“What is this…”

Haru, unable to see the approaching shadow, opened her mouth anxiously. But before she could finish, Ms. Rebecca urgently clamped a hand over her mouth.

“Shh.”

“What…”

“Quiet. Erika.”

I then pressed a finger to my lips, signaling Erika. Seeing this, Saya also swallowed hard and covered her own mouth. We surrendered ourselves to silence, our eyes fixed on the approaching harbinger of doom.

Soon, its silhouette began to emerge. An unfamiliar chill radiated from my tightly gripped sword.

The first thing I noticed was its underdeveloped wings. From the leathery skin stretched over bare bone, devoid of a single feather, a viscous mucus—bodily fluid or amniotic fluid—dripped steadily. As if bothered by the itch, the creature thrashed its forelimbs, frantically trying to scratch itself.

To no avail, of course. Its forelimbs were far too short compared to its heavy hind legs. Yet, seemingly oblivious to this fact, it snapped its jaws open and shut, wailing at the world. Each time it did, a faint flame spewed forth, and the moment its heated saliva hit the ground, it billowed gray smoke, slowly eating away at the earth.

No. In truth, the land suffered enough just from the creature’s arrival. It groaned under the crushing weight, corroded by acidic saliva, and turned to ash in the exhaled flames. The world was far too fragile to accommodate its body.

But the thing was merely a hatchling that hadn’t even opened its eyes yet. A young organism, barely an hour old, that rightfully deserved protection. Yet, no mother was in sight. Born alone on a barren land, learning to walk alone. It was strolling through the very earth it would soon dominate.

Rousing its young on a land it hadn’t even arrived at yet. That was a display of arrogance only the apex predator of the ecosystem could muster. An atrocity it could commit because it was confident no predator in this land could touch its young.

And no creature in this land dared to resist it. They became the rulers of this land the moment they were born. Even the specimens still wrinkled all over with un-dried amniotic fluid were masters of the food chain that we had to revere.

…

Hatchling.

Legend called the entity by that name.

And that word was always followed by an utterly dispassionate, academic explanation.

The offspring of a Dragon.

A tense breath brushed past my nose. Since everyone present was trembling, I couldn’t pinpoint whose breath it was. Even I was swallowing hard, suppressing my own fear.

A Hatchling. I hadn’t anticipated this at all. No one could have imagined that traces of a Dragon would appear on this land so soon.

Because of that, we couldn’t even fathom how threatening that Hatchling was. At this moment, we had neither knowledge nor experience to reference. We could only vaguely guess based on its massive bulk and seemingly solid fangs.

The only relief was the fact that it was a hatchling that hadn’t even opened its eyes yet. At the very least, it didn’t seem to have noticed us yet. As long as we made no sound, we might just slip past it.

Ms. Rebecca seemed to share the same thought; she pressed herself against the wall and gestured cautiously toward us. Fortunately, there was a deep ditch beside the road where we could hide and move.

However, not everyone present realized this. Just as we were about to carefully move our feet, an oblivious voice echoed through the air.

“Honey…? Are you there? Honey…”

“…!”

The moment the voice reached us, we desperately threw ourselves into the ditch. Even as the muddy earth swallowed our knees, that desperate calling continued.

“Honey… answer me…”

“…”

“Honey…!”

“I… I’m fine… I am…”

Did that desperation pay off? A faint response echoed from amidst the shattered carriage. The only genuine bond in a world rife with deceit finally reared its head.

And on the other side, the seed of destruction that had been wandering in the darkness also slowly began to raise its head.

The creature scanned the empty air with its sightless eyes. It swallowed dust through its snout, wandering back and forth, and irritably shook its body or bared its fangs, but its direction remained fixed toward the sound. Meanwhile, the couple continued to move, searching for each other amidst the chaos.

Just then, the only coherent coachman approached them. He whispered in a hushed, low voice.

“Shh. Keep your voice down. Those things are gone. They might be around us.”

“I thought they were just students… Where is the young lady?”

“She’s fine, so don’t worry. Damn it, those bastards. Where the hell did they go?”

“More importantly, why did the horses suddenly act like that? Did something happen?”

“Who knows. Was there something up ahead?”

Only then did they cast their gazes beyond the overturned carriage. I too followed their eyes, scanning the spot where the Hatchling had been. But the creature was gone. There was only a cloud of dust drifting like the wind.

…

A dust cloud…?

As I lowered my gaze amidst an ominous premonition, a shadow that had somehow appeared at my feet caught my eye. A pitch-black shadow that grew larger and larger like a ripple in water, forming a perfect circle. When I realized its source, they and I raised our heads simultaneously.

And at that very moment, a massive tongue lashed out, impaling the coachman’s body clean through.

“Aaaaaaagh!”

“Kieeeeeeeek!!!”

The man’s scream and the Hatchling’s roar intertwined simultaneously, echoing a tragic dirge. The recoil from its long leap sent its body tumbling to the opposite side, its heavy hind legs thrashing as blood and dust danced. Amidst a heavy noise like steel beams clashing, the screams of those who had instantly lost their comrade pierced the sky.

“This… this is crazy!”

“Oh my god…!”

“Kieeeeeeeek!!!”

The Hatchling let out another victorious roar and gleefully chewed up the limp man’s body. Whether prey or predator, the creature easily defied the fact that the first thing one learns upon birth is to flee for survival. What it had instinctively grasped before even opening its eyes was not survival, but hunting.

That was no longer in the realm of what could be dismissed as arrogance. Its very way of thinking about life was fundamentally different from ours.

