Black Killer Whale Baby [EN]: Chapter 153

153

Something strange?

She was fed something, and the ones who fed it to her were the Imperial Family.

Naturally, the Dragon Duke’s situation came to mind. The Imperial Family and the black panthers treating Ekion like livestock flashed through my mind.

What on earth were the Imperial Family thinking, feeding Lily something strange?

‘What do those bastards think other beastmen are?’

I felt a surge of annoyance but suppressed it.

The female lead transforming into an animal, unlike in the original story. A clue appeared.

“Do the black panthers not know about this? Does the Duke?”

“The Duke doesn’t know…!”

“……Ah. It’s okay, Lily. Shh. You can speak slowly.”

The child is having trouble breathing. I felt sympathy and soothed her.

Then, Lily managed to utter between sobs.

“Hic, sob, if, if I tell, the Duke and, the Duke, they said they’d get rid of, rid of them, hic! S-scared.”

I wiped away the glistening, bead-like tears with my sleeve.

‘Let’s get her seated and talk.’

I sat Lily on the plush sofa, and I settled down on the floor below.

Lily held onto my pinky finger tightly the whole time.

“Good girl, I’m asking to help you. So… the person with the golden hair bothered you, no. Did the Imperial Family bother you without anyone knowing?”

Lily raised her tearful eyes.

“……Hic, they told me to run away.”

“Who?”

“P-Palaya, sir…….”

Palaya. The second child of Duke Panterion.

The black panther’s second child made Lily run away.

‘Even though that guy is a playboy and has a terrible personality, he sincerely cared for Lily.’

That means he acknowledged that he couldn’t resolve what was happening to Lily on his own.

If so.

‘Is it really true that Duke Panterion doesn’t know what happened to Lily?’

I slowly turned my gaze.

“Okay, I understand. You don’t want to go back, right?”

Lily moved her head up and down.

“Okay, then stay here. But instead… can you help me a little?”

“Help Unnie [older sister or female friend]?”

“Yes. That’s right. Me.”

“Can I help?”

“You can do more than you think, Lily.”

You are loved by the world.

I smiled brightly.

“I have a friend who was bothered by someone with golden hair like you. I want you to help me save that friend.”

I was worried if this young child could understand….

But the Lily I know was a clever child, both in the book and in previous iterations.

As expected, Lily hesitated and then spoke.

Tears were clinging to her eyes, but her gaze was bright.

“Does that fwiend huwt too……?”

I glanced at Ekion and nodded.

“Yes, he hurts. So I want to help him quickly.”

I thought Lily would hesitate even for a moment.

But Lily nodded eagerly without a moment’s hesitation.

“I can help!”

“Good.”

I said this and whispered.

“First, I’m going to spread the rumor that you were found somewhere.”

* * *

Duke Panterion was dumbfounded by the continuous stream of news.

“Why am I hearing news that the hyenas have been crushed?”

Before Duke Panterion stood a gazelle beastman serving as his aide, and his first son, Asel.

The aide barely endured, trembling from the murderous intent emanating from Duke Panterion.

If he couldn’t withstand this much, he couldn’t dare call himself the secretary of the Panterion ducal family.

Asel glanced at the aide and opened his mouth.

“It seems a collateral branch of the hyena side was in this city.”

“So why did such a guy appear?”

“Didn’t the Imperial Family gather carnivore beastmen and wild beasts indiscriminately?”

“…….”

The indiscriminate gathering of wild beasts was not Panterion’s intention. It was a secret order from the Imperial Family.

“As the number of personnel has become uncontrollably large, there are things that cannot be grasped.”

As a result, as wild beasts gathered, minor and major accidents and side effects occurred.

“There are still few things we don’t grasp, but it’s only a matter of time before they become uncontrollable.”

The biggest side effect of the increase in wild beasts is the outbreak of fights.

And those fights uncontrollably increase, turning the streets into lawless zones.

He knows this but can’t intervene.

Because he was monitoring something important in this city.

“The Dragon Duke’s true power cannot be handled by ordinary wild beasts. The moment they realize the situation, they will be able to escape in an instant.”

These personnel were not actually intended to guard against external enemies, but were needed to hold onto the Dragon Duke inside, who might run away at any moment.

If necessary, they would not hesitate to kill him. That’s how the next Dragon Duke would be born.

