The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 159

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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 159
“Thender.”
In the quiet room, a man approached Thender, who sat alone, and bowed his head respectfully.
Thender did not turn to face him, instead gesturing with his chin for the man to sit across from him. The man took the seat and regarded Thender intently.
“Je.”
Thender spoke slowly, opening his mouth as though confirming the man’s identity. The man smiled faintly, as if pleased to acknowledge the name.
He was Je.
His true name was unknown. Everyone simply called him Je. Not a soul knew his real name. For this reason, Thender did not bother to pry it out—he simply called him Je.
“How are things progressing?”
“Smoothly. At this rate, everything will proceed without incident.”
Je spoke with a smile.
Thender’s face crumpled in irritation as he fixed Je with a hard stare. “That’s not what I was asking. I meant my granddaughter!”
“That’s not what I was asking. I meant my granddaughter!”
“Matters concerning Rowen are also proceeding well, so there is nothing to worry about. All things……—may grace accompany them.”
Je’s words came out unclear, the pronunciation muddled. But Thender understood what he was trying to say.
For that reason, he did not press Je further or reproach him.
“So then, why did you want to see me?”
“There is a matter for which I must ask your assistance.”
“An request?”
“Yes. There is something I require. I must ask for your help.”
At Je’s words, Thender clicked his tongue in displeasure. Less than three months had passed since Je had mentioned needing something and Thender had provided it. So what else could he possibly need now?
Nestian had more than enough power to obtain whatever Je desired, but for some reason, Thender found Je unsettling.
Unsettling and vaguely disquieting—even though Je was supporting Nestian and his granddaughter Rowen with unwavering devotion.
“Organize it and bring me a report. I’ll examine it and make the preparations. And……where is Rowen?”
“Rowen is currently at the Villa. However, she should be able to return to the Asterian Mansion soon.”
Je spoke fluidly, his voice flowing like water. Because of this smooth cadence, Thender failed to notice the subtle note of satisfaction woven through Je’s words.
“She must become far stronger than that girl Tiel…….”
Thender murmured to himself. Je whispered beside him like a serpent coaxing someone to eat forbidden fruit.
“Quite so. She will grow much stronger. The young lady is already sufficiently powerful. Perhaps soon she will be able to drive back the darkness rooted in this land and restore the balance between day and night…….”
Thender and Je fell silent for a time, yet it was certain that both were imagining the same thing.
***
“Iandros!”
Tiel followed Iandros while gathering her dress hem tightly in her hands. White lace fluttered at the hem of her gown like flower petals.
Tiel hurried down the landing and stepped in front of Iandros. He had stopped on his way out to board the carriage, and now he looked down at her.
“Iandros, you’re leaving already?”
“Ferdi called me on business, and now that I understand the matter, I have to go. Why—do you find my departure unwelcome?”
“That’s…… yes! But it’s not that I’m sad to see you go today! It’s just that you seem unusually rushed.”
Even though Iandros had only visited Tiel yesterday, whenever he came to the Asterian Mansion, he always stayed for two or three hours and spent the time with her.
So this sudden rush to leave was unprecedented. Tiel grew worried that perhaps his Ability had run into trouble again.
“Wait, just a moment, please come here!”
Tiel seized Iandros’s hand and pulled him forward urgently.
She felt the eyes of passing servants and attendants upon them. Embarrassed, Tiel’s face flushed as she dragged Iandros up to her room.
Iandros signaled to Cedric to wait a moment, then followed willingly as Tiel led him by the hand into her chamber.
Click.
Tiel shut the door and seated Iandros on her soft bed. He sat looking up at her from the mattress.
“Will you be alright?”
“What? Alright with what?”
“If your brothers find out I’ve been sitting on your bed, they’ll skin me alive and hang my hide on the Asterian gates…….”
“If my brothers had any sense, they wouldn’t flay the skin off the Crown Prince!”
“Your brothers look like they have sense to you?”
Iandros tilted his head, seemingly eager to bring up the ‘reckless plan’ that Ferdi had been laying out for them. Tiel, understanding perfectly what Iandros meant to say, wrinkled her nose in a troubled expression.
“Well……they can be a bit reckless sometimes.”
“If word gets out that I came to your room and sat on your bed, they’ll probably act twice as ‘reckless’ about it.”
“I’ll stop them for you! But first, let me see your hand.”
Tiel grasped Iandros’s hand firmly and closed her eyes.
Iandros stopped smiling and fixed her with a serious gaze. He knew what she was trying to do.
Through the Bond, a Bonded Partner shares the burden of their partner’s Ability…….
Since his Bond with Tiel was incomplete, Iandros could not share her burden, but Tiel was able to share in his Ability.
Unable to pull his hand away, Iandros spoke with clear discomfort. “Tiel, you should let go of my hand before your brothers see.”
“I’m concentrating, Your Highness…….”
“……didn’t I tell you not to call me by that title?”
“If you keep interrupting me, I’ll keep using it…….”
Tiel answered without yielding an inch. Iandros eventually gave up arguing with her and surrendered his hand.
When Tiel held Iandros’s hand, she could sense whether his Ability was on the verge of Rampaging.
Warm light flowed through the joined hands and into Iandros’s body.
Iandros felt as though the world’s most pristine and gentle sunlight was coursing through his veins, traveling through every part of his body.
The Light Ability—Tiel’s power.
It was an exquisite sensation that only those bonded to a wielder of the Light Ability could experience.
Yet because Iandros knew how unstable his own Ability had become, he did not welcome Tiel using her power for him in this way.
Tiel held Iandros’s hand for some time before releasing it.
As her light flowed into Iandros’s body, it calmed his Ability, and for now at least, he would not Rampage.
Iandros rubbed his wrist awkwardly, looking up at her. “Thank you, Tiel. But you don’t have to do this next time. I understand my Ability—there’s no need to worry…….”
“There’s no need to worry, is there……! You said rooms in the Subspace disappeared, didn’t you? Although little is known about the Spatial Ability, I can see that’s not an ordinary matter.”
“A few have opened again. Well, some have closed again, but the point is they’ve reappeared, isn’t it?”
“Of course not!”
When Tiel was very young, she had glimpsed a memory within Iandros’s Subspace.
In that memory, the Emperor’s son and the Crown Princess had attempted to control Iandros’s power, and they had ended up……in the Subspace…….
‘…….’
Tiel had never spoken of that incident aloud, never told Iandros, and never let herself dwell on it.
But now that his Ability had grown visibly unstable, she could not help but let that thought surface.
“What if your Ability Rampages again?”
A small fish made of light swam toward her, its long fins undulating gently, and brushed her cheek softly.
Feeling the light grow noticeably weaker than before, Tiel’s chest tightened, and she opened and closed her eyes carefully.
The Ability was weakening, and Iandros’s Ability was becoming unstable.
If the same tragedy occurred once more…….
‘I don’t even want to imagine it.’
Tiel’s eyes snapped open.
That’s why—before Iandros’s Ability destabilized any further, they had to find a proper solution.
Something like fully completing the Bond, for instance…….

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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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