Black Killer Whale Baby - Chapter 108

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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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Chapter 108
“An honorable duel, you say? It seems I’ve made quite a grave misunderstanding! If you were truly innocent, there would be no poison seeping from your body. And there would be no wounds on your back, correct?”
The Funeral Hall fell silent, as if saturated with ink.
I heard Agenor’s soft chuckle from beside me.
Ah, so that’s why he went to that building that day, I heard his whispered voice echo once more.
“Stone, you always bring such entertaining topics.”
“If I’ve brought joy to you, Matriarch, then I’m delighted.”
The Orca Family Matriarch laughed softly and pulled gloves from her pocket, slipping them onto her hands.
“It’s been twenty years since I last examined a corpse.”
“M-Mother!”
“You will remain silent. I did not grant you permission to speak, Rodesen.”
The Orca Family Matriarch spoke without looking at Baian, her gaze fixed elsewhere.
The result came swiftly.
The Orca Family Matriarch examined Baian’s back.
“There are wounds on his back.”
Of course there were.
Lilibell had chased after the fleeing Baian and dealt with him, after all.
‘I understand why she made sure to finish Baian completely, actually.’
As I’ve said many times, he was someone who deserved death anyway.
And from Lilibell’s perspective, there would have been no benefit to keeping him alive.
Baian would have surrendered the moment he realized he was weaker during the duel.
Yet Lilibell chased him down and killed him regardless.
“M-Mother, I can explain everything…!”
In my opinion, Rodesen is the most troublesome one in that family.
‘No matter how exposed we are, I need to keep my mouth shut here.’
Rodesen’s outburst had shattered the tense silence with shock.
‘If I hadn’t raised doubts, the Matriarch would never have examined Baian’s back.’
She wouldn’t have seen any need to check.
And this place would have become Lilibell’s glorious debut stage.
Lilibell would have caught the Matriarch’s eye.
‘I’m sorry, Lilibell. I never intended to let your wings unfold from the start.’
The Orca Family Matriarch’s silence wasn’t born from bewilderment.
It was an expression of rage.
“My, my. How many lies are there? First, it wasn’t a suicide.”
“…”
“Second, it wasn’t a fair and honorable duel?”
There was one reason I spoke aloud as if making sure she heard everything.
That tyrant of a matriarch absolutely despises lies.
“Lilibell Aquasiadel.”
The Orca Family Matriarch finally opened her mouth.
Lilibell flinched.
Lilibell possessed prodigious power and intellect to match, but.
She still lacked the capacity to withstand the Matriarch’s fury head-on.
“You dare make a fool of me with such antics?”
A low rumble echoed through the chamber.
I watched a gossamer-thin barrier of water materialize above me.
Father’s power.
I gazed at the trembling ceiling and spoke.
“Grandmother’s just pretending to be angry, isn’t she?”
“Indeed.”
Father’s expression asked how I knew, so I smiled knowingly.
“If Grandmother were truly enraged, would she still be alive?”
….
“It seems Grandmother was impressed by Lilibell’s power alone.”
But deceiving her while holding an honorable funeral—that was unforgivable, naturally.
“Matriarch…!”
Someone wrapped their arms around Lilibell’s shoulders as a thick, deep blue torrent of water surged forth.
Someone daring enough to withstand the Matriarch’s power.
None other than Hailar Ruzel.
“I sincerely apologize, truly I do!”
Her typically narrow eyes opened slightly as she bowed deeply.
“This is entirely my oversight. I never imagined matters would unfold this way. I swear, we harbored no intention whatsoever of deceiving you, Matriarch.”
She meant to say they planned to reveal everything.
“We intended to disclose all truths at this very gathering!”
“Disclose the truth? The fact that you deceived me?”
“How could that be? Matriarch, is an honorable duel merely a battle over the successor’s seat? Permit me to say, the battle my daughter Lilibell undertook was the elimination of one who brought shame upon orca honor!”
I stopped holding back my laughter and let out a slight gasp of admiration.
“Baian Aquasiadel. Shamefully, the son I loved dearly spent the last five years secretly bringing young beastkin children here to torment and kill them repeatedly!”
Wow, she’s really throwing him under the water like that?
Baian Aquasiadel was thoroughly abandoned so the rest could survive.
But Hailar’s quick thinking didn’t end there.
“Aquin Nevera!”
Someone was forcibly dragged forward from among the uncle’s faction.
The patriarch of Nebera, a cadet branch of the orca families.
