Tia’s Smooth Life After Regression - Chapter 57

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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 57

 

Rodion’s shoulders, which had been heaving as he gasped with his face covered, flinched.

 

“Tiya?”

 

Rodion staggered and turned his body.

 

“D-don’t come… Tiya, not right now…”

 

“What’s wrong, brother? Are you hurt somewhere?”

 

It was when 4-year-old Tiya innocently reached out her hand toward Rodion.

 

Noir, who had been quietly coiled around his wrist, suddenly lunged at Tiya.

 

“No, Noir!”

 

Snap!

 

4-year-old Tiya, bitten on the neck by the snake no bigger than an adult’s finger, couldn’t make a sound.

 

It was Rodion who let out a terrible scream.

 

“Tiya!”

 

The fear and terrible guilt that appeared on Rodion’s face was enough to take Tiya’s breath away for a moment.

 

And the next moment.

 

Bang!

 

The sound of a door closing came from somewhere, and she felt as if her soul was being sucked somewhere.

 

When she came to her senses, Tiya and Winter had been thrown out of the Great Hall and were looking up at the magnificent marble door from their original position.

 

* * *

 

The first thing Tiya learned in the harsh North was the spirit of “If you try, you can do it!”

 

It won’t work? That’s because your effort is insufficient.

 

Still won’t work? That’s because your eeeeffort is insufficient!

 

With that mindset, Tiya had even overcome the fire bear that once tried to devour her.

 

There was no fear that couldn’t be overcome with effort.

 

Except for one thing – reptiles like snakes.

 

Sitting with her back against the Great Hall door that would no longer open, Tiya muttered.

 

“So that’s why I was afraid of snakes.”

 

Even though she couldn’t even remember being bitten by Noir.

 

Tiya reflected on the memories she had seen beyond the door she was leaning against.

 

She had seen the quarrel between Grandmother and Father.

 

Suddenly remembering Grandmother secretly searching for Father’s room at Frost Castle made her stomach ache.

 

Her desire to quickly restore Father’s emotions and reconcile him with Grandmother grew even stronger.

 

And she had seen Rodion suffering terribly when Noir bit her.

 

Though snakes were scary, she wanted to tell her brother that she actually didn’t remember what nightmare she had at all.

 

To do that, she first had to wake up from this lucid dream.

 

Tiya, who had gained new motivation, jumped up and shouted energetically.

 

“Alright! Now tell me about the hypothesis Winter mentioned.”

 

“…”

 

“Winter?”

 

Winter, standing with her back against the wall, was so lost in deep thought that she didn’t notice Tiya calling her.

 

Seeing the veil fluttering faintly with her breathing, Tiya thought she might be able to pull off that veil right now…

 

But soon shook her head vigorously.

 

A righteous Northern child couldn’t do such a petty thing!

 

“Winter, what are you thinking about?”

 

Unlike before, she could now poke Winter’s side firmly to get her attention.

 

Winter, who was startled, answered nonchalantly that she was ‘recalling old times.’

 

Then she brought up the main topic.

 

“Then I should tell you about the hypothesis I came up with.”

 

Winter’s gaze swept over the interior of the strange castle once before settling on Tiya.

 

Then she tapped her temple and continued speaking.

 

“Let’s assume there’s a labyrinth of memories in people’s minds. Just like this castle. This labyrinth has countless rooms, and each room stores memories. Do you understand so far?”

 

Tiya nodded confidently.

 

“The shadow spirit’s ability must be to trap the person it bites inside a room in the labyrinth. In rooms with good memories, they’d just have happy dreams. But if it’s the opposite…”

 

Winter paused and caught her breath for a moment.

 

Tiya picked up where she left off.

 

“They’d have nightmares.”

 

“Right.”

 

“Then what about brother’s words to find the door?”

 

“He must be talking about the only entrance and exit of the room.”

 

And the problem starts from here.

 

“But I didn’t come out through a door when I woke up from the nightmare earlier…”

 

Forget the door, she had pulled out another version of herself through a mirror.

 

“That’s why you’re in this ambiguous state now. You escaped through an irregular route instead of the proper path and ended up in the corridor of the labyrinth.”

