Dragon's Awakening: The Duke's Son Is Changing The Plot
Chapter 216 - 215 - Back in the Ashen Expanse.

Chapter 216: Chapter 215 - Back in the Ashen Expanse.

The Vaise estate stood like a fortress wrapped in silk, a monument of control and heritage.

Within its main hall, velvet drapes fluttered slightly from the breeze that dared sneak through the golden latticed windows. The air was stiff with decorum, polished to the point of suffocation.

Valeria Von Vaise, the second child of Argon Von Vaise, marched down the center corridor like a crimson comet, each stride precise and dangerous.

The long coat she wore swayed behind her like a trailing flag of war. Servants bowed and stepped aside, avoiding eye contact.

No one dared cross her path.

It wasn’t because she was scary, but because she was Argon’s daughter.

There was once a case where her servant was killed by an assassin who wanted to warn her.

That servant was one of her close aides, so she was killed to show that she couldn’t protect everyone while also creating an example for others not to get close to her.

That was why the servants acted scared around her. They don’t want to get close to her.

Valeria, however, didn’t care about any of that as her fiery eyes burned with urgency.

With her red hair flowing down her back, she reached the patriarch’s chamber.

She didn’t knock.

"Move," she snapped to the guards flanking the Patriarch’s chamber. They immediately complied, recognizing the storm in her tone.

But the doors didn’t open.

Because a man already stood before them.

Randolf.

The Head Butler of House Vaise.

He looked to be in his early thirties, but everyone knew better.

He was the kind of man who aged like secrets—timeless and heavy with burden. His posture was perfect, his gaze clear, and his black suit without a single crease.

"My Lady," he greeted with a slight bow. "The Patriarch is not here."

Valeria’s eyes narrowed. "Then where is he?"

Randolf’s voice didn’t waver. "He departed for the Ashen Expanse an hour ago."

Her brow furrowed. "The Ashen Expanse?"

"He claimed he needed solitude... to train."

Valeria took a step forward. "So he’s running away from his responsibility."

Randolf paused. There was a flash of something—pity, maybe—in his otherwise unreadable eyes.

He pitied how this girl still didn’t know that Argon wasn’t the same Argon she hated anymore.

With his face unreadable, he bowed again. "He left strict instructions, my Lady. Even if you go to him, he will not meet you."

But she was already walking.

..................................

[One Week Later—Ashen Expanse.]

The corrupted wind of the Ashen Expanse clawed at her coat as Valeria trudged forward, crimson hair whipping like a banner in the storm.

Her boots crushed the ashen soil beneath her, steps steady even as the corruption in the air made most warriors vomit or scream.

She didn’t slow down.

Argon hadn’t returned.

She had waited.

She wasn’t going to wait anymore.

Looking around, one could see crystalline black trees with pulsing veins looming like the ribs of a dying god. Mangled beasts lay dead across the path—clearly killed with precision.

They were burnt, bisected, and obliterated. Someone powerful had come this way.

However, they were all old corpses, dried and decaying.

No new beasts would be seen in this area; after all, it was the cleared-out area, now the territory of the Vaise family.

She still wasn’t out of the cleared-out area of the Ashen Expanse when she saw it.

A cavern mouth tucked beneath a jagged cliff, its entrance framed by the corpses of corrupted beasts.

The stench of melted organs and ruptured mana sacs clung to the air. The ground itself was cracked like someone had detonated spells here in rapid succession.

Her instincts prickled.

Those corpses weren’t old.

They were fresh. No older than a week.

Valeria stepped forward, but then—

"Tsk tsk."

A voice clicked behind her.

She turned.

Talon Ros Vaise.

The smirking bastard.

He leaned against a rock like he owned the terrain, black coat fluttering in the wind, arms crossed. A sword was strapped casually across his back, and a lollipop stuck out of the side of his mouth.

Three others flanked him—Argon’s handpicked subordinates. Tall, silent, lethal.

Talon raised a brow. "That’s far enough, Princess Crimson."

Valeria’s eyes sharpened. "You’re stopping me?"

