Black Killer Whale Baby - Chapter 201

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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 201
But by the time the Beastkin recalled the Young Boy’s identity, he had long since disappeared.
The Weak Beastkin who had received his aid felt regret at not being able to properly express their gratitude.
“We should have at least offered him food….”
“Right. Well, we might see him again, don’t you think? He seems to be wandering around this area.”
But they also knew.
The wasteland was quite vast, so it might take some time before they saw him again.
“By the way, is that child really an Orca Beastkin?”
One of the Beastkin tilted his head in confusion.
“Why would a Whale Beastkin not be in Aquasiadel and instead be here? And such a young child at that.”
“Right. A Wrasse Beastkin who recently fled said he saw Dolphin Beastkin moving in large groups. Are the Orca Beastkin relocating their settlements too?”
The Orca had long served those around the Orca, generation after generation.
“If fate allows, we’ll see him again. That young boy really does fight well.”
One of the Beastkin smacked his lips, lingering with regret.
Meanwhile, the Orca Young Boy who had been walking collapsed right where he stood.
He exhaled heavily, his back against a nearby rock.
The Young Boy’s hair was so long it covered his eyes.
Had the Beastkin from moments before seen him like this, they would have wondered how he managed to fight with his eyes obscured.
“….”
His hair, with its frizz and wild tangles, even gave him a gloomy appearance.
Yet to the Young Boy, his appearance mattered little.
There was only one person whose gaze he desired—and she did not look upon him.
The Young Boy quietly lifted his head, gazing in one direction.
If he continued straight, it would be toward the Aquasiadel territory.
Beneath his hair, the Young Boy’s jaw was sharp and defined.
Between the strands, his eyes, darkly sunken, gazed upward at the sky for a long while.
His lips slowly parted.
“…Matriarch.”
The Young Boy murmured softly and rose to his feet.
Then he walked on, his gait unsteady.
Toward the next destination.
His lord always said otherwise. But she was virtuous and upright.
She could not bear to watch the weak be oppressed.
So these few Shark faction members here who exploited the weak Beastkin were worth using to strengthen himself.
If he grew stronger, if he became stronger….
The Young Boy, the Orca Beastkin named Hauser, rose unsteadily and walked on.
There was something he desperately wished to give to her.
In the Young Boy’s hand, a necklace adorned with a jewel brimming with mysterious energy swayed gently.
* * *
‘Good, I think I’ve handled everything, right?’
If a house grows dusty and cold after just three days of emptiness, what becomes of a household whose master abandons it for three years?
Much could change in that time.
Yet I had resolved to accept this consequence.
The person I would spend these final moments with was Lirivel’s benefactor—my Father’s savior.
Before my eyes, a head of gray hair bobbed as he moved.
“So you’re telling me you made this?” I asked, my words muffled as I chewed the food Whale had prepared.
To avoid being spotted by anyone, I’d set up a chair deep within the forest near Father’s estate—hardly an elegant location.
“Mmm, it’s delicious though?”
Whale nodded slowly.
“I’m good at housekeeping.”
I nearly spat out my food in that moment.
“Ah, I see.”
One shouldn’t spit out food someone else had worked hard to prepare.
“Isn’t Levai also skilled at housekeeping?”
“Yeah, I learned from him. I’m still not as good as he is yet… but I’ll get better soon.”
“I see.”
I brushed away the crumbs clinging to my lips and nodded.
Then I spoke calmly.
“Whale, if I end up entering the rift in time…”
“Yeah.”
I had already explained to Whale, step by step, why I was going. He’d said he didn’t mind.
After all, we’d see each other again eventually—three years was nothing to wait for.
‘For a moment, I felt like I was the soldier going off to war and Whale was the lover waiting behind.’
They usually called such relationships “a teddy bear and military boots,” but I never imagined I’d be the one in uniform. I never could have predicted this.
Behind my expressionless face, I looked at the handsome boy’s features and got to the point.
“I’m going to search for a way—any way—to return the ten years of your life that you sacrificed for me.”
“…”
“It’s not that I find what you did burdensome or anything like that. It’s just… I suppose this is simply how I’m made.”
I adjusted my fork in my hand.
“I’m fine with giving, but receiving is a bit difficult for me. Especially when it comes to the price of someone’s self-sacrifice.”
I spoke peacefully, my words flowing as if I’d rehearsed them, and Whale seemed momentarily at a loss for words.
“And I’d like you to think about it too over these three years. There will be many things happening to you in that time, and what you feel for me might change into something else entirely, don’t you think?”
Like friendship. The boy’s face hardened as if he’d grasped the unspoken meaning.
