Baby Lynx of the Tiger Family - Chapter 28
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Baby Lynx of the Tiger Clan
Episode 28
Rabin Kalif had been killed when Sabrina was carrying Sirka.
She had been heavily pregnant at the time, and so she hadn’t been able to protect Rabin properly.
Thankfully, Sirka was born safely, but the shock of failing to protect Rabin was something even someone as strong as Sabrina could not endure.
In the end, before even a year had passed since Sirka’s birth.
Sabrina’s madness began.
“It doesn’t happen often. Maybe once every two or three years… But every time it does, everything around her is reduced to ruins.”
Baiden stared at Sabrina’s bedroom, where not a single thing was left intact, his face twisted with pain.
“Still, it’s gotten a little better since Sirka’s authority fully settled in. Only Sirka can stop Sabrina in her tracks.”
“…Why?”
Sabrina loves Sirka dearly.
You only have to look at how she reacted when he was poisoned to know that.
And yet now Sirka is hurt and still holding Sabrina back.
“Why only Sirka? Why can’t the Clan Head stop her?”
In answer to Bariya’s question, Baiden replied with an expression of unbearable anguish.
“…Sabrina’s authority is overwhelming physical ability. Her strength, her defense, her stamina, all of it far exceeds that of an ordinary beastkin. And Sirka inherited Sabrina’s authority in its entirety.”
Body Reinforcement.
What some call brute, monstrous strength is precisely the authority of Sabrina and Sirka.
‘So that’s why, even when they fought the Hyenas…’
Sirka snapped blades with his bare hands, and Sabrina killed her enemies without a single scratch on herself.
So that was thanks to their authority.
“Until Sirka grew up, I was the one who held Sabrina back. As Chieftain, I’m a little stronger than the other beastkin.”
But.
“Even so, I could never defeat Sabrina, who has authority. I did get hurt a little here and there while holding her.”
He had only downplayed it so Bariya wouldn’t worry. It was anything but a minor injury.
Broken bones were routine, and once, her abdomen was torn open so badly that he had to undergo surgery.
Even with a beastkin’s remarkable healing, it never fully recovered, and a large scar still remains across his stomach.
“After that, Sabrina ordered me to keep away from her whenever her madness begins.”
She had threatened that if he disobeyed, she would never see him again.
Baiden, who loved Sabrina more than anything in the world, could never refuse her command.
And so, from then on, all he could do was watch in silence as Sirka struggled to hold Sabrina back.
Just like today.
“…You’ve had a hard time of it.”
Bariya patted the back of Baiden, who was suffering.
It was so heartbreaking it drove her mad.
A mother who had lost her son, and an only son who had to block that mother while bleeding.
And a husband who could do nothing but watch this horrific scene unfold.
‘Those Hyena bastards destroy everyone they touch.’
She was furious.
She had thought only she and her mother had been ruined by them.
But there was a family that had suffered even longer than that.
‘Coming to the Kalif was fate.’
Perhaps her spirit beast instincts had led her here.
The Kalif could protect Bariya, who was left alone without a mother.
And Bariya could help the Kalif family, who were suffering.
Thud.
“Little one!”
As Bariya stepped into the bedroom, Baiden called out in alarm.
She dodged the arm he hurriedly reached out with, so effortlessly it was almost casual.
“I’m fine.”
At the sight of the child smiling gently, a sense of unease belatedly crept over Baiden.
The fifth floor was now packed with Sabrina’s uncontrolled pheromones.
Even Rowin and Tairin, the Knight Commander and among the strongest in the Kalif, could not move.
Even Baiden himself could barely breathe.
So how could Bariya walk about so carelessly?
‘What is this?’
Just then, an unfamiliar scent rushed sharply into Baiden’s nose.
The moment he caught that fragrance, like flowers holding honey yet tinged with a bitter, grassy smell, his head began to spin.
‘No, I have to keep my wits about me.’
Baiden bit down hard on his tongue to keep the scent from pulling him under.
Sirka could barely hold Sabrina back as it was.
And Sabrina’s madness, blind to everything around her, only grew worse at the sight of a stranger.
So it fell to him to protect Bariya, but…
“Lady Sabrina.”
The fearless child padded barefoot across the wrecked bedchamber and stopped right in front of Sabrina.
“Little one! You can’t stay here! Get away, quickly!”
Sirka only realized Bariya was there when Sabrina’s pheromones washed over the child, and he panicked.
But it was already too late.
“Hyena, it’s a Hyena! Trying to kill my son again!”
Sabrina’s gaze landed on Bariya.
“No! Mother! It’s the little one, it’s Bariya! You mustn’t hurt her!”
Sabrina began to shriek, straining to lunge at Bariya.
