In fact, Hao Ren is not good at the intrigues, cunning, and secret fighting within these palace walls. He has indeed seen many movies and TV series in this area, but the things in those stories obviously cannot be compared with reality, and he also knows a lot of them.
Real princes, nobles, emperors and generals, but whether they are the Irem royal family or the monarchs and ministers of the Demon Empire, they all obviously have a unique style of painting. Compared with the upper-level structure of the Kingdom of Talos, those ruling institutions with a high degree of unified orders and prohibitions are obviously "approachable"
"too much.
Based only on some fragmentary information he heard from Veronica and what he saw and heard at last night's banquet, Hao Ren was able to deduce how many intricate shadows there were in the upper echelons of this ancient kingdom.
The atmosphere in the room was very solemn for a while. Even the slow little Prince Andrew felt that something was wrong with the atmosphere, and carefully stopped the childish act of blowing bubbles in the tea. Veronica's brows tightened, and there seemed to be something brewing in her eyes.
Flame: "If it's true...this is simply shocking! Anya, have you told your father?"
"I didn't tell him, and there's no need to tell him," Aniya shook her head slightly, "Father is wise, and I'm afraid he also noticed some clues. Recently, the number of guards near Andrew and I's residence has tripled, and there are some fathers.
The personal soldiers came in, and it was obvious that he was on guard against something. It's just that something like 'someone assassinated a member of the royal family and almost succeeded' was too impactful, and we haven't caught any clues about the other party, so it's not appropriate to put this at this stage.
The matter is made public.”
Hao Ren responded smoothly: "Is it appropriate to tell me then? I'm almost a stranger to you."
"I'm not telling you, but you have already deduced it yourself, right?" Aniya looked at Hao Ren with a smile, "And you are an ancient guardian from a thousand years ago. The power disputes in our era
It means nothing to you. Compared to the vast majority of people in this Golden Rose Palace, you are the one who really does not need to be on my guard, at least until you are recruited by some powerful figures who have evil intentions against the royal family."
Hao Ren patted his forehead: "Oh, that's true. Let's get back to business. Everything so far is just my speculation, but from the look of you, do you have any concrete evidence?"
"There is no evidence, it's just speculation, but I trust my own speculation," Aniya pointed at herself with a smile, with a hint of slyness on her face, "I'm not as powerful as my sister, but my brain is still very good.
It's something to be proud of. There is actually no peace in Baicheng recently. It's probably because there has been peace for too long before, and this Chaos War has lasted for too long. Some cultists are ready to make moves, and some nobles are also uneasy. It is almost certain that someone
These people are planning something that shouldn't happen."
Hao Ren thought for a while: "Then these people can stretch their hands long enough to reach into this high-walled compound, which is exciting to hear. But then again, can you determine the scope of these people?"
"It's impossible to be sure. If we could be sure, further actions would have been taken."
Hao Ren touched his chin: "How many children does His Majesty the King have?"
"There are only three of us," Veronica said. "My father had a deep affection for my mother and he did not remarry after my mother died of illness."
"Let me think about it. Regardless of who is doing it, in short, it is certain that his target is the king's heir. So it will not be limited to Aniya and Andrew. In fact, Veronica, you should also be one of the targets.
It’s just that we don’t know when the other party will take action or in what form.”
Veronica waved her hand carelessly: "No matter who it is, please come here. Anyway, the fierce battle in the Western Region did not kill me, and the Land of Chaos failed to keep me. I am not afraid of monsters, but I am also afraid of people."
?”
Aniya's expression suddenly changed slightly: "Wait, maybe... they have already done something."
Before Veronica could react, Hao Ren had a look in his eyes: "Are you saying that Veronica's danger was planned in some way?"
Aniya narrowed her eyes: "This is much more 'reasonable': the three heirs of the kingdom were in danger at the same time, and no one was missed."
"Wait a minute, wait a minute," Veronica waved her hands vigorously, "I can't explain this clearly. There are only two reasons why the war in the West is unfavorable. One is that the power of Chaos suddenly became stronger, and the other is that the Order State withdrew its troops early. These two reasons
It seems that it is not controllable by humans."
Hao Ren shook his head: "It is true that the tide of chaos cannot be controlled manually, but no matter how powerful the army of the Order State is, aren't they just mortals?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Ania and Veronica both looked at him with strange eyes: Hao Ren's current identity is still the "Ancient Guardian", an ancient warrior and high-level priest in the Cassuan Temple.
, this translates into the senior leaders of the Order State a thousand years ago. It sounds exciting for a person of this status to carelessly question the shady secrets of the Army of the Order State.
It's like destroying the entire family.
