The Crazy Killer Whale’s Favourite Penguin

Episode 14: A Glitch in the System (III)

Suradel, staring at my indescribable expression, tilted his head to one side.

“Why, Lia? Would you like to have it?”

“…Well, since it’s a great item, of course I covet it.”

“Then I’ll give you one.”

“Huh?”

I asked blankly, wondering if I had heard it wrong.

Then, as if to prove that it was not a lie, Suradel took out a luxurious glass bottle that contained a red liquid from his subspace.

Really? A half-elixir? So easy?

While I was perplexed, he put a vial of supposed half-elixir in my hand.

“I hope it will be useful.”

I frowned.

The unexplained excessive kindness he showed me from yesterday made me rather anxious.

“…What is it? Why are you giving it so easily? Half-elixirs are expensive and difficult to make.”

“Hm… It’s hard to make by other people’s standards. It’s actually not that difficult for me.”

The corners of Suradel’s mouth were raised. He looked relaxed.

“Even if you use up all of that half-elixir on paper cuts, it won’t be too much of a waste.”

“…Should you be at least a little sad to see it used in that way?”

“Well, the color is pretty, you can use it as decoration.”

Wrong.

He seemed to be a madman on a much larger scale than I thought.

I kept a firm expression and spit out my words as if on alert.

“You, don’t be nice to me.”

‘If you’re being so nice to me because I’m a killer whale, I don’t want to imagine the time when I’ll be caught later.’

I was afraid of Suradel’s unprovoked goodwill.

Needless to say, while saying this, I quickly put the half-elixir I received into my pouch.

Noticing that I was wary, he shifted his gaze like he was thinking deeply about something.

After a while, he seemed to have found the answer and smiled brightly.

“Then let’s do this, Lia.”

I waited for him to continue speaking, touching the half-elixir in my pocket, afraid that he might take it away.

“Call me by a nickname. I’ll take this as payment for the half-elixir.”

“Thanks for the good deal, Su.”

“…Huh?”

“What? You said to call you by a nickname?”

‘Is this too cheap for a half-elixir?’

It was not even honey, baby, darling, or sweetheart, it was just a shortened name.

“Ha.”

Unlike yesterday, my attitude changed so quickly that Suradel started muttering something to himself with a dejected expression.

“…Why. Ugh… When… all sorts of jewels… Even if I bring… Rejected… But…”

“Su. If you have something to say, can you speak up so I can hear it?”

When I called out his nickname one more time, he smiled, hiding his gloomy expression.

“As expected, I think Lia the human is better than Lia the penguin.”

“Why are you talking about another Lia all of a sudden?”

For no reason, I felt like crying at those words.

To be honest, he spent a lot more time with the penguin me than the human me.

I didn’t like it very much that the years of ‘courtship’ were so easily dismissed.

‘…You said you were a penguin lover!’

‘Is it that, in the end, a human killer whale female is better, since it’s the same species?’

‘If you have a lover later on, you’ll be in a lot of trouble.’

“Don’t ever bring up another Lia in front of me again.”

“Lia, are you jealous of the penguin Lia?”

Would I be jealous of myself?

I just didn’t want to see Suradel’s lightheartedness, that changed as quickly and easily as flipping a hand.

However, feeling that my face was getting hot for some reason at his words, I turned my head away.

“You may think so.”

As I turned my back and stepped forward with agitation, I heard Suradel’s small chuckle from behind. It was a very pleasant laugh.

Then, using his long legs, he quickly chased me.

“Lia, come with me.”

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When I returned to the Weil family’s mansion after buying clothes, I saw the servants moving busily.

As I looked around to grasp the situation, the butler approached me and bowed his head briefly.

“Welcome back. Did you have a nice outing?”

Suradel took off his coat and casually handed it to the butler.

“It was more fun than I thought. Rather, why is it so busy?”

“An hour ago, Master Primo returned to the mansion.”

“Ah. Come to think of it, Mother said she was going to meet Father today.”

“He’s eating in the dining room, what would you like to do?”

At the butler’s question, his gaze turned to me.

“Lia, what do you think? Is it okay to have dinner with my parents?”

“Where Madam Bella and the Weil family are eating… me too?”

“Yes. My father is not a scary person, so you shouldn’t be too uncomfortable.”

