The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 161

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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 161
“I hate this!”
Rowen hurled the dress onto the bed, her voice sharp with frustration. The maid standing beside her fumbled to catch it in her arms.
Rowen swept her lustrous silver hair behind her ear with practiced grace, then pointed dismissively at the other dresses with her fingertips.
“This one’s hideous too, and this one! All of them! None of them shine the way hers does!”
She tossed another dress aside with an exasperated sigh.
Some of the attendants hovering nearby looked at a loss, while others—long accustomed to these displays—simply bowed their heads in resignation.
Rowen’s head snapped up suddenly.
The perfect image of Thender and Cornelia, Rowen had blossomed into a woman whose beauty was beyond dispute even by Nestian standards. It would be no exaggeration to call her the most beautiful in the entire realm.
Yet her temperament was equally a reflection of her parents, and the number of servants who fled the Nestian Mansion rather than endure her moods was far from negligible.
Nevertheless, as both the cherished daughter of Thender and Cornelia and the heir of House Nestian, no one dared to cross her.
“Why can’t you find me a dress exactly like hers!?”
She rounded on the maid beside her, her voice sharp as a blade.
“That dress is something only the royal family can procure…….”
“I didn’t ask you to explain why, did I!?”
Rowen snatched up a dress and flung it across the room. The delicate silk caught on her sharp nails and tore with a soft ripping sound, but no one paid it any mind.
Since childhood, Rowen had destroyed at least one dress a day in fits of temper, and by now the servants had grown entirely accustomed to the sight of torn fabric.
“That’s enough! Get out—I can’t stand the sight of any of you!”
She waved them away dismissively. The maids hurried from the room before their mistress could change her mind and summon them back.
Click.
The door to Rowen’s chamber closed.
The maid holding the torn dress spoke with exhaustion in her voice.
“Why is she back already?”
“I’m not sure. Looks like her Ability training ended early.”
“But she was supposed to be gone for a whole month!”
“Perhaps the Head of Household called her back.”
The fact that Rowen was receiving Ability training from a tutor Thender had brought in secretly was known throughout the entire Nestian Mansion.
For these training sessions, Rowen would leave the mansion for anywhere from a week to two months. This time she’d been expected to be gone for the full two months.
But something must have gone wrong—she’d returned after just one month and had immediately returned to her destructive tantrums.
The servants gathered up the dress to be mended, secretly hoping their young mistress would soon depart again for her training.
“Still, why won’t Miss Rowen marry? There are so many marriage proposals coming in!”
As one of the Five Great Houses and second only to House Asterian, Nestian attracted no shortage of suitors eager to wed the marriage-age Rowen Nestian.
Yet Thender, and indeed Rowen and Cornelia themselves, had rejected all these offers.
Tiel Asterian already had a betrothed and kept postponing the wedding for one reason or another, but what of our young mistress?
Rowen had no betrothal at all. Of course, even if she were well past the usual age, suitors would hardly lack—she was the sole heir of House Nestian, after all—but…….
“Have you ever seen the young mistress use her Ability?”
The maid setting down Rowen’s dress turned sharply to ask the question.
“No? Why?”
“I happened to catch a glimpse of it once. But……. Something felt off about it.”
“What do you mean off? Everyone uses their Ability differently.”
“It’s not that kind of feeling. I’ve seen the Head of Household and Cornelia use their Abilities, and I’ve even seen Miss Rowen use hers when she was very young. But…….”
The maid lowered her voice. Her companion, listening intently, instinctively followed suit.
“But what?”
“The Head of Household and Cornelia both use the Ice Crystallization Ability—true ice crystallization. But Miss Rowen’s Ability is…… different. Not ice crystallization at all, but almost like…….”
“Like what? Don’t leave me hanging—out with it!”
“I’ve never been to the Capital City, so I’ve never seen the Light Ability with my own eyes. But if the Light Ability existed, I’d imagine it would look like…….”
The other maid gasped, her voice rising in shock.
“What are you saying? Miss Rowen’s Ability is Ice Crystallization! Are you telling me Miss Rowen uses the Light Ability?”
“Shh, shh! Keep your voice down! I never said she uses the Light Ability. I just mean…… it’s not the Light Ability. I saw ice crystals, I swear. But those crystals were…….”
The maid’s eyes flickered as she recalled the memory.
Through a crack in the doorway, she had glimpsed Rowen’s Ability at work.
Rowen had pressed both hands to her chest and activated her power.
Small shards of ice gathered and piled gently atop one another.
They accumulated, layer upon layer, until they formed a sphere. Then, in an instant, the ice fragments converged and emitted a brilliant light.
It was the first time the maid had ever witnessed such a phenomenon, and she had never breathed a word of it to anyone.
More than that, Rowen had strictly forbidden anyone to observe her Ability training. If word of the maid’s glimpse ever reached her, there would be serious consequences.
The maid tilted her head thoughtfully.
“What kind of Ability training is she receiving? She’s definitely becoming stronger. But why does it feel so ominous?”
“Well, if you ask me, I think you’re imagining things. Ice reflects light, after all—you could easily have seen it that way. It’s not as though Miss Rowen could use the Light Ability. I’ve never even heard of two people using the Light Ability in the same generation!”
“You’re probably right. I must have been mistaken.”
Somewhat reassured by her friend’s words, the maid nodded in agreement.
“Anyway! You won’t mention what I said to anyone, right?”
“Where would I even tell it?”
Their nerves settled and their curiosity sated, the two maids laughed quietly as they slipped from the room.
***
Rowen’s chamber.
Rowen closed her eyes and concentrated, focusing her Ability.
Ordinarily, Rowen never closed her eyes when using her Ability.
Until now, her method had been to sharpen ice crystals into dagger-like shards and hurl them like assassin’s blades.
But Je had forbidden her from using her Ability in that manner.
She must keep her eyes closed. She must focus her mind completely…….
Rowen was quite obedient when it came to Je’s instructions, and she followed them without protest, training her Ability according to his methods.
Ice crystals accumulated gently in her cupped palms.
Even this frustrated her—she wanted to grab a handful of the fragments and scatter them to the winds.
Had her grandfather or mother done this, they would have manifested massive, sturdy ice lances or blades, not paltry shards like these.
But Rowen’s own Ability was woefully weak by comparison, capable of producing nothing but these tiny ice crystals.
Je lamented this lack deeply.
‘You were not born with outstanding talent.’
She recalled his words. The old Rowen would have overturned a table in fury at such a remark. But the sweetness that followed had stayed her hand.
‘I can make you surpass those born with talent…….’
With those words, Je had fed her a sphere, then another, and another.
Rowen had accepted them without knowing what they were, and for ten years she had trained according to Je’s guidance, learning to wield her Ability in his prescribed manner.
And now, the result——
A faint gleam kindled within the ice crystals gathered in her palm.
As she deepened her concentration, the lights flared erratically, wreathing the ice crystals in radiance.
It was crude and faint, that light.
But it was unmistakably there.
A smile bloomed across Rowen’s lips.

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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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