The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 238

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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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Side Story 6
***
“You’ve decided to go on a trip?”
Cassius asked.
Tiel nodded, her cheeks flushing slightly.
“Yes. Things are rather chaotic right now, so not immediately, but once the situation settles a bit… we’ve agreed to go.”
Cassius realized anew how much Tiel had grown.
The Tiel of old would have asked his permission—whether it would be all right to go traveling with Iandros.
‘But not anymore.’
Traveling with Iandros was already decided fact. Tiel was simply informing her father, Cassius, of what had been determined.
Cassius felt the bittersweetness of that change.
The daughter he had cherished and raised still seemed like a small child nestled in his arms, yet she had grown tall so suddenly—had become Head of Household and stood now as someone’s betrothed.
Come to think of it, Tiel and Iandros were already at an age where marriage would not be strange.
“His Highness the Crown Prince suggested the trip first, yes?”
“Yes.”
Tiel nodded.
After hearing her answer, Cassius fell silent in thought for a moment, then nodded readily, his gaze settling on Tiel.
“Tell me the day before you leave. I’d like to see you off.”
“Oh, Father… it’s not as though we’re going far away. We’ll be traveling close to home.”
Close to home? Cassius thought that this journey of Tiel’s would be anything but ‘close.’
The body might be near, but the heart would be distant. Without voicing this aloud, Cassius simply stroked her soft white hair gently.
“Even if you step just outside the front gate, a parent will wish to bid you farewell. That is the heart of a parent.”
Cassius lingered over the soft caress of her white hair, then slowly withdrew his hand.
“I must finish my work quickly. Only when Nestian and Asterian are settled can you travel freely and enjoy your journey in peace.”
***
Time passed in a whirlwind. The turmoil gripping the Crasion Empire was swiftly brought to order, and Nestian’s territories were absorbed into Asterian.
And changes came to the Temple as well.
“The High Priestess is being replaced?”
“Yes.”
Not only the High Priestess but many priests were forced to relinquish their positions, and among them, those priests found to have been colluding with Nestian or Je received due punishment.
The Temple had formally apologized to Tiel for the burden it had imposed upon her.
Tiel Asterian had endured all that condemnation when she was merely seven or twelve years old.
The Temple had hounded such a small child all this time.
When Tiel heard that the High Priestess was being replaced, she felt nothing strange about it.
Once, she would have worried—was she being replaced because of her? She would have felt a touch of guilt.
But now she harbored no such feelings. The Temple had hearkened to Rowen’s words rather than to the gods, and now it paid the price.
That said, she did not think it should disappear entirely.
Whatever the Temple had done to her, it had to exist.
So long as those who believed in the gods existed, so too would the power of the gods endure, sustaining this empire and illuminating it brightly.
Therefore, the Temple could not be completely unmade.
“The new High Priestess wishes to meet with you once. She said she would call upon you when your schedule permits, but there’s no hurry—feel free to postpone it.”
“Very well.”
Tiel nodded briefly. Indeed, meeting with the High Priestess was hardly an urgent matter.
It was not as though the Temple had some great crisis requiring her attention; the god’s proxy was simply coming to see her.
Tiel resolved to visit the Temple once and organized her documents. This was the last one.
Tiel Asterian now actively managed the affairs of the Asterian Family.
‘This was always something I should have been doing anyway, from the start.’
Until now, those had been things others helped with—because Tiel was young, because she seemed to struggle, because the people around her lent their hand.
But Tiel was no longer a small child. She had come of age to handle her own affairs.
Tiel set down the last remaining document neatly beside the table and gazed at the papers piled there.
All of them concerned the matter of merging Nestian and Asterian.
“By the way, when is the trial?”
“Probably late next month. His Imperial Majesty wishes to resolve it swiftly, so the trial has been scheduled accordingly. Will you attend?”
“Of course—it’s my matter, after all… I should clear my schedule for that day.”
Cassius’s gaze followed his fully grown daughter.
Tiel, though an adult, had not entirely shed her childlike air—as if Thender still somehow held her back.
But from the moment Thender was dragged from Nestian’s great mansion and locked in the dungeon, Tiel had grown further, had become more of a woman.
She no longer worried, no longer hesitated, no longer pitied too easily.
Cassius did not tell her, ‘If you don’t wish to attend, you need not go.’
Such words were for a child in one’s arms, not for the Head of a great house.
As Tiel tidied the ink and quill on the table, she lifted her head as if remembering something she had forgotten.
“Oh, that’s right!”
“What is it?”
“Have you received a report? About news of Je coming through?”
Je had vanished after that day.
The Emperor had issued an empire-wide bounty to find and punish him, to uncover the truth in greater detail, but Je had managed to escape skillfully and had not yet been found.
But now, at last, word of Je had come.
Tiel sifted through the stack of papers and drew out a single sheet. Cassius approached, narrowing his brow.
“I haven’t received the report yet. Since you’re Head of Household, the report came to you first, as it should.”
“Still, I didn’t expect it not to have reached you yet. Look here.”
Cassius read the report Tiel handed him. It contained news that a man believed to be Je had been sighted.
Not in Asterian, but in a remote village at the edge of Arne territory—someone matching the portrait of the man currently wanted throughout the Crasion Empire had been spotted there, according to the report.
However, the man had disappeared quickly, his face stained dark, and his movements seemed labored.
“A face stained dark…”
“It seems likely, doesn’t it? Perhaps he overused Orpheo’s power and fell under Orpheo’s Curse as a result.”
“Yes. And if he’s under Orpheo’s Curse, his body will crumble soon enough.”
“If luck is on our side, we might capture him before his body collapses…”
Since his movements seemed labored, it might be soon indeed.
And if they did capture him, they would finally learn Je’s name and how to summon Orpheo itself.
With that thought, it truly felt as though everything had come to an end.
She no longer needed to toss and turn sleeplessly, gripped by lingering dread.
All those who might threaten Tiel and her family were now either locked away or hunted fugitives!
“So now… it’s really almost over.”
“Yes. Once we catch this one, it’s finished. And he’ll be caught soon enough. How far can a man run when his movements are compromised?”
Cassius tilted his head. Tiel nodded in ready agreement.
Cassius swept his sharp gaze over the organized documents and the daughter standing before him, then stroked his jaw thoughtfully and spoke slowly.
“Then, perhaps now…”
“Now?”
“You can leave the rest to me and go on your trip. Wouldn’t you say?”
Alpheus had fully stepped back, but Cassius still assisted Tiel as regent Head of Household, helping manage the family’s affairs.
And since Tiel had handled all the major matters, the remaining smaller tasks could be settled by Cassius. He took hold of Tiel’s shoulders and gently guided her from the room.
“What? Father!”
“I think you need some rest.”
Cassius’s voice was smooth and gentle, yet at the same time, resolute. He gazed out the window, narrowing his eyes.
‘Come to think of it, I believe I heard that His Highness the Crown Prince’s ‘work’ has been entirely completed as well.’
If his thoughts were correct, Iandros would come to fetch Tiel not long from now.
That boy had always been that way, for as long as he could remember.

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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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