The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 133

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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 133
“She’s further in.”
The guard stationed before the Underground Dungeon’s entrance led Cassius and Tiel deeper inside.
Tiel squinted against the dungeon’s murky, damp atmosphere. There was something about the place that reminded her painfully of the attic where she’d once lived.
A small light rose from Tiel’s palm, hovering there before flooding the dungeon with brightness. The guards exchange glances in confusion.
Asterian had built the dungeon underground and kept it dark for a reason: to prevent prisoners from seeing the Light of the Deity Lusette.
Yet here was the young lady wielding divine Ability, illuminating the dungeon as though it were day! The guards swallowed hard and glanced nervously at Cassius.
Cassius seemed to hesitate for a moment, then tapped Tiel’s cheek gently. “You don’t like the dark?”
“You don’t like the dark?”
“Yes, Father. It’s so dark here. It would be nicer if it were a bit brighter. I can’t even tell if it’s night or day.”
“This is where we keep criminals, so darkness is only natural. If you truly dislike it, we can leave right now——”
“Oh, never mind! Father, when did I say I didn’t like it? It’s bright now. I don’t mind at all. I just want to see that girl.”
Worried that Cassius might scoop her up and turn straight back toward the exit, Tiel squirmed softly in his arms.
Cassius set her down on the floor. The girl followed the guard’s lead, hurrying toward the far corner of the dungeon.
There, locked within, lay the very girl who had once given Tiel a bouquet. Without thinking, Tiel gripped the cell bars tightly with both hands.
“Ow! Hot!”
She jerked her hands away in shock. The iron bars were scalding. Eyes wide, Tiel stared at the bars, then at her own palm. Cassius hurried over to inspect her hand.
“I forgot to mention the precautions. Never touch the iron bars with your bare hands, Tiel.”
Tiel looked up at Cassius in bewilderment.
“Why are the bars so hot?”
“Asterian’s Underground Dungeon keeps its iron bars heated so prisoners cannot escape.”
“That explains it.”
Tiel carefully removed the brooch she wore at her chest.
The moment she detached the brooch—crafted from sacred material—a wave of heat washed over her. The superheated air felt almost unbearable.
Tiel nearly let her ears and tail slip free without thinking, but she quickly fastened the brooch back and turned to Cassius.
“This is too much! What if someone touches the bars by accident?”
“They won’t burn if they don’t touch them.”
Cassius brushed his hand across Tiel’s reddened palm as he spoke, his tone matter-of-fact.
Fortunately, Tiel had suffered no actual burn. The Flame Ability that heated the dungeon’s bars was Asterian’s own, and its protection shielded Tiel from true harm.
Ordinarily, she wouldn’t have felt the heat at all—but the Ability that Alpheus and Cassius had placed within the dungeon was fundamentally designed to harm others, and so Tiel had felt the burn regardless.
Once the swelling had faded, Tiel glanced at her palm, then at Cassius—who continued to stroke her hand—before turning her gaze toward the cell.
The girl inside lay on a narrow cot as though dead to the world.
The bed was so cramped that if she tossed and turned, she’d tumble straight to the floor.
Spiderwebs hung in the corners. The floor was visibly cold and hard. The walls were uncracked and sturdy, yet the bed itself bore long fissures.
It was a prison for criminals, so squalor was to be expected—yet Tiel felt her chest tighten.
Just as she’d mentioned earlier, the Underground Dungeon held echoes of the attic where she’d once lived in Nestian…
The girl spoke, her voice thin and hollow.
“Is her condition very serious?”
“The physician says she should wake within three or four days. Then we can interrogate her.”
“…You won’t torture her, will you?”
“If necessary.”
Tiel’s eyes went wide with alarm as she looked up at Cassius. He merely shrugged.
“It can’t be helped. This is a serious matter. Someone tried to harm you, and we still don’t know what poison she used.”
Tiel understood the gravity of the situation, of course. Yet she couldn’t help wanting to stop him.
The girl had clearly tried to save her. Why she’d attempted to harm her in the first place remained a mystery, but that she’d changed her mind and saved Tiel was certain.
“I’d prefer no torture. Even if it becomes necessary, I’d rather you didn’t. She’s so small. You know as well as I do——”
“Know what?”
“That she couldn’t have planned something like this alone. And that she tried to save me.”
“Tiel, we’ve been over this——”
“But it’s the plain truth.”
Tiel’s clear, ringing voice echoed through the Underground Dungeon. The guards stared in disbelief at how utterly flustered Cassius appeared before this small girl.
Undeterred, Tiel pressed on.
“So please show mercy. She was hurt badly because of me. If she’d simply given me the flowers and run, even if Asterian had caught her, she wouldn’t have been wounded like this.”
“She’d have been dead instead.”
“You’re planning to kill her anyway…to punish her for saving me instead of letting me die.”
“This is truly absurd. Tiel, my daughter. When did you grow old enough to constantly interfere in your father’s affairs?”
Cassius pinched Tiel’s cheek lightly—without any force behind it, so it was less a pinch than a gentle squeeze.
“Once she wakes, I’d like to speak with her myself…is that alright?”
“You want to speak with the girl who tried to kill you?”
“She saved me, I keep saying! We’ve been going in circles about this for an hour now…”
Tiel pouted softly. Cassius sighed once more.
“…I can’t win against you. But you won’t do it alone. You’ll meet her with me present.”
“Yes! Of course!”
Having finally gotten what she wanted, Tiel smiled brightly and nestled into Cassius’s arms.
Despite Cassius and Tiel speaking quite loudly, the severely wounded girl never once stirred.
Cassius, eager to leave this place behind, carried Tiel out of the Underground Dungeon.
The moment Tiel left, the light that had filled the dungeon vanished. Darkness reclaimed the space.
“It was so nice when the Head of Household was here—all that light. But now it’s dark again.”
“This is how it should be. Light for criminals? That makes no sense.”
The moment Cassius and Tiel departed, the guards began to murmur amongst themselves.
“But we’re stuck in the dark too now, aren’t we? These torches are too small to light a dungeon this vast.”
“You’ve worked here for years. Why keep complaining?”
As one guard continued to grouse about the loss of that sweet brightness, his companion shot him a sharp rebuke.
Then one of the guards narrowed his eyes.
“Huh?”
“What is it?”
“Look there—what’s that?”
He pointed to the far cell, the very one Cassius and Tiel had just visited. The girl who’d attacked Tiel was imprisoned there.
The guards moved closer and peered through the bars.
Inside the cell, a small fish made entirely of shimmering light hovered near the girl’s head, swimming slowly circles around her.
“Isn’t that the Head of Household’s Ability?”
“I think so. But why is it here?”
The fish noticed the guards and drifted slowly through the air toward them, approaching close enough to nearly brush their faces.
Each languid sweep of its long, beautiful fins scattered motes of light downward in a cascade of wonder.
As the guards stared in slack-jawed amazement, the fish swam back out through the bars, circled once around the guards, and returned to hover above the girl’s head.
It was a small light Tiel had left behind—a final mercy for the girl who had, in the end, chosen to save her.
In that moment, the girl’s hand twitched slightly.
But the dungeon guards, having recognized the “strange thing” as the Head of Household’s Ability, had already returned to their posts and saw nothing.
***
“Another visitor has…come?”
Tiel asked wearily, glancing at Lia.
Lia felt sorry for her and spoke carefully.
“The Crown Prince has arrived. He heard about your accident and…”

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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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