Black Killer Whale Baby [EN]: Chapter 80

Episode 80

Could Duke Yong’s rampage already be underway at this point?

Even as the thought crossed my mind, I moved.

Toward the door.

The footsteps were still audible.

“Tuse, I’ll ask you just one thing. Please answer me. Is Duke Yong in a ‘rampage’ state?”

“No!”

Tuse shouted.

“The Duke is fine. He’s not sick! Nothing’s wrong! It’s just…!”

*Squeak.* As if interrupting Tuse’s words, the door opened, and I instinctively pressed myself against the wall.

Peeking out, the first thing I saw was a huge shadow cast from the doorway.

*Such a large shadow… Just how big is Duke Yong, anyway?!*

I swallowed hard.

Soon, the figure that appeared approached the broken plate.

*Just a little, just a little more…*

If I moved just a bit more, I’d be able to see the figure under the moonlight.

Finally, when Duke Yong stepped into the moonlight, I couldn’t help but exclaim, “A child?”

What was with that huge shadow, anyway?

It was a tiny child, completely belying the size of the shadow.

I could only see the child’s back, but he seemed to be staring blankly at the food spilled on the floor.

*Even if he’s scary, the attendants are a mess.*

Was he angry because the food was spilled?

Was he about to cause a ruckus now?

But the sight Duke Yong presented in the next moment was so unexpected.

*W-wait a minute!*

Before I knew it, I had already rushed out and grabbed his small hand.

“Wait!”

I stared at the child with a bewildered expression.

“Were you trying to eat that food?”

“…”

Sure enough, in the hand I was holding was a squashed tomato that had fallen on the floor.

And the tomato visible under the moonlight…

It was rotten.

Horribly rotten.

There was no way I couldn’t recognize it. Because I, too, had been forced to eat such rotten food once.

…When I was sold to the Black Panther family.

I don’t know how strong Duke Yong’s stomach is, but to give a child something like this to eat…

*What on earth is going on?*

Duke Yong being monitored, or being in this old building, or whatever.

There were so many strange things, but even so, he was Duke Yong.

The symbol of this empire, and the one all the demi-humans [people with both human and animal traits] look up to.

I never imagined that such a person would be treated like this.

At least they should treat him like a human being…

“Let go, it’s rotten.”

Only after I blurted it out did I realize I should have used honorifics, and I felt a pang of regret.

But it was already too late.

When I looked up, I saw a snow-white face.

*He’s not the age I knew, but his face is no different.*

It was the sky-blue hair that I loved.

Beneath it was snow-white, soft skin that seemed to show the veins, and golden eyes that were deeply imprinted in my mind.

*…But what’s wrong with his condition?*

Not the crazed, wide-eyed look of the rampaging state I had often seen, but somewhat blank and dazed eyes.

No, they seemed indifferent, or even empty.

…Malnutrition?

The first thing that came to mind was his gaunt cheeks and slender neck.

And the thin wrist that I was holding.

*It’s as if they’re deliberately giving him rotten things to starve him or slowly kill him…*

I stopped thinking there and flinched.

“Ha, just suffer a little longer. Things will get better when he dies and is reborn.”

I hadn’t heard a word from Tuse, but I felt a chill as the puzzle pieces seemed to fit together.

No, let’s calm down for now. I haven’t figured anything out yet.

*The maid might be back soon.*

I glanced down the hallway. There was no sign of her returning, but there was no point in delaying.

“Duke Yong, right?”

“…”

“I’m not an enemy. Relax. I want to talk for a bit.”

“…”

“Um, hello?”

…This is the most taciturn person I’ve ever met, even more so than my dad.

No, he’s even worse. He didn’t even seem willing to answer.

He was just looking at me once, then at the tomato in his hand, tilting his head.

“Hey, Tuse? Tuse, stop crying and do something…”

Tuse, who was supposed to mediate… no, facilitate communication between us, was of no help at all, crying since the moment I grabbed Duke Yong’s wrist.

