A Hunter on Borrowed Time Keeps Surviving - Chapter 15

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 15.
The moment the Dragon’s Egg cracked open, the air in the room transformed entirely.
A vast and ominous surge of magical power filled the space, accompanied by the rhythmic breathing of an unfamiliar creature.
Sioul pressed himself against the foot of the bed, barely breathing.
More precisely, his back was flattened against the wall on the far side of the bed.
The instant he caught sight of the creature emerging between the fractured shell fragments, his body had reacted on pure instinct.
“That’s… that’s…”
Sioul stared at the newly hatched being with trembling eyes.
A body slightly smaller than the egg itself.
Teal-colored scales caught the light and shimmered softly, while the small wings folded against its back still fluttered uncertainly, as if the creature hadn’t yet learned how to fold them properly.
Two short, rounded horns crowned its head, and the overall silhouette was unmistakably…
‘A dragon of judgment?’
The resemblance was uncanny.
The scale color, the eye shape, even the haughtily contoured face.
The only difference was size.
Sioul swallowed hard, his throat dry.
No thought of cuteness had crossed his mind yet.
Something far more primal gripped him now.
Fear and caution.
‘This really is a dragon…’
He couldn’t afford to let his guard down simply because it was small.
Sioul knew better than anyone what a dragon truly was.
Bounce!
“…!”
The baby dragon kicked off the eggshell fragments and leaped.
Its tiny body hung suspended in midair before landing on the bed.
Soft—the blanket depressed slightly beneath its weight.
“Squawk!”
Sioul flinched in alarm, his shoulders tensing.
But the wall was already at his back.
There was nowhere left to retreat.
The baby dragon steadied itself on the bed, flapping its wings.
Then, with stubby legs, it began to toddle toward Sioul across the mattress.
“Don’t come near… Wait, hold on…!”
Sioul threw up his hands desperately, though it was nothing more than a defensive posture.
The baby dragon seemed amused by his reaction, quivering its scales with a slight tremor as it continued to approach.
And so it reached the foot of the bed.
One more jump, and it would close the distance between them.
Sioul held his breath, looking down at the baby dragon.
The baby dragon, in turn, looked up at him with bright, glistening eyes.
A moment of mutual observation.
“Chirp!”
“…?”
A question mark appeared on Sioul’s face.
‘Did it just… chirp at me?’
It looked every inch a dragon, yet its cry was unmistakably that of a puppy.
An utterly unexpected, pathetic little sound.
Thanks to that, the tension that had coiled through Sioul’s shoulders began to ease away.
‘It doesn’t seem like it came to judge me right this second…’
Sioul loosened his guard and opened his mouth.
“Are you, by any chance, the child of the dragon of judgment?”
The baby dragon didn’t answer.
Instead, it blinked its large eyes slowly, twice.
‘Can’t it speak?’
From its reaction, it didn’t seem unable to understand his words, yet it appeared to lack the linguistic ability to respond.
‘What am I expecting from a newborn…’
Sioul scratched the back of his neck sheepishly.
Then a sound rang out—not human speech, but remarkably distinct nonetheless.
Grumble.
Sioul’s gaze shifted to the baby dragon’s belly, which had just produced that unmistakable sound.
Hungry?
Chirp!
Less than five minutes out of the egg, and the baby dragon already wore the expression of a creature demanding food.
Sioul paused to think, then got to his feet.
‘A dragon would be carnivorous, right?’
With that conclusion, he opened the refrigerator.
Inside sat a neatly arranged package of beef he’d bought recently.
Sioul pulled out a chunk and returned without bothering with a plate, raw meat still in hand.
You can eat it raw, can’t you?
The moment he held out the meat, the baby dragon stretched its neck and sniffed—sniff, sniff—at it.
A low, rumbling growl emerged from its throat.
The sound dripped with unmistakable displeasure.
Not interested? This is premium Korean beef, you know.
Sioul spoke as though wronged, but the baby dragon had already whipped its head away from the meat.
