The Crazy Killer Whale’s Favourite Penguin

Episode 58: Death Mark (I)

I searched here and there with Jerome, the shark demibeast.

But in the end, I returned to Weil Castle without results.

I didn’t even find the tail of the raccoon demibeast, but I wasn’t too disappointed.

Today was the first day I looked for him in earnest, so it was understandable. But there was still time.

Besides, I also found a helper in Jerome.

At first, he complained, wondering why he had to do such a thing, but when I asked about this and that, he meekly answered in a sincere manner.

With the help of Jerome, who had good knowledge of Weil territory, I would be able to find the racoon in time.

As soon as I arrived at Weil Castle, I went to Iprus’ room.

Perhaps because she was my exclusion maid, she was assigned to a connected room and was using a solitary room.

“Rus, I’m coming in.”

Udang-tang-!

I thought she was sleeping, so I skipped knocking, and out of courtesy, I announced I was going in and tried to enter.

But a great sound came from within.

‘I think Jack is with her…’

‘I am an adult penguin who knows everything. So it will be right to get out of here instead of going in.’

I moved closer to the door after it had become quiet for some reason, and said,

“Jack. It’s all good, but Rus is sick, so if you touch her right now, he’ll die, really.”

Apart from getting closer, it was obviously unforgivable to touch Iprus, a patient.

After bluffing, I felt relieved of my worries.

As I walked down the hallway, I looked at the clock and saw that it was almost time for dinner.

I walked to the dining room, a bit nervous. I was thinking of asking Bella about what happened with the sharks.

I wanted to ask others, but it would be quicker to ask Bella directly.

When I entered the dining room, Bella, who had arrived first, greeted me with a friendly smile.

“Lia, you are here early. Have a seat.”

“Thank you.”

“I heard that you explored the territory in the afternoon? It must be your first time around, how was it?”

But I couldn’t focus on Bella’s question at all.

Because everything in front of me had caviar.

It seemed that the chef’s cooking theme today was caviar.

‘…Should I be glad that there is no shark fin?’

I couldn’t help but look at the food with caviar with trembling eyes.

‘If I ask about the past shark incident… Will it be okay?’

Bella looked at me with puzzled eyes, then following my gaze, she looked at the food spread out.

Only then, as if realizing why I was so stiff, she let out a small laugh.

“Caviar is made from sturgeon eggs.”

“What? Yes… That, right? Haha.”

“Lia, I know what you’re imagining, but unfortunately, the sturgeon is only a shark in name. It’s not a shark.”

It was something new to me. Widening my eyes, I asked, 

“Really?”

She smiled, as if finding it cute.

“It’s a fact that not everyone knows. There’s no need to look at it like that.”

“Yes!”

It eased my mind a little to know it wasn’t shark eggs.

I was about to sit down as the misunderstanding was cleared, but I looked around at a sense of emptiness.

“Suradel hasn’t come yet?”

“He is still in the office. He said he will eat with you when you come back.”

“Huh? Then we should also call Suradel…”

Bella shook her index finger with a mischievous expression.

“Leave Suradel to work. The two of us shall eat secretly. To be honest, I was slightly hurt that he valued you more than me.”

—Since Suradel monopolized you all this morning, it’s my turn this time.

At her soft addition, I smiled and sat down.

“Shall we?”

Rather, it was a good thing.

If Suradel had been there, he would have been crazily flirting by the side.

While having a meal with Bella and chatting about trivial things, I brought it up lightly, pretending to have suddenly remembered.

“Ah, Madam Bella. Now that we’re in the Weil territory, can I hear how you fell out with the shark demibeasts?”

“Why? Did you happen to meet a shark demibeast today?”

It was quick enough that I could have confessed right away.

“…Madam Bella told me to be careful, so I’ve been curious since then. In fact, I even heard rumors briefly.”

Bella quietly brought a glass filled with dark red wine to her lips.

“It’s not something I would like to tell you over dinner, but if you don’t mind…”

“But if you mind…”

“Oh, how nice of you. Don’t worry about that part. I was thinking of telling you someday.”

