Dragon's Awakening: The Duke's Son Is Changing The Plot-Chapter 67 - 66 - Confronting Clara.

In the Vaise mansion’s lounge, Raven sat opposite Clara.

The atmosphere was... dangerous.

It wasn’t battlefield-type dangerous, but worse.

Emotional danger.

He could handle corrupted beasts, other Vaises, and taxes. But quiet and angry, Clara?

Death would’ve been kinder.

’Okay, okay, just breathe. You’ve trained for this,’ Raven told himself.

Then he blinked.

He hadn’t trained for this.

He had trained to break necks, not break tension.

He scratched the back of his head.

Clara was sitting across from him, arms crossed, lips slightly pouting, and eyes doing that thing women do when they look straight into your soul and judge your ancestors.

’Okay. Think, Raven. Think. How do normal guys handle this?’

He didn’t think about how the original Raven had roped in Clara, because he saw Clara differently than that guy did.

If he were to take that guy’s approach, things might worsen.

The worst thing was that, unlike the original Raven, who was somehow very experienced with women, he didn’t know shit.

With no other option left, his mind started working like a computer.

’Objective: Searching for the isekai protagonist folder of wisdom.’

’Result: File found.’

In the file in his memory, he saw a line said by a protagonist who was telling his subordinate how to get girls.

"Deny emotions. Appear cold. Be dominant."

Raven nodded solemnly.

Yes. Cold male lead.

They were the type who’d survive 500 Chapters of romantic subtext before holding hands.

With his plans set, he crossed his arms, leaned back, and tried his best brooding glare.

"...You’re being emotional," he said in the deepest voice he could manage.

Clara’s eyes narrowed to slits.

Raven blinked.

’Internal Screaming.exe has stopped responding.’

’Abort mission.’

’ABORT. MISSION.’

His brain, functioning like a computer, quickly notified him to abort the plan, and he did.

"Actually," he coughed. "That was sarcasm. You know. Haha. Classic me."

She didn’t laugh.

’She didn’t laugh. WHY didn’t she laugh?! That joke was golden! Where’s my laugh track?!’

Clara raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to say what you wanted to say, or...?"

Raven looked around like a man searching for divine intervention.

"Right," he nodded, tapping his fingers together. "I actually... uh. You see... I was thinking. A lot. Like, intense thinking. Like, philosopher-level stuff."

Silence.

Sweat rolled down his back like a waterfall of shame.

’Tip: Girls love confidence.

Status: Confidence Not Found. Please insert another coin.’

"You’re mad at me," he blurted out.

Clara blinked. Her arms uncrossed slightly.

"Because of Siris," he added, but looking at Clara’s twitching expression, he quickly corrected himself.

"I mean, not because of Siris. But because she—uh—called me something. Which I did not approve of. I mean, who goes around calling people husbands, right? Crazy, hahaha—unless... you’re into that. Then maybe not so crazy..."

He was spiraling.

’This wasn’t a talk. This was a plane crash.’

But Clara was no longer glaring.

She was holding back a laugh.

Just a little one.

That tiny twitch of her lips made victory music play in Raven’s head.

’Achievement Unlocked: Made Angry Girl Smile.’

Raven suddenly jumped to his feet.

"Wait. No. I’ve got this."

He cleared his throat, dramatically turned his back to her like a protagonist with a tragic backstory, and clenched a fist.

"I was... alone. For two years," he said.

The curtains swayed behind him. Dramatic.

"I had only one thought that kept me going..."

Clara leaned in slightly.

"...Food."

She blinked.

He turned halfway and smirked.

"But after food—after glorious and life-giving food—the second thought I had..."

He turned fully.

"...was you."

Clara froze.

Raven panicked.

’Abort joke. This got too real.’

But Clara just stared.

So Raven powered through.

"You’re like... like that last healing potion in a raid boss battle. When all hope seems lost."

Clara covered her mouth.

A laugh burst through her fingers.

"Raven—!" She tried to say, but he kept going.

"You’re the save point before the boss fights."

"Stop—!"

"You’re the checkpoint in my life’s horrible dungeon!"

She giggled uncontrollably now, actually wiping a tear from the corner of her eye.

"And I know I’m bad at this. Like, really bad. Like, ’NPC-with-buggy-dialogue’ bad. But the point is..."

Clara didn’t understand the last part, but she kept her eyes on Raven as he stepped forward.

All jokes aside.

"I missed you like hell," he said honestly. "Like a dumb dog waiting by the door every day, kinda missing."

Clara looked up, surprised by the sudden sincerity.

"And I don’t know how you feel exactly," he continued, his voice lower now, "but I care about you. A lot. Like, break-the-world-for-you kind of care."

Clara’s smile slowly faded into something softer.

"And if it helps ease your mind, Siris is insane. I don’t even know her enough to say I like her. As for marrying?"

