Chapter 6
Her eyes were dry and lifeless, like a desert where not even a trace of emotion could survive.
For a moment, instinctive fear gripped her throat, leaving her unable to speak.
At that instant, Winter stepped forward, as if to protect Tiya.
Only then did Tiya regain her composure and watch Winter’s back. Her tone was commanding, but the sight of her gave Tiya a deep sense of reassurance.
With that courage, Tiya managed to squeeze out her voice.
“I wanted to see the spirit egg.”
Winter’s warning lingered, urging caution, but Tiya didn’t stop.
“Erin told me there was a spirit egg there. So when I saw the door open, I went in… and got trapped inside…”
Following Winter’s advice might have helped her avoid her father’s scrutiny.
But that would have been a lie.
Tiya didn’t want to run from her mistake, even if it meant lying.
Just as she was about to confess honestly, Winter’s hand covered her ear.
<Don’t listen. That’s nonsense.>
But neither her hand nor her voice could stop her father’s next words.
“So you were trying to steal the spirit egg after all?”
<He’ll assume you were accused of theft.>
Winter had clearly warned her, yet she hadn’t expected her father to think the same.
Tiya’s head nearly dropped, but she clenched her fists and lifted her chin even higher.
“I don’t touch other people’s things carelessly.”
Her grandmother’s teachings—and Winter’s protective hand still hovering near her—gave Tiya courage.
“I heard Father wanted to use the spirit egg as a medicinal ingredient. If I took it for myself, sick people wouldn’t get treated. That’s why I would never do such a thing.”
By now, Tiya was staring her father squarely in the eyes.
All eyes in the office flicked between Tiya and her father.
With a neutral expression, Shurka pulled a sheet of paper from a drawer.
“State the reward you want.”
“A reward?”
“Wasn’t it for catching that little thief?”
Tiya hesitated. That wasn’t what she meant at all.
Seeing her pause, Winter’s voice spoke quietly in her mind.
<Half the value of the spirit egg in gold coins. That’s fine to ask.>
Tiya was about to speak when a sharp knock came at the door.
The butler entered quietly and whispered to Shurka.
“In the North… there’s a plague… urgent lockdown…”
‘Plague.’ And ‘lockdown’.
Tiya’s eyes widened at the few words she caught.
Winter had been right.
The imperial blockade was meant to prevent the epidemic from spreading across the Empire.
What no one expected, however, was that the lockdown would persist until the Vladijev family’s destruction.
Shurka swiftly prepared to leave, handing Tiya something casually as he passed by.
“Write down what you want and give it to the secretary.”
With that, Shurka left the office, as if his business was done.
Once alone, Tiya examined what her father had given her.
“What… is this?”
<A blank check. Fill in the amount you want, and you’ll get that much cash.>
“Blank cheque…”
Perhaps this was her father’s version of praise?
Yet it brought no joy. Her heart didn’t flutter, nor did it inspire renewed determination.
“Father seems hopeless at praise… but I can still understand it perfectly, even if he gives it clumsily.”
Tiya rubbed her head, mimicking her grandmother’s habit. Yet no warmth sparked inside.
‘I’ll gather all eight years of praise I missed once I become a spirit master.’
She caressed her spirit stone, setting her resolve as usual.
Then a sudden chill of unease rolled over her.
Tiya’s gaze shifted to Winter.
It felt as if she had obtained the answer to a question she desperately wanted to solve.
The urge to peek at that answer was strong enough to shake her own faith.
Tiya reached out.
“Winter… Have you met me? I mean… future me.”
<Why are you asking that now?>
“Hmm… I just wanted to know if I become a spirit master.”
<…>
“Am I… going to become a spirit master in the future?”
The few seconds Tiya waited for Winter’s answer felt like years.
She clasped her hands instinctively, like in prayer.
At those words, all her anxiety melted, like snow under spring sunlight.
“I knew it! That’s right. I’ll become a spirit master too! Which spirit will come to me? No, no! Don’t tell me!”
Quickly covering Winter’s mouth, Tiya pictured a gift box in her mind.
Inside, she imagined the spirit of the future appearing.
Father: spirit of sand.
Rodion: spirit of shadow.
Lev: spirit of fire.
Grandmother: spirit of lightning.
Among all spirits, Tiya immediately pictured the spirit of spring.
For some reason, she naturally imagined the mansion’s garden blooming with spring flowers alongside that spirit.
It doesn’t have to be the spirit of spring.
She could love any spirit in the world.
And once she became a spirit master, surely her father would…
<Even if you become a spirit master, Shurka Valroz will never acknowledge you.>
Winter’s sharp words pierced Tiya’s soaring imagination.
She slumped on the sofa, legs swinging, her happy daydream shattered.
“Why would you say that?”
When it was Winter speaking, it sounded like an ominous prophecy.
<I didn’t need to explain it.>
Winter pointed toward the great spirit in the tapestry.
<To contract with the Spirit of Time and return to the past, two conditions must be met.>
Winter raised two fingers, folding them one by one as he spoke.
<One: you must have Vladijev blood. Two: you must possess the family heirloom ring that seals the Spirit of Time. Your father once met these conditions too.>
…He had.
Though now Count Valroz, at her mother’s funeral he had been the minor Vladijev Duke, wearing the heirloom ring.
“How does Winter know that?”
<The Spirit of Time isn’t all-powerful. There are limits.>
This time Winter unfolded his fingers, one by one.
<One: You can travel to the past multiple times, but the total reversible time is only twenty years. Two: Each time travel damages your soul.>
The Spirit of Time leads the contract’s soul through time.
But like a salmon swimming upstream losing its scales and fins, the human soul suffers damage.
The more one goes against the river of time, the more one loses humanity.
The Spirit of Time calls this the natural cost.
<Judging by how rotten his eyes are, there’s probably no humanity left to erode.>
The current Vladijev Duke erasing his son from the family records is proof.
Vladijev law states that those who have used all twenty years of reversible time lose their right to head the family.
<Due to the Golden Rule, we’ll never know why he reversed time. But this is the result.>
Twenty years of time reversed.
Every moment of Shurka’s journey eroded his soul, leaving him a human unable to feel anything.
