Second Life of a Dragon Raising Hunter

---

Chapter 37

An egg is a world.

Anyone who is about to be born must destroy a world.

I had heard such a story once. It was from a guy who was all about showing off and liked to look cool.

In that sense, I admit I had a slight hope that Shar wouldn’t hatch.

That thought crossed my mind.

I didn’t mean I was shirking responsibility or didn’t want to take care of a child.

Life dreams of paradise for everyone. A paradise that is comfortable and warm, where food appears when you’re hungry, entertainment is there when you’re bored, and you can sleep whenever you feel tired.

This would probably be true for monsters as well. I don’t know why they started to appear in this world, but since they’ve stepped into it, they’re likely doing their best to survive.

In that sense, this world is certainly not a paradise. It’s a cruel, icy world that cannot become a paradise. Not the warm and kind world one imagines in dreams.

The world is not as merciful as a child imagines. I had only told Alkeinea about the good things in the world, but if there is light, there is also darkness. Somewhere right now, people are dying, and others are suffering from hunger.

In this world, where people ignore, oppress, persecute, and kill each other for trivial reasons, someday Shar will surely be faced with the same blade.

When that time comes, will I, as a father, be able to properly protect this child? If I ask myself that, I honestly cannot give a definite answer.

No matter how many say that everyone is unaccustomed and flustered when having a child for the first time, isn’t the starting line different from that perspective?

Having grown up without parents, I could perhaps pour in love, but having never received love myself, I couldn’t even fathom what that form would look like.

… If that’s the case, living in the warm world of an egg might be better, I thought.

However, there was something I overlooked: everything comes to an end someday.

I had forgotten that the time would come when a child must grow up and make choices for themselves.

*

“Damn monster brat.”

Honestly, it was surprisingly astonishing. The movement targeting my blind spot, physical abilities operating in unimaginable directions.

Each strike aimed accurately at my vital points; thanks to having seen something similar once, I realized that this was close to assassination techniques.

I understood the tendencies, but just that wasn’t enough to turn the fight in my favor. Especially if we were talking about assassination tactics.

It wasn’t fundamentally a method of open combat, yet this assassination technique seemed to presuppose open combat. There’s no way I’d completely grasp it.

Moreover, the difference in specs was so great that it wouldn’t be a fair fight in an open battle, so Yeon-woo decided to change tactics.

He dug traps. He was going to use everything he could. There was no way to win otherwise. He was just too weak.

Even if it meant sacrificing a part of himself, he aimed to create a favorable environment and situation. Even though he had just promised not to engage in this sort of fight, he had no choice.

He tossed a bomb. He got swept up in it, but he didn’t care.

If he were a little stronger, this wouldn’t have been necessary. His anger towards himself aside, the trap was now complete.

Just by a casual calculation, if he couldn’t dodge at all, it was a trap that would definitely kill. The guy was saying something about letting him live, but regrettably, he simply didn’t have that kind of leisure.

Slowly, the opponent approached. Three steps away from triggering. If everything went smoothly and calculations were correct, he could produce enough force to kill.

Two steps.

And just as he was left with the last step, he suddenly felt an overwhelming sensation as if the world was slowing down.

His vision blurred, as if the landscape was being pulled away. Before his eyes, Kai’s figure warped strangely into a single line as it was dragged away.

Like being struck by lightning, a thrilling sensation exploded from his spine, expanding through his entire body. The world surrounding him was broadening.

Yeon-woo knew what to call this phenomenon.

It was something that occasionally came in times of dire crises or facing death. An awakening of mana that arrives at the threshold of a life-or-death situation, where the difference is like a sheet of paper.

Awakening.

‘… No, it’s a bit different.’

If one were to ask what was different, it was how sharp his reason felt.

Having seen others outside their bodies reach enlightenment and enter trance states a few times in his past life, their testimonials often mentioned how their bodies moved of their own accord.

In that sense, he wasn’t feeling like his body was moving on its own; even now, he could move his hand freely. Just like during the light exercise, he found himself floating high in the air.

‘Then, there must be some other cause…’

For some reason, his thoughts were accelerating, but it was terrifying to have an awakening without knowing the cause or phenomenon.

At that moment, he felt the space enveloping him shatter. It wasn’t because his mana was drained or his focus worn out.

… This was.

His heart began to beat fiercely. Not Yeon-woo’s heart, but Shar’s heart.

…… I see now, I’ve understood.

The reason the space broke apart and the sudden intensity of the heartbeat began.

‘How is it, Shar? How does it feel to be born?’

As soon as the question was asked, it felt like someone had clawed at the distorted space, pulling it back to normal.

A sense that had expanded enough to replace the domain he had just maintained was the first to be felt. As Kai’s force launched…

“Is this really the time to be having such relaxed conversations!?”

Golden hair gleamed beautifully like spun gold right in front of him.

She appeared to be about 7 to 8 years old. A little girl about 50 cm shorter than Yeon-woo, she had several peculiar features.

