Tia’s Smooth Life After Regression - Chapter 70

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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 70

 

【We weren’t the only ones after Aurel’s staff. Over the past 200 years, every time the star bloomed, countless people entered this place, the Infinite Library. That’s exactly why people go missing from the Central Library.】

 

As soon as Winter finished speaking, the howling sounds of unidentifiable beasts and monsters echoed from all around.

 

Grrrowl.

 

Right nearby, from around a bent corner, a long shadow stretched out. It was just a shadow, but its form and size were ominous.

 

Its neck was long, its body was massive, and fierce horns protruded from its head.

 

“You never mentioned anything like this!”

 

Tiya reproached Winter while drawing the staff from her waist.

 

However, to face such a terrifying enemy, the cracked beginner’s magic staff was too shabby and pitiful.

 

【Don’t let your guard down. There’s a very fearsome guardian protecting this place.】

 

A guardian that had protected the great mage’s staff for a full 200 years.

 

It wouldn’t be strange for any kind of monster to appear.

 

Tiya’s hand holding the staff trembled violently.

 

Thud.

 

Another footstep echoed, and the moment the guardian’s shadow grew even larger.

 

“Gasp!”

 

Just as Tiya swallowed her breath, the guardian revealed itself.

 

Thud. Thud.

 

Tiya froze in place, unable to even think of swinging her staff.

 

She could only stare blankly as the guardian approached her.

 

Seeing the frozen Tiya, the guardian flicked its tongue as if satisfied, then charged straight at her.

 

“Kyaaaah!”

 

The wooden staff flew far away, and Tiya was helpless.

 

Tiya’s arms flailed through the air before finally embracing the guardian that had burrowed into her chest like a last counterattack.

 

“Th-this is too…”

 

Grrr.

 

“Small, and soft, and warm!”

 

Tiya lifted the guardian in her arms high up.

 

The guardian’s pure white scales reflected firefly-like light, sparkling like smooth pebbles.

 

Its long tail swished back and forth in the air, and the small wings on its back flapped continuously.

 

From every angle, this was definitely…

 

“A dragon!”

 

It was a dragon. Not an adult, but one that seemed to have just hatched from its egg.

 

The small dragon lifted by Tiya tilted its head curiously.

 

The sight was so adorable that Tiya hugged the dragon once more.

 

“I heard dragons were extinct.”

 

【This is a space Aurel created with dimensional magic. And he filled it with all kinds of guardians made with illusion magic.】

 

“This is an illusion?”

 

The soft belly, the fragrant smell like freshly baked bread, and even the warm body temperature.

 

She couldn’t possibly think of it as an illusion.

 

【When illusion magic reaches its peak, there’s no way to distinguish between reality and illusion. Since it even deceives the brain, it can create the hallucination of midwinter cold in the middle of a desert and make you freeze to death.】

 

Tiya shuddered at the terrifying story.

 

Then, as if something puzzled her, she looked back and forth between the dragon in her arms and the scattered bones in the distance.

 

“But no matter how I look at it, this little one doesn’t seem capable of turning people into bones…”

 

【Of course, the culprit who did that is someone else.】

 

“…?”

 

Come to think of it, Winter had said earlier that this place was filled with all kinds of guardians.

 

Winter raised her finger and pointed upward.

 

Following Winter’s finger to look at the sky, Tiya truly froze in place this time.

 

A massive adult dragon was stretching its neck down, looking down at Tiya.

 

“By any chance, are you this child’s mother?”

 

Grrrrr.

 

She wasn’t sure, but it seemed to mean no.

 

“Then father?”

 

This time the dragon didn’t make a loud sound.

 

Even so, Tiya could realize it was a ridiculous wrong answer.

 

Because…

 

Creak—

 

The dragon opened its mouth wide and brought its snout close to Tiya.

 

Chomp.

 

Tiya’s upper body went straight into the dragon’s mouth.

 

Then, instead of chewing, it licked her like sucking on candy.

