The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 19

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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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Chapter 19
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Asterian and Nestian were both of the Leopard Clan, and their territories bordered each other.
As a result, the exchange between them was far from negligible. Asterian, currently the seat of the Leopard Clan’s ruling house, supplied Nestian with provisions and materials, and through the Trade Route that crossed Asterian, allowed Nestian to export minerals to other territories.
But then.
“……What? The Trade Route has been cut?”
“Yes, and moreover, they’ve declared their intention to cease all provision and material support…….”
“Why on earth! What could possibly have changed their minds!”
Chender slammed his wooden desk with a bang, as if unable to comprehend it. Veins bulged prominently at his neck and forehead.
Asterian had never once, not a single time, cut off the Trade Route or suspended material supplies in such a petty manner.
No matter what Nestian did!
So it was something like an unspoken agreement. The bare minimum courtesy toward Nestian, trapped in its barren territory!
Before Chender’s furious visage, his aide Stanley shut his eyes tightly for a moment, praying this situation would pass quickly.
“It’s just that a letter has arrived from Asterian, and it seems like this must be the reason…….”
“Hand it over at once!”
Chender snatched the letter from Stanley’s hand in one swift motion. The force of it caused Stanley’s body to tilt slightly, but he quickly regained his balance and straightened.
He tore off the wax seal that bound the letter roughly and unfolded it.
The special paper was smooth as silk but rough at the edges, and upon it lay a crimson seal, clearly pressed by the house lord of Asterian himself, proving he had written this letter personally.
Chender read through the letter swiftly.
Before long, his face had gone pale and drawn, as if frozen.
“……Ha!”
The contents of the letter were truly shocking.
The letter from Asterian stated clearly that Tiel, who had recently gone missing from Nestian, was currently residing in Asterian, and would henceforth be raised and cared for by Asterian.
Chender could not believe the letter’s contents, so he read the same passage over and over again.
[Nestian judged to be insufficiently qualified to raise the child. From this moment forward, Tiel shall be raised and cared for by Asterian.]
“Tiel, it says Tiel…….”
No matter how many times he read it, it was unmistakably “Tiel.” That was what it said.
It was the name of that wretched brat. Chender stared at the letter with such intensity, his mouth hanging open, that he could not even think to close it.
How in the world had the child reached Asterian?
Though the territories of Nestian and Asterian bordered each other, the distance from the Nestian estate to the Asterian estate took more than a week by carriage.
Walking there was utterly impossible. To traverse Nestian’s treacherous snowfields and Asterian’s barren desert on foot was nearly inconceivable.
‘But how in the world!’
In that moment, the day Tiel had disappeared came back to him. A guest from the Imperial Palace had visited the Nestian estate that day.
“……Surely not.”
And he remembered that Tiel had vanished in the direction of the guest quarters where the visitors lodged, and that out of fear of displeasing them, he had not conducted a thorough search of their rooms.
The timing, when calculated, fit perfectly. Tiel must have surely escaped Nestian by boarding that carriage from the Imperial Palace.
“Damn it, damn it!”
Chender gnashed his teeth and slammed the desk repeatedly with bangs.
The letter became wretchedly creased and torn. Sharp nails dug into his palm until it ached, but he paid it no mind.
He should have killed the child long ago. Long ago!
He should have killed it when it was still an infant who had not yet manifested an Ability.
He had spared it only because blood was blood and it stayed with him, and now that brat had obstructed Nestian’s future.
With the Trade Route that connected them to other territories now severed, Nestian would have to attempt trade by sea instead.
The costs incurred in that process would be far from negligible. The suspension of material support also carried massive consequences.
Chender pressed his throbbing temples with his hand.
It was far too great a loss to bear for the simple mistake of letting one child slip away.
“Why! How could we have lost that child!”
At Chender’s enraged voice, Stanley bowed his head, looking troubled.
“……My apologies.”
“……Dismiss Zairra at once, and have the handmaids who cared for that brat whipped! Right now!”
“Yes, understood.”
At that moment, the door to Chender’s study burst open, and Rowen entered abruptly, her large eyes glistening with tears.
“……Rowen?”
“……Grandfather? You’re dismissing Zairra? What are you saying! Zairra is my nursemaid!”
She had evidently been listening to Chender’s words from behind the door. For a moment, an expression of chagrin passed over both Chender’s and Stanley’s faces.
