Baby Lynx of the Tiger Family - Chapter 16

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Baby Lynx of the Tiger Clan
Chapter 16
After the meal, they wandered around the city.
But they ran into a situation they hadn’t expected.
“Huh! M-my lady, a pleasure to see you!”
“F-forgive us for daring to leave a stone in your ladyship’s path! We’ll remove it right away! Bad stone! Bad stone!”
The villagers who had greeted Sirka with smiles now turned pale the moment they saw Sabrina, trembling as though they’d seen a ghost.
“I haven’t done a thing to them.”
Each time it happened, Sabrina’s beautiful face twisted.
In truth, she had never once bullied a villager.
The most anyone had done was witness her bare-handedly beating down a few Hyena beastkin.
The trouble was that Bariya had heard this from Sirka and been deeply moved.
‘I’ll become a lynx like Sabrina, one that makes everyone tremble in fear just by sitting still.’
It was a resolution that would have appalled Sabrina and Sirka had they known about it.
Either way, Bariya thoroughly enjoyed her first outing.
Buying tasty desserts to eat by the lake, or watching ice cream melt down and drip over her hands, were all new experiences for her.
Just a little while ago, she couldn’t have even imagined being able to enjoy such a peaceful outing.
‘If only those Hyena brats hadn’t existed, I could have gone on a picnic with Mom too.’
The only regret was that she had never shared this joy with her mother.
“Sleepy?”
Evening came, and the carriage carried them back toward the mansion.
As she gazed out the window, she dozed off without realizing it, and Sirka asked.
“A little. But I think I can hold out until we reach the mansion.”
Her enormous yawn, however, made the claim hard to believe.
“It’s fine, just sleep. Want me to lend you my lap as a pillow?”
Sirka asked playfully.
She had said it fully expecting Bariya to refuse.
But.
“Fine, let’s see what you’ve got.”
Yawning once more, Bariya lay down with her head on Sirka’s lap.
Sirka was caught off guard by how readily she had agreed.
“I didn’t think you’d actually lie down.”
“You said I could use it as a pillow. Were you joking?”
When Bariya tried to sit up, Sirka quickly held her in place and eased her back down.
“No, I’m glad you did. You can use it whenever you like. My lap is always open to you, little one.”
“Only for today. It’s hard and high, so honestly it’s kind of bad.”
Bariya slapped Sirka’s thigh with her small hand, grumbling in displeasure, smack, smack.
It was so firm that it felt like hitting a wall.
“I’m trying my hardest to relax, you know.”
Sirka said glumly, but Bariya didn’t even pretend to listen and shut her eyes.
The carriage rattled along, and the pillow was hard and high, yet somehow sleep kept creeping in.
Bariya’s body slowly went limp.
Just as she was fully relaxed and about to drift off into sleep.
Jolt upright!
Bariya suddenly flew her eyes open and sat bolt upright.
“Little one? What’s—”
“Shh.”
She silenced Sabrina and Sirka, who were asking in confusion, and pricked up her two ears.
The drowsiness had vanished from Bariya’s eyes, whose pupils had already stretched into long vertical slits.
Proof that her beastkin instincts were reacting strongly made the faces of the other two grow grave as well.
They too sharpened their hearing as much as they could, but all they could catch was the sound of the carriage rolling along the forest road.
But Bariya was different.
Every hair on her body stood on end.
A feeling so foul it nearly made her gag.
An ominous foreboding so strong she wanted to retch.
This was the warning of the Spirit Beast, the power of her mother dwelling within Bariya’s body.
“Hyenas are closing in.”
The enemies were after her.
“I can’t sense any presence or sound.”
At Sabrina’s words, sharp-eyed as she scanned the view outside the window, Bariya bit her lip.
‘What do I do? I can’t very well say I’m something close to a Spirit Beast.’
Kalif has come to understand that they’re different from the Hyena beastkin who used to torment her.
But will they still treat her like an ordinary person once they learn what she really is?
Bariya’s life is too precious to pin on a hope with no certainty behind it.
It’s a life her mother gave up everything to save.
“But you’re certain of it, aren’t you, little one?”
At Sabrina’s next words, Bariya’s head snapped up.
In the dark carriage deep in the forest, where nothing but moonlight reached, Sabrina’s pale blue eyes were gleaming.
There was not a trace of suspicion toward Bariya in them.
“You’re certain those Hyena whelps are charging at us, aren’t you?”
“Yes…”
Bariya nodded, drawn in by that gaze.
Sabrina’s face hardened sharply.
“I thought I’d dealt with them all. And yet they keep getting in the way.”
“What shall we do? I could reach the estate in thirty minutes on my own.”
They must still be far enough off to escape Sabrina’s Qi Sense, so it will take them a while to arrive.
Wouldn’t it be better to first move Bariya to the safety of the estate and deal with the Hyenas afterward?
“Little one.”
Rather than answer Sirka, Sabrina looked at Bariya.