She wiped her mouth with a napkin. She seemed intent on telling the story now.

“Ah, Madam Bella. Before you start the story, I have a question.”

She nodded in response, as if urging me to continue. 

“Are there only one species of shark? Or are there several species like whales?”

“Hmm. There are other subspecies of sharks, but most are white sharks. They have a very dirty personality.”

“…Okay.”

There were many small sharks, but most of them were white sharks, which were synonymous with fear.

With my question answered, Bella’s eyes fixed blankly on the wine glass like she was going through her memories.

“Actually, white sharks and killer whales have been on bad terms since the distant past.”

Dog and cat. Or was it more of a dog and dog relationship?

“We lived like that for a long time, but not enough to bite each other… It was completely turned upside down due to one incident.”

“When did that happen?”

“The incident happened when I was young… That’s well over 30 years ago. One fine day, the white sharks came to the village where killer whales live.”

A bitter smile appeared on Bella’s lips like she was imagining what had happened at that time.

“They got angry at us, showing us a shark carcass. To be precise, a corpse whose liver had been eaten.”

Bella’s eyebrows lowered as her eyes became half-lidded in pity.

“The problem was that it wasn’t just a shark, it was the corpse of a shark demibeast.”

“What…?”

Just imagining it was terrifying.

The corpse of a shark… it was practically murder.

Quietly, Bella closed her eyes and opened them.

“For the great white shark, which is called the top predator of the sea, it’s only natural enemies are humans and killer whales.”

…Come to think of it, killer whales demibeasts were both ‘killer whales’ and ‘humans’, the natural enemies of sharks.

“It might have been natural to suspect killer whales as the culprit.”

“But…!”

“Yes, it was insulting. Even though we are killer whale demibeasts, we don’t hate them to the point we will bother to animalize and eat a shark’s liver.”

“Besides, it’s not a normal shark, it’s a shark demibeast.”

“But the shark demibeasts continued to suspect us killer whale demibeasts, not the animal killer whale. ‘If it’s not a premeditated crime, how can anyone make a demibeast suffer like that…?’ That’s what they are saying.”

Bella shrugged.

“Is it a crime for a normal killer whale to be smart? Oh well, they are fish heads, I guess they didn’t understand how smart killer whales are.”

Come to think of it, in the fish category, there were only shark demibeasts on the continent.

‘Whales are mammals, so they are not fish heads.’

‘…I envy them. I’m a bird head.’

Come to think of it, the worldview here was rather unique.

One might think that herbivores could not eat meat, and carnivores wouldn’t be vegeterian…

But surprisingly, in the human state, whether they were herbivores or carnivores, they were not picky with food.

Although they were demibeasts, they lived more like ‘humans’ than animals.

Even the pig demibeasts ate barbecue and the cow demibeasts ate sliced steak.

It was natural for chicken demibeasts to eat eggs.

But understandably, there were far more demibeasts who were reluctant to eat the meat of the animals they belong to.

Actually, homogeneous predation was very common in nature, so this worldview might be more realistic.

Bella gently closed her eyes.

“If a killer whale ate only a shark’s liver, that is nature’s providence, and we, humans, can’t argue with it.”

It was.

Just because a cat caught and ate a mouse didn’t mean that the other mice would say something to the cat.

“But they were always suspicious of killer whales because we weren’t on good terms.”

“Ah…”

“But, as if the killer whales living nearby knew the taste of shark liver, there were more and more cases of sharks being killed by killer whales.”

Bella let out a small sigh.

Killer whales were frighteningly intelligent, so they must have shared effective shark hunting techniques with their brethren.

“Perhaps because of that, conflicts between the shark demibeasts and the killer whale demibeasts became more and more frequent, and as time passed, the strained relationship reached its peak.”

It was summarized in one sentence, but it was obvious a lot had happened during that time.

“Then one day, an incident broke out.”

Ame: Oh no, this is sad all around ;_;