The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 100

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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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Episode 100
“We’re watching too.”
Ferdi replied to Ludian’s words. Olivie reached to stroke the sleeping Tiel, then flinched as the child’s small hand caught her finger.
“Was she always like this? If Tiel had a handmaid, we could ask whether she glowed like this when sleeping normally…”
“No, Tiel doesn’t glow when she sleeps.”
Ferdi spoke with certainty. He had often lulled Tiel to sleep in his arms before.
So he could say it with confidence: just because Tiel possessed the Light Ability didn’t mean she glowed at any moment.
But now she was shining clearly—her small front paws gleaming bright. The tent was as bright as day, though they’d lit no separate fire inside.
“She’s not hurt somewhere, is she?”
Olivie stroked Tiel with a worried expression. Perhaps the carriage journey had tired her; Tiel didn’t wake even at Olivie’s touch, sleeping quietly and peacefully.
Ferdi shook his head.
“She doesn’t seem to be in pain… Maybe her Ability is acting up without her control?”
Yet if it were an uncontrolled Ability, Tiel’s light shone quiet and calm, like the sea after a storm had passed.
It showed no sign of instability or wavering. Her paws were glowing in exactly the same manner as when she used her Ability while awake….
The children, having put their heads together and puzzled over it at length, soon reached a conclusion. There was nothing they could do about it anyway, puzzling over it here in the tent.
“Let’s just sleep for now. We’ll check on her condition tomorrow morning after we wake up…”
“You stay here and sleep. Ludian and I will go outside to rest.”
“What? What’s this about? You’ve been telling me to sleep with Tiel this whole time!”
“It’s better for the girls to share a tent… We can’t give you a separate one besides.”
Olivie nodded at Ferdi’s words. He was right—they couldn’t spare a tent for each of them when supplies were limited.
Olivie, who had been yawning and looking tired all evening, lay down first beside Tiel, while Ferdi and Ludian stayed to keep watch so the girls could sleep peacefully.
After Ferdi and Ludian had stepped outside the tent and Olivie had drifted off to sleep,
[…….]
Something crept from the darkness, crawling up along the arms of Tiel and Olivie. It looked like a worm, or perhaps a snake.
Its texture was similar to what had pooled near Iandros’s neck before, but it moved more sluggish, more sinister, more silent—creeping with deliberate malice.
Snake-like, insect-like, it crawled over Olivie’s body until it sensed that she was not its target, then scattered and vanished with a whisper.
And this time it gathered around Tiel. The darkness swelled in size as if to swallow the small snow-fox whole, growing deeper and more oppressive. Then….
[……!]
Everything that touched Tiel’s light dissolved in an instant, with no chance to resist.
At that moment, two small fish burst from within Tiel’s sleeping paws. Since Tiel remained asleep, it was an act beyond her will.
Which meant all of this was instinctive—a defense of her own body, a protection of her beloved master.
Two fish that had emerged from Tiel’s paws circled warily around her with their delicate tails streaming, as if in warning.
The darkness that had been swelling to consume Tiel’s body then shrank back and began to dissolve piece by piece….
The fish spiraled round and round, scattering fragments of light. Glittering sparks fell like starlight across the two sleeping girls. Layer upon layer, light gathered on their bodies as if snow were drifting down.
The surrounding darkness naturally receded. Even when Tiel’s Light Ability had been faint and weak, it had been enough to dispel the darkness around her.
Much less now, when it shone as clear as starlight—there was no way it could fail to banish the dark.
[!!!]
The things cowering in the darkness twisted in what seemed like agony.
But they could not escape the light. Light does not focus on one place alone; it illuminates all things equally.
Burst—!
Tiel’s fish flashed brilliantly, blazing bright.
As if proving that darkness cannot overcome light,
As if proving that even the faintest, most fragile light is still light…, the two fish born from Tiel’s Ability circled around the children through the night, driving back the darkness.
Perhaps because light stood guard at their heads,
The children slept deeply and peacefully the entire night without once waking.
***
After that, the children had to continue camping.
Normally they should have lodged in villages, but strangely, roads had collapsed or vanished wherever they went, forcing them to spend three more nights in the dark mountains.
And through those three additional camping trips, the children discovered something. It was….
“Tiel glows when we sleep in the mountains!”
Olivie exclaimed as if this were an extraordinary discovery. Ludian and Ferdi nodded in agreement.
“She didn’t glow when we lodged in villages.”
“Does she respond to the mountains? Tiel, what do you think?”
Ferdi turned to look at Tiel and asked.
Tiel, gripping cornbread studded with kernels in both small hands and chewing eagerly, quickly swallowed what was in her mouth.
“I’m not sure… You all said I seem to be using my Ability whenever I fall asleep.”
“True, I suppose you wouldn’t know.”
Ferdi nodded and wiped the crumbs from Tiel’s mouth. She opened wide—chomp!—and bit into the cornbread again.
It didn’t matter if sleeping Tiel used her Ability all night. Her light was so warm and cozy that Olivie slept soundly without losing any rest.
Ludian adjusted the blanket Tiel had been wearing and tucked it back over her. The children had each been covering themselves with a blanket since the biting cold began.
The sharp northern wind meant they were drawing near to Arne.
“Aren’t you cold?”
“I’m fine!”
Tiel shook her head. The inside of the carriage was very warm and cozy thanks to Ludian and Ferdi taking turns using their Abilities to warm the air.
Alpheus and Cassius had worried whether children raised in warm places would suffer from the cold if they went north….
“A Flame Ability is really amazing! Isn’t it, hand warmer?”
“That hand warmer might burn your hair off, so be careful.”
Ferdi, his Ability active, smiled and whispered. Ferdi and Ludian not only warmed the carriage air with their Abilities but also toasted Tiel’s cornbread warm and crispy.
It was an Ability with many useful applications. When camping, Ferdi and Ludian would instantly ignite kindling, sparing the knights the trouble of building fires.
“That hand warmer’s being difficult!”
“Want to ride in a different carriage by yourself and come freezing?”
“Yeah, let’s make him ride in another carriage. He needs to shiver a bit to come to his senses!”
The former speaker was Ferdi, the latter Ludian. Tiel ate her warm bread contentedly, whether her siblings quarreled or not.
Paying attention to every squabble between her siblings would be exhausting—Ferdi, Ludian, and Olivie fought far more often than one would imagine….
Meanwhile, the scenery beyond the carriage window changed dramatically.
Just moments before, they had been passing through snow-covered ground, but suddenly lush, verdant vegetation appeared.
They had crossed into the Arne domain.
Instead of the roars of snow-field predators, the chirping of mountain birds could be heard, and a warm breeze drifted gently, tapping against the carriage window.
“Have we arrived?”
Ludian, spotting the verdant landscape, opened the carriage window. Instead of the biting wind, a wonderfully warm breeze blew gently into the carriage.
“We’ve arrived!”
At Tiel’s words, Ferdi and Ludian, who had been using their Abilities continuously, withdrew them. Yet the carriage remained warm—thanks to Arne’s temperate climate.
Instead of snowfields, a vast flower meadow stretched before them. Warm sunlight tickled the backs of their hands. Tiel raised her small hand above her eyes as a sun shield and gazed dreamily out the window.
Her golden eyes gleamed like an afternoon lake. Tiel murmured softly, almost without thinking, in wonder.
“So this is…”
The Land Blessed by God,
Arne.

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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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