Regarding the cunning and cunning within these palace walls, Hao Ren is actually not good at it—yes, he has indeed read a lot of novels, movies and series in this area, but the things in those stories obviously cannot be compared with reality, and he knows it well. There are many real princes, nobles, emperors and generals, but whether it is the Arim royal family or the demon empire's monarchs and ministers, they all obviously have a maverick style of painting. Compared with the upper structure of the Talos Kingdom, those highly unified ruling organs are obviously It is much more "approachable".
Just based on the scattered information he heard from Veronica and what he saw and heard at the banquet last night, Hao Ren could deduce how many entangled shadows there could be in the upper layers 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 not right, and carefully stopped the childish behavior of blowing bubbles in the tea. Huo Huo: "If it's true... this is simply appalling! Ania, have you told your father?"
"I didn't tell him, and I don't need to tell him," Ania shook her head slightly, "My father is wise, and I'm afraid I have noticed some clues. Recently, the number of guards near me and Andrew's residence has tripled, and there are some fathers. It is obvious that he is guarding against something. It's just that things like 'someone assassinated a member of the royal family and almost succeeded' are too impactful, and we haven't caught any clues about the other party. At this stage, it is not appropriate to put this It's made public."
Hao Ren answered smoothly: "Is that appropriate to tell me? I'm almost 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, and the power disputes in our era It means nothing to you, and compared to the vast majority of people in this Golden Rose Palace, you are the one who really needs my guard—at least until you are recruited by some powerful figures who have plots against the royal family. "
Hao Ren patted his forehead: "Oh, that's true. Let's get back to business—so far everything is my speculation, but judging by your appearance, do you have any tangible evidence?"
"There is no evidence, it is also speculation, but I trust my own speculation," Ania smiled and pointed to herself, with a hint of slyness on her face, "I am not as powerful as my sister, but I only have a brain, which is still very good." It is something to be proud of. In fact, the White City has not been peaceful recently, probably because it has been peaceful for too long before, and this chaotic war has lasted for too long. Some people are planning something that shouldn't happen."
Hao Ren thought for a while: "Then these people's arms can be stretched long enough—it's exciting to hear that they can reach into this high-walled compound. But then again, can you determine the range of these people? "
"It's impossible to be sure. If it can be confirmed, further actions have already been taken."
Hao Ren stroked his chin: "How many children does His Majesty the King have?"
"There are only three of us," Veronica said. "The father and the king have a deep affection for the queen mother. After the mother died of illness, he never remarried."
"Let me think about it, let's not care about who is doing it. All in all, we can be sure that his target is the heir of the king, so it must not be limited to Ania and Andrew. Veronica, you should also be one of the targets. It's just that we don't know when the other party will do it, and in what form."
Veronica waved her hand carelessly: "No matter who it is, let the horse come over, anyway, the vicious battle in the western region didn't kill me, and the land of chaos couldn't keep me. I'm not afraid of monsters, but I'm afraid of people ?”
Anya's expression suddenly changed slightly: "Wait, maybe...they have already done something."
Before Veronica could react, Hao Ren's eyes froze: "You mean that Veronica's distress this time was also part of a plan?"
Arnia narrowed her eyes: "This is much more 'reasonable': the three heirs of the kingdom are in distress at the same time, and none of them will be missed."
"Wait a minute," Veronica waved her hand vigorously, "I can't explain it clearly. There are only two main reasons why the war in the Western Territory 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 human-controllable."
Hao Ren shook his head: "It is true that the tide of chaos cannot be controlled by humans, but no matter how powerful the army of the Order is, isn't it still a mortal?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Arnia and Veronica immediately looked over with strange eyes: Hao Ren's current identity is still "ancient guardian", an ancient warrior and high-ranking priest in the Casuan Temple , This translates into a high-level executive of the Order of the Order a thousand years ago. At this time, a person with such an identity carelessly questioned the army of the Order of the Order. It sounds exciting.
It's like self-destruction.
