88 Tavern Games I

The evening came sooner than Don thought, the sky slowly turned into dark blue as the stars started to glow on the sky. Ending his cultivation Don stood up to get ready for the opening night of the Steel Chick tavern.

The mirror in his room reflected his black long coat and metal plates on his armor, Don removed his black coat and put it into his space rings and stood before the mirror wearing a black full sleeve 'v' neck shirt. The mirror perfectly reflected his muscular body and his handsome face. Looking into his space ring, all he had is black armors and clothes not single clothes for occasions like this. However, Don's luck struck when he saw a cloth set among his vast amount of wealth in his space ring.

Putting on his new cloth Don checked himself in the mirror. His long-sleeved, dark gray leather jacket covers him well below his waist and is loosely tied with string at the bottom right side. The sleeves of his jacket were wide and reached down to just above his hands, they were decorated with a decorative band at the edges.

The jacket had a deep, rectangular neckline that revealed part of the white shirt worn below it and worn with a simple cloth band, which was held together by an intricate knot while the pants were plain and quite narrow and reached down to his soft leather boots.

Don took his black sword and the sheath and strapped it on his back and left the battle hammer in his space ring. Also, Don didn't put on his hood to cover his face but left it uncovered as his shoulder-length raven black hair swayed in the wind.

"I do look good," Don said looking at his reflection in the mirror.

"What have you done to my brother?" Don turned to see Knight entering his room with a smirk on his face.

"You do have the brains to wear something else, I thought you gonna go all battle armored in full black as usual" as he was saying Knight stood up on two legs and dusted the dirt away from Don's shoulder with his paw.

"You're still not coming?" Don asked.

"Nope I don't have enough strength after eating all the delicious meals Amaryll cooked, that girl can cook Don that girl can cook"

Knight licked his lips and laughed.

"Alright, see you later" Don nodded and made his way towards the door leaving Knight behind.

The night time in the castle was always mesmerizing to Don as the hallways brightly lightened with one of Ken's inventions he called bulbs.

"maal isnt spet sep boss wen"

(hey isn't that the boss man)

While walking through the hallways Don noticed some goblins running around the place mumbling something about pointing their little fingers at him. Human girls and elven girls looked at him while their cheeks visibly turned red and the demi-human men greeted him with full of respect. The men in the army including the elves saluted Don while passing him as Don nodded continued to walk towards the exit.

"The girls are looking at you like they're going to eat you whole" hearing the voice mixed with surprise and teasing Don turned back to see Arrora approaching him. Just like him, Arrora was wearing something different than her usual battle robe. She was wearing a long-sleeved white shirt and a black shiny legging as the silver sword with twin dragon etched hilt hanging on her hip in the sheath. Her raven black hair was tied into a ponytail that danced on her back up and down as she walked.

Arrora came before him and stood there in silence like she's expecting some comments on her looks from him.

"Come on let's go" If Arrora really did look for comments from Don, she didn't get one from him as Don made his way to the tavern.

"You look nice, Arrora" Arrora mumbled to herself seeing Don walking past her and followed him behind. The outside of the castle was livelier than inside, the dim light of the evening moon reflected on the faraway lake while the colorful flowery plants made the kingdom even more beautiful just like the golden paddy fields and the artistic buildings built by the dwarves.

The road to the tavern was filled with people belonging to various races such as humans, elves, goblins, and demihumans. All of them seemed to be going in the same direction as Don and Arrora, to the tavern.

"Your majesty, lady Arrora"

"Your majesty, lady Arrora"

"Hey look, it's his majesty and lady Arrora"

The people happily greeted Don and Arrora while some mother's pointed at Don and Arrora to their kids. Although Everlight had fewer people compared to Emir or any other kingdoms out there, the people here were happy and beaming in joy.

"I've never thought I'll find a place like this Don"

"Well, then you should train harder and grow stronger to protect it" Don calmly said.

Arrora rolled her eyes "why are you always so focused on power?", from the day she met Don, it was very rare to see him talking about anything else other than power or something related to power.

"Good things will be taken from you if you are weak " Arrora was able to feel the pain behind his words and chose not to prompt any further not to disturb his mood before they reach the tavern.

"I'm not going to lose anything I love anymore" Arrora vowed to herself and followed Don to finally reach the tavern.

From the outside, the Steel Chick looked clean, lively and homey. Stacked bricks and wooden planks made up most of the building's outer structure.

