Black Killer Whale Baby - Chapter 221

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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 221
A brief silence stretched between Hauser and me, but it didn’t last long before he suddenly rose to his feet.
“…You remember me.”
Eyes darkened with gloom pierced through me. He looked ready to charge forward at any moment.
Yet instead of rushing toward me, he dropped to one knee right there.
“Your servant bows before his master.”
What expression should I wear in a moment like this?
It felt different from when Atlant and Bellus remembered me.
Was this the difference between family and subordinate?
Or was it the difference between one who began as an enemy but became a companion, and one who blindly followed me from the start?
Moreover, when we first met in the third cycle, Hauser looked just as wretched as this.
Though memories swirled within me, I spoke calmly.
“Rise.”
With just those words calling his name, Hauser seemed to confirm that I remembered him.
Rising from his place, Hauser strode toward me and pulled me into a tight embrace.
“…You’re alive.”
I could do nothing but stand there.
“…Yes.”
Hauser’s trembling hands gripped my back as if he were clinging to a cliff edge, careful not to hurt me.
Your obsession, which had only felt dark in your voice, now felt both willing and strangely profound.
“My master.”
Hauser had his memories.
“I have waited for this day.”
I had definitely said this to Atlant before.
That depending on what Hauser’s first words would be when he opened his eyes, many things would change.
“Among countless possibilities I considered, there was one where you retained your memories, but…”
The odds were slim.
Had it not been for what Bellus told me, I would have thought more hopefully.
Atlant and Bellus said that the further they separated from me, the fainter their memories of past lives became.
So I had thought there was no way this cycle’s Hauser, who had grown up separated from me since birth, could possibly retain his memories.
“Let go. I can’t breathe.”
“Yes.”
I clicked my tongue.
He answers well enough.
Even when I pushed, Hauser didn’t budge an inch.
“Do you think I’m just standing here because I lack the strength to push you away?”
At my cold words devoid of warmth, a small laugh escaped from above my head.
A melancholic and slow laugh.
“Truly, you are the Matriarch.”
Hauser released me and naturally brought his hand to rest behind his waist.
At attention stance.
Seeing his posture without a single flaw, I smiled faintly.
“Stand at ease.”
Thanks to Whale’s treatment, he was no longer a patient, but his strength must have been severely depleted.
“How is it that you still have your memories?”
“Pardon?”
Hauser blinked slowly. His narrow, elongated eyes fixed on me as he asked.
“When you said ‘how is it that you’… there are others besides me, aren’t there?”
Those who retain their memories.
“And you’re still unnecessarily perceptive as always.”
“Because you favored humans you could use, my lord.”
“Let’s clear up any misunderstanding. I favored a perceptive subordinate.”
“Yes, even so, hearing that you favor me is something special, my lord.”
“Your screw-loose head seems unchanged as well.”
By any measure, he doesn’t appear to be someone with faded memories.
“When did you start remembering?”
“There’s no ‘when’ to speak of.”
“What?”
Despite my telling him to stand at ease, Hauser remained at attention.
Like before, he stood unnecessarily rigid like a soldier, only tilting his head loosely.
“I remembered from the moment I was born.”
“Tsk, born carrying something useless? Then why didn’t you appear before me?”
“That was…”
Hauser paused for the first time. I don’t allow deception.
Sensing my gaze, he opened his mouth again without hesitation.
“I went to find you, but I feared that if you didn’t remember me, I would be disappointed without knowing my place.”
“…”
“So I thought it would be better to appear with something that could be of use to you instead.”
“‘Thought,’ nothing—you were afraid.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
A clean admission.
“You are my life, my death, and my existence itself. I was terrified that you might not remember me.”
Behind his overly honest words came another reason.
“And then, there came a reason I couldn’t be by your side.”
“A reason you couldn’t?”
“The Crown Prince discovered that I retained my memories.”
Now that I think about it, he also spoke as though he retained memories from the third cycle.
I ran my hand roughly through my hair.
‘How exactly is this cycle unfolding?’
