I Became a Dragon

If Awakening weren't anything special, would the title of Hunter even be worth the prestige?

Awakening happens at ten years old. The odds sit at roughly two in ten.

So what about the other eight who don't make the cut?

What else? They live ordinary lives, same as I did.

I was no exception. Just another run-of-the-mill lower-grade elementary school teacher — the kind you'd find in any neighborhood.

Except that isn't true anymore.

"Nnngh... my head."

I clutched my skull like it was about to split and pushed myself up from the chair. Last night I'd poured down far more liquor than I could handle, gamed until I passed out right there at the desk.

...Ah. I should've parked my character on an AFK map and let it level overnight.

Whatever. I could always swipe my card and catch up later. More importantly — what time was it?

I flicked my eyes to the bottom-right corner of the monitor.

"Already lunchtime... Still, I should take care of the essentials first."

One hand still pressed to my forehead, I nudged the mouse with the other and started claiming the daily login rewards for a game event.

Ping! Ping!

My phone chimed twice in quick succession. I didn't usually leave notifications on. That particular chat room, though, was a different story.

I scooped up the phone and checked.

"Ugh. They actually pulled that?"

I was so jealous. I didn't play anymore, but there was a time I'd hop into that game with the kids every single lunch period.

...Ah. That's not the point.

"Ahem."

I cleared my throat for no one's benefit and typed out a reply.

Lying to children didn't sit entirely right with me, but there was such a thing as a white lie. Once they got a little older, kids like them would forget someone like me soon enough.

The Office of Education had dismissed me, and I was barred from reinstatement for the next five years. By then, this first class I'd ever been entrusted with would have graduated completely. All I could really do for them anymore was send the occasional reply, like this.

"Well. Maybe this is for the better."

I'd stuck my neck out when I didn't have to — that was part of it. But if you asked whether I should have looked the other way back then... no. That wasn't it either.

At least now I wanted to rest. Recess meant getting dragged around by the kids, and lunch vanished into their company too; by the end of a day there was hardly any time left that was actually mine.

I figured I'd take it easy for at least half a year. I'd put away about fifteen thousand dollars, and if that started running thin I could always pick up a part-time job.

"Today... five-hour grind, let's gooo!"

Gaming would burn off the hangover. A month of living like this had proven it actually worked. Yeah.

Clack-clack-clack. Tap.

"Ugh... this is way too hard."

I'd been running boss-try practice, and before I knew it dinner time had rolled around. I was hungry anyway, so I'd already put in an order for chicken feet.

I glanced at my phone. The estimated delivery window was long gone.

And then—

Knock-knock.

"Ah. It's here!"

I shot up from my chair.

"Canned beer. Canned beer."

I lined the chicken feet and two cans of beer up on the desk and decided the game could wait.

Tab. Fssshh—

I took a swig before the foam could even rise.

"Slurp... ahh."

I picked up my phone and scrolled around for something entertaining, and before long I'd wandered into the Hunter Gallery.

The Hunter Gallery. One of the biggest community sites in the country. True to the name, Hunter talk made up the bulk of it, but the categories were so finely split that it functioned more like a catch-all public forum than anything else.

Someone unawakened like me was never going to break into the conversations the real Hunters were having. Still.

I was snickering my way through post after post, alternating bites of chicken feet with swallows of beer, when a familiar ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠thread caught my eye.

"Heh. If doing that actually made you Awaken, everybody would be posting these."

The post had nothing to do with the title. Just a single emoticon of a blue-twintailed character puffing out their cheeks, holding their breath.

The comments were mostly the same flavor.

I'd been snorting at it myself a second ago, but I was in no position to talk. I had an embarrassing history of writing posts just like that one — for 302 days, no less.

Of course...! That was back in middle school. I was a kid. I didn't know any better.

Even now, as a grown adult with some sense in my head, Hunters still looked cool. Not that I was going to Awaken at this point.

"Slurp..."

Ah. I was already getting a little buzzed. Other people liked to brag about holding their liquor, about drinking a lot and never getting drunk, but I was starting to think my way was better.

It was cost-effective, you know? A guy who got drunk off two cans of beer. The whole point of drinking was to get a little fuzzy anyway.

A little more... and then I'd sleep.

No. ...At this rate I'd pass out on my own.

How much time had passed?

"Haaah... my head."

