It is now 11:50 PM on Tuesday, September 16th.
If the opening line of a web novel chapter started like this, you'd probably think, 'So what?'
Still, I believe enough hints have already been given as to what this date and time signify.
The subheading is one of them.
"It'll be born in ten minutes. They say a familiar hatches from its egg the moment its master celebrates their eighteenth birthday."
You have no idea how long I've been looking forward to this exact day and time.
The proof lies in the countless cat toys arranged around the familiar egg on my bed like some kind of summoning circle, as well as the cat tower proudly standing in the corner of the room.
For reference, I didn't prepare a litter box.
Thanks to the convenient setting that familiars don't defecate.
"......"
The ten minutes I spent waiting while doing absolutely nothing passed agonizingly slowly.
So I decided to reflect on everything that had happened over the past week and two days.
You might wonder why I'm suddenly having a flashback at a time like this, but it's precisely because of this timing that I am.
'If this were a web novel, everything that happened after I manifested the Sky Blue Ether and had a snack party with the senior research students would've been skipped entirely.'
In short, you could call this a brief flashback for a status update.
And as you can probably tell from how confidently I say it would've been skipped, nothing particularly noteworthy happened during that time.
I still haven't figured out what attribute the Sky Blue Ether possesses, and neither professors nor students have picked fights with me during lectures.
I haven't exchanged a «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» single word with the Original Protagonist.
'I haven't spoken with my possessed body's fiancée either. Or perhaps I should say I deliberately chose not to.'
After thinking it over carefully, I concluded that two weeks was simply too short a period of time to suddenly claim, 'As you've probably noticed, I'm no longer obsessed with you.'
Then it occurred to me that in just a few more days, my familiar would be born.
Anyone hearing this would probably wonder what the birth of a familiar has to do with resolving things with my fiancée.
But connections are whatever people make of them.
Karvaldr was obsessed with his fiancée because he expected unconditional love or familial affection from her.
Now that there will be another being capable of filling that role instead, I plan to explain that there is no longer any reason for him to cling obsessively to a partner who won't give him her heart.
Of course, the 'being capable of filling that role' refers to the familiar.
The love between a familiar and its master is different from the love shared between a man and woman in an engagement.
But romantic affection wasn't what Karvaldr truly wanted in the first place.
As the target of his obsession, his fiancée probably sensed that to some degree.
'Familiars are beings that, by nature, think only of their master and offer blind loyalty and affection.'
In the original novel, Karvaldr looked down on his familiar for being small and insignificant, and because of that disappointment, he overlooked that fact.
But I'm different.
No matter what the familiar looks like or what kind of powers it possesses, I'm confident I can accept and love it for what it is.
After all, how could I hate something that genuinely likes me?
From a 'plausibility' standpoint, it makes sense that the original Karvaldr eventually came to resent his familiar as people around him began ignoring him even more after it was born.
But understanding that feeling and sympathizing with it are two separate matters.
'Anyway, to a familiar, its master is practically its entire world. If I emphasize that point enough, my claim that I no longer have any reason to obsess over my fiancée will sound far more convincing.'
I felt somewhat sorry for the familiar while thinking about how to use it before it had even been born.
Perhaps because of that, my desire to cherish and love it grew even stronger.
"Come to think of it, I wanted to raise an animal in my previous life but could never bring myself to do it... Taking full responsibility for myself alone was already difficult enough, so the thought of becoming responsible for another life felt overwhelming. Thinking about it now, I'm glad I didn't recklessly decide to adopt one."
Because I died.
Swallowing those words back down, I gently stroked the familiar egg.
It didn't feel particularly warm.
Still, perhaps because its birth was drawing near, I thought I felt a faint stirring beneath my palm.
"To be honest, it still feels overwhelming and burdensome even now. But that doesn't mean I'll ever turn away from you, because I've already decided to think of you as family."
After saying those words aloud, I felt slightly embarrassed, but at the same time, I was glad I'd said them.
There's no way to know whether the familiar can hear my voice yet.
But it gave me a chance to steel my resolve and renew my sense of responsibility.
When I checked the clock, less than a minute remained until midnight.
It really was about to happen now.
I already knew what kind of creature would emerge from this egg.
And yet my anticipation only continued to grow.
My heart pounded with nervous excitement.
I removed my hand from the egg and picked up one of the toys—a stick with feathers and a bell attached to the end.
There wasn't any particular reason for doing so.
I simply felt like I needed to hold something to calm my excitement.
Then the bell attached to the stick rang softly, its clear sound echoing through the room.
"It, it moved."
It wasn't my imagination.
The egg I had carefully placed on the bed was wobbling and shaking.
Still clutching the toy tightly, I clasped my hands together and swallowed hard.
Cracks began spreading across the egg.
Normally, living creatures peck a hole through the shell and squeeze themselves out through it.
But the familiar egg developed a jagged horizontal crack around its middle.
It looked more like something out of a cartoon than reality.
Even though this world came from a novel, not a cartoon.
