The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 270

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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 Side Story 20
“The Cliad Mountain Range?”
Runa blinked.
“Yes.”
“Then when are you coming back?”
…….
“Tomorrow? The day after? When?”
Runa tilted her head back beneath the tree, gazing up at Raven as she asked.
She had been circling beneath the great tree, and now she wrapped both arms around its trunk.
“Raven, can’t you come down and tell me? My neck hurts…….”
At Runa’s whine, Raven jumped down lightly. His black wings fluttered a few times.
As his feet touched the ground gently, the wings folded naturally into his body and vanished. Raven examined the girl’s neck.
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah, so when you go, when are you coming back? How long can’t we play together?”
In truth, it wasn’t a question he could answer right away.
Runa surely knew that once Ludian ventured beyond Asterian, he rarely returned promptly.
Going with Ludian on top of that, and with the Cliad Mountain Range notorious for its dangers, there was no way to gauge when they might return.
“It will take a long time.”
“Is that what you came to tell me?”
“Yes.”
Runa fidgeted with Salamander. When she reached out and stroked the creature’s head, Salamander nuzzled affectionately against her hand.
The sight almost seemed like Salamander was comforting a despondent master.
‘Has her mood grown heavy?’
Though Raven had observed Runa closely for quite some time, he remained clumsy at discerning her feelings.
This princess, true to her imperial bloodline, rarely showed her emotions on her face, never let her moods lead her astray in her duties, and was skilled at concealing her heart.
That made Runa difficult for Raven to read. Tiel and Iandros would have known her mood at once, but to the young boy Raven, Runa remained an enigma.
“Your Highness.”
“Yeah, I’m thinking.”
Runa replied while continuing to pet Salamander. Raven waited silently for her words.
The handmaidens slipped away tactfully, and warm wind swept across her cheeks, soft and gentle.
Runa, still petting Salamander, carefully touched a single flower blooming prettily in the Garden and asked.
“Do you have to go?”
Runa looked up at Raven. His shadow half-veiled her face.
“Without you, I only have Ain left to play with, and I had a fight with him yesterday, so I don’t really want to play…….”
“When I return…….”
“When you return?”
“I’m told you’ll write me a letter of recommendation for the Imperial Palace Knights.”
Raven answered carefully.
“Once I join the Imperial Palace Knights, I’ll be able to see you more often.”
“……That is good.”
Runa, lost in thought for a moment, asked.
“But couldn’t Uncle just write the letter without going himself?”
Raven had never considered such a thing, and he was flustered.
“That…… I don’t think that’s possible? I didn’t ask, but.”
“Hmm, true. With Uncle’s stubborn nature, he wouldn’t do something like that.”
Runa looked up at Raven.
“If I join the Imperial Palace Knights, can I protect you too?”
“Not immediately, but perhaps later…….”
“So you’re going all the way to the Cliad Mountain Range to be with me longer?”
“Yes.”
There was nothing wrong with Runa’s words. They were true. Raven wanted to become her protector.
It wasn’t a matter of ‘liking’ Runa. The knights of the order, and Ludian too, had teased him, asking if he liked the princess so much, but he was certain it wasn’t that.
It was simply a desire to protect. At least, that was how Raven understood it.
And Ludian had said so. That for a knight, the impulse to protect someone was only natural.
For Raven, that someone was Runa.
Of course, had Raven and Runa been just a little older, those around them might have separated them.
The affection Runa showed Raven was remarkable, as was the devotion Raven displayed toward the princess with whom he was so familiar.
But they were both still children. Neither was old enough to think of such things. Perhaps that was also why the Emperor and Empress turned a blind eye to it all.
Yet Raven swore he had never harbored treasonous thoughts. He had never, naturally, assumed that Runa would become his first love.
He was a commoner and Runa was a noble princess of the realm, the most precious and beloved Beast-kin in the empire.
That anyone would wish to protect her seemed only natural for all the empire’s subjects…….
“I understand.”
Runa plucked the flower and stood abruptly, stepping close before Raven.
And then.
“But come back soon, Raven.”
Runa gently tucked the flower she had just picked behind his ear.
“Because I want to play with you again…….”
In that moment, both of Raven’s cheeks flushed crimson.
Startled, he stumbled backward.
***
“Sniff, sniff…….”
“My dear Runa…….”
Tiel stifled her laughter and patted her daughter’s back.
‘Empress, thank you for allowing me to say goodbye to the young lady.’
She had thought things went well, when Raven spoke so respectfully and took his leave from the Imperial Palace.
