CHAPTER 274: CHAPTER 273 - THE SINGING DRAGON.

For three whole seconds, it worked.

The dragon—if that’s what it was—kept its eyes closed, rumbling faintly with the kind of deep, lazy breathing that says, ’I could murder you, but I’m on break.’

Then... it snored.

Except it wasn’t just a snore.

It was a note.

It was an obvious and warbling musical note that bounced off the treasure piles like someone had just dropped an opera singer into a canyon.

Nibbles’ ears twitched. He tilted his head.

Then, with the confidence only possessed by small creatures who have never met true consequence, he mimicked it.

"MrrrweeeeEEEeeeep!"

The dragon’s eyelids fluttered.

Every soul in the party silently screamed ’NO’ in perfect unison.

Then the dragon, instead of attacking... hummed back.

It was lower this time, almost like a bass line, reverberating through the floor.

Coins rattled. Rufus’ armor chimed like a reluctant triangle.

Without anyone’s consent, this became a duet. Nibbles squeaked again. The dragon replied. A rhythm formed—slow, jazzy, almost bluesy.

Then... Cluckles joined in.

Where Nibbles had the high notes, Cluckles provided a weirdly soulful bwark-bwooork harmony.

The dragon’s eyes opened all the way now, glowing molten orange—but instead of murder, there was... intrigue.

It tilted its head, and—swear on every god listening—its massive, clawed foot began to tap.

Alex, frozen mid-crouch, whispered out of the side of his mouth, "Oh no... we’ve started a jam session."

Graye peeked from behind the panther, eyes wide. "We... might be able to vibe our way out of this."

Selena pinched the bridge of her nose. "Or we might be about to die in the stupidest way possible."

The dragon leaned forward, opened its jagged maw... and unleashed the deepest, most absurd scat singing anyone had ever heard: "Bra-dah-braaaah doo-bop grrraaaah—rrRaaahh-BWOOP!"

Coins jumped. The buffet table groaned in sympathy.

Nibbles and Cluckles didn’t miss a beat—literally. They hopped up onto a nearby chest, going into full performance mode.

Nibbles slapped his tail like a drum, and Cluckles flapped in time like the world’s angriest tambourine.

Then—without warning—Jake stepped out of the shadows again.

Everyone tensed.

"Don’t tell me..." Rufus’s eyes went wide. "He can sing as well?"

However, Jake didn’t speak. He just... moonwalked into the open.

Then, somehow, impossibly, the dragon followed his lead.

It wasn’t graceful—it was like watching a landslide try the cha-cha—but it was in rhythm.

Jessy peeked over her chest cover, jaw slack. "Is... Is the dragon breakdancing?"

"Oh yeah," Alex whispered, awestruck. "We’re not surviving this by stealth. We’re surviving this by funk."

By the time the "song" reached its chaotic climax, Jake was spinning, Nibbles was conducting with his tail, Cluckles was full-on wing-drumming on the dragon’s nose, and the molten beast itself was doing a surprisingly solid body roll for something that could swallow a cow.

Then—abruptly—it stopped.

The dragon sat back, gave the group an approving nod, and—without a word—rolled over to go back to sleep, tail curling around the treasure like it had just finished a long shift at a jazz club.

Silence.

Everyone stared at each other.

"...So," Rufus finally said, "does this mean we can take the gold?"

Selena didn’t even hesitate. "No. It means we leave now before someone tries to start an encore."

Alex looked at Nibbles. Nibbles looked at Cluckles.

Both of them looked at the buffet.

They didn’t want to leave without a bite.

Raven, looking at the scene, took a deep breath.

He knew the story of the dragon, who wasn’t actually a dragon.

Yes, the creature that looked like a dragon was nothing but a spirit that had disguised itself as a dragon.

But because of its extended use of the disguise, the spirit couldn’t revert to its original form anymore.

Now, it was stuck in this uncomfortable form where it couldn’t even touch or feel the touch of things.

Those dragonic scales didn’t just give it great defenses; they also took away its ability to feel everything.

For a long time, it couldn’t do anything but sleep, making it lazy and slow.

It had always wanted to talk to someone, but no matter who it was, they would always attack it, only to get killed.

For the first time, it had found someone who wouldn’t attack it but sing with it.

The spirit was happy, but its body, which had grown fat and slowed down, didn’t want to move at all.

Raven knew all that, but he also knew that the dragon, or more like the spirit disguised as a dragon, although appearing friendly and easy to deal with, wasn’t something they could walk past.

That dragon was strong, so much so that Raven wasn’t sure he would win against it.

