Black Killer Whale Baby - Chapter 179

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 179
My ears felt as though they were being squeezed tight. It was Ekion’s voice, yet it didn’t feel like his at all.
In my third loop, I never heard the Dragon Duke’s voice as he rampaged and destroyed the world.
But if he had spoken, I imagined his voice would have sounded exactly like this.
It was a voice that coaxed softly.
…I didn’t like it.
The Ekion I knew was an innocent boy who gazed at me with blind devotion.
“Who are you?”
Our eyes met.
Ekion’s eyes still lacked focus. They were merely cold, eerie, and chilling.
I understood what Tus had said about standing on the brink of a rampage.
Ekion tilted his head slowly.
“You don’t like it?”
…
“You hated that, didn’t you?”
I realized it.
Ekion, referring to the Matriarch as “that”….
“You’re not Ekion, are you?”
“Huh?”
“Ekion doesn’t call me ‘you.'”
Then Ekion smiled faintly, as if confirming the right answer.
A chill ran down my spine. We maintained a tense, wary silence for a moment.
In that instant, I felt my shoulder being yanked.
When I looked up in surprise, the Orca Family Matriarch who had been standing behind me was gone.
“What….”
The sound of something falling with a thud.
As if by instinct, I looked toward where Father and Atlant were.
“Hey! Matriarch!”
“Noble Lady!!”
Atlant lifting Father into the air and Levai reaching out his hand—their voices overlapped.
I felt relief that Father was safe. At the same time, my heart grew heavy.
Simultaneously, a void that had suddenly appeared swallowed me whole. I closed my eyes tightly.
-Calypso! Listen to the Dragon Duke’s voice! You have to chase after him!
It seemed I faintly heard Tus’s voice one last time.
Whatever the reason, it was clear I had been caught in a rift of time.
The Orca Family Matriarch had clearly been caught in it as well.
‘Tus said I definitely needed to change this rampage into using force, didn’t she?’
Had a simple kiss not been enough?
I thought about it meanwhile.
Changing it to using force meant I could obtain Father’s materials, right?
When I slowly opened my eyes, I found myself standing in an unfamiliar place.
It was a pitch-black space.
The last thing I remembered was Tus’s voice.
His instruction to listen to Ekion’s voice.
Honestly, I felt a bit lost.
‘My Young Boy… his eyes were completely rolled back. Can he even call out to me?’
It seemed I’d gotten caught up in some kind of temporal rift myself.
I wondered if I could even escape alive.
The situation had been so urgent that I’d barely heard any explanation.
‘If I’d known it would come to this, I should have asked beforehand and gotten a proper explanation.’
I rubbed my face and surveyed my surroundings.
‘Anyway, what kind of place is this?’
“Where is this?”
The moment I thought this, a voice—as if it had sensed my thoughts—startled me.
When I turned around, the Orca Family Matriarch was sitting there, brushing her hair back.
It seemed she had also noticed me and asked the question.
I frowned slightly.
‘If only it weren’t for that woman…’
We would have smoothly set out to find materials for Father.
There would have been no need to dangerously get caught in a temporal rift.
‘She’s a real nuisance. Damn it.’
I got to my feet with a brush.
Ignoring the Matriarch’s words, I carefully examined my surroundings.
It was too dark to see at first, but as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could make out the general shape.
It was a massive corridor.
‘A gallery, perhaps?’
Picture frames hung on the walls, but strangely, there was nothing inside them—only blank black paper.
‘It looks like the kind of manor corridor you’d see in a horror game.’
The atmosphere was eerie, but I didn’t particularly fear ghosts or spirits.
Would someone who had already died be afraid of such things?
And here, alongside me, was that annoying woman who, like me, paid no mind to such trivialities.
“Are you ignoring my question?”
“Yes. I’m ignoring it, so don’t talk to me.”
“What?”
Taken aback by my blunt tone, the Orca Family Matriarch fell silent for a while.
Tus had certainly given me a hint.
‘It’s not the worst situation.’
Tus hadn’t said it was impossible.
Surely somewhere here I could find materials to cure Father’s illness, and I could meet Ekion and find a way back.
With such important matters at hand, I had no room in my mind for that annoying woman’s voice.
After a while, once my eyes had fully adjusted to the darkness, I discovered a door.
‘Multiple doors….’
There were three doors in total in this corridor.
Should I open one of them?
‘Or… should I just sit here and wait.’
I’d heard that when lost, the best thing to do was stay put and wait for rescue.
But waiting endlessly felt wrong when Father weighed so heavily on my mind.
As I considered this, I naturally took a step to the side.
