The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 192
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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 192
“What are you talking about?”
Iandros asked in an irritated voice. Tiel looked up at him in surprise.
“Iandros?”
“What are you cheering her on for? She definitely stole your Ability.”
“But the Oracle…….”
“An Oracle can be manipulated just as easily as anything else.”
Iandros said flatly.
Of course, the High Priest’s expression at that moment had looked ‘genuine’ enough. If he had conspired with Rowen to fabricate the Oracle, he would not have worn such a face.
Iandros chose not to mention this detail to Tiel. After all, she hadn’t witnessed the scene herself.
“Rowen Nestian stole your Ability with someone’s help—there’s no other explanation. Otherwise, your Ability wouldn’t be blocked every time she uses hers.”
Iandros braced his hands against the edge of the bed, leaning forward. Tiel started, clutching the blanket to her chest and staring at him.
“So don’t say useless things. If you’re sick of all this and want to run away, abandoning your Ability and everything else, I’ll understand.”
…….
“But if that’s not the reason—if it’s some nonsense about you lacking talent while Rowen has ‘talent’—then I won’t support that.”
Iandros’s tone was firm, yet gentle and kind. Tiel understood. He was deeply worried about her.
“Who would believe you if you say ‘I should support Rowen’ with those sad eyes?”
Alpheus, who had stepped back to give Iandros and Tiel space to talk, nodded in agreement.
Iandros was right.
If Tiel told them she was sick of all this and wanted to run away, they would help her without hesitation, without a moment’s thought.
That was what family meant.
Yet they did not want to let Tiel ‘give up’ like this.
Everyone knew how proud Tiel was of her Ability. Her Light Ability had been the warmest, brightest light illuminating Crasion all these years.
How could she bear to have it stolen and remain composed? If Rowen truly was one blessed with a ‘new Light Ability,’ could she really say she would surrender her place?
Both Alpheus and Iandros knew that Tiel did not wish to do any such thing.
They had been watching her closely all this time.
“……Iandros.”
Tiel carefully reached out and cupped his cheek in her palm.
It had always been Iandros who held her cheek like this. She had never, not once, touched him without permission.
But now, somehow, she wanted to. And she sensed he would not mind.
As she expected, Iandros did not pull away. Instead, he leaned gently into her touch.
“Thank you for thinking of me. I know you’re always trying so hard…….”
At her words, Alpheus and Iandros grew slightly tense.
Fearing she might say ‘I’ll give up’ or ‘There’s nothing I can do; Rowen has manifested the Light Ability.’
But what came out of Tiel’s mouth was entirely unexpected.
“So I’ll try too.”
Tiel closed her mouth and nodded. The golden eyes that had been dull and dimmed these past days regained their luster.
“I’ll try too, because nothing is certain yet. Rowen’s Ability is definitely a Light Ability. But it’s a little different from mine, isn’t it?”
Tiel said quietly.
“People say there cannot be two lights in this world. But I think differently…… If Rowen’s Ability truly is light, then Crasion will become one step brighter.”
Tiel fell silent.
Then she spoke again.
“But only if Rowen’s Ability is truly ‘light.'”
Tiel recalled the dream she had before Iandros and Alpheus arrived.
The black serpent that had appeared in her dreams since childhood, always trying to swallow her.
What was the true nature of that black serpent?
She could not know what it was, but she could sense that something—someone—had always saved her from it.
And if my intuition is correct.
‘That would be…….’
A god’s voice.
It was strikingly similar to the voice of a god she had heard in her earliest childhood.
So if Tiel’s suspicion was right, it had not been anyone else but the Lyset Deity who had saved her from the serpent’s jaws.
The Deity had not abandoned her. Tiel believed this with certainty.
The problem was.
“But how can I know if Rowen’s Ability is truly ‘the same as mine’? There’s no way to verify it.”
Rowen’s Ability might not be a Light Ability at all, but something fabricated to deceive the people.
A girl born with a Frost Ability could not have manifested a different Ability later in life.
Such a thing was impossible.
Of course, it was possible that something impossible until now had been realized through Rowen in this generation.
But something about it felt off.
Rowen’s Ability was different from Tiel’s—staring at it too long made the eyes ache, and while it shone, it also seemed to dim. Most tellingly, it felt like a ‘mimicry’ of Tiel’s own.
From all of this, they could infer that Rowen’s Ability was not a true Light Ability.
Yet there was no way to prove it.
To all appearances, it truly was a Light Ability.
Alpheus, after a moment of thought, spoke.
“What if we used the ‘chamber’ at the Asterian Mansion? That chamber responds only to the Light Ability. If Rowen’s Ability is truly light, it will respond.”
“But there’s one at Nestian too. It’s likely they’ll insist on using that one instead.”
Tiel said.
“And if they conduct it at Nestian…….”
There was no telling what schemes they might employ.
Her mind felt tangled.
“For now, let’s not think about it immediately…….”
It was just then, as Iandros was speaking, that servants entered with teacups.
The Eberard servants brought precious leaves steeped in water known only in Eberard, carefully placing the tea service on the table so that Tiel, Alpheus, and Iandros could drink.
But then.
“……Hm?”
Her gaze met one of the servants’ eyes.
Tiel shuddered with a strange sense of déjà vu. Noticing her unusual reaction, Iandros gently wrapped an arm around her shoulder and asked.
“Tiel, what’s wrong?”
Then he turned his head toward where she had been looking.
The servant quickly averted her eyes from Iandros, but his gaze found her faster than she could turn away.
“Wait——!”
Before Iandros could finish, all the servants hurried out of the room.
And then.
Whoosh——!
Iandros’s Subspace tore open in the center of the chamber. Tiel, Alpheus, and Iandros all stared with wide eyes.
The Subspace wavered unstably, rippling as if it would swallow everything in the room.
It was the same movement as when Iandros had rampaged long ago. Tiel’s instincts screamed the truth at her.
This was a rampage.
Her own body had grown weak, and the half-formed Bond could no longer hold back his Ability—it was running wild.
The instant Iandros realized his Ability was rampaging, he pushed Tiel away with all his strength to keep her from being pulled in.
Alpheus did the same.
They both knew that if they were drawn into the Subspace together, the same disaster as before would repeat itself. So they used their Abilities.
“No!”
Flame erupted from Alpheus’s hands, taking the shape of chains and binding tightly around Iandros’s Subspace.
The intention was to seal the Subspace completely so that no one would be pulled inside. But it was useless.
The black Subspace consumed even the burning Flame Ability. Watching his own power disappear entirely into the Subspace, despair flickered across Alpheus’s face.
“Why did it suddenly——.”
Iandros struggled to close the Subspace, but it would not shut.
Iandros understood instinctively.
Someone had to enter the Subspace for this to end.
The Subspace was calling to him.
The moment Iandros grasped this truth, he stepped directly into the Subspace. He could not let Tiel and Alpheus be caught in its pull as well.
The one mercy was that while his Ability rampaged and devoured everything around it, this time it did not consume the surrounding objects.
But then.
The instant Iandros set foot inside the Subspace, his wrist and Tiel’s connected with a line of light.
“This——!”
Recognizing what that line was, Alpheus pulled Tiel into his embrace to shield her.
But it was already too late.
“Grandfather!”
The moment Iandros stepped into the Subspace, Tiel too was pulled inside with him.
Whoosh——!
Only after both had vanished into the Subspace did it finally close.
Alpheus stood alone, staring at the spot where the Subspace had sealed, his expression bewildered.
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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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