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

White Vulture could say without a shred of guilt,

Prince Rhine... was the most handsome man she had ever seen.

Without realizing it, White Vulture wore a lovestruck smile, her heart growing restless...

Damn...

She wanted so badly to perform the beastly Azalea Secret Ritual with him!!

"Ahhh, my head! My head's about to split open!!!"

Wait, hold on. Why had someone else died?

While White Vulture stood there in a daze,

Hela smashed another goblin's skull in.

Rhine scolded them. "Why aren't you saying anything? Are you still trying to toy with me? Do you think your lives are so worthless that you'd rather die than stop annoying this prince?!"

The goblins were scared out of their wits, their minds on the verge of collapse.

In the dead silence,

the goblins finally thought of something in their desperation. With hands trembling like leaves, they dragged a dwarf miner from the edge of the crowd—a bystander who'd only come to watch—and brought him before Rhine.

The goblins' mouths quivered uncontrollably. "Your Highness... he... he... is..."

"Oh~"

Rhine suddenly understood, and smiled.

"So you're the leader of the Golden Land. A pleasure to meet you!"

Rhine's anger vanished. He warmly shook the dwarf's hand.

"You'll have to deal with these goblins properly later. They can't go around joking like this with foreign guests, can they?"

The dwarf miner looked utterly bewildered, at a loss for what to say.

So Rhine spoke for him.

"I imagine you must be wondering why I came to the Golden Land, correct?"

Rhine was still smiling as he addressed the dwarf miner. "I'm a little tired today. Arrange a room for me so I can rest. We can discuss everything else tomorrow."

And just like that,

Rhine's negotiations with the Golden Land came to an end.

The result: three high-ranking Golden Land officials were dead, and a clueless dwarf miner had become its theoretical top authority.

From that point on,

the Golden Land descended into complete administrative chaos.

On top of that, the Nether Realm's corruption within the Golden Land drove countless dwarves to flee in groups that very night. Rumors spread like wildfire alongside them.

Rhine's initial plan had gone off without a hitch.

He knew perfectly well who was really in charge behind the scenes in the Golden Land, and he understood its current situation clearly.

However,

there were some things he could pretend not to know.

Based on Rhine's past experience,

the goblin in charge was a deceitful, cunning, unscrupulous nuisance. Killing him early was a good way to save himself some trouble.

As for whether the dwarves would come after Rhine for causing a scene in the Golden Land—

Ha.

As someone who'd already seen how the Golden Land's story would end,

Rhine knew very well

that in two weeks at most, not a single dwarf in the mortal world would have the time to care whether one goblin lived or died.

"Your Highness! Your Highness! Were we good enough this time?"

Once things had settled down, the dwarves led Rhine toward the guest rooms prepared for VIPs.

On the way, the dolls eagerly slipped out of the spatial rifts to claim their reward.

Rhine smiled. "You did very well."

The dolls' cheeks flushed as they asked expectantly, "Then, Your Highness... could you give us another reward?"

"You girls, we're not at home right now..."

Rhine gave them an indulgent smile. "But all right. Come to my room tonight, and I'll give you a refresher on how to use divine life essence."

Meanwhile, Hela, walking behind Rhine, looked at him and the dolls as if she wanted to say something but couldn't.

Unlike the last time they'd fought Obadiah,

Hela had faithfully carried out Rhine's orders today.

That meant...

An unrealistic hope stirred in Hela's heart.

Perhaps Rhine should treat her the way he treated the dolls,

and give her a little reward too?

Naturally,

Rhine hadn't forgotten about Hela.

After sending the dolls away, he went over to her.

"Thank you, Lady Hela."

Rhine spoke with utter sincerity.

"Thank you for being willing to carry out my orders. Without your help, I could never have kept those goblins in line. I can't offer you any tangible reward right now, so all I can do is express my gratitude in words. I'm truly ashamed..."

Rhine's words moved Hela once again.

A touched smile appeared on her face, and she gently reassured him.

"No, please don't say that, Your Highness Rhine. Didn't I tell you? I'm more than happy to serve you. You only need to accept my loyalty without reservation."

Rhine's expression softened. "Hela..."

Hela's gaze was tender. "Your Highness..."

Rhine said, "Well, all right then. I'm off to help the dolls with their studies. Good night!"

Hela: "???"

After thanking Hela in words,

Rhine was going to thank the dolls through his actions.

In the end,

to make their tutoring more convenient, Rhine shared a bedroom with the dolls.

Hela slept next door.

It's almost time for the book to go on sale...

