Tiya’s Smooth Regression Life Chapter 15

The final silence.

 

The strength drained from her clasped hands on its own. She held her breath to keep a sigh from spilling out like a sob and looked toward Winter.

 

“Wi, Winter—”

 

Shh.

 

Winter raised her index finger to her lips.

 

Tiya’s eyes rolled restlessly, and as she unconsciously followed the tip of Winter’s finger to the night sky—

 

Among the countless stars sailing the vast cosmos, one star shining brighter than the rest flared brilliantly.

 

Soon, a handful of starlight split the Milky Way and slid down from the night sky, falling before Tiya.

 

“Uh, h-huh…?”

 

Like catching a fluttering petal, the remains of the shooting star settled quietly into her instinctively outstretched hand. 

 

“Wow.”

 

It was dazzlingly radiant, yet not hot in the slightest.

 

Not knowing what to do, Tiya looked back and forth between Winter and the shooting star and cried out.

 

“Winter, look! A star came! I think it heard my prayer!”

 

<I told you. If it’s you, you would certainly be chosen.>

 

At those words, something surged up from a long-parched corner of her heart.

 

“Great Spirit. Please send me a spirit.”

 

“I’ll be a good child. Please let me prove that I am a child of Vladizev.”

 

The lonely nights when she had prayed until her throat was hoarse came rushing back like waves, only to dissolve into foam beneath the warm glow of the star.

 

To Tiya’s prayers, which had echoed back to her alone, an answer had finally returned—after such a long wait.

 

“The star was waiting for me….”

 

At last, the corners of Tiya’s eyes flushed red.

 

She pressed her lips together as if trying to hold back tears, but a whimper slipped between her teeth like that of an overexcited puppy.

 

At the sight, Winter laughed for the first time. It was like spring sunlight settling upon a frozen lake.

 

<If you’re already whimpering like that, what will you do? It’s not over yet.>

 

“Ungh. Wh-what?”

 

Tiya’s question faded as two more meteors poured down in succession.

 

One, two, three.

 

A total of three stars fell, circled around her, and sank into her body.

 

The grace of the stars, settling upon the back of her left hand, within her eyes, and on the top of her right foot, warmed her frozen body in comforting heat.

 

<Congratulations. You have been chosen by the three constellations known as the strongest.>

 

Offering an uncharacteristically gentle congratulation, Winter overlapped her hand with Tiya’s.

 

<If you only wish for it, you can even fly through the sky now.>

 

As though navigating a vast ocean by starlight, Tiya instinctively moved her hand in tandem with Winter’s.

 

As light spread from her fingertips, tracing the shape of a constellation, the laws of the world surrounding her rearranged themselves.

 

Her hair and skirts drifted softly in the air as though submerged in water.

 

The very first miracle bestowed by every constellation upon its initiate.

 

Magic that allows one to float in the air like a star.

 

With a light push from the ground, both her feet swam through the air and came to rest upon the mouth of the well.

 

From within the pitch-black, gaping mouth of the well, a chill that made the skin crawl rose up.

 

Her eyes, bright as the morning star, peered into the darkness below.

 

<Throw a stone and check the depth.>  

 

Tiya, who was searching for a pebble as Winter instructed, suddenly reached toward her chest.

 

Tiya gazed for a moment at the spirit stone in her hand, then extended her arm forward.

 

After taking a deep breath, she opened all the fingers holding the stone.

 

Whoosh— Clink.

 

From the depths of the well that had seemed endless, came the sound of something striking.

 

It felt like the first answer the spirit stone was giving her. 

 

At last, Tiya smiled brightly and, without hesitation, stepped forward.

 

“Let’s go, Winter! To save my brother!”

 

* * *

 

Late at night.

 

The Vladizev estate in the capital, which would ordinarily have been dark, blazed with light.

 

When Tiya was nowhere to be found even after searching the vast mansion as if combing through it, the entire estate was put on high alert.

 

Even the gatekeeper at the entrance had been informed of her disappearance and ordered to detain any suspicious individuals at once.

 

While the gatekeeper was keeping a sharp eye on the surroundings.

 

A hired carriage stopped before the estate, and the moment someone stepped out, it sped away as if it had seen a ghost.

 

All that caution proved unnecessary, for the one who had descended from the carriage was merely a child in filthy clothes.

 

Blocking the child’s path as she trudged toward the estate, the gatekeeper clicked his tongue.

 

“Tsk, tsk. Running away from home at your age. Little one, hurry back home. Your parents must be worried.”

 

The girl answered crisply.

 

“Running away? It’s not like that. I just went out for a short walk without telling Dad.”

 

“We’ve decided to call that running away,”

 

“Hmph. So I’ve come back home now.” 

 

“Fine, go on in. No, wait. Where is your house? It’s too late, so I’ll take you there.”

 

At the question, the girl’s finger pointed over the gatekeeper’s shoulder—to the Vladizev estate.

 

“Riiight there.”

 

“…Do your parents work here?”

 

“Dad does.”

 

“And your father’s name?”

 

“Shurka.”

 

Huh? That sounds awfully familiar.

 

‘More importantly, why does this child look familiar?’

 

Looking closely, she resembled someone quite a bit.

 

That rare jet-black hair color, and that cold atmosphere was exactly like….

 

“…Count?”

 

“That’s right! My Dad does Count work here. Ahem, believe it or not, it’s a job that pays 30 gold an hour!”

 

Got you, you little rascal!

 

“N-No! I shall escort you!”

 

The gatekeeper cried out, quickly lifting Tiya up. 

 

* * *

 

Tiya was carried under both armpits and escorted with utmost solemnity.

 

She was to be delivered straight to the Count’s office, but in the middle of the estate corridor, they ran directly into the Count himself.

 

“Astiya Vladizev, returning from a walk just now!”

 

Before the gatekeeper could explain, Tiya snapped into a salute and reported her survival.

 

What on earth had happened in a single day? Trails of grime were running down her face.

 

When Shurka tilted his head, the gatekeeper set Tiya down and turned away. 

 

Tilting her head, Tiya asked,

 

“Dad, why are you still awake? If you stay up late, you won’t grow any—”

 

“Astiya Vladizev.”

 

A voice so cold it chilled the marrow.

 

Tiya’s shoulders flinched involuntarily as she cautiously looked at Shurka.

 

An expressionless face like a mask, completely void of emotion.

 

Perhaps because it was deep into the night, unlike their usual encounters, the shadows cast by the lamplight fell heavily across his face, making him seem harsher than she remembered.

 

“…Dad, are you angry?”

 

Angry?

 

The question rose in Shurka’s mind. He couldn’t even remember the last time he had felt such a meaningless emotion.

 

To Shurka now, emotions were like fossils; no matter how much he scraped at the bottom of his heart, only his fingernails would break and his skin would peel—he could not find even a fragment of emotion.

 

“You ask something useless.”

 

However, unlike emotions, memories of the past would occasionally crash over him like an unexpected storm.

 

Just as now.

 

When was it?

 

In that very spot where Tiya now stood, his wife, Tatiana, had once stood.

 

Was it the fifth day after she had vanished without a word of her destination, taking a large sum of cash with her?

 

Looking at the state of his wife who had suddenly returned, he thought perhaps the rumors were true.

 

That Tatiana had finally succumbed to a sickness of the mind, heartbroken by her husband’s inexplicable change. 

 

Otherwise, how could someone who needed to care for her body wander outside like a madwoman?

 

One step at a time, Shurka walked toward the past.