Round Two Ends; Round Three, an Even Fiercer and More Spectacular Clash Among the Gods, Begins at Once! (Continued)

After secretly listening to the conversation between the Prince and the goblin, White Vulture had no favorable impression of the Prince at all. However, as an offering for the Ritual, he was exceptionally excellent.

He was a blood relative of Italien Hain!

White Vulture named her final price: "Thirty percent."

The Prince's face twisted, and he was just about to explode...

BANG!!

The goblin slammed his palm onto the table and snapped, "Enough! Miss White Vulture, the person speaking to you is the Prince of Hain! And the future emperor of Hain!"

The goblin said, "If you bring this up again, leave immediately!!"

But right afterward, the goblin lowered his voice and spoke at a volume only White Vulture could hear:4

"Deal! As long as I can get what I want, I'll personally send this bastard onto your Leviathan, and I guarantee there won't be any trouble afterward!"3

White Vulture smiled knowingly. "Deal!"

And so, the transaction was concluded.

The goblin once again put on that friendly, amiable smile:

"Then, His Highness the Prince, Miss White Vulture will see you out."

"Oh, right. His Highness the Prince, there's one more thing I'd like to confirm..."

The goblin smiled amiably. "I'd like to know whether Prince Rhine was involved in the matter concerning the ancient dragon."2

"Of course not!"7

The Prince sneered. "That little brat wants to kill an ancient dragon? You people are giving him far too much credit!"

Then that meant...

The next enemy Golden Land would face was only Hela Hain, right?

That was good...

In fact,

the goblin was still somewhat wary of Prince Rhine.

The matter of the IOU was one reason,

but the other was even more troublesome...

He was a little afraid of what unexpected variables might arise after White Vulture came into contact with Prince Rhine.

The Demon Sword Sisterhood was a mercenary group of great renown throughout the mortal world.

But they were not an organization.

They were a race.

A flawed bloodline ascension ritual had twisted and altered the race of the Demon Sword Sisterhood, turning them into deformed beings capable of giving birth only to females.2

Their only means of expanding their numbers was the so-called "Azalea Secret Ritual."

It had been modeled after the ascension ritual of Hain Sanctuary, but without the Goddess's support, it was extremely crude.

Moreover, to conduct the ascension ritual, they had to scour the mortal world for "kindling" with suitable bloodlines. Exceptional kindling could purify the bloodline of the Sisterhood, making it an extremely important strategic resource to them.

And clearly,

the Prince of Hain was an exceptionally excellent piece of kindling.

But,

he was not the best.

In Hain, there was an epic-grade piece of kindling who was vastly more powerful than the Prince in every aspect—someone for whom a second could not be found in the entire mortal world.

That was Hain's Prince,2

Rhine Hain.

That guy was Italien's biological older brother!

.

Thanks to Snow That Did Not Become Smoke and Clouds for the donation. I forgot about this big shot earlier, and only noticed it today when I checked the fan rankings... What a generous boss!

. The Prince's PUA

On a sunny seaside beach, Rhine and the dolls were enjoying a brief vacation.

During this time, Rhine had gotten along with the dolls very happily, and it had not even required any acting.

After all, compared to their creator, the dolls had always been quite innocent and lovable, with a clear sense of right and wrong.

Rhine had not disliked them even in the past.

However, the pleasant seaside revelry had already lasted three whole days, and Rhine felt that this reward-like vacation could more or less come to an end.

They would return to the Imperial Capital tomorrow.

At that moment, Rhine thought of something.

"Speaking of which, how are things going with Hela?"

"Hela... just brought Lilia back to the Imperial Capital."

Histia, who had been concentrating on eating, raised her head and wiped her mouth. "It seems that, in order to poach Lilia away from the Prince, she gave Lilia lots of ancient dragon ingredients."4

The dolls were, after all, creations of Hela, so they naturally had their own ways of observing Hela's actions.2

Rhine was stunned when he heard this. "Really?!"

Histia Hela nodded. "Really."

In other words... after Hela in the Imperial Capital guessed that Lilia, an Imperial Guard stationed in the same place as the Prince, might have been bribed by him,

she had actually taken out the treasures in her collection and bribed Lilia, in order to make Lilia leave the Prince's command and weaken his strength!

Then, if the Prince's strength had been weakened, who would benefit? Naturally, Rhine!

