Dragon's Awakening: The Duke's Son Is Changing The Plot-Chapter 63 - 62 - “What will you do?”

The courtyard held its breath, the knight’s words echoing, unwelcome and heavy.

"Your elder brother had asked you never to be late for your classes."

A hush fell, one that even the warm breeze refused to break.

Selena’s lips parted, her expression faltering.

Though a princess, she hesitated—unwilling to make a scene. But Raven’s brow twitched.

’A guard? Daring to pressure the princess like this? In public?’

He knew this was how it was supposed to be, but he couldn’t let it be.

’I can’t let the first normal girl I met face such a situation.’

Above all, he had to save her as the protagonist.

So, before Clara could act, he moved.

He calmly stepped forward, not rushing. But the air shifted around him.

"That’s enough."

His voice wasn’t loud, but it cut through the air like a blade.

Selena blinked as if someone had yanked her out of a haze.

The knight, who had frozen at Raven’s words, turned to him with caution. He could feel the weight of that gaze—the gaze of a Vaise.

As a new knight, he wasn’t authoritative enough to speak against a Vaise, especially one from the main family, one of the Patriarch’s sons at that, but he still did.

"This is a Royal internal matter. A Vaise shouldn’t interfere," the knight said, his voice steady but lacking conviction.

Raven smiled, the curve of his lips lazy yet sharp. "Is that so? But I want to interfere. What will you do?"

The knight’s eyes narrowed. Around them, students, faculty, and nobles alike had stopped to watch.

There were too many eyes.

He gritted his teeth, shifting uncomfortably.

"Please don’t force me to act—"

Before the knight could complete his words, Raven spoke.

"You know I’m a Vaise, right?"

The knight frowned at that but nodded despite himself.

"Then you should know the protocol, right?" Raven asked with a smirk.

One of the perks of being a Vaise was that no one other than the direct descendants of the king or the king himself could stop them.

If they want to stop, they need a valid reason.

A mere knight, however, couldn’t even act with reason.

A knight would need their master’s order to touch a Vaise, and from the way the knight was hesitating, he didn’t seem to have any such order.

"Well, looks like you know your situation now," Raven stretched, tilting his head. "Unless you’re planning on ignoring protocol... You should leave the Princess be."

The knight’s gaze trembled.

He looked around and saw everyone looking at him, whispering among themselves.

They were watching and wondering what he would do.

If he backed down now, he would be seen as a coward.

His new Royal Knight status was hanging by a thread.

"I won’t be mocked—!" He roared and lunged, his sword raised.

As he moved, his aura of a layer-six knight flared.

But Raven was already gone.

A sidestep. Effortless and smooth.

Then—

CRACK!

A black-scaled fist surged up, almost in slow motion, his right toward the knight’s face.

The knight gasped and released a burst of aura, sending a shockwave outward.

Dust kicked up as the energy flung Raven backward a few steps, his boots scraping against the stone.

His arms crossed, absorbing the force.

"Not bad," Raven muttered, lowering his arms. His sleeves were shredded at the forearm, revealing the pitch-black scales beneath.

The knight stared. "You—what are you?"

What were those scales?!

He couldn’t tell, but they were strong enough to absorb the shockwave.

Raven didn’t answer; instead, he slowly unsheathed his sword.

FWOOOSH!

A golden glow enveloped the blade, solidifying around it.

The sword aura wasn’t just there—it was almost balanced, flowing evenly across the blade.

A high-level aura—almost plate-five quality, even though Raven had only just become plate-four.

Even Jake and Jessy gasped.

"He just stepped into plate four..." Jake muttered.

"How the hell is his aura that stable already?" Jessy stared.

"He’s a monster," Clara whispered under her breath, unable to look away.

But inside her heart, she wondered, ’If he kept growing like this, would I be able to follow?’

Raven, on the other hand, smirked inwardly. ’Let’s see what I gained as a desperate protagonist, shall we?’

Yes, he wanted to test out his newly awakened plate-four power.

It was something he had gained because he was the protagonist who was on the brink of death.

After all, every protagonist shines when they are desperate, and at that time. And when he was facing the Principal, he was desperate.

Shaking those memories away, Raven cracked his neck and glanced over at the other knights. "Wanna join in?"

The new Royal Knights all avoided eye contact. They knew they weren’t on the same level.

