The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 227
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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 227
But how was she supposed to get inside? Tiel had no idea. Her entry into the Princess’s Subspace had not been of her own will.
Orpheo had abducted her on a whim and imprisoned her there, and her escape from that place was not by her own power either.
Had the Princess not released her, Tiel could never have escaped on her own.
Tiel gazed down at her palm. A round, green light shimmered there—the Emerald she had brought back from within the Princess’s memories.
For reasons she couldn’t explain, the Emerald had been absorbed into Tiel’s palm the moment they left the Subspace, and Tiel felt with certainty that this very stone could guide her back into the Princess’s realm.
Since it was an object brought out from the Princess’s memories, it shouldn’t have been able to maintain its form outside—so by being absorbed into Tiel’s body, it was preserving itself.
Tiel clenched and unclenched her fist. Her palm grew damp with sweat. As the rifts in the sky deepened and widened, an inexplicable anxiety crept over her.
What was she supposed to do now?
She had to meet the Princess again. Of that much, she was certain. But everything else remained shrouded in uncertainty.
It was then that Iandros, who had been listening quietly to Tiel’s words, spoke.
“So you need to enter the Princess’s Subspace?”
“Yes. To be precise, I want to go there and meet Her Highness again.”
Tiel added to her explanation.
“Now that this has begun, only Her Highness can stop it. I have to convince her to do so.”
“Can you convince her? Tiel, what if she tries to harm you? The Princess is a ghost who died long ago—you can’t assume she’s in her right mind.”
Iandros was right.
The Princess was a ghost who had died ages past. Her records had been almost entirely lost; she was nearly forgotten by history itself.
Yet Tiel couldn’t simply let this go. She had to do something to stop it.
‘I might fail.’
It was possible that the Princess would attack her, just as Iandros warned. It was possible that even if she convinced the Princess, what had already begun could not be undone.
But doing nothing and standing idle was worse. She had to try something. At least, that’s what Tiel believed.
“Even if Her Highness harms me, it will be better than remaining still like this.”
Tiel opened her palm and extended it toward Iandros.
“This is a Memory Fragment from Her Highness. I cannot return it to her, but I have a feeling this fragment will guide me back there.”
Everything generated within a Subspace is false. They are all illusions, and the moment they are brought outside the Subspace, they vanish.
Yet this Emerald—the one that had shown Tiel the Princess’s memories—did not disappear. It remained whole and continued to gleam in Tiel’s hand.
Moreover, the Emerald had shown her parts of the Princess’s memories. Tiel remembered the image of the Princess it had revealed.
From her earliest years, when she was young, warm, and gentle, all the way to the moment before her ascension.
If the Princess hadn’t appeared then, the Emerald might have shown her far more.
Iandros gazed silently at Tiel’s palm, then fell silent in thought. After a moment, he ordered the knights around them to withdraw thirty paces.
Everyone except Cassius, Ferdi, Ludian, and Tiel retreated beyond that distance. Iandros grasped Tiel’s hand and spoke.
“Then I’ll try.”
“…You, sir?”
“Yes. For some reason, I feel connected to the Princess. Probably because we share the same Ability.”
The Princess had moved freely in and out of Iandros’s Subspace, and his Subspace had overlaid memories, showing him the Princess’s own.
Iandros was certain that so many coincidences could not exist by chance.
“Actually, when I was very young, I once saw records about Subspaces kept in the Imperial Palace.”
Iandros extended his hand. The space around it began to warp slowly. His voice continued without interruption.
“To create a Subspace, the caster must envision the place they most desperately wish to return to.”
The moment Tiel heard his words, a memory from her childhood surfaced.
When she was small, she had grabbed Iandros as he rampaged, and was dragged into his Subspace with him.
There, she saw the memory that his Subspace revealed.
She saw his parents standing before their son to protect him.
And suddenly she understood. Why Iandros’s Subspace was so limited.
‘You were unconsciously desperate to return to that Mansion.’
That was why Iandros could summon nothing but the Mansion. Because that was the place he most desperately desired.
Not the cold and barren Imperial Palace, but the Mansion where he had lived with his parents in his childhood—that was what he had yearned for all along.
At that moment, Iandros’s Subspace opened. It flickered unstably, opening and closing in rapid succession. Iandros took Tiel’s hand and led her forward.
“I might fail. But I’ll try. Because you want me to.”
Iandros’s voice was steadier than any she had ever heard, and Tiel found herself unafraid to step into the unstable Subspace.
“Wait, Tiel!”
Cassius grabbed her. Tiel turned to look at him. He pulled her into his embrace.
Cassius understood. His daughter would not obey him even if he told her not to go.
Tiel was a good child who usually listened well, but she had always been resolute about what she wanted to do, and Cassius loved her all the more for it.
So he did not hold her back. Ferdi and Ludian, who had been quietly listening to the exchange between Iandros and Tiel from the side, did the same.
“Might I come with you?”
Ludian asked. Iandros assessed the state of the Subspace.
Because the Princess’s rampage had created massive rifts, Iandros’s Subspace was twice as unstable as usual.
It was possible he would never be able to open it again. If he entered now, he and Tiel might be trapped in the Subspace forever.
Because Iandros was the Subspace’s master, he could sense it—feel how his own realm trembled with a precariousness that suggested it might collapse at any moment.
For this reason, he shook his head.
“No. If you come in, the Subspace might not be able to bear it. My power has weakened, just as yours has.”
In truth, Iandros’s power had been declining for a very long time.
It was this same reason that he had devoted himself to the sword after reaching adulthood. With his Ability waning, he could not rely on it indefinitely.
Ludian accepted his refusal without resistance. Before entering the Subspace with Iandros, Tiel turned back to glance at her family once more.
Cassius, Ferdi, and Ludian all wore expressions of deep worry, and seeing that, Tiel felt no fear at all in facing what lay ahead. Instead, her heart swelled with warmth.
“Don’t worry…”
In Tiel’s palm, the Emerald’s light sparkled.
“I’ll be back soon.”
The moment Iandros led Tiel into the Subspace, the entrance shattered violently.
Cassius, Ludian, and Ferdi stood in silence, staring at where the entrance had been, unable to offer Tiel any answer.
***
Iandros’s Subspace was nothing but darkness.
It was not the Mansion she had seen before.
There was no oversized pink cushion, no old toys or sofa, no ornate chandelier.
Only darkness remained—it was much like the Princess’s Subspace. Tiel gripped Iandros’s hand more tightly.
To keep Tiel from panicking or becoming frightened, Iandros held her hand gently and created a doorway within the Subspace.
It happened then.
Crack!
The moment Iandros swept his hand to create a rift, the Emerald in Tiel’s palm blazed with light.
The Emerald’s radiance reflected in Tiel’s eyes.
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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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