Regarding the intrigues and cunning within these palace walls, in fact, Hao Ren is not good at it - yes, he has indeed seen a lot of novels, movies and serials in this area, but the things in those stories obviously cannot be compared with reality, and he also knows a lot of real princes, nobles, emperors, and generals, but whether it is the Erim royal family or the monarchs and ministers of the Demon Empire, they obviously have a maverick painting style, and compared with the superstructure of the Talos Kingdom, those highly unified ruling institutions are obviously much more "approachable".Based only on the bits and pieces of information he had heard from Veronica and what he had seen and heard at the banquet last night, Hao Ren could deduce how many intertwined shadows could exist in the upper echelons of this ancient kingdom.The atmosphere in the room was very solemn for a while, even the dull little prince Andrew felt that the atmosphere was wrong, and carefully stopped the childish act of blowing bubbles in the tea, Veronica's brows tightened, and a flame seemed to be brewing in her eyes: "If it's true......
It's appalling!
Aniah, did you tell your father?
”"I didn't tell him, and I don't need to tell him," Ania shook her head slightly, "Father is wise, I'm afraid he has also noticed some clues, the number of guards near Andrew's residence and I has tripled recently, and some of my father's own soldiers have been added, obviously he is guarding against something."
It's just that the fact that someone assassinated a member of the royal family and almost succeeded in doing so is too impactful, and we haven't caught any clues about the other party, so it's not appropriate to make this matter public at this stage. ”Hao Ren answered casually: "Is it appropriate to tell me then?"
I'm kind of a stranger to you. ”"I didn't tell you, but you already deduced it, didn't you?"
Ania smiled and looked at Hao Ren, "And you are an ancient guardian from a thousand years ago, the power strife of our time is meaningless to you, compared to the vast majority of people in this Golden Rose Palace, you are truly unguarded by me - at least until you are recruited by some high-ranking and powerful people who have bad intentions against the royal family." ”Hao Ren patted his head: "Oh, this is also true."
Let's get down to business - everything has been my speculation so far, but do you have any tangible evidence?
”"There's no evidence, it's speculation, it's just that I trust my own speculation," Ania smiled and pointed at herself, with a hint of cunning on her face, "I'm not as powerful as my sister, but I only have brains, and I'm still very proud."
In fact, there has not been peace in Baicheng recently, probably because it has been peaceful for too long before, and this chaos war has lasted too long, some cultists are ready to move, some nobles are not very peaceful, and it is almost certain that some people are planning something that should not happen. ”Hao Ren thought for a while: "Then these people's hands can stretch long enough—they can reach into this high-walled compound, and it will be exciting to hear about this."
But then again, can you determine the scope of these people?
”"It's impossible to know for sure, and if it were, further action would have been launched long ago."
Hao Ren touched his chin: "How many children does His Majesty have in total?"
”"It's just the three of us," said Veronica, "and my father had a great affection for his mother, and he didn't marry her again after her death." ”"Let me think about it, let's not care who does it, all in all, we can be sure that his target is the king's heir, then it must not be limited to Ania and Andrew, Veronica you should actually be one of the targets, but we don't know when the other party will do it, and in what form."
Veronica waved her hand with a big grin: "No matter who it is, let the horse come, anyway, the vicious battle in the West didn't kill me, and the Chaos Land didn't keep me, I'm not afraid of monsters, I'm still afraid of people?"
”Aniah's expression suddenly moved slightly: "Wait, maybe......
They've already done it. ”Before Veronica could react, Hao Ren already had a look in his eyes: "You mean that Veronica's distress this time was also some kind of plan?"
”Ania squinted her eyes: "This is much more 'reasonable': the three heirs of the kingdom are in danger at the same time, and none of them are missed. ”"Wait a minute," Veronica waved her hand vigorously, "I can't explain it, there are only two main reasons why the war in the West is unfavorable, one is the sudden increase in the strength of the chaos forces, and the other is the early withdrawal of the Order, both of which don't seem to be controllable by manpower." ”Hao Ren shook his head: "The Chaos Tide is indeed beyond human control, but no matter how powerful the army of the Order Country is, isn't it still a mortal?"
”As soon as he finished saying this, Ania and Veronica immediately looked at each other with strange eyes: Hao Ren's current identity is still the "Ancient Guardian", the ancient warrior and high-ranking priest in the Kasuan Temple, which is converted to the high-level of the Order State a thousand years ago, and a person with such an identity is very arrogant at this time to question that the army of the Order Country has a shady scene, which sounds exciting.It's like self-destruction."
