Black Killer Whale Baby - Chapter 200

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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 200
At my words, Lirivel scrunched the bridge of her nose as if she didn’t quite understand.
“…What’s different from what I’m doing now?”
“Could you monitor your parents?”
“Yes, I can. I’m already doing it.”
Lirivel spoke matter-of-factly.
Some might call it cold-hearted, but in truth, her uncle and aunt had first abandoned their child and acted with calculation.
Long ago, they thought Lirivel would die quickly, so they only acknowledged Baian as their child.
Growing up that way, Lirivel shared something in common with me.
In her eyes, there was no lingering attachment toward her parents.
‘Come to think of it, even in the third loop, Lirivel and the Orca Family Matriarch used each other like chess pieces, didn’t they?’
It was quite a typical relationship between an orca mother and daughter.
‘The kind of bond between Father and me is rare, after all.’
My Father, now alive, grasped the role only he could fulfill. Lirivel here was the same.
I fell silent for a moment before asking.
“What about stabbing your parents?”
Lirivel didn’t answer.
Instead, she simply gazed at me.
Her gaze, fresh and clear, was cold and resolute.
I saw the deep-rooted trust embedded within it and smiled.
Lirivel answered me with something, and I gave her instructions in return.
* * *
‘Good, I’ve handled the Lirivel matter that bothered me most.’
Within Aquasiadel, I was known to be in deep sleep, so my range of movement was limited.
Moreover, since I also had to return to the Time Rift, I gathered the necessary people instead of moving about.
“I’m counting on you.”
The person who suddenly heard such words from me was none other than Eldest Brother Bellus.
His neat eyebrows twitched.
“You know your eyebrows move like that when you don’t understand something? You have a similar habit to Second Brother.”
“That’s an unpleasant thing to say.”
“Is it? I found it unpleasant that you’ve hidden the truth so carefully all this time.”
“….”
“Go on, make your excuse. I’ll listen.”
“…I was simply confused. Not anymore. In the past and now, you are my only Matriarch.”
“My, that shamelessness of speaking without changing your expression one bit—it’s still there.”
Bellus said that looking at three-year-old me, he simply couldn’t accept that this little girl was the mysterious ‘Matriarch’ from his dreams.
Well, I understood that too.
Since he said he couldn’t see my face in the dream, it wouldn’t have been easy to grow attached to a younger sister who suddenly appeared.
“I have no intention of pressing the matter. For me, it was better that you didn’t remember.”
“….”
Bellus licked his lips.
“So you wanted to remember alone, which means you’re not lonely?”
“It’s better for just one person to suffer in loneliness.”
….
“Anyway, Eldest Brother. Enough with the heavy talk—since you’re the smartest of the three, let me ask you one thing.”
Bellus looked at me and waited for my response. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling since I was used to it.
“Why do you think you and Second Brother remember your past lives?”
It was something I’d been curious about for a long time.
Atlant clearly wasn’t the intellectual type, so I couldn’t discuss it with him.
I had asked him though.
“Well, it just happened, I guess.”
That was all he ever said.
I wished Levai had memories too.
…But he had no memories, and I’d decided that was for the best.
While not quite as sharp as Levai, Bellus was still among the intelligent ones.
“The most likely hypothesis would be to first consider who can manipulate time. The first person that comes to mind is….”
“The Dragon Duke?”
“Yes, Matriarch.”
I slowly shook my head.
I first met the Dragon Duke in the third cycle, when his rampage destroyed the world.
I had been regressing long before that.
“…I can’t reveal it, but it doesn’t seem to be him.”
But if it wasn’t him, then why did they remember?
Who could manipulate time?
And Tus had told me I was someone who endured the “power of time.”
I looked down at my hands.
‘Could I possibly have such a power… No, that’s absurd.’
If I did, I wouldn’t have regressed.
Would I madly repeat my life?
I set aside this mystery for now and asked again.
“Then let me change the question. You and Second Brother remember, but why can’t Third Brother?”
….
“And Levai couldn’t remember either.”
If it were just family members remembering, Third Brother wouldn’t have forgotten.
Besides, Lili seemed to remember something, at least partially.
“The difference between me, that idiot Atlant, and Third Brother is….”
Bellus pondered for a moment, then frowned. His expression suggested he was debating whether to speak.
“What is it? Speak plainly. Don’t leave me dying of curiosity for three years.”
“…Well, Matriarch. This is just a guess too, but….”
“Guess, speculation, whatever—just tell me already.”
“It’s like the difference in the moment of death.”
“What?”
Bellus spoke calmly, as if his earlier hesitation had been a lie.
“Think about when Third Brother died.”
“Why would you….”
It wasn’t a pleasant thing to dwell on.
After all, he was asking me to recall a dead man just to save my life.
Seeing my expression, Bellus quickly changed his approach.
“Just look at the situation. Only the situation.”
Then he explained.
“Third Brother believed until his dying moment that you had safely escaped far away.”
