The Countess Lives Twice in the Apocalypse-Chapter 33: Thirty-two

[Oh, no! A snow leopard is looking for her cubs! Help her to receive extra rewards!]

The pop up is right in her face so she could see what the system just said to her. Reading the text, a dark and unreadable expression emerged in her face.

Is the system seriously playing with her right now? It made her go through a painful experience of headache and continuous ringing in her ears, now it wants her to help a mother leopard to find her children?

It’s okay if it was a human mother because they would have been able to interrogate them, but a freaking leopard?!

Jannah could feel her blood boiling at the thought of the system making fun of her.

"Shit, why is there a leopard here?!"

Jannah snapped out of her boiling trance, blinking slowly as she look away from the system’s pop up, but when she tried, she felt her throat tightened followed by a stronger taste of metal.

Unable to hold back the urge to cough, she let it out— quite harshly so.

"Arthur, she coughed out blood!"

The man’s chest who is carrying her vibrated against her arm. The vibration had left her shaking because of his slight movement of alarming a fellow knight.

"No.." Jannah denied his claim, her voice is hoarse and throat itching, a telltale sign of another cough nearing the edge.

"Countess! Are you alright?"

She nodded her head, not looking at the person who asked her and instead, searched her surroundings where the leopard could be.

[The side mission (A leopard’s cubs) is now on going! Please, press here if the player wishes to see more details about the mission.]

As soon as she finished reading the text, she did not hesitate to raise her left arm to press the bright and shining text of here.

She may look like she was pointing at something in the sky— which made the other knights look up without hesitation— but knowing more about the mission is more important than her feeling like she made a fool out of herself.

[A leopard’s cubs:

A mother snow leopard have went down the mountains of Philipia because her cubs got abducted by a pack of hyenas.

Search the forest of Cristo for the baby leopards to earn the mother’s trust.

Rewards can be received according to the percentage of thorough completion!]

She scoffed, disbelief erupting from deep within her heart.

That’s it? Jannah stared with narrowed eyes at the text. No map, no direction, no more detailed description of what to do? How the hell am I supposed to know where those hyenas bought the cubs?!

The system have been testing her patience ever since it showed itself before her and she could feel it tethering further towards the edge as it continue to disappoint her.

"What should we do?! Leopards are not supposed to be far down here!"

Once again, she snapped out of her angry trance and looked at the source of the voice.

The leopard is in front of Dante, his sword is drawn from its sheath and is pointing towards the mother. She was growling and slowly marching forward, like how predators stalk their preys.

She wasted no time on shifting aggressively, struggling and grunting in protest on the man’s arms until she was carefully put down.

"Don’t fight her and put down your swords!" Jannah’s warning had alerted them.

The knights looked at her as if she have lost her mind. How could she tell them to not fight a predator who looked like it is ready to pounce any second now?

"Yes?!" However, startled by her yell, Dante unconsciously followed her words and dropped the sword between his feet, the blade creating a loud noise as it clatter against the ground.

Hearing the noise, the other knights whipped their head to look at him. Their eyes wide in shock, their form tense and rigid, raising their own swords and pointing it on the mother.

The leopard stopped her stalking almost immediately when she Dante have dropped his sword, turning her head to look at Jannah.

Seeing this, she raised her right hand and held it in front of her.

"Put down your weapons." Jannah warned them again, "Drop it or put it back to its sheath, just remove it from the leopard’s sight."

The knights reluctantly did as they were told, watching how the leopard stopped walking the moment Dante dropped his sword.

"It’s alright." The Countess assured the mother, wiping the blood off her chin as she slowly made her way towards the leopard.

"Countess!"

"It’s dangerous!"

The knights voiced out their concerns as she got nearer to the leopard.

She did not pay any attention to their warnings and continued to walk towards the mother leopard. The animal only watched her approach, her irises turning into slits as she lowered herself to the ground.

[The mother leopard have lowered her guard!]

Jannah got notified, making her glance towards the system for a moment. She read the message and felt herself relaxing before she turned back to the leopard.

"You looking for your cubs?" She felt like she is going crazy because of what she is doing, but a leopard is a intelligent creature.

To her surprise, the leopard let out a weak mewl, the sound the leopard had let out is similar to a whimper.

[Favorability feature unlocked.]

She perked up when the system’s notification sound went off in her head as the system appeared before her eyes. Slowly, it decreased in size and made its way to the leopard’s head.

It settled above the animal’s head and released the familiar sound.

[Favorability increased.]

She blinked, not expecting for the system to notify her about an animal having the ability to like her.

However, now that she knows that the mother have let her guard down. She shot a glance towards the knights who are looking at her with bewildered expressions on their faces.

"She’s looking for her cubs." She informed everyone around her, "We need to help her."

They exchanged looks, the bewildered expressions on their faces got replaced with an unreadable one. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"Fine, don’t help me then." She turned away from them, her hand reaching out to her side to touch her sword, only to realize that it’s not there anymore.

"Where’s my sword?" She looked back to the knights, her eyes narrowed at them, "My bow and arrows, too."

Her eyes snapped towards the Duke’s form when he stepped forward, her sword in his hand as he hold it up in the air. She inspected his body and saw that her bow is resting on his shoulder with her quivers on his hips.

"We’ll help." Duke Eulicies spoke on the behalf of his knights and approached her.

Before he could take another step closer to her, the leopard behind her stood up and let out a growl.

A warning to not get closer to her spot.

"Guess.. This is as far as I can go?" Duke Eulicies sounded unsure as he held out the sword to her direction, glancing at the leopard in a anxious manner.

Jannah stayed silent and grabbed the sword from his hand, tied it around her hip, settling it on her left side.

The leopard stood still, watching the exchange happen with slitted eyes.

The Duke untied the quiver from his hips and cautiously held it out to her. She grabbed the quiver in a hurry and placed it on the other side of her hips.

Next was the bow, he slipped it to his head and held it out to her.

"Alright." Jannah grabbed the bow from his grasp and pulled the string, testing its elasticity before she turned around to face the leopard, "I’m guessing that you don’t know where they took your cubs?"

The leopard’s ears perked up, twitching slightly as she tilt her head towards the Countess.

"Does anyone know how to track any animal in the woods?" Jannah called out over her shoulders, not breaking the eye contact with the leopard.

"I do." An unfamiliar voice answered.

"Name?" She didn’t ask anyone’s name in the get go, but she have their faces burned in her mind so she could put a name in each knight’s faces.

"Alejandro, Countess." The knight took a step forward, cautious and slow as he kept his eyes on the leopard.

"Alright, Alejandro." Jannah broke the eye contact with the leopard and looked at the cautious man, "We’re looking for her babies, I have a feeling that a pack of hyenas took them."

Well, I didn’t feel anything except for the damn pain in my head when I received this side mission thing from the system. Jannah mused to herself as she lied through her teeth, nodding her head towards him.

I can’t tell that to anyone though, they might think I’m using witchcraft. She grimaced at the thought of being labeled as a witch and getting blamed for the outbreak— that is, if she’s unlucky.

"I haven’t tracked any leopard before." Alejandro confessed with a troubled expression, "I’m not confident enough to be able to track the cubs, but I could try."

"Then you will try." Jannah encouraged him, "It’s better than nothing."