"Orders from the big guy," Talon said, tapping his temple. "No one goes near the cave. Especially not the siblings."

Her claymore was in her hand before the wind could catch up.

It shimmered with dull red runes. Heavy. Furious. Hungry.

"Move," Valeria ordered.

Order from Argon or not, she didn’t care.

She, as an elder, had enough authority to bypass the orders if she felt like there was something suspicious going on.

Yes, she would be punished, maybe even banished from the family or killed if her hunch turned out to be wrong, but she was sure that it wasn’t.

She knew something was going on in that cave.

Talon, on the other hand, whistled. "Oof. Straight to threats? We haven’t even talked much yet."

The three others drew their weapons in sync. Tension thickened like boiling oil.

Valeria didn’t blink. "There’s never been this much corruption in this part of the Ashen Expanse—not after all the beasts were cleared off this area."

Her sword flashed as she stepped forward. "Something’s wrong. And I will find out what it is."

A silent moment passed.

Every stance was tight, and every breath was measured.

Then—

BOOM.

The ground quaked. The air rippled.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

All five of them snapped their heads toward the cave.

Flashes of light pulsed from within—mana crackling, energy swirling like a rupturing leyline.

The sheer amount of mana they could feel from the inside tensed them. One particular mana pressure among them felt especially dangerous.

For a while, all of them stood frozen in their spots before Talon cursed.

"...What the fuck had we been guarding until now?"

He wasn’t told anything about the person or item he was guarding.

"Guard that place with everything you have, and if you see anything, keep it to yourself. But if there’s something suspicious or shocking, I want you to report it to me."

This was the order Argon had given.

He didn’t question anything, especially when he had seen that the cave was empty earlier.

It had been empty for the past week. There was not a single movement except for the corrupt beasts that occasionally wandered off here.

So—

’What the fuck is happening?’ Talon scratched his head before he and the others sprinted forward without a word.

Valeria followed, her claymore still humming with readiness.

They reached the cave mouth in seconds and stormed inside—

—Only to stop dead in their tracks.

There, sprawled across the cave floor like a scene out of a drunken tavern brawl, was Raven’s entire group.

Selena was lying on the ground while her devourer beasts, all in wolf form, jumped around, trying to bite or lick anything they saw.

Jake had a shadow cloak wrapped around his face like a burrito and was mumbling "the darkness hugs me," as he slept peacefully.

Jessy’s hair was crackling with enough static to levitate rocks, and she was twitching in place.

Alex was drooling with his symbiote tentacles cradling him like a protective jellyfish.

Clara was spinning slowly in place, eyes crossed.

Siris had her daggers buried in the ceiling while hanging by her foot from one.

Graye was literally hugging a boulder while whispering to it about chest day.

Rufus was embedded in the ceiling, legs kicking weakly.

Nibbles was the only one still conscious—sitting on a rock with a small sign that read, "Cultivation sucks. Help."

They had all completed the first phase of their training. They came out of Arietta’s domain for a short break.

Who would’ve thought that the moment they came out of the mana-rich and slow-moving domain, their powers would start to go out of control?

The moment they felt the low-concentrated mana, their powers panicked, making it hard for them to control it.

In the end, they succeeded, but the result was what everyone could see right now.

Valeria, Talon, and the others just stood there in absolute silence.

No one spoke for a full ten seconds.

Then—

"...What the fuck is happening?"

Valeria repeated the same question Talon had asked himself. Her voice was calm, but her eye was twitching.

"Seriously," Talon added, blinking. "I—what—are they dead or just broken?"

Rufus fell from the ceiling with a crash.

"...Ow."

"...Alive," Talon confirmed.

They all looked again.

Raven, in the center of it all, lay on his back with one eye open, an exhausted grin on his face.

He raised a finger to the air.

"Totally worth it."

Then passed out again.

Valeria didn’t say anything.

She merely leaned against the cave wall, claymore still in hand.

She didn’t know what this meant.

She didn’t know how or why Raven was here, alive, surrounded by chaos and nonsense.

But for the first time in this week—

She smiled.