Tiya’s Smooth Regression Life Chapter 1

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The northernmost reaches of the Empire.

 

What ruled that land were blizzards, merciless cold, and the great overlord of the North—the Vladizev family.

 

The fearsome notoriety that said, “If you cry, the Vladizevs will come for you!”—a phrase that made children freeze in terror rather than stop crying—reached its peak in the era of the current Grand Duke.

 

A ruthless beast who slaughtered every collateral branch and even severed ties with her only son to seize the castle, showing no mercy even to her own blood.

 

The bloodless predator now wandered through the snowy fields as if out hunting a post-meal snack.

 

Footprints small like those of a snow rabbit, round like pebbles.

 

Those were the Grand Duke’s quarry for the day.

 

Before long, she found what she was looking for in the distance.

 

A tiny child with jet-black straight hair and bright yellow eyes shining like starlight.

 

As the girl dragged a knight’s uniform cape behind her like a mantle, she looked exactly like a baby crow that had tumbled from its nest.

 

“…Are you a spiri’?”

 

The child was speaking to someone.

 

The next moment, after identifying the child’s conversation partner, the Grand Duke’s silhouette shot forward as if vanishing from where she stood.

 

“Then, um, wanna be fwiends with Tiya?”

 

Just as the innocent words left the child’s mouth and the other party was about to reply—

 

The Grand Duke grabbed the child by the scruff of the neck like lifting a kitten and slashed the air with her free hand.

 

And then—

 

Crack!

 

A bolt of lightning struck straight down from a clear sky, hitting the brown bear that had been standing in front of the child just moments ago.

 

The bear, its crown scorched pitch-black, staggered—

 

Thud!

 

—and collapsed in a cloud of powdery snow.

 

Tiya, who had been blinking in shock, quickly flailed her limbs to escape the Grand Duke’s grip. 

 

Then she clung to the bear as if hugging it and shouted,

 

“S-Spiri’!”

 

But the bear did not move. Tiya puffed out her cheeks and looked up at the Grand Duke.

 

One of the Grand Duke’s eyebrows crooked upward.

 

The lightning-shaped scar running across her left eyelid made the gesture overwhelmingly intimidating on its own.

 

Any ordinary child would have burst into tears.

 

However, as if to prove she truly shared the Vladizep bloodline, this little child barked back defiantly.

 

“Granma kilt Spiri’! He said he’d be my fwiend!”

 

“He’s only unconscious. And that’s not a spirit—it’s a brown bear. It has a physical body, does it not?”

 

“B-bwown…… bear?”

 

Only then did the child seem to realize something was wrong. She let go of the bear, opening and closing her small hands.

 

She soon brought her hand to her nose and sniffed, her face scrunching up like a pickled cucumber.

 

“Stinky!”

 

The child promptly buried her hands deep into the accumulated snow.

 

Seeing her so nonchalant, she clearly had no idea that her silent disappearance had thrown the Frost Fortress into a total panic.

 

“Why did you come out here alone?”

 

Despite the sharp, interrogative voice, Tiya wasn’t intimidated and answered answered bravely.

 

“I heard there’s lotsa spiri’ eggs in the North, so I came to look.”

 

She must have overheard the servants gossiping.

 

‘Spirit eggs’ were condensed natural energy said to be found only very, very rarely in wild lands.

 

It was said that if someone with spirit affinity nurtured a spirit egg, a spirit would hatch and they would become a spirit mage—but the Grand Duke had never bothered to seek one.

 

The Vladizevs were a great family blessed by a High Spirit.

 

Since every member was guaranteed to be chosen by a spirit during the ritual, there had never been a direct descendant who wasn’t a Spiritist. There was simply no need.

 

But to the granddaughter before her, it seemed desperately important.

 

Tiya, whose hands were turning bright red from being buried in the snow, rolled her eyes and spoke bluntly.

