The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 76

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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 76
A woman in a tattered robe slipped naturally into the darkness.
Or rather, it was more accurate to say that darkness had swallowed her whole.
Darkness consumed her slowly, and the woman stepped forward once more into an endless abyss.
Empty eyes took in the pitch-black void completely within her gaze…….
[Did you go?]
A hoarse voice emerged from the darkness, dreadfully rasping.
The voice continued to crack and craze, so unclear that one had to listen carefully not to miss it.
The woman nodded.
Darkness laughed with satisfaction for a long moment, then guided its faithful servant deeper into the gloom.
[Good, well done…….]
The moment Darkness finished speaking, an even darker space yawned open and slowly swallowed her feet.
The woman stood motionless.
Until she was completely pulled into an abyss as endless as perdition itself.
……And so faded gold hair appeared briefly beyond the darkness before vanishing once more.
***
Iandros decided he ought to report this to the Emperor at once and rode back to the Imperial Palace in his carriage.
The children were huddled together in Tiel’s room within the mansion.
“Ugh, when does this festival end?”
“What? You’ve been looking forward to it this whole time.”
“I was looking forward to it, but now that I’m thinking Tiel might be in danger, I just want to go home already!”
Olivie shrieked and planted a kiss on Tiel’s cheek.
Alarmed by Olivie’s action, Ferdi scooped Tiel up off the ground, and Ludian wiped Tiel’s soft cheek with his sleeve.
The cheek squished and compressed with each swipe.
“What are you doing? That’s filthy!”
Ferdi cried out in disgust—one of the few moments his composure had cracked.
“Tiel? You can’t just sit there. You should say you don’t like it, remember?”
“Huh?”
Tiel opened her large eyes wide and looked up at Ferdi.
“But……, she does it often.”
“Often? When else did she do it?”
Ludian asked in alarm.
Olivie laughed—hehe—and bent her index finger, poking Tiel’s cheek impishly.
“And……, I like it too?”
“Right? You don’t like it, right? So if you don’t like it, you should say so……. Huh?”
Ludian’s expression hardened as he heard Tiel’s words. Both brothers turned their heads toward her at once.
“What do you like?”
“That?”
“Yes? Um, because sister is so kind. She kisses me every day and strokes my head and loves me…….”
Tiel’s expression grew content as she closed and opened her eyes, speaking slowly.
At the sight of her, Ludian and Ferdi suddenly wanted to clutch the back of their necks.
“When did she start doing such things to Tiel?”
“Hmph, while you two weren’t looking.”
Olivie gazed at Tiel as if she were unbearably cute, honey dripping from her eyes, rolling about on the bed.
Tiel paid her brothers and sister no mind, pulling another piece of candy from the candy pouch she held and popping it into her mouth.
It was a small, round hard candy with fine white sugar crystals clinging to its surface, and it dissolved away in her mouth in less than ten minutes.
As the three children bickered loudly, Tiel chewed her candy contentedly.
Then someone knocked on the door.
Knock, knock.
The children stopped what they were doing and turned toward the door in unison.
“Come in.”
At Ferdi’s command, the door opened slowly and a maidservant entered, bowing her head.
“What is it?”
“I’ve come to tell you that the Head of Household has instructed that everyone dine together this evening and remain in the mansion.”
“Dine together? All of a sudden?”
Tiel’s eyes narrowed as she listened to the maidservant’s words.
Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t seen grandfather properly since arriving in Luminarie…….
Cassius at least spent considerable time with Tiel, but Alpheus seemed so busy he hadn’t stopped moving during the entire festival.
‘At least I’ll see him at dinner.’
At the thought of meeting grandfather again after so long, a careful smile bloomed on Tiel’s lips.
But the joy appeared to be Tiel’s alone.
“What? How annoying!”
Olivie cried out with her eyes narrowed, and Ludian agreed.
“I mean, sure, we’re not going anywhere until evening, but saying it like that makes it feel like we have to go out.”
Tiel listened quietly but held back what she wanted to say—that her brother simply didn’t want to listen to grandfather…….
“Fine, understood. You can go.”
