Black Killer Whale Baby - Chapter 140

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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 140
Just as political issues on Earth are buried beneath sensational entertainment news.
I would trigger one massive incident, then another in succession, burying both the movement of precious materials and Tus’s quiet absence.
Then I could take only what I wanted.
“….”
When I laid out all my future plans to the Orca Family Matriarch.
She stared at me without answering.
“…Whose idea is this, exactly?”
The Matriarch’s deep blue eyes gleamed darkly.
“Is it perhaps the opinion of my son standing beside you?”
“No.”
“Then….”
“Don’t you think it’s my opinion?”
“….”
“It’s my idea.”
I met her gaze without fear.
“Don’t you like it?”
There’s no way she wouldn’t like it.
If the plan works out, she’d get everything without lifting a finger. Isn’t that right?
“Stone child, your proposal is truly fascinating, yet… it feels like I’m speaking with someone who’s observed the conflict between land and sea for some thirty years. Not a young boy like you.”
“….”
Of course. If I count just the time I’ve been watching this conflict, it’s over fifty years.
Longer than your prime, grandmother. Did you know that?
I smiled crookedly on the inside, careful not to show it on my face.
“If this pleases you.”
I spoke without waiting for her answer.
“When I return, treat me accordingly.”
Truth be told, I hadn’t really expected much.
I just hoped she’d silently permit my journey to the City of Dragons.
I rose from my seat and bowed respectfully.
“Very well.”
When I turned my head, I saw the Matriarch’s face watching me with interest.
Overlapping that image was the one of her coldly abandoning me.
“Grandmother, please, Matriarch please! Don’t send me away. Let me prove my usefulness too!”
“….”
“Please…!!”
This hadn’t happened before, but now these memories overlapped more frequently.
‘Is it because of Atlant?’
Ever since I learned that Atlant remembered the previous cycle, I found myself dwelling on the past more often, seeing these overlapping images.
Not just the third cycle, but memories from even earlier cycles when I was driven away so cruelly surfaced naturally.
“If you truly become a stone.”
“….”
“Then you’ll have earned the right to have me call your name.”
I blinked several times before letting out a small laugh.
“Thank you.”
While inwardly scoffing.
“You won’t regret it.”
I don’t need your approval.
You’ll remain there as you are now, content and oblivious.
“I’m scared, please, I’m scared, someone help….”
After my first death, I clawed my way back up, seething with malice.
You will be dragged down in a moment of carelessness.
By my hand.
I laughed clearly.
“Thank you for your permission.”
* * *
When I left the Matriarch’s Study, I felt half relieved.
‘Good, I have her permission.’
I walked alone through the Corridor.
Father had said he’d meet someone and asked me to meet him in front of the Manor.
He coolly said I could head back first if I didn’t want to wait.
It was unusual—he rarely met with people, and his subordinates didn’t often see him either.
‘Is he going to see Rayla?’
The Main Residence wasn’t far from the Educational Institution. But even thinking that, it seemed odd.
‘Well, Father must have his reasons.’
It had been a long time since I walked this Corridor alone.
When I reached the end of the Corridor, intending to wait for Father first.
“There you are.”
I turned at the familiar voice. I had sensed his presence, but I didn’t expect him to actually speak to me.
Standing there was a young man who had grown tall—no, Bellus, who had just come of age.
“Eldest Brother?”
“You still call me that.”
Bellus, now of age, still maintained hair that fell to his shoulders like when he was younger.
His face, visible between the gently swaying strands, was beautiful like a finely crafted sculpture.
His appearance suited the word “beautiful” more than “handsome.”
Though the cold aura and rough expression remained unchanged.
“Normally, greetings come first, don’t they?”
At his calm voice, I shrugged my shoulders.
“That’s only when we’re the kind of people who exchange greetings.”
I replied just as calmly and waved my hand without sincerity.
“Come on, say hello.”
“….”
Bellus, who had been staring at me intently, wore an expression of disbelief before breaking into a soft chuckle.
“Five years have passed, yet you remain utterly unchanged.”
“People don’t transform that easily.”
Bellus was the first among his brothers to graduate from the Educational Institution.
Though graduation proved far more difficult than admission at that institution, Bellus had dispatched it with ease, as if the challenge were trivial.
‘As a leading candidate for succession, it’s only natural.’
I thought that if he couldn’t manage even this much, something would be terribly wrong—but….
Defying everyone’s expectations that he would earnestly prepare for the Matriarch succession after graduation,
Bellus’s path proved unconventional.
I furrowed my brow slightly and raised my eyebrows.
“What are you doing here anyway? Shouldn’t you be writing papers at the Intermediate Institution?”
Surprisingly, after graduating from the Educational Institution, he became a teaching assistant.
He was aiming to become the youngest professor.
‘…I thought he’d lost his mind.’
The characteristics of Orca beastfolk stand out in two major ways.
One is their combative nature—without exception, they love to throw their fists around. It’s an instinctive thuggishness.
The other is curiosity, or perhaps obsession.
These traits often lead to curiosity about Orca beastfolk themselves,
and it’s not uncommon for some to become scholars studying Orcas.
‘But from what I know, that path is absolutely not one Bellus would take.’
