Black Killer Whale Baby - Chapter 209

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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 209
“Father knows this time won’t last forever.”
“What?”
“Do you think Father can keep you by his side indefinitely? Once you settle things, Shark, you’ll take the Matriarch’s position, won’t you?”
“Hmm. Was it that obvious?”
“Do I not know you? Matriarch.”
…
Moments like these remind me that I’ve lived an entire lifetime with this man.
“Yeah, you’re right.”
I watched Father wearing an exhausted expression among the crowd.
It was an expression only I could recognize.
“Now I need to save Father.”
“Save?”
“Father hates being around people. The Matriarch position probably doesn’t suit his nature at all. How much must a man who’s lived his entire life alone be enduring?”
…
“But why would he do it?”
Because it’s for my sake. He’s enduring it. A brief silence fell between us.
“…Your final task is still to strike down the Imperial Palace, isn’t it?”
“Of course.”
…
“I need to untie this long-standing knot.”
Glancing at Second Brother, despite his fine attire, he looked exhausted.
I probably wore a similar expression. This was the kind of regret only those of us who’d returned, carrying the sediment of time, could possess.
Especially me.
Thump—Atlant’s hand landed on my shoulder.
“I’m going.”
“Where?”
“To be filial. Well, I should stop resenting and live as a son.”
He was probably referring to how Father had turned away from all of us children in our younger days.
“Happy birthday. My brother.”
The things I’ve changed are turning like a wheel.
“I resolved my last regret long ago.”
…
“Because I wished for your happiness. Now I’m witnessing it.”
“…What are you doing, being so sappy?”
“Ha, is that all you have to say?”
I brushed off Second Brother’s hand as his face twisted, speaking curtly.
“It’s too early.”
…
“After we’ve destroyed the Imperial Palace completely, then we’ll talk again. That way, I think we’ll be even happier.”
Atlant flashed his fangs with a grin before slinking away.
Despite his satisfied expression, my mood only grew more unsettled.
“He had the same face as someone facing death. It’s unsettling.”
I scratched my neck before heading toward the terrace.
The birthday celebrant shouldn’t disappear, but at this party, attention would naturally gravitate toward Father rather than me anyway.
That was precisely what Father wanted, so I decided to oblige.
Besides, we’d already arranged to gather as a family later tonight for another celebration.
‘I just want to get some sleep.’
* * *
“Mmm….”
I stepped onto the terrace, leaned against the railing, and drained the champagne I’d brought with me.
“It’s not even touching my liver.”
Should I have brought a few more glasses?
As I was thinking this, someone opened the door and entered.
‘Who is it?’
The backlighting obscured their face, but I recognized them immediately by their hair color.
Dark ash-gray hair with a lustrous sheen. Eyes the same color as his hair.
A man with hair loosely tied and falling down to his waist.
He had the typical appearance of a scholar, yet his broad shoulders and long, well-proportioned silhouette contradicted that impression.
His sharp, piercing gaze was nothing like that of a scholar.
‘He’s far removed from his own species.’
Round glasses.
I tilted my head as I observed his slender, graceful silhouette.
As he approached, he extended a plate with a sharp expression.
“What?”
It was Levai, grown.
“I thought you couldn’t come because you were away on inspection?”
“I came. How could I miss your birthday?”
“Quite the loyal one, aren’t you?”
Levai smiled sharply while holding out the plate.
It was impossible to tell if it was a smile or a sneer.
“Without loyalty, I’m just a corpse.”
“Wipe your mouth before saying things like that.”
“Ah, you saw through me. How unfortunate.”
“Tsk.”
I sipped from the glass Levai offered and looked at him slowly.
“If you’re back, that means Eldest Brother returned with you?”
“Indeed, but since when have you been so affectionate as to ask after Bellus?”
“We’re affectionate siblings.”
“Rather, a convenient subordinate to use, wouldn’t you say?”
I let out a small laugh.
‘This one’s becoming more and more identical to the third cycle. Sometimes it’s confusing.’
I wasn’t the only one who felt this way.
Atlant and Bellus sensed it similarly.
In fact, I’d probed him several times out of curiosity, and it was clear he truly didn’t remember the third cycle.
‘It’s better that he doesn’t remember, but….’
In truth, even identical people grew differently depending on what environment they lived in.
In Atlant’s case, he was slightly less savage than in his previous life, and he’d grown taller.
Bellus remained cold, but he’d learned to wear a somewhat softer expression.
But.
Strangely, only this one had grown in exactly the same way as the third cycle I remembered.
‘Is there a reason for it? Or is it just coincidence.’
In the meantime, Levai set aside the empty plate and approached me again.
“Matriarch?”
“No matter how many times I hear myself called Matriarch, it’s still peculiar, you know.”
“Pardon?”
“Nothing. Just talking to myself.”
Levai tilted his head in confusion.
Then, as if struck by a thought.
He placed one hand over his chest and offered a respectful bow.
“Happy birthday, Matriarch.”
It was a proper bow. It suited his lean frame well.
