Chapter 13 Palace Intrigue

Regarding the conspiracies and power struggles within these palace walls, Hao Ren was actually not very good at them. Yes, he had indeed read many novels, movies, and TV series on the subject, but the things in those stories were obviously not comparable to reality. He also knew many real princes, nobles, emperors, and generals, but whether it was the Irim royal family or the monarchs and ministers of the Demon Empire, they all had a distinct and unique style. Compared with the upper structure of the Taelos Kingdom, those highly unified and strictly disciplined ruling bodies were obviously much more "approachable."

Based on the scattered information he had heard from Veronica and what he had seen and heard at the banquet last night, Hao Ren could deduce how many deeply rooted shadows there were in the upper echelons of this ancient kingdom.

The atmosphere in the room was very heavy for a time. Even the slow-witted little Prince Andrew felt that the atmosphere was not right and cautiously stopped his childish act of blowing bubbles in the tea. Veronica frowned, and her eyes seemed to be brewing a ball of fire: "If it's true... it's simply appalling! Anya, have you told Father about it?"

"I haven't told him, and there's no need to tell him," Anya shook her head slightly. "Father is wise and probably has noticed some clues. Recently, the guards near my residence and Andrew's have doubled, and some of Father's personal soldiers have been added. Obviously, he is guarding against something. However, the idea that 'someone harmed a member of the royal family and almost succeeded' is too shocking, and we haven't caught any clues about the other party. At this stage, it is not appropriate to make this matter public."

Hao Ren interjected, "Then is it appropriate to tell me? I'm pretty much a stranger to you, right?"

"It's not that I'm telling you, but you had already deduced it, hadn't you?" Anya smiled and looked at Hao Ren. "Moreover, you are an ancient guardian from a thousand years ago. The power struggles of our time are meaningless to you. Compared to most people in this Golden Rose Palace, you are the one I really don't need to be wary of—at least until you are recruited by some high-ranking and ambitious figure who plots against the royal family."

Hao Ren patted his head. "Oh, that's true. Let's get back to the point—so far, everything is my speculation, but judging from your appearance, have you grasped any real evidence?"

"No evidence, also speculation, but I trust my own speculation," Anya smiled and pointed to herself, with a hint of cunning on her face. "I'm not as good as my sister, but only my brain is something to be proud of. Bai City has not been peaceful recently. Maybe it's because it's been peaceful for too long, and this Chaos War has lasted too long. Some cultists are stirring up trouble, and some nobles are not too restless. It is almost certain that some people are planning things that shouldn't happen."

Hao Ren thought for a while. "Then these people's hands are long enough—to be able to reach into this high-walled courtyard, it sounds exciting just hearing it. But then again, can you determine the scope of these people?"

"It's impossible to determine. If we could, we would have launched further action long ago."

Hao Ren stroked his chin. "How many children does His Majesty the King have in total?"

"Only the three of us," Veronica said. "Father had deep feelings for Mother. After Mother passed away, he never remarried."

"Let me think. Let's not care who did it for now. In short, it can be certain that their target is the king's children, so it must not be limited to Anya and Andrew. Veronica, you should also be one of the targets, but we don't know when the other party will strike, or in what form."

Veronica waved her hand carelessly. "No matter who it is, bring it on. Anyway, the fierce battle in the Western Territory didn't take my life, and the Land of Chaos didn't keep me. I'm not even afraid of monsters, am I afraid of people?"

Anya's expression suddenly changed slightly. "Wait, maybe... they've already made their move."

Before Veronica could react, Hao Ren's eyes had already sharpened. "Are you saying that Veronica's accident was also part of some plan?"

Anya narrowed her eyes. "That would be more 'reasonable': the kingdom's three heirs are in danger at the same time, with no one left out."

"Wait, wait," Veronica waved her hand vigorously. "This doesn't make sense. There are only two main reasons why the war in the Western Territory was unfavorable: first, the power of Chaos suddenly became stronger; and second, the Theocracy of Cours withdrew its troops early. These two reasons don't seem to be controllable by manpower."

Hao Ren shook his head. "The Chaos Tide is indeed impossible to control by manpower, but no matter how powerful the armies of the Theocracy of Cours are, aren't they just mortals?"

As soon as he said this, Anya and Veronica both looked at him with strange eyes. Hao Ren's current identity was still "ancient guardian," an ancient warrior and high-ranking priest from the Cassian Temple, which translated to a high-ranking member of the Theocracy of Cours a thousand years ago. For someone with this identity to casually question the Theocracy of Cours' army, it sounded exciting.

Like destroying his own family.