Why? Don’t tell me you’re a vegetarian.
Sioul opened the refrigerator again, skeptical.
Lettuce, cucumber, bell peppers, carrots.
He offered up the various vegetables he’d bought to stay healthy, one by one.
Another low rumble.
The result was the same.
You don’t want this either?
Sioul swept his hair back, perplexed.
So what exactly are you supposed to eat…
Mid-thought, his expression went rigid.
A terrible suspicion flickered through his mind.
You don’t… eat people, do you?
The baby dragon tilted its head, as though the question made no sense.
Sioul’s face had gone pale. He reached out slowly, very carefully, extending his hand.
His hand would regenerate even if bitten, so there was no real harm—but it was difficult to stay calm with dragon teeth so close.
Rub-rub.
…
The baby dragon pressed its head against his palm and nuzzled it.
The strange, cool sensation of its scales—neither warm nor cold—spread across his skin.
Chirp!
The baby dragon cried out in a bright, cheerful tone, pleased with itself.
Sioul stared down at it in a daze, then suddenly understood.
‘You like having your head petted?’
He moved his hand more deliberately, stroking the baby dragon’s head.
Chirp!
An immediate, enthusiastic response.
By now, Sioul had grasped that this small creature’s emotional palette was simple.
When displeased, it made a low, harsh sound—
A growl.
When pleased, bright and cheerful—
A chirp!
Its feelings were readable in its cries alone.
This is basically a dog.
Sioul laughed, deflated.
But practicality soon reasserted itself.
The problem is, I don’t know what it eats. And I can’t exactly take you to the supermarket.
The world had Summoners and Necromancers, but no humans who raised monsters.
The moment he stepped outside with the baby dragon, someone would call it in—it was only a matter of time.
Hm?
While he stood thinking, the baby dragon vanished from his sight.
Where did it go?
Not on the bed. Not on the floor.
Then came a rustling sound from the kitchen.
He turned to find the baby dragon perched on the kitchen shelf.
It was quite high—the kind of place a person would need to stand on a chair to reach.
The small wings on the baby dragon’s back trembled, their flutter lifting its body into the air.
‘Can the sky fly?’
Sioul’s mind snapped to attention with a different thought entirely.
‘No, wait—that’s not what matters right now…!’
Sioul jolted to his feet in alarm.
“What are you doing over there?!”
The baby dragon paid him no mind, rifling through the shelf instead.
Then it turned around with something clamped in its jaws.
“Huh?”
A dog chew treat.
Last spring, when his neighbor next door had gone to Reserve Soldier Training, Sioul had looked after a Shih Tzu for a while.
This was the dog snack he’d received back then.
Crunch-crunch!
The baby dragon chewed the treat with obvious relish.
“Wark!”
A contented cry came as a bonus.
“What kind of dragon likes dog treats…”
Sioul let out a helpless laugh, shaking his head.
* * *
Belly sufficiently full, the baby dragon lay sprawled across the middle of the bed, perfectly still.
Its small body stretched languidly, tail draped loosely to one side.
Sioul sat beside it, watching quietly, lost in thought.
‘If it came as a bonus reward, it’s definitely supposed to be useful to me somehow…’
But looking at it now, it just felt like he’d ended up with a pet.
Sioul perched on the edge of the bed, resting his chin in his hand.
‘Since it’s just been born, I should spend some time raising it properly for now.’
Having made up his mind, he turned to speak to the baby dragon.
“How about we give you a name?”
The baby dragon opened its eyes, responding.
“I think we need a name to call you by. Since you’re a dragon—what about Youngit?”
“Grrr…”
“No, huh? You don’t like it?”
Even though it couldn’t speak human language, it responded well enough to brainstorm with him.
“Then how about something matching your scale color—Teal?”
“Grrr…”
“Since you like dog treats—what about Puppy?”
“Grrr…!”
“Pepper?”
“Grrr…!!”
“Chestnut?”
“Grrrrr—!!!”
