Black Killer Whale Baby [EN]: Chapter 171

171

“Don’t mock me, just tell me. What happened to Lily?”

“Is that how you talk to people?”

“…What happened to her?”

I shrugged, watching him readily change his tone.

“We’re protecting the baby squirrel.”

“…What? You mean, she’s in this castle?”

When I nodded, Palaya began to scan the room intently.

But soon, he had to look back at me. Dad’s power was pinning his chin in place.

I tilted my head like a villain in a gangster movie.

“We’re not done talking. I heard you let her escape?”

“How did you….”

“How would I know? I heard it from her. She’s completely devoted to you.”

Actually, I was also wondering.

‘Why does Lily follow me so much?’

Lily seemed to like and follow Palaya, if not others.

But the way she looked at us with sparkling eyes even after we restrained Palaya just now.

I’ll find out about this later.

Right now, talking to this guy comes first.

“We don’t plan to keep her for long.”

I confessed honestly.

“Ah, you mustn’t return her to Father!”

I stared at Palaya.

“Why?”

“You’re keeping Lily, you must have heard everything!”

Palaya seemed to think we had heard everything from Lily, and he spilled the beans very easily.

“If you heard, you’d know! The Imperial Family keeps doing strange things to her. Father knows but doesn’t object, saying it’s for her sake!”

“What’s the reason?”

“That’s what I don’t know, so I sneaked her out!”

He looked like someone who had wanted to say all these things.

But.

“What makes you think you did a good job putting a three-year-old on a baggage cart and telling her to run away?”

“What?”

“What can a three-year-old do?”

In the end, Palaya turned pale when he heard that she was found by us, half-starved.

“I, I was trying to help…”

“Your judgment wasn’t right either.”

No matter how smart he was, he was still young. Immature.

“T, the maid I sent with her promised to take good care of her, with money…”

Trusting someone you gave money to.

“But you mustn’t return her to Father, to our family!”

I stared at Palaya coldly.

“You have one thing to do. If you want Lily back, create a safe environment.”

The only reason I’m temporarily removing this guy from my revenge list is one thing.

“I know it’s not your sister’s fault. I’m sorry…”

“It’s because of me…”

In my first life, which was tragically ruined, Lily was the one who cried for me.

The moment we brushed past each other was so short. There was a moment when I felt comforted by that brief sympathy.

I’m just paying the price for that sympathy now.

“How can I?”

“Your maternal family. They have nothing to do with the Black Panthers, right? And you’re out of favor with the Imperial Family.”

Snakes were in a somewhat unique position in this world.

“You go to your mother right away and persuade her.”

Snakes can live in water and on land. Perhaps because of this, land beastkins often regarded them as bats who could stick to anyone.

The reason why the marriage between Palaya’s mother, a snake beastkin, and a Black Panther fell apart was probably for this reason.

Snakes were also subject to another form of discrimination.

This guy, who inherited the blood of a snake, was no different. In the original story, he had his own wounds.

“Isn’t your mother currently the head of the snake family?”

“Why snakes of all things?”

“Then where else are we supposed to send Lily? You don’t expect us, who have no ties, to keep looking after her, do you?”

“…I have no intention of doing that at all!”

As expected of a land beastkin, I could feel a slight aversion towards aquatic animal beastkins.

I just chuckled.

“Three months. That’s how long we can wait. Come to Aquasieldel when you’re ready.”

“……”

When I gestured, Dad released his power. The water power that had been binding Palaya disappeared completely.

“Walk out on your own two feet.”

Palaya got up and peered around the room.

“…Lily, is she doing well?”

“Do you think we’re like your kind, abusing children with a musty smell?”

Well, I lived in such abuse. But that’s information this guy doesn’t need to know here.

Palaya’s face turned red at my sneer.

“Can I have time to say goodbye to her?”

I hesitated and told him a few things.

The guy, who was listening to my words, looked a little surprised and then slowly nodded.

“If I do that, you’ll give me a chance to see Lily, right?”

“Yes.”

After nodding, Palaya looked around the room once more with a regretful look and left.

All preparations for the return were complete.

I stretched and looked at the sky.

Wow, what a great day to go back.

* * *

The next day.

The Black Panthers were as busy as ever searching for the Dragon Duke.

They were getting anxious seeing that even after searching the city, they couldn’t find even a trace of the Dragon Duke.

But they had a reliable backup.

Because Asael had begun to search for the Dragon Duke with the great ‘power of earth’!

They were full of hope. They were filled with the thought that their master would find him.

However, Asael was serious all alone.

‘Why can’t I find him?’

Asael swallowed the bitter taste in his mouth.

He wiped his mouth and wiped the blood on the back of his hand with a handkerchief.

He can’t find the Dragon Duke.

This definitely pointed to one thing.

The Dragon Duke is not in this city.

‘He really succeeded in escaping from Peseum and left the city right away?’

Is that possible?

The Dragon Duke was ignorant of everything. He didn’t even know how to talk to people.

He couldn’t live without someone’s help, and that’s what the Imperial Family and the beasts had made him.

He thought the Orcas had helped, so he dug into their tracks.

But there was no trace of them crossing the castle walls anywhere. It was eerie.

It was when Asael was about to clench his teeth and activate his ability once more.

Thump, thump!

“Duke!”

The knight commander rushed to where Asael was.

It wasn’t like him to act without manners, so it meant something big had happened.