"Ahem." Seeing that Hao Ren didn't react at all, Veronica could only cough twice to cover up her embarrassment, "The army of the Order is indeed mortal, but they are a group of mortals with the most steadfast beliefs, and their commanders are even more So, although I don't want to speak well of them now, these people are indeed the least likely to play tricks—because it directly violates the teachings of the Goddess of Creation. The Church State is located in the Sanctuary Continent, and the entire continent Permanently shrouded in the power of the goddess, people born and raised there will be directly impregnated with divine power, so regardless of personal morality and acquired training, they have been molded from the depths of their souls into unshakable believers. Of course, mortal hearts It's complicated, even among Sanctuary people, there may be extremely rare scum, but the chances are pitifully small, and once such a person appears, they will be picked out by the Tribunal and expelled from the world of order. Wind and waves. Lord Guardian, you are a member of the sanctuary yourself, so you don’t know about these things, do you?”
Hao Ren listened in a daze, then quickly nodded: "Oh, yes, of course I know..."
This topic did not discuss any results in the end.
No matter who those behind-the-scenes masterminds who tried to assassinate the heirs of the royal family are, the only thing that is certain is that they are indeed superb and do not leave any lies. There are ghosts behind this incident. Hao Ren even asked Arnia carefully about the names of everyone the siblings had come into contact with in the week before their illness—His Royal Highness has a superb memory, and she can recall all these people without missing a word. To Hao Ren, he just heard a lot of names of people he didn't know at all.
Veronica verified that those people were loyal and reliable people. Even if they speculated with the greatest malice, the two princesses could not find any doubts about these people's past and their motives for murdering the royal blood relatives.
"It seems like this is the only way to go," Hao Ren finally spread his hands, "I'm a newcomer, and I'm good at fighting, but I'm afraid I can't help you much in the face of this kind of conspiracy. But I still want to remind you: Be careful, their plan has clearly failed this time, but there will definitely be another time."
"We will naturally pay attention," Ania smiled lightly, "thanks to the guardian for your concern. Ah, yes, I suddenly remembered a detail."
Hao Ren raised his eyebrows immediately: "What's the matter?"
"During the time Andrew and I were seriously ill, we also had another symptom, which was frequent nightmares."
"Nightmare?" This was originally a detail that would be overlooked by ordinary people, but Hao Ren suddenly became vigilant, "What kind of nightmare?"
"There is no pattern, there are all kinds of things," Ania shook her head, "I did have doubts about this clue, but I have sorted out all the dreams myself, and I can't find any doubts, there is no omen, and there is no spiritual guidance The traces or hints are just pure nightmares. People who are seriously ill are prone to nightmares, which is normal, so I didn't pay attention to this in the end."
Hao Ren took a breath: "No... this is very important, maybe very important."
Next, he asked Ania to describe all the dreams at that time to himself. Her Royal Highness's powerful memory once again showed its power. Every dream of hers—even though it was a disturbing nightmare—was clearly recalled. It was clear, and every detail was described vividly. Hao Ren experienced more than a dozen absurd and strange dreams as if he was there, each one seemed to be filled with dark malice.
After describing all the dreams, he breathed a sigh of relief: As Ania said, these dreams can't analyze anything on the surface, but as a spiritual world who has been in contact with the guardian's nightmare and faced the eldest son, A "comer" who has been baptized by ancient evil thoughts, he is very good at finding contradictions in these treacherous dreams.
It's just that this kind of incongruity needs experience to feel it, and he doesn't know how to explain it to the two princesses (the "His Royal Highness" next to him who only eats snacks and plays with toys from beginning to end has been ignored).
"I don't know how to tell you, but these dreams are probably the real deadly things," Hao Ren said, "All dreams are distorted and produced by the interference of external will, Ania, you In your dream, there are things that you have never seen before, and you have completely lost control of your own dream, and you can't even escape from it. I have seen such a nightmare before, and it is a characteristic of being invaded by powerful evil thoughts."
"Then what should we do?" Veronica was horrified by Hao Ren's mysterious words, "This sounds more terrible than the magician's spiritual curse..."
"The dream has faded, so I can't track it down, let alone how to deal with it. Now I can only think that the potion prepared by your alchemy master is effective: probably it just contains the ability to enhance mental resistance and resist the invasion of evil thoughts. ingredients. But if you encounter this nightmare again, I believe I can help."
Veronica and Ania looked 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 as relaxed as it appeared on the surface.
Nightmares, nightmares again.
He thought of the outposts in the Shadowgrove that had been consumed by horrible nightmares.
Is there a connection between the two? (to be continued~^~)