I don't have much to say, so I'll address a few things people are concerned about.

First, I'm a full-time author, so there's no risk of me disappearing. This is the most successful book I've ever written. As someone who likes to take shelter from the heat, I've already accepted that this may be the peak of my writing career, so I'll give it my best and see this book through to the end.

As for mass updates, that probably won't happen. To keep the book's quality up, I'll limit myself to a daily word count I can manage. There won't be any bonus-chapter bounties; I'll only add updates when the story hits a potential climax, to make sure readers have a good experience.

The full-subscription group number will appear at the end of a random chapter sometime within the next week. If you can find it, I'll assume you're a full-subscription reader. I'd also recommend that everyone join the full-subscription group if possible.

One more thing. I wrote three fanfics before making my original debut, and I can clearly feel how many of this original novel's fun and memorable parts build on what I learned from those first three books. The clearest example is Miss Keqing, who was tormented in every conceivable way for seven hundred thousand words in my last book. Through my twisted affection for Keqing in that story, I learned how to write plots where the heroine suffers but everyone else has a great time... Isn't that right, Miss Hela?

Finally, I wish everyone good health, and also...

60. My relationship with His Highness is very good... Really, it's very good!

The Golden Land erupted into an all-out celebration that night.

With its top leader dead, the Golden Land's management fell into complete disarray, and the rank-and-file employees were even more out of control.

In fact,

if the management had united and chosen a new leader when the top seat was left vacant, losing just three high-ranking officials wouldn't have affected the whole administration at all.

But faced with the tempting throne, the goblins were utterly dazzled. They immediately began a frantic struggle for power,

ignoring the collapse of order, the rioting dwarf workers below, and even Prince Hain, who had come with hostile intentions.

The goblins threw themselves into one last night of revelry amid the Golden Land's chaos.

Since Rhine hadn't slept all night, he used the dolls' senses during a lull to witness the entire collapse of order in the Golden Land.

After a night of chaos,

a third of the goblin leadership had been eliminated by one mishap or another, while almost all the dwarf miners had left the Golden Land.

After all, the Nether Realm's corruption in the Golden Land had reached an extremely dangerous level, and the dwarves had long been living in fear because of it.

With the goblin leadership no longer holding them down, the dwarves joined forces, blew open the Golden Land's treasury, collected their overdue wages and interest, and quickly left.

The Nether Realm's corruption, the escalating power struggle, and the Golden Land's long-suppressed conflicts all erupted after Hela's three executions. The whole place collapsed at the slightest push!

In the blink of an eye, the once-glorious sanctuary of the dwarves had been reduced to a complete mess.

Yet the goblin leaders were still caught up in an unstoppable struggle, fighting to the death over power that no longer existed.

That night was filled with schemes, plots, murder, madness, and greed... As emotions collided and flared in everyone's minds, they became nourishment for the Nether Realm.

In a single night, the Nether Realm's corruption rose by another ten points.

Good...

Everything was under control.

The Nether Realm's corruption had intensified further, and all the innocent bystanders had already left.

Rhine's plan had entered its next phase.

Just then,

Rhine suddenly heard a knock at the door.

A sweet female voice rang out from outside. "Your Highness Rhine, would you like some breakfast?"

Breakfast?

Although Rhine was technically a VIP in the Golden Land, every dwarf had already fled the night before.

So, in theory, no one should be around to wait on him anymore.

But as it turned out, someone was.

Rhine opened the door and saw a woman with rabbit ears, strikingly tall, gazing down at him with a pair of mismatched blue and green eyes full of affection.

Yes,

she was a member of the Demon Sword Sisterhood with rabbit-yokai blood.

Although the Golden Land's employees had fled, the members of the Demon Sword Sisterhood, hired by the late goblin CEO, had somehow chosen to stay in the mess.

Now, they had even taken on the role of waitstaff, bringing Rhine breakfast first thing in the morning.

If the rabbit-eared woman hadn't looked at Rhine with such blatant flirtation and greed, he might really have thought the Demon Sword Sisterhood was a band of mercenaries who kept their contracts and were devoted to their work.

"I'm sorry, Your Highness. There was a riot in the Golden Land last night, and all the dwarves who worked in the kitchen ran away. This is a simple meal we prepared for you. I hope you won't mind..."

Rhine smiled and thanked her. "Could you tell me your name?"

The rabbit-eared girl gave him a seductive smile. "If Your Highness wants to know my name, why not come to my room and ask? This young lady will be waiting for your visit anytime."