Dragon's Awakening: The Duke's Son Is Changing The Plot-Chapter 104 - 103 - The Slave and the Master.

Two years ago, during the final test of the Vaise children, someone who shouldn’t have been there was spying on the competition.

It was a historical moment, and that was why that person had gone to witness it.

Above all, the Royals were invited to that test, and as someone who hated the Royals, that person couldn’t miss this event.

After all, they recorded everything related to the Royals, calling it the prep work for the downfall of the Royals.

Now, as someone who didn’t have permission to be there, they shouldn’t have been able to go anywhere near that location, but they did because they were capable of doing it.

They were a master of disguise, and that day, they had disguised themselves as an instructor of the Cradle.

No one was able to tell them apart.

No one other than the story’s protagonist, Raven Von Vaise.

Despite their disguise, they got caught by Raven, who knew about the plot and had the Fate Eyes.

That person, however, remained oblivious to that.

They didn’t know they were discovered and continued the spying.

Then suddenly, they found out that the focus of the event, the greatest genius of the Vaise family, Raven Von Vaise, had disappeared.

But instead of searching for the missing, the Patriarch, Argon Von Vaise, came forward and announced that Raven had entered secluded training.

No one could verify those words, but they couldn’t question Argon, so all of them went back to their work.

That one person, however, didn’t.

Their spy senses told them that they could dig up something major if they kept at it, so they stayed at the Vaise mansion for a while.

That person didn’t know that Raven, who was picked up by Crisaius, had his eyes on them from the beginning.

Then, when Raven had been offered by Crisaius to leave everything to him, the protagonist decided to make use of that opportunity.

The first thing he asked Crisaius to do was capture the spy. He described the look this spy was wearing and told Crisauis that this person was one of the best.

Then, his second wish was for Crisaius to deliver his message to Argon.

"As the winner of the Cradle’s final test, I will exercise my right to make a wish to the Patriarch, and what I want is a slave."

Those were his words.

At that time, that spy’s fate was decided.

That spy was the woman sitting before Raven.

This was their first official meeting.

Unofficially, they had met once before when Crisaius had carried her to the forest upon Raven’s demand.

That day, Raven had asked this woman, Sinclair Gwarith, to bring her organization—the information-gathering group under her command—and make a tavern right outside the capital city of Velmoria.

At first, she had denied it, not wanting to bring her subordinates into this mess, but after Raven convinced her with some ’talking’, she relented.

Now, in two years, this organization, under Sinclair’s leadership, has become one of the biggest businesses of the Vaise family.

Even though the leader was Raven’s slave, this organization was now under the Vaise family’s command.

This wasn’t what Raven had wanted when he first asked her to make this tavern, but he couldn’t do anything about it now.

No matter what he did, he wouldn’t be able to command the whole organization for now.

Those greedy and power-hungry elders of the Vaise family would feel constipated if they saw him taking control of this organization.

So, instead of getting on the bad side of the elders, Raven decided to let it be.

The leader of the organization was already his slave, and through her, he could get whatever information he wanted—that was all he needed.

As for Sinclair, well, she was never given a chance, only a choice.

She was asked whether she wanted to live and serve the Vaise or die and be forgotten.

No one would want to die, so she had opted for the first option, and since then, she had been working with the Vaise.

Honestly, it wasn’t bad. On the contrary, it was quite good.

But meeting Raven was something she didn’t want to do.

After all, talking to someone with the power to control your life isn’t the best feeling.

That was why her subordinates had tried to put up the previous act.

But it didn’t work on Raven.

It wouldn’t have worked on him since he could sense Sinclair’s presence.

Now, the room was quiet, the tension slowly fading into a haze of passive discomfort as Sinclair shuffled the new stack of files her subordinate brought her.

She didn’t bother hiding her annoyance.

"I swear, I wasn’t born to be a secretary," she muttered, flipping through thick parchment folders sealed with wax symbols of different noble houses.

Across the table, Raven sat cross-legged, chin resting on his palm. Siris, still curled beside him like some dangerously affectionate cat, had now begun softly stroking his sleeve and whispering what sounded like wedding vows under her breath.

Jessy whispered to Rufus, "Is she conducting a marriage ceremony in her mind?"

Rufus nodded. "She’s already on the honeymoon."

Lia just sighed. "At this point, I’m surprised she hasn’t declared herself Empress of the Raven Empire."

Jake, like always, observed.

Meanwhile, Alex and Nibbles were in a heated discussion involving a twig, a sock, and what seemed to be military squirrel rankings.

"No, I swear this means Captain, Nibbles!" Alex insisted, pointing at the sock with a stick drawing.

Nibbles smacked him with a tiny scroll.

"Okay! Okay! Major General! Geez, aggressive diplomacy!"

Back to business, Sinclair tapped the pile and exhaled. "Alright. You said you wanted names from noble houses—heirs or children. What for?"

Raven gave a half-smile. "Research."

Sinclair narrowed her eyes. "That’s it?"

