Tiya’s Smooth Regression Life – Chapter 11

Author: rolypoly

A single tear finally slipped from Tiya’s wide-open eyes and traced down her cheek.

“What’s the point of saving the family without Brother? That’s like a cream puff without the cream filling!”

The tears clinging to her blazing gaze glittered like flecks of gold dust.

For the first time, Winter saw something familiar in this eight-year-old child who had always felt foreign to her.

A stubbornness like sheer tenacity that refused to bend once she had made up her mind.

Knowing that this resolve wouldn’t be broken, Winter ultimately lowered herself, as though surrendering, and brought her eyes level with Tiya’s.

Then, as carefully as sifting for gold in muddy water, she asked

<Is Lev’s one life heavier than the fate of the family?>

It didn’t sound like a question meant to test her, but rather a question asked because Winter truly didn’t know the answer.

In her frustration, Tiya answered as if letting out a scream.

“What kind of question is that? Of course it is! Brother Lev is my family!”

Family. A faint, bitter smile touched Winter’s lips.

<Perhaps. Unlike you, to me, family has not even the worth of a single snowflake. So I cannot fully understand your heart, but…>

Winter’s voice trailed off for a moment as if she were contemplating, before her lips curled into a strange arc.

Because of the black veil, it was impossible to tell whether the smile was self-mockery, quiet delight, or scorn.

But her next words made the nature of that smile irrelevant.

<If you want to save Lev Vladizev, there is one method worth trying.>

Sniff. Tiya inhaled sharply, unable to hide a trace of suspicion as she asked.

“What is it?”

<If Lev’s high fever is caused by the flame spirit, then we have no choice but to counter it with a spirit that opposes it.>

A spirit opposed to flame…

“A frost spirit?”

A spark of realization flashed above Tiya’s head.

Yes. If Brother Lev subjugated a frost spirit and cooled the heat of the flame spirit—

<Subjugating multiple spirits requires exceptional talent. Still, when Lev was dying, this family—no, to be exact, Rodion Vladizev—did not simply stand by with folded hands.>

If Winter could think of this, why not Rodion?

Throughout history, spirit mages who had subjugated more than one spirit were extraordinarily rare, but he placed all his hopes on that possibility.

There was only one problem—

<Humans cannot choose the spirit they subjugate. Nevertheless, Rodion prepared a spirit ceremony in hopes of a miracle, and he performed it just before Lev’s breath stopped.>

Though it was a story whose ending was already known, it felt as though her heart tightened with suspense.

The answer came with cruel ease.

“The frost spirit never answered the call.”

<Correct. So praying for a frost spirit to appear at a spirit ceremony is a fool’s errand. We have to use a different way.>

“Another method?”

<Think carefully. There is more than one path to becoming a spirit mage, is there not?>

Another way to become a spirit mage.

Besides summoning a spirit through a spirit stone, what other way could there possibly be—

“As expected, were you in there to steal the spirit egg?”

“The spirit egg?”

<Correct.>

“B-But no one knows what spirit will hatch from a spirit egg. Unless we see what emerges—”

Ah. There was someone who might already have seen what would hatch. The one standing right in front of her.

The tears had dried; Tiya looked up at Winter with shining eyes.

This time, Winter’s lips curved in a line unmistakably meaning yes.

<That’s right. I know the location of a spirit egg from which a frost spirit will be born.>

“Winter…!”

Before she knew it, Tiya lunged forward to hug Winter, only to go tumbling onto the ground.

Her knees hit the floor with a loud thud, but Tiya didn’t even realize it was painful.

Her face flushed from excitement, she lay sprawled on the floor while Winter sat down beside her.

<It’s too early to celebrate. There is a problem here as well.>

Tiya nodded without hesitation.

No matter what it was, she felt they could overcome it together.

<Spirit eggs are so rare that even on the black market they appear only occasionally. Do you know why?>

“Because they’re really, really hard to find?”

<That’s part of it, but it’s also because a mage is required to harvest a Spirit Egg rather than absorbing it on the spot.>

Suddenly, a mage?

Tiya slowly pushed herself up.

She tilted her head while rubbing her knees, where the pain was belatedly rushing in.

Of course she had heard of mages. But she had never felt any interest or curiosity toward them.

“Ah~ those weaklings who wave sticks around?”

<…>

A muscle tightened sharply at Winter’s jaw.

Then she murmured in the most chilling voice Tiya had yet heard from her.

<…You will come to regret those words.>

It would be a little while longer before Tiya understood the meaning behind those words.

* * *

The next day.

Since arriving in the capital, Tiya set out on her first outing.

Tiya’s dedicated maid, Mia, had designed the best course for her young mistress, allowing her to see all the tourist attractions in the capital.

What she had not anticipated, however, was this—

“Do you truly prefer that stone—ah, that raw crystal? There are far brighter and more beautiful ones.”

“It’s not just a raw crystal. It’s a shooting star.”

Tiya’s tastes were rather peculiar.

Inside the carriage, her skirt was filled with crude stones she had personally bought from market stalls.

‘They look like ordinary rocks to me.’

As if they were the most precious jewels in the world, Tiya held them up one by one to the sunlight and scrubbed them carefully with her handkerchief.

Far from the rocks—no, the meteorite fragments—becoming shiny, only her handkerchief made of precious silk was being torn to shreds.

Tiya, who had been polishing the meteorite fragments with a serious expression, suddenly turned her head toward the carriage window.

Just then, the capital’s famous landmark—the Magic Federation Headquarters—glittered brilliantly under the radiant sunlight.

Tiya could not take her eyes off the building, which was shimmering in pure white, for a long time.

“Are you interested in mages?”

“…I’ve been interested since yesterday.”

It was not unusual for children her age to admire mages, but Mia hadn’t expected the Young Lady to take an interest in them.

Though young, Mia had passed the notoriously exacting Vladizev household interviews and knew more about spirit mages than most people.

As such, she knew at least that spirit mages and mages were said to be opposing forces.

‘What was it? Did they say spirits hate magic?’

She had heard that while most high noble families employed at least one mage at their mansion, there were no mages at the Vladizev mansion for that very reason.

“Mia, do you know much about mages?”

“Of course. Believe it or not, my dream was to become a mage when I was little.”

Mages were common figures in children’s storybooks.

Chosen by the stars, they flew through the sky, created loyal golems, and made the world more prosperous.

She couldn’t bring herself to say it to the Young Lady, but mages were overwhelmingly more well-known than spiritists.

While both were rare abilities, it was difficult to see a spiritist in the capital, which had less natural power than the North; above all, their level of social contribution was different.

Magic tools, magic potions, and the barriers protecting bank vaults, which were the exclusive property of the nobility, were all the work of mages.

But now that she was grown—

“In short, they are chosen eccentrics.”

Most mages were, in truth, social misfits, research-obsessed mad scientists, or reclusive loners who flinched from sunlight.

“That’s why I think spirit mages are much cooler.”

She had been certain that final comment would be perfect.

“Eccentrics… So mages really are…”

For some reason, the Young Lady’s expression became incredibly somber.