“…What? What are you talking about?”
I slowly recalled the memories of the third cycle. It was from the final battle.
The moment we achieved victory, the Dragon Duke went berserk.
Everyone died one by one, and my brothers ran to help me escape.
“Cough, I’ll hold this position.”
The first one to remain was Agenor.
“The next one to stay was me. I went back to that dying man and told him.”
“….”
“You escaped safely, and you alone survived well. You’ll continue to live well from now on.”
“….”
“That’s why he died smiling.”
I blinked.
“But unfortunately, Second Brother and I died knowing you hadn’t made it to safety. Atlant lasted longer than me, I think.”
I recalled Atlant’s image, who had died the most miserably among my brothers, and closed my eyes tightly.
“Agenor probably had no lingering attachments to life.”
“…You were different?”
When I opened my eyes and met his gaze again, Bellus was smiling softly.
Unlike me, recalling that time didn’t seem difficult for him.
“It was the first time I wanted to live again so desperately.”
“….”
“Matriarch, because I wished that you—my only sister and my sole liege—would not die.”
It was the smile of one without lingering regrets.
“To conclude, yes, Atlant and I died with attachments remaining, and I wonder if your memories persisted because you became the medium.”
“….”
“As evidence, only memories related to you remain vivid, and when I distance myself from you, even those memories fade.”
This was something Atlant had mentioned once before.
“Now that I’ve seen you alive, perhaps I’ve finally lost my attachments just like Agenor did back then.”
I realized at some point that my fists were clenched tightly.
If it was a matter of lingering attachments.
‘So Lili also had lingering attachments strong enough to wish for rebirth?’
Lili’s figure, which had little connection to me, was quickly forgotten.
I gazed at the man before me—my older brother and former subordinate—with an expression that seemed ready to release a heavy sigh.
“Why not just discard such memories and be reborn instead?”
Bellus shrugged quietly.
“Well, if I had become a handful of seawater and met the Sea God again, I probably would have made the same wish.”
“….”
“That in the next life, everyone would live happily, and I’d be allowed to witness it with my own eyes.”
“….”
Bellus simply said with composure, ‘If there’s no memory, how would you even know if your wish was granted?’
“More importantly, Matriarch. If this hypothesis is correct, couldn’t one of those who followed you so obsessively also emerge?”
“Hm?”
“One who remembers.”
I blinked.
Certainly, there were many subordinates who followed me fervently, and among them were some who surpassed even my three brothers.
But….
“Levai is one of them, yet he doesn’t remember either.”
“Well…. It’s not something unique to that dolphin retainer alone, is it?”
When I asked what he meant, Bellus merely shook his head coldly.
Saying it was nothing.
I decided to keep it in mind as one hypothesis.
While thinking the possibility was low.
‘After all, memories become clearer only when I’m nearby. So those far away wouldn’t have any memories either.’
Even Lili hadn’t spoken as if something came to mind after meeting me.
Thinking this way, my heart felt lighter.
Besides, I’d be entering the Time Rift soon, and I wouldn’t know the results until three years later anyway.
* * *
A vast wasteland.
The land where land-dwelling beastkin had driven out aquatic beastkin, forcing them to live there, was generally barren.
The relatively fertile land was ruled by Aquasiadel, while other lands were abandoned or
occasionally patrolled by orcas as if showing mercy.
But the iron rule of Matriarch Ocula Aquasiadel was that weak ones could die without consequence.
Thus, the weak beastkin living here no longer received aid, help, or protection as they once did.
And so it was the shark faction that seized the abandoned lands.
“Ugh, ugh-ugh. P-please spare me. I-I only have this much money….”
The weak beastkin could only beg like this, and they believed it natural to live this way until death their entire lives.
That had been true until half a year ago.
Boom!
The shark beastkin who had been oppressing the weak beastkin and stealing their money collapsed to the ground.
The horizontal lines on the fallen ones’ necks were traces of gills from when the sharks were still animals.
“Thank you, Matriarch, thank you!”
The people who had been bowing in gratitude lifted their heads, looking slightly startled.
Rumors had been swirling about someone who appeared suddenly in the Wasteland District these days, knocked down their oppressors, and then vanished.
“Is that the person who’s been circulating through this district lately?”
“…Isn’t that person far too young to be called a person?”
The Beastkin who were meeting for the first time the figure they’d only heard rumors about tilted their heads in confusion.
“Hey, hey!”
The retreating figure’s silhouette was far too small compared to an adult, as if the work was already done and they were leaving.
It was a Young Boy.
One who looked to be barely ten years old.
Navy-blue hair, with black dot-like markings scattered across it—quite distinctive.
Among the Beastkin who had been saved by the Young Boy, the one with the most knowledge tilted their head.
Surely, I’d seen markings like that somewhere before….
“…A whale?”
Yes, it was a type of whale Beastkin.
Which whale was it again.
“Ah, that’s right!”
An Orca.
Yes, it was an Orca.

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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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