Black Killer Whale Baby - Chapter 153

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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 153
Something strange?
Someone had been fed something, but the one who was fed it was the Imperial Palace.
Naturally, the Dragon Duke’s affairs came to mind. The Imperial Palace, which had treated Ekion like livestock, and the Black Panthers flashed through my thoughts.
What on earth was the Imperial Palace thinking, feeding Lili something so strange?
‘How do those bastards even view other Beastkin?’
Irritation surged within me, but I forced it down.
Unlike the original story, the heroine transforms into an animal. A clue emerged.
“Is it possible the Black Panthers don’t know? What about the Duke?”
“The Duke doesn’t know…!”
“…I see. It’s alright, Lili. Shh. You can speak slowly.”
The child couldn’t catch her breath. I felt a pang of sympathy and tried to soothe her.
Then Lili forced out words between her sobs.
“Hic, sob, if I, if I tell, the Prince and the Duke, they said they’d, get rid of me, y-hic! I’m, I’m so scared.”
I wiped away the pearl-like tears streaming down her face with my sleeve.
‘First, let me sit her down and listen to her story.’
I settled Lili onto the plush sofa and sat down beside her.
Lili kept her tiny hand wrapped tightly around my pinky finger the entire time.
“You’re a good girl. I’m asking because I want to help you. So… the person with that golden hair who tormented you—no, does anyone not know that the Imperial Palace has been tormenting you?”
Lili lifted her tear-filled eyes.
“…Hic, he told me to run away.”
“Who?”
“P-Palaya…”
Palaya. The Second Brother of the Dragon Duke.
The Black Panthers’ Second Brother had made Lili run away.
‘Even though that man is a womanizer with a terrible personality, he genuinely cherished Lili.’
That meant he acknowledged that what was happening to Lili was something he couldn’t solve with his own hands.
If that were the case.
‘Does the Dragon Duke truly not know what happened to Lili?’
I slowly turned my gaze.
“So you don’t want to go back, is that it?”
Lili nodded her head up and down.
“Alright then, stay here. But in exchange… can you help me a little?”
“Help you?”
“Yes, that’s right. Help me.”
“What can I do to help?”
“You can do more than you think, Lili.”
You are beloved by the world, after all.
I smiled gently.
“I have a friend who was tormented by someone with golden hair like you. I would be grateful if you could help me save that friend.”
I had worried whether such a young child could understand, but…
The Lili I knew from the books and previous chapters was a clever girl.
Sure enough, Lili hesitated for a moment before speaking.
Tears clung to her eyes, but her gaze remained bright and alert.
“That fwiend is also hurty…?”
I glanced at Ekion and nodded.
“Yes, he’s hurting. That’s why I want to help him quickly.”
I thought Lili might hesitate for at least a moment.
But Lili nodded earnestly without the slightest hesitation.
“I can help!”
“Good.”
I said this and whispered.
“First, I’m going to spread rumors that you’ve been discovered somewhere.”
* * *
The Dragon Duke was bewildered by the successive reports reaching him.
“Why in the world am I hearing that a Hyena has been beaten to a pulp?”
Before the Dragon Duke stood a Gazelle Beastkin serving as his Retainer and his eldest son, Assel.
The Retainer trembled at the killing intent emanating from the Dragon Duke, yet managed to hold his ground.
One could hardly call himself a secretary of the Pantherion Duchy if he couldn’t endure even this.
Assel glanced at the Retainer and opened his mouth.
“It appears there was a branch family of the Hyena in this city.”
“Then why did such a creature appear?”
“Well, didn’t the Imperial Palace indiscriminately gather carnivorous Beastkin and beasts? Without restraint.”
…
The indiscriminate gathering of beasts was not the Dragon Duke’s intention. It was a covert order from the Imperial Palace.
“As the numbers grow uncontrollably, unforeseen incidents are occurring.”
Because of this, as beasts gathered, large and small accidents and side effects arose.
“For now, there are still few unaccounted incidents, but it’s only a matter of time before control becomes impossible.”
The greatest side effect from the increase in beasts is that fights break out.
And as these fights multiply uncontrollably, the streets become lawless zones.
I know this but cannot intervene.
Because something important was being monitored in this city.
“The Dragon Duke’s true power cannot be handled by ordinary beasts. The moment he realizes the situation, escape would be possible in an instant.”
These personnel were not actually meant to counter external enemies, but rather to restrain the Dragon Duke from within, should he ever attempt to flee.
If necessary, they would not hesitate to kill him. That way, the next Dragon Duke would be born.
The Imperial Palace did not care if the City of Dragons became a crime-ridden wasteland, as long as it kept the Dragon Duke contained.
