Black Killer Whale Baby - Chapter 230

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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 230
That same night.
Before bed, I sat on the edge of my mattress, leaning against the headboard as my thoughts consumed me.
“An invitation has arrived from the Imperial Palace!”
Naturally, the conference room erupted into chaos.
It wasn’t from just anywhere—it was an invitation from the Imperial Capital. More precisely, from the Imperial Palace itself, congratulating the emergence of a new Matriarch.
The Imperial Palace was hosting a celebration banquet and inviting me to pay my respects.
“What bullshit. Those bastards.”
That was Atlant’s reaction after reading the invitation. I agreed completely.
Congratulating my ascension to Matriarch?
It was nothing but a trap. A well-laid one at that, dangled openly before us.
A hollow lure, no different from the lantern of a deep-sea angler.
When my Father rose to Matriarch, there wasn’t a single word from them.
But the moment I ascended, they sent this. It was obvious what they wanted.
‘As if they’d been waiting all along.’
While everyone else was either cautious or furious, I alone remained composed.
“Prepare yourselves.”
“Yes? Matriarch!”
“Listen carefully. Get all personnel ready to move.”
All personnel mobilized.
No one in this conference room misunderstood what that meant. Anyone who did wouldn’t have been allowed inside.
I had been preparing since the moment I awakened from that long sleep.
For war to come again.
Now that I’d swept away those troublesome Shark bastards and the remnants left in my Main Castle, there was nothing left to hold me back.
I would repay their invitation with spectacular force.
That was my thought as I gazed at the invitation, soaked and tearing in water.
Creak.
As I was lost in these thoughts, the terrace door opened slightly with a sound.
Creak, creak. Someone slipped quietly through the gap in the terrace door.
“You’re a bit late.”
The figure that appeared through the door was none other than the Dragon Duke.
I stared at the Dragon Duke for a moment.
“I took a walk.”
“So it seems.”
I had been sensing his presence the entire time, moving just below my terrace.
Actually, since I’d attached a stream of water to that Duke, there was no way I wouldn’t have known if anything had happened.
“Go to sleep early.”
Though it was still too early for bed, I brazenly patted the space beside me.
The Dragon Duke hesitated for a moment, but soon lay down obediently at my side.
“Close your eyes and sleep quickly.”
As if she had been waiting, she closed her eyes smoothly.
I stared intently at the Dragon Duke.
‘That Crown Prince must be in quite a state if he’s sending invitations like this.’
In this docile appearance, I overlapped the image of Ekion.
I leaned back and slowly closed my eyes. Things would get busy from here on.
Sleep was essential.
* * *
We were truly busy in the Gap of Time. I thought we’d just go in and spend time staring blankly, but it wasn’t so simple.
Crash!
“Stop talking already, Tus. Is the Gap of Time just another word for apocalypse?”
-Tus, that, don’t know, what mean!
“What?”
I watched the massive entity rushing toward me and ground my teeth. I spun my fists in circles.
“I’m saying this is ridiculous!”
Centrifugal punch!
The entity that took my fist shrieked and scattered into wisps.
It was a monster made of black mist. I no longer felt surprised seeing it.
I had seen them far too often.
-Calypso, amazing!
“Be quiet.”
I caught my breath, then collapsed onto the ground. Soon I exhaled completely and stood up.
In the Gap of Time, I didn’t even sweat. In fact, if I set my mind to it, I supposedly wouldn’t grow tired at all.
But I had no idea how to do that.
As I trudged forward, a campfire crackled at the end.
A rounded back straightened as the figure spun around.
“Calypso!”
“Yeah, Yongyang. I’m here.”
I collapsed onto the ground next to Ekion.
Ekion had been quite busy too—traces of black mist were visible around him.
It was the residue left behind when the black monsters disappeared.
When we first entered the Gap of Time, it had been peaceful.
But not long after that creature appeared, this space became dark and damp, a place where zombie-like monsters could burst out from the shadows at any moment.
‘Was I born into a parenting story or an apocalypse story? Tsk.’
I felt a gaze and turned to see Ekion watching carefully.
Apparently, there was nothing to be done about creatures attacking like this in the Gap of Time.
If a Dragon is here, they try to devour it at every opportunity?
Meanwhile, the Dragon has to endure by defeating these creatures until it charges up enough power to grow.
I asked what would happen if the Dragon got eaten.
Then the Dragon of this generation dies, and the next generation Dragon is born into the world.
‘How fleeting it all is.’
In a place no one could see, in a place no one would ever acknowledge.
I could close my eyes in solitude.
“Do all dragons spend their time alone in this lonely place?”
“…There are individual differences, but. Yes.”
It seemed growth could only be achieved by passing through this space.
“Why must growth be so painfully difficult?”
Other beastkin just grow naturally when you wait for them, don’t they?
Is it because the power I wield is exceptional?
Ekion answered quietly.
“Because that’s how you were born?”
“…I see.”
