Black Killer Whale Baby - Chapter 28
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 28
“You’re here?”
Pierre hadn’t been at the Fountain lately like he used to be.
Ever since I first entered the Building, he’d been in his room or the reception hall, and whenever he saw me arrive, he’d greet me like this.
Sometimes I’d catch him sitting by a window where he could see me clearly, and I’d wonder if he was waiting for me to come.
It was probably just my imagination.
“Um… hello, Teacher.”
“Mm.”
I carefully studied Father’s expression.
Let’s see—was there anything different about him today?
He was still devastatingly handsome with that appearance of a Hong Kong triad executive, and his languid, weary expression remained unchanged.
Visually, there was nothing different at all.
“….”
…Or was there? Or wasn’t there?
‘Why, why is he staring at me so intently?’
It was different. Something was slightly different.
Unlike usual, he was piercing me with his gaze.
The cold sweat I thought had stopped began flowing again.
What would happen if Father discovered what I’d deceived him about?
I’d never believed I could lie and remain undiscovered forever.
I’d simply judged that the Pierre I knew would take a long time to figure out what exactly I’d deceived him about.
‘At least I thought Father was so disinterested in worldly affairs that I could hold out for another month or so?’
I’d even orchestrated the timing of when I’d be caught with my Seo Dong-yo strategy!
I never expected to face this moment today!
And the way he was staring so intently made it feel like he was saying, ‘I know your crime!’
For someone with a guilty conscience, it was extremely uncomfortable.
I still needed Father’s protection.
“What’s that?”
When Father finally spoke, I reacted quickly. This actually became my breakthrough.
“What? This? The parchment I’m holding?”
“Yes.”
Ah! He’d been looking at the parchment in my hand?
Color returned to my face.
“I brought this for you, Teacher! What do you think—aren’t you curious? Aren’t you excited?”
“…Not particularly.”
Perfect! At his characteristically blunt response, I felt the tightness in my chest suddenly release.
Yes, I didn’t understand why Pierre had given Rayla that command.
‘He probably just doesn’t want to have a detailed conversation with me yet.’
I was curious about what whim had made him issue such an order, but I decided it wasn’t the right time to bring it up yet and quickly adjusted the parchment in my arms.
“Wait and see, Teacher! I’m going to make you an amazing dish today!”
What I had requested from Ruga and Ruba was a recipe for cooking.
That was precisely it.
* * *
Pierre was in a foul mood.
In fact, I couldn’t recall the last time in the past three years when my disposition had been this poor.
Mostly I existed in states of languor, fatigue, or tedium.
It was a mood of vivid color—something utterly unlike me, who had lived with only one of these three sensations or something akin to resignation.
And this mood arose solely because of my own daughter, whom I had taken on as my Disciple.
“Do you perhaps need a second Disciple?”
Just yesterday, my daughter Calypso had done something equally absurd as when she first appeared before me.
She brought some boy and requested that I take him on as my second Disciple.
The problem was that the boy she brought looked unmistakably similar to me.
He had already awakened the power of water, and his expression suggested he had first grasped his own fury—a contemplative state.
My Third Son, that is.
No matter how I reconsidered it, the situation was absurd.
‘…Does she truly intend to hide this from me?’
At this point, I was curious what my daughter could possibly be thinking with that tiny head of hers.
From the start, recognizing him yet pretending not to and requesting he be taken as a Disciple was not something one could do in sound mind.
Moreover, she even boasted about her imaginary father right before me. It was extraordinary.
Can an orca lose its mind?
The answer was ‘yes.’
“You madman. You’re my child, but you truly are mad.”
It was a phrase I had heard countless times from my mother.
Indeed, among orcas, there were many who had gone mad, unable to withstand the madness or insanity that came as a side effect of instincts developing excessively.
My mother would click her tongue at this, saying they had gone mad because they were weak.
But my thoughts differed.
Orcas simply had it carved into their genes—an ineradicable madness.