In the midst of this chaos, only Ferdi maintained the dignity befitting an heir to the Asterian Ducal House. The maidservant bowed and scurried out of the room.
“Does grandfather have something to tell us?”
Tiel asked carefully.
Even without such a message from Alpheus, the children would naturally have gathered at the Asterian Mansion for dinner.
But the fact that he’d specifically sent word—”do not leave the mansion”—made it clear that Alpheus had something he wanted to tell them directly.
Ferdi seemed to have reached the same conclusion as Tiel, nodding as he stroked her head.
“Seems like it. Who does my little sister take after to be this clever?”
Tiel laughed brightly at Ferdi’s words. Ferdi continued stroking her, regarding Olivie and Ludian—still bickering nearby—with a glance tinged with mild contempt.
“Your brothers and sister, meanwhile, don’t seem to have matured a day.”
“…….”
Tiel wanted to make excuses for the two of them, but when she saw them now engaged in pillow-fighting like oxen, she closed her mouth.
It was a bit……, too vigorous to defend.
Ferdi seemed to find it somewhat harsh to let Tiel witness such a display, covering her eyes gently as he asked carefully.
“By the way, Tiel, we’re going to watch fireworks tomorrow. Would you like to go?”
“……Fireworks?”
Tiel blinked.
What were fireworks? Tiel naturally had never heard of fireworks, let alone seen them…….
Tiel furrowed her brow in thought for a moment, then carefully touched the tip of Ferdi’s finger with her fingertip.
“Firework……?”
“…….”
And then she gestured with a whoosh toward Ludian and Olivie, who were rolling about on the bed fighting.
“……display?”
Ferdi’s expression twisted in an instant.
Ferdi looked at his innocent young sister once, then at Ludian and Olivie—still not minding themselves—once more, picked up a doll lying nearby, and hurled it hard.
Thwack!
The doll struck Ludian’s face squarely.
“Stop it and sit down, unless you want to be left behind when Tiel and I go watch the fireworks.”
At those words, Olivie and Ludian, who had been fighting as if their lives depended on it, sobered up instantly. The two children approached Tiel with their eyes bright, as if they’d never been fighting at all.
“Tiel! You want to go watch the fireworks?”
“That’s great! Tiel’s never seen them before, right? This is your first festival this year anyway.”
“Um? But……, what are fireworks?”
Ferdi’s mouth, which had opened to explain what fireworks were to Tiel, opened and closed several times before shutting.
The memory of Tiel pointing to Ferdi’s fingertip and saying “firework,” then gesturing to the chaos behind her and saying “display,” struck him with poignant simplicity.
Ferdi fixed Ludian and Olivie with a glare, washed his face dry of expression, quickly regained his composure, and stroked Tiel’s head with a smile.
“Fireworks are when you shoot firecrackers up into the sky.”
“You shoot firecrackers up into the sky……? Why, why would you do such a thing?”
Tiel’s eyes widened.
Shooting firecrackers into the sky—why? Was it some sort of hunting method to kill all the birds flying through the air?
Seeing Tiel’s frightened expression, Ferdi sensed something had gone terribly wrong and stepped back with a laugh.
And then.
“Watch carefully, Tiel.”
Whoosh-!
A small Firework ignited at Ferdi’s fingertip. It was so small that even if sparks scattered, no one would be hurt.
Ferdi took Tiel’s hand and walked to the window, then opened it and shot the Firework upward.
The Firework launched toward the sky burst with a soft pop right where Tiel and Ferdi’s eyes met.
Beautiful sparks scattered down into the garden…….
“…….”
“……Huh?”
Tiel hung from the window sill, peering down at the garden below.
The sparks that had fallen from the Firework Ferdi had just shot were now in the garden, and the garden trees were catching fire.
Whoosh-!
“Oh my! I had no idea! Whatever is happening here!”
The gardener who had been trimming the garden trees nearby cried out in panic and hurried toward the well for water.
“…….”
“Um……, is this the fireworks?”
Tiel turned her eyes back and forth between the garden trees burning brightly below and the gardener running hastily.
Ferdi smiled wryly.
“Let’s close the window, Tiel.”
“…….”
“I think you can skip going to watch the fireworks, don’t you?”

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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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