Crack.
Crack...
The sound of breaking shell came steadily from the second dragon egg.
Evelyn crouched a short distance away with half a piece of eggshell still hanging from her mouth, watching the wobbling egg with open curiosity.
A few seconds later, a piece of shell suddenly popped loose.
Snap!
A tiny black head pushed its way through the opening.
Compared to Evelyn, the newborn dragon was noticeably smaller, though the resemblance between them was obvious. He had the same jet-black scales, the same golden slit pupils, and a pair of small horns that had yet to fully develop.
The moment his head was free, the little dragon opened his mouth eagerly.
“Raaahhh!”
A young but surprisingly loud roar echoed through the cavern.
Just as it had with Evelyn, a vast amount of Draconic Inheritance awakened within his bloodline.
Along with it came a name that belonged to him alone.
The little black dragon threw his head back.
“Darrien Gregor Blackthorne!”
After proudly announcing his true name, he even gave his head a smug little shake.
The effect was somewhat ruined by the fact that most of his body was still stuck inside the egg.
Evelyn blinked.
The Draconic Inheritance had given her more than knowledge. It also provided certain instincts for recognizing members of her own species.
One glance was enough.
Male.
Which meant...
“My little brother?”
Evelyn murmured the words under her breath.
Whether she had siblings in her previous life was one of the many things she could no longer remember clearly.
In this life, there was no question.
She had been alive for barely any time at all, and she already had a biological younger brother.
Across the cavern, the adult black dragon resting on her treasure hoard opened her enormous golden eyes at the noise.
She gave the second hatchling a brief glance.
Then...
Something that looked suspiciously like disappointment passed through her eyes.
A moment later, she closed them again.
“...”
Evelyn naturally had no idea what had gone through her mother’s mind.
If she had, she probably would have gained a much clearer understanding of just what kind of creatures chromatic dragons really were.
Their mother had been holding on to a small hope.
There had been two eggs in this clutch.
If only one hatchling awakened the Draconic Inheritance and became a true, intelligent dragon, then she would only have to raise one child.
A hatchling that failed to awaken the inheritance would become a Dragon Beast, possessing little more than animal instinct.
Chromatic dragons had no tradition requiring them to raise such offspring.
Unfortunately for her...
Two eggs.
Two True Dragons.
Not a single Dragon Beast.
That meant she would be responsible for feeding two increasingly enormous appetites for quite some time.
For a chromatic dragon who was naturally lazy and not particularly sentimental, this was hardly good news.
Worse still, both chromatic dragon tradition and the laws established by Tiamat, the Dragon Queen, were very clear.
A True Dragon hatchling that successfully awakened its Draconic Inheritance could not simply be abandoned by its mother before it became capable of surviving on its own.
In other words, she not only had to protect these two troublesome little creatures, but would also need to spend more time hunting to feed them.
At the thought, their mother couldn’t even be bothered to open her eyes again.
Better not to look.
As long as they didn’t kill themselves, they could do whatever they wanted.
Meanwhile, Darrien had no idea that his own mother had already decided he was a nuisance moments after his birth.
He was currently staring straight at Evelyn.
Evelyn stared straight back.
The atmosphere became slightly awkward.
Because...
Evelyn was holding a piece of his eggshell in one claw.
While Darrien had still been struggling to hatch, curiosity had gotten the better of her.
Her own eggshell had tasted pretty decent.
So naturally, she had wondered whether the other egg tasted the same.
Naturally, she had reached over and taken a piece.
Unfortunately, Darrien happened to poke his head out at exactly that moment.
Their eyes met.
Evelyn looked down at the eggshell in her claw.
Darrien looked at it too.
Silence.
A brief, uncomfortable silence.
“...”
This was a little awkward.
Evelyn had been considering quietly putting the shell back and pretending nothing had happened.
Before she could, Darrien’s eyes widened in outrage.
He hadn’t even managed to pull the rest of his body free yet, but the arrogant expression on his face already carried a hint of what one might expect from a fully grown chromatic dragon.
He opened his mouth, revealing two rows of freshly grown sharp teeth.
“Hey! You stupid sister! Put down my eggshell, or I’ll make you regret it!”
“...”
Evelyn’s claw stopped.
She had been thinking that, since he had only just been born, she should probably be a little friendly during their first meeting.
His opening line immediately cured her of that idea.
Stupid sister?
Evelyn slowly narrowed her eyes.
Another piece of information about chromatic dragons surfaced from the Draconic Inheritance.
Chromatic dragons respected strength.
Family bonds?
Those were considerably less important.
For most chromatic dragons, blood ties were nowhere near as reliable as raw power.
Hatchlings born from the same clutch would often fight shortly after hatching to establish their place in the hierarchy.
The stronger one got more food, more territory, and first choice whenever there was something worth taking.
The weaker one?
They learned to live with it.
A hatchling that showed too much weakness at the beginning could easily spend the next several years being pushed around.
Evelyn thought about that for a moment.
Then she looked down at Darrien.
Only half of him had even managed to crawl out of the egg.
Then she looked at herself.
Although they had both just hatched, Evelyn was clearly an entire size larger.
Darrien was still a relatively small hatchling.
Evelyn, on the other hand, was already approaching the size of a newborn calf.
Side by side, the difference was obvious.
Evelyn had no idea why.
Perhaps retaining part of the soul and mental strength from her previous life had caused her mind to awaken earlier than that of an ordinary hatchling.
Or perhaps she had simply developed better inside the egg.
Whatever the reason, the result was the same.
She was bigger than Darrien.
And for hatchlings who had yet to learn magic or properly master their Dragon Breath...
Size was power.
The claw that had been about to return Darrien’s eggshell stopped.
Evelyn looked at him again.
Slowly, the corners of her mouth curled upward, exposing two rows of sharp little dragon teeth.
“My stupid little brother... I think you should learn some respect.”
Darrien blinked.
He clearly hadn’t understood what she meant.
A second later, Evelyn launched herself at him.
“Wait!”
Bam!
The already-cracked dragon egg had no chance of surviving a collision from something Evelyn’s size.
The entire shell shattered.
Darrien, who had only just gotten his head out, tumbled free along with the broken pieces before he even understood what was happening.
Then his vision went dark.
Evelyn had already pinned him to the ground.
“?!”
Darrien’s golden eyes went wide.
He clearly hadn’t expected her to attack without another word.
“You...”
Evelyn gave him no chance to react.
Her previous life on the battlefield had taught her one very simple lesson.
Once you decided to fight, you didn’t give the other side time to fight back.
One front claw pressed firmly against Darrien’s neck.
Her hind legs pinned down his body.
Then she raised her other claw.
Smack!
“Raaah!”
Smack!
“You...!”
Smack!
“You savage!”
Smack!
“I’ll make you pay for this!”
Darrien struggled furiously.
Unfortunately, the size difference was simply too great.
No matter how wildly his four little legs kicked and thrashed, he couldn’t throw Evelyn off.
Before long, a string of miserable cries echoed throughout the cavern.
“Raaah! Stop! You stupid sister! Let me go if you’ve got the guts! Fight me properly!”
Evelyn raised an eyebrow.
“You’ve still got that much energy?”
She smacked him again.
A few minutes later, Darrien’s tone finally began to change.
“Raaah! Not the face! That really hurts!”