The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family

Episode 80

“What’s going on?”

“What the heck is that!?”

“Something’s happening!!”

The crowd erupted into chaos as shouts and screams filled the square. Perdi and Lucian instinctively pulled Thiel into their arms, shielding her.

Thick, ominous smoke billowed out from the center of the square, spreading rapidly and enveloping the crowd. Soon, it reached Thiel, Perdi, Lucian, and even Cassius and Alpheus.

The Asterian knights moved into defensive positions, their eyes fixed on the source of the smoke—the center of the square, where the heads of the five great houses, the Emperor, and the Crown Prince had been gathered.

‘Grandfather! Ian!’

Thiel squinted her eyes against the thick smoke, desperately trying to make out familiar figures amidst the haze.

But the smoke was so dense, it swallowed everything without revealing what it had consumed. Thiel coughed and blinked rapidly, forced to close her eyes momentarily.

Not long after, the smoke began to clear.

“What… what is that?”

“No way… this is insane…”

Gasps of shock rippled through the crowd as they saw what had emerged from the dissipating smoke.

The heads of the five great houses were standing, looking toward the center of the square with troubled expressions. At the center of their gaze was…

‘Ian?’

Iandros Krasion, the Crown Prince of the empire, stood with his right hand stretched outward, his ability in full display. He looked directly at the people of the empire.

Ian’s usual bright and pristine spatial dimension, always a glowing white sphere, was now pitch-black, ominous, and sinister.

Ian waved his hand once.

“!”

A dark rift slashed through the air, and the open space began sucking in objects from all over the square.

The Emperor, pale as a sheet, looked horrified as he yelled at the imperial knights.

“Evacuate everyone immediately! Hurry!”

Alpheus was no less pale. He and Cassius turned to the Asterian knights and gave swift orders.

“Half of you, help evacuate the citizens. The other half, escort the children. We’re leaving immediately.”

With both the Emperor and the Asterian Duke calling for evacuation, the terrified crowd became a disordered mass of people trying to flee the square.

“Don’t push!”

“Wasn’t that the Crown Prince just now!?”

“It was His Highness! But what’s happening!?”

Citizens stumbled and fell in the panic, while knights from each house tried to maintain order and guide them to safety.

Perdi picked Thiel up, holding her securely, while Cassius and Alpheus led the group forward, with Lucian following closely behind.

For some reason, everyone seemed to be fleeing from Ian.

“W-wait!”

Thiel suddenly called out, stopping Alpheus and Cassius in their tracks. Both men turned back to look at her.

“Thiel, we don’t have time to explain. We need to leave now.”

“Huh? But Ian… Ian is using his ability!”

“That’s not him using his ability,” Cassius said calmly. “His ability is consuming him.”

Thiel’s eyes widened to their limit.

“C-consuming him?”

“Yes. That’s why we need to leave. We can’t harm His Highness, so the only option is to retreat.”

‘Consumed by his ability?’

Thiel couldn’t wrap her head around it. She glanced toward Ian. Everyone near him had already fled, leaving him completely alone.

Ian made no move to pursue the fleeing crowd, instead continuing to absorb everything in the square into the dark void of his spatial dimension.

Then, a thought struck her.

‘If I leave… will he be all alone?’

It was an absurd thought. Who would consider such a thing about someone causing chaos with an uncontrollable ability?

And yet, Thiel couldn’t help herself. Ian had always been kind to her in his own awkward, slightly foolish way.

Thiel began squirming.

“Thiel? Thiel! Stop struggling!”

“Wait a second!”

Caught off guard, Perdi failed to maintain his grip, and Thiel slipped out of his arms.

Landing lightly on the ground, Thiel turned to face Perdi, Lucian, Alpheus, and Cassius.

“If I leave, Ian will have to be there all by himself.”

“Thiel… No. This is beyond what you can do. This isn’t like with Perdi,” Lucian pleaded.

“When I was all alone, Ian helped me…”

Thiel raised one finger.

“He hid me when I was running away.”

She folded down another finger.

“He brought me safely to Asterian.”

Another finger.

“And at the temple, he made sure I wouldn’t get into trouble…”

Thiel smiled brightly—a resolute and mature expression far beyond her seven years.

“That’s why I think I should help Ian at least once.”

It wasn’t about trusting in her ability.

This wasn’t like with Perdi, when she had been certain she could calm him. Nor was there a gentle voice whispering encouragement in her ear this time.

But even without certainty or whispers, Thiel moved forward… simply because.

“I won’t be harmed.”

Ian won’t hurt me.

No matter what happens, he will protect me.

This wasn’t a mere hope—it was certainty.

Ian would never do anything to harm me.

“Thiel! That’s reckless!”

Perdi reached out to grab her, but it was too late.

Thiel was already sprinting toward Ian.

“No! Stop her!”

Alpheus’s shout was almost a scream as Cassius dashed forward, but even he was too late.

They couldn’t catch up to Thiel, who was already far ahead. Her small figure grew smaller in the distance. And then…

“Ian!”

Thiel leapt forward, reaching out her hand toward Ian. He turned to look at her, his gaze meeting the small girl with hair shining like opals under the sunlight.

‘Rumble!’

The enormous rift of Ian’s spatial dimension growled, tearing further open with a deafening noise.

It was like the gaping maw of a serpent, stretched to its limit as if to devour its prey.

“Thiel!”

Cassius’s voice rang out as he called for his daughter.

But Thiel didn’t look back.

Ian, who stood at the edge of the gaping dimension, looked utterly stunned as he saw the small girl racing toward him. He seemed as though he might be swallowed at any moment.

And he wasn’t the only one frozen in shock.

“W-what is she doing…?”

Even Wilhelm, the Emperor, stammered as he stared in disbelief.

That child was the manifestation of the light’s ability, the only hope of the Krasion Empire.

She was also the granddaughter of his old friend and a child the Asterian family had finally reclaimed after seven years of searching.

And yet…

He couldn’t allow her to die like this.

Wilhelm instinctively turned to Alpheus, his expression demanding an answer. Why hadn’t he stopped her?

But even Alpheus, who usually never wavered, could only stand there, staring blankly at the small girl. Wilhelm couldn’t bring himself to berate him.

If blame were to be assigned, it wasn’t Alpheus who had failed to manage the situation…

“No….”

Wilhelm’s voice cracked as he turned his gaze back to Ian and Thiel.

Wilhelm was one of the few who knew the exact fate that had befallen Ian’s parents—his own son and daughter-in-law.

It left him frozen, unable to interfere or even observe passively.

Amid shouts from every direction warning people to stay away, the small girl moved forward, seemingly unafraid, and threw herself toward Ian.

“Ian!”

Thiel cried his name as she leapt into his arms.

“…!”

Ian staggered, his body tilting dangerously, and began to fall into the black void of the rift.

Thiel, her tiny form clinging tightly to Ian, refused to let go.

And together, the two were pulled into the gaping maw of the dimension.

Then, with a resounding ’thud,’

…the rift closed.

The imperial citizens, who had been fleeing in panic, fell silent as they turned to the square.

The central square, which had been engulfed in chaos and winds moments ago, was now eerily quiet.

In the center,

there was no one.