Black Killer Whale Baby - Chapter 308

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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: Act 33
What if the Orca Family Matriarch’s chosen family changed because the timeline was different?
I recalled what happened two days ago.
Over those two days, I investigated various things. One of them was visiting Illia, the leader of the Beluga clan.
I asked Illia what I already knew.
“…Y-yes, those families are correct, but how on earth did you know?!”
“You have only one job to do.”
Sorte Aquasiadel tries hard to hide it, but I know.
Even he cannot conceal the arrogance inherent to orcas.
“You said you’d do anything I told you to become the Matriarch, right?”
Soon he would realize that pride was utterly useless.
“Come on, let’s go earn some respect, future Matriarch.”
* * *
This is a story from after I became the Matriarch.
And it was during the time when I had also defeated that Crown Prince and returned to Aquasiadel, enjoying a period of peace.
At that time, I received an invitation to the Lugaru family.
“Congratulations, Matriarch. I hear you have a betrothal coming up soon?”
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
“Not at all. Since only those with betrothals decided… that means you have two grooms, and one of them is that Dragon Duke.”
“That’s right.”
It was Illia, the Beluga clan head, whom I had seen consistently since I first met her at three years old.
Belugas boasted remarkable youthfulness.
Even though I had become an adult, she barely looked any different from my memories.
The same went for Illia and her husband Roba, the father of the twins.
“Two grooms—what a splendid wedding. Why not add one more while you’re at it?”
“One more? Why, do you have a good man to introduce me to, Illia?”
I answered playfully, thinking it was just a joke.
“Of course. A handsome, intelligent young man with a promising future. What do you think?”
“Let me see his face.”
“By all means. We have two of them at home.”
“Pfft, cough! What?”
“Oh! You can take both of them if you’d like?”
“Cough, cough, cough!”
I was so shocked that she was trying to matchmake me with her own twin sons.
Roba laughed heartily as if he was used to this.
“Calypso, does that mean I’ll be wearing a wedding dress?!”
Ruba was being ridiculous.
“What nonsense, Ruba. You’re really going to marry me? Why would you?”
“Hmm… Mom mentioned it, so I imagined it for a moment. But I think a good friend is better, Calypso!”
“Right? I think so too. You feel the same way, Ruga, don’t you?”
“….”
Ruga simply smiled softly, just like his father.
“I think it’s fine?”
“Ugh, easy now, easy. You beluga whales take your jokes way too seriously.”
After that somewhat harmonious (?) meal ended, I asked Illia while we were having tea.
“Do you remember? You said you received a special choice back then, from my grandmother.”
“Yes, I received it from the Matriarch.”
“So besides your family, what other families were there at that time?”
Illia tried a few times with “Ah, ah,” before breaking into a smile. ‘Oh? I can talk about it now, it seems.’ she said.
That’s how I learned the names of the eight families that had been decided back then.
It was merely entertainment.
But having a mind that remembered nearly everything due to countless regressions, I still had it in my memory.
‘I never thought I’d use it like this.’
I crossed my arms and looked upward. Before my eyes lay a mountain of tusks.
All of it was ivory.
And beside me was Sorte, crouching down with an oddly pitiful expression, clutching an ivory tusk and staring at it intently.
“…Hey, Calypso Aquasiadel? This isn’t a dream right now, is it?”
“Nope.”
I didn’t give him time to escape from reality.
“Do you have time to sit there dazed like that? If you don’t start moving right now, it seems like you’ll fail.”
At my words, Sorte closed his gaping mouth. His lips trembled meaninglessly as he looked at me.
Then he burst out laughing. “Hahahaha!”
“Wow… Really. I mean… I never thought of it this way. You can become Matriarch like this?”
Sorte’s thin back heaved.
“Really… this is fun.”
You bastard. I saw that whole grin on your face.
Of course, without a single blow though.
And then Sorte lifted an ivory tusk.
“Haha….”
The cause of all this.
And to explain about that mountain of ivory, I need to go back an hour.
“A narwhal?”
“Yeah.”
First, one of the eight families was the beluga family. Since they already supported me.
The first family I chose was the ‘Narwhal’ family.
