Chapter 3
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: First Flight and Gender Revelation
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3.
Eirana let out a gasp of admiration as she read the book floating before her eyes.
'Dragons are incredible creatures.'
Dragons... the strongest beings on the face of the earth.
They possessed overwhelming power beyond human comprehension, capable of obliterating an entire human city with a single breath, and they were a higher race blessed with lifespans nearing ten thousand years.
In terms of the Central Plains, they were dragons! That was exactly what dragons were.
This wasn't a dream.
He had been reborn as one of those magnificent beings.
The place where Eirana now sat was Erannis's library.
After receiving her name, Eirana had been granted the freedom to roam, and the first thing she did was seek knowledge.
Strangely enough, she had no trouble reading the new script at all.
Thanks to that, she could easily read books about dragons.
The more she learned about the race she had been reborn into, the more exclamations of awe escaped her lips.
Erannis could only stare in bewilderment as Eirana holed up in the library, lost in a trance of reading.
She spent every moment there except for mealtimes and exercise.
Erannis sensed that this hatchling was a bit different from the norm but didn't mind too much.
As Eirana built her knowledge of the world, she also learned about the impression her name evoked.
"Why'd you give me a girl's name?"
Eirana. From the sound of it, it was clearly a feminine name.
Having been mistaken for a girl in her previous life due to her delicate features, Eirana was sensitive about her gender.
She grumbled with a frown but soon refocused on her book.
What was the point of dwelling on it? The name was already set.
As she read, Eirana suddenly learned that she could fly.
The wings on her back were no mere decoration.
"Mom! I'm gonna practice flying!"
Now fully grasping the purpose of her wings, Eirana rushed to her mother, Erannis, and declared it.
Erannis beamed at her.
"Oh my, Eirana. Already practicing flight?"
Seeing Eirana nod eagerly, Erannis looked proud and said,
"In that case, shall this mom teach you how to fly quickly?"
Fly quickly? Eirana tilted her head, sensing something suspicious.
But as a novice dragon, the allure of flying fast overrode her doubts.
In the end, she foolishly nodded, and Erannis's smile grew even brighter.
Hours later, Eirana bitterly regretted her decision.
"Kwaaaah!"
She screamed as she plummeted in a desperate crash.
She flapped her wings with every ounce of strength she had.
But her body kept falling helplessly.
Suddenly!
Just barely, when she was mere moments from the ground, Eirana halted.
She pleaded with a pitiful expression toward her mother, who was smiling in her human polymorph form.
"Mom, can't we stop now? I don't need to fly fast."
But Erannis refused with a radiant smile.
"Oh, my sweet Eirana, this mom won't stop until you soar through the skies."
And once more, Erannis hurled Eirana high into the sky with magic.
Eirana, with a face on the verge of tears, plummeted toward the ground again.
"Uwaaaah! Save me~!"
Eirana lay in someone's arms, her face pale and sickly.
"What kind of ordeal is this, running into such a reckless maniac?"
Leranas patted the ashen-faced Eirana in her arms and spoke, prompting Erannis to protest.
"What did you say? I was just showing love to my dear... Ack!"
Thwack!
"Quit your nonsense and raise your hands!"
Erannis's retort was cut short by Elencan.
He had appeared out of nowhere with a massive club and smacked the back of Erannis's head.
A dull thud echoed, and a huge lump swelled on Erannis's head.
"What was that for?!"
Elencan replied,
"You have the nerve to ask, after repeatedly tossing the child into the air and letting her crash?"
"It was my way of lovingly teaching Eirana to fly quickly!"
Elencan let out a hollow laugh at the shameless response, while Leranas growled fiercely.
"Beat her just short of killing her."
"I think I will."
"Kyaaah!"
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
Crash! Bang!
Kaboom!
Amid the deafening barrage of blows and her mother's shrieks.
Her grandfather unleashed attack magic and brawled relentlessly...
Eirana stared blankly at the absurd scene, forgetting her own exhaustion.
It had all started innocently enough. Elencan and Leranas, visiting Eirana after a long time, arrived at Erannis's lair via warp.
They realized no one was home the moment they arrived.
Wondering where the daughter and her child had gone, they heard desperate screams and laughter from outside.
They tilted their heads in confusion.
Then they realized the screams were Eirana's and rushed out.
What they saw was Erannis hurling Eirana sky-high with magic,
only for her to crash while wailing.
Leranas immediately conjured a massive fireball and flung it at Erannis, then rescued Eirana. Elencan grabbed his dodging daughter's hair and beat her soundly.
Afterward, Erannis was thoroughly thrashed by the two.
And she swore never to play such pranks with Eirana again.
Two years later, Eirana could finally fly freely through normal methods.
A century passed surprisingly quickly.
Learning many things, sleeping when tired.
Repeating that cycle made even the vast time slip by in the blink of an eye.
And upon turning 100, Eirana gained the ability to use magic.
Which meant...
'I can return to human form.'
Eirana murmured inwardly.
