The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 2

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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 2
The child scrambled to pick up the broken Mirror Shard scattered across the floor.
In her haste, the sharp edge nicked the tip of her finger, but she didn’t care.
Tiel stared at the Mirror Shard with wide eyes.
In the reflection were hollow cheeks, coarse white hair, and a pitiful-looking child with golden eyes.
‘Really…….’
I’m alive.
Tiel murmured to herself, touching the face reflected in the shard.
How am I alive?
Tiel had been dead.
On that day when snow fell unusually thick, from grandfather’s Balcony.
Even now, when she closed her eyes, she could hear grandfather’s shout clearly.
The cold, lonely, frightening Balcony.
……And Rowen’s and grandfather’s laughter, heard through her fading consciousness.
But I’m alive?
‘Am I dreaming?’
Tiel stared blankly at the Mirror Shard in her hand.
Just now, a drop of blood had dripped from her finger where the shard had cut it.
‘This isn’t a dream.’
I really am alive.
The stinging cut on her finger and the flowing blood were proof.
Besides.
Tiel carefully pushed back her cumbersome bangs.
A tear-shaped wound remained distinctly visible.
This scar was from a month before Tiel died, when Rowen pushed her down the stairs and she fell and hurt herself.
Just before death, it had almost healed with a scab, but now the wound was so large and vivid.
‘……Like I was injured just yesterday.’
Tiel murmured, gently touching the wound on her forehead.
Tap.
“Ow…….”
The wound stung. A light smear of blood appeared on her fingertip.
If that was the case,
‘Did I go back to the past? But how…….’
Tiel murmured blankly, looking down at her two palms.
A faint light flickered across her scraped hands before quickly fading.
Had she imagined it?
Tiel rubbed her palms together again, but no light appeared as before.
‘I must have imagined it.’
She hadn’t been dead long before coming back to life, so seeing illusions wasn’t entirely unreasonable.
Tiel stopped staring intently at her palms and slowly raised her head.
In Tiel’s empty eyes, the attic ceiling thick with cobwebs came into view.
She had returned to the past.
Which meant that if she did nothing, she would die again in a month.
Tiel’s eyes squeezed shut.
Grandfather’s and aunt’s voices still echoed in her ears.
The chill of the Balcony seemed to remain in her heart, freezing her body solid with the illusion of cold.
Tiel felt across her small chest with trembling hands and thought.
‘I don’t want to die again.’
I don’t want to be trapped on the Balcony again.
……And I definitely don’t want to hear my family’s laughter while I’m dying.
Tiel rubbed her eyes roughly with her sleeve, her face crumpled with tears.
The skin around her eyes flushed red from the coarse fabric.
But Tiel, heedless of the sting, clenched her small fists and made a vow.
‘I’ll run away.’
Even if I wander alone and get lost and die, I’ll run away.
Tiel nodded resolutely.
‘But where should I go?’
Tiel crouched on the floor, thinking hard.
Tiel’s clan, the Snow Leopard Clan, was located in a snow-covered wilderness.
Even if she managed to escape, she’d surely freeze to death before getting far.
‘So I need to decide where to go before I escape…….’
Tiel chewed her nails nervously while staring blankly at the Mirror Shard.
Then, in the reflection, Tiel saw her own golden eyes.
‘……My eyes?’
The moment she saw the eyes that grandfather and aunt had always scorned as “repulsive,” a single thought sparked brilliantly in her mind.
“……Asterian.”
Tiel pronounced the word carefully, then gasped in surprise.
She instinctively looked around, and only when she confirmed that no one was watching her could she relax.
Speaking the name “Asterian” was forbidden in the Snow Leopard Clan.
The Black Leopard Clan of Asterian.
The Snow Leopard Clan of Nestian and the Black Leopard Clan of Asterian had been at odds since ancient times.
The reason Tiel wasn’t acknowledged as a granddaughter was precisely because she carried the blood of the Asterian Clan.
‘Low-born thing.’
That was why Chender, her grandfather, muttered such words whenever he saw her.
‘Worthless creature! Even the head of the Black Leopard Clan would tear you to shreds if he saw you. You should be grateful just to be alive…….’
Tiel curled up at the memory of Chender’s words.
Not only grandfather, but Cornelia—Tiel’s aunt and the future head of the Snow Leopard Clan—Rowen, and the household servants all said similar things about Asterian to her every day.
That if the Black Leopards of that clan saw Tiel, they would bite her to death on sight.
That no clan anywhere would welcome such a hybrid.
But Tiel, who had lived her entire life within the Snow Leopard Clan, knew nothing of other clans.
‘……I have nowhere to go.’
The world was far too harsh for a young Therianthrope with no connections to survive alone.
But if she stayed in the Snow Leopard Clan as things were, she would certainly be dead within a month.
So,
“I’ll go to the Asterian Clan.”
Asterian was at least somewhere she had some information about.
