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Episode 13
“Uh…?”
Tiya’s eyes widened, and the sharp gaze of the woman in the mirror lazily opened.
“Is this… me?”
Her cheeks were snow-white like the first silent snowfall at dawn, contrasting with jet-black straight hair.
Her eyes were elegantly upturned, exuding pride, and her golden irises were sharp and cold like metal.
Thanks to the effects of the potion, her newly grown front teeth were perfectly aligned, and with just a slight twist of her lips, an arrogant smile that looked down on others appeared.
Tiya cupped her cheeks and murmured in awe.
“Wow… Winter, I look unbelievably amazing…”
<What a show-off.>
The proud and sharp-looking beauty stomping her feet like a child looked utterly ridiculous.
But the true display was just beginning.
“These legs! This fierceness! This sharpness! It’s like… like a snow leopard prowling the northern mountains for prey!”
<That snow leopard is freezing to death.>
Before long, Tiya had even grabbed a poker, taking a combative stance and murmuring lowly.
“Hmph, you finally realized it. Yes, I am the northern snow leopard, Astiya Vladizev.”
<Please stop…>
Winter groaned in embarrassment, covering her face, feeling utterly ashamed.
Finally, after a long time, Tiya stepped away from the mirror.
“Phew, this is bad. I got so caught up in how amazing I am, I didn’t even notice the time! Winter, it’s not too late, right?”
<No.>
Winter answered with a voice that sounded ten years older in just an instant.
To leave the mansion as planned, it was time to start moving. Tiya reached for the travel bag she had secretly packed.
Though it had been heavy for her child-sized body, as an adult, even the weight felt light.
“Being an adult is the best!”
Excited, Tiya pulled the bag sharply.
Thud.
The music box precariously resting on the nightstand teetered.
<Be careful!>
Winter warned, but it was already too late.
Clang—
The music box rolled once across the floor, and a sharp dissonant note spread a greenish light throughout the room before fading away.
“W-what was that just now? A ghost? Did Winter call some friends?”
<I have no friends. Let me see that.>
Tiya was shocked at Winter’s lack of human relations. Meanwhile, Winter inspected the music box carefully.
<Now that I look closely, the collector really charged the proper price. This isn’t a music box, it’s a Memorial Box.>
“Memorial Box?”
<It’s a high-priced magical item that was once popular in the Empire. Using the embedded magic stones, it can store the surrounding scenery.>
However, the visuals were crude, sounds couldn’t be recorded, and the limited number of replays made it quickly fall out of fashion.
<Something’s already stored… Wait, why is the winding key even wound?>
“Huh? Ah! I did it without thinking!”
Tiya hurriedly removed her hand from the winding key. The miniature castle inside the glass dome began to spin, playing a lullaby.
Gradually, the faint lights spread around the music box, forming a distinct shape.
Sunlit cradles, piles of toys and dolls stacked like mountains.
A room that smelled faintly of milk unfolded before her like a faded painting.
Tiya became a minor character in the scene in an instant.
And when she took in the protagonist of that memory:
“…Mom?”
Tiya’s forgotten past began to come alive.
<What kind of nonsense…>
Her mother smiled brightly while looking at the cradle.
As Tiya approached, entranced, she saw a wriggling infant in the cradle.
Jet-black hair, amber eyes.
Instinctively, she realized.
“This baby… it’s me.”
The little duchess Vladizev carefully lifted the baby and presented it to Tiya as if showing it.
Tiya flinched and recoiled, but something passed through her body and lifted the baby.
“Dad…”
The past duke, turning toward Tiya, was no longer impossibly high above.
She could see him clearly.
Sunlight-filled warmth filled her father’s eyes.
Tiya had never seen such warm eyes.
The duke smiled as if he owned the world, pressing his lips to the baby’s forehead.
“My dad… he was an adult who smiled like this.”
The duchess gently tapped her husband’s shoulder, reproving him lightly.
“My mom, she used to be this healthy.”
One by one, Tiya’s past began to settle in her heart.
A loving, smiling father and a healthy mother.
So perfect that she secretly wanted to see it on lonely nights.
“They look happy.”
It was perfect.
Beside Tiya, Winter, unable to take her eyes off the past scene, refocused at the voice.
Shaking her head lightly, she ignored the vision and examined the Memorial Box in Tiya’s hands, murmuring:
<…I should have realized when I saw the glass dome decoration resembling the Frost Castle. Seems like a lost item from the Vladizev mansion.>
“Hmm…”
Tiya didn’t notice how dry Winter’s voice was, only nodding.
Her gaze was fixed on her parents’ faces, unable to move.
‘What is he saying?’
She tried reading her father’s lips.
‘This child… must not exist…’
At that moment, the lullaby from the music box stopped abruptly, and the image dispersed like a mirage.
It felt like seeing snow in a desert. Tiya couldn’t shake off the lingering vision.
Winter snapped her back to reality.
<Let’s go. We can’t be late anymore.>
“Ah, right.”
Now was not the time to be dazed.
Tiya carefully placed the music box back on the nightstand.
Looking around her previously cluttered but now empty room, she quietly climbed out the window ledge and left the mansion.
That morning.
Before Mia could even help Tiya get ready, she tidied the bed the girl had left empty and started her day.
She cleaned Tiya’s room all morning and, around noon, asked her companions:
“Has anyone seen the young lady?”
“I suppose she’s with the Count?”
“Hmm, probably, though I haven’t seen her face.”
“Then she’s with the Count. Don’t even think about checking. Do you know how scary he is?”
Heeding her companions’ warning, Mia hesitated to go to the Count’s office.
‘Right. She said she’d spend the whole day with the Count.’
Unable to muster the courage to peek into the Count’s room, Mia reluctantly let go of her worries.
Meanwhile, in Count Balroz’s office.
The only sound was the scratching of a pen on paper. The aide spoke.
“The young lady won’t be coming today. She informed me last night that she plans to spend the entire day with Young Master Lev.”
Shurka looked at the aide.
With eight years of experience, he had learned the types of silences from his master.
This silence meant: Why report such a thing?
“I reported in case you were waiting for her.”
This silence conveyed: Why would you think that? Stop wasting time with useless reports.
Without a word, Shurka silenced the aide and returned to his writing.
What he hadn’t noticed was that, for some time, Tiya’s visits had become routine, and a pocket watch was always ready on his desk to track the time she had demanded as compensation.
