The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 28

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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 28
“Bring Tiel to the Training Ground?”
Cassius and Alpheus broke off their conversation and turned to look at Lia.
Lia bowed her head slightly as she spoke.
“Yes, the young masters took the young lady to the Training Ground, but I’m worried and thought I should report it.”
“Very well. I’ll go have a look.”
Cassius rose from his seat and adjusted his clothes.
Lia stepped naturally out of the doorway to let him pass.
The Training Ground was a place for practicing swordsmanship, but it was primarily used for training Abilities.
Perdi and Ludian had likely brought Tiel there to show off their own Abilities.
But it was too soon for Tiel to witness such things.
The child still didn’t know exactly what her Ability was, and she didn’t even know how to use it—she was like a newborn in that regard.
“Didn’t you inform Perdi and Ludian about Tiel’s Ability?”
Alpheus squinted slightly, as if struggling to recall.
Cassius shook his head.
“I did inform them. I made it clear that she’s still a child who doesn’t understand her own Ability well, and told them to be careful.”
Cassius’s gaze drifted toward the north-facing window—the one that overlooked the Training Ground reserved for Perdi and Ludian.
“Since her Ability has only recently manifested, I’m concerned that if she becomes stimulated by the twins’ Abilities, her Ability’s flow might become unstable. I should retrieve her.”
Perdi and Ludian’s Abilities were formidable.
Though they were still young and not as powerful as Alpheus or Cassius, they possessed strong Abilities befitting successors of Asterian—a House where, with each generation, more powerful Ability users emerged.
And so, if those two were to misuse their Abilities or rampage—
The impact on Tiel would certainly be harmful.
Cassius exhaled a sigh and turned away.
He had just resolved that for now, he must keep the twins separated from Tiel, when—
“Um, um there—!”
Lia pointed to the window Cassius had been gazing at just moments before.
Cassius and Alpheus both turned their eyes toward it at once.
“!”
From the north side of the Asterian manor, beams of light and pillars of flame were pouring forth simultaneously.
The light swiftly swept across the night sky, illuminating it brilliantly. Cassius’s eyes narrowed to slits; Alpheus’s pupils dilated.
“Surely not…”
Alpheus murmured.
Without a word to each other, both men pushed off from their seats and dashed from the study.
Only Lia remained in the empty study, staring uncertainly toward the north.
***
And now.
Cassius passed the startled Perdi and Ludian and checked on Tiel’s condition.
The child blinked slowly, then collapsed into Cassius’s arms.
At the same moment, the light that had blanketed all of Asterian’s territory faded to black.
“Tiel!”
Perdi and Ludian cried out together. Cassius turned his head slightly and brought a finger to his lips.
“Be quiet. You’ll wake the child.”
Alpheus, alarmed at the sight of Tiel collapsed in Cassius’s embrace, immediately ordered the physician be summoned.
Everyone present showed visible distress, but Cassius remained remarkably composed.
He checked his daughter’s pulse and placed a hand over her chest to assess the flow of her Ability.
Fortunately, nothing seemed seriously amiss.
“She’s lost consciousness because she used far too much Ability all at once. She’ll be fine with some rest.”
Cassius lifted Tiel into his arms. The child’s cheek pressed softly against his chest.
Perdi and Ludian watched her with worried eyes.
Cassius gazed down at his daughter, who had just unleashed such tremendous Ability, then looked up at the ceiling of the Training Ground, which now had a gaping hole through it.
‘I should have built a proper ceiling.’
If he had, there would have been no trouble.
The Imperial Palace, the Temple, and Nestian could not possibly have failed to see the Ability Tiel had just displayed.
Her light was strong and brilliant enough to illuminate the entire territory of Asterian.
So everyone had surely witnessed it.
Everyone would know now. That a child with a Light Ability had appeared.
The thought that matters were about to become troublesome caused Cassius’s pupils to narrow.
If word got out that Tiel was the legendary “Child of Light” from the old tales, people from all sides would clamor to take her.
Of course, he had no intention of letting them.
How could he? He had found her after all these years—this child he had drawn in his mind every night for the past seven years, neither living nor dead.
There was not a shred of willingness to let her be taken.
This was Asterian.
Asterian, a House so powerful that even the birds fell from the sky.
Unless someone was willing to throw caution to the winds, no one would dare lay a hand on Tiel.
But Cassius did not want this small child to suffer anymore.