The territory of Asterian was located in the exact opposite direction from Nestian.
Unlike Nestian, where snow fell year-round, the territory of Asterian was said to have a very mild climate.
So even if Tiel were cast out, the Asterian territory would be better suited for her to survive alone.
‘……Dad.’
Tiel tried pronouncing the unfamiliar word silently several times, then stopped.
If she called him that, he might tear her to shreds on the spot.
Grandfather and aunt had said that everyone in the Asterian Clan despised her terribly.
‘Because mom died because of me…….’
But……, still, I’m his daughter. Wouldn’t he look after me if I just ate a little and said I wouldn’t draw attention?
A glimmer of hope appeared in Tiel’s eyes.
‘Okay, I’ll just say I’ll eat a little and not draw attention…….’
She could survive on just one piece of bread every two days, so she’d appeal to him with that fact.
Now that she had chosen her destination, the problem was how to escape.
Tiel’s room was in the Attic of the Manor, in the most secluded spot, so the chances of being caught escaping were low.
But.
‘The security is so tight.’
Tiel sighed, watching the knights wandering through the garden from the window.
Moreover, there was no servant in the Manor who didn’t know Tiel’s face.
So the moment she left the room, she’d certainly be beaten badly and dragged back inside.
‘……Is there any way to sneak out?’
Just then, the attic door burst open.
“Oof…….”
With the sudden flood of light, Tiel instinctively squinted.
Standing in the open doorway was Emma, the maid who brought Tiel her meals.
Emma.
Of all the maids in the Manor, Tiel feared Emma the most.
Not because Emma beat her or insulted her.
Rather, Emma simply did not feed Tiel frequently.
Since Emma was the only maid who came all the way to this attic, Tiel had to go hungry until Emma decided to give her food.
Now Emma approached with an angry expression, walking heavily toward Tiel.
Tiel’s body flinched reflexively.
Emma threw two hard, stale pieces of bread at Tiel’s feet and grumbled.
“Ugh, everyone else talks about how Rowen is going to the Imperial Palace and this and that, but here I am waiting on this mixed-breed creature……. What a wretched lot I’ve drawn.”
Emma kicked her foot angrily.
“Eat up. I won’t be coming for a while, so make it last.”
Not coming for a while?
Tiel’s eyes widened at Emma’s words, then her mouth fell slightly open.
‘Come to think of it, someone came from the Imperial Palace around this time.’
Now she remembered.
A month before Tiel died, her cousin Rowen became a Crown Princess Candidate.
More precisely, all girls around the Crown Prince’s age became Crown Princess Candidates.
Because of this, the Imperial Palace sent the Emperor’s direct aide to observe Rowen, who had been selected as a Crown Princess Candidate, and the Snow Leopard Clan was busy preparing to receive guests.
Of course, Tiel was of no concern.
While the guest from the Imperial Palace stayed, Tiel was left with almost no food.
The door to her room wasn’t locked, so she could have left if she wanted to, but she couldn’t.
Because grandfather terrified her too much.
Tiel bit her lip slightly at the memory from that time.
‘No, this is actually perfect.’
Emma wouldn’t come near the attic while the guest was staying.
All the Manor’s servants were busy trying to impress Rowen.
Cornelia too was occupied dressing up Rowen and paid no attention to Tiel, and neither grandfather nor Rowen did otherwise.
So she would escape while the guest was staying.
Emma, who had dropped the two pieces of bread, left the room quickly.
Tiel hurriedly gathered up the two pieces of bread she had thrown.
‘At least she gave me bread.’
She thought this while hiding the two pieces under the Blanket she slept under.
Tiel’s meals were either watery soup or hard bread, one or the other.
If she had been given thin soup, Tiel would have had to flee the Manor without any provisions at all.
Grrrr—
An embarrassing sound rumbled from her belly beneath the thin sleeping gown, her ribs sharply visible, but Tiel endured it.
She couldn’t eat now even though she was hungry.
If her memory was correct, this was the last meal Emma would give her while the guest stayed.
Tiel suppressed her hunger and spun around in place once.
Whoosh—!
With a faint shimmer of light, the child vanished and in her place stood a small, shabby Snow Leopard.
It was Tiel’s Beast Form Transformation.
The small Snow Leopard trembled. Other Snow Leopards would have handled this cold easily, but not Tiel.
Tiel was a hybrid of Black Leopard and Snow Leopard, so she had short fur. That was why she was always weak to cold.
Tiel shivered and crawled under the Blanket where the bread was hidden.
As the tiny Snow Leopard settled beside the bread, the rats that had been rushing toward the smell of bread stopped short.
Tiel curled up with the two pieces of bread held tight to her small body and closed her eyes.
She needed to build up her strength before she escaped.
***
‘Finally, today is the day.’
Tiel clenched her small fists. Her thin lips pressed firmly shut.
Today, Tiel would escape this Manor.

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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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