I blinked and imagined Suradel’s father.

“What kind of person is the head of the Weil family?”

“Well. If we’re talking about personality, I can say he resembles me.”

“It’s not that the head of household resembles you, it’s that you resemble the head of household.”

Oh, but… 

A personality similar to Suradel?

‘That… Isn’t that really serious?’

It was not very welcoming to hear that the head of the Weil family had a similar personality to Suradel.

However, considering how I would be under the Weil’s care for the time being, the meeting could not be postponed forever.

I looked up at Suradel with a grim face.

“Okay. I’ll go give my greetings.”

Then Suradel blushed slightly, lowering his eyes as if he was shy.

“Lia, those words just sounded like a bride-to-be going to ask her parents-in-law for permission to marry.”

“…Do you ever take a break from flirting?”

“It’s not flirting? I was just expressing my honest opinion, I’m disappointed to be criticized that way.”

“If you want to say that, you should fake a sad expression.”

The butler, who had been watching us with a somewhat embarrassed look, quickly composed himself and opened his mouth.

“Then, I’ll have the meal prepared while you change into comfortable clothes.”

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

After a simple wash, I changed into the yellow dress that I had held for a long time at a ready-to-wear store.

It was a vibrant color, but it was a dress that went very well with the current bright and shadowless face.

“Even though I look weak because of my small size, I’m definitely well-proportioned and pretty, so it makes my eyes happy.”

Excited for no reason, I spun around in front of the mirror. Then the skirt fluttered and floated up.

After playing in front of the mirror for a few minutes, I left the room. Almost immediately, Suradel came into sight.

He was leaning his back against the wall across from me, as if he had been waiting for me.

Meeting my eyes, he stood up and let out a smile.

“How pretty, Lia.”

“Right? I think so too.”

“No, I was talking about you.”

“Yes. I meant myself too?”

I shamelessly tilted my head to one side, as if saying there was no other pretty thing here.

Like he had taken a shot, Suradel burst into laughter.

“You are truly one of the best demibeast I have ever met in my life.”

“Thank you for the compliment.”

“Now that you’ve changed into a pretty outfit, shall we go eat?”

Saying that, Suradel quietly held out his hand. It was a natural inducement of physical contact.

“Put down your hand and lead the way.”

“Haha, there really isn’t a single gap.”

Actually, I was looking forward to mealtime quite a bit, except for the fact that I had to meet the Weil family head.

This was because when I was a penguin, I ate krill as a staple food, though I often also ate other seafood.

Since I was a penguin, it naturally suited my taste, but I, who had memories of my human days, was very hungry for a human diet.

After becoming a human yesterday, how delicious was the food I tasted for the first time.

I licked my lips and followed Suradel.

When I entered the dining room, the savory smell of food wafted in.

“Oh, you’re here.”

Bella, noticing us, greeted us first. Then the middle-aged man sitting in the seat of honor turned his head, his gaze slowly landing on us.
(TL/N: ‘seat of honor/upper seat’ is typically the one at the end of a long table.)

“That’s the head of the Weil family… … ?”

The first thing that caught my eye was a clean chin, like it had been carefully maintained, without a trace of beard.

‘Oh my God. He’s a blue whale demibeast, but he doesn’t have a beard…?’

This was like an act of nonsensical deception, such as the absence of crucian carp in a fish-shaped pastry.

Certainly, it’s logical that fish-shaped pastry wouldn’t literally have crucian carp.
(TL/N: because the ‘crucian carp’ is in the design ^^)

However, I decided to respect his appearance as I myself was quite different from when I was an animal, and quickly removed my disappointed expression.

Then, his tall height, which had only been heard in rumors, caught my eye next.

“Woah…”

Incredibly tall. Maybe it was because he had silver hair that was almost achromatic and matching silver eyes, but somehow there was a mysterious feeling.

Or perhaps it was because of Bella, who was sitting next to him, making the black and white seem more contrasted.

‘I wonder if this is how he feels when he sees Suradel and I standing together.’

I blinked quickly in amazement.

Yesterday, I said that it’s hard to tell what kind of race Suradel is just by looking at him.

However, the head of the Weil family exuded a sense of dignity and force that seemed to match the reputation of the world’s largest creature, the ‘blue whale’.

Of course, him not having a white beard was very disappointing.