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Chapter 4




In fact, when the last Black Dragon entrusted her with this egg, Christina had no idea that both the Black Dragon and the egg would eventually leave her hands for the last time.
Every time she came to see the dead egg, a deep regret would overshadow her.
After the Black Dragon's death in battle, she tried her best to take good care of the egg, but it grew cold, and the faint hope she had gradually faded away.
But now, it was different.
The warmth of the child in her arms, the small breaths.
Christina felt a deep sense of gratitude in her heart.
‘No matter what happens, I’ll help you become a strong and capable dragon.’
“I thought you wouldn’t be able to hatch… Thank you for being born, little one.”
Her heartfelt words, though broken and intermittent, brought a strange warmth and compassion to the heart of the hatchling.
‘Just being born is enough for her to be grateful.’
The hatchling wriggled, trying to wriggle out, but then relaxed.
‘That’s… embarrassing.’
In his life, he had never heard someone thank him for being born.
But surprisingly, it didn’t feel bad.
If anything, it felt ticklish and good.
The hatchling also felt an infinitely deep and gentle heart from Christina.
‘It’s hard to keep doubting after hearing such words. There’s no reason for her to lie to a child who can’t even understand words.’
There was a slight sense of guilt for not being the true owner of this body.
‘The original owner of this body is probably dead.’
After much deliberation, he finally nestled comfortably in the soft embrace.
‘Cultivating virtue is also an essential quality for a divine beast.’
He sighed softly through his tiny nostrils, sat up, and gently hugged Christina’s neck with his short arms, patting her neck.
“Coo. Coo.”
‘Hmm. Whatever it is, it’s not your fault, so cheer up.’
Christina’s eyes widened slightly at the hatchling’s actions.
“Could it be… you’re comforting me?”
“Chirp.”
Trying to reduce his embarrassment, he answered expressionlessly, but she laughed brightly.
“How could such a cute child come along?”
“Chirp? Nye!”
‘I didn’t mean to be cute. I just wanted to let you know that you don’t need to worry so much.’
It was a calculation that it would be better for the one who needed his help to be in good condition, rather than being worn out or in bad shape.
But Christina smiled, holding the wriggling hatchling.
“Thanks to you, I feel better. I’ll take good care of you, little one.”
“Chirp!”
‘Yeah, take good care of you.’
Christina, finding the newborn hatchling’s earnest response cute, stroked its head.
The hatchling found it quite embarrassing to be patted on the head by someone who thought he was adorable.
‘Damn. My face is burning.’
The embarrassment surged from within, making a squeaking sound when he breathed through his nose.
Despite living for a long time, he had always avoided humans and even other divine beasts, making him weak in social interactions.
He was probably better off with the neighbor’s dog.
Though his body was small and young, he felt guilty being a full-grown divine beast, receiving pats while being held.
‘Stay calm. I just helped. This kid doesn’t seem bad, and he’s strong too.’
He rationalized it.
Of course, most of it was true.
In her embrace, he could clearly feel the strength hidden within the softness.
The well-controlled aura of intimidation.
He sensed a power within that was stronger than his own in this world.
‘If such a being is on my side, it would be very useful for survival.’
Moreover, since he seemed to owe something to the original owner, it wouldn’t hurt to show him some kindness.
Looking at the direction of the inscriptions, he made a solemn vow to the dead child.
‘I will be grateful to you for giving me this life. May you rest in peace.’
After praying for the child, he pondered practical issues.
He didn’t know how he had been reborn with his past life’s memories, but the memory of his powerless death was vivid.
‘I shouldn’t die the same way again.’
Thump. Even though his heart wasn’t pierced by a spear anymore, it still ached.
The hatchling unconsciously clenched his front paws.
The pain of his soul being torn.
A shock he never wanted to experience again.
‘In this life.’
His clenched fists tightened.
‘At least I won’t die helplessly like that.’
The injustice still rose from the tips of his toes to the top of his head.
He was just one year away from a thousand years.
He could have ascended to become a divine dragon.
When he was killed, he had a single wish.
The anger and injustice he felt when he lost everything still stirred his entire body.
Chapter 4: The Best Hatchling I’ve Ever Seen
His eyes held a resolve that didn’t seem childlike.
‘I will become strong so that no one can hurt me.’
His gaze, which seemed cold at first glance, looked down.
Vowing not to repeat the same mistake, he clenched his fists.
‘I must become so strong that no one can touch me. I will use anything that can be used to achieve this.’
Christina, unaware of his cold expression, cast a teleportation spell.
Leaving the place where she had been alone, it was the first step toward the world the child would face.
***
A month had passed since Christina took him into her lair.
During this time, the hatchling adapted to the fact that he was in the infant stage of a Black Dragon.
At first, he crawled around and then fell asleep from sheer exhaustion, only to wake up in a cradle.
This was a surprising thing for him.