“……Rowen, we’ll talk about this later. This is an adult matter.”
“No, I don’t like it! You can’t send Zairra away! No matter what happens!”
“I said we’ll talk about it later!”
When Chender roared, Rowen startled, her shoulders jerking sharply as she stumbled backward a step.
“…….”
She stared at Chender for a moment, then spun around and fled the study.
“……Sigh.”
Chender had a headache just from the matter with Tiel, and today of all days, why was Rowen being so disobedient?
Chender exhaled a long breath and scraped his face roughly with the back of his hand.
A heavy silence settled low across the room.
***
“……!”
Tiel curled up and slipped behind Lia’s skirts. Then, with eyes still full of wariness, she looked up at Alpheus.
“So that fellow wasn’t lying. The child is quite shy, isn’t she.”
Alpheus withdrew the hand he had been awkwardly extending.
Lia gently stroked Tiel’s back and whispered soothingly to the child.
“This is your grandfather, young lady. Father to Cassius.”
“……Yes.”
Tiel nodded. She knew, at least to some degree, that Alpheus was her grandfather. But…….
‘…I’m scared!’
To Tiel’s eyes, Alpheus looked very much like Chender.
In truth, they shared nothing in common, neither in Ability nor in temperament, but to the eyes of a seven-year-old, they seemed similar.
The only thing they had in common was that they were both elderly men.
‘I know he’s a good person.’
Surely, just yesterday, she had intended to thank him for the beautiful room he had given her.
Perhaps it was the abuse she had suffered at the hands of her maternal grandfather, Chender. Whenever she saw someone of a similar age, she would shrink back like this.
Tiel could not bring herself to approach Alpheus directly, but instead remained hidden in Lia’s skirts, watching him.
Alpheus, watching her with pity, suddenly seemed to remember something. He slapped his knee and spoke.
“That’s right, Tiel. Your grandfather has prepared a gift. How would you like that?”
“…A gift?”
“That’s right! Bring them in at once!”
At Alpheus’s excited voice, there was something almost delighted about his tone.
As soon as Alpheus had spoken, the attendants began carrying large boxes into the room one after another.
The boxes, tied with pretty ribbons, came in various sizes—some reached only to Tiel’s knees, while others were larger than Tiel herself.
When Tiel saw the array of gift boxes entering, curiosity got the better of her, and she peeked her head out from behind Lia’s skirts.
‘These are like what Rowen gets.’
They were similar to what Rowen received on her birthday each year.
Rowen too had always received gift boxes that looked exactly like these from Chender.
Though, of course, Tiel had never received any herself…….
“Now, Tiel. These are all yours.”
“Really, everything here is for me?”
“Yes, these are gifts from your grandfather. They’re all made by the finest toy craftsmen. Some of them were personally crafted by Lorenso, the toymaker who creates only twelve Toys a year!”
Alpheus pointed to the gift boxes now piled high throughout the room.
‘There’s nothing quite like toys to win over a child.’
He had heard that Cassius had given Tiel a precious Sun Catcher, but Alpheus was confident that Tiel would like these Toys far more than that jewel.
Children of that age typically preferred Toys to gems.
Thus, when Tiel had first arrived at this estate, Alpheus had, on that very day,
looked upon her gleaming black panther eyes and silken white hair with such excitement that he had immediately sought out toy craftsmen and commissioned an abundance of Toys for his granddaughter.
During that process, it had never once occurred to him that this Tiel who had appeared so suddenly might not be his granddaughter. It was obvious—her delicate face was the very image of Cassius as a child.
Lia took Tiel’s hand and spoke softly, soothing the child.
“Now then, young lady. Why don’t you open a gift box? Shall I help you?”
Tiel nodded. Lia took the child’s hand, crouched down on the floor, and was just about to pull the ribbon from a gift box when—
“Wait, let me do that.”
Alpheus stopped Lia’s action urgently and, instead of her, crouched down beside Tiel and took hold of the gift box.
A brief look of confusion crossed Tiel’s face, but it quickly faded as anticipation for the gift took over.
Alpheus pulled the ribbon, drawing it free, and handed the gift box to Tiel.
Tiel hesitated for a moment, gauging the situation, then opened the lid of the large gift box.
As the lid opened, what emerged from within was——
“……!”
A large black panther doll with yellow sapphires set into both eyes.
Upon seeing the fluffy and enormous doll, a bright, radiant smile bloomed across Tiel’s face.

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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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