Dragon's Awakening: The Duke's Son Is Changing The Plot-Chapter 59 - 58 - The Verification 2.

Present.

The hall fell silent.

Not just silent but dead silent.

A fart would sound like a thunder-type silence.

It was the soul-leaving-your-body type of silence that happens when someone says something so shocking.

However, it wasn’t uncalled for because everyone heard something so absurd that even time seemed to have decided to take a break.

Siris, standing with guards flanking her, had just smiled and called Raven—

"Husband."

Her voice was low and soft, but everyone—the guards, the elders, Argon, Mariane, Joseph, and even the birds outside the estate—heard it loud and clear.

Even the damn floor tiles seemed to recoil in confusion.

And in the darkest corner of the hall, a certain ancient specter of chaos, Crisaius Von Vaise, collapsed to his knees.

"...You win this one, boy," he muttered, tears welling in his eyes. "You win this round..."

For the first time, Crisaius was so shocked by something that he didn’t hide it and admitted his loss, though no one heard it.

Raven blinked.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Then he slowly turned his head toward his group.

Clara’s face was blank.

Too blank.

She wasn’t just glaring—she was processing murder options.

Rufus was blinking like his eyeballs had forgotten how to work.

Jessy looked at Raven like he had just personally rewritten the laws of physics with his face.

Jake... was still Jake. But his left eyebrow had raised exactly two millimeters. That was practically shouting for him.

Alex, on the other hand, was already halfway into a celebratory dance.

"My man! My boy got himself a wife! An actual, sword-wielding, possibly-psychotic wife! The best kind!"

Clara elbowed him in the ribs. Hard. frёeωebɳovel.com

Alex wheezed. "Why is pain my constant companion—?"

Raven, however, wasn’t listening.

He was staring at Siris like she had grown a second head.

She was still smiling. Her blue eyes sparkled like winter dew.

She seemed innocent, her gaze soft, but to Raven, she was like a devil incarnate.

’This... this isn’t right,’ Raven thought, heart hammering in confusion. ’This girl’s idea of affection was to stab people in their hearts. So, why the fuck is she making that kind of face?!’

Raven felt like the world was being turned around.

’Why the fuck am I suddenly her husband?! When did I agree to any of this??’

It wasn’t that Siris wasn’t beautiful.

If he compared her with Clara, the second most beautiful among the girls he had seen, it would be hard to say who was better.

The problem, however, was that, in his memory, Siris was a psycho-killer with a screw or two loose.

But he already had Clara, who wasn’t right in her head, and he didn’t want another one like that.

Raven wanted his second girl to be normal.

’Is this some plot twist?! Is this happening because I messed up the plot?!’ He felt like crying, recalling how everything had gotten messed up after Crisaius took him as his disciple.

’Yeah! It’s all that old man’s fault! Fuck!’

Feeling Clara’s glare on his back, Raven quickly stuttered. "W-What do you mean ’Husband’?! When did I get married?"

But Siris said no more.

She just stood there, looking genuinely happy. It was as if she’d found a long-lost treasure.

The guards beside her were frozen like statues, too afraid to breathe or blink, especially when they felt the gazes of the patriarchs and the matriarch squinting at them.

At the thrones, Argon’s expression twitched.

"...husband."

Siris’s words kept ringing in his head.

He couldn’t believe the absurdity of the situation, like everyone else.

He slowly turned his head toward the corner, where Crisaius was still crouched like a defeated gladiator.

It was clear that even that old man was just as shocked as everyone by this development.

Crisaius, on the other hand, didn’t even glance at Argon and kept staring at Siris, recalling how he had requested Argon to prevent anything from happening.

Now, he was wondering if he even needed to do that.

Finally, he sighed, recalling how Raven used to look at him with disgust whenever he talked about his love life.

"Now you know the magic of love," he muttered with a nostalgic smile.

Crisaius remained oblivious to the real reason behind the disgusted look Raven used to make.

Back on the thrones, Mariane and Joseph exchanged the briefest of glances. That was all they needed.

Wasn’t this... better?

If she were Raven’s wife, they had a justified reason to attack the Principal’s office to rescue her.

This was the perfect way to solve everything.

"I suppose," Joseph thought, "I never needed to act..."

"I just hope Rufus doesn’t do something like this one day," Mariane added silently, relieved.

Back below the thrones, Raven’s group tried to recover.

Clara’s fingers were twitching. It was as if her pinch mode was activated.

Raven sensed it.

"I didn’t do anything!"

"You did something," she growled.

"She’s just crazy!"

"Oh? So you save crazy girls now?"

"She was in a cage!"

"That’s what people say before they end up married in a murder cult!"

"She said, Husband! I didn’t say anything!!"

"...Maybe you did," Jake murmured, speaking for the first time.

"I bet he kissed her," Alex whispered to himself.

Jessy, hearing his words, nodded solemnly. "Or held hands."

Raven nearly cried. "Why are you all doing this to me?!"

Meanwhile, the elders were whispering among themselves again.

"This... changes things."

"Well, if she’s chosen a partner, we can’t separate them."

"Yes, if she were his lover, this was all justified."

"No, he had claimed he attacked because she was a Vaise, so we need to go with that statement."

"Yes, we don’t have a way to know if they are really lovers."

"I agree. It could be their last resort to avoid punishment. After all, according to what I heard, these guys and that girl had never met before."

"...wait. How do you have such information?"

One of the elders seemed way too knowledgeable about everything going on. Some asked how he knew, but he replied that he just knew.

However, before the discussion could continue, something changed—Argon made a move.

He didn’t raise a hand. He didn’t clear his throat. He didn’t even speak.

The only thing that moved was his finger.

One finger.

It tapped the armrest of his throne, and that was enough.

The air dropped.

A crushing silence covered the hall like a giant’s hand pressing down. The walls seemed to tremble.

It was like gravity had decided to double in weight out of sheer reverence—or fear.

The guards stood straighter. The elders fell still, throats tightening with swallowed words.

Crisaius, still kneeling, blinked and rose slightly from the ground, his grin finally replaced by a curious look, wondering what Argon would do now.

The man in question turned his crimson eyes slowly toward the center of the hall—toward Raven and his group.

"...Is she your woman?"

His quiet but absolute voice rang through the hall like a sacred bell toll.

Raven stiffened.

Wondering why he was even considering saying yes.

It was the smartest move—the easy move.

If he said yes, everything could end here. There’d be no need for verification. No accusations or consequences.

Even Clara’s twitching fingers paused.

Because even she knew the weight of this question.

But before anyone could hope or guess his answer, Raven moved.

He stepped forward slightly and lowered his head, his tone firm and respectful.

"...No, Patriarch. She is not."

The silence that followed was nothing like before.

This was not weighty silence.

This was stunned silence.

It was a Borderline concerned-for-your-intelligence type of silence.