Having been born with such an extraordinary power, even with Asterian’s protection, countless hardships would surely befall her in the years to come, and countless people would seek her out.
Even with Asterian as her strong backer, Tiel herself would have to bear no small burden.
He despised the thought of it.
He would have preferred she had no Ability at all—he simply wished for his daughter to live in peace and happiness.
‘Things have come to this, so there’s no helping it now.’
Cassius’s pupils transformed, becoming bestial.
His large hand covered the small body of the child.
Having manifested a Light Ability, Tiel would certainly face her share of trials,
But whatever hardships Asterian could resolve in her stead, he was confident the Black Panther Clan would resolve under its own name.
Such as, for instance, crushing the petty nuisances that today’s incident would surely attract.
That was a guardian’s duty, after all.
“Perdi. Ludian.”
Cassius, still cradling Tiel, turned to face his sons.
“Explain what happened.”
At that moment, Perdi staggered. Ludian barely caught him as he nearly fell.
Instead of Perdi, whose gaze remained fixed on the unconscious Tiel as if his mind had fled, Ludian spoke.
“Perdi suddenly… rampaged. He hadn’t even used half his usual Ability. But suddenly he went into rampage, and so—”
“And then—”
“Ludian tried to stop him and got hurt, and Tiel… she calmed him down.”
Perdi picked up where his twin left off.
His gaze, wandering aimlessly, fixed on Tiel’s face. He wanted nothing more than to gather the fallen child into his arms.
Perdi could not bring himself to speak of it.
‘I can imagine what I wanted to do then.’
What he himself had imagined at that moment.
What Perdi had imagined was a powerful force.
A mighty Ability unconstrained by Curse and Rampage. A fierce Flame.
The strong Ability that Perdi should have been able to wield if not for the Curse—
And this was the result of that.
Perdi could not overcome the Curse; Rampage seized him and he went berserk, while Tiel collapsed trying to calm him.
Perdi could not forget it.
The small child who had run toward him without the slightest hesitation.
‘Don’t get hurt.’
The small warmth that had embraced him as if it knew everything, when in truth it knew nothing at all.
And the gentle light that had bloomed from Tiel’s palms and spread through his veins, suffusing his entire body.
It tormented him that he had doubted and been wary of her even for a moment.
Even if she truly did not possess a “Light Ability,” he should not have done so.
Tiel had opened her heart to Perdi.
Despite the danger to herself, she had without hesitation thrown her small body forward.
Yet Perdi had been wary of such a small child.
All because of one possibility—that she might possess a “Light Ability”!
The ignorant might whisper that Perdi had feared for his position as successor,
But it was not so simple as that.
It was simply, merely—
‘I didn’t want to hope…’
Perdi, along with all of Asterian and Nestian, had suffered long under this Curse and Rampage.
If this Rampage could be cured, if the Curse could be broken, they would have been willing to do anything.
But to actually believe it could be cured—to believe that a child who had manifested a legendary Ability stood before their eyes—
It filled him with formless dread.
That the legend might be nothing but idle fancy. That the Curse might be so terrible that even a Light Ability could not undo it.
That the legend might be merely a legend after all—
Ludian, noticing that Perdi’s mind was unstable, looked up at Cassius—whose expression had grown coldly set—and spoke in his brother’s stead.
“It’s not Perdi’s fault! He barely used half his normal Ability, you know. And then suddenly—!”
“Enough, Ludian.”
Perdi tried to stop his twin.
But Ludian only pressed his foot down firmly on Perdi’s and raised his voice further.
“Did I lie? That’s exactly what happened. Do you think I don’t know your Ability? He barely used half of it and still went into rampage!”
Cassius sighed and nodded.
At his sharp gaze, Ludian clamped his mouth shut.
“We can discuss this another time. Tiel comes first now.”
“Yes. We should get her to bed first.”
At the words of Cassius and Alpheus, the two boys nodded.
Cassius crossed the Training Ground with the small child cradled in his arms, Alpheus at his side.
They looked down at Tiel, who slept peacefully nestled in his embrace.
‘Asterian and Nestian shall recover their true strength along with the glorious light.’
The glorious light.
That light from legend now slept cradled in Cassius’s arms.
And it had even calmed Perdi’s Rampage.
Perhaps, just as the legend suggested, Tiel was truly the key that could completely break the Curse upon Asterian and Nestian.
But he felt no joy.
For countless hardships would descend upon Tiel in the years to come.
And among them would surely be trials that neither Cassius nor Alpheus could face in her stead.

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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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