The first was the beast-like arm surrounded by golden scales on her arm.

The second was the large reptilian tail that seemed to have sprouted from above her backside. Especially sharp spikes at the end of the tail made it look like a spiked maul.

And a smoothly glowing horn had grown near her temple.

It was Shar.

With strength applied to her crossed arms blocking the force, Shar’s ears began to redden.

“U-uh, uh, uhh!!!”

Slowly, Shar began to move forward. Her race made reading her expression difficult, but it was clear that Kai was flustered.

Strong, aren’t you, Shar?

Now, Kai, who was being pushed back, was sent flying with a kick, and Shar stopped, panting.

It was intense physical activity not even a minute after hatching.

“Daddy, are you okay!?”

“Uh, I’m okay, but you’re kind of cute, Shar.”

It seems our newly hatched daughter has a short tongue. She was speaking fine before. So cute.

Now, feeling embarrassed, Shar blushed and pointed her tail at Yeon-woo.

“Don’t tease me, focus on the fight!”

I better not mess with Shar in the future, Yeon-woo thought, slowly rising to his feet.

The pain had notably decreased compared to before. It wasn’t like leveling up in a game where all wounds heal and you get a complete makeover, but that was unfortunate.

Still, with the mana that had hit rock bottom having somewhat recovered, he could say he was fortunate.

“I got it, I got it. So how does it feel to be born?”

“How would I know to ask that!?”

“Of course, you wouldn’t know to ask… humans don’t know such feelings.”

At that remark, Shar flinched and turned to look at Yeon-woo.

Let me see, let me see our daughter’s face… oh.

While Nea had a unique languid expression that made her look enchanting and sultry, Shar was the complete opposite.

With rosy, plump cheeks and lively, perky eyebrows, and big, round innocent eyes.

It was as if the overflow of vitality one thinks of when imagining a child was perfectly embodied in her. In the midst of this, her beauty resembled Nea’s.

Dad is afraid of Shar’s future… in just ten years, she might end up being a heartbreaker.

In that moment, Shar, unable to hold back, trembled her lips and soon broke into a smile. A beaming smile reminiscent of sunflowers spreading wide across a field—it was a smile that overflowed with pure joy.

“Of course it feels so good I might die, hehe!”

“Wow, you’re that happy, huh? If you die here, your birthday would become my funeral.”

“Why are you saying such things!? That’s really mean!”

I had thought it was a declaration of resolve to do my best; isn’t it strange?

Yeon-woo rubbed his sore lower back with a fist and stood behind Shar. Until then, Kai had been standing quietly, just watching. The one watching finally cracked a smile.

“That girl… is she a dragon?”

“Krurrr…”

At that question, Shar let out a sharp, beastly cry.

More like a wolf than a dragon, her arms seemed that way too. It was said that among the known dragons, very few exhibit the typical reptilian form. Could it be that Shar’s dragon form resembles a canine, like a wolf?

“That’s right. And do you know what it means that she’s a dragon?”

“… What does it mean?”

“It means you’re totally screwed.”

At Yeon-woo’s remark, Shar, who had been crouched low, sprang at Kai like lightning. Reaching right in front of him in the blink of an eye, she spun in a complete circle.

Kai’s face seemed to flush with panic. He must have been puzzled as to why he was showing his back to her. Probably because it wasn’t visible from his perspective.

That spiky little bundle of fury…

Realizing the tail’s existence too late, Kai tried to dodge, but there was no way he could escape. If he bent his body to avoid it, there wouldn’t be any room due to Shar’s height, and if he tried to back away, he had already missed the timing.

Unable to avoid it, Kai had no choice but to defend. He leaned forward, trying to position himself so that his body wouldn’t get pierced by the spikes, bracing himself with his shoulder. Although he couldn’t avoid a few holes being pierced in his back.

If someone were to ask what he was doing while letting the child fight, he’d say he was preparing. After all, Yeon-woo wasn’t in a good enough state to interfere with those two.

So what he needed to do was act as Shar’s support.

Alright, got it.

Transforming the doppelganger weapon from a sword to a staff, something slid off the tip like a slimy shadow, dark elemental mana extracted straight from his heart.

Though it looked like a whip at first glance, recognizing it in the form of a weapon was necessary because he wasn’t yet skilled in controlling elemental mana.

“Shar, push him back one step.”

[Got it!]

With a lively response to Yeon-woo’s command, Shar filled in the gaps during their offense. Whatever the case, it seemed that the guy was a little tired too. If it were the first time, he would have easily responded, but since he had to defend, he was more on the back foot.

Yeon-woo swung the staff. With a whoosh, the tip of the whip sliced through the air and headed not towards Kai but towards another side.

It wasn’t a miss. As the dark whip struck a shadow behind a column, a painful moan echoed from the other side.

“Ugh…!”

It was Kai. He had transferred the whip’s tip through the shadows from one shadow to another.

‘What a ridiculously overpowered ability.’

That little doppelganger brat, is there such an easy way to gain an advantage?

(To be continued)