Chapter 1
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Life as a Hatchling
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Prologue
He was being chased.
The ones pursuing him as he ran, gasping for breath, were men clad in black masks.
It was betrayal.
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult followed the law of the jungle.
Ha Yu-hyun, who belonged to that place, had always lived under constant threat to his life.
There were plenty who looked down on him.
But he never imagined they would come at him so openly like this.
The searing pain from his abdomen pierced through his entire body.
Even so, he had to survive.
After running for a long while, what blocked his path was a cliff with a waterfall cascading down.
His face hardened as he turned to look behind him.
The assassins had already closed in right up to his nose.
He had been stabbed in the gut by a sword and poisoned.
His body wouldn't listen to him properly.
There was no way he could fight properly in this state.
Grinding his teeth, he leaped off without hesitation, praying inwardly.
'Please... just let me keep my life...'
With that silent prayer, he plummeted off the cliff.
1.
Chapter 1. Life as a Hatchling
In a cave deep within a remote mountain range.
On a pile of dry grass lay a silver orb the size of an adult man.
A brilliantly shimmering object.
Sitting before it was a beautiful woman with silver hair.
She stared at it with arms crossed, then suddenly tilted her head.
"I never heard it was supposed to take this long?"
At that very moment, Yu-hyun was cursing inwardly in a narrow, dark space.
'Damn it! Where the hell is this?!'
Falling from a cliff with a waterfall usually meant no one survived.
Moreover, Yu-hyun had been wounded by a sword.
Yet somehow, Yu-hyun was conscious right now.
'Am I... still alive?'
He definitely seemed to be alive.
The sensation of life coursed through his entire body.
He must have gotten lucky and survived.
But why was he trapped in this stifling place?
'Damn it, I've got to get out of here!'
Cursing inwardly, he ground his teeth thinking of the traitors who had put him in this state.
He would get revenge, one way or another.
With that resolve reaffirmed, he struggled again.
Yu-hyun thrashed with all his might.
He used every part of his body to try to break free from whatever hard shell confined him now.
The instinctive flailing of a creature trapped in darkness and tightness.
Crack!
How long had he struggled?
He felt a crack form on the surface enclosing him.
Emboldened, Yu-hyun kept thrashing and thrashing. And finally...
Crack, craaaack!
The shell encasing him shattered completely, and light poured in.
Blinded by the sudden brightness, Yu-hyun winced, then relaxed his expression.
He had escaped completely.
Satisfied, Yu-hyun looked around.
It was an enormously vast cave.
As he examined the cave for a while, Yu-hyun felt something off.
Moving his body felt strangely uncomfortable.
A sensation different from what he knew. Puzzled, he looked down at his hand—and his body froze.
"What is this?"
An incomprehensible language came from his mouth, but he was too shocked to notice.
A moment later...
"Argh! What is this?!"
He had no time to look around.
Even if he were about to die right then, he wouldn't have had the leisure.
The most urgent thing was the silver scales covering his body—and even more pressing was the fact that he no longer had a 'human body.'
What he had broken out of was a beautifully gleaming silver egg.
And reflected on the mirror-like eggshell surface was an unknown creature he had never seen before.
Yu-hyun stared at his short arms and legs covered in silver scales, his bulky body, and the strange things attached to his back and rear that his senses picked up.
He definitely no longer had a human body.
As Yu-hyun fell into mental panic, he suddenly felt someone's gaze.
Turning his head, he saw a silver-haired woman with shining eyes.
The moment their eyes met, she smiled gently.
Erannis. She was a female dragon of the Silver Clan. A few years ago, she had received a marriage proposal from Karman of the Black Clan, and soon after, she laid an egg.
After laying the egg, she had a massive fight with her husband and banished Karman from the lair. Now, she was caring for the egg alone.
Whatever happened with her husband, she had a new worry starting two days ago.
Her worry was the egg she had been lovingly tending.
For some reason, it showed no sign of hatching.
Even though the time had long passed, the egg remained still, deepening her anxiety.
Even among dragons, eggs sometimes failed to hatch and died.
She feared her egg might be one of those cases.
As she sat there fretting, suddenly her egg twitched.
Seeing it, Erannis's eyes widened.
The egg wriggled for a long time before its surface finally cracked.
Crack, craaaack!
And what emerged from it was a Silver Dragon just like her.
The newly hatched hatchling wriggled, then suddenly uttered strange words.
"What is this?"
"...?"
Erannis blinked in confusion at the sudden cry.
"Argh! What is this?!"
As she watched the hatchling's shock, their eyes met.
Seeing Yu-hyun's wide-eyed surprise, Erannis smiled gently.
Forgetting for a moment that his body had become something inhuman, Yu-hyun warily eyed the unfamiliar woman before him.
Erannis approached and crouched down in front of him.
"So you've finally been born? You had me so worried hatching so late."
"Pardon?"
Yu-hyun was startled that he could effortlessly understand this language he had never heard before.
But what surprised him more was that the woman before him wasn't shocked by his appearance.
"Who are you?"
Erannis furrowed her brow at his instinctive question, as if wondering what nonsense he was spouting.
"Who else? Your mom."
'What? Mom? This woman?'
