The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 155

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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 155
“The Temple seems to be hoping you’ll come. But as always, if you don’t wish to go, you needn’t.”
Ferdi gazed at Tiel. She set down her teacup and met his eyes.
As Tiel had grown, Ferdi Asterian had shot up far taller still, shedding the last of his boyish charm. He was fully a man now.
Marriage proposals had been arriving steadily for years, but Ferdi kept refusing them, saying the time wasn’t right—otherwise, a wedding band would have been on that finger long ago.
The grown Ferdi tended to Tiel with the same unfailing care he always had, watching over her as devotedly as ever.
His advance warning about this matter was surely Ferdi’s way of giving her time to think it through.
He had always treated small kindnesses as matters of great importance.
Tiel hesitated for a moment, then looked directly into Ferdi’s eyes and spoke.
“If my going there would help ease the anxiety of the Empire’s people, I’ll go willingly.”
Cassius, Ferdi, Ludian, and Iandros had always told Tiel: ‘You owe Crasion nothing.’
Yet from the moment the days began to shorten, she couldn’t shake the feeling that all of this was somehow her fault.
Child of Lucette, God of the Light Ability.
That name carried a weight far heavier than she’d imagined. Tiel looked up at Ferdi, her eyes bright.
Ferdi noticed that her pupils seemed a touch less luminous than before.
‘They used to shine more like fire,’ he thought.
Now they sparkled like broken light dancing across still water. Ferdi felt both gladness and worry at the change in his sister.
Yet he said nothing. Tiel was the sort who scrutinized and dwelled on others’ feelings, and if he let his concern show, she would certainly catch his eye and turn that worry inward on herself.
Ferdi hated it when his younger sister was too quick to examine and condemn herself.
“Do as you wish. But Tiel, going there won’t solve anything immediately. You may even hear some things you’d rather not…”
“I’m prepared for that much!”
Tiel lifted her head sharply. Her white hair, neatly braided, swayed with the motion.
“Don’t worry. I think this is something I must bear. Who else could shoulder it? I’ve enjoyed many privileges as the child of light…”
“Privileges?”
Ferdi looked at her as though he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
As far as he knew, Tiel had never enjoyed any privilege from that name. If anything, she’d suffered for it.
At only seven years old, she’d nearly been taken from him by the Temple because of her status as the child of light. She’d nearly been seized by the Imperial Family as the Crown Prince’s bonded partner. She’d had to bring morning to lands where light had died.
None of that was something a seven-year-old child should have endured. Yet the adults had demanded it—simply because Tiel had been born with the Light Ability.
Because this girl was special, different from other children, they imposed burdens and harbored impossible expectations.
But to speak of ‘privileges’—Ferdi suppressed his discomfort and looked at her carefully.
“Let me be clear: you’ve never enjoyed any privilege. From beginning to end, everyone owes *you* a debt. No one has any right to demand anything of you. So if you’re planning to attend this Temple ceremony with that mindset, don’t go.”
Ferdi spoke quietly. Tiel’s words caught in her throat as she stared at him. Ferdi continued regardless.
“I hate that you think you owe them anything, Tiel. They’re the ones making unreasonable demands. You don’t have to bend to accommodate them.”
“Yes, brother.”
Tiel drew out the syllable and nodded. Ferdi picked up his teacup again, looking satisfied at last.
“Then think it over a bit more. You have plenty of time. No one will fault you if you announce your attendance on the day itself.”
“Yes, I’ll think about it more. I think I should discuss it with Iandros too.”
“…Yes, well, he is your fiancé, after all.”
“‘After all’? We’ve been fiancés and bonded partners for over a decade now. Don’t you find it strange that you still haven’t grown used to Iandros being my companion?”
Just then, the door swung open with a bang, and a handsome man with his hair swept back strode into the room.
He had the same deep black hair as Ferdi, but his eyes shone with a brilliant gold.
Neither Ferdi nor Tiel had to turn to know who’d entered. Only two people in the Asterian Mansion wandered about so brazenly.
“Ludian!”
“Hello, my sister. And him being your companion isn’t something he hasn’t gotten used to—he just hates it. I do too, for the record.”
Ludian approached warmly and ruffled Tiel’s hair in an affectionate, if somewhat rough, gesture.
Behind him walked a beautiful woman in an elegant dress. Tiel craned her neck to see who was following Ludian.
A woman with lovely silver hair adorned with flowers, her pink eyes matched perfectly with her pink dress, glided into the room behind Ludian.
Tiel recognized her at once and her eyes widened.
“Olivier!”
“Hi, Tiel~! How’ve you been? Wow, it’s been forever! I wanted to come earlier, but your brother kept getting in the way~ Did you miss me?”
Olivier swept in lightly, pushed Ludian aside, and planted a gentle kiss on Tiel’s forehead.
Tiel grinned like she had when she was very young and threw her arms around Olivier.
“I missed you so much! Both you and Ludian! You must be so busy—how did you both manage to come together?”
Olivier, the sole heir of Wolfgang, had been preparing tirelessly to inherit her position as Head of Household.
For all three of them to gather like this was extraordinary! Of course, Tiel was delighted to see everyone she loved at once.
From his seat, Ferdi sipped his tea quietly and smiled.
“I called them. I had something to discuss.”
“Something to discuss?”
“Yes. First, let’s sit down. It’s too loud in here. Olivier, put that fan away.”
“Do you know how rare this fan is! You’re blind as a bat!”
“Have you forgotten I’m your cousin?”
“The fact that you’re my cousin is exactly why I talk to you like this, Ferdi.”
As Ferdi and Olivier traded remarks with practiced ease, Ludian quietly edged into the seat beside Tiel.
***
“My lord.”
At the sound of his name, Thender, Head of Nestian, opened his eyes.
Sharp ice spikes surrounded him, making the space difficult to approach.
Thender blinked his hazy eyes and turned over the dream he’d just had in his mind.
His dead daughter, Rena, had appeared in the dream. She’d been holding Tiel, that girl…
Holding her and then what?
As if trying to hand her over to him.
Or as if fleeing far away with her.
The dream’s edges were too blurred to remember clearly.
But one thing was certain: either way, it hadn’t been a pleasant dream.
“Damn, a foul dream.”
Thender muttered a curse and pressed his hand to his head. The ice spikes that had encased him dissolved rapidly.
Only then could his adjutant cross the threshold into the room.
The man entered and stood before Thender, bowing his head. Thender didn’t turn around, merely tilting his head to signal him to speak.
The adjutant straightened and opened his mouth.
“Jay wishes to see you.”
At the mention of the name Jay, Thender’s face lit up like a man hearing from an old friend.
“Tell him to come in.”
The moment Thender spoke, his adjutant left the room to relay the message to Jay.
In the chamber, a single candle flickered precariously, as though it might extinguish any moment.
All around the room, the ice shards Thender had just melted were beginning to reform, sharpening once again into points.

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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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