It was impossible to view the inside of the tavern through the high windows, but the laughter and familiar voices from within could be felt even from outside.

As Don and Arrora entered the tavern through the decorated, wooden door, they were welcomed by laughing voices and dancing people.

Surprisingly the bartender was not a dwarf but a demihuman woman with a cat face, she looked a little preoccupied by the customers, yet when she noticed Don and Arrora she stopped pouring the drinks and bowed towards Don.

Seeing the bartender suddenly bowing, the dwarves and the elves drinking before her turned their heads to see Don and Arrora standing on the entrance.

"Your majesty" the moment the words left their mouths, the whole tavern went from a livelier environment to a deathly silent place for a moment.

However, the cheering and shouts became even louder than before when the dwarves and demi-humans greeted Don and Arrora with laughs and roars.

"Don't mind me, keep celebrating" Don said and followed one of the waitresses towards a table on the far corner. After a few minutes, the celebrations resumed and everyone returned to whatever they were doing before.

The tavern itself was packed with people of Everlight. Several big tables were occupied by elves and dwarves and from the looks of it, they were having a drinking contest. The smaller tables were occupied by demihumans and goblins and gambling while drinking and eating. Even though most of the stools at the bar were occupied, nobody seems to mind more company.

Don was surprised to see Arwen in the drinking contest with Stodemar, Amaryll and Arya were having some serious girl to girl discussion while

Reghys munching on the foods and drinks ignoring the fact that she's a proud dragon. The main attraction in the tavern was the crowd on the corner of the tavern, again Don was surprised to see it was little Elrond who was causing all the commotions.

Elrond was standing on a table and throwing knives at the bottles on dwarves' heads and he was quite good at it by the looks of him hitting the bottles instead of the heads accurately.

"Your majesty we serve the best ale in the whole kingdom," the waitress said while holding a notebook in her hand.

"He doesn't drink, just give us two mugs of grape juice" Arrora placed the order as the waitress seemed shocked at first then she nodded and ran back to the kitchen in the back.

"I don't drink if you want to, go ahead" Don said looking at Arrora on the chair beside him.

Arrora was tempted to taste the home brew ale of the dwarves as the smell was too good to resist but she was holding her desire because of Don. It was obvious to Don that she wants to drink but hesitating because of him so even though Don didn't want her to get a hangover, he decided to let her do whatever she wants.

"I don't want to control you so go ahead drink whatever you want, it's on my tab"

Arrora couldn't resist anymore as her eyes almost sparkled and went to the counter to buy the drinks

"The winner is Frann, another proud dwarf has lost" while Arrora was carrying the drinks to Don's table, he heard the shouts and commotion from the table a few feets away from him.

"Who can beat our champion Frann the strongest? Do we have a challenger in Everlight?" The shouting caused quite an uproar in the tavern.

"What's going on there?" Arrora placed drinks on the tables and asked Don.

"Me king ye have ta reclaim our honor for us" before Don could say anything a dwarf from the crowd came to Don and started to plead him.

"I'm confused, what's happening here?" Arrora said sipping from the mug after seeing the dwarf, many elves, and even some demihumans came to Don's table asking for him to reclaim their honor.

"it's tha greatest tavern sport between two men, me king. only tha strongest can compete for an' we dwarf never lost till now"

"What game is that?" Arrora asked again.

"Tha arm-wrestling lady Arrora" Arrora almost coughed up the ale she drank when she heard the dwarf. Arrora couldn't believe that the dwarves and even elves were acting like this for just a game of arm wrestling and asking for Don's help.

Everyone in the tavern stared at Don for his answer as Don wanted to slap the dwarf for dragging him into this game.

"We are waiting, your majesty" across the tavern Don heard Amaryll's playful voice.

"Alright " the dwarves and elves jumped in joy when they heard Don as Don stood up from his chair and walked towards the table where this game is going on.

The table that the game was happening occupied by demi-human men and women.Without anyone saying Don guessed which one was Frann just by looking at the bulky man surrounded by two demihuman girls. Even though Frann looked arrogant to outsiders, when he saw Don he tried to stand up but stopped by Don.

"So let's do this, don't hold back because I'm your king ok" Don said as he pulled a chair and sat.

"Are there any rules?" Arrora asked the dwarfs.

"Tha only rule be lady arrora be, only use raw strength nae life energy or anything fancy"

"This is going to be interesting" Arya made her way towards the table and said as Amaryll followed her behind.

"Shall we start your majesty?"