Black Killer Whale Baby - Chapter 249

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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 249
Loreille held the small boy close as he spoke.
It was peculiar.
Among all the land-dwelling beastkin, the monkeys were the ones who discriminated most against aquatic beastkin.
So much so that every subordinate who had dealt with or interrogated monkeys grew sick of them after just a single encounter.
“Those bastards are all like racist vending machines! Just listening to them makes me want to—ugh!”
“Calm down. Should we calmly tear that bastard’s mouth off first?”
“…You calm down, you idiot.”
Monkeys were creatures born with unwavering prejudice—beings with whom logic held no sway.
Which made the man before me all the more peculiar.
“If you help me, I’ll not only guide you but also help those being held captive escape.”
Rather than answer immediately, I crossed my arms.
In a city where I had to be wary of even a blade of grass, it would be foolish to trust someone based on a single statement.
“You don’t trust me, do you? What I mean is…”
“Let’s hear it first. What do you want?”
“Calypso!”
The gorilla beastkin’s eyes widened.
There was definitely a glimmer of recognition in those eyes. Why? As I watched, the man’s lips moved.
“I see… I suspected as much, but it is indeed you.”
“You know me?”
“Yes. Rather, if you’re an executive in this place, there’s no one who wouldn’t know you.”
Since I inherited Aquasiadel, I haven’t conducted any activities in the capital.
Yet something nagged at me.
‘I made quite the impression at the Dragon’s domain arena, didn’t I?’
There were countless land-dwelling beastkin there too, so it wouldn’t be strange if my face became known.
But my instincts were screaming.
This man knew me for a different reason.
“Calypso Aquasiadel. The Crown Prince has mentioned you without fail, every single year.”
“How so?”
I asked without surprise. The man answered calmly.
“At first, he ordered me to remember this face.”
The man glanced at me cautiously.
“And then… he ordered my kidnapping.”
“And then?”
Since it failed, that’s why I’m here.
Beside me, Ekion and my subordinates and brothers grew fierce, but I waved my hand to stop them.
“And then, he was trying to… propose to you.”
“This insane bastard!”
Atlant couldn’t hold back and erupted. With that, water surged forth, and that bastard’s face finally became visible.
So he wasn’t going to spout that crazy nonsense about loving me now.
‘They sought to secure me through marriage.’
Just as I had been betrothed to those Black Panthers in the first and second cycles.
The Crown Prince would only remember the third cycle.
‘After the betrothal was arranged, I fled while heading to the Black Panther household.’
He must have remembered this and followed the same pattern.
‘But I never even heard the word “betrothal” mentioned…?’
How could that be?
“However, the Crown Prince’s attempts have never once succeeded.”
Loreille explained calmly.
Apparently, whenever the Crown Prince tried to propose a betrothal, mysterious accidents or incidents would occur, causing him to fail repeatedly.
For instance, if he wrote a letter, it would be blown away by the wind or fall into a fireplace. When he sent messengers, accidents would prevent the message from reaching Aquasiadel.
However, among countless attempts, there was one occasion when the proposal did reach Aquasiadel.
“At that time, I heard the Orca Family Matriarch rejected it outright.”
…That grandmother? I blinked, but only for a moment.
Amusingly, she had done at least one thing that pleased me.
‘In the end, regardless of the reason, that bastard couldn’t reach me through normal means, could he?’
Come to think of it, even when I saw him at the Sharks’ headquarters, the Crown Prince hadn’t spoken directly—he’d used clay dolls to communicate.
A Crown Prince wouldn’t travel such distances in person.
‘Let me consolidate this with Hauser’s report from his infiltration of the Imperial Palace.’
He was under severe constraints.
Despite having multiple opportunities to take revenge on me, he couldn’t forcibly seize them.
What would such a person typically want to do?
I pulled myself from those thoughts.
It wasn’t something I needed to worry about right now.
“The conversation has gone in circles. So what is it you want?”
Loreille pressed his lips together tightly. Gorillas generally had sharp features.
I had thought he looked quite docile for one of them.
“The whales—no. Do you intend to rescue all aquatic animal beastkin?”
“If I said I did?”
When I frowned, his expression matched the average intensity of the gorillas I knew.
“Then, when you rescue them, please save my kinfolk as well. This is my condition.”
“…What?”