 

“Granma. Tiya’s not a spiri’ mage……. Is that why Daddy sent Tiya to the North?”

 

A Vladizev rejected by spirits.

 

The only non-Spiritist born into a family where becoming one was a given. 

 

The first time the Grand Duke met Tiya with such a label attached was at her daughter-in-law’s funeral.

 

That was when she realized her son, whom she thought was living harmoniously with his family in the capital, had long since been broken.

 

“Why would you bring along defective goods that even spirits have turned away from?”

 

She could not entrust her granddaughter to someone who spoke such words, and so she brought the child here.

 

“Even if Daddy threw me away, Tiya still wanna be Daddy’s daughter. So, I gotta be a spiri’ mage.”

 

Why had it taken her so long to realize that it wasn’t normal for a four-year-old not to cry?

 

Even now, her granddaughter was clenching her reddened fists tightly, pretending to be brave.

 

“Astiya.”

 

The Grand Duke once again briskly lifted the child by the scruff, bringing her to eye level, and corrected her misunderstanding.

 

“You’ve been mistaken all this time. You weren’t abandoned……”

 

“…?”

 

“You were kidnapped. By this grandmother.”

 

“…!”

 

Shock washed over Tiya’s face, wrinkling it like a dried plum. Soon, chicken-dropping-like tears fell from her amber eyes.

 

“I hate Granma!”

 

As if a dam had burst, she wailed loudly.

 

“I wanna go home! Send me to Mom and Dad! I wanna see my bwuthers!”

 

At last, the child’s festering, wounded heart was laid bare.

 

No matter how wretched the parents, to a four-year-old, they are the entire world. There was no way she didn’t miss her separated family. 

 

Swallowing the truth she could not bring herself to say, the Grand Duke pulled her granddaughter into her arms.

 

“You little cream puff, from now on you’ll learn how to grow strong under this grandmother. When you’re strong enough—body and mind—to knock down a brown bear, then I’ll send you home. Can you do that?”

 

Between hiccupping sobs and gasping breaths, a surprisingly sharp voice rang out.

 

“It’s not cweam puff. Hic. I’m Tiya.”

 

Tiya clenched her tear-soaked fists tight and spoke clearly through her nasal voice.

 

“Tiya, hic, can do it. Hic, I will.”

 

From that day on, Tiya’s dream for the future was to become a strong Northerner like her grandmother.

 

“A healthy mind dwells in a healthy body. You must not neglect training of either heart or body.”

 

Tiya swung her wooden sword until her small, soft hands hardened with calluses,

 

“Strength is proven not by defeating others, but by not giving up. You must not become complacent.”

 

and learned to stand back up no matter how many times she fell.

 

Thanks to that, Tiya grew strong enough that she could give a hungry brown bear a solid flick on the forehead.

 

And so, as Tiya grew up sturdy and strong, the day of her eighth birthday arrived.

 

[In celebration of the Sacred Festival, we invite Astiya Vladizev to attend the consecration ceremony.]

 

An invitation arrived from the Grand Temple in the capital.

 

* * *

 

The Sacred Festival, during which priests bestowed blessings upon eight-year-old children, praying for their well-being.

 

Being invited to the Grand Temple was a privilege enjoyed by only a handful of high-ranking nobles, but the Grand Duke had no intention of sending her granddaughter to the capital.

 

Just then, a commotion arose outside the window.

 

“Kkahahaha, everyone, look at this!”

 

Looking out, she saw the carcass of a brown bear loaded onto a dog sled.

 

And Tiya, standing triumphantly with one foot planted on the bear’s head.

 

Each time the child opened her mouth in a grin, her unusually sharp canines gleamed in the sunlight.

 

“Grandma!”

 

Spotting the Grand Duke at the second-floor window, Tiya hoisted her crossbow high.

 

“Look! I caught a brown bear!”

 

“You’ve become quite the little Northerner.”

 

Of course. That’s my granddaughter.

