Chapter: 9
Awakening
When Ijeten drew his sword, he only intended to threaten her.
To try and draw out Jucy’s supernatural ability.
But the moment he saw Jucy’s deep blue eyes, a rage he couldn’t explain boiled up inside him, and his ability surged forth.
*?!*
A red light suddenly erupted around Ijeten’s body and converged on his blade.
Startled, he tightened his grip on the sword, now wreathed in fierce, blazing flames.
It was a mistake.
But Jucy’s face had already turned deathly pale.
*What is that?!*
It all happened in an instant.
The Princess’s Palace was thrown into chaos.
The air filled with the horrified screams of not just the maids, but also the royal guards and attendants.
“Your- Your Highness!!!”
“Your Highness the Crown Prince, please calm down!”
“You mustn’t do this!”
“There will be trouble if His Majesty the Emperor finds out!”
It was utter pandemonium, chaos itself.
Ijeten was about to retract his ability, but he noticed a strange shift in the small white tiger’s demeanor and left it as it was.
*Oh?*
“…”
“…”
Amidst the clamor of people shouting for them to stop, begging for their understanding, only the two royals faced each other, locked in a tense standoff.
The tiger beastman Crown Prince, fully humanized and wielding a powerful supernatural ability, versus the White Tiger Princess, still the size of a one-month-old cub and seemingly helpless.
It was obvious that Jucy would be the one to get seriously hurt.
*-What do you think you can do, charging in like that? The right answer in this situation is to run away.*
Jucy recalled the warning Emperor Ritain had given her when they first met.
Right.
Now really might be the time to run.
But for some reason, Jucy couldn’t tear her eyes away from the flames blazing on Ijeten’s sword and the red light shimmering around him.
That was the power of the Penterin royal family, blessed by the Divine Beast Ganash.
A mysterious and powerful supernatural ability.
*Then, shouldn’t I have an ability too? What could it be?*
*The ability of the White Tiger Anash is…*
As she stared at the flames, mesmerized, the dream she had today suddenly came to mind.
A beautiful child.
A dark, evil thing.
And a giant white tiger.
*Snow falling on a summer mountain…*
“Your Highness!”
Jucy, who had been staring blankly at the flames, was startled into a sputtering cough when Sophie suddenly hugged her.
“Kyahang?”
Sophie threw herself over Jucy, enveloping her completely and curling into a ball on the floor.
“Aunt Sophie! What are you doing? Hah.”
Ijeten let out a short, hollow laugh at the head maid who was protecting Jucy.
But she couldn’t see anything.
To Jucy, wrapped in Sophie’s arms, his laughter was the sound of pure terror.
The crackling of the mystical flames on Ijeten’s sword was painfully clear.
Filled with the fear that he might harm Sophie, Jucy struggled to break free and protect her.
“Krahng, krahahang!!!”
“Your Highness! Shh, stay still! It’s okay.”
It was no use. She wasn’t strong enough to get away.
Sophie was desperately trying to protect the White Tiger Princess, holding her tight.
“Stay still. I will protect you.”
The slight tremor at the end of her firm words jolted Jucy to her senses.
This situation was real.
If she hesitated any longer, those terrifying flames of Ganash’s ability would engulf Sophie.
Most beastmen didn’t have supernatural abilities, and Sophie was one of them.
She had no way to fight back here.
Besides, she would never dare to fight back against Crown Prince Ijeten.
She would be helplessly scorched black by the fierce, terrifying flames.
*Protecting me!*
The thought of Sophie dying caused Jucy’s heart, which had remained unshaken until now, to churn violently, and tears welled in her eyes.
Sophie Langrasse, who had gone to great lengths to find her, left alone in a cold, small room, and cared for her so tenderly.
To Jucy, she was more than just a maid.
Her heart grew hot.
*Don’t take what’s precious to me. Don’t kill innocent people.*
*I will never again let ‘anyone’ die helplessly in front of me.*
Jucy was not in her right mind.
*Click.*
Something hot surged up from her chest as if a lock had been undone.
*No, no, no!*
“Khraaaaaaaang!”
Jucy shoved Sophie away with a strength unbelievable for her tiny frame.
