The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 230

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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 230
Tiel stepped into the passageway without hesitation. The moment her feet crossed into the new space, a memory began to play out again—but this time from within an encompassing darkness.
‘Is it my memory again?’
But it was not.
This time, the memories belonged to the princess. Green light flickered in Tiel’s palm.
The princess’s memories appeared and vanished in response to that glow, their afterimages unfurling before Tiel’s eyes only to fade, over and over.
Then one memory took hold, blocking everything else from view. Tiel stood still and let herself sink into it.
A small girl and boy appeared. Tiel recognized them at once—the princess and the Former Emperor.
The girl who would become a maddened princess and die. The boy who would ascend to the Imperial Throne after his sister’s death and rule in her stead. They sat close together, each resting their head on the other’s shoulder with easy affection.
The princess held a large book in her hands and seemed to be reading to her younger brother.
Tiel waited a moment longer, and then the princess’s voice came through.
“This one is about a clan that was forgotten long ago.”
“Hmm, they must have been very weak if they were forgotten?”
“No, it’s the opposite. Look here—their Curse was so powerful that a certain clan feared it so much they wiped them out completely.”
“What kind of Ability did they have?”
“Their Ability was a Curse. They had such a terrifying power—one that would drive their enemies to Madness without fail. Even the beast-kin, who already struggle to control their impulses, feared it greatly, and…”
The princess turned the page. The boy, who moments before had been resting his chin in his hand with obvious boredom, now had his eyes wide open, fully absorbed in his sister’s tale.
“So they went to slaughter them all. Look, it’s written here. Among the beast-kin who marched to eradicate them, most went Mad, and there was no one left who could stop them.”
“But if the Ability drives people to Madness, shouldn’t it be called Madness rather than a Curse? Why call it a Curse?”
“Wait, it says right here below. You’re always in such a hurry!”
The princess laughed softly.
“If their Ability had not made others fall into Madness, perhaps they could have survived. But once the beast-kin were driven to Madness, there was no controlling them, and so the clan was completely eradicated. It’s an Ability truly deserving the name Curse.”
“I see, so whoever recorded this simply began calling their Ability a Curse of their own accord.”
“Yes, and… they could also pour their Ability into objects. That’s why they destroyed everything—their lands, their belongings, everything.”
The boy and girl’s images faded with that conversation, vanishing in an instant.
Tiel lingered where they had stood, turning their words over in her mind.
‘They could pour Curses into objects?’
She looked down at her palm. The Emerald that had sunk into her hand still glimmered with soft light.
Now the Emerald shone with a beautiful luminescence, as if it had swallowed sunlight. But before Tiel had touched it, it had been different.
It had radiated a sickly, ominous glow—as if it held all the sorrow, dread, and despair in the world.
‘Then could it be…?’
In that moment, she remembered what Adelaide had said before sending her out of the Subspace.
[Surrender it. It is not something you should possess.]
[I stand here by my own will to aid you, and I demand that you set it down.]
Tiel recalled Adelaide wearing the Emerald Necklace, gradually losing herself to Madness.
Then she realized what Liam must have done—what scheme he had woven into that necklace.
The Extinct Clan, who bore an Ability that sparked Madness. And Adelaide, who began to lose control of her power after receiving the necklace.
Until finally she succumbed entirely to Madness, never reaching the Imperial Throne, cut down by her brother’s hand…!
Everything fit into place.
Then another memory played—one far more vivid. A woman with golden hair that blazed like sunlight appeared before Tiel’s eyes.
The princess. Adelaide, grown to her full height.
And beside her stood another figure. This was not the Former Emperor. He was an elderly man with glasses perched on his nose, his white hair braided and hanging down his back.
“Your Highness’s Ability is extremely dangerous, so in all matters you must take great care not to use it carelessly…”
‘Ah, he must be the princess’s aide.’
From the way he offered counsel to Adelaide, it was clear he was either her aide or someone very close to her.
Adelaide raised an eyebrow and spoke.
“Do you still see me as a little girl? I shall soon be the Empress of Crasion. I abandoned such childish dreams long ago.”
“Ha, indeed. When Your Highness told me of ‘that plan’ in your youth, I said nothing, but my shock was beyond measure.”
