The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 131

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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 131
In the moment doubt flickered through her mind, the girl rushed at Tiel without warning.
The girl reached toward the bouquet Tiel was holding. Startled, Tiel let it slip from her fingers.
“Oh!”
Ferdi, Ludian, and the Asterian guards moved to intercept, but the girl was faster. She snatched up the fallen bouquet with surprising speed and withdrew.
“This… this can’t be right……”
Had Ferdi and Ludian deployed their Abilities, they could have stopped the girl before she reached Tiel—or burned the bouquet to ash in her hands.
But Ferdi and Ludian’s reflexes weren’t yet as sharp as Alpheus’s or Cassius’s, and neither felt any urgency to destroy the flowers.
“Well, um, if you wanted it back, you can have it. Really, it’s fine.”
Tiel spoke to the girl in a slightly flustered voice. Ferdi and Ludian let out hollow laughs, their expressions betraying disbelief at the situation.
“What are you doing? Do you understand what you’ve just done?”
Ferdi’s eyes hardened as he addressed the girl. Ludian’s face froze cold as he stared at her, then he turned sharply to the guards, his voice cutting.
“What were you doing? Since when are the Asterian guards this incompetent?”
The guards lowered their heads under Ludian’s rebuke. There was nothing wrong with his assessment. They were sworn to protect in any circumstance.
“Our apologies.”
Ludian gave the guards a brief glance before turning to Ferdi. He stepped forward, his gaze settling on the girl, who hugged the bouquet tightly to her chest.
It was absurd. She’d snatched back flowers that had been given to her? A commoner had rushed at a noble—worse, the lord who governed this territory—and stolen them.
It was unthinkable. Punishment was clearly warranted.
Then Tiel gently tugged at Ferdi’s and Ludian’s sleeves.
“I’m really all right. I’m not hurt.”
Worried that her brothers might harm the girl, Tiel rushed to defend her.
She truly was fine. With no injuries to speak of, there was no real reason to press further. Besides, Tiel had never been cruel to others.
Ludian looked at her with genuine remorse in his eyes.
“Tiel, I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I should have stopped her from reaching you……”
That was when the girl’s rigid expression drained of all color. Or rather, it turned not pale but black—as if darkness itself had flooded her face.
“Aaahhh—!!!”
The girl’s eyes went wide with pain, and the bouquet tumbled from her embrace.
The flowers, having fallen twice now, scattered petals and broken stems across the ground. Tiel’s eyes widened in alarm.
“What…? Oh, brothers…”
“Tiel, stand back.”
Ferdi extended his arm to shield her. Ludian nodded in agreement, pulling Tiel behind him to protect her. The guards moved forward, positioning themselves between the girl and their charges.
In the next instant, the girl crumpled to the ground, her face twisted in agony.
Tiel gasped and instinctively lunged forward, but Ludian’s hand caught hers.
“Oh, brother! That girl—”
“Wait.”
Ludian nodded, and the guards rushed forward to examine the girl. One of them carefully inspected the fallen bouquet.
“There’s something broken inside here!”
The guard pointed to a minute glass fragment. Ferdi and Ludian’s faces hardened in unison.
The implication was clear: the girl had come bearing the bouquet to harm Tiel.
Tiel was under the protection of both a Flame Ability and a Light Ability, so even if the bouquet had detonated in her arms, she likely wouldn’t have been seriously injured.
‘This is ridiculous.’
Yet something like this had occurred within Asterian Territory.
Tiel, Ferdi, and Ludian maintained fairly close relations with the Territory Residents.
The retainers of other houses also dealt kindly with those in their domains, but Tiel, Ferdi, and Ludian were notably so.
They had grown up roaming the lands beyond their territory from childhood, and they possessed Abilities so strong that they could protect themselves. This meant there was almost nothing that could truly threaten them.
Because they could guard themselves with such powerful Abilities, there had been scarcely any danger to them from the outset.
The Territory Residents had gifted the children with the most beautiful flowers and freshest fruits, and the children had always accepted their kindness without doubt or suspicion.
For this reason, neither Ferdi nor Ludian had ever imagined such a thing could happen within their own lands.
Ferdi regarded the girl. Left as she was, she would certainly die.
He couldn’t allow that before discovering who had orchestrated this. He issued his command.
“…Take her to the mansion. Have a physician keep her alive, then confine her to the Asterian Mansion Basement.”
At Ferdi’s order, the guards swiftly hoisted the girl. Tiel grasped Ferdi’s hand, her face growing stiff.
“…Brother.”
“Tiel, are you all right?”
Ludian turned Tiel to face him. She nodded. Aside from her fright, she was fine.
But then—
‘Hmm?’
Tiel examined her own hand and frowned slightly. A dark smudge lingered on her fingertips.
‘What is that?’
Tiel drew out a handkerchief and carefully wiped her fingertips clean. The mark vanished immediately. She must have picked it up when receiving the bouquet.
“What’s wrong? Does something seem odd?”
“No, it’s fine. Thanks to that girl snatching the bouquet back…”
“But that girl was the one who gave you the bouquet in the first place.”
“But she’s also the one who changed her mind and saved me in the end.”
Tiel gazed uncertainly at the spot where the girl had collapsed.
Why had the girl changed her mind at the last moment and taken back the bouquet?
“She looked so badly off… will she be all right?”
“Tiel! You nearly just got hurt. The fact that you’re concerned about yourself first is good—you’re the Head of the Asterian Household.”
“We were careless. We should have brought more guards. We let our guard down. We didn’t think something like this could happen in Asterian Territory.”
Ferdi took Tiel’s hand and turned toward the mansion. The remaining guards escorted Ferdi, Ludian, and Tiel.
“Let’s return to the mansion.”
The guards acknowledged. But Tiel, feeling oddly unsettled, kept glancing back at where the girl had fallen.
Her fingertips stung a little.
***
“Young lady!”
Tiel, who had been sitting quietly in her room and swinging her legs, smiled faintly when she saw who entered.
“Lia!”
“Young lady! I heard what happened. Goodness, what a thing! Are you hurt? Are you all right?”
Lia took both of Tiel’s hands and examined her carefully from head to toe. Her touch was even more meticulous than Ferdi’s or Ludian’s.
Only after confirming that not a hair on Tiel’s head was damaged did Lia finally exhale with relief and step back.
“I’m really all right. Perfectly fine. I’m not hurt, and my fright has already passed. Besides, you know how good I am with my Protective Ability.”
Tiel gestured playfully, and a thin curtain of light bloomed before her body.
Though gossamer-thin, it was woven as densely as thousands of golden threads—a barrier capable of repelling anything. At twelve years old, it was Tiel’s signature skill.
“So I’m fine! The real concern is that girl… Lia, will my brothers kill her?”
Tiel’s expression grew serious. Lia wanted to ask what she meant by such an obvious question but held her tongue.
“Young lady, I call you ‘young lady’ because you asked me to, as I did when you were younger. But you are the Head of the Asterian Household.”
“Yes, of course I know that.”
“That girl attempted to harm the Head of the Asterian Household. She deserves the punishment that befits her crime.”
“But she saved me in the end—”
“What good does saving you do after she pushed you in? The important thing is that she—oh, I’ve lost my composure. Forgive me, young lady.”
Lia gave an embarrassed laugh and gently wrapped her arms around Tiel. Tiel leaned into her embrace, blinking.
As Tiel nestled against her, she suddenly lifted her head to look up at Lia.
“Right! So where is that girl now?”

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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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