“What’s going on?”

“Th, terrible, something terrible has happened! The Duke has already headed there!”

Before Asael could ask more, the knight commander quickly pleaded.

“The Dragon Duke’s former retainers and lords have started a riot!”

* * *

The alleys of the Dragon City were intricately intertwined in various places.

Because it was a city that was two thousand years old, people settled in before the city developed, making development difficult.

People liked these complex alleys, saying they were traces of the Dragon’s tail passing by.

They were people who cherished and loved the Dragon Duke so much.

A city that started with the Dragon and would perish with the Dragon.

“Look, everyone! What kind of appearance do we have, who have served the Dragon Duke for over a thousand years! We were kicked out as is, and we couldn’t even know what the Dragon Duke’s situation was like, or if he was healthy!”

The one wearing glasses and shouting at the top of his lungs was a ‘cooter’ [a type of turtle] beastkin belonging to the Turtle family.

The cooter beastkin, who had a natural talent for inciting people, was in his element.

“Everyone will remember our leader. What about the leader who didn’t spare his body for the Dragon Duke? He lost his legs!”

“…Oh my!”

“And that was by the Black Panthers who mercilessly trampled on our Dragon Duke’s land!”

The two people standing in front as if to protect the cooter beastkin. One was the alligator snapping turtle beastkin who threatened Calypso.

The other was the snapping turtle beastkin, who was second to none in violence.

The Black Panthers, the Imperial Family, looked down on the Dragon City too much.

History is not easily built.

This was no different from a castle that would not easily collapse.

“Is this really protection? Isn’t it that the Dragon Duke was imprisoned and kidnapped under the guise of protection?”

“…What are you talking about?”

“Oh my, the beasts that came to our city were actually there to threaten the Dragon Duke!”

“What? Who the hell dares!”

“They say they imprisoned him by taking advantage of the Dragon Duke’s youth…!”

Those who were hiding among the citizens and leaking information in various places were turtle beastkins or the families of retainers who had been kicked out for remaining loyal like the land turtle family.

Even so, the lords were filled with dissatisfaction and anxiety about not seeing the Dragon Duke’s face for a long time.

It was too easy to ignite the fuse in this anxiety that had lasted for over 8 years.

“Let’s all protest! Who does the Dragon City belong to!”

“The Dragon Duke!!”

“That’s right. We refuse to be ruled by anyone other than the Dragon Duke!”

“We refuse! We refuse!!”

“Step down!!”

The lords gathered together.

In fact, the fact that they were able to gather so easily was largely thanks to what happened in Peseum a while ago.

If it hadn’t been for that, they wouldn’t have been able to gather this much.

The Orca girl who came as the Dragon’s bride became a candle.

The lords jumped out onto the streets and protested or demanded explanations from the land beasts who came from the capital.

The beasts, who had lived arrogantly since birth, couldn’t stand this insubordination.

“He hit me! He hit me, he hit me!”

“Hitting a Dragon City citizen? With what right!”

“He must have bullied the Dragon Duke too!”

“You bastards!”

In the end, when a beast who couldn’t stand it hit an agitated citizen. This became an uprising that no one could stop.

“Let’s all go to the Dragon Castle!”

The turtles led all these riots wonderfully.

“…Everyone is energetic.”

The head of the Turtle family, who showed his lost two legs and then stepped back to watch everything, turned his head.

“You’ve lived for 50 years too, haven’t you?”

A middle-aged man who was assisting the head faced him.

“That’s right. Even so, I can’t even put my name on the 70-year-old leader… I’ll be a young man.”

He subtly moved the wheelchair the leader was riding in back.

“It turned out as that girl said.”

The middle-aged man muttered.

The leader quietly watched the citizens running towards the castle.

Well, this is just an explosion of the accumulated dissatisfaction of the retainers and lords.

But it was certain that the Orca family had become a fuse. A very good one at that.

The leader slowly looked down at his hand.

In that hand was a small piece of paper. It was a letter from the Dragon Duke that Calypso had given him.

「Turtle.

Calypso told me to write a letter.

I’m healthy.」

It was a child’s crooked handwriting.

「The bad guys are the ones who are bothering me.

I won’t let them get away with it.」

Because it was a family that had served the Dragon Duke for a very long time, he knew.

Dragons are beings who don’t even learn language unless they trust someone.

Because he trusted, he was able to write letters and become a child who could speak.

They were excellent evidence that he was on the Dragon Duke’s side.

「Thank you.

You took my side.

I remember when I was born.」

Thick tears welled up on the old leader’s face.

The turtles were all kicked out not long after the current Dragon Duke was born.

He tried to protect the Dragon Duke even while losing his legs.

Losing his legs was a choice he didn’t regret at all. But.

Just the fact that his lord recognized him made him feel like he had returned to being a child.

His lord will return.

In a better form.

So, all those left behind can do is clear the way for their lord to go to a safe place.

“Mobilize the guys who were hiding too.”

“…Yes, Lord.”

The Imperial Family, the Black Panthers, and the land beasts thought too lightly of the Dragon City.

Now it was time for them to pay the price for their arrogance.

Thump!

Soon after, the leader saw one side of the Dragon Castle collapsing.

“We are a shield for the Dragon.”

The shield would no longer protect a castle without an owner.

* * *

I whistled, watching the collapsing castle.

“Wow, that’s quite a scale.”

Then I suddenly turned to Dad.