Tia’s Smooth Life After Regression - Chapter 87

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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 87

At his threatening gesture, the maids stepped forward as if to protect the Princess.

“Your Highness the Prince. It would be best if you returned to your quarters to change clothes. We’re concerned that unsavory rumors might spread.”

Only then did the Prince look down at his blood-stained appearance. Tsk, he clicked his tongue and wiped the blood from his cheek.

“…Right. I need to tend to my sword as well.”

The Prince sheathed his sword and turned away without hesitation.

The maids hurriedly supported Anaël.

“Your Highness, are you alright?”

“To treat the Princess this way. If Her Majesty the Empress knew, she would be shocked.”

Though the maids were half-sobbing, their voices didn’t properly reach Anaël. She barely managed to gather her dazed mind and asked.

“Wh-where is Astiya?”

“She’s still in the garden. …They say the wolfhound is unlikely to survive…”

“I see.”

The Princess staggered as she began to walk.

Her struck cheek burned belatedly. But her insides hurt more than her cheek. Something unfamiliar seemed to be boiling up inside her.

Was it fear of unjust violence? Or perhaps shame at being slapped in front of the maids?

Maybe she was simply confused by seeing her brother’s violent side for the first time.

Anaël headed to the garden, embracing this pain whose identity she couldn’t understand.

Her steps grew faster, forgetting etiquette and almost running. As the maids had said, Tiya was still in the garden.

With the beast’s head resting on her knees.

“Your Highness, it’s dangerous. Please don’t go near.”

Anaël brushed off the maids’ restraint and stood beside Tiya. She was constantly whispering into the drooping wolfhound’s ear.

“…The snowy mountains are a very beautiful place. You pull sleds so well that you’re like indispensable companions to the Northerners. Even forests with snow piled up to our ankles are no problem when you’re there.”

She could see the wolfhound’s eyes gradually losing their light in Tiya’s arms. She wanted to look away from those eyes, but somehow couldn’t turn her head.

“Brave and strong Lugnir’s wolfhounds. You are the pride of all Northerners.”

With those final words, the light disappeared from the beast’s eyes. Tiya gave the wolfhound one last tight embrace.

Suddenly, Anaël understood everything.

What had just died here wasn’t the Prince’s hunting dog.

“I’m afraid of His Highness the Prince.”

It was a Northern citizen who had been brutally slaughtered.

What was seething inside her heart right now was…

“Listen well. We were born to take revenge.”

Anger at herself for not being able to firmly say that wasn’t true.

* * *

A place for the Prince’s hunting dog, Kar, was prepared in one corner of the Princess’s Palace garden.

The maids objected, saying it wasn’t proper etiquette to bury a beast’s corpse where a member of the Royal Court resided, but Anaël uncharacteristically refused to bend her will.

Under the tallest zelkova tree in the garden.

The dog’s corpse, placed in a paulownia wood box, was laid to rest in the ground the servants had dug deep.

Just as the box’s lid was about to be covered.

“Wait a moment!”

Tiya, who was late from changing her blood-stained clothes, shouted breathlessly.

Tiya cut a handful of the wolfhound’s fur with scissors and tied it with thread.

“Why are you doing that?”

To the Princess’s question, Tiya answered awkwardly.

“When I return to the North later, I want to bury it in my homeland.”

“…I see.”

Though she pretended to be indifferent, Anaël actually pondered Tiya’s words the entire time the dirt was being covered.

When you return to the North…

‘So she wasn’t planning to stay in The Dominion permanently.’

Right, of course. She had been living in the Vladijef Lands all this time. So when Astiya returns to the North…

“When I become Emperor, I’ll trample the North so that not even a blade of grass can grow.”

Suddenly Anaël’s hand gripped Tiya’s sleeve.

Tiya, who was preparing to leave, looked back at Anaël.

Do you have something to say to me?

Tiya, who was waiting for the Princess’s words without showing impatience, widened her eyes.

She hadn’t noticed because of the bonnet, but one side of the Princess’s cheek was swollen red.

“Oh? Your Highness, your cheek is swollen! I’ll ask them to bring ice.”

The Princess didn’t let go of Tiya, who was about to step forward immediately. She barely opened her mouth with a choked voice.

“Can’t you… not go back?”

“Pardon?”

“I wish you wouldn’t return to the North.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’m not leaving right away—”

“Right, come to think of it, you said you liked how splendid the Imperial Palace was, didn’t you? Then how about staying in the palace as my maid? I’ll give you a room for yourself. When you’re older, I’ll ask Her Majesty the Empress to introduce you to a powerful spouse who will protect you…”

Anaël, who had always shown only a calm demeanor, was rambling. She seemed not to know what she was saying.

She was just desperately trying to hold onto Tiya.

“I can’t become Emperor, but I’ll give you everything you want. So don’t go to the North and stay in The Dominion.”

Suddenly Tiya seemed to know who had done that to the Princess’s cheek. And why she was so desperately trying to hold onto her.

After thinking for a moment, Tiya gently removed Anaël’s hand that was gripping her collar.

“I’m fine.”

She said it once more with emphasis so Anaël could calm down.

“Everything will be fine, Your Highness.”

Because I will protect everyone and change the sad future too.

Did she realize she couldn’t change Tiya’s mind?

Thud. Anaël’s hand lost strength and slipped from Tiya’s hand.

Anaël bit her lips tightly and lowered her head. Just like when she hid her expression behind a parasol or bonnet.

“If I get the chance someday, I’ll show Your Highness around the North.”

Tiya smiled without a wrinkle until the end and turned around.

Anaël moved her lips, but in the end, no words came out. In the end, she let Tiya go like that.

* * *

Tiya couldn’t bring herself to lift her head. This was a task Winter had trusted her with.

“Sorry, Winter. The nation-toppling beauty operation failed.”

【To be honest, from the moment you named it the ‘nation-toppling beauty operation,’ I thought it was doomed.】

Fortunately, Winter didn’t seem angry.

But she was hurt by his words that he hadn’t expected anything at all, and pouted without realizing it.

“I can be a nation-toppling beauty too if I put my mind to it. I can use tricks, squeeze out tears, sow discord, and even laugh evilly like a villain saying ‘Kuhuhuh, just as planned.'”

【Oh really? Then let me ask you. If you could go back to earlier, wouldn’t you confess your true intentions to the Princess?】

“Of course I would…!”

“Of course?”

It was a question with an obvious answer.

But Tiya couldn’t confidently say she would do that.

In the end, after pondering for a long time, what came out of Tiya’s mouth was a rather deflating answer.

“I’m not sure.”

She probably wouldn’t suddenly confess ‘Please become the emperor!’ like before.

But restraint would only last so long—eventually, she would have honestly revealed her true intentions.

Because she had come to know.

“Yes. I will take full responsibility for all the fur for the fox stole His Majesty will wear. Of course, I haven’t forgotten my sister’s either.”

“Brother, you know. Even though he doesn’t look it, he has a tender heart.”

Even though he appeared that way, the Prince was family with Princess sister through thick and thin.

“But I understand that with the femme fatale strategy, I’ll never see Princess sister smile again.”

【See? You’re lacking in this and that to become a femme fatale.】

“What do you mean by this and that?”

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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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