 

“Wh-what should I do then?”

 

“As I said before, either someone wakes you up in reality, or you’ll have to wait for this memory labyrinth to collapse.”

 

“The memory labyrinth collapses?”

 

“Yes. Originally, this would be a place where even the owner of the labyrinth couldn’t wander around. As evidence of that—”

 

Winter’s finger pointed somewhere.

 

Following her finger, the path that Tiya and Winter had walked had somehow become pitch black and nothing could be seen.

 

“Very slowly, but the labyrinth’s domain is gradually collapsing.”

 

Thus, when the labyrinth was completely swallowed by darkness, Tiya would finally wake up completely from Noir’s nightmare.

 

Though it was just a hypothesis, they had found a vague escape method.

 

Even so, Tiya felt impatient.

 

Because she wanted to quickly wake up from the nightmare and go find Rodion.

 

Unable to wait quietly, Tiya finally spoke up.

 

“I can’t just wait like this. I need to investigate the labyrinth more and see if there’s an escape route!”

 

Tiya rolled her eyes, worried she’d be scolded for being willful again. Surprisingly, Winter didn’t object.

 

As Tiya and Winter proceeded with their second exploration of the memory labyrinth, at some point the labyrinth’s structure began to take on order, and a corridor appeared that stretched straight ahead without a single fork.

 

Like before, various doors lined the corridor, but their spacing was so obsessively regular that it looked like an art gallery with paintings hung up.

 

Tiya felt it intuitively.

 

“This isn’t my memory. My mind isn’t this neat!”

 

Winter clicked her tongue as if something didn’t sit right with her, then examined the corridor.

 

Then, as if remembering something, she made an “ah” sound.

 

“What is it? Did you figure out something again?”

 

“…Maybe from here on, this might be Rodion’s memory labyrinth. He was also bitten by his spirit along with you.”

 

Even if it’s the same memory labyrinth, each person’s looks so different.

 

Tiya, who had been nodding, suddenly cried out in horror at a thought that occurred to her.

 

“Wait a minute. If brother was also bitten by Noir, that means he’s having nightmares right now!”

 

“That would be the case, I suppose.”

 

“This isn’t the time for this, I have to save him!”

 

“…How?”

 

Winter spread her arms to indicate the endlessly continuing corridor. And the countless doors lined up along that corridor too.

 

Though it seemed overwhelming, isn’t this exactly when determination is needed?

 

And if a little luck were added to that, it would be perfect.

 

Tiya, who had been watching the doors with sparkling eyes, soon chose one.

 

It was a bright red door with trumpet vine flowers hanging down.

 

Since it was a door in someone else’s memory labyrinth, Tiya politely knocked knock-knock-knock first, then carefully opened the door and peeked inside.

 

“Brother, are you here?”

 

The warm spring breeze blowing from inside tousled Tiya and Winter’s hair.

 

A child’s clear voice could be heard from afar.

 

It didn’t seem to be a nightmare, at least.

 

Still, just in case, Tiya and Winter carefully stepped inside.

 

“One, twooo, threeee…”

 

As they pushed through the wisteria leaves hanging like curtains and moved forward, the child’s voice grew louder.

 

And they arrived at a lawn bathed in spring sunlight.

 

A boy around Tiya’s age was burying his face against a large tree trunk, counting.

 

‘Who is that?’

 

Next to the boy sat a curly-haired baby who looked barely two or three years old, clutching the boy’s pant leg and sucking on his fingers.

 

Both children had platinum hair that sparkled brilliantly under the sunlight.

 

Horror slowly spread across Tiya’s face.

 

Could it be—

 

“Rodion?”

 

“Isn’t that Lev Vladijef?”

 

Tiya and Winter exclaimed simultaneously.

 

As if hearing their voices, the larger boy raised his head.

 

Rodion’s face truly overlapped with those youthful features.

 

“Ready or not, here I come!”

 

Seven-year-old Rodion shouted and began bustling around the small garden, holding his two-year-old brother’s hand.

 

Tiya found herself unconsciously following behind seven-year-old Rodion.

 

And before long, Rodion’s voice echoed through the garden.

 

“Found you, Father!”

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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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