Black Killer Whale Baby - Chapter 329
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Side Story: Act 54
Pierre and Sehera Zade differed in the nature of their talents, but one thing was undeniable.
They were both acutely sensitive to fluctuations in power.
The two of them detected the water barrier created by Layla’s Sister and her family, along with the subtle discord it produced.
Ordinarily, an Orca Beastkin would have dismissed it without a second thought.
But both had experienced discrimination, ridicule, and abuse in their own ways.
Thus, it was something they could not overlook.
Pierre leaped from the window and landed gracefully beside the Fountain.
“Your Highness, are you perhaps raising an army here? Is that why there’s a need to conceal fluctuations in power?”
“I couldn’t be bothered to create one.”
Displeasure saturated Pierre’s voice. A familiar discord. This unmistakably meant someone had created a domain to evade his sight.
Daring to do so within his own territory.
“…But if I may ask, where has Layla gone?”
Usually, when Layla was out of sight, she was cleaning or doing laundry somewhere.
Yet Sehera Zade was at the Fountain, which served as the washing place. Pierre had grown accustomed to sensing Layla’s presence through her aura when she wasn’t visible.
It wasn’t surveillance or curiosity about her location—merely a long-standing habit.
Since falling ill, assassination attempts had become far more frequent.
“…”
Pierre spun around abruptly and departed toward somewhere. Sehera Zade wrung the water from her wet clothes and hurried after him.
“Where are you going?”
“I have a suspicion.”
“Let me come with you!”
Pierre cast the briefest glance at the young girl.
“Do as you wish.”
* * *
The situation unfolded exactly as Pierre had anticipated. He remembered precisely the moment he first met Layla.
‘Her family was tormenting her properly back then.’
Considering their depravity and cunning, and Layla’s considerable talent with water despite her young age, he could have predicted they wouldn’t abandon her easily.
Yet he had not expected them to sneak in so brazenly and cause trouble while he remained here.
This was, in essence, an affront to Pierre himself.
“Gasp—Pierre, Pierre sir?”
“Your Highness…!”
The crudely constructed water barrier was torn apart effortlessly by the boy’s power.
Whether fortunately or unfortunately, Layla was still alive.
“Good heavens…”
Tap-tap-tap. Sehera Zade rushed in and cradled the fallen Layla in her arms.
“Layla? Layla! Are you alright? Are you okay?”
What could they possibly find to torment about? The child was in a terrible state, rolled through dirt with barely a spot left unharmed.
Layla’s Sister, ‘Ramin Serpent,’ realized there was no time to delay.
“I greet the Third Prince…I am Ramin Serpent.”
“Why don’t we introduce ourselves civilly?”
“…I believe there’s been a misunderstanding. We are merely…”
Ramin Serpent bowed her head in feigned courtesy and deference, signaling with her eyes to the Knight standing beside her.
Then she bent deeply at the waist.
A thread of water so thin it was nearly invisible snaked toward Rayla like a serpent.
She had seized the moment when Pierre’s gaze turned elsewhere, targeting the child nestled in Sehera Zade’s arms.
Whoooosh!!
Splash!
Yet the stream of water the Knight unleashed was deflected effortlessly, and that was not all—a massive sphere of water that had risen into the air came crashing down upon the Knight.
“…It seems I appeared easy enough for you to attempt such foolishness.”
“P-Pierre, that was…”
Ramin Serpent went pale. She knew Pierre was no mere genius.
Yet the rumors spoke more of him as a has-been, rendered powerless by his incurable disease.
That was why the Matriarch had supposedly paired him with someone equally incompetent.
“Th-that’s…!”
As fear sent Ramin’s eyes wandering, she noticed something. The barrier of water protecting Rayla was not a single shield.
A double barrier.
A young girl she had never seen before, holding Rayla, was glaring at her with murderous intent. Who was she? If the successor didn’t recognize this face, she must be some insignificant branch of the family.
Soon Rayla understood who she was.
‘Ah, the incompetent branch-line Orca the Matriarch assigned to him.’
She had heard about her once before, given how distinctly out of place she appeared.
While trembling with fear, Ramin Serpent inwardly mocked and sneered at the two of them.
After all, they were both castaways cast out by the Matriarch’s favor!
And Pierre, who had endured countless mockeries directed at him, could not have missed this.
“Cough! Cough!”
“Lady Ramin!”
“Miss!!”
A stream of water coiled around Ramin Serpent’s neck and lifted her into the air. Her legs thrashed wildly.
‘…A house that follows the Eldest Brother, then.’
Pierre gazed coldly at the girl suspended in the air without emotion.
One of the Knights barely managed to sever the stream with his blade. Ramin Serpent fell with a thud, gasping heavily for breath.
“What is the meaning of this!”
“Did you think I would overlook an unauthorized intrusion?”
“…”
The Knights hastily formed ranks to protect the successor. Sehera Zade, still holding Rayla, rose to her feet.
“Your Highness, this child has lost consciousness. If I lay her down, could you protect her? I’m not very good at that sort of thing.”
Pierre did not answer, but Sehera Zade sensed that his silence was affirmation.
Indeed, the moment the child was gently laid upon the ground, a thick barrier materialized around her.
Sehera Zade rose from her position and stood beside Pierre.
“There’s something I didn’t show you last time.”
“….”
“I’m better with kicks than punches.”
Pierre glanced sideways at the young girl.
It was only a fleeting moment before his gaze shifted to the tense Knights and Ramin Serpent, who stared back with fear and malice intertwined.
“You’ll take responsibility, won’t you?”
“Mother isn’t lenient with intruders either.”
“Well, how convenient.”
Sehera Zade grinned and took her combat stance.
“I’ll think of them as those brats who used to torment me and fight accordingly.”
* * *
“So? What happened?”
Calypso’s eyes gleamed with interest. In moments like these, she felt the undeniable nature of her Orca blood.
“Your Majesty, why ask? Of course she won. Is Father just any Orca?”
“And Mother, who escapes from Father countless times….”
Atlant interjected while Agenor answered.
“Who doesn’t know that? Of course she won. The problem is what comes after. You know, these things only feel truly satisfying when you handle what comes next properly too. Didn’t you see what I did?”
Calypso’s gaze flickered toward Bellus, her Eldest Brother.
“When I made my debut at my first council meeting… didn’t a certain brother spend his time badmouthing me?”
Bellus quietly averted his gaze and cleared his throat awkwardly.
Calypso chuckled and urged Sehera Zade on.
“So? You won the fight, right?”
“I did.”
The fight ended in an instant. It wasn’t really a fight to begin with.
At Sehera Zade’s calm voice, Calypso couldn’t contain her curiosity and asked.
“And then? Did you both end up lying on the ground saying something like ‘Wow, you’re strong, you bastard’?”
“Ugh, that’s so cliché….”
“Why? I think it’s nice. A page from youth!”
“Unfortunately, nothing like that happened. It wasn’t a fight difficult enough to leave me breathless.”
“Then, did love blossom after that?”
At Calypso’s leisurely voice, Sehera Zade paused.
Calypso crossed her legs, rested her chin in her hand, and tilted her head.
“I’m really curious about this.”
Was there love between the two of them?
At the seemingly light yet weighty question, the room fell into silence for a moment.
Sehera Zade’s pause was brief before she returned to her composed expression and spoke.
“At least when we were young, there wasn’t time for such things.”
“….”
“I left right after the fight.”
Sehera Zade turned toward the window for a moment. Her eyes held the gaze of someone looking at a distant past.
“We met again only after we’d both become adults.”
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————