He scoffed. "Why would I even imagine marrying her before marrying you?"

Clara’s eyes sharpened as she heard the last words. "Would you imagine marrying other girls after marrying me—?"

But before she could complete her words, Raven acted on his instincts, quickly speaking.

"So..."

He reached into his coat and pulled out something small.

A silver ring. Simple. No gem. It was a smooth band.

He had randomly bought it from the city’s market. But right now, he felt like it was the only treasure that could save his life.

After all, he recalled how girls liked gifts, especially rings.

So, with the ring presented to Clara, he added, "...should we make our relationship official?"

Silence.

Clara forgot whatever she was going to say.

The ring worked wonders, as Raven had thought.

’Fuck yeah!’ He exclaimed inwardly as he saw Clara blinking in surprise.

Then she smiled and spoke without hesitation.

"Only if I get something in return."

Raven raised an eyebrow. "Name it."

Clara leaned forward, her voice soft yet teasing.

"A kiss."

His brain short-circuited.

’KISS REQUEST INCOMING.

ERROR 404: EXPERIENCE NOT FOUND.

SYSTEM PANIC—INITIATING AWKWARD.’

"I—I—yes—absolutely—affirmative—kissing. That is the thing humans do. With lips. Ha. Totally familiar."

Clara chuckled again, standing.

"Just shut up," she said, stepping close and then—

—She kissed him.

A warm, soft press.

The world stopped glitching.

For a moment, Raven forgot all his stupid internal monologues, all his isekai theories, and all his dumb training.

He just existed in the moment.

It was only when she pulled away that he blinked.

"I think I forgot how to breathe," he said honestly.

Clara smiled and poked his forehead.

"You don’t need to be perfect, dummy. You’re already enough."

Raven blinked again, realizing why people said honesty was the best way to express their feelings. freeweɓnøvel.com

He realized that he didn’t need to be cringy or cool to get a girl.

If a girl loved you, she would be happy with whatever you had to say.

"...Still. I had three more cringy speeches prepared," he mumbled.

Clara rolled her eyes and laughed.

"Save them for the wedding."

Raven choked.

"Wha—WEDDING?!"

Before Clara could say something—

BAAM!

—The door to the lounge exploded open like it had just taken a roundhouse kick from a battle-crazed ogre.

Unfortunately, there was no ogre.

Just four grown Vaises.

Stacked.

On top of each other.

Alex was on top, his limbs flailing.

Jessy was underneath him, mumbling curses.

Rufus was under her with his head jammed into the carpet like a faulty spear.

Then, Jake. He was at the bottom, expressionless as ever, as if he were just lying there by choice.

The room froze.

Clara blinked.

Raven blinked.

The Tower of Stupidity blinked, too, and then—

"YOU’RE GETTING MARRIED?!" Alex suddenly screeched, springing to his feet like a cat that stepped on a cucumber.

Raven’s soul almost left his body, reminded about it.

However, before Alex could go on, Clara’s belt, which was also her sword, hissed, unsheathing just a millimeter.

It was a little.

Just enough to promise violence, and that was enough for Alex’s eyes to widen.

He immediately stiffened. "I-I mean, congrats! Beautiful day! Blessed union! Love that for you!"

Clara’s eyes glinted murderously.

Raven buried his face in his palm.

’This was supposed to be a private moment. A wholesome, character-development, kiss-and-ring kind of scene. Why the hell did it just turn into a Vaise family sitcom?’

He turned slowly toward the others, his eyes settling on Rufus first, but the guy immediately looked away.

He didn’t even try to explain himself, knowing it would get worse if he did.

He was in full coward mode.

Raven gritted his teeth.

’Yeah, run from my gaze, you discount Vaise.’

Then came Jessy.

Raven stared.

She had the decency to look awkward. Kind of.

"Well, I-I wasn’t spying," she mumbled. "I just happened to be on the other side of the door when it... broke."

For the first time, her calm was broken as she knew she was in the wrong.

Raven, however, raised an eyebrow.

"So you leaned on it. With three other people. For this long. During a private conversation."

Jessy whistled innocently at the ceiling.

Raven sighed and turned to Jake, his last hope.

"Jake..."

A pause.

"You too?"

Jake didn’t even blink.

He calmly averted his eyes, arms still folded like a damn statue.

"...Traitors. All of you."

He sighed again, dramatically this time. The kind of sigh that carried generations of disappointment.

But suddenly—

Ding!

A system notification popped up in Raven’s vision like a pop-up ad from heaven.

[You’ve made a huge change in the Vaise family’s fate.]

[You’ve earned 10000 Plot Points.]

He froze the moment he saw this.

’Wait—! What the fuck?!’

He couldn’t believe it.

He just got 10000 plot points!

That was more than half of his total plot points.