After all, it was one of the strong spirits from the spirit realm.

When compared to the demon realm’s ranking system, this spirit was a renowned spirit with a power level equivalent to that of a demon tyrant.

Raven had defeated a demon general before, but a tyrant wasn’t something he could defeat with his current powers.

Maybe he could, but he wasn’t sure, because the power of anyone above the demon general wasn’t shown in the plot he had read.

Shaking his head and waving those thoughts away, Raven stepped toward Alex, Nibbles, and Cluckles, stopping them before they could jump on the food, hence angering the dragon.

Because it was overprotective of its treasure.

Yes, it was the dragon, or the spirit’s treasure.

This treasure was the reason for the spirit’s banishment from the spirit realm to the human realm.

It was then that Nibbles’s little paw was already halfway to a cheese platter.

Cluckles had one talon poised like a conductor about to bring in the brass section.

Alex was grinning like a man who had just found the meaning of life, and it was buffet-shaped.

But Raven was already on the move.

"Don’t," his voice cut in low, sharp, and just for them.

Three sets of eyes blinked at him in varying degrees of guilt.

"Don’t what?" Alex whispered, trying for innocent but landing squarely in ’caught with a hand in the cookie jar.’

"If you don’t want to get killed, don’t touch a single thing here," Raven murmured, keeping his tone steady.

"Squeak—" Nibbles desperately pointed at a wedge of golden cheese, his eyes blinking like stars.

Cluckles puffed up. "Cluckles finds the aroma deeply spiritual. It calls to Cluckles’s soul."

Graye, from the side, let out a dramatic groan. "Oh, come on, Raven. It’s right there. You can’t put that in front of a warrior and expect them not to—"

"You’ll get your bite," Raven cut in. "But you need to let me do the talking."

He glanced between them all, his voice quiet but certain. "I know the plot. I know how to touch the spirit’s treasure without angering it."

Selena tilted her head, one brow arched. "What’s at stake here?"

"Probably that we die in the dumbest way possible if he fails," Siris supplied with a cheerful shrug, clearly fine with this outcome.

Lia crossed her arms, frowning. "You’re all far too casual about dying."

"Lia, you’re the one who sacrificed a third of your life for me," Raven said without looking at her. "Which, by the way, is why I’m doing this."

That shut her up, though her cheeks flushed a faint pink.

Raven stepped forward, crossing the gold-littered floor until he stood before the dragon, sprawled lazily across its mountain of treasure. The molten-eyed beast didn’t move at first—it just breathed in that deep, rolling way that made the floor hum.

"Great Spirit," Raven called respectfully. "May I have a word?"

The dragon’s eyelids fluttered. It squinted at him for a long moment... then a slow, throaty laugh rumbled from deep in its chest.

"Well, aren’t you a fine-looking human," she drawled, her voice like smoke curling around warm honey. "Come closer, boy. These old eyes like a better view."

Behind him, Siris muttered, "Is she flirting with him?"

Selena, entirely calm, replied, "Yes."

Clara’s lips quirked faintly. "Of course, she is."

Graye, leaning on her huge sword, added, "If she tries to kiss him, I’m cutting her tail off."

Raven ignored them all and moved closer until her enormous, glowing eyes filled his vision.

"I’ve come on behalf of my companion," he began. "Her name is Lia. She sacrificed a third of her life for my sake."

The dragon’s gaze slid lazily to the princess, who stood stiffly in the back, chin high despite the pink in her cheeks.

"I want to heal her," Raven continued. "I know you have herbs among your treasures that can help her. I’ve come to talk about that."

The dragon hummed, her tail curling slightly. "Mmm. A noble cause... rare to find in you humans."

She listened, nodded here and there, and even chuckled once when Raven mentioned Lia’s stubbornness.

But when his words reached the heart of his request—

"...so I ask for the herbs from your treasure."

—Her molten eyes sharpened in an instant.

Her voice was silk over steel. "So. You were after my treasure from the start?"

The air went still. Even the coins seemed to freeze mid-glint.

Raven’s answer was steady. "Yes."

The dragon’s nostrils flared, claws flexing—

"But," Raven added quickly, "I can fulfill your wish in exchange for what I ask."

That stopped her.

Her gaze lingered on him for a long, tense moment, heat flickering like a forge stoked too high. Then she leaned back slightly, expression unreadable.

"...My wish?"

Raven’s lips curved faintly. "Yes."

The dragon didn’t reply. The air felt like it was holding its breath.

Everyone else in the group, however, exchanged a glance, unsure of what was going on.