The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 244

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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 12
Iandros had a strange dream.
“Iandros.”
His parents appeared in it.
His parents had passed away long ago, and it had been quite some time since Iandros had thought of them—so why was he dreaming of them now?
“Come here, my son.”
In the dream, Iandros was very small.
He appeared to be no more than five years old, and his palms were as soft as if they’d never known hardship.
Yet Iandros knew this was a dream.
He knew he wasn’t five—he was past twenty, a grown man.
But still.
‘Since it’s a dream, this isn’t so bad.’
Iandros approached his mother and seized her knee, gazing up at her intently.
His mother regarded her beloved son fondly, then gently stroked his plump cheeks.
“Did you sleep well?”
Had he just woken her? Iandros nodded vaguely.
“Yes, I slept well. And you, Mother?”
“I slept well too, my son. Come here.”
She lifted her small son and held him close. In the dream, Iandros was cradled in his mother’s embrace.
The memory of being held by her had grown so dim that he could no longer recall what he felt then or what he had felt.
‘It’s warm.’
Even in the dream, his mother’s embrace was so wonderfully warm that Iandros felt he could simply drift to sleep there.
But he did not fall asleep. Iandros wanted to wake from this dream.
The appearance of his mother in the dream must be evidence that he still harbored attachment to his parents.
Iandros had no intention of spending his life yearning for his deceased parents.
He wanted to love them instead of missing them.
Yet this dream was proof that instead of loving his parents, he was still yearning for them.
How could he be satisfied with that? Held in his mother’s embrace within the dream, Iandros pondered for a long time whether he was still clinging to his deceased parents.
Then.
“Iandros, my proud and glorious son.”
His father’s voice came from somewhere. Iandros turned his head.
His father’s face was obscured by light and he could not see it clearly, but Iandros knew it was his father’s voice.
A large, thick hand settled gently atop his head.
“Do not hate your grandfather too much. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“There is no one in this world who loves and worries for you as much as he does.”
Iandros nodded appropriately.
His father and mother, satisfied, pulled Iandros close in a tight embrace.
And then.
“Ah…….”
The dream ended.
Iandros woke slowly from the dream.
He woke and took in his surroundings, surveying himself.
His parents were not there, and his body was not that of a five-year-old child, and before his eyes was not his father, whose face he could not see—instead,
“Iandros, did you sleep well?”
there was the person he loved.
Thanks to that, Iandros could open his eyes in good spirits.
At that moment, Tiel pressed her lips gently to his forehead. Iandros, who had been lying in bed, stirred.
“Tiel…….”
“You can sleep more if you’d like.”
“No, I should get up…….”
But his actions belied his words. Iandros, who had taken hold of Tiel’s waist, pulled her into his arms.
“Yelp, Iandros!”
“But I want to lie here longer with you.”
A sweet fragrance rose from Tiel’s soft white hair. Iandros parted the luxuriant strands and buried his face in her slender nape, murmuring.
“I can’t believe three weeks have already passed.”
“Mm, I know. It really did go by so fast…….”
Today marked exactly three weeks since Tiel and Iandros had left Asterian and the Imperial Palace to stay at the Villa.
They were to depart the Villa this afternoon.
Yet.
‘Have I grown attached to this place already?’
At the thought of leaving here, where she had spent the past three weeks with Iandros, something felt strange in her heart. Tiel lay nestled in Iandros’s embrace, listening to the sound of the waves, before suddenly turning over.
“……!”
“Iandros, let’s go to the sea once more before we leave.”
Tiel whispered as she pressed her lips to the bridge of Iandros’s nose. Iandros slowly nodded.
“Of course. If you want to stay longer, we can stay longer.”
“No, that won’t do…… You’re busy, and there must be much waiting for you at the Imperial Palace.”
“Those matters can wait.”
“I know better…… they’re matters that can’t wait.”
Iandros let out a groaning sound. Tiel laughed softly.
“We can come again. Let’s visit again next time, and stay longer then.”
“Yes, and…….”
Iandros pressed his lips briefly to her forehead.
“Next time, we won’t need to keep two separate rooms.”
***
“You’re back? Let me help you change into your dress!”
The maids brought forth a dress they had prepared in advance. Tiel nodded and surrendered to their hands.
The maids too seemed reluctant to part with Tiel, regarding her with wistful eyes.
“It was such a joy to serve you, Miss Tiel……!”
One of them spoke carefully. Tiel smiled.
The Villa saw few visitors, so those who maintained it rarely saw anyone besides Tiel and Iandros, let alone others.
For the maids to have Tiel and Iandros here at all was something to treasure.
‘It might seem easy to manage a place no one visits…….’
But after years of sweeping and tending to an empty Villa, one naturally comes to wish that someone would come and see it.
Once she had finished changing into her dress, Tiel turned to the maid who had spoken to her and smiled.
“I enjoyed it too. I’ll come again next time. Until then, please take care of yourselves.”
“Yes, Miss Tiel!”
The maids nodded.
Tiel left her room and boarded the carriage with Iandros.
Thanks to the servants having prepared everything in advance, Tiel and Iandros had only to climb aboard.
Iandros helped Tiel into the carriage first, then followed her aboard himself.
Once the two were seated safely, the carriage began its slow departure.
Tiel pulled back the curtain of the carriage window slightly and watched the Villa grow smaller in the distance.
The Villa, which had left them such precious memories, was receding further and further away.
“Are you sorry to go?”
At the sound of his voice from across the carriage, she turned her head to find Iandros regarding her intently.
Tiel smiled.
“A little.”
“Even after wading into the sea up to your ankles?”
“Next time, I’d like to wade in up to my calves…….”
As Tiel and Iandros chatted quietly together, the horse drawing the carriage quickened its pace.
Iandros watched her for a moment in silence before slowly opening his mouth.
“Tiel, last night I dreamed of my parents.”
“Your parents?”
“Yes. They told me not to hate my grandfather too much. Did they appear in my dream simply to tell me that?”
Iandros murmured thoughtfully as he recalled the dream’s contents.
He seemed not so much to be asking Tiel as questioning himself.
After listening to his words for a moment, Tiel looked at him and asked.
“Iandros, do you still hate the Emperor?”
“How could I? Now he is my only blood relative. I don’t hate him—I understand how much he worries for me.”
“I see, then…….”
Tiel seemed to ponder something before carefully opening her mouth.
“Um, Iandros. Do you perhaps know the exact details of what happened that day?”
Beyond Tiel’s face, as she spoke to him with careful deliberation, small lights flickered and bloomed.
It was evidence of how much she cared for him.
Iandros gazed at those lights quietly before shaking his head.
“I know what happened, but I don’t know it with perfect clarity.”
Iandros said.
“I have no memory of that day.”

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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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