Rarely, bewilderment came first.
“What are you talking about? You treat aquatic animal beastkin like us as vermin, yet you regard your own species with such horror?”
The monkeys were twisted in a different way.
Believing only lions and Black Panthers, and themselves, to be superior. A horrifying hybrid of racism and supremacy.
In other words, their tribal loyalty was not merely terrible—it was extraordinarily strong.
“Yes, you’re hearing correctly that common sense you know has been turned upside down and something has gone wrong. My brother…he doesn’t hesitate to conduct experiments even on his own kinfolk.”
Loreille wiped his face as if recalling something horrific.
“If it’s possible, please eliminate this city…for me.”
Her face looked haggard.
“Shall we move to a different location first?”
Loreille glanced around as he spoke. He mentioned that while this place was certainly sparse in foot traffic, occasionally ‘Hunters’ contracted by the research facility would appear.
* * *
“What are ‘Hunters’?”
Loreille gave me a sidelong glance before answering in a measured tone.
“Those who hunt Beastkin. They’re either affiliated with the research facility or contracted by it—essentially human traffickers.”
“They certainly gave criminals a fancy title, didn’t they?”
Loreille offered a bitter smile.
“I have nothing to say in response. After all, having been born a Gorilla Beastkin, I bear that sin as well.”
Loreille cast another sidelong glance at me before parting his lips.
“But… doesn’t it bother you that so many eyes are on us?”
“Not really. I’m used to it.”
We had been led into the underground spaces beneath the city.
Loreille and his companions were using the old, disused sewers and underground passages, he explained.
Indeed, as we entered the massive cavern and walked through the corridors between them, countless gazes poured down upon us.
I could feel them all, even those hidden in the shadows.
‘At most, it’s probably the same number that gathered in the Dragon’s domain arena.’
Moreover, having once commanded an entire aquatic beast army, it would be absurd to be bothered by mere stares.
“Here we are.”
Loreille stopped before a door. I had been observing the well-maintained ceiling and walls, but turned my head again as the door opened.
“Teacher, so what is it? Tell us, tell us!”
“Nya-do! Nya-do, tell us!”
“Children, don’t tire the teacher out by hanging on him like that.”
What caught my eye first were children of various ages. There were very young ones, some approaching adulthood, and what appeared to be young adults as well.
And the children were clustered around one person. The moment I heard the laughter of the person buried beneath them, I froze.
“Yes, yes. Oh my, I’m dying here, you rascals.”
Beige—no, dark brown hair caught my eye first.
“Camula…”
Someone called out her name before I could.
Glancing to the side, Atlant had the expression of someone who’d seen a ghost.
My own face was likely not much different.
The woman must have heard the quiet voice, for she turned her head.
“Hmm, who is it? A visitor? Loreille, who are they?”
“Well… hear it directly from them.”
“What? That unfriendly attitude? Hmm, they don’t seem to be enemies. Why does this feel so familiar?”
Her straightforward manner of speaking made me hold my breath internally, then release it.
“…Camula Wallis.”
“Oh, that’s my name. What is it? Did Loreille already tell you my name?”
This woman with jet-black eyes was a Walrus Beastkin.
She had separated from her own kind and come alone to Aquasiadel to follow me.
And she was the commander of my forces.
“….”
She had also been Atlant’s retainer.
Yet, Camula being here meant something was certainly wrong.
I let out a quiet groan.
It was because Camula, approaching this place, was limping.
“…Atlant.”
I reached out my hand. Water streamed from my fingertips, coiling around Atlant’s arm.
To prevent him from clenching his fist any tighter.
“Relax. Your face is showing.”
But Atlant seemed not to hear me. I exhaled softly.
It couldn’t be helped.
I wasn’t the only one who lost subordinates in the third cycle.
Though Atlant, poor in social skills and violent by nature, had fought almost entirely alone in the war.
By his position as an Orca and the Matriarch’s brother, he did have a few subordinates.
This was the first time he was witnessing those who died on the same day and hour.
For me, it was familiar. But for Atlant, it was as good as his first time.
“Oh, an Orca?”
Camula, remembering nothing, laughed brightly.
“Good to see you, good to see you.”
Her smiling face was a welcome sight to me as well. But seeing her here in Madrum.
And from her limping leg, I too could not hide my melancholy.

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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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