“…You hate them all.”
The baby dragon snorted and flopped back down on the bed.
Sioul laughed awkwardly, then suddenly went still.
……
A wave of crushing reality hit him.
“I might die before the year’s out anyway.”
The thought escaped his lips unbidden.
“I’m not sure I’m the right one to give you a name.”
Only five months remained until his death notice took effect.
He didn’t feel like he could see this creature through to the end.
That bitterness weighed heavy on his features, dragging them down.
Nuzzle—
The baby dragon pressed its small body against him, rubbing its head against his arm.
“…Asking for pets again?”
When Sioul reached over to stroke its head, a cheerful “Wark!” burst out immediately.
At that gesture, Sioul found himself smiling despite everything.
“Yeah. Well, I chose to take the egg, so the least I can do is take good care of you until I’m gone.”
At his words, the baby dragon’s tail flicked slightly.
Sioul paused for a moment, then added quietly:
“The time you and I spend together will only be during your first year, you know? With that in mind…… how about the name Zero?”
The baby dragon made direct eye contact with Sioul for the first time.
“Wark!”
“Hmm? Do you like it?”
“Wark wark!”
Sioul’s face broke into a smile.
“Good. Then let’s call you Zero.”
Now that he’d given the baby dragon a name, an unexpected tenderness bloomed in his chest.
In that moment, for the first time in his life, Sioul had a family.
Ding dong!
“…?”
The doorbell suddenly chimed.
Sioul and Zero both turned toward the entrance at once.
“Who could that be? I wasn’t expecting anyone.”
Sioul draped a blanket over Zero and rose to his feet.
“You can’t let other people know about you, so stay hidden under there.”
“Wark!”
After confirming that Zero was tucked safely beneath the blanket, Sioul opened the door.
The face that greeted him was not unfamiliar.
The woman he’d encountered at the Hunter Shop weeks ago.
The one who’d appeared without warning and seized his wrist—Baek Gahyun.
“You’re…”
Before Sioul could finish, Baek Gahyun pushed past him into the entryway with barely concealed force.
“Excuse me.”
Sioul’s bewilderment turned to alarm as he glanced behind her.
A second person had entered in her wake.
Kang Hotchul. He deftly closed the door behind them and engaged the lock.
“What are you doing!”
As Sioul’s voice rose, Baek Gahyun said nothing in reply—instead, she reached into the inner pocket of her suit jacket and withdrew a single sheet of paper.
She unfolded it and extended it toward Sioul.
Among the densely packed sentences filling the page, a single large title at the very top seized his attention.
〈 Government Attendance Summons (Mandatory) 〉
Sioul’s breath caught.
Baek Gahyun folded the paper again and slipped it back into her jacket pocket, then spoke in a low voice.
“You’ve been identified as the sole witness to the Black Gate incident that occurred on May 25th at approximately 1:21 p.m.”
“…!!”
Sioul’s pupils dilated.
Shock seized him; his body went rigid.
“You’ll need to come with us to headquarters.”
The moment those words fell, a chill crawled down Sioul’s spine.
Kang Hotchul had positioned himself directly behind him—when, Sioul couldn’t say.
He hadn’t sensed the movement at all.
‘This man… he’s not an ordinary Hunter.’
With Sioul’s level of power, reading an opponent’s rank was entirely possible.
‘He’s S-rank…!’
In that same instant, powerful arms locked firmly around him.
Kang Hotchul wrapped his own limbs around Sioul’s as one might fasten handcuffs.
There was no room to escape, no chance to resist.
“We said ‘attendance,’ but in fact, this is an arrest.”
A low, gravelly voice resonated near his ear—Kang Hotchul’s.
Kang Hotchul exhaled malice as he whispered.
“Please cooperate.”
Terminal Hunter’s continued survival—
Author |
Kutsummatsu
Publisher |
(주) Samyang C&C
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Editorial Division
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Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. — No part of this book may be used in any form or by any means without written permission from Dream Books.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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