“At that time, I crossed over to the capital and began intelligence operations to be of service to you.”
…Why was this bastard doing something he hadn’t done in this life before?
Looking at his absurd expression, his gloomy face twisted into a grin. His eyes didn’t look like those of a sane person.
“Who would mistake you for a land animal Beastkin?”
“I’ve become acquainted with the black bears. Fortunately, there isn’t much visible difference in appearance.”
Hauser said that during his childhood, he lived in the capital and somehow managed to enter the Imperial Capital, gathering various information.
Then he said he hastily fled the capital after being discovered by the Crown Prince.
“Wait, wait. If that lion bastard knew you had memories, that means…. He’s had memories from long ago too?”
Hauser nodded.
It was strange.
‘If that bastard had memories from the third cycle, it’s even more strange. He would definitely have used it somewhere.’
Especially since he was someone who despised aquatic animal Beastkin, us Orcas.
It wouldn’t have been strange if he attacked immediately using knowledge of the future.
But the world hadn’t changed much from what I remembered.
“Strange, isn’t it? That’s precisely why the Crown Prince pursued me. Because I discovered his secret, Matriarch.”
Hauser’s eyes grew dark.
“The Crown Prince remembers his previous life, but he cannot do anything.”
A glimmer of delight flickered in those shadowy eyes.
“For example, I witnessed him raging in fury because he cannot do anything, even if he wanted to ruin your future, Matriarch.”
“What do you mean by that?”
I couldn’t easily understand.
“To be precise, he cannot leave the Imperial Capital and the capital, and there is only one other place he can go.”
“…Where?”
“The Black Panther family’s manor.”
….
The Imperial Capital, the capital. And the Black Panther family’s manor.
I swallowed hard.
‘…These are all the major settings from the original work, aren’t they?’
Now that I think about it, the Crown Prince didn’t seem to appear in any other settings.
“And he cannot harm aquatic animal Beastkin through Suha’s hands or direct orders.”
“Huh?”
“As proof, he coughed up blood when he tried to use the power of the earth against me.”
I blinked, then my lips curled upward. It was a sneer.
A hearty laugh escaped me unbidden.
“Ah. So that bastard became a pathetic fool.”
I laughed aloud, then stopped while wiping away a few tears.
I never expected Hauser to appear with such fortune.
‘So that’s why all he could send to this land was clay golems?’
“Then, could it be that you were captured by the Sharks because of the Imperial Palace?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
Hauser said that after safely escaping the capital, instead of settling somewhere, he thought of the Wasteland.
So you were thinking it would be good to hide your tracks while wandering around this place, and to crush the Sharks who would torment me later before they became a problem?
‘Why do you live your entire life centered only around me?’
I felt a slight heaviness settle over me.
As we talked, I realized this man had never escaped the life of his third cycle.
Even though he was living a different life now.
I laughed without showing it and gave Hauser’s shoulder a couple of light pats.
“So? What happened next?”
“…Yes?”
“Why did you get caught?”
No matter how many Sharks swarmed in, I still believed Hauser was the type who could escape from there.
“I discovered that the Crown Prince had joined hands with some of the Shark faction.”
“That man who despises aquatic animal Beastkin so intensely? How peculiar.”
Was this evidence of how desperately he wanted to capture Hauser? Or was it a plan to strike at me?
“While investigating that relationship, I reached my limits and deliberately allowed myself to be captured. I thought it would be easier for me to find out that way.”
“…”
“Thanks to that, I learned the method to break the curse the Crown Prince placed on me—the curse that prevents me from leaving the capital.”
“…How much were you hurt while finding that out?”
I was about to ask, but let out a long sigh instead.
Hauser looked at me quietly, then continued speaking as if nothing were wrong.
“Matriarch, it is the Dragon.”
“Hm?”
“The Dragon’s power appears to be capable of freeing the Crown Prince.”
In that moment, I recalled the Imperial Palace’s obsession with the Dragon Duke in this life—an obsession that had been particularly vicious.
At the same time, chills ran down my spine.

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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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