“Sniff.”
‘But it seems they didn’t.’
Tiel held Runa close, soothing her daughter as she sniffled, her small body trembling with each sob.
Iandros, watching from beside them, asked.
“Should I bring him back?”
As Emperor, Iandros could summon Raven here whenever he wished.
Moreover, he had the power to conscript Raven into the Imperial Palace Knights without needing Ludian’s letter of recommendation.
But.
She shook her head firmly.
“You don’t want that?”
She nodded in denial.
As Runa nestled in Tiel’s arms and shook her head, Iandros was utterly bewildered.
If she didn’t want to part from her friend, she simply shouldn’t part from him.
But when offered to bring him back, she refused, and now she was upset? Iandros thought yet again that a daughter’s heart was beyond him.
Tiel, tapping Iandros lightly, settled Runa on her lap and spoke.
“Runa doesn’t want to stand in the way of what Raven is doing, is that right?”
“Yes…….”
“I understand. The heart often wanders from reason. You have both the thought that you don’t want to stop him and the feeling that you don’t want to part. There’s no helping it.”
At Tiel’s gentle words, Runa nodded. Tiel wiped her daughter’s cheeks with the back of her hand and continued.
“You’ll meet again soon. He’ll be back before long. Partings are necessary so that meetings can happen again, Runa.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Yes, Runa. Or else, Father could later…….”
“No, you can’t!”
“All right.”
Iandros replied. Nestled in Tiel’s embrace, Runa thought of Raven.
Her first friend, and from the very moment they met in the Garden, Raven had been her only companion.
She wished it could stay that way. But it couldn’t, because Runa was the empire’s princess.
And Raven, performing his duties as a knight, would meet countless other friends. The thought that the time when he had been her only one would soon become the past felt sorrowful to the young girl.
‘But it’s all right.’
As Mother said, they would meet again soon. Not going far away, not traveling an impossible road—just being a little apart for a time.
So Runa was content.
Even if she missed Raven.
It was then, while she thought such things.
Whoosh.
A small portal appeared above Salamander’s head.
The entrance to that space, pouring forth white light, was deeply familiar to Tiel and Iandros, but to Runa…….
“What is this……?”
Tiel spun around in surprise, staring at Iandros.
Iandros shook his head with equal shock. It meant he hadn’t opened it.
Tap.
Runa carefully reached out and touched that portal flooding with white light.
And immediately after.
Whoooosh!
Blinding light poured forth in all directions.
An Ability that manifests through strong will and profound emotion—Subspace Creation.
It was Runa’s Ability manifesting.
***
“I have someone to introduce to you.”
“Yes?”
Runa looked at Iandros. Iandros, gazing at his well-raised daughter, concealed his pleased feelings and continued.
“You’re growing older now, so you’ll need a personal guard.”
“……I don’t need one, I’ve told you. There are already far too many guards as it is. Every time I step outside, a whole crowd of ten comes trailing after me.”
“As the empire’s princess, that’s only natural. I’ll assign someone to guard you personally, beside you.”
“Oh, I…….”
I don’t need something like that.
Because Raven will become my guard later.
But Runa had no way to overcome Iandros’s stubbornness.
Iandros cut off her words and gestured. At that, the figures standing before the door opened it wide.
Creak.
The doors parted, and the boy who would become Runa’s ‘personal guard’ walked in.
“You’ll like him.”
Raven, standing between boy and young man, not yet fully having shed his youth.
“……Huh?”
Runa stared at Raven.
Raven, first offering proper courtesy to Iandros, turned to look at Runa.
“Your Highness, it is an honor to make your acquaintance.”
The raven boy.
The boy who had wanted nothing more than to live out his days without becoming a knight or anything else, had grown and now gazed upon Runa.
“From today, I am Raven, newly appointed to serve as your…… guard.”
Salamander, now more attuned to Runa’s emotions than anyone else, burst into flame and roared with fire.
And at once.
“……Raven!”
Runa broke into a radiant smile.
From behind Raven, Tiel emerged to witness the scene, meeting Iandros’s gaze with a subtle smile.
Iandros hardened his expression at the sight, then smiled, then showed a look of bewilderment.
Yet whatever happened, Runa’s joy and Tiel’s joy would always be his joy as well.
For their sake, Iandros would give anything to Runa and Ain and Tiel.
Tiel knew that well.
And so Tiel and Iandros became such a perfectly matched pair.
Runa’s bright laughter spread wide that day like the spring breeze beneath the tree.
Special Side Story Complete

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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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