“What would you like to do? You may go on ahead to the estate with Sirka, or you may stay and watch us handle the Hyenas.”
“Mother.”
Sirka looked troubled.
Of course the choice belongs to Bariya, but still, showing her such a brutal scene is a bit…
Yet Sabrina kept asking Bariya right until the end.
“You won’t be needed in the fighting, little one. We’re not so incompetent that we need you dirtying those tiny hands with blood so early on.”
Sabrina leaned down and took both of Bariya’s hands in hers.
Bariya flinched before she could help it.
Despite her beautiful appearance, as if she had never done a rough day’s work in her life, Sabrina’s hands were rough, scarred all over.
And yet they were warmer than any other hands she had ever known.
The body that had gone stiff the moment her instincts flared slowly thawed in that warmth.
“So choose. Will you return to the safety of the estate? Or will you stay here? Whichever you pick, I’ll respect your decision.”
Bariya could tell.
Even if she chose to go ahead to the estate, neither Sabrina nor Sirka would ever blame her.
They would probably even breathe a sigh of relief and say she’d made the right call. That’s the kind of people they are.
“I’ll stay here.”
That is exactly why Bariya did not make that choice.
“I didn’t make a contract with Kalif just to run away. I’m sick of being someone who could do nothing but flee, so I chose differently.”
There are people who help her, and people who protect her.
So she doesn’t want to run anymore.
“Good. Then let’s do it that way.”
Sabrina nodded at Bariya’s choice.
Sirka’s face was worried, but she didn’t object.
Knock, knock.
“Stop the carriage in the clearing.”
Sirka gave the order to the driver, and before long the carriage came to a halt.
“Now I can sense them too. They’ll be here soon.”
At this pace, they’ll arrive in less than ten minutes.
‘I don’t know what Little One felt, but her Qi Sense is sharper than mine. Impressive.’
Bariya seemed reluctant to explain in detail, so Sabrina didn’t press her, but inwardly she was impressed.
Now she has a better idea of how Bariya managed to escape the Hyenas.
As Sirka stepped down from the carriage first, three Tiger Clan beastkin suddenly leaped down from the trees.
“My lord, what’s happened so suddenly?”
They were Jake and two knights, Sirka’s men, who had been guarding them from out of sight throughout the outing.
“Hyena whelps are closing in. I thought we’d wiped them all out, but they must have sent more in the meantime.”
Jake scowled deeply.
“Those guys really need to get their heads examined. Every batch they send just dies, so why on earth do they keep sending more? If you ask me, those idiots are the reason people call beastkin brainless.”
Everyone deeply agreed with Jake’s words.
Right now, Kalif is under the protection of Sabrina, who wields a formidable Authority and is no ordinary beastkin.
Unless she’s away, there’s a tiger more fearsome than anyone right here, so why do they insist on wasting manpower like this?
“The driver guards the carriage, and Jake guards the little one. We’ll clear everything out here and return to the estate.”
“Isn’t the young lady going to stay at the mansion?”
“She wants to see with her own two eyes what we do to those bastards. Isn’t that thoughtful of her?”
At Sirka’s proud, beaming smile, Jake and the knights stole a glance at the carriage.
Bariya had her claws dug into the window frame, eyes wide open, glaring out at the road.
Jake grimaced at the child’s sharp, protruding nails.
‘I always think it, but the young lady really isn’t very cat-like.’
Sure, a cat is a beast of prey if you think about it, but still.
She had a spirit about her that made it seem she might someday take down a Hyena all by herself.
“Here they come.”
Masked figures began to emerge, one by one.
Sirka’s bright blue eyes swept over the surroundings.
“…Fourteen, fifteen. Counting the ones I can’t see, maybe twenty-five in all.”
Compared to that, only four of us were actually going to fight.
Yet Sirka’s face was full of nothing but irritation.
“These bastards really don’t learn, do they, Mother.”
“Right? This time maybe I should crack open their skulls and see how big their brains are. They’re so stupid I don’t even want to talk to them.”
Sabrina stepped down from the carriage.
Just that much was enough to change the tension among the attackers.
Having shut the carriage door, Sabrina took in each of the attackers one by one as they swallowed hard.
“I’m in an absolutely foul mood right now.”
At the very front, Sabrina’s face twisted into something ugly.
“Today’s outing was more fun than I expected. If we’d gone home like this, it might have been the best day in years. And you bastards ruined it.”
“….”
“Funny, isn’t it? Usually, killing you lot is the most delightful thing in the world, but now I’m irritated at being interrupted in the middle of a good time.”
Sabrina’s nails grew longer.
Though she hadn’t done anything yet, it already seemed as if the thick stench of blood hung in the air.
“So today, you’re going to pay for it.”
The moment the words left her mouth, the neck of the attacker standing foremost snapped with a crack.
Along with the spray of blood from the instantly dead attacker, Sabrina’s beautiful silver hair fluttered through the air.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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