The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 81

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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 81
“Oh no!”
Tiel clung to Ian with both arms, her eyes squeezed shut. She felt an immense force pulling at her and Ian endlessly downward.
Terrified of losing him, she tightened her grip, her hands pressing hard against his back.
‘I won’t let go.’
She couldn’t let go. It was clear that Ian had no idea what state he was in right now.
So she had to show him.
Then.
Thump!
“Ahhhhh—!!”
Their falling bodies struck something and tumbled across the ground.
But Tiel remained cradled in Ian’s arms, and he shielded the back of her head with his hand, so neither was hurt.
“Ugh… ugh.”
After the impact of tumbling, Tiel blinked her eyes open, then noticed Ian lying motionless and pressed urgently on his abdomen.
“Ian!”
“…”
But Ian remained unconscious, perfectly still.
After trying to wake him several more times, Tiel gave up and looked around to see where they were.
So this was…
“…”
Where was this place?
The girl sprang to her feet and examined their surroundings with utmost care.
This was a Reception Room inside a Mansion. Whether it reflected the owner’s taste or not, it was sparse and austere for its size, lacking ornament.
Tiel reached out to touch a Vase nearby.
Since this was Ian’s Subspace, she was curious whether things would vanish when touched, just like the last time she entered his Subspace.
But.
Tap.
‘It didn’t disappear…’
Ian’s Subspace was made of things that disappeared when touched, yet strangely, nothing in this Reception Room vanished when she touched it.
Just then.
“Please return, Your Majesty.”
An unfamiliar voice made Tiel snap her head around.
The owner of the voice sat at a table in the center of the Reception Room, gazing quietly ahead.
He was a man Tiel didn’t know.
Yet despite this.
“…For some reason, he doesn’t feel like a stranger.”
Brilliant golden hair, and emerald eyes that rolled beneath his lashes each time he blinked.
It was then that Tiel realized whom the man resembled.
‘Oh, he looks like Ian.’
Not just a passing resemblance—he could have been his exact copy.
The man spoke again, as if unaware of Tiel’s presence. It seemed he couldn’t see Tiel or Ian.
“Ian cannot be allowed.”
“Don’t be foolish. You, who have read every record in the Imperial Palace Archive, say such a thing?”
At that moment, another man appeared across from the first. Tiel’s eyes widened as she looked at him.
This time, she recognized him!
‘It’s His Majesty the Emperor!’
Though he appeared younger than now, it was unmistakably Emperor Wilhelm.
What on earth was happening? Tiel glanced at the unconscious Ian.
If only Ian would wake up, she might find some way to break free from this situation…
Ian showed no sign of waking, and since the two men seemed unable to see her, all Tiel could do was stand quietly and observe them.
“I have read it all.”
“…”
“My conviction remains unchanged.”
The man spoke gently with a faint smile, while the Emperor’s face cycled between ashen and flushed with rage.
He looked ready to burst at any moment.
After a brief silence, the Emperor rose abruptly from his seat. Without another word, he strode toward the exit with long strides.
“Take care of yourself, Father.”
“…Tch!”
The Emperor left the Reception Room, and the man brought a Teacup to his lips.
Tiel watched quietly as the man drank his tea.
The way he gently swirled the cup before lifting it slowly to his lips—even this resembled Ian in an astonishing degree.
‘Could he be Ian’s father?’
Tiel wished Ian would wake up. If he could see this, wouldn’t he be pleased? To see his departed father’s form… perhaps…
Then the Reception Room twisted grotesquely.
The man who had been drinking tea vanished without a trace, leaving only the cup behind, its contents spilled across the floor as it rolled.
The walls crumpled, the floor heaved. Space contorted, and everything blurred before her eyes.
“Ah—!”
Tiel rushed over and pulled Ian close, hugging him tightly. If they were separated now, all would be lost.
Then everything flipped again, and this time they found themselves at the entrance of a Mansion.
A grand Mansion entrance. A place she had never seen before.
Tiel released her grip on Ian and carefully raised herself to look around, tilting her head in confusion once more.
‘Why does this place feel familiar too…?’
If that man had seemed familiar, this space gave her the feeling she had been here before.
Just as she was about to sit up for a better look.
“No—!!!!”
A piercing cry tore through the air from somewhere.
Tiel startled and quickly covered Ian’s ears, then turned to look at whoever had screamed.
The person screaming was… an extraordinarily beautiful woman.
A woman with soft, striking eyes who would normally speak in a gentle, tender voice.
Yet now she stood at the Mansion’s entrance, crying out.
Tears streamed ceaselessly down her cheeks.
With a resolute expression, her eyes blazed as she glared outward beyond the Mansion.
“No, absolutely not. I cannot allow this.”
The woman’s words broke apart intermittently, so Tiel couldn’t hear them fully through to the end.
‘But I understand she is fighting to protect something.’
The woman was defending what lay within the Mansion against whatever was outside it. Desperately.
Tiel was bewildered.
What kind of place was this?
If that man was Ian’s father, then… could this woman be Ian’s mother?
‘Ian.’
Where on earth have you brought me?
Tiel gripped Ian’s hand tightly as she gazed at the woman’s face, tears streaming down her cheeks.
The woman’s face kept blurring as if veiled in mist, then becoming clear again, making it difficult to focus properly.
After standing there blocking the way for some time, the woman seemed startled by a sound from behind and turned her head.
She hastily wiped her tears with her sleeve, then rushed over and crouched down, as if tending to someone’s tears.
From the height of the woman’s bent waist and raised arms, the child seemed to be around Tiel’s height or perhaps slightly taller.
“Don’t cry, it’s all right. Mother is here…”
The woman spoke softly, as if whispering.
Her voice was small as a forest bird, yet infinitely tender… and Tiel thought she sounded like she was singing a lullaby.
“We cannot have another child, Your Majesty.”
The woman continued, her hand moving as if caressing the child’s cheek, speaking in hushed tones.
“So we have chosen to do what is best…”
Soon after, the man Tiel had seen before also appeared.
He stood beside the woman and carefully embraced her slender, delicate shoulders.
Tiel thought their faces looked terribly sad.
Profoundly, deeply sad.
It seemed the kind of sadness that would haunt Tiel’s sleep afterward, weighing on her heart.
Yet the man and woman, as if seeing nothing else, gently held each other and looked toward the Mansion’s entrance.
Who was standing at the entrance?
Tiel turned to follow their gaze toward the Mansion’s entrance, but she saw nothing there.
Then.
BOOM—!!!
A tremendous explosion erupted, and Black Smoke engulfed the Mansion.
‘Ah, that familiar smoke.’
The same smoke Ian had unleashed at the Plaza… The moment Tiel realized this, she quickly turned her head to look behind the woman.
The child whose tears she had been wiping just moments before.
The child she had whispered to, telling them not to cry… Could it be…!
Then a massive Subspace tore open space itself and appeared.
Rather than a Subspace, it looked like a black hole swallowing everything.
The Mansion shattered, and everything inside was pulled into the Subspace.
The man and woman stood precariously before that Subspace.
The Subspace did not pull them in.
But…
“Goodbye, my little one.”
The woman smiled brightly and stepped forward.
Tiel’s hand shot out reflexively to grab them, but it passed right through.
The two of them,
vanished into the Subspace.

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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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