In any case, Pierre Aquasiadel had detonated a massive bomb
at the very moment the city was on the brink of descending into a slum.
“Now even Pantherion alone cannot maintain order in this city, Father.”
…
“However, the Knights of the City of Dragons won’t move properly unless the Dragon Duke himself appears.”
The Dragon Duke listened to his eldest son’s report with his lips pressed firmly shut.
Yet Assel detected his father’s hands trembling ever so slightly.
“I heard that creature made a request.”
“Yes. He has no intention whatsoever of sending his daughter, so he’s demanding that the Dragon Duke step forward personally to face him in combat.”
“He’s insane.”
The Dragon Duke’s assessment was blunt. Orcas had always been like this since ancient times.
Every last one of them committed incomprehensible mad acts.
“This wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t been made the Dragon’s Bride from the start.”
“It was the Matriarch of House Aquasiadel’s command, it seems. Since he couldn’t bend the Matriarch’s will, he’s decided to bend the Dragon Duke’s will instead. He’s been spreading this talk throughout the marketplace.”
He didn’t seem like a loose-tongued fellow, yet his judgment appeared to have been mistaken.
Pierre’s requests didn’t end there.
“He even provoked that if the Dragon Duke won’t step forward, then let the land-dwellers come instead.”
“Yes. Simultaneously, he made a request of us. He said to open Peseum.”
Peseum. The place where warriors once held their battles.
The reason for requesting its opening was obvious. He meant to fight there.
“He certainly puts effort into his nonsense.”
“If we refuse, he asked that we relay this message.”
Assel read the report expressionlessly.
“That it’s better to have a brawl in Peseum than to destroy the city. He said that if those managing This Castle truly serve the Dragon Duke, they should make a wise decision….”
Crash!
“What are those subordinates doing that they simply listened to such drivel and came back?”
“Father. There’s a saying that even rotten fish are still fish. Regardless of appearances, he’s an Orca.”
The strongest among aquatic Beastkin.
Pierre had essentially threatened to destroy the city itself if circumstances didn’t suit him, throwing everything into chaos.
Could this city, already fraught with disorder, withstand such a shock?
House Pantherion had to maintain strict control over This City where the Dragon Duke resided.
But the more Pierre escalated the chaos, the more difficult it became. The Imperial Palace would fear “the Dragon Duke’s escape under cover of confusion,” and ultimately all the risk would fall upon Pantherion.
“There’s one last thing he shouted in the plaza, it seems.”
Assel looked at the final part of the report and flinched slightly, but then continued with an expressionless face.
“He said that if he defeats all the foul-smelling ones, then at the end, let the Black Panther come out to provide some entertainment.”
Assel let out a small laugh as he finished his report.
The Dragon Duke was about to flare up in anger but lost his timing and furrowed his brow instead.
“You’re laughing?”
“No, sir. It’s simply absurd, isn’t it?”
“….”
Pierre’s final provocation was directed at Pantherion.
His words—that he wanted to fight him last—made all the Black Panthers scoff.
“Father, please open Peseum for us.”
It was a provocation that would set any young Beastkin’s blood boiling. Regardless of what kind of nature Pierre possessed otherwise.
I put considerable thought into this.
In the end, a beast was still a beast.
Those who had reigned as the strong their entire lives responded far better to provocations that scratched their pride than to mockery dressed up in false elegance.
‘This is clearly the work of someone who understands our nature.’
Was Pierre Aquasiadel truly orchestrating all this merely to prevent his daughter from becoming the Dragon’s Bride?
“Why, are you thinking of going out there yourself?”
“I have my thoughts, but that is not why I brought this matter up.”
Assel spoke calmly, his expression unreadable.
“It is not an obstacle. However, we cannot simply let the Dragon’s Bride slip away. We do not know when a new bride might arrive again.”
It was not the Dragon Duke who needed the Dragon’s Bride, but the Imperial Palace.
Yet there was reason to keep the Dragon’s Bride in this city.
“What if we concede one thing that Pierre Aquasiadel desires, and take something else for ourselves?”
“What do you mean?”
The Dragon Duke crossed his thick arms.
“What else would it be?”
That watchful gaze, that evaluative look—it was one Assel knew well.
“While his attention is turned outward, we take the Dragon’s Bride and hide her somewhere.”
“…Even a father who cherishes his daughter can be manipulated at will?”
The Dragon Duke let out a short laugh. His blood-red eyes gleamed like glass.
“We might be the first Beastkin to use an Orca as a sentinel.”
…
Assel simply watched the undisguised joy painted across his father’s face.
“I shall bring the Dragon’s Bride myself.”

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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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