The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 228

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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 228
Iandros’s Subspace was connected to the Princess. Their unconscious minds were linked.
As the master of the Subspace and the one whose unconscious was bound to the Princess, Iandros could feel this truth. It was for the same reason he’d told Tiel he would take her to the Princess’s Subspace.
No one but him could bring her there. Iandros was certain of it.
And his Subspace answered his certainty.
‘It worked.’
Truthfully, he’d thought success might be impossible. Iandros had never created a Subspace other than the Mansion before.
He’d heard the Princess could create thousands of spaces at will, but all Iandros could manifest was the Mansion where he’d lived with his parents as a child.
So naturally, this was the first time he’d attempted to use his own Subspace as a passageway—to tear open an entrance to someone else’s Subspace.
But fortunately, his Subspace fulfilled its role as a passage without flaw.
Whoever opened a Subspace could sense and know what lay within it.
As he tore through the darkness and opened another space, a Subspace appeared that was shrouded in darkness just like his own. Both Tiel and Iandros felt it at once—this was the Princess’s Subspace.
The Emerald embedded in Tiel’s palm gleamed, telling her this was where she needed to be.
Iandros’s Subspace whispered that at the end of that space lay the person they had searched for so desperately.
Iandros exhaled quietly in relief, clenching and unclenching his hands—palms damp with tension.
But Tiel swallowed hard instead of feeling reassured. She might never return from this place.
Iandros had opened the entrance for her, but he could not open the exit. She had to step forward with the resolve that it would be all right if she never came back.
Yet Tiel was afraid.
Who could say they weren’t afraid of death?
So before stepping through, Tiel turned her head to look at Iandros.
He was watching her with the gentlest eyes in the world.
“I’ll wait here. Come back to me, Tiel.”
At his words, Tiel nodded. There was something in Iandros’s eyes and voice that filled her heart with warmth.
Tiel didn’t fully understand what that feeling was, but she had known for a very long time that Iandros cherished her deeply, and that she cherished him just as much.
Meeting his gaze—his unwavering care for her—she found her fear had vanished.
If she didn’t stop the Princess, Iandros would die.
Iandros would die, and Cassius and Ferdi would die, and Ludian and Alpheus would die, and everything Tiel loved would perish—and so would everything she didn’t love.
The Lyusette Goddess had already failed to stop Orpheo. Now only Tiel remained as hope. Tiel herself had to stop the Princess.
If she didn’t, she would lose those she loved. That truth was what pushed her forward into the Subspace without hesitation.
Tiel stepped into the fissure Iandros had created. It trembled as though it might shatter at any moment, but it didn’t close immediately—because Iandros held it open.
Splash!
The instant she entered, Light Droplets began to well up in Tiel’s hands. Her Ability was responding to the pitch darkness.
In Tiel’s golden eyes, both the luminous droplets and Iandros’s figure were reflected at once.
“I’ll be right here.”
Iandros said.
“Don’t be afraid.”
With those words, the Subspace closed.
***
“Ugh……”
Tiel shielded her eyes. A brilliant light flooded everything at once, and her eyes stung.
It wasn’t Tiel’s light. Her light didn’t hurt like this!
Then whose light was this? Tiel fought through the glare and slowly lifted her eyelids.
And at the sight that unfurled before her, she forgot all about the brightness and opened her eyes wide.
“Rena.”
She recognized the face of the man standing before her—his cheeks flushed, smiling with happiness.
Cassius Celestus Asterian. Her beloved father.
Cassius appeared much younger than he did now, and his smile was innocent and fresh as a boy’s.
Tiel stared blankly, transfixed, before suddenly snapping back to awareness.
‘Didn’t Father just say Rena?’
Rena was her mother’s name! Tiel whipped her head toward where Cassius was looking.
A woman with beautiful silver hair came running and threw herself into Cassius’s arms.
Tiel stood frozen, watching her mother and father in their youth embrace, kiss, and whisper words of love.
But wasn’t this the Princess’s Subspace? Why was it showing her this?
Tiel briefly wondered if perhaps Iandros had opened the Subspace by mistake, but she quickly shook her head.
The Emerald in her hand was responding. That meant this was indeed the Princess’s Subspace.
Then why was she being shown this instead of the Princess’s memories?
Then darkness fell all around. Tiel stood alone in the center, as though watching a play unfold.
Numerous Memory Fragments rushed past on either side of her. From the darkness, Rena Nestian appeared.
“You can’t change my mind like this! I’ve already married Cassius. I am his wife.”
Rena’s voice was sharp as she cried out. Tiel flinched in shock at hearing her mother’s voice for the first time, taking a step back.
Rena shouted in a furious voice at someone invisible before her.
“This child will run away the moment she’s born! She’ll flee and never see your face again. My daughter will grow up knowing nothing of Nestian!”
It was then that Tiel realized—the person Rena was shouting at was her grandfather, Thender.
Then Rena disappeared again. This time, she was giving birth.
Tiel trembled with emotions she couldn’t name, yet she didn’t flee—she watched as her mother gave birth to a child.
After delivering, Rena gestured to a handmaid, asking her to bring the child close.
The handmaid placed a small infant in Rena’s arms. The child was tiny, and though its eyes were closed, she could tell they were golden.
Because the child had white hair.
‘That’s me……’
Rena’s tears fell as she pressed her lips to the baby’s forehead. Then her image faded again.
Shortly after, another figure appeared—not Rena this time, but Thender.
The handmaid who had given the child to Rena now trembled as she placed the newborn into Thender’s hands.
Thender looked at the infant with a face full of irritation, then made a gesture as if to say ‘dispose of it at once.’
Strangely, their conversation was inaudible, but Tiel felt she could understand what passed between them.
‘Mother said she died giving birth to me, so the handmaid must have told grandfather that mother had died.’
And that she had been born. That the strongest Heir in Nestian history, Rena Nestian, was dead, and in her place came this tiny, worthless snow fox kit.
The scene shifted once more. This time it showed Tiel as a very small child.
Tiel was trapped in a room, humming a song to herself, when a handmaid with a malicious expression entered.
Present-day Tiel’s face stiffened in shock at being confronted with this handmaid’s face once again.
Regardless, the young Tiel and the cruel handmaid continued moving. They were fragments of the past, unaffected by the emotions or feelings of the present observer.
Events that had truly happened were unfolding before Tiel’s eyes like a stage play.
Tiel watched as the handmaid gave the young version of herself cold gruel and hard bread, then screamed with veins bulging in her neck.
Sweat beaded on her skin, her body shook. Her vision blurred white and her head spun so badly she could barely remember why she’d come here in the first place.
Why was the Subspace showing her this?
Why?
At that moment, Tiel’s eye level began to slowly descend.
The ornate, beautiful dress became a worn nightgown that Rowen had discarded, her hands and feet shrank to the size of autumn leaves, and her hair tangled and matted, disheveled once more.
Tiel lowered her head and looked down at her own hands.
‘……What is……’
Tiel’s hands had become very small.
Like those of a seven-year-old child……

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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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