Hum-da~ Hum-da~ Hum-da~

The stone walls inside the cave were all hard black rock.

After wandering around for a while, Chaos stopped.

This spot will do.

Looking at the flat, raised stone platform before him, he pushed off with his hind legs and leaped onto it with ease.

He lay down, his heavy eyelids slowly closing.

Hopefully, the green dragon who wrote the inheritance wasn't lying to other dragons.

With that final thought, his consciousness slowly sank away.

He officially entered his first slumber.

Not long after Chaos fell asleep, the silent cave gradually grew lively.

"Agnes..."

"Sif..."

"Eonora..."

"Frigga..."

As clear, childish roars announced one true name after another, the whole cave came alive.

Crunch, crunch~!

The sounds of eggshells being devoured echoed constantly through the cave.

A careful listener would have noticed how hurried all that crunching sounded.

The cavern remained briefly peaceful, until...

"Roar!"

An angry roar shattered the cave's brief silence.

More angry roars followed.

Had Chaos still been awake, he would certainly have enjoyed the lively scene before him-and understood what those roars meant.

"You made a mistake. You should never have provoked the great Frigga."

"Roar!"

Among the fighting hatchlings, a small black dragon lay on the ground. Petite and black as a little lump of coal, her pupils had widened into circles, and she looked as timid and easy to bully as could be.

Occasionally, a hatchling noticed the little black dragon, but each merely gave her a contemptuous glance before quickly looking away.

Out of sight of the fighting hatchlings, however, the little black dragon kept inching along stealthily.

Whenever a dragon glanced her way, she would stop beforehand and lie down obediently.

Once again, she quietly pinned down a red eggshell fragment. An looked around to make sure no dragon had noticed her, then opened her jaws and swallowed the fragment on the ground in one bite.

Fighting at a time like this? Only idiots would do that.

The fighting continued.

Only half an hour later did the cave fall quiet again.

All the eggshells on the ground had been snatched up during the fighting, so there was no reason to continue.

The fighting had been fierce, but the death toll was zero.

Not a single hatchling had died in the struggle.

Some were injured, though only lightly.

The hatchlings each found a spot they liked, lay down, and began the first slumber of their dragon lives.

The cavern fell quiet again, broken only by the occasional rustle of a hatchling moving about. Clearly, some had yet to find a sleeping spot they liked.

Nearly every egg in the cavern had hatched. Only one white dragon egg still stood silently.

Quite a few hatchlings lay around the white dragon egg in several rings.

But as time passed, the hatchlings surrounding the white egg gradually began to disperse.

They had lost the patience to wait.

Eventually, only four hatchlings remained lying before the white dragon egg.

Two blue hatchlings, one green hatchling, and one black hatchling.

Yes, they were the four little hatchlings whose tails had been tied together.

By the time they untangled their tails, they discovered the fighting had already ended, so the four of them had failed to grab even a single eggshell fragment.

Now, they could only pin their hopes on the white dragon egg before them.

As time slowly passed, the white dragon egg still showed no sign of hatching.

Eventually, the two blue hatchlings chose to go to sleep first.

The black hatchling followed.

The last green hatchling raised her head and stared at the white dragon egg before her, reluctance showing in her emerald slit pupils.

Slowly, she too lay down.

The vast cavern finally fell silent.

Crack~!

A faint cracking sound rang out, exceptionally clear in the silent, pitch-black cavern.

A crack spread across the top of the white dragon egg. The next second, a piece of shell flew up, leaving a large, round hole at the top.

The flying piece of white eggshell landed squarely on the head of the green hatchling lying beneath the egg.

It gave her a little white hat.

The eggshell she had longed for had landed on her head, yet the green hatchling did not stir. Her heavy eyelids were tightly shut; clearly, she too had fallen asleep.

"Hum-da~ Hum-da~ Hum-da~!"

A clear, childish roar, much like a baby's babbling, came from inside the shell.

Then a pair of chubby white dragon claws hooked over the shell's edge. A moment later, a round white dragon head squeezed laboriously through the broken opening.

She clung to the inside of the shell, with only her round head poking out.

Her round head began to turn, her sparkling white slit pupils surveying her surroundings with curiosity.

He opened his heavy eyelids.

A huge hourglass of pure gold appeared before him.

It was that hourglass again. Chaos examined it closely, his gaze settling on its center. Only a little golden sand remained in the upper half.

That means this hourglass is about to run out!

He stared fixedly at the falling golden sand.

Until the very last grains fell.

Has it finally finished?

There was a moment of silence.

Clack, clack, clack!

The enormous golden hourglass made quite a racket as it began to turn over.

The lower half, filled with golden sand, swapped places with the empty upper half.

Everything fell still again.

Chaos: ???

Wait, what...

Before he could finish cursing inwardly, something happened.

Everything in his field of vision quietly changed.

Gurgle~

Before him was a broad, rushing river seething with hidden currents.

He stood on its bank.

Chaos looked at the rock wall on the opposite shore, hundreds of meters away, then raised his head, following the wall upward.

Once again, he saw a cave ceiling covered in stalactites of varying lengths.

So this is an underground river?

Tap, tap~

Just then, footsteps came from behind him.

Without any hesitation, Chaos turned around.

When he saw the figure behind him, he was stunned.

Because the one walking toward him was none other than himself.

"You..."

Chaos had only just opened his mouth when he forcibly swallowed the rest of what he was about to say.

Because his other self walked straight through his body.

Yes, just like that.

Turning around, Chaos watched his other self walk to the river and crouch down, clearly preparing to drink.

So this is actually an illusion created by that hourglass?

Then what's the point of this illusion?

Chaos began to think.

Splash~!

Just as those questions arose, a sudden splash reached his ears.

He looked toward the sound.

A pitch-black tentacle shot out of the rushing river.

Like a spear, the tentacle pierced the body of his other self drinking at the river's edge.

Splash~!

The tentacle dragged his corpse into the river and vanished in an instant.

Chaos's slit pupils rapidly contracted.

He... died.