“Ugh…”

The sound of coughing was heard while four youths with darkened faces crawled out of a wreck of a golem. They were the party of heroes that were just defeated by something that was very familiar to them. All of them came from the country that the design Zhang Dong used his inspiration for.

“D-did we really lose?”

“Using that is cheating!”

Takeshi cough into his hand while trying to rub out the dark sludge that was on his face. He remembered the surprise when he first saw the mech that Zhang Dong created. Instantly he was regretting joining this side and being stuck in this huge golem that he couldn’t even pilot himself.

He needed to keep the promise with the princes though which he was unable to do. Now he wouldn’t be receiving that kiss as a reward due to his failure. The girls from his party also seemed distant lately this whole hero experience wasn’t feeling so good lately.

“The tournament is over, all hail the new dwarven king, Thondin Hillmane!”

While the youths were crawling out of the wreckage the dwarves had forgotten about them even being there. They were all far too busy cheering for their new king, finally after a long time of arguing there was a new king.

Even though Thondin was only the oldest son and the father was still alive, he would be taking over. While registering for this competition every side had to fill out the person that would become the new king.

This was one of the rare occasions where the leader of the household gave away the rights of kingship to a son. This was good for the Hillmane house as the younger Thondin would be able to hold on to the title for a lot longer than his old father.

“Are you okay?”

Takeshi looked up to the person that was calling out to him. He could see a rather cute golden-haired girl reaching out her hand towards him. The arena lights that were directly behind her made her look a bit otherworldly.

“An angel?”

“Heh, look at this sweet talker.”

A voice that he knew called out from the side. When glancing at it he noticed it was Zhang Dong in his smaller form looking at him. After further inspection, he also noticed that the girl that was reaching out to him was Beatrice.

“Sweet talker? I d-didn’t…”

He blushed a bit after noticing that he was staring at the girl for a prolonged time. Due to the pink-haired princess hanging around him for so long he wasn’t able to notice the other girls around him. Now after getting a good look at Beatrice he could see that she was quite charming. She didn’t have the assets that the princess had but her face was somewhat gentler.

“Let me clean you up lover boy…”

Zhang Dong called out in a mocking tone. After this Takeshi and the three girls found themselves being submerged in large bubbles of water. These bubbles quickly absorbed all the dirt from their bodies. The water then flowed back while having a dark color, surprisingly Takeshi felt rather dry after this strange spell was finished.

“Takeshi, next time you should discuss things with us before doing something like this…”

Zhang Dong said while floating back towards Beatrice.

“Otherwise Beatrice here will be very sad.”

He quickly pointed to the girl that had appeared. At first, he wanted to shout back that he didn’t need to listen to Zhang Dong, but after his attention was brought back to Beatrice again he held his mouth shut.

“Interesting…”

Zhang Dong mumbled.

“What’s interesting?”

Another golden-haired beauty appeared from the side while everyone gathered.

“Oh nothing, we should head back these dwarves will be holding a big feast for a few days after the new king is chosen. We must discuss the side of our contract and get ready to depart. I bet the demons won’t just sit on their asses and let us attack them without putting up some defenses.”

“Also you four… you need to stop trusting those royals…”

This was the last thing that Zhang Dong said before the group from the royal family showed up. The pink-haired princess was there with her three brothers that moved between Zhang Dong’s side and the Hero party.

“Oh no, Lord Takeshi are you alright?”

The girl was clearly acting all cutesy while rubbing all up into Takeshi. This was painfully obvious to Zhang Dong and the two girls that were standing next to him. Both of them had a look of disgust on their faces as this transpired.

For one reason or another Takeshi was quick to straighten up. He even gently pushed the pink hair ditz to the side while glancing between her and Beatrice.

“Oh no, I’m fine!”

Zhang Dong on the other hand just chuckled while sending a telepathic message to his summoner.

‘I think you have a new fan. Maybe you can talk some sense into him while using your womanly charm?’

The blond girl was confused and also started looking at this hero while also glancing at Zhang Dong. She also went red in the face the moment the womanly charms were mentioned. She was still someone that never even had a boyfriend before in her life.

‘Hey, what are you two doing?’

Isabella jumped into the conversation. Due to the telepathic transmission, she couldn’t hear them talking but she knew that something was fishy. What she did was hug Beatrice while pulling her away from the situation.