“Welcome, Calypso. I’ve heard the story from Atlant…”
And the narwhals were a retainer family that followed Atlant.
The next successor, Levin Monoceros, was also Atlant’s closest friend.
“I understand the circumstances, but why must we use our ‘special authority’ for Sorte?”
In the main timeline when I became Matriarch, this person had retired from the front lines early, so I hadn’t seen much of him.
So that’s what I’ve come to realize now….
‘His manner of speech and attitude are exactly like Atlant’s.’
Narwhals, with their specialty in ‘invention’. If you only think about their specialty, it’s easy to picture them as reasonably mild-mannered, a ‘nerd’ type who digs deep into one thing—but that’s not the whole picture.
In nature, narwhals are animals that fight using the horns attached to them. When males compete, they couldn’t be more aggressive.
The Narwhal Family Head’s momentum was exactly like that.
“Very well. Since it is Calypso’s word, if Sorte succeeds in the test we’ve set, I shall grant the choice.”
Because Atlant was following me, the conversation went smoothly.
Their resentment toward Sorte was unavoidable.
I had thought that if Sorte pushed back against the disrespect from a whale he considered beneath him, that would be the end of it.
‘Now… that’s not the problem, is it?’
The narwhal’s test was to grind and process all one thousand horns by hand within a time limit.
It was completely pure labor.
‘I can feel the intention telling him to quietly give up.’
This kind of simple and bold move was exactly like Atlant too.
It’s not a difficult task. Just one that’s absolutely lacking in time.
‘Not by hand, anyway.’
Sorte concentrated with a horn-grinding tool in one hand and a horn in the other, both provided by the Narwhal Family Head.
“Calypso Aquasiadel.”
When about ten horns had piled up. Sorte opened his mouth.
“Besides the beluga and narwhal, tell me about the other six families too.”
“…Do you have to use that tone? Why are you like this? Seriously.”
Expressing my exasperation, Sorte laughed carelessly.
“It’s just a habit of mine~”
Sorte waved the horn he was holding.
“So what’s the answer?”
“Seahorse. Crab. Octopus.”
Sorte turned his head.
“…Huh, I didn’t expect you to tell me so easily.”
I simply shrugged my shoulders.
“You’re allowed to try tricks?”
“Go ahead. If you can.”
Just try. Is it easy?
“Tricks or whatever, first you have to finish all of this, don’t you?”
“That’s true.”
Sorte stood up abruptly, tool in hand. Pure white powder and dust from grinding the horns scattered everywhere.
The teenage boy, covered in dust, looked like a laborer who’d worked all day at a construction site.
Sorte’s lips curved upward in a grin.
“Calypso Aquasiadel, what do you think genius is?”
“A genius is a genius. What else is there to say?”
“Right? But I think there’s genius in different fields~”
Sorte tossed his horns and tools into the air, then caught them.
“Got the hang of it!”
“….”
“And now, the magnificent foot scraper! Sorte’s show begins!”
What in the world was this madman trying to do?
The moment that thought crossed my mind, countless jets of water erupted like fountains from behind Sorte.
Whoooosh!
The tips of the water streams sharpened into blades before spinning like drills.
Whirrrrr!
And….
‘This lunatic….’
The spinning water streams began grinding and shaping the horns at high speed.
The way the water separated and merged looked like some massive factory.
If any other orca had witnessed this, their jaws would have dropped to the floor.
Between the rippling water, he grinned wickedly.
“How’s that? Don’t I seem like a genius too?”
Watching countless horns being whittled away at high speed, I clicked my tongue.
“No, you just seem insane.”
It was certainly a quantity that couldn’t be done by hand.
“But if someone’s talented and doesn’t commit crimes, I don’t really hate them, no matter how crazy they are.”
The water streams were absorbing the dust and powder that rose from the horns floating in the air.
Yet the falling dust still looked like pure white snow. I let out a small laugh.
“You’re a bit of a waste.”
“….”
“If you were still alive, I could have put you to good use.”
Sorte faltered. For some reason, he had a dazed expression.
“I can’t exactly call you a worthy rival. I’m just better than you.”
Trying to beat a four-time Returner with only my second life.

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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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