Black Killer Whale Baby - Chapter 211

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

Chapter 211
The golden eyes that heard my question gazed at me with something enigmatic in their depths.
“What’s with that look?”
“I was wondering if that’s why you decided to treat me so carelessly. Something seemed to change from the moment you threw your fist.”
“Close enough.”
If I had truly believed this boy was Ekion, I wouldn’t have thrown that punch.
The man was remarkably composed for someone who had lost his memories. Moreover, even while fighting, he showed a desire to go to the City of Dragons.
I wondered if something else had possessed the grown Ekion’s body.
There were reincarnators and returners in this world. Why couldn’t there be someone possessed?
Even pinned beneath me, Ekion didn’t bat an eye and spoke quietly.
“Unfortunately, I’m likely the being you know.”
“Really? How cute of you to ask me to be nice to you, grown-up Yongyang.”
“….”
As Ekion displayed a flustered demeanor, he continued speaking.
I disliked how the man’s expression didn’t change at all.
The man also seemed to realize I didn’t believe his words in the slightest.
For a moment, I considered grabbing his collar and jumping down to find a quieter place.
‘I can’t. Sentries are stationed all around.’
With so many guests gathered on a day like this, I had to prevent a repeat of the Orca Family Matriarch’s tragedy.
I had deployed the Knights extensively.
It was to prevent the kind of oppression that used to happen—spouting survival of the fittest and openly persecuting the weaker Beastkin families.
Both Father and I had issued orders long ago that we wouldn’t tolerate such things.
Ironically, the quietest place to have a conversation was this.
Unless it was Father’s Manor far from here, this terrace was better.
‘If someone comes, I’ll know.’
I had already sharpened my senses. To detect any presence immediately.
The battle had honed my instincts even further.
The man seemed to have realized early on that I wouldn’t move anymore.
He’s perceptive.
Moreover, considering the thirty-minute battle, despite not having formally trained in combat, he’s skilled in fighting.
What do I mean? I’m not entirely sure myself, but that’s my honest impression.
Like watching a swordsman who wields a blade well despite not having calloused hands from training….
My eyes sharpened.
The more I thought about it, the greater my wariness toward the man became.
The man who had given up spoke, parting his lips.
“I want to ask if you have any intention of moving….”
“No. Just tell me as we are.”
“Isn’t it uncomfortable?”
“What can I do? Yongyang liked being close to me the most.”
“….”
At first, his expression had been utterly bland, and even now it didn’t shift dramatically—yet his bewilderment shone through with crystalline clarity.
Soon, resignation flickered across his features as he began his explanation.
“…All dragons carry within their souls the experiences and knowledge of their predecessors.”
“Like an encyclopedia?”
“I don’t know what that is, but… when a dragon’s body or mind suffers damage, such knowledge occasionally takes control of consciousness.”
“So to summarize—you’ve lost your memories, and this ‘encyclopedia’ is urgently helping you compensate?”
Ekion nodded.
“Precisely.”
The detailed explanations continued from there, and the gist of it was this:
This encyclopedia-like thing he’d described was essentially a fragment of the First Dragon’s soul.
As Ekion grew, his memories had simply scattered away.
Judging that leaving things as they were would endanger the dragon’s very life, this fragment had awakened to provide knowledge.
“The First Dragon’s knowledge hoped that I would journey to the City of Dragons.”
“Why?”
“Because the dragon’s wealth sleeps there. Even if my memories don’t fully return, it seems the fragment judged I would at least find stability.”
“….”
“It’s my homeland, after all.”
The reality of Ekion’s amnesia struck me then.
If he knew what had happened to him in the City of Dragons, or what nearly happened, he couldn’t possibly speak so casually.
‘And if he goes to the City of Dragons as it is now, he might very well die.’
That place had long since become an enormous trap designed to ensnare him.
“You absolutely cannot go there.”
“Why not?”
“Because the Imperial Court waits with great and vicious poison in hand—whether to dissect dragons and consume them or enslave them all.”
For nine years, the Land Turtle Leader who had taken the seat of regent in the City of Dragons had sent me annual reports.
“The Imperial Court sends spies to this distant land searching for you.”
Each time, there were letters inquiring after Ekion’s wellbeing, roughly ten pages enclosed alongside words saying the time wasn’t yet right.
‘Hah. So it’s an encyclopedia in name, but really just an ancient dragon who once lived helping him out.’
