The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 196

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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 196
“Tiel!”
“Tiel, are you alright?”
“Tiel, let me see—are you hurt anywhere?”
Ludian, Cassius, and Ferdi rushed toward Tiel at once, checking on the wellbeing of their beloved daughter and sister.
“Yes, I’m fine. But Iandros… how is Iandros?”
Only Tiel was concerned for Iandros, who lay crumpled on the floor.
“Your Highness! Are you unharmed?”
No—Alpheus was there too.
Iandros held the rank of Crown Prince, and nowhere else would he receive such treatment.
But in Asterian, this was everyday. Iandros had long since grown accustomed to being pushed aside. And where Tiel was concerned, Iandros cared not one whit who took second place.
“I’m fine.”
Iandros rose to his feet. Tiel tried to follow, but Ferdi, Ludian, and Cassius hemmed her in, preventing her escape.
“What happened in there?”
“Tiel, are you sure you’re not hurt?”
Ferdi and Ludian held fast to Tiel’s hands as they spoke. To ease her brothers’ minds, Tiel quickly shook her head.
“I’m not hurt. We’re all fine. And…”
Should I be saying this?
Tiel was extremely cautious about mentioning Iandros’s Subspace to anyone else. His Subspace was, quite literally, the space within his own unconscious mind.
There was no way she could carelessly repeat to others what she had witnessed within Iandros’s unconscious.
When Tiel glanced toward Iandros for reassurance, he brushed the dust from his clothes and spoke.
“We saw a princess who died long ago inside the Subspace.”
Iandros stated it plainly and concisely. At his words, Ferdi, Ludian, Cassius, and Alpheus all wore expressions of utter bewilderment.
“You saw what?”
“You saw what?”
“Your Highness the Crown Prince… what do you mean by that?”
“A princess who died long ago, you say?”
As four voices chimed in at once, the room erupted into chaos.
Everyone bombarded Iandros with questions, shocked by his bombshell revelation. Yet Iandros himself, who had experienced it directly, remained composed.
Or did he?
‘That’s not composure.’
Tiel watched Iandros, surrounded by Ferdi and Ludian, and realized the truth.
It wasn’t composure at all. Iandros was frightened.
He was too shaken to speak at length. Tiel understood that feigning calm was Iandros’s defensive mechanism.
“I don’t know the details. Whether what I saw actually happened, I can’t say. What I witnessed differs too much from what I knew.”
Tiel nodded, agreeing with Iandros’s words.
It was true that they had glimpsed the princess’s phantom, or fragments of memory, but whether what they saw was entirely real—that remained unknown.
There was no way to prove it, no way to verify it.
Which was why they couldn’t speak of it to outsiders. That had been Tiel’s first hesitation.
But Alpheus had witnessed both Iandros and Tiel being pulled into the Subspace as it ran wild, so there was no hiding it from him. Iandros recounted everything they had seen.
An ancient style of Imperial Palace, portraits whose faces were concealed from view, a brother and sister who first appeared as silhouettes before being overlaid with figures of golden hair.
And how the boy among the siblings had asked his sister to open the Subspace for him.
But Iandros did not mention that he had glimpsed inside the princess’s own Subspace, so Tiel decided to keep that secret as well.
“So you truly witnessed the memories of that princess?”
“Whether those were memories, or whether we were carried across time into the past by the immense power of the Subspace—I can’t say.”
Iandros answered.
“It’s equally possible that the Subspace deceived us and showed us illusions. Nothing is certain.”
Ferdi, who had been listening quietly, spoke up.
“Iandros, is this connected to what you mentioned before? About someone invading your Subspace?”
“Someone invaded the Crown Prince’s Subspace?”
Alpheus, hearing this story for the first time, muttered in a daze.
Ferdi continued, heedless of his grandfather’s shock.
“I remember you saying that intruder had golden hair and emerald eyes—the very symbols of the Crasion Imperial Family. At the time, we speculated whether a descendant of that princess might still be alive.”
“And that intruder possessed the symbols of the Crasion Imperial Family, you say?”
Alpheus muttered again, dazed. To comfort her grandfather, Tiel quietly approached and embraced him.
Having listened to Ferdi’s words calmly through to the end, Iandros nodded and spoke.
“Yes. But now that things have come to this, I keep thinking the most absurd thoughts. Such as…”
Iandros and Ferdi murmured simultaneously.
“The one who invaded that day may not have been a descendant of the princess, but the princess herself.”
Tiel recalled the face of the woman she had encountered in the Subspace that day.
She hadn’t seen it clearly before the woman vanished into darkness, but she had been unmistakably beautiful.
‘The princess herself?’
If that were true, it would explain how she could invade Iandros’s Subspace.
Tiel and Iandros had witnessed firsthand today just how formidable an Ability the princess possessed.
But the princess had died long ago. She had perished centuries past, and the dead cannot return to life no matter what.
So how had she appeared here now, spanning centuries of time?
Tiel’s mind reeled with confusion.
“We need to investigate the princess. It’s possible this incident is somehow connected to her.”
Iandros added.
“The Balance of Day and Night has been broken. When balance shatters and boundaries collapse, the Balance of Life and Death unravels, and countless things will defy their natural order. Strange occurrences are already beginning to manifest everywhere.”
“So, the princess who has long since passed could also return to life as one of these ‘strange occurrences’?”
“Perhaps the princess’s return is what’s causing these strange occurrences, or perhaps not. Cause and effect are impossible to determine.”
Alpheus, who had been listening in shock, collected his thoughts and finally spoke.
“Would it not be wise to visit the Imperial Palace Library? Only His Majesty the Emperor may enter, but records of the departed princess might be preserved there.”
Iandros shook his head.
“I’ve already been there. Records exist, but there are far too few of them. That much won’t suffice. I need complete records—why the princess died, why she went mad, what kind of life she led before it all happened…”
At Iandros’s words, the room fell silent.
The “Mad Princess” had long been regarded as a stain upon the Crasion Imperial Court.
All records concerning her had been burned or torn away.
Centuries passed, and her story became merely “something that happened in the Imperial Palace,” yet that did not erase the fact that she had been the Imperial Family’s shame.
Records lost so long ago could never be recovered, and finding anyone who knew anything about the princess would be impossible.
Their faces darkened.
“What about Arne?”
“I checked Arne already. Nothing there.”
“There might be records in Wolfgang. I’ll ask Olivier to search for relevant materials.”
“Yes, I appreciate that.”
Iandros released a long sigh. Feeling at a loss, he absently rubbed his brow.
He had discovered that the princess, dead for centuries, was somehow linked to the escalating events.
But what came next?
It was then that Tiel spoke hesitantly.
“Um… might there not be records remaining in Eberard?”
“Eberard?”
Tiel nodded.
“The records about the princess weren’t all destroyed in a single generation—they were lost gradually over long ages. So perhaps Eberard might still have some…”
Tiel recalled the story she had heard about Arne and Eberard.
“Since Arne and Eberard each preserve their heirs through the form of seedlings and eggs across the generations, might they not also have preserved other materials alongside the eggs?”
Indeed, Karl Eberard had been preserved in precisely such a manner, and in this generation he was the hatched heir of the previous Head of Eberard.
So it was not entirely unreasonable.

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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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