The moment I opened my inventory, something round came flying out.
The impact slammed into my face with such tremendous force that I thought my nose might cave in.
Fuck.
I staggered one step, then two, from the blow. It must have flown at me with incredible force.
The recoil nearly drove not only the front of my face, but the back of my head as well, into the ground hard enough to crack them open.
Then the round thing rolled across the floor.
Before checking what it was, I rubbed my face first.
Fortunately, my nose was not broken, nor had I gotten a bloody nose.
There was not even a bruise. My body really was absurdly sturdy.
"Ian?"
"Are you all right, junior?"
Seeing me get smacked in the face by some object that had popped out of thin air, Angelica and the Holy Maiden slowly approached.
When the Holy Maiden cautiously reached out and stroked my cheek, warm holy power seeped in, and the throbbing pain immediately subsided.
Meanwhile, Angelica’s gaze was fixed on the floor.
"Where on earth did that come from?"
Looking at the object that had fallen to the floor, she spoke in a voice full of bewilderment.
Angelica did not know what an inventory was.
But what the hell came out?
Could things even come flying out of an inventory on their own?
There had never been an event at Dawnstar Academia where something burst out of your inventory...
Fuck, it was not some piece of shit one of those peeping bastards up above had tossed down, was it?
If it was them, it was possible.
It might have been the shit they threw at me as a reward for this Oath of Chivalry.
I turned my gaze to the floor as well, intending to identify the object.
And the round thing rolling around on the ground was...
"An egg?"
It was an egg.
[????’s Egg]
The egg I had received through the Oath of Chivalry before coming to the academy.
There had been no explanation whatsoever, not even instructions on how to hatch it, so I had shoved it into a corner of my inventory and forgotten about it.
But this thing... was moving?
It lay on the floor, vibrating with a low hum as it kept rolling around.
"This egg..."
As if she had known its identity all along, the Holy Maiden approached it.
"...Do you know what it is?"
"Yes."
The Holy Maiden gave a slight nod and answered my question calmly.
"I remembered that person saying he would give this egg to you as a gift, junior."
At that unexpected answer from the Holy Maiden, I narrowed my eyes.
"That person?"
"I cannot reveal his name due to certain circumstances, but he is a knight bearing the epithet ‘Adventure.’"
A faint smile touched the Holy Maiden’s lips as she crouched down. Carefully placing her hand over the egg rolling about, she continued in a quiet voice.
"If the egg is moving, it seems you have finally fulfilled its condition."
A condition?
"A condition?"
"Yes. He said he wrote it down when he sent the egg."
...?
That thing had an instruction manual?
No, fuck.
There had been nothing but the egg’s name written there, with no explanation at all, so what kind of condition was she talking about?
Ah, come to think of it, it had not even had a name.
"Could it be... surely it was not written down?"
The Holy Maiden spoke with an awkward expression.
When I silently nodded,
"I knew it would be like that..."
the Holy Maiden let out a small sigh.
"...His mind is currently somewhere on the moon, you see."
The moon?
What moon?
Having said that, the Holy Maiden poured holy power into the egg.
Something warm and golden spread outward from the egg.
Angelica, who had been standing quietly beside us, leaned in slightly to watch the scene as well.
"In any case, this child’s hatching condition is to infuse it simultaneously with two opposing powers that ordinarily could never coexist."
As she spoke, the Holy Maiden gently lifted the egg from the floor and handed it to me.
"The spirit Arghalia commanded was a being made of fire and wind. It appears that the opposing energies from the battle just now were completely absorbed by the egg, fulfilling its hatching condition."
The moment the egg settled into my hand—
Tap. Tap.
The egg trembled faintly, and then a brittle cracking sound began to ring out.
"Ian, are you all right?"
The others who had ridden over on Kafka’s back arrived just then and asked after my well-being.
But I did not have the time to answer.
My eyes were fixed solely on this insolent egg that had tried to smash my face in.
"That is..."
Just as Dolnesia was about to say something upon seeing the egg—
Crack—!
At the same time as cracks spread across the shell, something began wriggling inside, trying to break through the narrow fissures.
What emerged from the egg was a beak.
A beak?
The egg rocked back and forth as the shell began to fall away.
Breaking through the shell around that beak and revealing itself was...
Screee!
A griffin?
It was the very griffin famous as a creature of legend.
A bizarre beast with an eagle’s head and wings and a lion’s body.
A griffin was not bad.
Having a griffin for a pet would be perfectly fine.