…No wonder the speech pattern seemed archaic. I’d wondered where my cute Yongyang’s adorable way of speaking had gone.
I clicked my tongue.
“You certainly do go on about not being Ekion.”
“I’ve said it before—I am the being you know.”
“Then what’s my name?”
“….”
Watching the man show faint bewilderment yet ultimately fail to answer, I let out a soft laugh.
After spending so long outside, my hands had grown cold; I grasped his chin—sharp and perfect as a line drawn by frost—and tilted it upward.
The man yielded his chin to me, regarding me in silence.
“Fake Yongyang. I believe that memory is the very essence of the soul.”
The proof that a person can only be themselves—as someone who has regressed, I alone can speak of this with absolute certainty.
“You threaten me.”
A person without memories is not the one I know.
“Attack.”
I endured my past life this way, and from the moment of birth in this life, I’ve done the same.
“A man who doesn’t even know his own name isn’t the one I know.”
I stared coldly before releasing his face and rising from my seat.
In truth, even without adopting such a posture, I could have easily restrained him if he attempted to flee.
‘Hmm, how do I handle this.’
Father and my three brothers. And Levai. Whale, Lirivel… I recalled one by one those who would need to share this fact.
Had I been away for too long?
The music drifting from the banquet hall was gradually fading.
It seemed to be either a gentle waltz’s turn or time for the dancing to end.
I looked up at the sky.
‘There should be a Retainer nearby? I should have Second Brother brought here…’
Thinking this, I turned back and flinched.
“…What. You.”
My brow couldn’t help but furrow.
“Why… are you crying?”
The man had a remarkably expressionless face as tears streamed down, crying silently.
While crying, his face showed no change whatsoever, making it rather an eerie sight.
The man seemed like someone who didn’t know how to wipe away tears. Like Ekion in his childhood days, crying without knowing how to dry his tears.
“Hah.”
Yes. If this truly happened as a side effect, I couldn’t be any angrier.
Still, this man didn’t feel like Ekion to me.
This was something close to instinct.
The moment I grasped the curtain to open the door, a low voice reached me.
“…I lied to you about one thing.”
“First, stop your tears and then speak, alright?”
“It’s not my will.”
“…Can’t the Dragon even control his tear ducts? Fine. What lie did you tell?”
“The moment I opened my eyes, I was warned that the First Dragon’s fragment must go to the City of Dragons. But I… thought I had to find someone. With only a hazy name and appearance, when I felt I had to find them, the person I discovered was…”
“…”
“You.”
At those words, I could only regard the man with an enigmatic expression.
“What is your name?”
The man approached and carefully extended his hand toward me.
His hand grasped my wrist.
Punishing someone who touched me without permission was easier than breathing, so I allowed it.
“Remember it yourself.”
My voice softened, but my gaze remained as cold and frost-like as ever.
The man lowered his eyes.
At that same moment, the ground trembled.
‘Wait. Wait, wait just a moment….’
Recognizing the familiar tremor, I quickly grabbed the man’s arm.
The moment the man showed slight surprise, the earthquake stopped.
“…So you really are a Dragon.”
That tremor just now. It was the power of a Dragon.
“….”
Once I stopped the earthquake, an indescribable feeling washed over me.
Even now, this man doesn’t feel like Ekion to me.
Yet the gaze fixed upon me, still unable to wipe away tears.
It reminded me of that child I once knew.
It was troublesome.
* * *
There was a bigger problem.
Tus was nowhere to be found.
The subordinate who should have been clinging to Ekion’s side like glue was nowhere in sight.
This only made the man appear even less like Ekion.
But I clamped my mouth shut like a clam.
“He’s lost his memories.”
After the party ended, what should have been a modest celebration with family, acquaintances, and close retainers to wish me a happy birthday naturally transformed into a meeting instead.
The gathering had become a council.
“Wow, he’s huge. …Was he always this big?”
“Mind your words. This is a meeting.”
Atlant muttered without thinking, then closed his mouth and shrugged his shoulders.
In the large hall where familiar faces gathered here and there, Ekion sat quietly beside me.
“If I may be so bold, whether the esteemed one has memories or not is irrelevant to our plans, is it not?”
“Discard it.”
“In any case, the Dragon Duke previously had a role to fulfill until all matters were resolved….”
“Discard it.”
“….”
“….”
I turned my head.
The one who said to discard it was none other than Father, and with his legs crossed, he was utterly confident.
I wasn’t flustered.
‘A few months ago he told me to discard Whale….’
“Father, if you keep this up, you’ll be crying at my wedding.”

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