The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 35

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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 35
Thiel squirmed in Ludian’s arms, eager to be put down.
Ludian set the child on the ground. Thiel looked up at the High Priest with those enormous eyes.
Her brilliant golden pupils gleamed with intelligence.
“That can’t be right.”
The child’s voice carried such unwavering certainty that it scarcely sounded like a child’s at all, and the High Priest flinched.
“You—you’re not actually doubting the will of the Divine, are you? You’re still so young; there’s much you don’t understand yet.”
“Mind your tongue, Andres. She is the sole princess of House Ewald and the heir to House Asterian.”
Cassius turned a withering gaze toward Andres.
Andres’s pupils trembled, barely contained.
Not a blood relation—Andres wanted to shout it, but he forced himself silent.
Cassius and Alpheus had already confirmed in the secret chamber of House Asterian that Thiel carried Asterian blood.
So no matter how many times the Divine Temple insisted she wasn’t their true child, they would never believe it.
Because House Asterian had acknowledged it—that Thiel was Cassius’s own daughter.
But the priests knew none of this. They were ignorant of the hidden legend, of the reliquaries and secret chambers kept by House Asterian and House Nestian.
From Andres’s perspective, their brazen confidence made no sense whatsoever.
“Lord Cassius! Do you doubt the Divine? This is sacrilege! The Divine Temple’s Kinship Verification has never once been wrong.”
“Then it’s wrong now.”
The child spoke with perfect clarity.
Thiel ignored Andres, who stood frozen in bewilderment, and turned her gaze toward the Kinship Fountain.
The fountain flowed quietly, its waters unchanged in hue.
Transparent liquid bubbled endlessly from the spring. Thiel took a step toward it.
“You mustn’t come so close!”
“But, High Priest…”
Thiel fixed her gaze on the fountain with surprising resolve, then abruptly turned her head.
Her brilliant golden eyes—unmistakably those of a black leopard—fixed on Andres.
Andres went rigid.
That distinctive appearance, a perfect blend of black leopard and white leopard traits, could only result from a hybrid of the two. There was no other explanation.
He understood now why House Asterian rejected the Divine Temple’s verdict.
Cold sweat traced down his spine. He should have known better. He should never have agreed to such a threadbare deception. Andres barely suppressed a scream building in his chest.
Ordinarily, a child inherited the appearance of only one parent.
A child born bearing the traits of both parents—like Thiel—was called a “hybrid” and scorned by society.
But what were the odds that the youngest daughter of House Asterian, the one who manifested Light-based Divine Power, would be that very “hybrid”?
‘Damn it.’
Andres had opposed this scheme from the beginning.
There was no way something so crude could deceive House Asterian.
He’d heard the child was a hybrid bearing the traits of both white and black leopards in perfect balance, which meant the Kinship Verification was purely a formality.
That child was genuine blood—born of both Nestian and Asterian stock.
But everyone else had pushed ahead with this pathetic scheme.
They’d insisted that once the Divine Temple had the girl in hand, everything would be resolved, whether they were caught later or not.
And naturally, it had fallen to Andres to execute this absurd plan.
Because Andres possessed the Eye of Divine Discernment.
And the child who appeared in Cassius’s arms truly did carry Light-based Divine Power.
He could sense it faintly—the power of Lucet himself.
So Andres had followed through: he’d cast the pre-swapped hair into the fountain and prepared to secure the child according to plan.
‘But I never expected the girl to be so bold.’
Shouldn’t a seven-year-old child in such a situation be crying in fear, trembling?
Yet Thiel gazed at Andres with sparkling eyes.
Within her transparent pupils, trust in House Asterian and a fragile faith in him burned like embers.
Thiel plucked out a strand of her own hair. Two or three white strands lay in her small palm.
“Father!”
Thiel called to Cassius.
Cassius, who had been watching Thiel with narrowed eyes, smiled faintly at her call and reached for the hair.
Sharp animal claws extended from Cassius’s fingertips.
