The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 147

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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 147
Andreas delivered the message to Tiel and hurried back to the Temple.
After seeing Andreas off, Tiel returned to her room. Lia combed through her hair again and changed her clothes into indoor wear.
“Miss, did you hear something troubling?”
Lia, unaware of what Andreas and Tiel had discussed, tilted her head curiously.
Lia had served Tiel closely for five years now. So reading her mood from just a glance at her face was easier for Lia than eating cold soup.
“Hmm? Oh, it’s nothing much.”
Tiel decided to keep quiet to Lia about what Andreas had told her.
It wasn’t that she distrusted Lia. It was simply that what Andreas had said was so shocking that Tiel herself could barely believe it.
‘Night has become longer than day.’
Could it be related to the succession of events happening lately?
While Tiel pondered in silence, Lia finished unbraiding her hair completely.
“That’s a relief then. Would you like to rest a bit? I’ll wake you before evening.”
Lia gently patted Tiel’s shoulder and helped her lie down. Tiel closed her eyes without resistance and lay quietly.
“Then I’ll trouble you with that. Please wake me when Father and Grandfather return to the mansion.”
“Don’t worry, Miss. Sleep well.”
Tiel lay down her drowsy body and covered herself with the fluffy blanket, closing her eyes. Sleep came rushing in almost immediately.
Lia carefully adjusted Tiel’s blanket, closed the window tightly against the wind, and left the room.
Click.
The door closed.
***
‘Where am I?’
Tiel’s eyes opened in darkness. As she blinked, a blurry landscape came into focus.
It was a place she’d never seen before. Startled, Tiel curled her body and instinctively tried to use her Ability.
But the Ability wouldn’t activate.
‘Why, why is this happening?’
Tiel clasped her hands together as she had as a child and desperately tried to summon her Ability.
But instead of light gathering in her palms, only darkness crept in.
The darkness seemed like insects, or perhaps someone’s shadow, and Tiel brushed it away from her hands as if she’d touched something forbidden.
“Where on earth am I……”
She had been sleeping in her bedroom at the Asterian Mansion, yet somehow she’d woken in this strange place.
Tiel first tried not to move rashly and tested whether she could even summon the Fish.
But the Fish wouldn’t summon either.
‘If my Ability won’t work, the Fish won’t summon either.’
Why had this happened right after hearing that High Priest’s ominous words? Tiel’s small mind filled with dreadful thoughts.
‘Were they dragged in while I slept?’
If that were true, the servants and knights of the Asterian Mansion, Father, Grandfather, and her brothers would never have allowed it.
That was when it happened.
Something stirred in the darkness with a murmuring sound.
Tiel moved toward the murmuring sound as if enchanted. The sound drew closer.
‘What is that sound?’
Just as Tiel leaned in to listen more carefully to what it was—
Ssshhhhh—!
Countless snakes burst from the grass and overwhelmed Tiel. She fled in a panic.
‘What, what is this!’
Thud-crash!
Running without looking ahead, she tripped over something, but immediately got up and ran again.
Since there were limits to running on two legs, she activated Beast Form Transformation.
She appeared as a Snow Leopard with beautiful white fur. Though she had grown considerably since childhood, she was still far smaller than other leopards of her kind.
The Snow Leopard ran through the darkness for a long while.
And not long after—
Ssshhhhh—!
The swarm of snakes descended on Tiel once more. She fled in desperation before finally falling again.
This time she couldn’t get up immediately. The snakes, as if they’d been waiting, coiled around the Snow Leopard’s body.
‘No, I don’t want this!’
Unknown monsters piled layer upon layer atop the Snow Leopard.
Stacking, piling, accumulating.
In that moment, a familiar face appeared before Tiel’s eyes.
‘That girl…!’
The girl who had tried to attack her. She was the same girl the Asterian Mansion was now protecting.
But why was she……
“Kyaaaah!”
Tiel jolted awake in bed with a scream. Her entire body was drenched in cold sweat, and the indoor clothes she had changed into were soaked through.
The blanket Lia had tucked around her lay scattered far across the bed from her thrashing.
Tiel caught her breath and looked around.
It was her own room.
‘A dream, it was just a dream?’
Once Tiel realized that everything she had experienced was a dream, she pressed a hand to her rapidly heaving chest to calm it.
‘Why did I have such a dream? Why did that girl appear in my dream?’
Was it because she’d heard such words from the High Priest earlier today?
No. Tiel had been having Nightmares for quite some time now. That’s why Lia had been giving her a cup of sleep-inducing tea recently.
It didn’t seem like today’s stress alone had caused this dream. Tiel went to the window, drew back the curtains, and opened it.
Moonlight poured in brilliantly. Her white hair reflected the moonlight, shimmering like ripples. The girl stood at the window and savored the night breeze for a long while.
Then she carefully clasped her hands and tried to use her Ability.
Splash—!
Unlike in the dream, small Light Fragments gathered in her hands.
Gathering, accumulating, growing larger until they formed a large sphere. At the same time, two Fish appeared with a pop! and began circling around her palms.
Relieved that she could use her Ability, Tiel split the Light Fragments into hundreds of pieces and scattered them out the window.
Bright, glowing Light Fragments fell like snowflakes and piled up over the Garden.
The girl watched the sight quietly for a moment, then closed the window again with a soft sound.
‘What time is it?’
Lia had said she’d wake her before evening, but evening seemed to have long passed.
It was possible Lia had come to wake her but found her sleeping peacefully and decided not to disturb her.
Lia knew Tiel had been losing sleep lately, so she didn’t make any effort to wake her up when she slept late.
Creak—
Tiel carefully opened her door. The maids moving through the mansion’s corridors noticed her and hurried over.
“Miss, you’re awake?”
“Are you hungry? Shall we prepare a meal for you?”
“Hmm, that’s fine. But where are Father and Grandfather? Where are they?”
When Tiel asked carefully, the maids answered with bright smiles.
“They’re probably resting in their rooms. Shall we pass along a message?”
“No, I’ll go myself. And there’s one more thing I wanted to ask—do you remember that girl from before?”
“A girl?”
“Yes, the one who was brought in for attacking me. Do you know where she’s staying now?”
“Ah, that girl……”
The maid’s expression turned uncomfortable. It seemed Alpheus or Cassius had instructed them not to mention that girl to Tiel.
Not wanting to make the maid uncomfortable, Tiel shook her head firmly.
“Never mind! Let’s forget I asked. I’ll ask Father about it.”
“Yes, Miss. Thank you.”
The maids, realizing the kind girl had spared them, smiled brightly and hurried past.
Tiel also made her way swiftly toward Cassius’s room.
Normally Tiel had a lively, bouncing gait, but today, perhaps from the nightmare, her steps seemed somewhat subdued.
Standing before Cassius’s door, Tiel knocked softly.
Not long after, the door opened and Cassius Asterian appeared from inside.
“Tiel?”

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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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