That Time I Got Turned Into a Dragonoid

<It seems you made a mistake. That line was for those who want to participate in the tournament.>

"Tch... no wonder there weren't any people in line," Sam thought, annoyed with himself. "What now? Are they as strong as me?" he asks inside his mind.

<From the amount of mana they are emitting, no. At best, they can resist you for a few seconds.>

Sam immediately felt better after hearing that. "Right, I forgot I'm the main character,"his confidence returning.

At that moment, high up in the arena, the host of the tournament appears. She was a female demon, elegant and powerful, holding something that looked like a magical microphone.

"This is it! All the fearless participants have gathered here to show their bravery," she starts, her voice booming through the arena.

"First of all, we should all appreciate all the participants for participating in this death battle," she adds, a fierce smile on her face.

"Death battle?" Sam mutters lightly, a knot of unease forming in his stomach.

At once, the whole arena stands up and starts clapping and cheering. Even high up, besides the host, there were several people with special VIP seats, and even they stood up, clapping lightly.

"Now now... we should start the tournament! The last one standing will be our new demon king!" she announces, her voice filled with excitement.

"Demon king? What is going on here?" Sam falls into confusion once again, his mind racing.

<Some time ago, after an unknown incident, the sixth demon king went missing. It was speculated that he is dead, but now it seems he's really dead, and these people are choosing their new demon king once again, as per their custom,> Cassie explained.

Sam sighs. He wanted to be the hero who defeats demon kings. But still, he didn't hate this idea either. Being an anti-villain who favors both demons and humans and only attacks his enemies... that was also one of his fantasies.

Meanwhile, the host points forward towards a big, circular metal plate at a distance. A few demons pick up a large hammer that was almost twice their size and directly bang it it on the metal plate.

DNNNN...

A loud bell sound echoes through the arena as a sign for the battle to start.

At once, everyone took their battle stance, clenching their weapons. Everyone's eyes were looking around, aiming for the weak targets first.

And without a doubt, the best choice was none other than Sam. With his normal body and young appearance, he looked inexperienced and out of place.

He could easily feel their death stares, like a pack of wolves eyeing a lone sheep.

But Sam wasn't scared by such death stares either. He had enough confidence in himself and Cassie.

He clenches his fists, taking a normal, amateurish boxing stance, just like he'd seen in movies.

"□■■■ ••••• □□■ (Come at you all)..." he shouts, trying to sound intimidating.

But the moment he says it, it's as if he didn't say anything at all. Yet, it's also as if he shouted as loud as anyone could. The words were a jumble of strange concepts, simple yet they contained so many meanings and no meanings at all, all at the same time. It was a sound that shouldn't exist, a sound that the mind couldn't process.

The entire arena went into chaos. The whole participants fell to their knees, vomiting blood. Some were even bleeding from their ears and eyes, their bodies convulsing.

Meanwhile, the audience was in a similar state. They were vomiting, falling from their seats and clenching their heads as hard as they could, screaming in agony.

Sam circles around, seeing their state in complete confusion. "W-what happened? Did I do something?".

<Forgive me. It is my fault for not telling you earlier,> Cassie says, her voice still flat despite she was apologizing.

<As per Raphael's blessing, you have also received knowledge of foul language. It is also called cosmic language, a way that higher-level beings communicate with each other. These third-dimensional mortals can't handle it.>

<Mostly, the voice/language of souls is the best option, which lets everyone from different worlds communicate with each other as long as they have soul.>

<Would you like to switch to the voice of the souls?>

"Fuck, you could've done it without asking. Yes," he agrees, his mind still reeling from the chaos he had caused.

He shifts his attention back to his surroundings. People have started recovering from the pain, clutching their heads and groaning. Thankfully, it didn't seem that anyone had died. It was like they went through a moment of intense pain and then everything went back to normal, though they were all looking at him intensely.

"I-i... wasn't..." Sam was thinking of how to resolve the situation, how to explain that it was all an accident.

But his words got caught in his throat as he saw everyone looking at him intensely. Whether it were the contestants or the audience, everyone's gazes were fixed on him.

People sitting on the VIP seats stood up, opened their demon wings, and landed gracefully on the ground in front of him.

A few people from the audience's side also jumped into the arena. At the same time, all the other contestants started approaching towards him slowly, their weapons lowered, their expressions no longer hostile.

"Holy shit, they are trying to gang up on me, right? Should I run away?" he thought, his heart starting to race again.

<You would like to fly away by magic or wings?> Cassie offered.

"Urgh... Both are in my fantasies. Which one should I pick first?" he thought in a panic, as the people were closing up to him. He looked around and panicked even more. "M-magic should be—"

He was about to answer but then, all of a sudden, all the demons and humanoid monsters from different species knelt on the ground and bowed deeply till their heads touched the ground.

"We greet our new king!" they all announced at once, their voices echoing through the now-silent arena.

"Huh? What?"

****

Two days went by casually without nothing happening at all. DreadHaven was also running like usual. Yumi was still being a workaholic, and Scarlett was always finding ways to slip off from her work.

Kroenen also came back from the kingdom of Victoria and reported everything that happened while he was there. And to be honest, nothing happened at all.

"Although Queen Victoria was persistent about coming with me, but I refused," he said, his voice flat.

"You did well. That was a good decision," Scarlett praised him. She didn't want another rivalry between Victoria and the others; she had already had enough of Irish, Lunatic, and Reiza.

Right now, she was sitting as a customer in a restaurant, together with Aoto, Ingrassia, Chiyoko, and Richard. The atmosphere was a bit heavy.

"I think it is time we should go back now. The situation seems to have cooled as well. We'll go back and try to bring the truth to light," Aoto was the first one to speak, his voice determined.

"You sure? What if it's just an illusion of peace?" Scarlett says back, her expression slightly concerned.

"Still, it's not like we can ignore it forever. One day or another, we have to face it," Aoto says with a sigh, running a hand through his hair.

"And the further away me and Chiyoko are from you, the better," Aoto thinks inside his mind, knowing the goddesses might make him and Chiyoko do something against their will if they stayed for long without doing anything.

"Aoto is right. I also want to go back and tell everyone about the truth, that the real culprit behind this is actually the Holy Knights," Richard says. Although his tone was normal, there was still a hint of deep-seated emotion behind it.

"And they'll believe you," Scarlett says sarcastically, and sighs. And in a way, between a kidnapped prince who came back out of nowhere and years of trustworthy Holy Knights, who would everyone believe?

"We won't know until we try. Besides, I'm worried about my father and family as well. It's already a luck that nothing has happened till now," Ingrassia says, her voice full of concern for her family.

"You are right, but only if they would have revealed one, at least one weakness," Scarlett mutters to herself.

"You don't have to worry too much either. As the summoned hero of Almeida, I'll also go with Prince Richard and protect him at any cost," Chiyoko exclaims with confidence, her fist clenched.

Scarlett looks at their fierce and confident eyes and couldn't bring herself to deny them anymore. They had made up their minds.

"Okay then. Wait till evening. I'll arrange a carriage. By then, you can talk to Irish about your departure as well. And yeah, don't hesitate to contact me anytime if it seems like the situation is dangerous," Scarlett says. She felt like a guardian adult of a group of little kids on a trip, trying to ensure their safety.

"We will," all of them say in unison.