"Ahem," seeing that Hao Ren didn't react at all, Veronica could only cough twice to cover up her embarrassment. "The armies of the Theocracy of Cours are indeed mortals, but they are the most devout group of mortals. Their commanders are even more so. Although I don't really want to say good things about them now, these people are indeed the least likely to play tricks—because that directly violates the teachings of the Goddess of Creation. The Theocracy of Cours is located in the Holy Domain Continent, and the entire continent is permanently shrouded in the power of the goddess. People born and raised there are directly affected by divine power, so regardless of personal morality and acquired cultivation, they have been molded into unshakable believers from the depths of their souls. Of course, the human heart is complex, and even extremely rare scum may appear among the people of the Holy Domain, but the probability is so small that it is pitiful, and once such a person appears, they will soon be caught by the Inquisition and expelled from the orderly world. They can't make any waves at all. Guardian, you are a person of the Holy Domain yourself, you wouldn't not know these things, right?"

Hao Ren listened blankly and then quickly nodded. "Oh, oh, I know, of course I know..."

This topic did not produce any results in the end.

Regardless of who the mastermind behind the assassination of the royal heirs was, one thing was certain: they were indeed highly skilled, leaving no trace. Even with Anya's wisdom and Rudolph III's secret service, they could only determine that there was something fishy behind this incident. Hao Ren even carefully asked Anya about the names of everyone their siblings had come into contact with in the week before they fell ill—Her Royal Highness had an extraordinary memory and could recall these people without missing a single one. However, for Hao Ren, he only heard a bunch of names of people he didn't know at all.

After Veronica's side certification, those people were all loyal and reliable. Even with the greatest malice, the two princesses really couldn't find any past suspicions about these people or their motives for murdering the royal family.

"It seems that this is the only way," Hao Ren spread his hands in the end. "I am a newcomer here. I am good at fighting, but I am afraid that I can't help you much in the face of such conspiracies. But I still want to remind you: you must be more careful. Their plan has obviously failed this time, but there will definitely be a next time."

"We will naturally pay attention," Anya said with a faint smile. "Thank you for the guardian's concern. Oh, right, I suddenly remembered a detail."

Hao Ren raised his eyebrows immediately. "What's the matter?"

"During the period when Andrew and I were seriously ill, we also had a symptom, which was frequent nightmares."

"Nightmares?" This was originally a detail that would be overlooked by ordinary people, but Hao Ren immediately became vigilant. "What kind of nightmares?"

"There is no pattern, there are all kinds of things," Anya shook her head. "I did suspect this clue, but I sorted out all the dreams myself and couldn't find any doubts from them. There was no premonition, no spiritual guidance or hint, just pure nightmares. It is normal for people who are seriously ill to have nightmares, so I didn't pay attention to this point in the end."

Hao Ren took a breath. "No... this is very important, maybe very important."

Next, he asked Anya to describe all the dreams she had at the time. Her Royal Highness's powerful memory once again showed its power. Every one of her dreams—although they were all disturbing nightmares—was recalled clearly, and every detail was described very vividly. Hao Ren experienced more than a dozen absurd and bizarre dreams as if he were there, each of which seemed to be filled with dark malice.

After all the dreams were described, he exhaled a long breath: as Anya said, these dreams could not be analyzed on the surface, but as a "person who had been there" who had been in contact with the Guardian Nightmare, faced the spiritual world of the eldest son, and accepted the baptism of eternal malice, he was very good at finding disharmony from these strange dreams.

However, this kind of disharmony requires experience to feel, and he didn't know how to explain it to the two princesses (the "Prince" next to him who was only busy eating snacks and playing with toys from beginning to end had been ignored).

"I don't know how to tell you, but these dreams may be the real deadly things," Hao Ren said. "All dreams are distorted, they are things produced by the interference of external will. Anya, you have seen things in your dreams that you have never seen before, and you have completely lost control of your dreams, and you can't even get out of them. I have seen such nightmares before, and it is a characteristic of being invaded by powerful evil thoughts."

"Then what should we do?" Veronica was suddenly horrified by Hao Ren's crazy talk. "This sounds even more terrifying than a warlock's spiritual curse..."

"The dream has faded, so I can't track it, and it's even harder to say how to deal with it. Now I can only think that the potion prepared by your alchemist is useful: probably it just contains ingredients that enhance spiritual resistance and resist the invasion of evil thoughts. But if you encounter such nightmares again, I believe I can help."

Veronica and Anya looked at each other and bowed to Hao Ren at the same time. "Thank you very much."

Hao Ren nodded in response, but his heart was not as relaxed as it seemed on the surface.

Nightmares, nightmares again.

He thought of those outposts in the Shadow Jungle that were swallowed by terrifying nightmares.

Could there be a connection between the two?