Sirka tried with everything he had to stop her, but restraining Sabrina, who let every ounce of her power spill out uncontrolled, was no easy task even for him.
“Little one…!”
In the end, Baiden defied Sabrina’s command for the first time, moving to shield Bariya with his own body, at the very moment he stepped forward.
“It’s all right now.”
Bariya reached out toward Sabrina.
At the same moment, the child’s honey-colored eyes deepened into a rich amber.
“Let me help you.”
Flinch.
Sabrina’s razor-sharp claws, poised to strike Bariya, froze in midair.
“It won’t hurt anymore.”
Bariya didn’t flinch in the slightest; she simply clasped Sabrina’s hand in both of hers.
A breath of wind stirred from somewhere and swept over the two of them.
“Ah…”
It was Baiden who noticed the change first.
The heavy pheromones that had filled the entire floor were gradually subsiding.
Sabrina’s slit-like pupils and the fangs jutting past her lips were beginning to return to normal.
The claws on the hand Bariya was holding had shrunk, too.
Faced with something so unbelievable, Baiden and Sirka forgot to stop them and simply stared, dumbfounded, at Bariya and Sabrina.
A miracle was unfolding before their eyes.
“The pain is over now.”
“Ugh.”
The moment those words left her, Sabrina’s strength drained away, and she slumped limp.
“Mother.”
Sirka quickly moved to support her.
He could not make any sense of what was happening.
A madness that always lasted for hours, until sunrise, had ended so quickly.
‘Could it be that the little one has an Authority…?’
With unsteady eyes, Sirka looked at Bariya, who stood before Sabrina with unshakable composure.
“Bariya…?”
Just then, Sabrina, having half-recovered her senses, looked at Bariya with great effort.
Why is the little one here?
Only now recognizing her, Sabrina was bewildered.
“No one will be in pain anymore. So don’t worry, and get some good sleep.”
Bariya held Sabrina’s hand tightly.
Not as many as Sabrina’s, but the child’s hands bore plenty of scars, as if showing the hardships of her years.
Those small hands caught hold of Sabrina’s consciousness, which the madness had clouded.
“Little one…”
Sabrina tried with all her might to keep her wits, but she was too drowsy to bear it.
In the end, she could hold on no longer and drifted off to sleep right there.
“What on earth is this…”
“Let’s move her somewhere she can sleep comfortably first.”
At Bariya’s urging, Baiden strode over and carefully gathered the sleeping Sabrina into his arms.
“…”
Sabrina, who always suffered terribly after a bout of madness.
Yet now she slept with a peaceful face, one he couldn’t remember seeing in years.
Baiden squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again.
“Sirka, take the little one to her bedchamber. She must be tired today, so let her sleep too. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
Baiden had a lot of questions, but it was already past Bariya’s bedtime.
“Oh, right. Look at this floor, you’re barefoot. You should’ve put on slippers.”
“I was in a hurry.”
Sirka scooped Bariya into her arms and carried her out of the wrecked room.
By then, Bariya’s eyes had faded back to their usual honey-brown.
Baiden had confirmed that Rowin, Tairin, and even Hwaiteu, who had been half-collapsed in the hallway, had all come to their senses. Then he carried Sabrina into the next room and laid her on the bed.
“Haa.”
Once it was just the two of them, all the tension drained out of him at once, and he sank down onto the floor.
Watching Sabrina sleep, his eyes stung so badly he had to bite down on his lip.
Year after year, he had been able to do nothing but watch his beloved wife suffer under Madness.
He had no strength, no way to soothe the ache in Sabrina’s heart, and every time this happened, his heart was torn into a thousand pieces.
But then.
“Thank goodness.”
Bariya had saved them when they had fallen into despair.
She had come to the aid of the Kalif, who had been suffering.
He had no idea how she had done it, but none of that mattered in the slightest.
“Really, thank goodness.”
Baiden carefully clasped Sabrina’s hand in his.
His hands and arms were torn all over from wounds he had inflicted on himself, and blood was seeping from his shoulder as well.
Compared to his usual injuries, this was nothing.
Thanks to Bariya, the damage had been kept to this much.
“Sabrina, we really did find our lucky charm.”
Baiden pressed a kiss to the back of Sabrina’s hand.
Tears spilled over and mingled with the blood, dripping onto the bed in steady drops.
They were tears of joy, for in a despair where he could not see an inch ahead, he had finally met a single ray of light.
* * *
“You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”
The moment Sirka came into Bariya’s room, she checked the child’s feet first.
She was worried about how she had run barefoot across a floor strewn with every kind of debris.
“It’s fine. I’m sturdy.”
Bariya proudly held up the soles of her feet.
Thankfully, they were clean, without a single scratch.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————