warm smile herself, still… he was her father.

 

She thought he would listen to her words.

 

“Not even worth dealing with. Take her away.”

 

His daughter’s desperate heart couldn’t stir even a breath of wind in the Count’s desert-dry heart.

 

Disappointed and hurt, Astiya stopped carelessly seeking out Shurkha after that incident.

 

As soon as they returned to The Dominion, the youngest lady who had been stirring up the manor alone had finally caused an accident.

 

That news swept through the manor in an instant.

 

“She should just be honest about it. Insisting it wasn’t her when it obviously was.”

 

“Her nature is just wicked, I tell you.”

 

Voices that found fault with and criticized Astiya.

 

“How desperate must the young heart have been to do such a thing.”

 

“Maybe it really wasn’t the young lady’s doing.”

 

Words that might have been worry or concern.

 

But Astiya didn’t have the capacity to distinguish between the two voices.

 

Everyone seemed to see her as a liar. When even Erin, who had believed her words and stayed by her side, quit her job, Astiya truly became alone.

 

At some point, the child developed a habit of looking at the tips of her shoes. All sorts of talk went on in places where Astiya’s gaze couldn’t reach.

 

“Today the young master turned the young lady away at the door again. It seems they had a serious fight this time.”

 

“Don’t get involved unnecessarily. You know how hysterical Young Master Lev can be.”

 

“So when exactly is the youngest lady going to become a Spirit Mage?”

 

Having inherited the blood of the Vladijef Family, she naturally should have been born with spirit sensitivity.

 

Moreover, having completely swallowed the spirit egg, signs of hatching should appear soon. But there was no news at all.

 

When Astiya was also becoming anxious, swept up in people’s talk.

 

“My, my name is Valentina Dantal.”

 

A girl who possessed everything Astiya desperately wanted but could never obtain visited the manor.

 

People’s whispers grew even louder.

 

“Even after harboring a spirit egg, she couldn’t become a Spirit Mage. She never had the qualifications to be a Spirit Mage in the first place.”

 

“Look at Lady Valentina in comparison. She’s a Spirit Mage and gets along well with both young masters.”

 

“Her blonde hair too. Someone who doesn’t know might think Lady Valentina is the youngest lady of this house.”

 

That was the most unbearable thing to hear.

 

‘No. I’m the brothers’ sister. I can become a Spirit Mage too!’

 

Gritting her teeth, she struggled to lift her head to argue with people. But there was no one around Astiya.

 

Only then did she realize. The voices of people she occasionally heard had been leaking out from within herself.

 

Astiya desperately tried to shake off those voices.

 

She became an unconditionally obedient good child, then one day cried and pleaded, and on another day threw tantrums while screaming.

 

Yet the answer that always came back was the same.

 

“Don’t make me waste useless time.”

 

“Sorry Tiya. Next time, I’ll play with you next time. But not now.”

 

“I don’t want to take a walk. Go out by yourself. And call Valentina on your way out. She should be in the garden by now.”

 

Astiya gradually became an unwanted burden.

 

The wound of being rejected by family soon became hatred toward Valentina. So she poured cruel words at that girl.

 

On days when she vented like that, all the ugly words she had hurled at Valentina during the day would return as echoes, bruising Astiya’s heart.

 

As much as she hated Valentina, she hated herself.

 

One day, it seemed like everything was Valentina’s fault, and unable to handle the jealousy that kept painfully pressing down on her bruised heart, she vomited it all out.

 

“This is our house! Go back to your own house!”

 

Then Lev, who hadn’t said much until then, stepped forward.

 

“Stop saying things like that to Valentina.”

 

“But… she’s not even our family.”

 

I’m your brother’s sister. So why do you keep—

 

“If you’re going to keep saying things like that, you go back to the North.”

 

You’re pushing me away?

 

The resentment she had been holding back burst out.

 

“I hate you to death, brother! I’ll never look at your face again!”

 

After blurting that out in anger, she regretted it all night long.

 

After staying awake all night, she went to Lev’s room in the early dawn. Lev’s door, which was always tightly shut as if rejecting Astiya, was slightly open that day.

 

Just that alone made it seem like everything would work out well.

 

I should tell brother that what I said yesterday was a lie. I’ll apologize to Valentina for only saying mean things to her all this time.

 

Maybe the three of us could become the closest trio of friends.

 

But Astiya’s dream couldn’t be realized.

 

“I have something to tell you, brother… Brother?”

 

Because Lev’s soul, swept away by a blazing fever that night, had become a handful of ashes and disappeared forever.

 

The day they held the second funeral at home.

 

Astiya could finally admit it.

 

That she no longer wanted to stay here. No, that she couldn’t stay. Vladijef Manor was no longer her home.

 

“I want to… go back to the North.”

 

Astiya simply missed Grandmother Bear.

 

However, the epidemic that swept through the North showed no signs of subsiding, and the blockade became even more strict, allowing only a few with royal permission to cross the gates.

 

‘Only clergy or high-ranking mages who can protect themselves from the epidemic can cross the northern gates…’

 

After Vladijef Manor stopped being home, becoming a Spirit Mage no longer held any meaning for Astiya.

 

That’s why Astiya headed to the Magic Association with her last hope.

 

That’s how she became a mage.

 

From that day on, Astiya lived and ate at the Mage Towers, thinking only of returning to Grandmother Bear and the beloved Frost Castle.

 

To do that, she had to become a high-ranking mage.

 

Astiya devoted herself to magic, forgetting to sleep or rest. Only then could she pull together her crumbling heart.

 

Every deep dawn, Astiya didn’t mind harshly slapping her own cheeks to drive away drowsiness.

 

Her cheeks quickly swelled up, but she didn’t stop her hands.

 

Smack!

 

“Focus. Are you getting sleepy now?”

 

Crack!

 

“Don’t you even worry about Grandmother Bear and the people of Frost Castle?”

 

She harshly scolded herself, but the book’s contents wouldn’t enter her mind at all, like a foreign language.

 

“Why… why can’t I properly understand even something like this. You idiot. Useless. Defective. Someone like me…”

 

Someone like me would be better off gone.

 

It was when she buried her face in her ink-stained hands.

 

【Apologize!】

 

A sound that seemed to ring directly in her head awakened Astiya like needles piercing her skin.

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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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