She really was a dragon hatchling born from that egg.
The only unusual part was that she had carried memories from her previous life with her.
“Reincarnation...”
Evelyn murmured the word under her breath.
It sounded unbelievable, but she had seen plenty of things in her old life that were even harder to explain.
Magic. Monsters. Powers capable of wiping entire cities off the map.
And, of course, that war. Even thinking about it now left a heavy feeling in her chest.
Compared to all that, dying and waking up as a dragon somehow didn’t seem quite so impossible.
As for her previous life...
Evelyn fell quiet.
Most of those memories had already faded.
She remembered the war. She remembered the blood. She remembered swinging her weapon again and again until her arms had nearly stopped responding.
But the faces of the people around her were hidden behind some strange fog.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t make them out.
Even the reason she had joined that war was reduced to a handful of broken fragments.
“Forget it.”
Evelyn shook her head.
She was already dead.
Whatever had happened back then, she had been given another life now.
She hadn’t managed to survive her first one.
It would be pretty pathetic if she died again right after hatching.
With that thought, Evelyn turned her attention back to the Draconic Inheritance.
This world was called Aersk, a vast Material Plane inhabited by humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, and countless other intelligent races.
There were also magical beasts, demons, undead, and many creatures far more dangerous than any of those.
Dragons, meanwhile, stood unquestionably among the most powerful races in the entire world.
They possessed immense lifespans, terrifying physical strength, natural magical talent, wings capable of carrying them effortlessly across mountains, and, once fully grown, enough power to make most creatures despair at the mere sight of them.
Evelyn’s eyes gradually lit up.
A dragon?
That actually sounded pretty good.
In her previous life, she had been forced to fight for survival every single day.
If she could grow up safely this time...
Well, if nothing else, this body had far more potential than her old human one.
And besides...
Evelyn turned toward the mountain of gold on the other side of the cavern.
A dragon could sleep on piles of coins and gemstones.
Eat until full, sleep, wake up, eat again.
And if anyone dared steal her things, she could spray acid all over them.
“...”
Evelyn suddenly found the idea extremely appealing.
Of course, there was one small problem.
She had to survive long enough to become an adult.
The thought immediately brought another piece of the Draconic Inheritance to the surface.
Dragons were powerful.
But most of that overwhelming strength came with age.
Young dragons were nowhere near as terrifying as fully grown members of their species, especially once they left the protection of their parents.
To many intelligent races, a dragon hatchling was practically a walking treasure chest.
Dragon scales.
Dragon blood.
Dragon bones.
Dragon sinew.
Dragon horns.
Even their teeth and internal organs were valuable magical materials.
And among all the races that loved hunting dragons...
“Human adventurers.”
Evelyn’s expression became complicated.
She had been human in her previous life.
Which meant she knew exactly how insane humans could become when enough profit was involved.
If the reward was high enough, there would always be someone willing to draw a weapon and charge at a dragon just to see if they could kill it.
And that was an adult dragon.
A hatchling?
Even better.
In many human kingdoms, successfully killing a dragon was the kind of legendary feat that could turn an ordinary adventurer into a household name overnight.
“Dragonslayers...”
The corner of Evelyn’s mouth twitched.
Back when she had been human, the title had never sounded particularly strange.
Now that she was the dragon...
She suddenly hated it.
“I guess becoming a dragon doesn’t mean I can start thinking I’m invincible.”
Evelyn grew serious.
She understood one thing very well.
A prestigious bloodline meant nothing when you were weak.
A battlefield did not spare someone because of their birth.
This world obviously wouldn’t either.
If she wanted to survive, she had to become stronger.
Strong enough that when one of those so-called Dragonslayers saw her, their first instinct wouldn’t be to draw a sword.
It would be to run.
Just as Evelyn reached that conclusion, an empty ache suddenly spread through her stomach.
Grrrrr...
The sound seemed unusually loud inside the quiet cavern.
Evelyn looked down at her belly.
She was hungry.
Not ordinary hungry, either.
Her newborn body seemed desperate for nutrients.
Fortunately, the Draconic Inheritance provided an answer almost immediately.
A dragon hatchling’s first meal after birth was...
Its own eggshell.
“Eggshell?”
Evelyn turned toward the broken black shell scattered across the ground beside her.