"Ahem," seeing that Hao Ren didn't respond at all, Veronica could only cough twice to hide her embarrassment, "The army of the Order State is indeed a mortal, but they are a group of mortals with the most steadfast faith, and their commander is more
So, although I don’t want to say good things to them now, these people are indeed the least likely to engage in conspiracy because it directly violates the teachings of the Goddess of Creation. The Order State is located in the Holy Continent, and the entire continent
They are forever shrouded in the power of the goddess. People born and raised there will be directly influenced by the divine power. Therefore, regardless of personal morality and nurture, they have been shaped into unshakable believers from the depths of their souls. Of course, mortals
With complicated minds, even extremely rare scum may appear among the people of the Sanctuary, but the chance is pitifully small, and once such people appear, they will be quickly found out by the Tribunal and expelled from the world of order. They simply cannot afford to do so.
Any storm. Lord Guardian, you are a member of the Sanctuary yourself, so you don’t know these things, right?"
Hao Ren listened in a daze, and then nodded quickly: "Oh, I know, of course I know..."
This topic did not come to any conclusion in the end.
No matter who is behind the attempt to assassinate the royal heir, there is only one thing that is certain, that is, they are indeed very sophisticated and leave no trace behind. Even with Ania's wisdom and Rudolf III's spy power, they can only be certain that this is the case.
There was just a ghost behind this incident. Hao Ren even asked Aniya carefully about the names of everyone the two siblings had come into contact with in the week before they fell ill. Your Highness the Princess's memory group was able to tell them all without missing a word.
These people recalled it, but to Hao Ren, he just heard a lot of names of people he didn't recognize at all.
After Veronica's verification, those people were loyal and reliable people. Even if they speculated with the greatest malice, the two princesses really couldn't find any doubts about these people's past and their motives for murdering the blood relatives of the royal family.
"It seems that this is the only way," Hao Ren finally spread his hands, "I am a newbie here. I can fight well, but I'm afraid I can't help you much in the face of such conspiracy. But I still want to remind you:
Be careful, their plan has obviously failed this time, but there will definitely be another one."
"Of course we will pay attention," Aniya smiled faintly, "Thanks to the guardian for his concern. Ah, by the way, I suddenly remembered a detail."
Hao Ren suddenly raised his eyebrows: "What's the matter?"
"While Andrew and I were seriously ill, we also had another symptom, which was frequent nightmares."
"Nightmare?" This was originally a detail that would be ignored by ordinary people, but Hao Ren suddenly became alert, "What kind of nightmare?"
"There is no pattern, there are all kinds of things," Aniya shook her head, "I did have doubts about this clue, but I sorted out all the dreams myself and couldn't find any doubts, no foreboding, and no spiritual guidance.
Or traces of hints, it was just a simple nightmare. People who are seriously ill tend to have nightmares, which is normal, so in the end I stopped paying attention to this point."
Hao Ren took a breath: "No... this is very important, maybe very important."
Next, he asked Ania to describe to him all the dreams she had at that time. Her Royal Highness the Princess's powerful memory once again showed its power. Every dream she had was clearly recalled, even though it was a disturbing nightmare.
, and every detail was described very vividly. Hao Ren felt as if he had experienced more than a dozen absurd and strange dreams, as if he were personally there, and each one seemed to be filled with dark malice.
After all the dreams were described, he let out a long sigh: Just as Aniya said, these dreams can't analyze anything on the surface, but as someone who has been exposed to the guardian's nightmare and faced the spiritual world of the eldest son,
An "experienced person" who has been baptized by eternal evil thoughts, he is very good at finding inconsistencies in these strange dreams.
It's just that this kind of violation requires experience to feel, and he doesn't know how to explain it to the two princesses (the "prince" next to him, who only cared about eating snacks and playing with toys from beginning to end, has been ignored).
"I don't know how to tell you, but these dreams are probably the real fatal things," Hao Ren said. "All dreams are distorted and are caused by the interference of external will. Aniya, you
Things appear in your dreams that you have never seen before, and you have completely lost control of your dreams and cannot even escape from them. I have seen such nightmares before, which are the characteristics of being invaded by powerful evil thoughts."
"Then what should we do?" Veronica was suddenly horrified by Hao Ren's divine words, "This sounds more terrifying than the warlock's spiritual curse..."
"The dream has faded, so I can't track it, let alone how to deal with it. Now I can only think that the potion prepared by your alchemy master is effective: it probably contains the ability to enhance mental resistance and resist the invasion of evil thoughts.
But if you encounter this kind of nightmare again, I believe I can help."
Veronica and Aniya looked at each other and lowered their heads to Hao Ren: "Thank you very much."
Hao Ren nodded in response, but his heart was not as relaxed as it looked on the surface.
Nightmare, nightmare again.
He thought of those outposts in the Shadow Jungle that were devoured by horrific nightmares.
Is there any connection between the two? (To be continued.) 8