“You’re Levai’s younger brother, after all. And since you’re quick-witted and intelligent, I’m sure you understand what I’m saying.”
“…I understand.”
Whale nodded obediently.
Then his steady gaze turned toward me.
“…Okay.”
Wale nodded obediently.
Then a steady gaze turned toward me.
“So you’re saying that if I haven’t changed after three years, then you’ll believe in my heart.”
Did I somehow flip a switch in this child? I laughed awkwardly.
Well, who knows what might happen over those three years.
The final hours passed peacefully.
* * *
I said my farewells to everyone and spent time with my father.
Though it was just a brief exchange, of course.
‘We’ll see each other again anyway, so this should be enough.’
When I said that, Third Brother complained about how sad those words were.
Perhaps it was because I’d wandered through such a long life. Sometimes I felt like my sense of time was completely off.
“Then, Father, I’ll be going.”
Only my father came to see me off.
Because that’s what I wanted.
Tus sat on my shoulder in his true form, and I was ready to depart.
But my father, who should have answered, remained silent.
Instead, when my father’s lips opened, words I hadn’t expected came out.
“There’s someone who wants to see you one last time. Will you?”
Exactly thirty minutes.
My departure through the gap in time was delayed just a bit longer.
It was an underground space.
A place that could withstand even massive battles, and my father would be waiting just outside the door.
If I focused my senses carefully, I could feel my father’s water power filling this space.
‘It really does feel refreshing.’
Though with his tired mafia-like appearance, he was about as far from refreshing as the North Pole was from the South Pole.
“So what did you want to say?”
I stared ahead.
At the former Matriarch Ocula Aquasiadel, who had requested this meeting.
* * *
Ocula fell silent at Calypso’s words.
She wasn’t ignoring her—she was considering how to begin.
The meeting was something she had requested.
“You didn’t fail to consider the impact of making Pierre the Matriarch, did you?”
Ocula furrowed her brow. This wasn’t how she’d intended to start.
Time was truly terrifying.
Now she could only speak her mind in this arrogant, confrontational manner.
Gentleness? Sensitivity? She’d dismissed those as the province of the weak decades ago.
Ocula disliked seeing herself grow anxious before this small creature.
The skin beneath her eyes was dark as someone who hadn’t slept in a long time.
In her battle with Calypso, she had shown her no mercy.
She had lost cleanly.
It wasn’t even resentment I felt—rather, a hollow emptiness.
Was it because of the Dragon Duke’s curse?
Looking at it this way, my granddaughter had always been the same. Smaller than her peers, frailer-looking than her peers.
She simply trembled in the past, and now she sits with perfect posture.
Whether terrified or not, she was a child who met my gaze with an almost eerie steadiness.
“Of course. How could I not consider such an influence?”
“The family will fall into ruin.”
The influence of a male Orca becoming Matriarch would be far greater than expected.
It wasn’t without reason that Ocula had delayed naming a successor until the very last moment.
Until Calypso distinguished herself, there were only dark-skinned grandsons.
“Moreover, aren’t you afraid? I could leave the family as is and join hands with those Sharks in that wasteland.”
“Ah. So you’re trying to become a new force?”
Setting aside the content, it was a conversation conducted in a calm voice.
“Whether Father ruins the family, damages it, or loses it to someone else—I’m confident I can restore it to its original state whenever I wish, or take it back again.”
“Giving three years suggests you have somewhere to go.”
“Does it matter?”
Ocula fell silent. The elderly Orca, who had been quietly glaring at the table, slowly opened her mouth.
Her face looked young despite her age, but her eyes held the weight of years.
“I intended to make you my successor.”
She tried to steady her sharp voice and attempted to convey some gentleness.
“Orcas teach their granddaughters, after all.”
Ocula briefly imagined herself placing a hand on her granddaughter’s shoulder.
It had been so long since she’d imagined anything that the rusty mechanism creaked and groaned.
“Would you become Matriarch?”
….
In the silence, Ocula spoke again.
“I would have said this.”
In her imagination, she extended her hand to her small granddaughter, and grasped the even tinier hand—like a pebble—smaller than her small body.
In imagination alone, she held that hand.
That’s what it meant.
“Is that so? I see.”
Calypso’s face was utterly composed, even cold.
Ocula stared at Calypso with a hollow, weary expression for a long time.
Years piled upon years were truly terrifying.
Yes, terrifying.
Ocula retrieved the word “fear” from her dictionary for the first time in ages.
Her lips moved slightly.
“…I’m sorry.”
Ocula’s lips moved again.
“Will you accept an apology offered this way?”
Calypso lifted her eyes. They were perfectly smooth and glassy.
Her expressionless face tilted in confusion.
“Why me?”

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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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