The Imperial Family didn’t care even if the Dragon’s City became a crime city, as long as they could hold onto the Dragon Duke.

In any case, Pierre Aquasidel had detonated a massive bomb in a city that was teetering on the brink of becoming a slum.

“Now, Panterion alone cannot maintain the security of this city, Father.”

“…….”

“However, the Dragon City knights will only move properly when the Dragon Duke appears.”

Duke Panterion listened to his first son’s report with his lips tightly shut.

However, Asel noticed his father’s hand trembling slightly.

“I heard that guy made a request.”

“Yes. He said he has no intention of sending his daughter, so he demanded that the Dragon Duke come forward and confront him directly.”

“Crazy.”

Duke Panterion assessed. Orcas have always been like this.

They all did unpredictable, crazy things.

“If they hadn’t made my daughter the Dragon’s bride from the start.”

“It is said it was the Aquasidel family head’s order. Therefore, since he couldn’t bend the family head’s will, he intends to bend the Dragon Duke’s will. He is spreading this in the streets.”

He didn’t seem like a light-mouthed fellow, but it seemed his judgment was wrong.

Pierre’s request wasn’t just this.

“He provoked them, saying that if the Dragon Duke doesn’t come forward, even the landlubbers should come forward.”

“Yes. At the same time, he requested us. To open the Feseum.”

Feseum. The place where gladiators’ battles used to be held.

The reason for opening that place was obvious. He meant to fight there.

“He’s making nonsense with great care.”

“If we refuse, he told us to convey this.”

Asel read the report expressionlessly.

“He said it would be better to have a brawl in the Feseum than to destroy the city. If they are truly the ones in charge of managing this castle instead of the Dragon Duke, they should judge well…….”

Bang!

“What are the underlings doing, just listening to such nonsense?”

“Father. Even if it’s rotten, it’s still a crucian carp [a common saying meaning even something weak has value]. Even if it looks like that, he’s an orca.”

The strongest of the aquatic beastmen.

Pierre was threatening to mess up the situation by destroying the city if necessary.

Could this already chaotic city withstand such a shock?

The Panterion family had to thoroughly control this city where the Dragon Duke was.

However, the more Pierre made a mess, the more difficult it became. The Imperial Family would worry about ‘the Dragon Duke’s escape taking advantage of the chaos,’ and the risk would ultimately fall on Panterion.

“It is said that the last words he shouted in the plaza were.”

Asel paused briefly after seeing the end of the report, but soon continued with an expressionless face.

“He said that if they beat all the smelly bastards, a black panther should come out at the end to liven things up.”

Asel laughed softly at the end of the report.

Duke Panterion was about to get angry but lost the timing and frowned.

“Are you laughing?”

“No. Isn’t it an absurd statement?”

“…….”

Pierre’s last provocation was directed at Panterion.

The black panthers all laughed at the words that he wanted to fight him in the end.

“Father, please open the Feseum.”

It was a provocation that would make a young beastman’s blood boil. He didn’t know what kind of personality Pierre usually had.

He used his head quite a bit.

In the end, a beast was a beast.

For those who had reigned as strongmen all their lives, a provocation that scratched their pride worked better than a condescending sneer.

‘It’s definitely the work of someone who knows our ecosystem.’

Was Pierre Aquasidel really doing this just to avoid sending his daughter as the Dragon’s bride?

“Why, do you want to go out there too?”

“I’m not thinking about it, but that’s not what I brought up the story for.”

Asel said calmly with an expressionless face.

“Isn’t it a hindrance? But we can’t just let the Dragon’s bride go. We don’t know when a new bride will come again.”

It was the Imperial Family, not Panterion, that needed the Dragon’s bride.

There was a reason to keep the Dragon’s bride in this city.

“Wouldn’t it be better to give Pierre Aquasidel one thing he wants, and we take another?”

“What do you mean?”

Duke Panterion crossed his thick arms.

“What else could it be?”

A gaze of observation, a gaze of evaluation that Asel was familiar with.

“While attention is turned outward, we take the Dragon’s bride and hide her somewhere.”

“……Can you handle even the father who cherishes his daughter at will?”

Duke Panterion chuckled. His dark red eyes gleamed like glass.

“We might be the first beastmen to use an orca as a guard dog.”

“…….”

Asel simply watched the undisguised joy drawn on his father’s face.

“I will bring the Dragon’s bride myself.”