The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 112

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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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Chapter 112
“She’s very young. She looks about the same age as Tiel.”
“What kind of demihuman is she? What demihumans were supposed to live here originally?”
“In this place……”
Clemens gazed down at the boy and murmured. His youthful face twisted in discomfort as he gasped for breath. Her gaze caught on his blue hair.
“The House of Water, Everard and its vassal houses lived here. This boy is likely an heir to one of those vassal houses……”
“Couldn’t he be the heir to Everard itself?”
Olivier interjected abruptly. Clemens shook her head firmly at his words.
“Everard underwent extinction of house. When we speak of extinction of house, it means the heir who could continue the house line did not survive……. So he cannot be Everard’s heir.”
“But……”
Tiel, who had been listening intently to her companions’ words, suddenly spoke up. She glanced between the sleeping boy and the others, then asked carefully.
“But they asked for help, didn’t they? What could have happened to the demihumans here?”
“……I’m not sure. We’ll have to wait for the boy to wake up and ask him.”
Iandros replied. Tiel opened her mouth again.
“I don’t think he came here because he was injured……”
Tiel had sharp eyes. For a seven-year-old child, her powers of observation were remarkably keen. Indeed, as Tiel pointed out, the boy’s wounds were all superficial—scrapes and bruises from being knocked about.
Which meant the boy had been moving while scraping and colliding with things. Had he been moving to seek help?
Just then, Ferdi shook his head.
“As far as I know, the demihumans living here gather only in specific areas. There are no demihumans living beyond those bounds. But who would he seek help from by coming all the way out here? I think it’s more likely he simply lost his way……”
“So he wasn’t trying to seek help from anyone inside here……”
Tiel pointed her finger toward the cave’s mouth. Endless, impenetrable darkness. They all knew what lay beyond that darkness.
“……The river?”
“Isn’t it possible he was trying to cross the river? To call for help……”
The waterway was open now.
Now they could escape by boat. Though it didn’t appear there were any boats in this place.
“If this was Everard’s territory, then all the demihumans living here would be water demihumans, wouldn’t they?”
“That’s right.”
“Then even without a boat, if the waterway opened up, they could get out, couldn’t they?”
Tiel spoke each word distinctly. Ferdi fell silent in thought for a moment, then shook his head.
“The demihumans living here have never set foot outside even once.”
It was a rule of sorts that the demihumans gathered in this land had established. Though no one knew why they had made such a rule……, in any case, it existed as a rule. So Ferdi thought this child wouldn’t have dared break it. At least, that was what he believed.
But Tiel thought differently.
“But he’s still so young—he might not have known about something like that.”
Young and small. A child around Tiel’s own age. Though Tiel had experienced an entirely different position, an entirely different situation, she felt she might somehow understand what drove this child to the river’s edge……
Tiel carefully swept the boy’s blue hair back from his brow. The soft strands tumbled loose beneath her small fingers.
That was when it happened. The sleeping boy’s brow twitched faintly.
“……Nngh.”
The boy thrashed suddenly, startled by something, and his eyes snapped open.
***
“……Still no sign of Karl?”
“We sent out search parties, but we haven’t heard anything yet……”
Illum groaned in distress.
A single small Nightstone was embedded in the wall of the room where the two of them stood, but they had no difficulty seeing each other’s faces.
Moreover, the demihumans here, having lived in darkness for so long, had eyes sharp enough to see each other’s features clearly even in the gloom.
“Do you really think he’s trying to cross the river? Surely……”
“Eren! The boy has sense; he wouldn’t do that. He’ll probably just stare at the water for a while like before and come back. So we should just……wait.”
Illum pressed his temples, as if suffering from a headache. His head throbbed. Dealing with the crisis they now faced was burden enough without Karl constantly causing them grief.
“This is all your fault. You raised him, took him in. You should have taught him better. That child, or rather he……”
“……I know. I taught him with all my heart and sincerity. That’s why he turned out this way, isn’t it? Because I couldn’t leave them to their own devices……”
Eren’s gaze turned toward where Nightstones were stacked in neat rows. Beyond lay the village where these people made their home. The stones were positioned along the paths to light the way for daily life.
Village or not, it was nearly the size of a small city. Once, far more demihumans had lived here. And before that, there had been even more……
“……”
Eren’s thoughts halted before they could go further. There was no good in dredging up those old memories.
The village at the end of Eren’s gaze was silent. Perhaps unnaturally so, given that this place knew no distinction between day and night. And Eren and Illum both knew why it had become so quiet.
“Why has something like this happened now?”
Eren spoke while staring down at his forearms. The Nightstone light illuminated his skin. His flesh was mottled black with marks.
This land had once been Arcadia, a paradise of plenty.
But now not even traces of it remained, and the demihumans who had dwelt here struggled to eke out their existence in this place.
The reason they had not abandoned Arcadia was simple—not because they chose to remain, but because they could not leave.
They had been bound eternally by the Power of Darkness, their bodies transformed into ones that could no longer bear the light above.
Illum and Eren’s skin was stained black in patches—the toll of exposure to Nightstone light. Skin that darkened from mere Nightstone glow could never survive in sunlight.
So they could not leave this place. The moment they would step beneath the sun, their fate was assured.
Yet they could not forsake the Nightstones either. No matter how well they had adapted to darkness, without some light, daily life became impossible.
The problem was……their condition had been growing steadily worse of late.
“Even after we removed all the Nightstones from around those whose condition deteriorated most……”
Their skin was turning black, their bodies crumbling away. It was unclear whether the Nightstones were even the cause—those who had forsworn all light and lanterns in their anxiety were showing the same symptoms.
A great wave of dread and fear had swept over the demihumans of this land. The number of the dead was no small matter. And with each passing day, more voices rose, lamenting that their blackened skin would never return.
If this continued……
“It was always a place beyond the reach of the Lucet God’s hand. That we’ve survived this long is something of a miracle.”
Illum spoke flatly. The abandoned demihumans had persisted in this land for quite some time. It was thanks to the Lake in the center of the village.
From this lake—where the Lucet God is said to have lingered once—they had mined Nightstones and gathered food. All living things wasted away in the dark, yet the fish in the lake and the plants nearby grew without needing light.
The demihumans believed all of this was the Lucet God’s providence. A blessing bestowed on them out of compassion.
But it seemed that too had come to an end. The fish grew fewer with each passing day, the plants no longer grew, and the demihumans were dying at an ever-quickening pace……
Illum and Eren could see that before long, no living thing would remain in this land.
“Is it true, then……that miracles never come?”
Illum lifted his gaze toward the distance. The thick darkness obscured the view, but they knew what lay beyond it.
That was the highest place in this land.
Where the sun rose.
***
“Do you like the brighter light?”
Tiel crouched beside the boy, hugging her knees, and asked carefully.

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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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