"Just curious," he said coolly, waving a hand. "Want to know who’s what, who might be useful, and who I can beat at chess."

Sinclair didn’t believe a word, but she nodded anyway. "Fine. Shoot."

Raven tilted his head, eyes gleaming faintly with quiet calculation. "Lucien Dalehart."

She flipped open a folder. "House Dalehart... heir Lucien... Hmm. It says here he went missing on a sea expedition. The ship never returned."

"Next. Elira Montclaire."

"Montclaire... daughter of the merchant-lord. Disappeared in the north. Supposedly eaten by wolves."

"Frein Ashgrove."

"Dead. Found in his manor’s garden. Said to have died peacefully in his sleep."

Raven’s expression grew serious, but he said nothing for a while.

"When did he die?" He asked, leaning forward.

"One year ago," Sinclair said dryly. "Some people just really love naps."

Raven took a deep breath at those words.

All those people he mentioned were either famous supporting characters or some characters that would prove to be helpful to him in one way or another.

But then, he continued. Tapping his fingers, he said the next name. "Try Damon Grenvel."

Silence.

Sinclair slowly looked up. "Also dead. Hunting accident. Boar attack."

"Mira Vael."

"Found drowned in her bathtub. Strange case. No water damage to the lungs."

The room started growing cold.

Jessy frowned. "Wait... aren’t those all kids around our age?"

"They are," Jake muttered. "They were."

Raven didn’t respond.

He kept calling out names.

"Kailen Thorne."

"Missing."

"Orin Elmist."

"Dead. Poisoned food. No culprit found."

"Selna Harts."

"Vanished in broad daylight. The entire carriage was gone."

The papers kept flipping. The list kept growing.

One by one, the names came, and one by one, Sinclair read the same endings.

Dead.

Gone.

Missing.

Silence wrapped the room like a shroud.

Even Rufus stopped fidgeting.

Jessy leaned forward, voice hushed. "Raven... are you investigating something?"

Raven, however, looked at Sinclair and said, "Next name."

Lia’s gaze flicked between him and the files. Her throat tightened. ’He knew something. That’s why he’s checking. Could this be related to the demons?’

Yet, amid the silence, two figures were completely unaffected.

Siris had fallen asleep on Raven’s shoulder, mumbling nonsense like "Till breath do us part" and "I baked you a heart cookie with blood."

Meanwhile, Alex was trying to get Nibbles to wear a tiny crown made of thread.

"Look, it’s your coronation—Nibbles the Squirrel Emperor!"

Nibbles bit him.

"...Ow."

Back at the table, Sinclair hesitated before speaking. "Alright. But are they all you wanted to know, or are there any other names?"

Raven leaned back. "Yes. I want information about people from other kingdoms. Nobles. Heirs. Especially those who visited Velmoria in the past two years."

Sinclair blinked. "...You’re really going all out with this ’curiosity’ angle, huh?"

Raven smiled faintly. "You could say it’s a hobby."

Sinclair closed the folder. "Fine. I do have access to those names, but it’ll take time to dig through everything and verify the statuses."

Raven stood, brushing off invisible dust from his sleeves. "Good. Have them sent to me at the Academy."

He turned to leave with Siris still latched to him like a cloak with romantic delusions.

"Also," Raven said over his shoulder, "tell your people to check for pattern clusters—timelines, locations, and affiliations. Anything that links these people together."

Sinclair nodded, then muttered under her breath, "Yeah, just give me the entire kingdom’s paranoia on a silver plate, no big deal."

"I heard that," Raven called back.

"I meant for you to."

As Raven walked out of the chamber, the others followed, still processing what they’d just heard.

Lia lingered a bit behind, glancing at the folders on the table.

’What kind of storm are you stirring, Raven Von Vaise?’

Then she looked ahead—to the young man who never smiled too widely, who never revealed too much, and who always seemed to be looking just a little further than anyone else.

Jessy caught up to Raven, hands in her coat pockets. "Hey, tell me truthfully. Are we going grave-digging soon?"

Raven gave her a side glance. "Only if the graves are still fresh."

Jessy groaned. "See, that’s why people don’t let you write poetry."

Behind them, Alex asked, "Nibbles, if you become the Emperor, can I be your royal food taster?"

Nibbles just gave him a solemn nod and produced a tiny acorn on a velvet leaf.

Rufus muttered, "...That’s probably a binding contract in squirrel law."

Then, with some scared, some oblivious, and one intensely sniffing, the group exited the Vaise network’s capital branch.

But in the shadows of the kingdom, something stirred.

A list had begun forming—unwritten, unofficial, and unknown.

But Raven was writing it in his mind.

Every name he wrote was of important people from the plot, and looking at the results he had already heard, he didn’t have much expectation about the remaining.

Many things had changed because of his two years of training.

He now found out that many people had died because of him.

However, he couldn’t be sure for now.

After all, in the plot, many people had disappeared mysteriously like this. But unlike the original protagonist, Raven wasn’t going to let this matter go.

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