‘I didn’t even notice when someone moved me while I was sleeping?’
He was shaken by his own vulnerability.
For someone who controlled qi and practiced martial arts, it was unbelievable.
For a few days, he kicked the air in frustration, but eventually, he accepted this instinct.
‘It’s natural for this body to be young. It’s not me, it’s this body.’
…Though it was more like denial of reality.
Still, believing that the mind should control the body, the hatchling focused on absorbing the pure energy around him and building his inner strength.
In the process, he discovered something peculiar: while in the past, energy gathered in his dantian, now, just by breathing, magic power gathered in his heart.
‘At first, I thought there was something wrong with my body.’
After seeing Christina cast spells a few times, he realized it was natural.
He even practiced a few of them when she wasn’t around.
Spells to clean the surroundings, move objects, and create cool water.
Small but useful powers.
Since then, the hatchling had been letting magic power gather in his heart while artificially gathering energy in his lower dantian.
‘It’s a shame the jade pearl I created is gone, but this isn’t bad either.’
Practicing the heart and lower dantian, his strength naturally grew.
It just took time, but he started creating a new jade pearl.
Moreover, this place was filled with the purest mana he had ever known.
Through his cultivation techniques, he marveled again.
‘To be able to accumulate this energy in a body just born and free of impurities.’
His lips curled up naturally.
It usually took days to gather the purest energy and store it in the dantian.
But here, it wasn’t necessary.
As a result, despite being a one-year-old hatchling, he had learned and grown stronger in both magic and physical strength faster than other hatchlings.
Everything was satisfying, but there was one recent source of frustration.
‘A strange watcher has appeared.’
Pretending to sleep, the hatchling opened one eye slightly and looked at the floating white light.
It looked like an ordinary ball of light.
[ㅇㅅㅇ]
Occasionally, it would use the light like a brush to float strange symbols, or even expressions, in the air.
‘Doesn’t it sleep?’
It was a ‘spirit’ Christina had summoned to watch over him, worried about leaving him alone.
Though it looked harmless, its gaze was unmistakable.
‘This is troublesome.’
It was fine that he couldn’t go outside yet and felt a bit stifled, but he had plenty of time, and it could even be considered part of his training.
The limitation of his language due to underdeveloped mouth structure?
It was a bit embarrassing, but he was getting used to it.
The effect of the uninvited guest created by Christina’s concern.
‘Because of that thing, I can’t do obvious physical training.’
Even to him, his body was soft, with tender scales and a plump frame.
To develop muscles, he needed to walk and move his limbs, but the firefly-like thing would fly over if he kept crawling, circling around him like an anxious puppy.
If he trained hard and sweated, it would disappear and return with Christina.
Then Christina would put him in the cradle, worried he might get hurt.
‘Tch. Getting a little skin rubbed off is nothing when you’re training.’
If he showed his self-training in front of Christina, she would find it strange.
‘With a body that grows rapidly every day, to be teased for such a reason.’
It was frustrating to have so much free time when he should be growing.
As a result, his training time decreased, and his frustration grew.
‘I need to come up with a countermeasure. I can’t keep living on the lookout for that firefly-like thing.’
For a divine beast who roamed the world, it was absurd to pretend to sleep while secretly watching out for a floating firefly.
A clear opponent would be much better. This was frustrating because it was impossible to communicate.
‘I’d rather face an armed enemy.’
Sigh.
He lay in the spacious cradle and sighed.
‘At least my inner strength is steadily growing.’
Smiling, he stroked his plump belly with his short, chubby hands.
While saying that, he didn’t miss a day of diligently building his inner strength and gathering magic power.
‘Where is the seed of the inner dantian properly formed?’
The seed of the dantian, which creates the inner dantian.
The pure magic power surrounding his heart.
It was like creating a key to freely control qi and the world’s mana.
‘I think it’s time to try it out.’
Over the past month, he had focused on understanding the operation of the teleportation spell whenever Christina cast it with him.
Already skilled in controlling the qi phenomena of all things as a divine beast, he had an excellent ability to grasp and sense the flow of mana.
‘I need to use this power, which is stronger and more abundant than in my original world, for my own benefit.’
The ambition to become a being that transcends the limits of a divine beast made his heart race for the first time in a long time.
“Chirp!”
‘Damn.’
Excited, he unintentionally let out a battle cry, which came out as an immature sound.
‘I thought it was a problem with my mouth structure, but… if I practice, can I improve it faster?’
Since he had nothing else to do, he tried practicing pronunciation.
“Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!”
He felt like the light blob was giggling at him, but he made sounds earnestly.
“Chirp. Puff puff. Puff puff puff.”
His face turned red, but he cried as hard as he could.
“Chirp!”
Thud.
He collapsed on the spot, not from exhaustion but from mental fatigue.
‘Aaaaah! Why do I have to do this?!’