“The one who secretly kidnapped weak beastkin children and delivered them to my son. Nebera! You haven’t forgotten your promise to speak the truth for your children’s sake, have you? Fulfill your oath and confess everything before the Matriarch!”
“I, I, I…! Lady Hailar, I!”
“Silence and speak the truth!”
Unable to withstand Hailar’s chilling aura and the cascading force of water, the patriarch of Nebera began stammering his confession.
His face had gone deathly pale, sweat pouring down—the visage of one who glimpsed death.
“Y-yes, that’s right…. I delivered beastkin children to Lord Baian, three-year-olds…. Even knowing what would happen…!”
It was a classic case of scapegoating. I clicked my tongue in disapproval.
“You’ve already confessed to me that you were the one who killed Lord Baian.”
“Y-yes, that’s correct.”
“After Lilibell’s victory, you feared that your cooperation with Lord Baian would become a grave problem, so you stabbed him in the back and attacked him multiple times before killing him. Then, after being attacked, you confessed everything to me. Is this also true?”
“Yes, yes…! Lady Lilibell knew everything and challenged him to a just duel, but… Lord Baian was defeated, and I was gravely wounded, and I, I stabbed that man who fled….”
The head of the Nebera family squeezed her eyes shut.
“I stabbed him.”
The way she spat out those words made it clear this hadn’t been prearranged at all.
‘She must have already secured leverage over her.’
Before the head of the Nebera family could finish her stammering words, the Matriarch stepped forward again.
“This tragic misfortune… my daughter tried to confess everything, but being still inexperienced, her words were not well-ordered.”
Heila took a deep breath. Her expression was clear and resolute.
“That we failed to reveal the truth from the beginning and held this funeral in such a manner was wrong a hundred, a thousand times over. However, dealing with those who harmed the beastkin children—the very driving force of this family—was something that had to be done.”
She spoke with such compelling conviction that even one defending themselves wouldn’t sound so persuasive.
“Therefore, this funeral was intended to publicize an honorable deed, not to elevate the honor of the deceased!”
Her voice was persuasive, tinged with tears yet strong and forceful.
‘Ah. The Matriarch really is talented. If I just had one more person like her….’
I could have ascended to the position of Matriarch more easily in the third cycle. Even now, for that matter.
“…Would it have felt like this if Mother had been alive?”
The words I muttered under my breath were meaningless.
Heila was around the same age as my mother. If Mother had been alive, I wished she would have felt like this.
“….”
I turned my head at the piercing gaze, and Father was staring straight at me.
I blinked my eyes, feeling oddly guilty.
“Why, why… are you looking at me like that?”
“…I’ll try to become a father like your mother.”
“No, no. You don’t need to make that effort!”
Besides, what kind of father is a mother-like father anyway?!
‘I can’t even imagine it.’
In the meantime, Heila’s argument had concluded.
Now only the verdict remained.
“What do you predict will happen?”
“What? Oh, that? How would I know.”
I turned my head indifferently to look at Heila and the Orca Family Matriarch.
“They’ll hand down a light punishment and move on. From Grandmother’s perspective, another genius has just appeared.”
“….”
I answered while rubbing my chin.
“How thrilled must she be at the prospect of a good fight?”
Only the strong survive to become Matriarch. The stronger the successors that emerge, the better.
Moreover, the genius that has emerged at this moment is the granddaughter that Grandmother has always desired.
“Your mother doesn’t seem to concern herself with the rumors surrounding you.”
“Yeah, that’s how it appeared, isn’t it? Well, if the Matriarch couldn’t discern such baseless gossip, she wouldn’t deserve her position.”
There’s no satisfaction in winning against someone like that.
“Calypso, the Matriarch selected the Eight Families far more carefully than one might think.”
I recalled what Illia had said.
The Eight Families—those who promised tremendous merit in my grandmother’s selection of a successor.
…That a herring beastkin existed within those families was truly astonishing.
“Given her temperament, it’s remarkably surprising indeed.”
It contradicted the survival of the fittest doctrine my grandmother championed.
I couldn’t fathom what she was thinking in this regard alone.
Shortly after, as expected.
My grandmother did not severely punish Lirivel.
Instead, she appeared to feign anger at what Baian had done.
Acknowledging the crime of cruelly—and repeatedly—killing the beastkin child who would become a future laborer.
This funeral became another execution ground for the dead Baian.
Since he wouldn’t even be properly buried, another death wouldn’t be out of place.
The funeral ended without ever becoming a funeral.
I smirked slightly as I watched the pensive Lirivel.

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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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