 

Tiya, who barely escaped from the dragon’s mouth, was covered in dragon saliva.

 

“S-save me, bleh, pfft!”

 

The dragon licked Tiya once more.

 

The dragon only stopped its mouthing when Tiya’s hair was so soaked it stood up backwards.

 

【Now that you’ve been recognized by the head guardian, you won’t be attacked by other monsters.】

 

“I, bleh, ptui, ptah! I didn’t do anything…”

 

【I told you. You satisfied the ‘condition’.】

 

Just as Tiya was about to ask what exactly the condition was.

 

The dragon grabbed Tiya’s collar and threw her onto its back. Then it stretched its neck long and roared once.

 

A cry that sounded like a mix of thunder and metal shook the Infinite Library.

 

Then massive wings flapped, and the dragon carrying Tiya took flight.

 

“I’m falling, I’m falling!”

 

【If you fall from here, you’re dead. Hold on desperately.】

 

“Winter says that so easily because you’re a ghost!”

 

Fortunately, there was a silk collar around the dragon’s neck.

 

Tiya grabbed that collar with both hands and held on with all her strength.

 

The dragon soared above the massive canyon-like bookshelves into the night sky tangled with countless galaxies and stars like exposed cosmic flesh.

 

As soon as the dragon landed after a short while, Tiya, whose arms had lost all strength, let go.

 

Tiya slid down toward the dragon’s tail and crawled up to look around.

 

Green grass and a single massive tree standing firmly on the ground.

 

The tree trunk had a wooden door attached to it, with a sign thoughtfully hanging that read ‘Aurel’s Archive’.

 

However, where Tiya’s gaze was directed wasn’t the entrance to the archive she had been searching for so desperately.

 

Surprisingly, the ground Tiya was standing on was a small island floating in the sky.

 

Thanks to this, Tiya could look down at the entire view of the Infinite Library from this high place.

 

The sight of the library’s endless bookshelves rising like layered mountains was spectacular.

 

Guardians lurking everywhere roared while looking up at the celestial island.

 

It wasn’t a fierce threat, but rather seemed like celebrating the birth of a new master.

 

【Great Mage Aurel was such a genius himself that he wanted his disciples to also possess the qualities of a genius.】

 

Winter, standing beside Tiya, spoke leisurely.

 

【The minimum condition for that was to receive the selection of three constellations like himself. Well, it was natural until that man died, but no one appeared even 200 years after his death.】

 

Though she finally heard the condition, it didn’t register in Tiya’s ears.

 

“Winter… Great Mage Aurel created all of this?”

 

【That’s right.】

 

“Magic is truly amazing…”

 

Tiya’s eyes, looking down at an entire world, sparkled like a universe containing the Milky Way.

 

“I’m so happy I became a mage!”

 

Those words of Tiya’s lingered for a long time in the Infinite Library, and in Winter’s heart.

 

* * *

 

The door leading to Aurel’s Archive opened soundlessly.

 

The tree that held the door was thick enough to require two adults’ arm spans to encircle, and beyond the door stretched a long corridor.

 

Tiya entered without hesitation and walked along the corridor with Winter. Her heart pounded at the thought that she would soon have her very own staff.

 

Tiya’s confident steps suddenly came to a halt.

 

“Huh?”

 

A fork in the path had appeared before her.

 

Stone tablets above each path bore inscriptions.

 

O seeker of magic’s essence.

 

Choose your path.

 

Those who pursue magic’s joy, the left path is your true way.

 

Those who pursue magic’s perfection, the right path is your true way.

 

It seemed like the kind of question that would have a trap.

 

A trap, after coming all this way.

 

However, this time Tiya was confident without needing to ask Winter.

 

“Should we count to three and say the answer together?”

 

【Oh, such confidence?】

 

Beneath the veil, Winter’s lips curved upward.

 

Alright then, one, two, three!

 

“Left!”

 

【Right.】

 

“…”

 

【…】

 

Tiya wore an expression that said she should have expected this.

 

Winter was probably making the same expression beneath the veil.

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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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