The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 164

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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 164
“……Iandros!”
The place Iandros emerged into was, surprisingly, the Asterian Mansion. Whether space had twisted within the Subspace and transported him, or whether he had moved directly from inside the carriage to the Asterian Mansion, he found himself standing in Tiel’s room where she lay sleeping. Everyone in the room opened their eyes wide.
Not only that, but because he had burst forth in the very chamber where Tiel was resting, all those present stared at him in shock.
Iandros tore through the Subspace and emerged to find Ferdi, Ludian, Cassius, Alpheus, and the Asterian physician all staring at him.
He noticed something was terribly wrong, that Tiel was nowhere to be seen before him, and only after realizing someone lay behind him did he slowly turn his head.
On the bed lay Tiel, her face deathly pale.
Iandros rushed to her without waiting for an explanation or asking anything of them, and immediately checked her condition.
The moment his hand drew near her neck, he felt a faint Ability flowing through her body.
Faint.
In that instant, Iandros knew something was terribly wrong.
Tiel’s Ability was, if one had to make a comparison, like a cascading waterfall. A vast torrent of Ability had always flowed through her body.
But now it was nothing more than a trickle—barely a stream. Iandros spun his head sharply toward Cassius.
“What happened?”
“We don’t know, Your Highness. For now, it would be best if we all left so that Tiel could rest.”
Despite Iandros’s sudden appearance, Cassius showed no sign of panic.
Even as Iandros demanded of Cassius and Alpheus—’What is the meaning of this?’—he could not shake the conviction that all of it was somehow his fault.
Originally, only Iandros could come and go within his own Subspace.
Except for the mysterious intruder who had begun invading it at some point, only Iandros alone could enter.
Yet Tiel’s Ability had entered Iandros’s Subspace. And it had guided him out of the maze.
Whether Tiel had intended it or not, he could not say. But one thing was certain: because of that, Iandros had managed to escape the maze.
‘Was it the power of the Bond Mark?’
Had she unconsciously tried to help him through their Bond Mark? Iandros gazed at Tiel’s face, tucked the blanket around her carefully, and then left the room with Cassius, Alpheus, and the Asterian twins.
Today was the day Asterian had chosen to celebrate as Tiel’s birthday. It was a joyous occasion that came no more than twice a year.
Yet of all days, something like this had to happen.
As Alpheus walked alongside Iandros, he opened his mouth.
“She collapsed suddenly during the meal. Alarmed, we summoned the physician, but he found nothing physically amiss with her. So I must ask you, Your Highness—was your Ability perchance unstable today?”
“……Yes.”
Iandros nodded.
Alpheus asked nothing further, as if he had expected as much. Cassius felt the same.
Ferdi understood well enough by now that Iandros was the Crown Prince and would soon ascend to the throne as Emperor, so he refrained from adding to the conversation.
But Ludian was different.
“So all of this happened because of you?”
“Ludian, mind your tongue. This is His Highness the Crown Prince, not your friend.”
“But it’s true, isn’t it? Tiel collapsed because of that Bond Mark, didn’t she?”
Ludian’s words struck Iandros like a dagger to the heart. He walked in silence, like a man bearing the weight of guilt.
“I’ve been feeling my Ability destabilize lately.”
Iandros spoke as they entered the Reception Room. Alpheus, in case of unforeseen circumstances, dismissed all the nearby knights and servants.
Only once he had confirmed that no one remained did Iandros begin to speak.
“Long ago, someone invaded my Subspace.”
Perhaps some of them had already heard this. Perhaps others were hearing it for the first time. But Iandros did not pause.
“Since then, strange things have occurred frequently. My Subspace became twisted, or shrank, or the intruder appeared again. And recently, my Subspace began to shrink in ways I could clearly perceive.”
“Your Subspace…… is shrinking?”
“And today, as I was riding in the carriage to come here, I was suddenly pulled inside the Subspace. When I came to, I found myself in a small, rundown room……”
Iandros gazed blankly at a flower vase on the table as he recalled the moment.
“I opened one door and found another. I opened that door and found another still. Like a Matryoshka doll…… I wandered through an endless maze until Tiel’s fish appeared.”
“……”
“And that fish guided me to the exit before scattering and vanishing completely. That is what happened just now.”
Iandros ran an irritated hand through his neatly combed hair, pushing it back. He continued speaking before Alpheus or Cassius could find a word to say.
“My Ability must have destabilized, causing some defect in the Bond Mark between Tiel and me, which is why she collapsed. To address the fundamental problem……”
Iandros closed his eyes, then opened them.
“I must either break the Bond Mark between Tiel and me, or complete it. Originally, I intended to complete the Bond Mark with her. But now my mind has changed.”
“Your mind has changed?”
“I will break the Bond Mark. So that I cause her no further harm.”
***
A profound silence fell upon the room. Alpheus stared at Iandros in apparent shock.
“Your Highness!”
The old Duke’s eyes looked upon him as if gazing at a headstrong, foolish boy. In that moment, Iandros felt himself transported back to his boyhood, when he had been rebuked in turns by the old Duke and the Emperor.
“Breaking the Bond Mark is an impossibility. Surely Your Highness knows this? If breaking a Bond Mark were possible, then Bond Partners would not have all but vanished from existence by now, and countless souls would not have perished following the deaths of their marked partners.”
“I know. But Duke, a half-formed Bond Mark is also unprecedented, is it not?”
Iandros spoke.
Iandros harbored no true desire to break the Bond Mark with Tiel.
Why would he wish to break it? Every Beast Person harbors the desire to possess their Bond Partner completely.
Iandros was no exception. Even though it was half-formed, it was still a Bond Mark. As long as the Bond Mark existed, Tiel would never leave Iandros, and he would never leave her.
But even if it was half-formed, a Bond Mark was a Bond Mark.
Just as the Emperor had once desired, Tiel received a portion of Iandros’s Ability and lost consciousness, unable to bear her rampaging power.
And Iandros, sensing that something had gone wrong with Tiel’s Ability, could not complete the Bond Mark with her—so he could neither share her burden nor lighten the strain her small body was enduring.
All of it was absurd and cruel. Unjust to Tiel. Unjust to Iandros. ……Must he stand by and watch his Bond Partner collapse because of his own Ability?
Moreover, Iandros’s Ability would only grow more unstable in the days to come. Each time, Tiel would have to endure the rampaging force alongside him.
The mere thought of that reality made it hard to breathe. Iandros abandoned the very idea of completing the Bond Mark with Tiel.
He would break the Bond Mark. If it was impossible, he would make it possible. His resolve hardened. Iandros’s eyes blazed with a sharp, fierce light.
And everyone in that room intuited that there was no way to dissuade him from this path.
It was then that Ferdi spoke.
“Iandros.”
“Speak.”
“I respect your decision. It is not our place to intervene. You and Tiel know best how much harm this half-formed Bond Mark is doing to you both.”
Ferdi’s words cut through Iandros’s chest like a blade once more. He continued, his voice steady.
“Besides, I’m glad about it. If your Bond Mark with Tiel breaks, then at least she won’t have to share in your burden any longer.”
“……”
“But what of Tiel?”
Ferdi looked directly at Iandros. His golden eyes gleamed as they held Iandros’s gaze.
“Do you think she wants this as well?”
Ferdi murmured softly.
“There is something you don’t know. Tiel is also a party to all of this……”

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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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