Black Killer Whale Baby - Chapter 335
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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 60
Yet Pierre ultimately said nothing.
He had never been given the opportunity to learn from birth. But that was merely an excuse.
There were those who had never learned, yet still managed to act. This was the point where the two of them diverged.
Pierre never came to understand his own emotions, and he understood even less how to express them through words.
Yet Sizer was someone who could act instinctively without ever having learned.
“Young Master.”
Sizer spoke the playful title she had called him long ago.
At the familiar address, Pierre’s heart trembled. Whether Sizer knew this or not, she wore a subtle smile.
Her eyes widened, yet they remained devoid of warmth.
“Love comes in many forms. And… it differs in magnitude as well.”
At that time, these words meant nothing to Pierre.
Only after a very long time did he come to understand their meaning.
Two seasons passed, several months went by.
Sizer gave birth to a healthy baby girl without complications.
In the birthing chamber were only Rayla and Sizer. And their newborn daughter, who had just fallen into peaceful sleep.
Where the midwife who had assisted the birth had been, only silence remained.
“Thank you for helping, Rayla.”
Sizer spoke her gratitude to Rayla in a weakened voice.
“…Wasn’t it you who discovered me collapsed and carried me to the room?”
Rayla could not bring herself to answer.
It was Pierre who had discovered Sizer collapsed as her labor approached. It was Pierre who had lifted her and carried her away.
Sizer gazed at the baby sleeping soundly. Despite being newborn, the child resembled Sizer.
‘It would have been better if she didn’t resemble me.’
My own appearance was nearly a mutation.
Finding this both amusing and sorrowful, Sizer wore a bitter smile. The baby was so close that she need only reach out to touch the cradle, yet…
Sizer withdrew her outstretched hand before it could touch the child.
“…Rayla. I have no confidence in naming this child.”
“…”
“If I do, I won’t be able to leave.”
And several days after the birth had ended.
Sizer disappeared. Vanished without a trace, to a place no one could find.
Days later, rumors spread that Sizer’s corpse had been found. Her funeral was held by her own Noble House.
Pierre did not attend that funeral.
While everyone was in chaos.
Only Pierre could understand.
“My mother told me so. Make the Oath of the Sea and… bear a daughter with Pierre Aquasiadel.”
“…”
“Then she will set you free.”
She left me through death.
Pierre slowly closed his eyes.
…It was the day I first found myself willing to accept death drawing near.
And from that day forward, Pierre lost all will to live. He could not muster interest in anything.
“Uncle!”
Then one day, a small child who bore an uncanny resemblance to his wife—his daughter—appeared before him.
“Do you happen to know where the Education Institution is? I need to go there.”
I recognized her at a glance.
My daughter.
But by then, he had already become like a living corpse, devoid of all will.
I thought that day would never come. That’s what I believed back then.
* * *
“Grandfather?”
Pierre slowly turned his head.
His granddaughter gazed at him with an innocent expression.
Was this fate? Or the power of genes?
Calypso resembled Sizer so closely.
And Cali resembled Calypso.
As a result, Pierre could see his wife’s face in his granddaughter’s features, and his heart felt both strange and joyful.
Now I could finally understand the meaning behind everything my wife had said.
He had loved her. And foolishly, he had not known it.
Not understanding his own state. Not knowing what words to speak.
A stupid Orca who understood neither the other’s heart nor his own.
“And then? After Grandmother left, what came next?”
“Well….”
Pierre traced through the years.
When he reunited with his wife in the City of Sharks, what had he felt?
It was a moment he could never forget.
A day when he remembered even the temperature and weather of that moment. He found himself desperately chasing after his wife as she turned and fled.
Heedless of his daughter’s bewilderment.
They could not have a long conversation then. Sizer did not permit it.
“What could we possibly have to talk about?”
“…You didn’t die?”
A person he had believed to be dead.
A person who had once made him think that dying might be better.
“Why, did you wish I was dead?”
“….”
He wanted to say it couldn’t be so, but Sizer gave him no opportunity.
“You chased after me so desperately.”
After that came countless events, and his daughter became the Matriarch. Throughout all those countless years, they never had a proper conversation.
“Grandmother ran away, and Grandfather was it?”
“No….”
Pierre offered a faint smile and gently stroked his granddaughter’s hair.
“It wasn’t hide-and-seek. It was years spent seeking forgiveness.”
He spoke the word forgiveness aloud in a tender voice.
“Because there’s something I absolutely must tell your grandmother.”
“Then, didn’t grandmother listen to you?”
Pierre reflected on the passage of time. Sizer had certainly avoided him, but that didn’t mean they never spoke.
“I suppose I only looked after the daughter?”
“….”
“But there are four children.”
At first, she had blamed him.
He had received angry glares and eyes filled with hatred.
“…Even the granddaughter only resembles me.”
Among the things he’d heard recently, this statement had left the deepest impression. Yet if he were to gather all the conversations exchanged over those long years, the total would be remarkably small.
Pierre endured all of it.
He was simply grateful to see her alive rather than dead.
If he could see her like this, even in such a relationship, until the day he died, he would have no other wishes.
“So grandfather wants to see grandmother laughing and joking with you?”
“Well, I wish it were possible, but it’s an impossible thing.”
As Pierre gained things precious to him, he gradually came to understand.
What he had done to Sizer.
What kind of shock it must have been for her.
Some wounds never heal, even until death.
Every time she saw him, she would relive that wound. It would be painful and agonizing.
Yet because he wanted to see her alive, he would still be a selfish Orca.
“I simply want to convey just one thing….”
“Will Cali help?!”
The child grasped Pierre’s hand and opened her eyes brightly.
“Cali can do it well! Cali is smart. I’ll make you meet!”
“…I’m not sure what intelligence has to do with it. It’s fine. I’m grateful for the thought alone.”
Pierre stroked his granddaughter’s cheek.
“This isn’t something that can be entrusted to someone else.”
Watching the relationship between the daughter and the former Lord Ocula, he had come to feel something.
“Thank you for thinking of me.”
“Uuung….”
Cali couldn’t answer readily and drew out her words.
‘But grandfather, you’re making such a sad face.’
Yet instead of saying more, the child burrowed into the embrace of her kindest grandfather.
“Cali wants to.”
Pierre accepted the child’s affection and patted her gently. How much time had passed.
Only the soft breathing of a sleeping child filled the room.
It was peaceful.
Yes, truly peaceful. Who could have known such a day would come in his life?
Had he known it as a teenager, he would have scoffed at it. Yet even so, there remained a tangled knot within Pierre’s heart—unraveled, waiting for resolution.
‘When will she come again…?’
Sizer’s visits followed no regular pattern. It was precisely when Pierre had been staring intently out the window.
His eyes widened considerably.
A soft rustle.
He sensed someone settling onto the empty sofa. From the moment he felt that presence, he could not believe it.
“Don’t look at me. Just stay as you are.”
The source of that presence was…the wife he had pursued so relentlessly all this time—Sizer.
Why?
Countless questions arose, yet Pierre could not easily find his words.
“…Sehera Zade.”
“I abandoned that name long ago.”
At her calm yet sharp voice, Pierre could only manage a bitter smile without even daring to look at her.
“Did I ever have the right to call your true name?”
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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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