The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 259

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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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Special Sideplot 9
“Oh!”
Luna flinched at the sudden sound, her frightened face turning toward its source.
Luna’s face had gone pale. Yet the Salamander, who ought to have been protecting her, paid no attention to Luna’s distress—instead, it turned its focus toward the rustling in the bushes.
Crackle!
And at last, the source of the noise emerged between the branches.
It was a boy, his cheeks and hair covered in leaves. He appeared to be a few years older than Luna, though he was plainly still very young.
“Who are you? Who are you!”
Luna clutched the Salamander closer, her unfinished question hanging in the air—*what are you doing in our house?*
Luna was not accustomed to seeing strangers.
Naturally not—she had been born and raised moving only between the Imperial Palace and the Asterian Mansion, a cherished princess all her life.
So it made sense that she would be startled by an unfamiliar child.
The boy seemed startled to see her as well, but he quickly knelt and bowed with perfect courtesy.
“Your Highness, are you not the Princess? I apologize for alarming you…….”
The voice that emerged from a boy barely seventeen or eighteen was far too measured and grave to believe.
“Who…… are you……?”
“I am a ward in service to Lord Ludian. He took me in, and I am repaying his kindness by following him.”
Ludian was Luna’s uncle.
“Ludian?”
At the familiar name, Luna’s wariness began to ease.
In any case, there could hardly be anyone within the Asterian who would mean Luna harm.
That too contributed to why her guard dropped so quickly.
“Uncle’s ward? What is a…… ward?”
“Well, that is…….”
“A son…… is it a son!?”
The word ended in ‘-ward’, so perhaps it meant son!
Luna clapped her hands together. She was still learning difficult new words, so there were still many she did not know.
“No, Your Highness, I am not…….”
Just as the boy began to protest the misunderstanding, his head shaking—
“The child is gone! Search for her!”
“Luna, Luna!”
Voices calling in alarm came from the place where Luna had just slipped away.
Luna remained sitting on the grass and stared toward the sound.
Then.
A gentle ripple.
Two fish, conjured by Tiel’s Ability, swam straight toward Luna.
As Luna closed her eyes slightly, the fish brushed their lips gently against her mouth before circling around her.
The boy watched in astonishment, his eyes wide. But Luna did not flinch—instead, she grasped a handful of light in her palm.
Light was the most familiar Ability in the world to her. Why would a daughter be surprised by her mother’s power?
“Good heavens, Luna!”
Tiel ran up and wrapped Luna in her arms. Behind her stood Cassius and Ludian, both roused from sleep in shock.
In the distance, Ferdi and Alpheus were approaching, though more slowly. Luna tilted her head, surprised to see everyone awake at this late hour.
“Why is everyone out here?”
“That’s what I’d like to know, you little troublemaker.”
Ludian spoke as he thoroughly mussed Luna’s hair. Luna whimpered, her face crumpling.
Tiel turned Luna around while still holding her, and asked gently.
“Luna, why have you come out this far? Mother was worried about you.”
“I… I had a bad dream and tried to call for you… but you didn’t come and nobody came…….”
“Is that so? I was in the next room. Why didn’t I hear you?”
“It seems she must have slipped out while I was fetching water for a moment…….”
Luna’s maidservant bowed her head deeply, speaking in shame—to fail in caring for the Princess was a grave sin.
But Tiel held no intention of reproaching the maidservant. She herself had not heard Luna’s cries, and in any case, Luna was safe, which was what mattered.
Only then did Tiel’s gaze fall upon the boy standing meekly with his head bowed.
“Hmm……?”
The boy was small and appeared far too young to be a servant. Tiel regarded him with a puzzled expression and reached out her hand toward him.
“Child, what are you doing out at this hour?”
As Tiel spoke, her Ability lit the surroundings brightly, and the boy’s face, hidden until then in darkness, came into view.
Ludian’s brow furrowed as he recognized the boy’s features.
“Raven?”
“Lord…….”
The boy called Raven spoke carefully, gauging Ludian’s mood.