 

Just as a satisfied smile formed on her lips—

 

“So now I get to go to Daddy and my bwuthers!”

 

The archbishop’s invitation crumpled in the Grand Duke’s hand.

 

“…You are not ready to go yet.”

 

Yes. Not yet.

 

If that fragile thing went to the capital now, she would be battered this way and that until she was flattened.

 

Having made her decision, she looked down again—but Tiya was nowhere to be seen.

 

Where had that little bean rolled off to already?

 

The answer came from behind her.

 

Sometime in the blink of an eye, Tiya had run up the stairs and was shouting indignantly.

 

“Northerners don’t say two things with one mouth, right? I can catch brown bears now!”

 

“Just because you caught a brown bear the size of a booger—”

 

“It’s not a booger! Then try stuffing that brown bear up Grandma’s nostril!”

 

“All right. You think I can’t?”

 

She would slice that bear up fine and shove it right up there.

 

But looking at the bear—far too large for any nostril—she realized something.

 

The one not ready to let the child go was none other than herself.

 

Just then, reports came in that the epidemic spreading up from the southern territories was growing alarming.

 

In case of emergency, it would be better to have her granddaughter stay somewhere safe for a while.

 

More than anything, wasn’t this what her granddaughter wanted?

 

To hold her back any longer would be nothing but an old woman’s selfishness.

 

In the end, the Grand Duke allowed Tiya to go to the capital.

 

On the day Tiya departed for the capital.

 

All the servants of the Frost Citadel and the northern knights gathered to see her off.

 

Amid sniffles and quiet tears, only the Grand Duke’s expression remained solemn.

 

“I’ll be back.”

 

Tiya stepped onto the carriage footboard dejectedly, watching her grandmother’s mood.

 

“Astiya.”

 

When she turned back, the Grand Duke spoke with a stern face.

 

“I grant permission for a heart attack.”

 

“Hmph, you should’ve said so sooner!”

 

As if she’d been waiting for it, Tiya hurled herself forward and clung to her grandmother.

 

At her granddaughter’s affection, rubbing her forehead against her chest, the Grand Duke’s glacial heart melted away.

 

She patted the child’s back out of habit.

 

It had been four years since she took the child in.

 

The child still calls for her mother and father in her sleep.

 

She had thought she could never fill the hole left in this child’s heart.

 

But after breathing in her grandmother’s scent, Tiya gently lifted her head and smiled softly.

 

“Grandma. You miss Daddy too, don’t you?”

 

The Grand Duke’s hand, patting her granddaughter’s back, stopped.

 

“You sneak into Daddy’s room sometimes. I know all about it.”

 

Just as the Grand Duke had been watching over her granddaughter, Tiya had been watching over her grandmother as well.

 

Before Tiya arrived, what filled this castle—rather than a crow-like child’s laughter—had been her son’s voice.

 

“Come on, everyone, look at our Rodi. My wife gave birth to an angel!”

 

When the first grandchild was born, her son had paraded through the entire castle, holding the baby high and boasting.

 

“Mother. For Lev’s health, we need the holy power of a high priest. I will leave the North and go to the capital.”

 

Until the day he left his lifelong homeland for his second child’s sake, laughter had never left the Frost Citadel.

 

“When I meet Daddy, I’ll tell him to make up with Grandma. Just trust Tiya!”

 

“That fool is beyond hope.”

 

“Hey! No mean words!”

 

Tiya mimicked her grandmother’s tone and tapped the back of the Grand Duke’s hand.

 

“But still, if you miss me sooo much, you gotta come kidnap me anytime!”

 

With those words, the carriage carrying Tiya slowly disappeared from view.

 

Just like the day her son, his wife, and her grandchildren had left.

 

When would the children who had departed return?

 

With nothing left to do but wait, the Grand Duke turned away.

 

Perhaps tonight, instead of her son’s room, she would go to visit her granddaughter’s room.