In fact, having the dolls return home earlier had been Rhine's small test of Hela. And now, the results of this test had delighted Rhine.

At this moment, Rhine was moved.

An entire ten thousand years...8

It was the first time Rhine had ever seen this group of Imperial Guards spend their own money to take the initiative and do something for him!

In the past, even when Rhine's relationship with the Imperial Guards had been at its best, the two sides had only shared a purely transactional relationship.

External invasions were not part of the Imperial Guards' duties in the first place, so Rhine could only keep offering high prices, using profit to drive the Imperial Guards to work for him.

Once the Imperial Guards received satisfactory compensation, they would serve Rhine.

But if one day Rhine could no longer satisfy their appetites, or if the Goddess of Order directly sent down a divine oracle,

Rhine could be betrayed in the blink of an eye.

But now...

Hela had actually taken the initiative to work overtime and deal with Lilia beside the Prince, without receiving Rhine's orders or payment beforehand...

It had to be known that political struggles were not the Imperial Guards' proper duty either!

This was such a pleasant surprise—truly, far too pleasant a surprise...

It seemed that Rhine's strategy for dealing with the Imperial Guards had finally been correct this time!7

However...

The timing of Hela contacting Lilia was somewhat delicate.

According to Histia,

when Hela contacted Lilia, Lilia had been following the Prince and taking part in negotiations with the dwarves of Golden Land.

This detail was worth noting...

Within Golden Land, there happened to be a demigod mercenary whose bloodline contained an extremely obscure and special divinity. This made her exceptionally skilled at deciphering communication magic.

Then...

Was it possible that Golden Land had intercepted Hela's communications with Lilia?

The material Hela had used to bribe Lilia was the flesh of the ancient dragon Obadiah.

Lilia's little white duck had not had much of an appetite lately, so Lilia did indeed need some high-quality meat.

However, in Golden Land's eyes, this matter had extraordinary significance.

That was because a supreme treasure Golden Land had always dreamed of possessing happened to be under Obadiah's tight protection!

Now that they had indirectly learned of Obadiah's death,2

Golden Land had probably already exploded into chaos!

Of course, this was not a major problem.

Although a secret had been exposed, Rhine felt that informing the goblins and dwarves of Golden Land ahead of time was actually a good thing.

Because Golden Land

was Rhine's next target.

Letting them prepare would conveniently facilitate Rhine's next move as well.

Rhine made his decision. "No more waiting. I'm returning to the Imperial Capital right now."

Histia Hela was somewhat reluctant to part. "Are we leaving so soon..."

Rhine smiled and comforted the doll. "Be good. Listen to me. Pack up, call Italien and Lilia, and let's return to the Imperial Capital."

"Mm, I'll do whatever Your Highness says..."

Histia softly agreed, then obediently stood up to get things done.

After three days of vacation, the dolls' feelings for Rhine had continued to grow warmer, and they had completely fallen in love with him.

To obtain Rhine's praise and win his favor, they would serve Rhine with all their might.

Rhine's method of winning over the dolls was actually very simple. The dolls were innocent and kind by nature, and their divine blood had not made them excessively cold-blooded and heartless.

Therefore, establishing a relationship of trust with the dolls was not much different from dating normally.

At most, it was a little scummy—he was simply dating three people at once.2

However, when dealing with Hela...

Rhine did not want to use the same approach.2

A spatial rift opened, and Rhine returned to the Imperial Capital with the dolls.

They returned to Hela's manor.

There,

Rhine encountered Hela.

Three days had passed, and Hela's bearing had changed greatly.

The cold-blooded beauty who had always been composed, elegant, and smiling now looked dispirited and depressed...

Rhine could understand. Given Hela's current knowledge, after obtaining the ancient dragon's legacy, her lifelong dream had already been fulfilled.

Having lost her goal, she had become lost and listless.

She now desperately needed to find a new direction to strive toward in life.4

"Lady Hela."

Rhine walked up to Hela with a hint of a smile on his face. "I heard about Lady Lilia from the dolls. Lady Lilia rejected the Prince's employment. Was that your doing?"

"Mm, that's right."

A few traces of anticipation appeared in Hela's expression. She smiled and said, "It's my duty to ease Your Highness's burdens."

After saying that, Hela gazed at Rhine eagerly, seemingly hoping for... Rhine's praise.

That was only natural.