“I had no intention of alarming Her Highness. I simply wanted to see the Garden and slipped out, but I heard voices from this direction, so I…….”
Raven fumbled through his explanation. Ludian looked at him in exasperation.
Raven, now seven years old, was technically a ward, though he was more accurately a child that Ludian looked after and sponsored.
Ludian had recognized his talent for Swordsmanship despite his young age and had taken it upon himself to raise the boy.
So he had no intention of scolding him harshly, but seeing the boy’s dispirited expression as he offered his excuse, Ludian felt both pity and affection.
Children sneaking out to the Garden at night without sleeping was certainly misbehavior, but it was hardly a grave offense.
Just as Ludian was about to comfort Raven—
“So you came closer to watch over our Luna.”
Tiel spoke first. Raven’s head shot up, his eyes fixing on her.
“You heard a child’s voice suddenly and were startled, weren’t you?”
“……Yes.”
“And you wanted to see what was wrong?”
“……That’s right.”
Raven, who had been thoroughly deflated, now lifted his head slightly as Tiel articulated the words he had not managed to speak himself, his expression brightening a little.
“Thank you, Raven.”
Tiel reached out and stroked the boy’s hair.
Like the name that meant a large raven, his jet-black hair felt soft beneath her fingers.
“Without you, Luna would have been even more frightened.”
That wasn’t true.
Luna wouldn’t have been frightened even without Raven.
Luna, cradled in Tiel’s arms, swallowed the urge to protest.
Somehow, from the tone of things, it felt as though she herself were the one in the wrong.
And because Luna was a “Princess,” she was hardly ever scolded regardless of what she did—but Raven would not be afforded the same mercy.
“Hmph…….”
So Luna decided to say nothing. She had no wish to see her peer punished.
“No, Your Majesty, that is not…….”
Raven lowered his head in confusion, unsure how to respond to such praise—a common reaction in children unfamiliar with such kindness.
“No, I truly am grateful. But you mustn’t come out so late at night again—the adults could be frightened.”
As Tiel spoke gently, the boy nodded earnestly.
Ludian, watching the exchange quietly, pressed down on Raven’s head with somewhat more force than he had used on Luna’s earlier.
“Listen here—I told you not to sneak out at night.”
“L-Lord Ludian…….”
“Didn’t I tell you that children who sleep at night grow taller? Are you planning to stay short your whole life?”
At Ludian’s words, Raven scratched the back of his head, looking sheepish.
In truth, Raven was on the larger side for his age, but he understood that Ludian’s remark was made in jest, so he said nothing in return.
“Well then, everyone back inside now. Let’s all return to sleep. Father, you’re fully awake now—whatever shall we do?”
Tiel shifted Luna in her arms and glanced back at Cassius.
Cassius’s sleep-clouded expression had vanished entirely as he looked back and forth between Luna and Tiel before shaking his head.
“No, it brings back memories. Good memories.”
“Memories?”
“Like mother, like daughter—causing a stir much the same way.”
At Cassius’s words, Tiel’s lips parted in a small “ah.” The memory of that first day she had arrived at the Asterian Mansion came rushing back.
That night too, the household had been turned upside down searching for Tiel after she had vanished.
Tiel smiled awkwardly, and Luna lifted her head from within Tiel’s embrace.
“Did Mother also have a nightmare and come out at night? Like me?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Then Luna is Mother’s daughter because she doesn’t sleep at night and comes out?”
“Luna, you’re not secretly planning to do this again next time, are you?”
Ferdi, who had been listening quietly, interjected. Caught red-handed, Luna’s cheeks puffed out like air sacs.
“Everyone, let’s all go back inside now. I’ll put Luna to sleep.”
“Come on, you too.”
Ludian patted Raven’s back. Raven nodded at Ludian, then glanced back toward Luna, who was being carried away in Tiel’s arms beyond Ludian’s form.
Even in the darkness, those emerald eyes that watched him gleamed with a soft light.
“So that is the Princess…….”
Luna was looking in his direction.

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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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