Black Killer Whale Baby - Chapter 269

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

Chapter 269
One hour before the Crown Prince announced the Emperor’s assassination.
Ekion and his party were inside the temple.
It was only after evening had fallen and more than an hour had passed since Calypso left the conference room.
That they were all able to infiltrate the temple using Ekion’s power.
To the team of just Ekion and Atlant, Bellus, Lirivel, Levai Hauser had joined.
“Everyone should understand—our objective here is to either uncover something or destroy whatever we find.”
Bellus said this, and no one raised any objections.
“But I’m curious about one thing. You’re a Dragon Duke too, so why did it take you half a day just to get inside?”
“Because the power of dragons is layered throughout this place.”
Ekion answered Bellus’s question while spreading his fingers.
“This many. Or more than that combined.”
That was the power felt within the temple itself. Everyone fell silent upon hearing that answer.
They could not compose themselves otherwise from the shock that had befallen them.
Within the temple were countless traps prepared for intruders.
But because Levai was with them, they safely avoided and advanced forward.
Destroying the traps carelessly could alert those outside.
After agreeing to escape as quietly as possible even if they triggered the traps.
Atlant rolled his stiff neck back and forth.
He had needed to use considerable water power to reach this place, and light fatigue settled upon his face.
“But I don’t see a single rat, seriously.”
The water power used to conceal appearance and presence proved useless—there were no living beings in this place.
All that existed were traps filled with savage intent to grind intruders to dust.
And how meticulously those traps were crafted.
Without several orca beastkin capable of levitating their bodies in midair and Levai, who had made great contributions in detecting traps beforehand.
There were countless traps that would have certainly turned them into corpses already.
One could even feel the malice.
“Perhaps it means there’s something here that even the guards or allies mustn’t discover.”
At Levai’s words, everyone except Ekion wore heavy or stern expressions.
“Is this the final chamber?”
Unlike the center of the temple, which was constructed like a maze with traps scattered throughout.
Walking straight down a linear corridor, only a single chamber appeared.
Atlant opened the door as the representative.
The moment the door opened, there was a trap shooting poisoned needles. But Levai determined there were none of those.
When they finally entered the opened chamber, everyone fell silent.
Before their eyes lay countless bones piled like mountains.
A sight that rendered even Bellus, Atlant, Levai, and Hauser—those who retained memories of war—speechless.
“…That madman.”
These words alone could not properly convey everyone’s feelings. Atlant ground his teeth.
How many people had died until this massive bone tomb was created.
The numbers were beyond imagination.
“A laboratory like Madrum’s… existed here too?”
“That would seem to be the case.”
Anger and disgust were woven through the brief exchange between Bellus and Levai.
Only Ekion, unlike the others, wandered with a calm expression searching for the source of power.
“Wait, look at that.”
In the midst of this, Hauser raised his hand and pointed at something.
Everyone couldn’t help but be shocked once more.
And for good reason—where Hauser pointed, there was a corpse sitting in a grotesquely dead state.
It had been dead for a long time, the body decomposed. Since no one was inexperienced enough to cover their mouth or nose, they stared plainly.
And reached their conclusion without difficulty.
“It’s the Emperor.”
Levai spoke first. As someone whose duty was identifying key figures, he noticed it before anyone else.
“Right? Right? That hair color could only belong to a lion, couldn’t it?”
“Despite the decomposition, the facial structure and the missing finger match as well.”
“I remember those clothes.”
Lirivel tilted her head watching those who spoke of the Emperor so casually as if they knew him well.
But she didn’t criticize them.
She simply resolved to be more diligent in identifying key figures herself.
“It appears he was murdered, and based on the condition, it seems to have been several years ago.”
“The Crown Prince must have killed him, naturally.”
Everyone could deduce the culprit without difficulty.
But if he killed the Emperor, why hadn’t he ascended to the throne?
Levai pondered deeply.
He was the one who knew the most about the Crown Prince after Calypso.
“Why don’t we take that corpse with us? It seems like it could be useful.”
“I’ll do it. And Dragon Duke, where does the source seem to be?”
It was the moment Bellus lifted the Emperor’s corpse into the air with the power of water.
“Right there.”
Ekion stared at the chair where the Emperor had been sitting.
“And something that was bound… came loose.”
Had the Emperor’s corpse been sealing something? The entire group turned toward one spot.
Massive bones were assembling themselves piece by piece. What was finally created was the shape of a person made of bone.
In one hand, it held a sword. But something was wrong.
From the heart, a damp green light was gleaming. It gave an ominous feeling.
“…The source is there. In the heart.”
“Wait. Wait. Could it be that all the power you felt is concentrated there?”
“Yeah.”
