Black Killer Whale Baby - Chapter 322

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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 47
Meanwhile, Cali remained blissfully unaware of the schemes and machinations swirling around her.
She was nestled in her grandfather’s arms, surrendering to peaceful slumber.
* * *
I rubbed my eyes open slowly, consciousness returning by degrees.
Yaaawn. It’s still daytime, isn’t it?
Yesterday, I ran away from home. This was a decision I’d made with utmost seriousness.
So I’m not going back home!
‘Ruga was so mean!’
I clenched my small fists tightly. This was my grandfather’s mansion. I knew it well.
This was a place my fathers—and Ruga—couldn’t easily enter.
I’d spend just a little time here….
‘Cali is going on a grand adventure!’
Mother said so. She’d traveled far away in her childhood, even younger than I am now.
She said she visited the Dragon Duke’s castle when she was three years old. I want to visit Father’s castle too, but he said I need to grow just a bit more.
‘And there are turtle beastkin there!’
Our country has turtle beastkin too, but the ones who serve the Dragon Duke’s castle are land turtle beastkin.
They look different, she said. I’m so incredibly curious!
Recently, I saw a huge snake in a book and became desperate to see snake beastkin.
But she said snake beastkin live too far away.
‘But Mom and Dad have both traveled everywhere!’
I’m all grown up now. This is more than enough to see the world.
I’m a strong and magnificent orca, after all!
I hadn’t told anyone about this wonderful plan yet. I’d thought about mentioning it to Grandfather, but….
“You said you cried because of someone?”
He seemed so angry that I thought it best not to say anything.
I can’t help it. I’ll become a solitary traveler!
Yaaawn.
Just a little more of something delicious. Just a little more sleep….
As I was rubbing my eyes, the window creaked slightly open.
Against the blue sky, a familiar hair color appeared with a whoosh!
My eyes went wide.
“Grandma!”
The grandmother who met my gaze looked slightly startled, then brought her index finger to her lips.
Shh!
“Huh? Shhhh…!”
For reasons I didn’t understand, I quickly followed suit and lowered my voice. Cali is smart, after all!
Grandmother slipped in quietly and seemed to look around the room this way and that.
‘Is she looking for Grandfather?’
She approached me with long strides, ruffled my already messy hair affectionately, then slipped back out through the window.
“Let’s see you again soon, pretty girl.”
With only those words, she left.
‘The way Grandmother strokes my head… it’s similar to Mother’s…’
Father doesn’t need to be so gentle, sometimes ticklish, so soft—yet he strokes me with such restraint.
Mother loved to ruffle my hair until it was completely disheveled. Cali loves that too.
Father doesn’t understand!
“It’s not that Father doesn’t understand—he understands but is being careful.”
“Why?”
“Because our daughter is so precious!”
“Then what about Mother?”
“Mother finds you precious and lovable too, of course. But Mother raises you to be strong. Someone has to do it that way.”
When Mother said this, she looked a bit proud. She even whispered something very softly to Cali alone.
“Did I tell you that Cali has another grandmother and grandfather?”
“Yes! Cali remembers!”
“That’s what I learned from them.”
Every time Mother spoke of the grandmother and grandfather I’d never met, she seemed both joyful and sad.
It was strange.
Not long after Grandmother left, the door burst open.
It was Grandfather. He seemed to have run here. He was breathing hard—haa, haa.
“Seherah, did you see your grandmother?”
“Um…”
What do I do? Grandmother said “shh,” asking me to keep it secret. What if I can’t keep the secret?!
“No, you don’t have to answer.”
I bit my lip and glanced at Grandfather… Oh no. It looks like Cali couldn’t keep the secret.
“Another failure, it seems.”
Grandfather picked me up and sat on the sofa. Sniff, sniff. Grandfather had a very refreshing scent.
“Grandpa, did you spray cologne?”
“No, I don’t like that.”
I leaned against Grandfather’s chest and grinned widely. Then curiosity got the better of me, and I lifted my head up.
“I have a question!”
“…Your conversation jumps around just like your mother’s. What are you curious about?”
Grandfather just says what he means! His tone is so blunt! But I love this about him so much.
Grandfather never lies and always tells the truth!
“Grandpa, why do you and Grandmother play hide-and-seek all the time?”
“…”
I’ve been curious about this for a very long time. When I ask Mother, she just laughs. The uncles just avoid my gaze.
Father said he didn’t know.
Mother said not to ask unless Grandfather brings it up first.
‘Today I won’t listen to Mother. Cali is a runaway right now anyway!’
