The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 60

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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 60
Etienne accepted the box with trembling hands and stared at it in silence for a long moment.
Those who recognized what the box was felt their eyes grow cold and distant.
Ludian even lowered his head.
“Come here, Tiel.”
Etienne set Tiel down on her feet. The girl stepped away from her aunt’s arms and stood on her own.
Etienne crouched before her, meeting the child’s gaze at eye level.
“This is… yours.”
“…Mine?”
“Yes, this is yours.”
Etienne handed the small box to Tiel.
Tiel gazed at the box for a moment, then reached out with her small hands and took it.
She undid the clasp.
Click.
The clasp opened, and slowly the child lifted the lid.
Inside was—
……
a single small garment.
White cloth, so tiny it could hardly be called clothing—the kind meant to swaddle a newborn, soft and delicate.
Tiel understood at once, almost by instinct, that this was the first thing a baby would wear when born.
The size made it unmistakable.
In the center, the Asterian family crest was embroidered.
Parts of the needlework were rough and uneven, but such flaws meant nothing to her.
“This is…”
“Your mother made it. She wanted to dress you in it herself when you were born.”
Etienne’s words drew solemnity from everyone present.
Ferdi and Ludian had been far too young when Rena disappeared to remember her making this garment.
Yet they knew of its existence.
They remembered.
Cassius’s voice at Rena’s funeral, gripping Etienne’s wrist so tightly.
“It can’t be. It can’t be like this!”
And Etienne, clutching the small garment as though it were the thinnest thread of hope, holding on desperately.
At Rena’s funeral, Cassius and Alpheus had tried to persuade Etienne to place the garment in the empty coffin.
Unable to recover even Rena’s body, they had no choice but to conduct the funeral with her belongings in an empty casket.
But Etienne refused to surrender this one thing.
She knew with what expression, what love in her heart, Rena had sewn each stitch into this cloth.
And Etienne’s judgment had proven right.
After all these years, the garment had finally returned to its owner’s hands.
To hands that had grown too large to wear it now.
……
Tears welled up in Tiel’s wide eyes, her irises trembling with confusion.
Patter—
Without even blinking, tears spilled over, streaming down both cheeks. Tiel’s small hands fumbled as she pulled the tiny garment close.
“Ah… ah…?”
The girl hadn’t cried once since the day she first came to the Asterian Mansion.
She had sworn to herself.
That she would be strong.
That she wouldn’t cry, wouldn’t whine, wouldn’t be weak, wouldn’t act like a child.
But all those promises crumbled before the warmth of a mother she had never met face-to-face.
Tiel was a child.
No matter that she had died once and been reborn, childhood could not be shed like a skin.
A child remained a child.
“Mother…”
Tiel clutched the garment tightly and buried her face in it. Thanks to Etienne’s careful preservation, it carried a gentle, pleasant fragrance.
The scent felt so much like her mother’s, so much like Rena’s embrace, that Tiel could not bear to lift her head.
That was when Cassius, who had been standing back at a distance, stepped forward with long strides.
Reaching the weeping child in moments, he lifted her into his arms and held her against his chest.
“It’s alright, little one.”
His gentle voice soothed her.
“…Ah, Father.”
“It’s alright. Now that you’re back, everything will be alright.”
His words sounded almost like he was speaking to himself.
Cassius felt his chest grow damp with the child’s tears and whispered on,
“As long as you’re alive, that’s all that matters.”
“…”
“Your mother would say the same.”
Tiel wept for a long time.
Until Cassius’s chest was soaked through, and the handkerchief Ferdi offered was drenched as well.
The sorrow she had held back all her life, the tears she’d suppressed, transformed the small child into something fragile and shattered.
All the words she’d wanted to say, stored up through the years.
She had been unable to speak them in Nestian.
Because there, she was a criminal.
She could not face her mother with dignity.
But now she could.
Tiel’s small mouth opened, her trembling voice emerging.
“Mother… Mother…”
“…”
“I miss Mother…”
It was as though an ice fortress deep within her soul shattered and crumbled.
Tiel wept and wept.
Until the glacial walls that had bound her all these years melted away completely.
And continued.
***
“All cried out?” Ferdi asked gently, carefully dabbing at Tiel’s puffy eyes.