The Orca Family Matriarch’s hand brushed past where I had been standing.
“….”
The Matriarch’s brow furrowed.
“What are you doing?”
I wanted to ask her the same thing. What exactly are you doing?
Truth be told, from the moment we were both swept into this place, I had made a decision.
I was done trying to impress this Matriarch. So courtesy was finished.
‘If I do this, I’ll have to take a much longer path to return.’
It didn’t matter. Even if it was difficult, I was confident I could seize the Matriarch’s position.
‘It’s all a matter of time.’
I had decided that earning this old woman’s recognition and taking the Matriarch’s seat as her successor would ultimately make her feel far more humiliated.
After all, was there any other way?
I spoke with fierce composure.
“Still haven’t grasped the situation? We’re trapped. Because you needlessly provoked Ekion.”
“…Your manner of speech has become quite unpleasant. Do you wish to die?”
“We might both die anyway, yet you speak so carelessly? Is stupidity included as a bonus?”
“….”
The Matriarch’s eyebrows shot up.
I disliked that habit—so similar to Father’s.
“It seems you’re not ignorant about Dragons. Allow me to bestow a kindness upon this foolish Matriarch.”
Without realizing it, my manner of speech from when I was Matriarch in the third cycle was flowing out.
“This space was created by the Dragon Duke, who is on the verge of a rampage because of you, and if things go wrong, we’re both scheduled to die here. You and I.”
It was evidence of my anxiety, and proof that my anger had reached its breaking point.
I had no intention of hiding anymore.
On the other hand, though Tus had given me a clue to escape from here, I had no intention of sharing it.
Let her chew on the terror of death that had suddenly descended upon her.
A cold smile crossed my face.
“Didn’t you see it coming?”
My expression now revealed raw, undisguised hostility that could no longer be concealed.
“At this rate, Aquasiadel will lose both its Matriarch and its heir.”
“….”
I tapped my head lightly, deliberately.
I gazed coldly at the Matriarch’s vacant expression.
“If you don’t want to see your Aquasiadel fall apart, cooperate quietly. If you hate that, then shut your mouth and stay still.”
Giving up and becoming hostile felt liberating. I no longer needed to pretend to like her or appear favorable.
That was the moment.
-Cal… ypso.
A faint voice reached my ears.
I stopped my cold stare at the Matriarch and whipped my head around.
Ekion’s voice!
Just as Tus had hinted—follow the sound when you hear Ekion’s voice, right?
The voice called out to me once more.
Turning my head, I saw one of three doors down the corridor.
The closest one to my position.
The first door.
I didn’t know what lay beyond it, but…
-Calypso, where… are you?
I followed the voice searching for me, then paused and turned my head back.
“…No matter how I look at it, that’s not the tone or pressure of a child.”
“…”
“Quite skilled at playing the villain. This isn’t your first time at it.”
The Matriarch was watching me with a peculiar expression.
Regardless, I nodded dismissively.
“Quiet.”
“…”
“Ocula Aquasiadel.”
I rushed forward and threw open the first door.
“If you want to live, follow me.”
The moment I stepped through the doorway without hesitation, I felt movement behind me.
But I ran without looking back.
* * *
When I finally entered completely through the door, I heard it close behind me.
Looking back, the door had vanished without a trace. In the instant my eyes adjusted to the brilliant light.
In the brief moment I blinked, the space transformed.
‘What is this place?’
It was outside. Coming from the dark corridor, my eyes struggled to adjust.
I slowly scanned my surroundings.
A brilliant summer day with verdant leaves, and pleasant sunlight pouring down from the sky.
It should have been somewhat warm.
But I felt almost no season or temperature.
It was as if I were watching the space before me like a film.
After taking in this space, I slowly opened my mouth.
“Grandmother!”
A small child running forward.
The very young girl had a pretty face with jet-black hair mixed with white—the distinctive mark of an Orca.
Blue eyes. That gentle face was so innocent, it was hard to believe she was an Orca….
It was me.
“Grandmother!”
‘I’ ran forward and blocked someone’s path.
I understood where this space was and what situation I was in.
A hollow breath escaped me.
“What is this.”
Standing rigid as a statue before the young girl. The owner of that cold, biting voice was likely my Orca Family Matriarch who was here with me.
Young ‘me’ shrank back while forcing a bright smile.
“Grandmother, I want to hold your hand!”
Small hands spread open, begging to be held.
I laughed coldly.
“What are you saying. You worthless little thing.”
This was the first rejection I suffered in this world.
And…. That moment when I still believed I could be loved, even for just an instant.
It was my first cycle of life.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————