A lonely traveler doesn’t listen to Mother!
To be honest, I still don’t really understand what “solitude” means, but it sounded cool so I used it.
But Grandfather said nothing for a long time.
‘Oh no, did Cali mess up…?’
Grandfather gets scary when he’s angry….
He kept his mouth shut and only rolled his eyes, and after a bit more time passed, Grandfather spoke.
“That is….”
“Grandfather, I’m sorry! Cali made a mistake!”
I spoke quickly before he could.
I quickly hugged Grandfather’s neck, worried he might get angry.
“Cali likes Grandfather, so I hope you won’t be mad. It must be Cali’s fault!”
Grandfather paused, then adjusted his hold on me.
“I’m not angry.”
Huh? You’re not?
I quickly lifted my head to look at Grandfather.
“Really.”
Oh, he really doesn’t look angry at all!
Of course, Grandfather has never been angry with Cali even once.
“There is nothing in this world you need to apologize for.”
“Hmm?”
“Your mother would tell you not to say such things….”
Grandfather stroked my head.
“When your mother was your age, I was clumsy too, so isn’t it right that I do for you what I couldn’t do back then?”
“…I don’t understand what you mean.”
“You don’t need to understand.”
Grandfather smiled very softly.
“You don’t need to understand for a very long time to come.”
Then he looked at the ceiling for a moment. Like someone with so much to say.
* * *
“Your grandmother and I… where should I even begin to tell you….”
Pierre stared ahead.
His granddaughter’s question had been sudden. Yet if he considered the scenes he had witnessed since her birth, it was not an impossible question to answer.
Even his own children didn’t know the exact circumstances.
Well, Eldest Brother might know roughly.
Calypso, Atlant, and Agenor said this about it.
“Well… it must be something between Mother and Father. If you’re not going to tell us, we won’t ask.”
“Hah, even if I’m chased and chase others until death, I suppose that’s just how it is for me.”
“I agree with Second Brother.”
His children weren’t particularly curious about the circumstances.
No, it was only after several years that he realized this.
They had only pretended not to care. In truth, he came to know that the whole family was curious.
“The reason your grandmother and I are engaged in this prolonged pursuit…”
Pierre’s eyes darkened at some point. The young boy swallowed softly.
Orcas were predators of the sea, at their most lethal when hunting.
It was then that the young boy saw Pierre as a predator for the first time.
Such sharp, piercing eyes. So different from his usual half-lidded, drowsy gaze.
Pierre sank into the past.
* * *
“Pierre!”
Young Pierre swallowed his irritation and turned his head.
The boy’s gaze fell upon his own hands, drenched in blood.
“Pierre? Pierre…!”
At the same moment, water droplets surged from empty air, instantly enveloping the boy’s hands.
By the time the blood had vanished from Pierre’s hands and they were clean again.
The retainer who had called him appeared.
“…T-the Matriarch summons you!”
When a person falls ill, they are the first to know. In that sense, Pierre knew of his illness before anyone else.
Yet the boy decided to hide it to the very end.
The boy was precocious, and from the moment he grew even slightly, he understood he had countless enemies.
His brothers, born of the same blood, were his greatest adversaries.
Fortunately, he possessed an overwhelming talent that dominated all others.
That talent had elevated him to a position no one else could reach.
It was clear that losing his current position would become terribly inconvenient.
Even his own mother was a cold place.
“I’m not going.”
Whether the retainer turned pale or not, he ignored him and walked on.
“…Ah, he’s become a demon.”
With his overwhelming ability, deceiving everyone was not difficult.
The problem was just one person.
An orca stronger than him, and one person he could not deceive.
His mother, the Matriarch.
“You were the only one worth using. What a shame.”
His mother, knowing of Pierre’s illness, had declared in a cold tone that she would strip away everything she had given him.
The only consolation was that she had not made his illness public, for the sake of the family that would fall into chaos.
Pierre sneered.
The sea is cold. The deeper into the abyss one descends, the colder it becomes.
This family was one that resembled the sea, or rather, had copied it entirely.
“Y-you cannot refuse! Please…!”
Pierre glanced at the retainer and asked indifferently.
“What’s the matter?”
“That is…!”
The Retainer swallowed hard. Should I speak plainly? The Matriarch hadn’t ordered me to keep silent, after all….
“It’s because of Pierre’s engagement, sir!”
Pierre laughed coldly.
Ah, so he’s going to respond like this?
If my future daughter Calypso had witnessed this.
She would have marveled—wow, that’s exactly like my smile when I was young—at that laugh.
“Show them in.”

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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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