According to the Draconic Inheritance, dragon eggshells contained large amounts of special minerals and residual magic.
Eating them helped strengthen a newborn hatchling’s bones, teeth, and scales.
They were also one of the easiest things for a newborn dragon to digest.
Evelyn picked up a piece and examined it.
Pitch black.
Still coated with a little slime around the edge.
It did not look appetizing.
At all.
Unfortunately, the hunger in her stomach kept getting worse.
“Whatever. I’ve eaten field rations that looked worse than this.”
She opened her mouth and bit down.
Crunch!
Evelyn blinked.
The shell looked hard, but her sharp new dragon teeth crushed straight through it without effort.
It was crunchy.
Slightly salty.
Not exactly delicious, but surprisingly edible.
“Not bad.”
She chewed a few more times and swallowed.
A wave of satisfaction immediately spread through her body.
Every scale seemed to be telling her the same thing.
More.
Evelyn’s eyes lit up.
Well, what was she waiting for?
Time to eat.
A newborn dragon had no reason to worry about table manners.
Evelyn plopped herself down on the ground, grabbed a large piece of shell between her claws, and started chewing.
Crunch. Crunch.
The crisp sound echoed through the cavern as she continued exploring the Draconic Inheritance.
She had to admit, dragons really had been born with every possible advantage.
Other intelligent races might spend decades learning things that dragons received automatically through their bloodline from the moment they hatched.
Languages.
Magical knowledge.
Ways to identify dangerous creatures.
Hunting techniques.
Even large amounts of information about the other intelligent races of the world.
A hatchling could grow up without ever receiving a formal education and still understand far more than an ordinary wild animal ever could.
No wonder dragons stood among the greatest races on the continent.
There was just one problem.
A lot of the Draconic Inheritance was very obviously written from a dragon’s perspective.
For example...
[Anything that shines is worth collecting.]
[It is only natural for the weak to offer treasure to the strong.]
[Creatures living within a dragon’s territory should provide food as tribute.]
[Anyone foolish enough to steal from a dragon should be eaten along with their companions.]
“...”
Evelyn suddenly understood why chromatic dragons had such a terrible reputation.
This wasn’t racial education.
This was a step-by-step guide to raising a tyrant from the day they hatched.
Still...
Evelyn looked down at the eggshell in her claws.
Then she glanced toward the glittering mountain of treasure across the cavern.
Maybe...
It wasn’t completely wrong?
Treasure really was nice to look at.
For the first time, Evelyn could almost understand why her mother preferred sleeping on a pile of hard gold coins instead of making herself a soft nest out of grass.
Evelyn kept eating.
Before long, more than half the broken shell in front of her had disappeared.
The hunger in her stomach gradually faded, while a faint warmth spread through her body.
Her newly formed scales even seemed a little tougher than before.
Evelyn lifted one small claw and tapped her scales.
Clink.
The sound was surprisingly crisp.
Good.
Eating meant growing.
Growing meant getting stronger.
And if she could get strong fast enough...
She never wanted to experience another death like the one from her previous life, helplessly torn apart on a battlefield without even being able to fight back.
With that thought, Evelyn bit down even harder.
Crunch!
She shattered the last large piece between her teeth.
Just as she was about to reach for another fragment nearby, an almost identical sound came from somewhere not far away.
Crack.
Evelyn froze.
She raised her head and looked toward the sound.
There was another dragon egg sitting nearby.
It was roughly the same size as the one she had hatched from, covered in a similarly dark and hardened shell.
Except now, a thin crack had appeared near the top.
Crack.
The fracture spread.
Then a second appeared.
And a third.
Evelyn blinked.
The knowledge carried in her blood told her that her mother had laid two eggs this time.
Which meant the one inside...
Was probably her sibling.
Still holding half a piece of eggshell in her mouth, Evelyn crouched nearby and stared at the egg as the cracks continued spreading across its surface.
A few seconds later, something occurred to her.
When she had been hatching...
Her mother had probably been standing nearby watching her exactly like this.
Now it was her turn.
For some reason, Evelyn found herself unexpectedly curious.
“So... what are you going to be? A little brother or a little sister?”
Crack!
Another sharp snap rang out.
A small black claw suddenly punched through the center of the shell.