Atlant, barely recalling the number of fingers Ekion had spread just moments before, fell into deep thought.
The rest of the group felt the same way.
Atlant let out a hollow laugh.
“Damn it.”
This was a monster the Imperial Palace had created by collecting the corpses of former Dragon Dukes.
Should I destroy it? Or should I leave and go to Calypso instead?
But the monster gave them no choice.
Ekion drew upon his power even more intensely, yet somehow he felt this wasn’t all there was.
‘It’s weak.’
Why did it feel diminished compared to the scale he’d sensed when he first saw the temple this afternoon?
“Everyone, get back! Ugh!”
“Lirivel, create a net!”
“Got it!”
He had a premonition that something worse was coming.
‘Calypso.’
Ekion’s gaze turned toward the door. Soon he released the being he had been carrying within his body all this time.
A blue Snake passed through the wide-open doorway.
“It’s going to attack.”
The moment Ekion’s warning ended—
Crash!
Battle began anew.
* * *
“I killed the Emperor with my own hands.”
A silence like death descended upon the hall.
The Crown Prince’s admission of regicide. Before such an unprecedented calamity, who could find words to speak?
“Therefore, my words carry the same weight as the Emperor’s.”
As his voice shifted from laughter-tinged to frost-sharp, no one could respond to the shock.
The face of one who declared he had killed his own father was far too serene and peaceful.
Calypso blinked. In truth, she was not shocked like the others.
He was certainly capable of such a thing.
What she focused on was why he would proudly proclaim this at such an official gathering.
Why would he say something so insane?
There were already many who had turned their blades against the Imperial Palace before this announcement.
Of course. They were representatives and Matriarchs of those who had lost Beastkin of their own kind.
But why on earth?
“My father had no interest whatsoever in the Empire’s eternal glory and peace. Therefore… he deserved to die.”
However, among those gathered here, there were many with sharp tongues.
Someone raised their hand. From appearance alone, one could not determine what kind of Beastkin they were, but their hostility toward the Imperial Palace was laid bare without concealment.
“If I may be so bold, Crown Prince. We were summoned here to hear the Imperial Palace’s position. Certainly, the passing of His Majesty the Emperor is a lamentable and sorrowful matter, but I fail to see what connection it has to Madrum’s human experimentation.”
The one speaking so earnestly suddenly seemed to recall something, and their expression hardened.
“Surely His Majesty the Emperor did not order those experiments?”
“No, that is not the case.”
The Crown Prince responded. However, his smile had grown somewhat rigid.
It was clear at a glance that he found it displeasing when someone interrupted his words.
“Rather, my father also made a noble sacrifice, yes? He died after the experiments were complete?”
“…What?”
Shock rippled through the banquet hall like waves, breaking the deathly silence that had reigned moments before.
His words amounted to an admission that the Crown Prince had ordered the experiments himself, didn’t they?
Moreover, he had callously used his own father as an experimental subject!
The silence shattered. As unease spread through the crowd, the Crown Prince casually unfastened the buttons of his cloak and let it fall to the floor.
Then he removed his upper garment and discarded it as well.
At this incomprehensible action, everyone froze—except for one person.
Only Calypso reached out her hand.
“Damn it, everyone get back!”
The concentrated force of water in the air formed a massive shield, but it was already too late.
“Ugh…!”
The beastkin who had bravely raised his objection met death with a final scream as enormous spikes erupted from the ground.
“Kyaaaah!”
Someone screamed.
Unable to overcome their fear, panic seized those who rushed toward the exit. Yet no one could escape this hall.
Massive walls had risen, blocking all directions.
The Crown Prince, who had killed a man in an instant, remained serene.
He smiled beautifully with delight.
“Everyone, the truth is, this life is a world that has repeated once.”
Those with faces twisted in confusion trembled, while others had gone rigid, forcing themselves to stare at the Crown Prince.
What kind of insane nonsense was this?
“You see, I think of this life as ‘practice.’ So… the real game hasn’t started yet.”
His pupils gleamed. Eyes that had already abandoned composure and sanity.
Calypso knew that face and those eyes well.
“Do you think I’ll die alone?”
It matched the face he wore in the third cycle after his complete defeat, when he drove the Dragon Duke to rampage and burst into mad laughter.
That’s why she had separated Ekion from him. Yet that bastard, true to his cunning nature, had apparently found another way to throw the world into chaos.
But the direction was strange.
The Crown Prince spread both arms wide like a cult leader in rapturous ecstasy.
“I have chosen to end this life and repeat it once more!”
With a serene gaze as if looking upon his devoted followers.
“Then it will become a good world.”
A good world would be one completed according to the Crown Prince’s desires, his hopes.
It was his own obsession that no one shocked here could possibly accept.
Calypso’s lips parted slightly.
She had suspected it, but surely not this bastard.
‘Insane—is this bastard actually thinking he’s a Returner right now?!’

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