Dragon's Awakening: The Duke's Son Is Changing The Plot-Chapter 152 - 151 - Snacks.

Everyone stood in a ragged circle around Travis’s very deceased body. Some looked horrified. Some looked intrigued. One or two looked far too pleased for what was legally appropriate.

"...So," Raven clapped his hands once, his expression all business. "He’s dead."

"We can see that," Jessy said flatly, crossing her arms. Her gaze shifted to the decapitated head, then back to Raven. "Bit dramatic, don’t you think?"

"It was a misunderstanding," Raven said.

"You misunderstood his neck off?" Jessy raised an eyebrow.

"Actually? Yeah, that’s exactly what happened," Omni’s voice echoed, making Jessy shake her head. "My guy thought it was one of Travis’s goons sneakin’ up on him. Didn’t mean to kill him—it was the guy’s fault for creeping from behind like a discount assassin."

Before Jessy could say anything, Selena, calm as a moonlit lake, nodded thoughtfully. "To be fair, he did approach suspiciously. Raven was just being cautious. That’s one of the things I love about him—he’s decisive in dangerous situations."

Raven blinked. "Wait, you mean that—?"

"Of course," she smiled, stepping a bit closer—just enough for Clara to gently slide in from the other side.

"Let’s not get carried away," Clara said warmly, her hand subtly looping through Raven’s arm. "Raven did what he had to. But I do wish you would warn us before beheading someone again."

"’Again’??" Lia squeaked. "How is that a recurring thing now?!"

Rufus, stroking his chin thoughtfully, added, "Technically, beheading is a very efficient way to establish dominance. Like that one time, I fought—"

"Not now, Rufus," Raven muttered.

Graye, the uninvited new member of their group, leaned in, eyes shining. "So what’s the plan now? Can we blow stuff up? Are we gonna burn the corpse? Do we get to scream into the wind?!"

"We’re not screaming into the wind," Raven said.

"But why not?!" Graye pouted. "I practiced my wind scream!"

Meanwhile, Siris was crouched beside Travis’s body, poking it like a child meeting a dead jellyfish on the beach. "Should I keep the head?" She asked, voice deadpan.

"Absolutely not," Raven, Clara, and Selena said in unison.

"I’ll take that as a maybe," she whispered and began thinking of wrapping it in a scarf she definitely didn’t have earlier.

Lia pinched the bridge of her nose. "This group is completely insane..."

Jake finally spoke, his voice as flat as a mountain under pressure. "So. What’s the move?"

Raven’s expression turned serious. "We wait."

"Wait?" Jessy asked.

Others also leaned in.

"Travis brought me here. His base—whatever secrets he was hiding—must be nearby. Alex should be there." He glanced at others before adding, "And I’m sure he would be able to escape. So, we wait for him."

Graye raised her hand. "Can I speak?"

Raven deadpanned.

"You’re already speaking—" But then, he paused, and with the patience of a monk, he nodded his head. "Yes, you can speak."

Nodding like an obedient student who was permitted to write on the board, Graye asked. "What if he isn’t here?"

There was silence after that question.

It was a question that everyone had in mind, including Raven, but they didn’t want to imagine a possibility where Alex wouldn’t be able to escape or he wasn’t even here.

So, none of them had asked that question.

But now that it was asked, all eyes turned toward Raven.

Graye, the one who asked the question, was now confused.

"Um..." She glanced at everyone before turning toward Raven. "Did I ask a question I shouldn’t have?"

"No," Raven shook his head, turning toward others. "If he’s not here, then we will call the big guns. We will call for reinforcements from the family. We will tell them that a Vaise has been abducted. Just to make them act faster, we will say that I’ve been kidnapped and not Alex."

There was another silence before everyone relaxed.

They realized that Raven wasn’t here without a plan.

Selena and Clara leaned in closer to Raven without a word, then glanced at each other, noticing how both of them moved together, and then they giggled.

But then—

"Wait—Won’t that mean the old man would come?" Rufus suddenly asked a question, and everyone’s expression paused.

The crackhead of an old man, Crisaius, had, for some reason, gone back to the family, but if they called for reinforcements, they were sure that he would come.

It wasn’t because of some emotional reason; he would merely come here because he didn’t like staying in the Vaise mansion.

He said that it was annoying to deal with politics.

"Well," Raven shrugged in acceptance. "We gotta sacrifice something to get something."

Pinch!

Clara pinched his arm, shooting him a soft glare. "Easy for you to say."

"Yeah." Even Selena huffed. "You get to go scot-free while we suffer."

However, before anyone could add something else, a change happened.

RUMBLE.

The ground groaned. Trees shivered. The earth cracked beneath them like a biscuit meeting tea.

Everyone tensed.

"Demon?" Lia asked, eyes darting.

"Beast?" Jessy murmured.

"Falling star?" Graye whispered with excitement.

Raven, however, had a feeling that it was more than that.

"No," Raven muttered. "That feels... familiar."

Before long—

KRRRKKKSHHHHHH!!!

The earth exploded—literally exploded—as a molten figure launched from underground like a demented geyser.

Lava-like claws pierced the air, steaming with freshly disturbed dirt.