Ahem," seeing that Hao Ren didn't react at all, Veronica could only cough twice to hide her embarrassment, "The army of the Order Nation is indeed mortal, but they are a group of mortals with the most firm beliefs, and their commanders are even more so, although I don't want to say good things to them now, but these people are indeed the least likely to play conspiracy - because it is directly contrary to the teachings of the Goddess of Creation."
The Order Kingdom is located in the Sanctuary Continent, and the entire continent is permanently shrouded in the power of the goddess, and those born and raised there will be directly impregnated with divine power, so it has nothing to do with personal morality and nurture, they have been molded from the depths of their souls into unshakable believers.Of course, mortals have complex human hearts, and even among the people of the Sanctuary there may be extremely rare scum, but the probability is really pitiful, and once such people appear, they will soon be found out by the Inquisition and expelled from the world of order, and they can't make any waves at all.Lord Guardian, you're a Sanctuary yourself, so you don't know about this, do you?
”Hao Ren listened to it in a daze, and then quickly nodded: "Oh, I know, of course I know ......"
The topic did not come out of any discussion in the end.Regardless of who was behind the assassination of the royal heir, the only thing that is certain is that they were indeed skilled and unsparing, and even with the wisdom of Ania and the power of Rudolf III's spies, they could only be sure that there was a ghost behind this incident.Hao Ren even carefully inquired about the names of each person the two siblings had come into contact with in the week before they fell ill - Her Royal Highness had a great memory and could recall them one by one, but to Hao Ren, he had just heard a lot of names of people he didn't know at all.Veronica's certification that those people are loyal and reliable, and even with the most malicious speculation, the two princesses really can't find the suspicions of these people's past and their motives for murdering the royal family's blood relatives."
It seems that this is the only way," Hao Ren finally spread his hand, "I am a newcomer, and I am okay to fight, but I am afraid that I will not be able to help you much in the face of this kind of conspiracy."
But I still have to warn you: be careful, their plan has obviously failed, but there will definitely be a next one. ”"We'll be mindful of it," Ania smiled faintly, "thank you for the Guardian's concern."
Ah, by the way, I suddenly remembered a detail. ”Hao Ren suddenly raised his eyebrows: "What's the matter?"
”"Another symptom we had during Andrew's very serious illness was frequent nightmares.""
Nightmares?"
This was originally a detail that would be overlooked by ordinary people, but Hao Ren suddenly became vigilant, "What kind of nightmare?
”"There are no patterns, there are all kinds of things," Ania shook her head, "I did have doubts about this clue, but I combed through all the dreams myself, and I couldn't find any doubts in them, no omens, no traces of spiritual guidance or suggestion, just simple nightmares."
It's normal for people who are seriously ill to have nightmares, so in the end I didn't pay attention to it. ”Hao Ren took a breath: "No......
That's important, maybe important. ”Then he asked Ania to describe all the dreams of that time to himself, and Her Royal Highness's powerful memory once again showed its power, and every dream of hers—even though it was a disturbing nightmare—was clearly recalled, and every detail was described vividly, and Hao Ren experienced more than a dozen absurd and strange dreams as if he were there, each of which seemed to be soaked in dark malice.After all the dreams were described, he let out a sigh: as Ania said, these dreams can't analyze anything on the surface, but as a "passer" who has been exposed to the Guardian's nightmares, faced the spiritual world of his eldest son, and received the baptism of eternal evil thoughts, he is very good at finding dissonance in these treacherous dreams.It's just that this kind of discord needs experience to feel, and he doesn't know how to explain it to the two princesses (the "prince highness" next to him, who only cares about eating snacks and playing with toys from beginning to end, has been ignored)."
I don't know what to tell you, but these dreams are probably the real deadly things," Hao Ren said, "All dreams are distorted, they are the result of the interference of foreign wills, Aniah, there are things in your dreams that you have never seen before, and you have completely lost control of your dreams, and you cannot even get out of them, I have seen such nightmares, which are characterized by the invasion of powerful evil thoughts. ”"So what to do?"
Veronica was suddenly terrified by Hao Renshen's babbling, "This sounds like it is more terrifying than the spiritual curse of the warlock......"
"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 alchemist master works: probably it just contains ingredients that enhance mental resistance and resist the invasion of evil thoughts."
But if you encounter this nightmare again, I'm sure I can help. ”Veronica and Ania glanced at each other, and at the same time bowed their heads to Hao Ren: "Thank you very much." ”Hao Ren nodded in response, but his heart was not at all as relaxed as it seemed on the surface.Nightmares, nightmares.He thought of the outposts in the Shadow Jungle that had been consumed by terrifying nightmares.Is there a connection between the two?
(To be continued.) )