Lately, every time I opened my eyes at this desk, I seemed to make that same miserable sound...

"Nn... huh?"

Wait.

Why did my voice sound like that...?

It was incredibly soft. Ticklish, almost. And it belonged to a rather young girl.

...So why was a little girl's voice coming out of my mouth?

A dream?

The thought crossed my mind, but my fingers moved when I told them to, and the floor against the soles of my feet was far too vivid. At the very least, this didn't feel like a dream.

And then—

"...W-why are my arms so skinny?!"

Only then did I look at my hands. Wrists gone thin. Tiny hands, small as a child's, like little fern shoots. On top of that my hair seemed to have grown ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out; it lay scattered in a mess across the chair cushion.

I tried to stand, and that's when my legs entered the picture. Slender, and oddly soft.

Sway, sway...

Something moved at the edge of my vision.

"...A t-tail?"

What on earth was going on...?!

I scrambled for the bathroom. The moment I was inside I planted myself in front of the sink and stared into the mirror.

"...?!"

I'd just... turned into a little girl? And hang on — when had my clothes changed?

...Wait. Do I need to go to a hospital first?

"Wh-what do I do..."

I bolted back out of the bathroom, snatched the phone off the computer desk, and immediately opened the HospitalNow app.

The loading took longer than usual. When the app finally came up, what greeted me was not anything I'd expected.

"I-I'm... twenty-three years old. I graduated from a two-year teachers' college, I was a homeroom teacher at an elementary school, and right now I'm unemployed, but I'm an adult, okay...?"

An AI helper icon twinkled in the corner of the screen. Whether the app had actually understood me or not, it popped up an automatic reply on the spot.

"..."

HospitalNow was a nationally certified app, linked to KoreaGov29. The information on that screen was not something I could write off as a simple glitch.

If it was demanding guardian verification, that meant I was not registered as an adult. At least not anymore.

"...I actually turned into a little kid?"

The bigger problem was the gender. The app had called me "Princess" as naturally as breathing.

...It wasn't just my body that had become a little girl's. On paper, I was female too.

I'd never heard of a case like this. No — there were similar ones, technically. Awakened whose ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hair color changed under the influence of their class, or whose build shifted. I'd seen that much a few times myself.

But this.

Not only did I turn into a little girl outright — even my official records got rewritten from the ground up...?

No matter how I turned it over, this was not a normal Awakening.

Still, you never knew. A drama I'd watched a while back suddenly surfaced in my memory. Hunter from the Stars, I think it was. The protagonist Awakened out of nowhere, stumbled around in a panic, and then walked through a pretty detailed explanation of how to check whether you'd Awakened.

"S-Status Window?"

Ding—

A clear chime rang out, and a semi-transparent blue window bloomed in front of my eyes.

...I really did Awaken.

Awakening itself was obviously a good thing. Whether I was allowed to be purely happy about it in this situation, though, was honestly hard to say.

"...More importantly. What is EX supposed to be?"

Was it one of those made-up ranks the kids in my class used to scribble in their notebooks when they played — GX, GOD, that kind of thing?

As far as I knew, Awakened ranks ran from F to S. I had never, at the very least, heard of a rank called EX.

I was just starting to get a feel for how to work the Status Window. Still unused to it, I flicked through the panels with my fingers, checking to see if there was anything more — and that was when it happened.

——KABOOM!!!

"H-hiiik—?!"

Okay, was today actually That Kind of Day? End of the world, maybe? I toddled straight into the bathtub before I even knew what I was doing and hid.

The roar was on the level of those missile-strike videos I'd seen on YouTube. The whole building shivered, and the floor under my feet shuddered with it.

"...A w-war?"

I peeked just my eyes over the rim of the tub.

...What was that?

Was a second strike not coming? Two full minutes had passed since that enormous blast, and it was strangely, unnervingly quiet.

Knock-knock.

"Ye—"

Knock-knock.

The knocking came again.

"Ye—"

What...? Had the neighbors come to evacuate together? My appearance was completely different from before, but still — to think they'd come in person to rescue a neighbor they barely even knew. They were better people than I'd given them credit for.

I needed to get out there...!

"Ye—"

"I-I'll open it right away...! I'll come with you...!"

I grabbed the edge of the tub.

Hup.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

I barely managed to get myself upright, then toddled all the way to the front door and eased it open.

"W-what happened...? I-is it a war, or—"