A vaguely human figure stood there, back turned to them.

Molten goo dripped from his shoulders like magma tears. The hole he’d left behind was still smoldering.

A pause.

Then, in a raspy, heroic voice, it echoed, "If there’s a will... there’s a way..."

From his chest, a distinctly annoyed and deep voice interjected, "It’s ’where there’s a will, there’s a way,’ moron."

The molten figure blinked. "...Really?"

"Really," Blargh said with the kind of deadpan patience usually reserved for parents of toddlers and owners of very dumb dogs.

Atop the melting black goop that made up his helmet, Nibbles—a soot-covered squirrel with war-weariness in his eyes far beyond his years—sighed deeply.

It seemed like he was tired of seeing only the two dumbest people he had met for some time.

But then, the squirrel Nibbles’s nose twitched as it smelled someone familiar.

Nibbles, soot-streaked and absolutely done with everything, locked eyes with salvation.

Raven.

He didn’t hesitate.

The squirrel launched off Alex’s goopy Blargh-head with the force of a divine meteor, landing squarely on Raven’s shoulder like a returning war hero.

His eyes sparkled with unshed tears. His tiny squirrel paws trembled as they patted Raven’s cheek reverently.

"...Chitter... chirp... squeak squeak..." He whispered emotionally.

Raven stared.

"...Is he crying?" Jessy asked, squinting.

"I think he’s praying," Rufus offered, his voice calm. Even Jake nodded.

"Or worshipping," Clara mused.

"I know that feeling," Siris added dreamily, eyes unfocused as she inched closer to Raven’s other side.

Nibbles was, indeed, having a moment.

A divine reunion.

A return to sanity after crawling through the subterranean idiocy of one Blargh-Alex combo.

Behind them, the molten lava figure finally turned around.

Alex—still submerged in Blargh’s gooey armor—noticed his squirrel had abandoned ship.

"Huh?" He muttered. "Nibbles?"

Blargh’s annoyed voice rumbled from his chest. "Your pet has better survival instincts than you."

The symbiote had noticed Raven and the group’s presence.

Then, with a long, blorpy shloooop, Blargh began retreating into Alex’s torso like a melting demon going home for the day.

"Looks like the coast is clear for now. No more tentacle demons, exploding ground mines, or screaming fungus. Thank the old gods."

"Wait—there were screaming fungi down there?" Lia asked in disbelief.

Yes, there were.

They were actually guarding one of the gates.

But Alex wasn’t going to answer Lia, as he was already dashing toward them like a lava-drenched hero.

He struck a dramatic pose mid-sprint, flinging dirt off his shoulders. "Ladies, gents, squirrel—I’ve returned! And yes, I did survive screaming fungus, many demons, and one very clingy blob monster! Above all, I dug the wall when I couldn’t find a gate. That was my exit!"

"Sounds like a Tuesday for us," Jessy said.

"I lived, Jessy!" Alex declared, nearly sobbing. "I finally had my protagonist moment! I crawled up from the pits like a phoenix from ash!"

"More like a possum from a drainage pipe," Blargh muttered inside his chest.

Alex ignored him, arms wide as he approached the group—only to suddenly slip.

Squelch.

His foot landed directly on Travis’s corpse with a dramatic squish.

"AH! What the heck—Is this—?!"

He looked down. Then up. Then back down.

"...IS THAT A DEAD BODY?!"

He yelled as if he hadn’t been playing with demons like they were toys sometime before.

"Yes," Raven said calmly.

"Oh my god—Oh my—Wait—"

His eyes landed on the detached head lying serenely a few feet away like a poorly placed melon.

"IS THAT—A HEAD?!"

Selena gently nodded her head, her brow raised. "You’re very observant, Alex."

But before anyone could explain further, something far worse happened.

Blargh’s gooey mouth suddenly popped out from the palm of Alex’s hand like a freakish jack-in-the-box.

"Oooh," the demon-blob whispered hungrily. "Snaaaaack."

"Wait—no no no—!"

CHOMP.

With a slurp and a contented burp from Blargh, Travis’s head was gone.

Everyone stood in stunned silence.

Jake blinked once.

Rufus leaned to Jessy and whispered, "I don’t think we can report this to the authorities."

Clara covered her eyes. "I didn’t see anything."

Selena nodded.

Siris sighed, "I was going to use that head as a memento..."

Lia looked mildly traumatized. "WHY did his hand eat a HEAD?!"

Alex looked down at his palm in horror. "Blargh! We discussed it! You can’t just eat heads! That’s a biohazard!"

"Tasted like betrayal," Blargh said smugly.

Graye, on the other hand, approached Siris and patted her shoulder reassuringly. "You can take the body as a memento."

"No!" The entire group emailed before Siris could even reply. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

It was then—

RUMBLE!

The ground rumbled again, and everyone turned to Alex.

"Is there something you forgot to tell us, Alex?" Raven asked, smiling gently at Alex, who tilted his head in confusion before his eyes lit up with realization.

"Oh, yeah!" He exclaimed. "There’s a horde of more than a hundred demons following me!"

New novel chapters are published on fr(e)ew𝒆bnov(e)l.com