“It’s unnecessary. Get out of my sight.”
In any case, by this point, even I should have felt deceived.
I rejected her with both bewilderment and anger.
And I even considered ending this sordid master-disciple relationship going forward.
I was certainly going to do that.
Absolutely.
“Teacher, do you know who that person is? I beat them today! You told me, didn’t you? When fighting, don’t get beaten—just hit them and come back!”
I was going to, but.
“…You won?”
“Yeah, I won!”
The moment I saw Calypso’s beaming, triumphant expression, my anger lost its direction.
To be certain, this had never happened before.
Interest that hadn’t existed before arose, and the relationship had begun on a whim.
I always believed I held the end of everything in my own hands.
“But I defeated her and she became my subordinate, yet there’s nowhere to use her. Can’t she just stay here with me?”
For the first time, Pierre thought that perhaps it wasn’t so.
It felt unfamiliar, absurd, and incomprehensible.
“She’s alone too.”
The words ‘like me’ that had been etched into Calypso’s eyes as she said this.
Before I knew it, I had already carelessly agreed.
The Third Son wore an expression of wondering if he’d misheard the entire time, but ultimately didn’t voice a single word of protest to Calypso.
Because of this, Pierre became curious instead.
As far as I knew, there was an insurmountable age gap between Calypso and the Third Son, Agenor.
That wasn’t all. Unlike Calypso, Agenor had awakened the power of water from birth.
How on earth had she managed to silence him so completely?
“Teacher, ta-da! You waited long, didn’t you? All done!”
When I emerged from my thoughts, there before me was a dish with steam rising from it.
Pierre hesitated for a moment.
…Could a three-year-old actually cook?
This was entirely different from the dishes the Retainers had brought before, which were merely arranged, reheated, or lightly processed.
However, since Pierre didn’t know the Young Boy’s growth process, he assumed it was the case this time as well.
“I noticed last time that you seemed to like red salmon, Teacher! So I looked for something that could be eaten mixed with salmon!”
“You looked for it?”
Pierre glanced at the dish and then at Calypso’s face.
Then he frowned slightly.
The dish Calypso confidently presented.
The steaming dish. It was.
As the lid opened and revealed the contents, no matter how one looked at it, it couldn’t be said to contain salmon—it had an almost grotesque appearance.
If there were such a thing as ‘salmon risen from the underworld,’ it might feel like this.
‘…It’s a mess.’
Perhaps the signs were already showing when she offered to cut it for me, from the very moment of the rough chopping.
My daughter seemed to be terribly bad at cooking.
Pierre calmly accepted the reality before him.
On the other hand, he felt slightly troubled that the person who had to put this in their mouth was none other than himself.
“It’s fine, right? Even if it looks like this, I considered nutrition too!”
To tell the truth, Calypso was, as mentioned before, the type who thought anything was fine as long as it went into her mouth.
In the first and second cycles, she not only ate meals under others’ watchful eyes but also suffered abuse-like eating conditions in the household she was sold to.
In the previous cycle, she left the family and endured all sorts of hardships, living a survival lifestyle—hunting animals in the plains and forests.
Her sense of food had become seriously dulled.
A person couldn’t possibly be fine after regressing three times.
Thus, without realizing it, the broken returnee displayed conspicuous madness in cooking and food, yet remained unaware of it herself.
“…You considered nutrition?”
“Yes, I obtained a precious recipe. It accounts for all three major nutrients!”
If I eat this, I feel like I’ll lose not just the three essential nutrients, but my sense of taste as well.
Pierre assessed the situation with calm indifference.
If she didn’t want to eat it, she could simply flip the plate over or throw the fork away.
She could even push it aside and be done with it.
Yet her hands refused to do any of those things.
“Actually, I feel sorry toward you, Teacher, and that’s why….”
Calypso, unaware of his thoughts, fidgeted with her hands while the dish sat before her.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————