They were Legendary-grade pets, and among the pets that appeared in Dawnstar Academia, griffins occupied a fairly high tier.
Their attack power was relatively high compared to other pets, and they were practically all-purpose supports—not only granting buffs but even inflicting debuffs on opponents.
I was disappointed that it was not a dragon, but just as I was about to think I had hit the jackpot—
Something was a little different.
My gaze, which had been traveling down the creature that emerged from the shell, stopped dead in one spot.
There was definitely something strange about it.
The creature that had emerged from the egg looked like a griffin at first glance, but it was not a griffin.
Its head and enormous wings were indeed those of an eagle, and its forelegs were those of a sharp-taloned bird of prey.
But its sturdy hind legs were not those of a lion. They were the sleek legs of a horse.
A Temujin griffin?
Just as I was having that stupid thought while staring at its plump backside—
Ding!
[You have successfully hatched ????’s Egg!]
[You have hatched a Legendary-grade pet!]
[You have achieved the challenge: ‘Starting with a Legend.’]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
The same Legendary grade as a griffin.
Fortunately, it did not seem to be Temujin.
"Ian, that is..."
Isabella gazed at the creature that had hatched from the shell with eyes brimming with curiosity, while Haede’s eyes sparkled as she could not tear her gaze away.
But hold on.
Someone was missing.
Kafka, Isabella, Dolnesia, Haede, Dante...
Kyle was nowhere to be seen.
"Where is the Second Prince?"
Dante answered my question.
"My brother was helping the fallen guests, so he could not come over here."
By fallen guests, he seemed to mean the Iris Fan Club Trio.
The three of them had been sprawled face-down on the ground.
Well, the Holy Maiden had blasted them with holy power, so their lives were not in danger.
Still, they must have been seriously hurt, because even in the middle of that battlefield, where thunderous roars had erupted in every direction, they had not gotten up at all.
Well, if the prince himself said he would handle it, he would take care of it.
I decided to put it completely out of my mind.
As long as they were not dead, that was enough.
"Is it a griffin? But its hind legs are those of a horse, so it does not seem quite like a griffin. Its forelegs are eagle legs, though."
Screee...?
Dolnesia tilted her head as she looked at the Temujin griffin chirping in my arms.
Tell me about it.
I had no idea what this thing was either.
At the very least, there was no such malformed creature on any pet list I knew.
Not once had a magical beast with such an appearance ever appeared in Dawnstar Academia, either.
[Insight Eye has activated.]
【Hippogriff】
◈ Level: 1
◈ Grade: Legendary
◈ Traits: [Rabbit Fur, Horse Hooves], [Prince of the Sky]
◈ Attack Power: 40
◈ Please name it.
A hippogriff?
I felt as though I had heard that somewhere before.
It was a familiar-sounding name, but one thing was certain: I had never heard of or seen a pet with that name.
It was not a name I had never heard at all in Dawnstar Academia, but I remembered that there was no pet called a hippogriff, at least.
Still, the stats Insight Eye displayed were not bad.
Its attack power was five lower than a griffin’s, but it possessed [Prince of the Sky], a griffin trait.
It even had [Rabbit Fur, Horse Hooves], a trait griffins did not possess.
It would not be an exaggeration to call it a superior version of a griffin.
"That child is a hippogriff."
The Holy Maiden, who had been quietly watching the newly hatched creature, clearly told us what it was in a soft voice.
"A hippogriff? Somewhere..."
At the Holy Maiden’s words, Dante rested his chin on his hand and began pondering something deeply.
"That is the same name as the horse my uncle rides."
Angelica looked at the hippogriff with sparkling eyes full of interest.
Only her eyes sparkled; her face remained expressionless as ever.
"Your uncle?"
At my question, Angelica nodded and answered as though it were nothing.
"Yeah. The horse my uncle rides is named Hippogriff."
Ah.
So that was why the name sounded so familiar.
The beloved steed of the Frank Knights’ lowest-ranking member was definitely named Hippogriff, probably.
Well, that was not important right now.
I lifted the little thing up.
It chirped happily and flapped its tiny wings.
As expected.
The strength it had used to slam into the center of my face while still inside its egg had not gone anywhere.
Its wingbeats were truly vigorous.
I stared down at the chirping creature for a moment, lost in thought.
It was because of the words lodged at the very bottom of its status window.
The status window was blinking, asking me to give it a name.
A name... a name, huh.
Was this the second one after Kafka?
...What should I seriously call it?
It keeps going screee. Could I not just call it Screee?
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