Having savored the joy of its first hunt for quite a while, the creature eventually turned its head back toward the carriage. And it slowly began to move toward them.

“Damn it…!”

“We… we have to run… if we stay here…”

“Damn it, stay still! If you make a sound, it’ll jump again… so…”

They whispered to each other in the smallest voices possible, but that only accelerated the Hatchling’s pace. The creature twisted its head back and forth at the trivial noise, taking heavy steps. With every step it took, everyone held their breath, watching its movements.

But just then, the noble young lady, who had yet to mature, began to wake up. Without realizing that her worst nightmare was approaching, she let out a groan and lifted her head.

“Ugh… uhm…”

“…!!!”

“What is this… damn… ugh…”

“My… my lady…!”

One person rushed over and tried to cover her mouth, but she frowned and pushed the hand away. Even in that urgent situation, it seemed she didn’t like someone touching her body.

“What is it. What’s going on? Tell me…”

“My lady, for now, just…!”

“What. Why. What is it?”

“My lady, please!”

“…We need to move.”

Ms. Rebecca’s low voice interjected through the desperate exchange. Hoping their misfortune wouldn’t affect us here, we carefully crawled along the ground. But the Hatchling’s pace was steadily accelerating, and our crawling speed was frustratingly slow. During that process, Erika almost burst into tears.

“My lady, please…!”

“…!”

Fortunately, Miss Anbert only kept her mouth shut after we had gotten quite a distance away from the scene. And the Hatchling, too, stopped its steps right in front of them. We, too, froze our own time, observing their situation from a safe distance.

“…”

“Grrrrrr…”

“…”

“Ugh… uuuu…”

The Hatchling stood before the carriage, making a bizarre crying sound for a long time. Perhaps flames were boiling inside its throat, for a heat haze rose even in the dead of winter.

Was it smelling something? I couldn’t know for sure, but the creature’s behavior was enough to amplify the humans’ anxiety. At this rate, it seemed it would be only a matter of time before their presence was discovered.

In that vague fear, the woman who had still been hiding inside the carriage lifted a crossbow. The very bolt that had nearly pierced my head earlier was now aimed at the Hatchling. The target was its eyeball, the most sensitive spot for any living creature.

Since it was impossible to know how tough its hide was, she had to aim precisely between its eyelids. Therefore, she carefully aimed the crossbow. And when the creature held its breath and lowered its head, she fired at its eyeball without a fraction of error.

The bolt that flew off embedded itself precisely between the creature’s eyelids. I covered Saya’s ears in case the creature roared.

But the moment the bolt struck the eyeball, it was crushed flat and fell to the ground.

“Fuck.”

She cursed aloud for the first time. The Hatchling, on the other hand, didn’t even seem to feel pain, let alone realize a bolt had embedded itself in it. The creature, shaking its head stupidly, opened its mouth blankly as if it didn’t understand what had happened.

And then it began to drool. The watery saliva flowed straight down to the ground, rapidly corroding the carriage where the woman was.

“Fuck… fuck…”

“Grr… uuuu…”

“N… no…”

“Grrr… uuuu…”

“Ahh… ahhhhhhh!!!”

“No!!!”

As her entire body was submerged in the flowing saliva, the woman couldn’t hold back a scream. At that moment, Miss Anbert also screamed and desperately stood up from her spot. And that was the worst choice of her life.

“Kieeeeeeeeeeek!”

“Aaaaaaagh!!!”

Once again, the creature’s roar and the victim’s scream tragically intertwined. We hid ourselves in the noise and desperately fled the scene.

The stifled flight continued for a long time. The further we got from the scene, the faster our pace became, but the Hatchling’s cries showed no sign of diminishing. In fact, as if deciding to savor the joy of the hunt even longer this time, it kicked up dust clouds high into the sky and howled like mad.

During that process, Erika finally burst into tears. Even Haru, perhaps feeling afraid, buried herself in Rebecca’s embrace. The only one calm in that situation was Saya.

Saya surveyed the surroundings with her characteristic soundless footsteps before returning to me with a sigh of relief. Only then did we stop and sit beneath a massive tree root to catch our breath. I now naturally accepted Saya’s arm as it entwined around me like a chain, slumping to the ground.

Having lost everything, she now only had me. But even I was so fragile in this world that I could crumble at any moment. The fact that the person she had finally given her heart to was such a weak existence must have been yet another despair for Saya.

I wanted to somehow embrace that fragile heart and keep it strong. But I was still far too clumsy at such things, so instead, I brought up a cliché topic.

“You’ve been through a lot, Saya. The rest of us are the same.”

“…”

“Let’s catch our breath for just a moment and then move.”

“Right. It’s too open here.”

Only Ms. Rebecca replied with a resolute voice. The others also slowly opened their mouths toward me, but before they could, the Hatchling’s cry echoed first.

“Kieeeeeeeek!!!”

“…”

“Kieeeeeeeek!!!”

And behind that, the cries of other Hatchlings resonated together.

Their voices were definitely not close. But there were far too many of them. As if proving that the masters of this land were no longer human, their cries continued to follow us. One. Two. Three. Four. I closed my eyes, overwhelmed even by the effort of counting them.

As my vision turned pitch black, the scent of forget-me-nots drifted in. Saya rubbed my eyelids with trembling hands before grasping both my cheeks. And then she muttered to herself in a low voice.

“Time…”

“…”

“…will.”

Since her voice didn’t continue, I couldn’t tell what Saya was trying to say. While I pondered alone, her hand pressed firmly against my lower abdomen. Her clinging palm refused to let go for a long time.