Black Killer Whale Baby - Chapter 323

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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 48
The Matriarch Ocula Aquasiadel was fundamentally a Matriarch who showed no interest in her children’s marriages.
What she cared about was how much power one possessed.
Whether one had the qualifications to become Matriarch after her.
She judged by simple and clear criteria alone.
In her otherwise flawless life, the only blemish was her failure to bear a daughter.
So I thought perhaps I could salvage one of my three sons… but that fool contracted an incurable disease of unknown origin?
The Matriarch seemed to have ultimately chosen a different approach.
‘I heard my eldest and second brothers already have betrothals.’
I cannot give the position of Matriarch to incompetent sons—my mind is already made up. I’ve already turned my eyes to three-year-olds.
At least my older brothers have a significant age gap and are adults or nearly so.
Considering Pierre’s own age, it was absurd.
‘Do they even know how long until I reach adulthood?’
That’s not all.
Can he even survive until adulthood?
Pierre clenched his fist and entered through the open door.
* * *
“You’ve come.”
Ocula welcomed her son with her arms crossed. Pierre gave a slight nod.
“You, disrespectful brat…”
Ocula clicked her tongue. Yet there was no sign of displeasure. She rather appreciated her third son’s rudeness in her own way.
If only that one had been a daughter… or at least if he were healthy… it would have been a shame.
“You’ve come at the right time. Look at this.”
Before Ocula stood three young girls.
Behind the girls stood three adult women with tense expressions, and if they had anything in common, it was that all their hair colors belonged to the Orca branch lines.
Pierre recognized the face of one among them.
She was the Matriarch of a branch line that held considerable power.
Pierre stared without interest.
The girls were similar to the adults. Two of them bore the hair color of the branch lines…
But one was peculiar.
‘Direct line?’
Hair like a pristine white bridge—the symbol of the direct line—was visible. It was unusual.
Among the branch lines, there were occasionally children born with the symbol of the direct line, but it was extremely rare.
It was hardly a coincidence.
“These are your potential matches.”
“You don’t use the elegant word ‘betrothal.'”
Pierre spoke without emotion. His voice was so sarcastic that no one could fail to notice the mockery.
“Stop wasting words and choose.”
“I see.”
Pierre was in a terrible mood. Naturally. They were already trying to constrain his life—how could he not be exhausted?
“First, shouldn’t we see if he can even survive until adulthood?”
“Pierre Aquasiadel!”
In that instant, a tremendous pressure surged forth as water erupted with a deafening roar, attempting to suppress Pierre’s body.
The young boy deftly retreated backward, protecting himself.
He swallowed hard.
He gulped down the blood that threatened to spill.
But because he’d given even a moment’s opening, he missed the successive jets of water that followed.
He crashed through the air.
Pierre was sent flying by the attack his mother had unleashed.
As I slowly opened my eyes, I saw three young girls’ faces upside down above me.
…Tsk, so I flew here.
“What are you staring at?”
Pierre’s eyes narrowed fiercely.
Though his appearance was so beautiful that girls his age would unconsciously blush, the aura emanating from the young boy surpassed that of most adult orcas.
“H-hic, s-sorry… ugh…!”
Two of the young girls couldn’t hold back their tears. One even cowered and sat down in fear.
True to a family where the strong devour the weak, their submission to power was swift.
But the remaining young girl was different.
“….”
The last young girl, her hair combed neatly down and loosely tied at the bottom.
Only the collateral girl bearing the symbol of the direct line looked down at him indifferently.
He disliked that gaze.
“Get out.”
When he spoke with savage bluntness, the girl’s eyes widened, then she glanced at her guardian before opening her mouth.
The girl whispered something with only the shape of her lips.
At this, Pierre’s neat eyebrows rose slightly.
He rose from his seat.
“Where are you going? Who gave you permission to leave?”
“You’ve seen everything you wanted, haven’t you?”
Pierre ran his hand through his hair. He’d come at the retainer’s urging, but it was indeed a waste of time.
He turned away without hesitation.
“Since you’ll do as you please anyway, do as you wish.”
Why would I live according to someone else’s desires?
Pierre walked away with heavy steps, inwardly mocking his mother. This time, he was fully prepared to counter her attacks.
‘If you want to leave, then you should be the one to leave?’
The last young girl had clearly whispered this with only the shape of her lips. So no one would notice.