Despite his gentle, delicate appearance, he was a born warrior.
A scholar? It was absurd.
A teaching assistant here differs somewhat from graduate school in Korea….
But in any case, it was essentially the same as graduate school.
‘And he walked into such a place of his own volition.’
Among my friends, one older sister was a university teaching assistant and graduate student, and she always said the same thing.
That she came here because she committed some sin during her undergraduate years.
Well, it was probably a joke, but the teaching assistants here weren’t so different from those in Korea.
‘Especially for a direct descendant.’
Yet Bellus was performing as a tyrannical teaching assistant—not a slave beneath professors, but one who made them tremble.
“What exactly are you doing as a teaching assistant? No matter how I look at it, it really doesn’t suit you.”
“I simply wanted to remain at the Educational Institution.”
“Why?”
“I told you. I wanted to observe you from beside you.”
“Are you a pervert?”
“….”
Bellus faltered. I thought he’d flinched, but—
“…Is that what people usually call it in cases like this? It’s just observation, though?”
Watching him ponder so seriously, I recalled something.
…Right, this guy was quite the madman too.
I crossed my arms.
“So what’s someone who should be at the Educational Institution doing here?”
“I came because I wanted to see you.”
“Do you have something to say?”
“Calypso, where are you planning to go?”
“…What?”
How did he know?
Bellus and I had maintained a relationship that was neither close nor distant since our trip to the City of Dragons five years ago.
This ambiguity was the distance he had created.
Not blind devotion like Agenor, nor hostility like Atlant had been at first.
What did this guy want to do standing in that gray zone?
I crossed my arms.
“You’re not aiming for the Matriarch position?”
Since I’d already opened the conversation, I decided to ask what I’d been curious about all along.
It wasn’t the best place to ask, but it didn’t matter.
“Or is your work as an instructor just arrogance—thinking you can do it while handling such trivial matters?”
“Well, if it weren’t for you, Calypso, I wouldn’t know. But I don’t think this work allows me to prepare for that.”
Bellus tilted his head.
“I’m giving up on competing for the Matriarch position.”
“…What?”
“I came today to tell you this. Then I heard you’d visited Pierre and the Matriarch.”
“….”
“I wondered if perhaps you were going somewhere again, like five years ago.”
Somewhat shocked, I didn’t hear well what he said after that.
No, it didn’t matter anyway.
‘What is he talking about? He never acted like he was giving up!’
Eldest Brother and I were clearly not on the same side.
Though we hadn’t fought in any particular way either.
Still, I had placed this guy on my rival list.
And now he was saying he’d abandon his position himself?
“Why on earth?”
“When I was eight years old, I couldn’t do as well as you, could I?”
“…What?”
“I’m keeping the promise I made.”
I started to retort but stopped, pressing my temples firmly instead.
‘Thank goodness both he and I are good at sensing our surroundings.’
No one else would have heard this conversation.
“Hey, so what are you going to do from now on? Are you going to work under me or something?”
“What?”
What is this now.
“So you’re saying you won’t serve under anyone and you’re giving up on the succession race?”
What, is he going to play judge or something? I squinted my eyes.
“Are you going to report this to the Orca Family Matriarch?”
The Orca Family Matriarch called people like him ‘losers.’
Bellus nodded, as if he’d caught what I wanted to say.
“I’ve already thought about what to tell the Matriarch. I just don’t plan to tell her right now.”
“…Why?”
“Someone needs to be here while you’re away, so that some worthless fool doesn’t run wild.”
“…?”
“You’re going to become the Matriarch.”
…What is this feeling.
“I’m going to become the Matriarch? Why do you look so certain about it?”
“That’s because….”
Bellus stared at me with a cold expression. It was as if he were looking down on me, his face asking how I could not even know that.
“Who else would become the Matriarch besides you?”
…What is this guy.
‘How is this any different from him just following me?’
Is he some kind of servant? Does he like oxtail soup?
So he’s saying he’ll keep watch over my surroundings while I’m away.
Without any compensation, and all for me?
I opened my mouth to speak, then just stopped.
‘This bastard….’
I’ve always been quick to pick up on these things. It’s a sense I learned firsthand from recruiting countless subordinates.
Right now, this guy is——
‘Going through a phase of denying his loyalty.’
Or rather, should I call it a phase of denying his role as a follower? The phrasing is a bit odd, but anyway.
‘…How many years has it been since he graduated and became an instructor?’
If this was truly a symptom of loyalty denial, just how long had that period been?
I swallowed what I was about to say.
“Fine, let’s talk about it after I get back.”
Bellus said nothing. I knew he’d accepted it as agreement.
Well, I suppose. In this life, I’m acquiring that guy in quite an unusual way.
Thinking this, I moved forward.
Perhaps because I’d experienced something so absurd, suddenly everything felt tedious.
I think it’s better to give up waiting for Father and just head back.
‘I’ll see him at home anyway, so what does it matter.’
I was about to walk on while shaking my head when I stopped short.
“Hey. Eldest Brother.”
When I turned my gaze, Bellus was still standing in that spot.
I recalled my Father and the handkerchief he had given me.
If that man harbored goodwill toward me… there was a question I desperately wanted to ask him.
“Do you happen to know anything about my Mother?”

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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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