“And no wonder! I was such a reckless child back then. To create a space within the Subspace where countless beast-kin could live… does that even make sense? That was truly a foolish dream.”
The princess laughed. Only after hearing their conversation did Tiel understand what Adelaide had said in that vision of her past, the one she and Iandros had witnessed long ago.
Adelaide had wanted to build a new world within the Subspace itself.
In that moment, the scene shifted once more.
This was no longer a mere viewing of memories. Tiel was present in the Imperial Palace itself.
The Subspace had transformed into the image of the Palace, and Tiel stood alone within that ancient Imperial Palace of memory. She scanned the space, searching for Adelaide.
Then a loud sound erupted from somewhere. Tiel took a careful step forward.
‘I can move!’
She could move. She could walk through Adelaide’s memory of the Imperial Palace. Tiel headed toward the source of the noise.
Dust billowed up, obscuring her vision. Screams pierced the air. Beast-kin shoved past each other in panic, and their phantasmal forms passed clean through Tiel’s body as they fled.
Startled, Tiel lifted her head and looked around.
The Imperial Palace was adorned with extraordinary splendor, and golden laurel leaves—tokens of congratulation for the new emperor’s enthronement—were placed everywhere.
Though the view ahead remained obscured, that alone was enough to tell her.
This was the princess’s coronation ceremony.
Tiel pushed through the fleeing beast-kin, moving forward. They were nothing but phantoms, passing through her transparent body, so passing by them proved effortless.
Once she had made her way through them all, Adelaide’s figure came into view. She stood in a place of tremendous height.
The Imperial Throne itself—the seat only an emperor could occupy—and there she stood…
“No!!”
Screaming in anguish, her hands pressed to her head.
Tiel slowly turned her gaze. And she beheld a vast chasm that had opened beside the princess.
It was the entrance to the Subspace. The unstable rift that now hung above the Crasion Empire—the one Iandros could open and close at will.
That Subspace was devouring beast-kin indiscriminately, pulling them into its depths. Adelaide’s face turned pale as she tried to stop it, but her efforts were futile.
The screams of those being swallowed echoed through the air. Even those who had fled in panic were drawn by the overwhelming force, sucked into the Subspace. It was a living hell.
Then the moments began to blur together, accelerating. Beast-kin vanished into the Subspace in rapid succession, Adelaide writhed in agony, and countless things shattered and crumbled.
Among all that chaos, only one thing remained pristine—the Emerald Necklace hanging around Adelaide’s neck.
And not long after.
A young man appeared, holding a Long Sword. Liam Hillis Crasion, the prince of this empire. Perhaps because his own Ability was so formidable—he did not get pulled into Adelaide’s Subspace but stood firm.
And in that moment.
Thwack!
Liam drove the Long Sword into Adelaide’s abdomen. She coughed blood. As she did, she looked up at her younger brother, the blade buried in her belly.
Liam smiled.
“There was no choice, Adelaide…”
In that instant, Adelaide’s Subspace entrance shattered into countless fragments. It broke and collapsed.
At the same moment, Tiel too returned from the memory to the present.
‘Adelaide.’
So the princess’s name was Adelaide. That memory had been completely erased, leaving behind only the record of a “maddened princess,” but.
She had a name.
Adelaide—that was her name, and there had been a time when she was called by it with glory. Had it not been for the Emerald Necklace Liam had given her, she would have easily ascended the Imperial Throne and become a magnificent empress.
Perhaps she would have become a tyrant instead. But such things did not matter.
What mattered was that she had fallen into her younger brother’s scheme, lost her future, and been cruelly betrayed by the brother she had cherished and loved…
The Subspace showed Tiel no further memories.
Tiel stood motionless. Then, carefully, she lowered her head and looked at her palm once more.
In Tiel’s hand lay the Emerald, perfect and radiant and beautiful—just as it had been when it hung around Adelaide’s neck.
Tiel clenched her fist tight around the Emerald and raised her head.
“Adelaide, I came here because I wanted to meet you.”
Tiel continued.
“So please, show yourself to me. The First Princess of Crasion, the rightful heir to the Imperial Palace, the sole master of the Subspace…”
Adelaide.

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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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