Black Killer Whale Baby - Chapter 289

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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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Side Story: Episode 14
Levai pressed his forehead with his hand.
“I would appreciate it if you would keep your jokes as jokes, my lady.”
“Ah, you caught me.”
Calypso laughed without a single mark of injury on her face.
“Marriage is still too early.”
“That’s precisely why I’m asking you not to say such things.”
“Come on, enjoy life. Strategist. Life has no meaning if you don’t savor it.”
Levai clicked his tongue. He was about to say more when the warm breath touching his neck caught his attention.
If he raised his voice here, the boy would wake. He ended the quarrel with a small sigh.
Calypso whistled as though surprised.
“What, you’re stopping here? How disappointing.”
“Please lower your voice. The boy will wake.”
“Hmm….”
Calypso tilted her head. Her eyes were observing.
Her pupils contracted and then returned to normal.
Levai thought that this animal-like sharpness was precisely what proved his lord was an Orca.
Yet his lord did not enjoy cruel pranks like an ordinary Orca, nor did she condone pleasure killings.
Sometimes she was frivolous and cunning. There were times when he had no idea what she was thinking.
“You’re accustomed to handling children?”
“It seems so, yes.”
Levai carefully adjusted his hold so the boy wouldn’t wake. Looking at the boy’s sleek white hair, he felt a longing stir within him.
“So there were children around you.”
“…I had a younger sibling.”
“Ah.”
Calypso seemed to understand immediately. As though she had guessed.
“The sibling you mentioned before.”
Levai did not answer. Between them, silence was affirmation.
A sibling lost in childhood. To be precise, not a blood sibling, but one he had cherished terribly like a younger brother.
“How old?”
“…I’m not certain. I think he lived at least five years longer than this child. I’m not sure.”
“If it’s something you don’t wish to remember, I apologize.”
“No.”
Levai offered a faint smile.
“Because you are the kind of person who would apologize in this moment, I decided to follow you. It’s not so bad.”
Still, I truly don’t remember his age. My sibling’s age was also the age at which he died. Perhaps I forgot it while living in haste, or perhaps I buried it under guilt.
“What was his name?”
“Whale.”
“…You said he was a Whale Beastkin.”
“Yes, the last one remaining in this world.”
There are no Orca Beastkin left in this world now. If only I had been a bit more clever, a bit wiser.
Could I have protected them then?
Levai always stood before Whale’s grave and wondered. But the answer remained unknowable.
He could not return to the past.
“Will you truly protect the Dolphins?”
“Huh?”
The collateral Orcas who persecuted the Dolphins lay crumpled on the ground like bloody rags. Standing among them was a Teenage Girl.
She said she was approaching her twentieth year.
That was Levai and Calypso’s first meeting.
Calypso smiled radiantly, blood smeared across her face.
“I just didn’t like them, so I cut them down.”
“The adults asked for just one clever one.”
“Ah, that’s you?”
By the time Calypso appeared, hardly any Dolphin Beastkin remained. They had been persecuted or dragged away like slaves.
They possessed sharp minds, but lacked martial strength.
Levai wanted to overturn this. He refused to create more sacrifices like Whale.
So he studied the world relentlessly, crossing between good and evil without hesitation.
Even if I bore all the filth in the shadows, the Dolphins would walk a righteous and just path.
That was the path I had chosen for myself.
“I’m going to kill the Matriarch. If you hold a grudge.”
I’m a direct descendant who fled the Orca Family. The smiling girl’s face was innocent.
But Levai recognized it. That smile was a kind of madness visible only to those who had crossed the line.
“What comes next?”
“Next I’m going to kill the Lion.”
“Then you’ll have to take me with you.”
“Why?”
“No matter who else you bring, there won’t be anyone smarter than me in this world.”
The girl burst into bright laughter, clutching her belly and giggling for a long while. Calypso’s laughter faded.
“What’s your name?”
“…Levai.”
“Calypso Aquasiadel. That’s my name.”