Better said, they weren’t courageous enough to face a Vaise.

The knight opposing Raven growled, drawing in more mana. Unlike Raven’s almost stable sword aura, the knight’s was completely stable, as he had already passed the fifth layer.

He was already at the level where he could shoot aura slashes.

"Let’s not drag this out," Raven sighed, stepping forward.

WHOOSH!

The knight unleashed a mid-range aura slash, blue light cleaving through the air like a guillotine.

"Predictable," Raven said.

He thrust his free hand out, and in that moment—

’Flame Line.’

A fiery arc burst from his fingers, crashing into the aura slash. The two powers collided midair—mana vs. aura.

BOOOOM!!

The explosion scattered the dust. The knight raised his arms to block his face from the impact.

But Raven?

He was already in front of him.

CLANG!

The knight barely blocked the strike—only to find Raven’s leg sweeping under him.

BAM!

He crashed to the ground. Raven followed through, the plane side of his sword slapping the knight square on his face.

Thud!

He fell to the ground, his hips raised, and his face on the ground.

"Damn, that’s embarrassing," Alex muttered from the sideline, Rufus nodding his head.

Everyone, including the students and the professors in the surroundings, gasped. Their eyes were wide as they saw complete domination in the name of a fight.

Raven slowly sheathed his sword. "Try not to choke on your pride next time."

The knight’s face was pale, his vision spinning.

The strike from Raven’s sword had messed up his view, and right now, he couldn’t even see straight.

Raven turned without waiting, stepping toward the princess. His smile was soft this time—composed, gentle, and strangely comforting.

"Apologies for the mess, Princess," he said smoothly. "Do inform your family that I only acted in self-defense. He was the one who drew the sword first."

Selena blinked, her heart thudding in her chest for a reason she didn’t understand.

"...I will," she whispered.

Her fingers clenched the hem of her robe. Her heart raced.

She was a Royal. She had been raised around knights and nobles her whole life.

But no one had looked so effortlessly heroic—so dangerous and calm—simultaneously.

But then—

SHHHRING!

A sharp whistle cut through the air.

Raven’s pupils contracted.

Although collapsed and drained, the knight had funneled the last shreds of mana into a desperate lunge.

However, because of his blurred vision, he couldn’t tell Selena and Raven apart, and his blade arced toward Selena from the side—an angle she hadn’t noticed yet.

Gasps erupted again.

Selena turned—too late.

But Raven was already there.

CLANG!!

He grabbed the blade with his bare hand.

Then, there was a sickening sound.

The sword bit halfway into his scaled palm. Blood ran down his arm, dripping steadily.

Still, Raven stood there, shielding Selena with his body.

He turned, giving her a tilted smile. "Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you."

Selena stared, her breath caught.

But before she could say anything—

—Clara stepped forward with a sharp yell.

"Raven!!"

She was next to him in a flash, grabbing his bleeding hand. "Are you okay?! You—"

"I’ve had worse," he replied with a chuckle as he looked at his already-healing palm.

But the knight wasn’t finished.

Or rather—he thought he wasn’t.

BOOM!

A punch slammed into his gut.

It was Alex, his eyes narrowed with fury. "You don’t know when to quit."

Before the knight could recover—

CLINK.

A blade appeared at his neck. freёnovelkiss.com

It was Jake. "You move, you die."

In the next heartbeat, Jessy and Rufus also moved.

Jessy appeared beside Clara, handing her a healing pill she had, while Rufus helped Jake subdue the knight.

Clara quickly fed the pill to Raven, her eyes flashing with worry. "Stupid. Idiot. Why would you grab it?!"

Raven shrugged with a grin. "Looked cooler than dodging."

Clara gritted her teeth, hitting him on the chest, but that was all.

However, all of them failed to notice the last person in their group, standing where she was, unmoving.

Siris.

She stood apart from the group, her eyes fixed on the defeated knight.

Empty, sharp, and icy.

’I can kill him, right?’ She asked the spirit in her head.

Accessing the situation, the spirit replied. ’Not right now.’

’Alright,’ Siris nodded, but her eyes didn’t change. They were so cold that the nearby temperature seemed to drop.

However, as said before, no one noticed.

But had they seen her expression, they would’ve wondered—

’Was this really the same Siris they had just walked here with?’

Because her stare held no humanity.

Only the coldness of a killer.