I had thought I was already fairly accustomed to this absurd world, but that confidence was clearly arrogance on my part.
Humbled, I watched the cracked top half of the egg wobble unsteadily.
'Should I remove it for it? Or should I wait until it pushes the lid off and comes out on its own?'
Just as that dilemma crossed my mind...
...a sky blue light burst out, and the lid flew off.
I could accept a scene this far removed from normality.
Once the horizontal crack appeared around the familiar egg, I had already suspected something like this might happen.
'But why is it sky blue?'
If it had been white, I would've assumed it was simply ordinary light.
If it had been purple, I would've naturally assumed the familiar's Ether color was purple.
For a brief moment, the thought 'Could it be?' crossed my mind, but I couldn't continue that train of thought.
Because the lump of sky blue light that emerged from the egg began floating gently in the air while gradually lengthening.
It didn't grow larger—it literally became longer and more elongated.
Is this world testing the limits of what I can accept?
I had believed I could love the familiar no matter what form it took.
But as the phrase itself implied, that had merely been a 'belief.'
I had never actually said it aloud, so there was no way the familiar had heard me and decided to test me.
I was so flustered that the toy slipped from my hand and landed on the bed with a soft tinkle.
Even while that happened, the misty light continued steadily lengthening until it finally reached roughly the height of a person.
Only then did the sky blue particles scatter like dust, fully revealing the familiar's pure white form.
Its scale-covered body shimmered faintly, and the mane running from its head all the way down its spine to its tail rippled gently as though blown by wind despite the still air.
Deerlike horns sprouted from its head, and the four-legged creature was...
"...This is a dragon, isn't it?"
"Meow~!"
Perhaps because it was still a baby, its facial features looked round and soft, but the combination of those traits unmistakably formed the appearance of a dragon.
And an Eastern dragon at that.
However, the moment it opened its mouth, what emerged was a perfectly ordinary cat's meow.
Because of that, I nearly muttered, 'Maybe it isn't,' and denied what I was seeing with my own eyes.
"Why was a long Eastern dragon born instead of a small wildcat...? Does it have something to do with my original name, 'Mir,' which means 'dragon' in pure Korean?"
"Mreow?"
The newborn baby dragon tilted its head and made a catlike sound.
It was a sight guaranteed to cause cognitive dissonance.
Even so, I adapted to it quickly.
No, I had no choice but to.
'If I stay confused for too long, the familiar will become anxious.'
I took a deep breath.
Then I reached out toward the Eastern dragon-shaped familiar and spoke.
"Whatever. It's cute, so it's fine."
"Nyan nyan!"
With an obviously pleased expression, the familiar rubbed its head against my palm.
The cool sensation of its scales and the soft fluttering touch of its mane both felt pleasant.
I did think its cries sounded more like spoken onomatopoeia than the cries of an actual cat.
But since it was cute, I decided to let it slide for now.
I even ended up cupping the familiar's head in both hands and playing with it before gently running my palm down the mane extending all the way to its tail.
Then, after releasing the familiar, I fell into thought.
Because I realized there was something more important to do than playing with it.
"What should I name it?"
It's not as though I hadn't prepared names beforehand.
Quite the opposite—I had come up with plenty of candidates, intending to choose one after seeing my first impression of the familiar once it was born.
But none of the names I'd prepared suited the creature before me.
Which was only natural.
I had created that list while imagining a small wildcat.
But a dragon isn't even part of the feline family.
Even if it meows like a cat, I can't exactly give it a name that only suits cats.
Perhaps because it became bored while I sat there thinking for so long, the Eastern dragon-shaped familiar began swimming through the air.
Then it noticed its own gently swaying tail and started trying to chase it.
But because a dragon's body was so long, the chase ended almost immediately.
The familiar caught its own tail in its mouth and began spinning in circles.
Watching that, the first thing that came to mind was Ouroboros, the famous serpent that eats its own tail.
But that's from Greek mythology, so the name doesn't really fit this world.
'Though Ether is also a word that originated from that world, so it's not like I absolutely can't use it, but...'
Wasn't there a similar creature in Norse mythology too?
A famous being known for biting its own tail.
'Jörmungandr,' also known as the 'Serpent of Midgard,' was that creature.
And since that serpent even had legends about disguising itself as a cat, the name fit surprisingly well in multiple ways.
"I'll name you Jörmungandr, and maybe call you Yor for short."
"Mreow~, kyak, keck, gwehk-!"
"W-what?! What's wrong?!"
The moment I gave it a name, Yor's body convulsed as it coughed something up.
As though the 'nyan nyan' noises weren't strange enough already, for a moment I thought it was coughing up a hairball.
But it wasn't.
When I reflexively caught the object before it could fall onto the bed, I found a shiny transparent orb in my hand.
It was damp with saliva, and for some reason, it made a bell-like tinkling sound.
"...Don't tell me this is a Yeouiju." [N1]
"Meow, nyaong, meow~♬"
I had absolutely no idea what she was saying.
All I could sense was the relief she felt after coughing up something that had been lodged in her throat and making her uncomfortable.