And so Levai came to follow Calypso. Later, he would say it was when she had just begun her activities.
“What about your other subordinates?”
“There are none.”
“Pardon?”
“You’re the first.”
She told him that Levai was the first subordinate she had ever met. That night, Levai could not sleep.
I realized my own feelings only much later.
On the day my liege toppled her first collateral family, she gazed up at the sky for a moment.
Across the girl’s face where hatred and resentment had rippled, longing and emptiness passed through.
“To be honest, I haven’t even thought about what to do after I’ve dealt with the lion.”
“…You’ll sleep deeply, I imagine.”
“Is that so?”
Calypso chuckled softly.
“After a good rest, I’d like to try building a better world. And I want you by my side, Levai.”
“By your side.”
“Yes. I think I’ll need the finest strategist.”
Eyes gleaming with recognition, acknowledging me. I had thought I needed no one’s approval.
But you were different.
With just one phrase, you lead me to paradise.
Levai understood quietly.
This is love.
He clenched his fist gently.
That day, he quietly closed his eyes in his heart. He could not become an obstacle to his lord’s path forward.
After peace came. Yes, after peace was restored…
“I won’t see it in this lifetime.”
“…That seems to be the case.”
Consciousness returned abruptly.
Where memories had vanished like bubbles.
Lifting my head, I saw Calypso smiling at the desk. She glanced once at the child sleeping soundly in her arms, then looked away again.
That smile again.
Calypso sometimes wore an inexplicable smile. It was the one expression I alone could not interpret.
“An Orca Beastkin, and your name was Whale, wasn’t it? You have healing abilities too.”
“Yes.”
“If there’s a next life, I’ll save you then. Your brother.”
“…”
I couldn’t understand why she said such things. Calypso occasionally spoke of ‘next lives’ like this.
Yet the lord I knew from beside her was an extremely practical person.
So whenever she spoke like this, it felt strangely out of place.
“I would be grateful. I will serve you as my benefactor for life.”
“What, weren’t you already doing that?”
“Yes, so I suppose I must serve you in the next life as well.”
“…”
Levai smiled softly. He did not realize how comfortable and joyful his smile was.
“I must be with you in every life.”
The expression on Calypso’s face hearing this too.
“Even if it troubles you, there’s nothing to be done about it. Ah, and we should lay the child down somewhere.”
“…”
“Calypso?”
“Ah, …lay her on the sofa over there. When I laid her on the bed and she couldn’t see me, she cried.”
“Yes.”
Levai laid the young boy on the sofa. The problem was that he wouldn’t let go of my clothes, so I removed my outer garment and held him close.
“Mmm, Father… Father’s scent.”
Levai’s expression became peculiar.
He was far more intelligent than one might assume. Sometimes grasping things others wouldn’t readily consider.
Enough to deduce from just a few words. But he chose to hold his tongue instead.
“…Your way with children is truly remarkable.”
“What are you trying to tease me about now?”
“Nothing? I’ll become a beloved husband.”
“Why don’t you become one yourself?”
“…Huh?”
See? The moment I take one step closer, he freezes up. Yet Levai wore a sardonic smile.
“I’ll just grow old and die alone.”
“What? Hey, hey. Levai, are you sulking? Wait a moment…”
You know we have our next operation planned, right? You have to know? You can’t disappear in a huff! At my anxious plea, the strategist’s lips curved up in satisfaction.
* * *
“She still hasn’t opened her eyes?”
“No…”
The clock pointed to noon. I tilted my head in confusion.
‘That’s much later than usual.’
Children recover quickly and have abundant energy. My daughter Cali woke early and went to bed early.
Even when she slept in, she’d always be up by nine or ten at the latest. Yet she hadn’t woken by noon.
Given what happened yesterday, she might be experiencing some emotional fatigue.
However, when three in the afternoon arrived, my expression grew grave.
Standing before Cali’s bed, I heard something I couldn’t believe.
“Cali won’t wake up even when we try to wake her?”

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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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