Tiel nodded.
“Yes…”
Her eyes stung from so much weeping, but she could bear it.
And strangely, now that she’d cried her fill, she felt oddly lighter.
‘Though I am embarrassed…’
Having wept openly in front of everyone, not only her family but the servants and maids had all witnessed her tears.
‘But… there’s nothing I can do about it now.’
Regret wouldn’t change anything. Besides, the Asterian Mansion’s servants didn’t seem the sort to mock her or hold it against her for crying.
Best to stop dwelling on shame!
Olivie, who’d been holding a cup of ice cream, popped a spoonful into Tiel’s mouth—cool and sweet.
Tiel accepted it eagerly, like a little bird being fed.
“Tasty?”
“Yes!”
“In Wolfgang, there’s ice cream that’s even—”
“That’s enough, Olivie.”
Olivie made a clicking sound and turned her head away. Through it all, Tiel laughed—a bright, bubbling laugh.
Seeing her older siblings banter like this warmed her heart.
“So then.”
“Hmm?”
“When are Sister and Aunt and Uncle going back?”
A hint of longing tinged Tiel’s voice as she asked.
Olivie, catching that note of reluctance, laughed mischievously and cupped both Tiel’s cheeks in her hands.
“How could I leave this precious little thing? Home has nothing without Tiel.”
“Ask them to have another baby.”
“Ugh, don’t even say it. I’ve already asked a thousand times. But they say succession would get too complicated. Can you imagine refusing a second child for that reason?”
Olivie made a dismissive gesture toward Ferdi, then looked back to Tiel.
“We’re probably leaving the day after tomorrow. The Luminarie is coming up soon anyway, and I still need to prepare my dress and everything else. Mother and Father have even more to arrange.”
“But…”
“But?”
“Will you… come back?”
Tiel’s question brought mixed reactions from the siblings.
Ludian and Ferdi’s expressions darkened noticeably, while Olivie’s face lit up even brighter.
“Of course!! Sister will visit all the time. Our clan can travel faster than anyone else. We could be here in the blink of an eye.”
“You’re bragging.”
“Seriously, at this rate the wolf clan’s Ruling Family will change leadership in the next generation. Which families have the Ability again?”
Each clan’s Ruling Family could shift. Every clan had two or three families with Abilities.
The family with the stronger Ability became that clan’s ruler. The imperial house never interfered in inter-clan hierarchies.
This was the Beast-Human World.
A place where only the strong survived.
And Olivie was precisely the kind of talent that thrived under such laws.
As if proving it, Olivie flashed a brilliant smile and raised her fist.
“Want to die?”
“Hey, hey. Don’t spill the ice cream—hold it properly.”
“You’re something else. See you at the Luminarie. I’ll show you how the family hierarchy changes.”
“The family hierarchy changes?”
Tiel, who’d been listening quietly, tilted her head in confusion. What exactly happened at the Luminarie to change family standings?
From what Olivie and Ludian were saying, the Luminarie sounded almost like some kind of hunting festival.
Tiel knew almost nothing about the Luminarie, so she struggled to follow what they were discussing.
Ferdi lifted her up and set her on his lap, then whispered to her.
“They’re talking nonsense.”
“Oh…”
“Ignore them. It’s better just to let it go in one ear and out the other. That’s what a good little sister does, right?”
Ferdi smiled warmly. Ludian and Olivie meanwhile continued their bickering, paying Ferdi no mind.
Tiel pondered for a moment, then rose from Ferdi’s lap, stepping away from the quarreling pair.
“Where are you going?”
“I need to put this away.”
Tiel gestured to the box she’d been cradling all this while. Ferdi asked nothing more, simply watching her.
After a moment’s thought, Tiel carefully hid the box beneath her bed. Ferdi came over and drew the blanket down to conceal it completely.
‘This should be safe.’
She hadn’t yet lost the habit from her time in Nestian—whenever she needed to hide something, she’d always sought out corners dark and quiet.
But no one scolded her for it. Ferdi simply came close and helped tuck the box away, drawing the bedding over it.
A small smile graced Tiel’s lips. Her cheeks flushed a delicate pink.
For the first time, it seemed everyone had found exactly where they belonged.
All of them.

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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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