Tiya’s Smooth Regression Life Chapter 16

A face pale with unmistakable illness.

 

Her curly platinum hair had lost its sheen and hung in disarray, and beneath the hem of her mud-stained skirt, one bare foot was exposed.

 

And yet, those eyes.

 

Those eyes, glimmering with a strange flame, did not look like a madwoman’s at all.

 

Two steps. Shurka walked deeper into the past.

 

Tatiana spoke to him.

 

“I was a little late because I had to purchase this. The Black Market’s security was tighter than I expected….”

 

She was holding something in her hand, but he could not see it clearly.

 

She seemed to be saying something to him, but he could not hear it clearly.

 

He took one more step into the past.

 

At last, Tatiana’s voice rang clear.

 

“So listen carefully. If later on our child runs away from home without a word, just like I did….”

 

“Dad?”

 

He froze. 

 

Right in front of Shurka, who had stopped in his tracks, was Tiya’s face, looking up at him blankly.

 

To those golden eyes that held the same unknown flame as his wife’s, he said,

 

“You are forbidden from going out for a week.”

 

Tiya’s mouth fell open before she protested.

 

“Y-You said you weren’t angry!”

 

“I’m not angry. But you are forbidden from going out.”

 

“What? That’s too much!”

 

“Two weeks.”

 

“You’re being too—!”

 

“Three.”

 

“…much too kind, I mean…” 

 

Above the sound of Tiya’s whimpering voice, his wife’s cheerful voice echoed.

 

“You must forbid her from going out and teach her a proper lesson. Truly, it would be terrible if she takes after me.”

 

The memory of the wife he once loved so much that he wouldn’t have hesitated to give his life for her.

 

However, her voice likewise failed to leave a single trace upon his desert. 

 

* * *

 

Lev remembered clearly the day his little sister was born.

 

“Her name is Astiya. She takes after Father exactly, doesn’t she?”

 

A baby held in his mother’s arms, like a white pear blossom.

 

She was so small and fragile that he was afraid she might crumple at the slightest touch. He could not bring himself to reach out.

 

It was Father who took Lev’s hesitant hand.

 

Guided by him, Lev stretched it forward, and the baby’s tiny, petal-soft hand wrapped tightly around one segment of his finger.

 

Only then did Lev truly feel it.

 

“The baby’s holding my finger. Her hand’s like a marshmallow!”

 

Even for him, who had always been the one cared for due to his sickly constitution, something he had to protect had finally come into existence. 

 

On that day, when a dandelion seed more delicate than himself blew into Lev’s small and cozy greenhouse, Lev made a vow. 

 

That he would protect this tiny child, just as Brother Rodion protected him. 

 

When Tiya grew a bit more, he would give her shoulder rides and sneak sweet snacks to stuff into her mouth. 

 

‘When she calls me Brother someday, I’ll treasure her more than anyone in the world.’

 

But Lev could not do that.

 

While he struggled through merciless fevers in his weak body, time surged ahead, leaving him behind.

 

“Brother Lev!”

 

Tiya, who had flown away like a dandelion seed and returned, was no longer the small, fragile child Lev needed to protect.

 

“W-What? Brother, why did you shrink?”

 

Tiya, back from the North, had grown significantly while basking in the sun and facing the wind. Before he knew it, she was even taller than Lev. 

 

‘I’m the older brother.’

 

‘I’ve never properly acted like a brother.’

 

‘I haven’t even given her a single shoulder ride.’

 

The bitterness rose to his throat.

 

“You’re that Tiya? You’ve gotten ugly.”

 

The words slipped out before he could stop them.

 

‘I’m the worst brother.’

 

He tried to pull himself together, but it wasn’t easy.

 

“Brother, could you show me your spirit?”

 

You don’t know anything. You don’t know why I’m in this much pain.

 

“You know, later if you come visit the North with me—”

 

How am I supposed to go to the North in this body?

 

“You have to be kind to people!”

 

What’s the use of being kind to people?

 

‘Everyone will forget anyway once I’m dead.’ 

 

To Lev, death was like that.

 

Being left behind while everyone else moved forward. And then being forgotten by them all…

 

“In the end, I’ll be left all alone.” 

 

The confession slipped out half in sleep, unheard by anyone.

 

And yet someone answered.

 

“Brother, I’m right here beside you?”

 

Lev’s eyes flew open.

 

It was deep night, bright with moonlight.

 

Something pitch-black propped itself on his bed, elbows planted, chin resting on its hands, staring at him.

 

Lev nearly screamed as if he had seen a man-eating flower, but he froze.

 

The face above those hands was familiar. Filthy, like a puppy that had rolled through mud, but still—

 

“Astiya? Why do you look like a beggar?”

 

“I just got back from a walk. More importantly, Brother, later let’s go to the North together!”

 

That again.

 

Tiya thrust something toward Lev, who turned his head away because he felt mean words were about to come out.

 

“Tada! With this, you’ll be invincible!”

 

Lev’s eyes widened as he glanced at what she held out.

 

A bluish sphere glowing softly in her palm.

 

“This can’t be…”

 

Though he had never seen one before, Lev’s exceptional sensitivity to spirits told him instinctively.

 

“Yup! It’s a frost spirit’s egg.”

 

Something faint was stirring within it.

 

A spirit egg. And a frost spirit’s egg at that.

 

Did Tiya want to become a spirit mage who subjugated a frost spirit?

 

The thought crossed his mind, only for him to realize the truth when he saw the expectant gaze in her eyes.

 

This egg was meant for him.

 

Even as hope appeared before him, Lev instinctively seized upon the worst possibility first.

 

“…It’s impossible to subjugate two spirits.”

 

His hand pushed hers away. Tiya refused to give up and pressed the spirit egg into his grasp.

 

“They say you can do it!”

 

“Who says?”

 

“…M-Me?”

 

“I can’t.”

 

“You can!”

 

“I said I can’t.”

 

“You’re a Vladizev of the North! Why are you saying you can’t before even trying? Don’t you have any grit?”

 

This isn’t about grit.

 

There are miracles in this world that cannot be achieved, no matter how desperately one desires them. For Lev, his own health was such a thing.

 

“You know, I went through a lot of trouble to get this? Swallow it down, even if just for the sake of my hard work. Okay?”

 

“…I don’t want to.”

 

“Aah, whyyyy!”

 

Why?

 

For a moment, the spirit mark carved upon his right shoulder blade throbbed.

 

Nevertheless, Lev spat out the words as if crushing each syllable.

 

“I hate spirits. I never even wanted something like this.”

 

It was Tiya who looked hurt by his words. Only then did Lev realize his mistake.

 

“No, what I meant was—”

 

“I see. I love them so much, though… I prayed every single night without fail, hoping a spirit would come to me. Because I wanted Father to acknowledge me as his daughter.”

 

Father’s acknowledgment? What does that mean? Lev was about to question her when he froze.

 

Tiya’s left fist was clenched tightly.

 

On the back of her hand, a geometric pattern glimmered faintly in the dark.

 

Lev knew what it was. And he could not believe his eyes.

 

“You… you awakened your mana?”

 

The proof of being chosen by a star and the symbol of a mage.

 

How she had become a mage didn’t matter. 

 

Anyone who received a star’s baptism would never again be visited by spirits. Tiya knew that. And yet—

 

“Yup. Thanks to that, I was able to bring the Spirit Egg, you see?”

 

Not a trace of shadow touched Tiya’s face.

 

Something surged up violently inside him.

 

Anger shot through him at the foolishness of his younger sister.

 

“Why… why would you give up on something you wanted to death for something so uncertain as this?”