She was an unfunny child.
His mother had clearly gathered only people like her.
Pierre grew somewhat tired.
And soon after, he forgot all about the peculiar girl and everything related to the engagement.
* * *
Recently, I had ignored my mother’s orders in the Matriarch’s reception room and bolted out on my own.
“If you won’t obey my commands, then leave the Main Residence at once!”
“Yes.”
Pierre was banished to the most remote corner of the West.
Of course, he had answered promptly the moment his mother grew angry—which only infuriated her further—but he actually considered it a blessing. How wonderfully quiet it was.
Admittedly, the cadet branches who hadn’t yet given up on Pierre came calling relentlessly, but as long as he didn’t leave his quarters, they would eventually tire.
The building he now inhabited was dilapidated and poorly maintained.
Before he had repaired it himself, one might have thought it was truly a haunted house.
Now, after his efforts, it had become a reasonably livable space.
In any case, it was likely because of this dampness.
The place appeared to have served as a rather unsavory location before his arrival.
“Hey, beat him harder. I said beat him!”
“Just kill him already!”
“…Really? I can actually kill him?”
“Yeah, if that sister of mine just disappeared, then Mother would finally look at me…”
By the time Pierre arrived at this manor with only his hastily packed belongings,
violence was actively unfolding in front of the building. Of course, in this orca society, fighting was hardly unusual.
But what he witnessed wasn’t a fight—it was brutality.
Their hair was uniformly the color of the cadet branches. Their ages ranged from around his own to perhaps slightly older—young girls and boys between nine and thirteen years old.
They were punishing someone. Pierre, already somewhat fatigued, felt irritated.
“Gasp—P-Pierre…?”
“P-Prince, how did you come to be here…?”
“Th-This is a misunderstanding!”
The young girls and boys suspended by Pierre’s power all flailed about in alarm or stammered excuses.
He had no interest in their explanations.
“You’re loud. Get out of here now.”
Without even looking, he hurled them far away.
What remained was only a small, crumpled form. The bundle stirred and struggled to its feet.
Silver-gray hair, one of the cadet branch hair colors. She appeared to be a young girl of about seven years old.
“If you’re awake, you should leave too.”
Pierre spat out these words with obvious annoyance and strode past her. His condition seemed to be flaring up again; he needed to lie down and sleep immediately…
Thud-thud-thud-thud.
The young girl came running and blocked Pierre’s path. She was unsteady on her feet.
Her disheveled hair and bright eyes were fixed on Pierre.
Pierre spared her a brief glance for one reason alone.
‘She’s walking on a broken leg.’
She was moving on a leg bent at an odd, unnatural angle.
“I… I…”
The young girl continued speaking haltingly.
“N-no, wait, could you possibly be here to… to live here?!”
“What if I am?”
True to her young age as an orca, her speech was halting and uncertain.
Yet her determination came through clearly.
Moreover, those eyes were quite familiar to Pierre.
Was she three years old? Two, perhaps?
Before becoming stronger than her older siblings, she had glared at him just like this while taking beatings. Exactly like this.
The young girl stretched out one hand. A tiny water whirlwind formed at her fingertips. It was the power of water.
“Please, let me work here!”
What nonsense was this.
Pierre, in a foul mood, tried to simply walk past. Yes, he tried to—
“I can do laundry, cooking, cleaning, everything!”
He tried to ignore this too.
The only reason he paused, even briefly, was—
because he caught sight of the building in a far worse state than expected.
‘…Is this a haunted house?’
It would certainly need proper repairs to be livable, and the moment he requested help from the Main Residence, they would become troublesome.
That was precisely what his mother desired.
Pierre stared at the building for a moment, then turned his head away.
“You said you clean well?”
The young girl with one eye swollen nodded slowly.
Then, stumbling slightly, she knelt on one knee. Clumsy though it was, it was the posture orcas took when serving their master.
Pierre, finding it bothersome, waved his hand lightly.
“What’s your name?”
“Yes?”
“Your name. I’m too lazy to ask twice.”
“Ah…!”
The young girl clasped her hands together. She was considered quite intelligent even among the branch families of orcas.
But she thought she wouldn’t last much longer, as her older sister—who was much older than her—was trying to cripple or kill her before she could grow.
Yet this was an opportunity.
“My name is ‘Rayla’!”

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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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