‘Leave her out of this!’

Zhang Dong started rubbing his head at the scene. Everything was getting pushed back into the rom-com genre. It seemed like some strange love square was being formed. With two of the girls, Takeshi and the pink-haired princess being involved. If it expanded further due to the three girls from Takeshi’s world was also a possibility. All of them were glancing here and one girl, in particular, wasn’t amused.

“Hey, what are you doing Takeshi!”

This girl was Ami who now abandoned her prince and started pulling Takeshi by the arm. The pink-haired princess did the same but from the other side. The youth in question on the other hand was still sneaking glances at Beatrice that was getting pulled away by Isabella.

‘So Beatrice really is the true main character? Is it the main character aura that is attracting so many people towards her?’

Zhang Dong thought while also being okay with Isabella winning Beatrice over. The rest of her suitors seemed to mostly have underhanded motives while this girl was a bit purer.

“Okay, I think we should go back, let us return to the hotel!”

There was a lot of talking as Zhang Dong surrounded almost everyone with a thin layer of his spiritual energy. He carried exactly six people out towards where the father of Thondin was celebrating. The four members of the human royal family didn’t seem amused as he yanked the hero party with him.

“Didn’t I tell you, my son is going to be the king!”

The old man looked quite chipper, it was hard to believe that he was someone that was on death's door just a week ago. He had his hand locked around some other old noble and the two were in beard rubbing proximity. The person he was holding hostage didn’t seem that happy about this but also unable to push away someone that was now the father of the new dwarven king.

“It’s time for you to keep your end of the bargain, dwarf.”

Zhang Dong didn’t really want to wait for too long. He got right to the point as he approached the merry man that was also quite drunk.

“It’s the spirit! I’ll be sure to make my boy build a big statue for you! Whoever said that spirits can’t be trusted should be hanged!”

The man seemed quite grateful which would probably speed things up. Surprisingly the man of the hour Thondin was spaced out. He was also here in this VIP booth. He was stuck looking down at the golem parts in the arena with his mouth wide open. It was clear that he never expected something like this to ever happen. Now he had to be king even if he didn’t like it.

“Don’t mind him, the boy will come around.”

The old man grinned while moving over to where Zhang Dong was. He gave Thondin a hard smack to the back which sent the new king tumbling forward.

“Get a grip of yourself, you are the new king, start acting like one!”

After the hit, Thondin seemed to snap back to reality. He looked at his old man and instantly straightened out. Even though he wasn’t ecstatic about this turn of events he also knew that this was a great honor. With this, his family’s future was secured. Even though the king's title wasn’t hereditary there were certain things a royal house would receive even when he died.

There was not much that Zhang Dong and his companions could do for now. They needed to wait a bit more for Thondin’s coronation. This also never went down as seeming less as people might think.

Jealousy was still there, the houses that spend all of their money now had someone they could point their hate at. Before this dwarf actually was presented his crown he was not the king. It wasn’t odd for the king candidate to be killed before they went through with the ceremony and it was also a part of the test. Only a person that survived till the end would be seen as the proper ruler.

With this, the next few days Zhang Dong and the Heroes were placed on guard duty. Now with a winner that was on their side they had something in common. Surprisingly now Takeshi was all for spending more time with their side. Beatrice was probably the main reason for it.

Due to the kids being preoccupied with each other it was on him to guard Thondin. Luckily he had vast detection skills and the dwarves didn’t make for good assassins. A few incidents happened but they were all quickly resolved by him. During this time Isabella was mostly trying to peel Takeshi off her friend.

After a few days the festivities were ramping up and the date for the coronation came. Thondin was now all dressed up and ready to take the plunge. When he was walking down towards the throne a strange sound was heard. When he looked to the side he noticed Zhang Dong holding a poison arrow that was a few inches away from his head.

The perpetrator was apprehended and this signaled the last assassination attempt that would befall this house. After the coronation was through any further acts would be seen as treason. The houses involved would be burned down and all its members down to the relatives killed without mercy. This was the law of the land and the other houses would keep to it.

‘Finally… we can finish this damn quest…’

Zhang Dong gave out a sigh while looking at the crown touching Thondin’s head. With this, his task was over and he would finally be able to leave this underground city.