Unable to process it, Yu-hyun stared blankly.
Erannis chuckled and poked the bridge of his nose with her finger.
"Hmm... You must be disoriented since you just hatched."
Standing up, she patted his head.
Her touch carried an inexplicable warmth.
Yu-hyun suddenly felt exhaustion wash over him.
It was the backlash from the effort of breaking out of the egg.
Even as sleepiness overwhelmed him, he couldn't shake off the confusion.
'What in the world is going on?'
He couldn't comprehend the sudden change that had befallen him.
Yu-hyun, who had fallen into a deep sleep, opened his eyes.
He immediately checked his body, but it was still that bizarre creature.
Suppressing his chaotic emotions with difficulty, he looked around.
Not much had changed nearby.
The fragments of the egg he had broken out of were still there, but the mysterious woman who had called herself his 'mother' was gone.
As Yu-hyun puzzled over Erannis's absence, something enormous flew into the cave.
Seeing the massive creature covered in the same silver scales as himself, Yu-hyun gasped in shock.
It looked quite different from what he knew, but it was a 'dragon.'
The dragon landed lightly on the cave floor, despite its huge frame, and spoke upon spotting Yu-hyun.
[Oh, you're awake.]
The clear, resonant voice didn't match her dignified appearance but felt familiar to Yu-hyun.
'Gah! This dragon is that woman from yesterday?'
Shocked inwardly, he mumbled without thinking.
"Mom?"
Yu-hyun had been an orphan in his previous life.
Living as one until age ten, he had endlessly pondered, 'Why was I abandoned?'
Because of that, he had never once uttered the word 'mother' until his death.
It had slipped out unconsciously.
At his call, Erannis's eyes widened briefly before she smiled.
"Yes. What is it?"
Yu-hyun didn't know how to respond.
It was a word he hadn't meant to say, and it still felt unfamiliar.
In his harsh previous life, there had been no room for parental warmth.
He had always walked blood-soaked paths, convinced his feelings for family had worn away completely.
In that context, a parent's presence confused him as much as becoming an unknown creature.
Gazing silently at Erannis, who waited patiently, Yu-hyun voiced his honest feeling without hesitation.
"I'm hungry."
Silence.
A moment later.
"Pfft!"
She burst out laughing at his words.
"Hahaha!"
The child who had called her so seriously had said something so random—it was impossible not to laugh.
Though slightly embarrassed by her laughter, Yu-hyun didn't show it.
Hungry was hungry.
Seeing him unapologetically true to himself, Erannis calmed her laughter.
"Hoo... Well, hatchlings are supposed to be hungry right away, but you slept through yesterday, so of course you are. Wait just a moment."
As she spoke, a flash of light erupted, and she transformed back into the human form Yu-hyun had seen yesterday.
As he marveled at the mystical sight, she clapped her hands lightly.
A large chunk of meat appeared simultaneously.
Seeing it, Yu-hyun jumped in surprise.
"What is that?"
Erannis shrugged at his question.
"Magic."
"Magic?"
Startled by the unfamiliar word, Yu-hyun reacted, and she smiled gently.
"Yes, magic. The ability to manifest various phenomena using mana."
"The human transformation is magic too?"
'Is this the power of this creature?'
Though his mind was still foggy and he couldn't grasp the situation fully, he realized his new race was no ordinary one.
Smiling brightly at his surprise, Erannis said,
"Yes. Usually around age 100 you can use magic, so hang in there until then, my baby."
Yu-hyun was aghast.
'A, a hundred years?'
Come to think of it, how old was Mom? Unable to hold back his curiosity, he asked.
"How old are you, Mom?"
"3,579 years old."
Yu-hyun fell silent.
What on earth was this unknown lifeform he had been reborn as?
Was he dreaming?
Lost in confused thoughts, he tore into the meat before him.
Three days passed since then.
Yu-hyun began practicing walking. He wanted to learn as much as possible, as quickly as possible.
Since he couldn't get a human body for another hundred years, he had to get used to this one anyway.
So he started with standing up. Of course, he rolled around a ton.
With a body structure different from a human's—center of gravity all wrong—it was hard for him, so accustomed to human form, to adapt to a dragon's.
After three hours, he finally managed to stand using sheer sense.
'Something like walking? I'll master it in no time!'
With that determination, he kept at it—and only after a month could he walk decently.
Of course, he had tumbled and rolled countless times, as all dragons must, but Yu-hyun felt a sense of accomplishment and joy at adapting to his current body.
To celebrate, he took a step to circle his sleeping area.
But someone blocked Yu-hyun, who was preparing to strut around the lair confidently—his mother, Erannis.
"We're going out today."
Transformed into human form via Polymorph, she approached and scooped him up.
Yu-hyun, who had been about to walk around the lair, asked puzzledly,
"Where to?"
Erannis beamed.
"To pick a name."
With that, she tidied her child and immediately used Warp.
The scenery changed in an instant, startling Yu-hyun again—but having experienced so many oddities since rebirth, he quickly regained his composure.
'Where in the Central Plains is this?'
Of course, contrary to his thoughts, there was no Central Plains in this world.
This was a different world.
The continent of Rashan.
But Yu-hyun didn't know that yet.