“…Tuse.”

Only when I spoke the baby snake’s name did Duke Yong open his mouth for the first time.

It was as if he had just noticed Tuse, who had climbed onto my shoulder, now.

“Yes, can you see him here? I brought your familiar [a magical companion]. So, won’t you talk to me for a bit?”

“…Talk, talk?”

“Yes. Talk.”

I pointed to the open door.

“Let’s go inside, in case someone comes.”

The problem is that I don’t have time. I had to finish the conversation quickly and go back.

A moment later, I stepped into Duke Yong’s room and sighed softly.

*Wow, that scared me.*

When I told Duke Yong to go inside, he ignored me and suddenly squatted down again to pick up the food and eat it.

No matter how I looked at it, it was clearly rotten food, so I had a hard time stopping him and forcibly dragging him inside.

Fortunately, I was so angry that I grabbed him by the collar and dragged him along, but he didn’t resist at all while I was dragging him?

-Duke, Duke… I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

And Tuse was just holding onto Duke Yong and crying.

The strange thing was that Duke Yong was just holding Tuse, not hugging him or wiping away his tears.

He was just staring down at Tuse.

I tilted my head.

“Hey, Duke. Ah, never mind. I’ll just speak comfortably. Hey, why don’t you wipe away your familiar’s tears? He’s crying so sadly. Even though he looks like that, you don’t know how much he cried because he missed you.”

“…”

He’s really taciturn.

If I hadn’t called Tuse earlier, I would have thought he couldn’t speak.

*He wasn’t like this in the original story?*

Duke Yong’s appearance, both in that state and in his rampaging state.

He seems to be showing me unexpected sides of himself.

*Will we even be able to have a conversation like this?*

At that moment, Tuse finally stopped crying and raised his head.

He was still sniffling, but he spoke without any problems.

-Calypso, I’m sorry. Tuse was so happy that he cried.

“It’s okay. You can cry as much as you want, but can you explain things first? What on earth is going on?”

Numerous questions popped up in my head, but I needed to organize them and ask them.

With a sigh, I spoke the question that had been welling up inside me first. I was going to ask questions one by one.

No, that’s what I was going to do…

“Why is someone who’s supposed to be Duke Yong eating rotten food? No, never mind the food. Why is he picking up food from the floor?”

It was unavoidable that questions poured out as soon as I opened my mouth.

Currently, Duke Yong looked older than me.

Outwardly, about six or seven years old?

At this age, he should have received basic education.

-The Duke… can’t eat without Tuse.

“You said that in the carriage too. But did you mean this?”

I thought it meant that he was raised preciously and wouldn’t eat unless his familiar took care of him.

If it meant that he would pick up food from the floor if you weren’t there, the meaning is too different…?

Tuse hesitated in Duke Yong’s hand, then slowly opened his mouth.

-Calypso, Duke Yong doesn’t need to reproduce to be reborn as the next Duke Yong if he dies.

“I know that.”

That’s why Duke Yong was excluded from the male lead candidates who had a romance with the female lead in the book.

When Duke Yong dies, the next Duke Yong is born.

-Tuse was born knowing the basics as Duke Yong’s familiar. How to serve the Duke, how to use power, how to be loyal. I know everything about the Duke.

And that child becomes Duke Yong.

-Duke Yong has to learn as soon as he’s born. If he doesn’t learn, he just grows up in body.

“…So Duke Yong’s current state is, um.”

I chose my words carefully.

“He’s an idiot?”

Tuse didn’t understand the word ‘idiot’.

When I explained the meaning simply, he nodded.

-The Duke can’t eat without Tuse. The humans didn’t teach the Duke how to hold a spoon… Tuse is a familiar, so I can’t teach the Duke.”

After hearing those words, the child sitting blankly looked different.

He wasn’t ignoring me.

*He had nothing to say.*

I pressed my lips tightly together.