Help! I'm in Another World and the Dragon Man Want Me To Get Pregnant!
Chapter 68: The Stolen Hatchling

Chapter 68: The Stolen Hatchling

For someone timid, it would be terrifying—enough to make them want to flee.

And that terrified him.

If Shen Xinghui started avoiding him... that pain would be unbearable.

Ignatius quickly pulled away, muttering an apology.

Disgust churned within him—not for Shen Xinghui, but for himself.

For his own foolish lack of restraint.

But then...

A quiet, muffled giggle reached his ears.

Startled, he looked up.

Shen Xinghui was smiling.

A soft, gentle smile.

When they reached the town, Ignatius was taken aback.

He never expected to see a Rank A Monster like Yiazmat along the main road.

Yiazmat was a massive, multi-headed dragon.

However, it was nothing like the Dragon Man.

Dragon Man were born in human form and lived as humans.

They could transform into their dragon form when releasing magic or traveling long distances, but their default state was always human.

Dragon-type Monster, on the other hand, had no human form.

At best, some possessed a half-human, half-beast appearance.

They were born from eggs, not from humanlike parents.

That did not mean they lacked intelligence.

Some hunted in packs.

Others set traps.

The monsters of this world were far from weak.

Ignatius entrusted Shen Xinghui to a trusted guild within the town.

The Guildmaster there was a retired Rank S Adventurer.

Back in his prime, before settling down with a wife and child, he had helped Ignatius on multiple occasions.

His sharp tongue and intimidating gaze gave a rough first impression, but his character was solid.

There was a reason Ignatius left Shen Xinghui in his care.

In the previous town, he had heard rumors—about the underground trader and the rogue adventurers who supplied them.

And with all the chaos surrounding the monster attack, there was a chance those criminals were still lurking nearby.

Shen Xinghui was both beautiful and powerless.

Worse, he had yet to be officially registered as a citizen of this world.

If he fell into the hands of an underground trader, his fate would be grim.

Some were sold to the highest bidder, condemned to a life of servitude as a noble’s plaything.

Others were forced into dangerous labor or used as bait to lure rare monsters.

There were even old, horrifying stories of those who had been bred with rare creatures in insane experiments.

The thought made Ignatius’s blood run cold.

He would never allow such a fate to befall Shen Xinghui.

That was why, before leaving, he not only entrusted him to the Guildmaster but also left behind enough money to ensure Shen Xinghui would never have to struggle for the rest of his life.

Shen Xinghui had refused the money, insisting he didn’t need it.

But Ignatius couldn’t help but worry.

Ignatius followed the reports of sightings along the highway, venturing deep into the forest, but his search turned up nothing.

Yiazmat was highly intelligent.

It was entirely possible that the creature sensed his presence and was deliberately hiding.

A monster of that caliber was more than capable of recognizing a formidable opponent and choosing to avoid unnecessary confrontation.

If it were struggling for food, it might eventually grow desperate enough to attack.

But for now, it had no reason to.

The surrounding forest was teeming with large and mid-sized Rank B Monsters—none of which posed a threat to Yiazmat.

It had an abundant food supply.

The longer he spent searching, the more time he wasted.

And the more time he spent here, the longer he was away from Shen Xinghui.

That thought made him restless.

Yet, despite his urgency, he was getting nowhere.

He searched through areas where Yiazmat might take shelter, but there was no sign of its presence.

Then, suddenly, he recalled the young Fire Wolf from the previous night.

It had been alone, which was unusual.

If that Fire Wolf had been separated from its pack because of Yiazmat’s sudden appearance—

Ignatius pulled out a map of the surrounding forest and checked the known monster territories.

These regions weren’t strictly defined, but there were general areas where different species tended to reside.

The Fire Wolf’s usual territory was located deep in the forest, about 20 kilometers east of his current position.

"That’s a lead," he muttered.

It wasn’t a certainty, but it was better than searching blindly.

With that thought, he headed toward the Fire Wolf’s domain.

By the time he arrived, it was evening.

The signs of Yiazmat’s presence were unmistakable.

Deep claw marks scarred the trees, and the remains of half-eaten monsters littered the ground.

Following these traces, he tracked the creature further.

The trail led far beyond the forest—toward the base of a distant mountain.

Through the night, he pressed on, resting only briefly in treetops when necessary.

By the afternoon of the second day, he finally found his target.

Yiazmat was furious, completely out of control.

It was not in a state where he could engage it directly.

He trapped it within a barrier, weakening it with successive magical attacks until it was finally subdued.

But something felt off.

Only after moving its massive body did he notice it—

A small Yiazmat hatchling.

It couldn’t have been more than a few days old.

Without protection, it wouldn’t survive.

And surrounding the newborn...

The shattered remains of a carriage.

Scattered human corpses.

A group of underground traders, no doubt.

They had done the unthinkable—

They had stolen a Yiazmat egg.

Monster eggs were highly nutritious and sold for exorbitant prices.

However, that wasn’t the only reason they were stolen.

Some bird-type and dragon-type monsters possessed a unique trait—they imprinted on the first being they saw upon hatching, recognizing them as their parent.

Using this characteristic, some people attempted to tame monsters for personal gain.

Of course, it was a crime.

Stealing eggs from their designated territories disrupted ecosystems and often provoked the parents into violent retaliation.

In the past, entire towns had been burned to the ground using this very tactic—luring enraged monster parents into settlements as a form of warfare.

Ignatius glanced down at the fragile hatchling, its tiny cries weak and uncertain.