The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 80

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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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Episode 80
“What, what is it?”
“What is this!?”
“What!!”
People cried out. The Square descended into chaos in seconds. Ferdi and Ludian reflexively pulled Tiel into their embrace.
An impossibly thick plume of smoke erupted from the center of the Square, engulfing the empire’s citizens in an instant, then sweeping over Tiel, Ferdi, Ludian, and Cassius alike.
The Asterian knights raised their guard. All eyes turned toward the heart of the Square where the smoke had begun.
That was where the Heads of the Five Houses stood, along with the Emperor and the Crown Prince.
‘Grandfather! Iandros!’
Tiel refused to yield to the smoke, her eyes wide as she struggled to find familiar silhouettes within it.
But the smoke was so dense, refusing to release what it had swallowed, that Tiel coughed and forced her eyes open and shut repeatedly.
And not long after,
the smoke cleared.
“……What is that?”
“This is, this is insane…….”
The empire’s citizens gasped in unison at the sight that emerged from the smoke.
The Heads of the Five Houses stood bewildered, their gazes fixed on the center of the Square, and at the point where their sight converged…….
‘……Iandros?’
Iandros Crasion.
The Crown Prince of this empire held his right hand outstretched, his Ability activated, his gaze sweeping clearly across the citizens.
Where Iandros’s Pocket Dimension had always opened in bright white, large and round, it now churned with an ominous, pitch-black hue.
Iandros swept his hand once.
“!”
A black trajectory carved through the air, and the Pocket Dimension tore open wider still, objects scattered across the Square beginning to be sucked inside one after another.
The Emperor, watching Iandros, turned ashen, his voice trembling as he shouted to the Imperial Palace knights.
“Evacuate everyone, now! Everyone!”
Alpheus’s face had gone just as pale. He and Cassius turned toward the Asterian knights, issuing orders.
“Half of you help the citizens evacuate. The other half, escort the children. We must return at once.”
With the Emperor and the Head of the Asterian Family both calling for evacuation, terrified citizens became tangled as they scrambled in disorder to flee the Square.
“Don’t push! Don’t push!”
“What is that! Wasn’t that just the Crown Prince!?”
“It was the Crown Prince! But what is happening!?”
People tumbled over one another. The knights from each House helped the citizens maintain order as they fled.
Ferdi lifted Tiel into his arms, while Cassius and Alpheus turned to leave, with Ludian following behind.
For reasons none could fathom, they were all fleeing from Iandros…….
“Wait, wait just a moment!”
Tiel cried out in alarm, calling Alpheus and Cassius to a stop. The two, walking hurriedly, turned back to look at her.
“Tiel, there’s no time for explanations now. We must leave this place at once.”
“But, but Iandros is using his Ability?”
“That’s not……it’s not that he’s using his Ability. The Ability has consumed him.”
Cassius spoke calmly. Tiel’s eyes widened to their utmost.
“Consumed? Him?”
“Yes. Which is why we must leave this place first. We cannot harm the Crown Prince’s body, after all.”
Consumed by the Ability?
The words made no sense to Tiel whatsoever.
Tiel glanced back at Iandros. Everyone who had been near him had long since evacuated, so no one remained at his side.
Iandros himself simply stood, showing no sign of pursuing those fleeing, methodically absorbing everything in the Square into his Pocket Dimension.
And then, a sudden doubt flickered through her mind.
‘If I leave, what then?’
If I leave, will Iandros be left there alone like that?
It was a wholly unexpected question. It made no sense to dwell on it—not for someone who was consuming everything indiscriminately with a runaway Ability.
And yet, Tiel had come to care for Iandros, despite his youth and his somewhat foolish, gentle nature…….
Tiel struggled.
“What? Tiel, Tiel! Let go!”
“Oof, wait!”
Ferdi, unable to maintain a firm grip on his small sister’s waist, ultimately lost her.
Tiel tumbled to the ground, spinning to face Ferdi, Ludian, Alpheus, and Cassius.
“If I leave, Iandros will be all alone.”
“……Tiel? No, no, this isn’t something you can solve with your strength. This is different from what happened with Ferdi.”
“When I was alone, Iandros saved me…….”
Tiel folded down one finger.
“When I was running, he hid me.”
She folded down a second.
“He brought me to the Asterian Family.”
She folded down a third.
“At the Temple, when I was in trouble, he helped me…….”
The child laughed clearly.
For a seven-year-old, it was a smile of remarkable resolve and dignity.
“So I think I should help Iandros once, too…….”
It wasn’t faith in the Ability.
It wasn’t the certainty that she could calm Iandros the way she had calmed Ferdi’s rampage.
Back then, she had been certain she could stop Ferdi, and she had heard a gentle voice whispering at her ear, which is why she had rushed in.
But now there was no certainty that she could stop him, no tender whisper in her ear. Yet…….
“He won’t hurt me.”
Iandros would never hurt me.
No matter what happens, he would never harm me. He would protect me instead.
That much was certain.
The certainty that Iandros, no matter the circumstances, would never do anything to bring her harm.
“Tiel! That’s foolish!”
Ferdi reached toward Tiel, but it was already too late.
Tiel dashed swiftly toward Iandros.
“No! Stop her!”
At Alpheus’s cry of alarm, Cassius bolted forward, but it was already too late.
He could not catch up to Tiel, who had already surged far ahead. Her small form grew distant. Grew distant, and…….
“Iandros!”
Tiel leaped and reached out her hand toward him. Iandros turned to look at the small girl. Her white hair gleamed in the sunlight like opal.
Crrrrrrack-!!!
Iandros’s enormous Pocket Dimension tore and split wider, its maw opening to a terrible breadth.
It resembled the gaping mouth of a serpent, opened to its limit to swallow its prey.
“Tiel!”
Cassius called out to his daughter.
But Tiel did not turn back.
Before the serpent’s jaw of a Pocket Dimension, wide open to the brink, Iandros—standing as though he too would be swept inside at any moment—turned an expression of shock toward Tiel.
And those watching were no less astonished than he was.
“What, what, what are you…….”
The Emperor, Wilhelm, stammered in disbelief, his words breaking as he gazed upon the shocking sight.
That girl had manifested the Light Ability and was the empire’s sole hope.
She was also the granddaughter of an old friend, the precious child the Asterian Family had finally recovered after seven long years…….
And yet…….
To let her die like this. Wilhelm instinctively turned to look at Alpheus—as if demanding why he had not properly stopped his granddaughter.
But Alpheus too stood blank, staring vacantly at the small child, so Wilhelm found himself unable to even shout at him.
In truth, if one were to assign blame for failing to properly supervise the child, it lay not with Alpheus, but…….
“No…….”
Wilhelm gazed at Iandros and Tiel, his mouth opening.
Wilhelm was Iandros’s father and one of the few who knew exactly what end his son had met.
Because of that, he could neither rush to stop him nor stand by watching.
Though shouts of warning rang out from all sides, the small girl showed no fear and rushed toward Iandros.
“Iandros!”
Tiel called his name, leaping forward to throw herself into his arms.
“……!”
In that same instant, Iandros’s body tilted and slowly tumbled into the Pocket Dimension.
The small girl’s body followed.
The small child, clinging tightly to Iandros so as not to lose him, chose to throw herself into the Pocket Dimension together with him.
And then,
Thud,
…….
The Pocket Dimension closed.
The empire’s citizens, who had been fleeing in panic, came to a sudden, deathly silence as they stared at the Square.
The center of the Square, where a tempest had raged mere moments before.
Now there,
no one remained.

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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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