The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 167

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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 167
“Tiel, you… when did your Ability become so weak?”
The moment everyone left the room, Iandros broached the subject. Tiel flinched, her body trembling.
‘He knows my Ability has weakened…’
It was only when her thoughts reached that point that Tiel realized how foolish she was being.
Tiel’s Ability was the Light Ability, the one among all existing Abilities that manifested most visibly in the physical world.
So if anyone had seen how brightly the fish she carried ordinarily shone, and now witnessed how dimly it glowed, there was no way they wouldn’t notice.
‘Then… Father and Grandfather too?’
Had they sensed that my Ability had weakened, which was why they were so worried about me?
Tiel clenched her fist and pressed it to her chest. For some reason, a heaviness settled there, as if something were blocking her airways.
Iandros did not press Tiel for an answer, waiting with patient silence.
After a moment, Tiel steadied her breathing and answered slowly.
“I’ve felt it weakening little by little for some time now. It hasn’t been long. About half a year…”
“Half a year is plenty long enough.”
“In any case… what matters right now isn’t that.”
Tiel changed the subject. Iandros, though he noticed her deflection, let it pass.
“Until then, it was only a feeling that my Ability might be weakening. I hardly noticed any real decline.”
“…”
“But today, all of a sudden…”
As Tiel’s words trailed off, Iandros turned his head. He seemed to be considering something.
Tiel felt uncomfortable, as if she were keeping the already-busy Iandros here unnecessarily.
“But… it should come back soon, shouldn’t it? So please don’t worry too much! Once I rest a little, it will return.”
“It might not come back.”
Iandros said it plainly. Tiel fell silent. She knew this too.
Though rare, there were therianthropes whose Abilities had vanished. Tiel might become one of them.
The Light Ability that had once filled the people of the Crasion Empire with hope would fade into history, leaving only Tiel behind…
“If your Ability is gone, you won’t be able to use Protection magic either.”
Tiel, lost in thought for a moment, snapped back at Iandros’s voice. She hesitated, then spoke.
“Would you like to test it? I’ve never been attacked yet, so I’m not sure whether I can still use the Protection Ability.”
“Are you insane? It probably won’t work.”
Iandros said it without attacking her, stating it as fact. Tiel accepted his reasoning.
Since she couldn’t use her Ability at all, it was only natural that the Protection Ability wouldn’t be available either.
“With Je still not completely captured, and now this. Ask your father and grandfather to place a Protection Ability on you.”
Tiel recalled the power that had been laid upon her in Asterian’s dungeons underground and nodded.
Then she carefully opened her mouth.
“And, about your trip to Nestian…”
“You shouldn’t be worrying about that right now…”
“I know! I know it’s presumptuous to worry about this when my Ability is gone! But.”
Tiel sprang up from the bed. The motion made her sway for a moment, but thanks to Iandros, who was nearby and caught her quickly, she didn’t fall.
Tiel smiled at him in thanks, then opened the drawer and pulled out a glass orb.
Inside it, tiny fragments of light flickered…
“It’s small and faint, but it holds my power. I’d prefer that you, Iandros, and my brothers don’t go there until I recover my Ability, but if you must go, please take this with you.”
Iandros stared at the glass orb in Tiel’s hand for a long moment before asking.
“You said this orb contains your power.”
“Yes!”
“Then Tiel, if you absorb the power contained in this orb, can you use it as your own again?”
“What? Yes… of course? It’s my power, after all.”
“Then keep it for now and use it yourself. As for the Nestian matter, I’ll discuss it separately with Ferdi and—”
At that moment, something occurred to Iandros, and his eyes narrowed.
“You can use it if you absorb it?”
“Yes… why do you ask?”
Iandros recalled the fish he had encountered in his Subspace.
That fish had pulled him out of the twisted Subspace and then scattered and vanished within it.
But what if it hadn’t vanished—what if it still remained there?
What if it had scattered temporarily, hidden from sight, and would reappear when Iandros called for it…?
“I want to check something.”
Iandros swept his hand in a circle. A Subspace entrance as wide and tall as Iandros himself materialized in the center of Tiel’s room.
Tiel nodded without hesitation and grabbed Iandros’s hand firmly.
“Go ahead and check!”
“…Aren’t you going to ask what I want to check?”
“It doesn’t matter! Just check! Do I need to go inside?”
“Yes.”
Iandros gripped Tiel’s hand tightly. But in that moment, a small fear took root in his heart.
Could he really take Tiel into the Subspace?
What if it twisted like before? What if Tiel’s fish didn’t come to meet them?
What if all his suppositions were wrong?
But then, as long, slender fingers wove between his own, scattering all the chaotic thoughts that had occupied his mind.
Tiel had interlaced her fingers with his. Iandros turned to look at her. She smiled brightly. Her Ability may have vanished, but she had not forgotten how to smile.
“Let’s go! Don’t be so afraid. Even if something bad happens, I’ll be here with you…”
But it was precisely because something bad might happen, and Tiel would be there, that Iandros felt anxious and afraid.
Iandros thought Tiel’s reassurance was somewhat foolish.
Yet her reassurance was more effective than anything else, so Iandros cast off his anxious thoughts, took Tiel’s hand, and stepped into the Subspace.
What greeted Tiel and Iandros was nothing less than an enormous pink cushion.
When first seen, it had been so small that a single young snow leopard could fill it completely, but now it seemed large enough that even a fully grown one could sprawl comfortably.
As Tiel turned to look at the cushion, a somewhat embarrassed Iandros gently covered her eyes and spoke.
“Use your Ability here.”
“Here?”
Tiel obediently followed his instruction.
As Tiel brought her hands together and used her Ability, faint fragments of light gathered like a puddle in her palms.
Shortly after, a few dim fish materialized and began to circle around Tiel.
They were fish with the same faint glow as those she had summoned in her room.
“So it really was just Tiel and my consciousness being connected, nothing more?”
But from Iandros’s memory, the fish he had encountered in the Subspace that day, though dim, had possessed a brighter light than the ones Tiel was summoning now.
Just as Iandros thought his hypothesis was wrong and was about to turn back toward the exit of the Subspace—
“Hmm?”
Tiel’s eyes widened at something she saw. Iandros followed her gaze and turned his head.
“That is…”
Tiel’s eyes narrowed in wonder.
A faint smile passed across Iandros’s lips. At the end of Tiel’s line of sight was a fish created by the Light Ability.
It glowed slightly brighter than the ones Tiel had just created, and it was swimming toward them from afar, its fins rippling gently.
***
“Tiel’s Ability has weakened.”
At Alpheus’s words, Cassius nodded. Ferdi and Ludian hung their heads with troubled expressions.
“Why all of a sudden? Is it because of the Brand?”
Ludian spoke. Ferdi shook his head in response.
“It was fine until recently. So we can’t definitively say it’s because of the Brand.”
“But the Brand must be having some effect. The Brand between them isn’t shared equally—it’s a one-sided Brand from Tiel.”
“The one who targeted Tiel ten years ago still hasn’t been caught. It’s troubling that this has happened now…”
“Moreover, we’ve already sent word confirming our attendance at the Festival for Lyset God that the Temple recommended. If we withdraw now, it will raise far more suspicion.”
Ferdi said this.
Ferdi’s words were certainly true.
If they promised to appear at the Festival for Lyset God and display their Ability, and now refused to come, everyone would surely grow suspicious of 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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