The other dolphins were round-shaped like Lugaru.
I’d always wondered why only this one looked like a mutation.
“Happy birthday, Matriarch. May you live for a very long time.”
“You’re cursing me, aren’t you.”
Back then, I’d gotten angry because his wish for me to live long sounded like he was wishing for me to repeat my life endlessly. I still vividly remembered his aggrieved expression.
The memory made me smile slightly.
Then I wiped away my smile and asked.
“Why do you follow me anyway?”
All this time, Levai had served as my secretary without me even asking.
Even when I was asleep.
“Gratitude….”
“You’ve repaid that debt. I don’t mind if you leave and live happily.”
Levai laughed coldly.
“When you were using me, you never said such things. It’s a bit disappointing.”
Mocking your superior—that’s insubordination.
“I like that power. So please stop twisting things. It’s confusing.”
While I was briefly tracing through the past, Levai drew closer by a distance that wouldn’t be rude.
Because his face was identical, for just a moment, I became confused about which life I was standing in.
“I’m working diligently, so I’d appreciate it if you could guarantee my advancement.”
“Why?”
The eyes beneath his glasses studied me for a long moment.
“Women overflowing with power are my preference.”
“….”
A subtle tension spread from where our gazes crossed.
If this tension were a fragrance, it would grow more concentrated with each breath I took.
I slowly reached out my hand.
“Speaking like that will cause misunderstandings.”
“….”
Before I knew it, my hand had grasped Levai’s chin and tilted it upward.
Why do you confuse me like this?
When you don’t even remember.
‘Would things be different if you had remembered?’
Ah, they would be.
‘I would have hit you out of sheer annoyance.’
What was amusing was that instead of resisting, he obediently bent his waist and offered his face.
Even this was similar.
“I’ve decided to take only one husband, you see?”
“I’m not sure what point led to such a misunderstanding of the Matriarch.”
“You said women overflowing with power are your preference.”
“It is my preference. Show some respect, will you? And naturally, wouldn’t I see far fewer such people if I’m by your side?”
“Hmm?”
I applied pressure with my hand. The delicate tension that had been building shattered like glass.
“Um, Matriarch? Is it presumptuous… Are you planning to knock my jaw clean off?”
“Your silver tongue is quite….”
“Since I make my living with my mouth, you might as well break my limbs instead.”
“Should I actually break them?”
“….”
Even as he closed his mouth, I couldn’t help but laugh at the face still radiating complaint.
I pushed Levai’s face away.
“Never mind. I must have been mistaken.”
“Mistaken about what?”
“I’m not telling you.”
I patted Levai’s shoulder and waved my hand dismissively.
“Go on, I need some rest.”
“…Yes. Then I’ll see you later.”
Levai turned to leave, but then suddenly stopped as if remembering something.
“Matriarch.”
I regarded him with an indifferent expression. He smiled with an elegant face.
“Live long.”
My mood grew even stranger.
* * *
After Levai left, a vague emptiness dominated my entire being for a while.
‘Well, what can you do. These things happen.’
Whether Levai actually remembered the past and was pretending not to know,
or couldn’t remember—it wasn’t immediately important anyway.
‘There must be a reason he’s being so evasive.’
A lightness took hold of my entire being.
“It’s my birthday.”
A birthday I’ve lived through many times before.
Will the birthdays I have left become happy days like today?
“Once I crush the Imperial Palace, they will.”
Glasses were scattered beside me—ones Levai had brought back when he returned.
Unnecessarily meticulous, that one.
I gazed at the blue moon for a long while, blinking, until sleep claimed me.
In my dream, I stood in a ruined castle.
It was the final moment of the third cycle, which I hadn’t seen in so long.
I surveyed the ruins with my injured body.
Soon an attack would come to kill me and destroy this world.
Yet nowhere could I see the Dragon Duke who would annihilate this world.
‘…What? Where did he go?’
Space shattered and reassembled. When I closed and opened my eyes, I stood in a dark space.
A gap in time. Where Ekion and I had been for three years.
“I won’t peek into Calypso’s time.”
“Really? I don’t particularly mind either way.”
“Later.”
“Later?”
A conversation we’d had one day in the gap of time echoed through the space.
Then I slowly opened my eyes.
“Calypso showed me directly.”
“Ah, was I asleep….”
I rubbed my eyes vigorously. I couldn’t tell how much time had passed.
But it didn’t seem like much.
The music from the party still drifted in from beyond the terrace doors.
I stretched languidly.
‘I’m still drowsy.’
My eyes felt itchy.
As I rubbed them again, I noticed something hanging over me and lifted my head.
‘What? When did you get so close?’
Someone was standing there.
When I blinked slowly, the person gazing at the sky turned their head.
Hair that gently covered their forehead fluttered in the breeze—a brilliant indigo that resembled the blue of night itself.
A figure who had not existed in that moment of destruction during the third cycle, now surfacing in my memory from the dream.
…The Dragon Duke.
Eyes of different colors crossed.
In an instant that felt like an eternity, my mouth fell open of its own accord.

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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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