Then, she let out a roar toward Ijeten.
It was the loudest, most ferocious sound the White Tiger Princess had ever made.
“!!!”
No sooner had the threatening roar echoed than a dazzling light burst from Jucy’s body.
“Your Highness!”
Someone urgently called out to the princess, but Jucy paid no mind, focusing all her rage solely on the red flames.
“Krahng!!!”
As the white tiger cub princess cried out, bluish flames erupted around her small body, surging powerfully.
*Supernatural ability!*
Ijeten’s golden eyes widened, and his lips parted slightly.
Jucy’s blue flames shot toward him and smothered the red flames blazing on his sword.
Not only that, but they also completely pushed away and extinguished the heat of the ability shimmering around Ijeten.
*Fwoosh.*
It all happened in an instant.
To so easily neutralize the Penterin Crown Prince’s ability.
“Gasp!”
“G-Good heavens!”
As the onlookers gasped in astonishment.
The blue flames, having absorbed Ijeten’s red ones, shot high up toward the ceiling.
Everyone squeezed their eyes shut, expecting the blue flames to pierce the ceiling and destroy the Princess’s Palace.
But the White Tiger Princess’s blue flames swirled gently above, gradually coalescing into a cloud of bright light.
And then…
“Snow?”
Sophie muttered in a dazed voice, looking up.
The cloud of pure white light began to sprinkle snow, which drifted down to the floor.
Slowly, quietly.
Sophie clasped her trembling hands and gazed at the back of the small white tiger cub, who stood before her like a little ball of white fur, as if to protect her.
She was not weak.
Jusielia had awakened her supernatural ability at the young age of less than a year old.
*Your Majesty, Empress Brianna, are you watching? The princess…!*
Sophie curled her hand, which had been resting on the floor, into a fist, barely holding back tears of overwhelming emotion.
How worried she had been about the princess who hardly seemed to grow.
Fearing she might truly die young like other white tigers, she hadn’t slept properly for months.
But it had been a needless worry.
To awaken such a beautiful and magnificent ability, not a ferocious flame of pure destruction!
Princess Jucy would surely become the treasure and hope of the Penterin imperial family, just as the oracle foretold.
Not only Sophie, but everyone around was speechless, completely captivated.
They had never seen such a peaceful and beautiful supernatural ability before.
The glittering snowflakes were beautiful, like the stars in the night sky crumbling into dust and falling.
A wondrous sight, unlike anything they had ever seen.
Just moments ago, they thought the Princess’s Palace would be engulfed in terrible flames.
But now, with dazzling snow falling, the place was nothing but peaceful and beautiful.
The princess had protected what was hers.
“Whoa.”
The first to break the silence was Ijeten.
“White tiger, you’re amazing, aren’t you? You really did fight back against your big brother, didn’t you?”
Ijeten sheathed his sword and strode toward the tiger cub, who was still glaring at him.
“Krahng!” (Stay back!)
Jucy bared her teeth once more at the approaching Ijeten.
Even though he hadn’t drawn his sword now, Ijeten was still a terrifying presence.
Wary of him getting close to her and Sophie, Jucy stepped forward to block his path.
Ijeten let out a laugh without realizing it.
Jucy growled as fiercely as she could, but when she opened her mouth, all he could see were tiny, round, white teeth, like grains of rice just starting to come in.
*Mother really did leave behind an adorable little sister.*
His heart ached.
Yes, she was the last trace of his mother.
Anyway.
*I’ve always found beastman cubs, whether in their true form or humanized, to be annoying and tiresome. Why is this one so cute?*
He especially detested tigers, whether they were beastman cubs or actual tiger cubs.
Since he was young, he had been annoyed by the tiger cubs who instinctively followed him, a powerful Golden Tiger, around.
Even though Ijeten, still in his young tiger form and unable to humanize, made it clear he disliked them, they would cluelessly cuddle up to him and pester him to play.
It infuriated him.
He couldn’t bring himself to kill them since Empress Brianna had brought them in to be his friends, so he had only ever chased them away.
In any case, it was a first.
Thinking a tiger cub was cute.
“Krahng!”