I turned my gaze back to the campfire. A world where, if I wished, I would never sleep nor feel drowsiness.
A space where even death would go unnoticed by anyone.
Suddenly, I realized it was no different from my own life.
“No one would acknowledge my death either—it’s the same as yours.”
“….”
“No matter how many times I die as a returner, to someone it will only ever be a single death.”
Since monsters appeared at regular intervals, the times without them were truly peaceful.
So I fell into contemplation and spoke such thoughts.
“Does the dragon not remember the previous cycle?”
“….”
Sometimes I wondered.
Do you not remember at all the time I experienced in my third cycle?
Ekion gazed at me silently without answering.
* * *
-Dragon Duke! Something has arrived!
There is one common misconception people often hold.
That the generational succession of the Dragon Duke progresses naturally as time flows.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with that statement, but to be precise, there was a specific moment when succession occurred naturally.
This was because each individual born was granted a different span of time.
The individual ‘Ekion’ born as the Dragon Duke of this generation had been granted an exceptionally long span of time.
A very long one.
The problem was that this was a naturally occurring succession point, so even if the Dragon Duke was murdered by another, committed suicide, or
if time was reversed due to an anomalous existence entering from outside,
the timing of natural generational succession would not change.
Dragons could instinctively sense any anomalous existence that entered the time they managed.
‘Once, perhaps?’
The problem was that simply being called Ekion did not allow him to recognize it immediately.
He only became aware of Calypso’s existence after she had regressed once, during her second life.
And sadly, he only noticed this just as Calypso was approaching death, and time reversed.
A Returner who ignores the laws of time appeared in the domain I managed.
Occasionally, it was the discord caused by souls from other places.
When the third cycle began, Ekion simply closed his eyes and ignored it.
According to records, the Dragon Duke himself would directly eliminate such heterogeneous beings.
But Ekion possessed no such motivation.
Though the Returner had rewound time, Ekion had to live as the Dragon Duke for such an extraordinarily long span that he could easily disregard the reversed time anyway.
Occasionally, the Imperial Palace that appeared after reading ancient records would pick fights.
Aside from that, it was a life with nothing particularly special.
However, the third cycle unfolded strangely.
The Crown Prince of the Imperial Palace who appeared after reading ancient records somewhere.
This one was the problem.
Destiny was not fair to all beings.
In the world, there occasionally existed souls that shone a bit brighter and grasped a bit more.
And the Crown Prince happened to be the most radiant soul among them.
“Ahahaha, hahaha! Dragon! Destroy everything! Let everything I cannot possess die!”
That Ekion never expected the Crown Prince would abandon his own radiant destiny just to send him into a rampage.
This was Ekion’s fatal mistake.
Once sent into a rampage, Ekion was helplessly busy destroying this world.
Though not entirely devoid of reason, he could not restrain his body that had already gone berserk by instinct.
Even the Crown Prince who had triggered the rampage met his end by Ekion’s hand.
For the first time, Ekion felt irritation and disillusionment amidst boredom and ennui.
Since the Returner existed, time would repeat.
Then must he go through this process once more?
Should he erase all the ancient records when he returned?
A dragon simply by living and breathing brought benefit to the world.
An untouched mass of energy. That was precisely what a dragon was.
If time rewound like this, the Crown Prince would not remember what he had done.
But there was no law that said what happened once could not happen again.
At the end of destruction, Ekion finally faced the Returner he had tacitly permitted before his eyes.
“Ha…. Seoul?”
She was a woman who showed not a shred of fear even before him.
Though blood soaked her face, her blue eyes remained vivid and clear.
She gazed blankly at what lay behind Ekion, and then finally at the agent of destruction itself.
She stared at Ekion.
“You must be suffering too.”
A smile spread across her blood-stained face.
“I’m just a victim, like you.”
Ekion hesitated. No, only his reason felt that way.
In reality, his body was faithfully carrying out destruction.
“Truth is, I was terribly lonely. Now that I finally have someone precious, why has it come to this….”
Her leisurely smile showed no fear of death.
“In the next life….”
Was it because she was a Returner?
The Returner whom Ekion had simply left to live in peace was a remarkable soul who had overcome her fate from the depths of despair and climbed all the way to that radiant summit.
…I found myself intrigued.
“Let’s meet again.”
In the moment Ekion brought his own destruction to completion, he recalled a curiosity he should never have entertained.
A Returner who had defeated the most luminous soul in this world.
I wondered what kind of world would unfold if you were the protagonist.
The price of that fleeting curiosity and interest was not insignificant.
The moment time turned back, Ekion lost his power for the sole reason that he had desired it.
If one were to trace the cause, it was because he could not control his power due to the rampage moments before.
He had grown careless, overwhelmed by curiosity and interest he had felt for the first time in his life.
The temporal power that slipped from him seeped into the next cycle.
Because of this, a person who was not a Returner came to remember the past time.
For he had carelessly given a thread of his power to the Returner.
His power fulfilled the Returner’s wish to no longer be alone.

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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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