It was advanced magic, strenuous for a 100-year-old hatchling by rank alone, but polymorph was inherently a dragon's unique magic.
Dragons could polymorph freely from the moment they unlocked magic.
Eirana let out a deep sigh.
Polymorph was said to summon another self etched into one's essence.
Then, couldn't she summon her previous life's form?
She had disliked the feminine face before, but it was still her own.
The prospect of regaining it made her newly tense.
Suddenly, light flashed across Eirana's entire body.
What emerged was a stunning beauty with silver hair and silver eyes.
A dragon's first polymorph attempt is never easy.
Summoning another self isn't simple, even for the mightiest dragons.
But Eirana succeeded effortlessly, vividly recalling her past life.
Erannis, watching, gaped in astonishment.
She knew firsthand how tough the first polymorph was—it had taken her months.
Yet Eirana nailed it on the first try without issue.
Erannis, who had been about to guide her, was stunned.
'She turned out quite beautiful.'
Erannis stroked her chin and exclaimed in admiration.
Meanwhile, Eirana smiled contentedly at her form after a century.
Hair and eye color, build—slightly different, but otherwise identical.
One oddity: she had breasts.
'Hm? Breasts. Uh... what?'
Puzzled, Eirana examined her body closely.
Then she froze.
Unfamiliar with polymorph, she hadn't manifested clothes.
Clothes weren't the issue.
The body was.
The form was perfect.
But... but!
"Wh-what the hell is thiiiis?!"
Realizing the moderate-sized lumps on her chest, Eirana shrieked in horror.
What should be there wasn't, and what shouldn't be was—a bizarre state.
Her eyes bulged in panic.
Erannis draped her cloak over her and tilted her head curiously.
It looked like a perfect polymorph to her. What was wrong?
"What's wrong? It looks perfect to me."
"Perfect my ass! I'm a girl now!"
Eirana bellowed at Erannis's words.
Erannis frowned as if she'd spouted nonsense.
"Of course you're a girl."
"Of course? I should be a guy!"
Still in shock, Eirana's voice was high-pitched. Erannis tilted her head, then exclaimed "Ah!" and chuckled mockingly.
"You tried polymorphing into a human male, didn't you? But that's tough."
"Why is it tough?"
Eirana shivered as a chill ran up her spine and asked.
Erannis crossed her arms and replied,
"Dragons need to be at least 1,500 years old to polymorph into the opposite gender. Didn't you know?"
"What?"
Even with a dragon's superior intellect, Eirana couldn't process it.
"In other words, little girl, you'll need another 1,400 years to polymorph into a male."
Crack!
Eirana froze. It felt like utter nonsense.
"G... girl?"
What absurdity was this?
Erannis nodded at the dazed Eirana.
"Yes. Any problem, daughter?"
Eirana's mind went blank.
Finally, it sank in. Why her name was Eirana.
Panic overwhelmed her, and her mind reeled.
It felt like a hammer to the back of her head.
She had lived 100 years—125 including her past life—believing she was male, only for it to be flatly denied.
Erannis urgently called to her strangely unresponsive daughter, but she had already fainted.
Eirana lay polymorph-ed on a bed in one of the lair's rooms.
She opened her eyes, then clutched her head and sat up.
She felt like she'd blacked out from massive mental shock—what was it again?
But she soon remembered why.
"Right. I'm a girl?"
Just yesterday, she'd been convinced she was male.
Intense denial surged through her body.
"I was definitely a guy?"
As she rolled on the bed clutching her head and wailing, Erannis entered.
"Oh? You're awake?"
Erannis hurried over.
"You scared me half to death fainting like that!"
Unaware of the cause, she asked frantically.
"What shocked you so badly?"
Worried there might be something wrong with her daughter's body, Erannis looked deeply concerned.
"Mom."
"Yes?"
"Wasn't I a boy?"
Silence.
No, dead quiet.
Erannis couldn't process what her daughter had just said.
But soon she understood and stared at her in shock.
Moments later.
"Kkh!"
A deflating sound escaped Erannis.
"Puhahaha! Hahahaha!"
Erannis doubled over, roaring with laughter.
"Uhahaha! Kyahaha! Mom's dying!"
Eirana despaired watching her mother roll around the room clutching her stomach.
Despair upon despair.
That reaction confirmed she was indeed female now.
Erannis's laughter showed no signs of stopping.
"Hic! Hic! Ahahaha! This is hilarious! You really... hic! Lived 100 years thinking you were male?"
Shoulders shaking, gasping for breath, she asked. Eirana numbly nodded.
"Kyahaha! Too funny! Ah! I'm dying."
Erannis continued rolling and laughing hysterically, as if she might pass out.
Eirana. The dragon into which human Ha Yu-hyun had reincarnated.
A mere 100-year-old hatchling called Eirana, no longer human but dragon. Gender: female.
Yet she had firmly believed she was male for those 100 years.
Now, she was told she was female.
Eirana reeled from the intense shock.