Snick—the hair was cut cleanly.
Cassius handed Thiel one of his own black hairs.
“Here, Thiel.”
“Thank you, Father.”
Thiel nodded.
Andres made no move to stop her, merely watching in stunned silence.
“I’m not opposing the Divine’s will. I simply can’t believe it, High Priest.”
“That opposition is exactly what contradicts the Divine’s will!”
“I’m sorry, but…”
Thiel met Andres’s gaze steadily.
The lethal intensity in the small child’s bearing made Andres flinch.
“I have a white leopard’s fur and a black leopard’s eyes. How can I not be Asterian’s child?”
The moment Thiel finished speaking, faint light flickered in her closed fist—her Divine Power.
Thiel pressed her lips firmly together.
‘I am father’s daughter.’
No matter what anyone says, my father is Cassius Celestus Asterian, and my mother is Rena Nestian. And…
House Asterian acknowledged it.
Thiel recalled the secret chamber of House Asterian that had opened in response to her touch.
House Asterian accepted me.
Faith and courage guided Thiel forward.
Just as she had done when calming Ferdi’s madness, a voice whispered in her ear once more.
[Drop them… little one.]
[Let the hairs fall…]
Thiel nodded.
Without hesitation, she dropped both her white hair and Cassius’s black hair into the fountain simultaneously.
“No!”
Andres cried out sharply—then was startled by the sound of his own voice.
Ordinarily, dropping hair into the fountain provokes no response.
Only the Pope and his appointed representative can conduct the Kinship Verification.
And with the Pope absent, only High Priest Andres could legitimately perform the test. So the fountain should remain unchanged no matter how many times hair was dropped into it—as long as Andres didn’t channel Divine Force. It had to be that way.
Then why this creeping dread? Andres stared intently at the fountain as it swallowed the hair.
At that very moment.
A sound escaped him—a gasp.
The water where the hair had fallen began to bubble and churn, ripples spreading outward.
Small lights flickered in Thiel’s palm. The priests of the Divine Temple, Ferdi, Ludian—even Cassius. All eyes fixed on the child.
……
In moments, the shimmering light in her small hand transformed into the shape of a fish.
Thiel had not wielded her Divine Power.
‘It resonated with the Divine Temple’s power.’
Cassius watched the fish move with fluid grace in Thiel’s palm.
Light-based Divine Power is fundamentally the strength of Lucet, whom this temple serves.
Lucet’s call had been answered by Thiel’s power.
Two fish circled gently within her cupped hands, then swam softly toward the fountain where golden water flowed.
They darted round and round the fountain, scattering fragments of light.
Before long, the water flowing through the fountain began to shift in color.
“I knew it would be.”
The moment Ferdi spoke, the fountain’s waters transformed into brilliant gold, radiating beams of light.
The priests, including the High Priest, stared at the fountain in awe.
“The… the color changed?”
One of the priests stammered the question.
When two people share a blood relation, the fountain’s water changes color.
‘It should be blue.’
Yet the fountain now glowed with unmistakable gold.
Gold so brilliant one might believe the fountain itself was crafted from that precious metal.
The priests, bewildered by this unprecedented occurrence, cried out in confusion.
“The fountain shouldn’t respond at all! The proper procedure wasn’t followed by the Pope’s representative, so the result is corrupted!”
“Thiel’s Divine Power is Light-based Divine Power—the strength of Lucet the Light God. It resonates with Divine Force. The fountain responded to the child’s power.”
Cassius spoke with absolute certainty. Andres shook his head, his refusal unmistakable.
Of course he couldn’t accept it!
If he did, the Divine Temple would be guilty of defrauding the youngest daughter of House Asterian. There was no way he could acknowledge it.
At that moment.
“Y-you can’t enter!”
“And who’s to stop me?”
Isandros of the Craxion Empire. The crown prince of Craxion, dear friend to Ferdi and Ludian, the very man who had saved Thiel—he emerged from the shadows.

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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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