The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hao Ren was not well-versed with the intrigue and infighting in the palace. He also knew quite a few real princes, nobles, emperors, and generals, but they all had a distinct style of doing things. Compared to the superstructure of the Taros Kingdom, the highly-unified ruling institutions were clearly more “approachable”.

Hao Ren could deduce how complex the upper echelons of this old kingdom were from just a few scraps of information from Veronica and what he saw and heard at the banquet last night.

The atmosphere in the room was heavy. Even the obtuse Prince Andrew felt the atmosphere was not right and carefully stopped blowing bubbles in his tea. Veronica frowned, as though a flame was brewing in her eyes. “If it’s true… This is absolutely shocking! Ania, have you told father?” asked Veronica.

“No, and I don’t have to.” Ania shook her head slightly. “Father is a wise man, and perhaps he is aware it. Recently, the guards near Andrew’s and my place have tripled, and some of Father’s own men had come in. Apparently, he’s on guard against something. It’s just that ‘there were attempts to murdered members of the Royal Family and almost succeeded’ is too impactful. And we haven’t caught any trace of them yet, so it’s not appropriate to make this matter public at this stage.”

“Is it okay to tell me? I’m a stranger to you,” asked Hao Ren.

“You’ve already deduced it yourself, haven’t you?” Ania looked at Hao Ren with a smile. “And you are the ancient guardian from a thousand years ago, the power disputes of our time are meaningless to you. I don’t need to be on guard against you.”

“Oh, right. So far everything is just my guess. But you look like… Have you got any concrete proof?”

“No. I’m also just speculating, but I trust my own speculation.” Ania smiled and pointed to herself, with a hint of cunning on her face. “I’m not as strong as my sister, but I’m proud of my brain. White City hasn’t been peaceful lately. Probably it’s been peaceful for too long and the chaotic war has been going on for too long. Some cults are ready for action, and some aristocrats are not content with what they have either. We can almost certain that some people are planning something that shouldn’t happen.”

Hao Ren thought for a moment and asked, “Can you confirm the scope of these people?”

“It’s impossible. We would have taken further action if we could confirm it.”

“How many children does the king have?”

“Just the three of us,” Veronica replied. “My father loves my mother very much. He never remarried after my mother passed away.”

“Let me see. This man’s goal is the king’s children, so it was certainly not limited to Ania and Andrew. Veronica, you should be one of the targets, too. We just don’t know when and how they’re going to do it.”

Veronica waved her hand and said, “Whoever it is, I don’t care. After all, that vicious battle in the west didn’t kill me, and I didn’t die amid the chaos. I’m not afraid of monsters, let alone people.”

Some idea suddenly came to Ania’s mind. “Wait, maybe… They’ve already done it.”

Hao Ren looked at Ania sharply and asked, “You mean what happened in the battle was planned?”

Ania narrowed her eyes and said, “That makes sense: all three heirs of the kingdom were in trouble at the same time, and none of them was left out.”

“Wait a minute. It doesn’t make sense. There are only two reasons for the failure of the war in the western region. One is that chaotic forces suddenly become stronger, and the other is the early withdrawal of troops from the Theocracy. Neither of these two reasons seems to be under human control.” Veronica disagreed.

Hao Ren shook his head and said, “The tides of Chaos are indeed beyond human control, but the army of the Theocracy is only human.”

Ania and Veronica looked at him strangely as soon as he finished. Hao Ren was now the ‘ancient guardian’, the ancient warrior in the Cassouin Temple. He could have been a senior member of the Theocracy a thousand years ago. It was inappropriate for him to directly question or suspect the army of the Theocracy.

“Ahem.” Veronica tried to soften the awkward atmosphere. “The army of the Theocracy is indeed mortal, but they are the most faithful ones, especially their commanders. I think these people are the least likely ones to engage in intrigue because it is directly against the teachings of the Goddess of Creation. The Theocracy is located in the sanctum. The whole continent is permanently enveloped in the power of the Goddess. Those born and raised there are directly imbued with divine power. So regardless of personal morality and upbringing, they’ve been molded into unshakable believers from the depths of their souls. Of course, the human mind is complex. Even the sanctum, there may be one or two scum, which is extremely rare. But the odds are too small. And even if there’re such people, they will soon be caught and expelled. Sir Guardian, you yourself are a member of the sanctum. Don’t you know that?”

Hao Ren quickly nodded and said, “Oh, of course, I know…”

The discussion ended without any conclusion.

No matter who was behind it, one thing is certain: they were masterful and left no trace. Even with Ania’s wisdom and Rudolph III’s spy power, they could only certain that someone was behind this incident. Hao Ren even carefully asked Ania about the names of everyone they had been in contact within the week before they fell ill. The princess had an extraordinary memory. She recalled all of them without fail.

With Veronica’s stamp of approval, those people were loyal and reliable. Even in the most malicious speculation, the two princesses could not find the suspicions of these people and the motive for murdering the prince and princesses.

“That’s all we can do,” Hao Ren said. “I’m a newcomer. I’m afraid I can’t help you much. But one word of caution: be careful. Their plan has obviously failed, but there will surely be another one.”

“Of course we will.” Ania smiled faintly. “Thank you for your concern. Ah, yes, I suddenly remembered one thing.”

Hao Ren raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”

“We had a symptom while Andrew and I were very ill. We have nightmares frequently.”

“Nightmare? What kind of nightmare?”

“All kinds of things. There’s no regular pattern.” Ania shook her head. “I do have doubts about this clue. But I’ve analyzed all the dreams and found nothing suspicious in them, just a simple nightmare. It’s common for people who are seriously ill to have nightmares, so in the end, I didn’t pay any more attention to that.”

“No… This is very important, maybe very important,” said Hao Ren.

Then, Hao Ren asked Ania to describe all the dreams to him. Each of her dreams, though disturbing, was vividly recalled and every detail was vividly described, making Hao Ren feel like he had experienced absurd and weird dreams as if he were in them. Every dream seemed to be filled with dark malice.

Hao Ren let out a long breath after all the dreams were described. As Ania says, they looked like just some kind of strange dreams on the surface, but Hao Ren is different. He was very good at finding unusual points in these eccentric and wild dreams.

“I don’t know how to explain it to you, but these dreams are probably the real killer,” Hao Ren said. “All dreams are distorted. These dreams are produced by the interference of foreign will. Ania, there are things in your dreams that you’ve never seen before, and you’ve completely lost your dominance over your dreams and are unable to disengage from them. I’ve seen nightmares like this before. It’s the characteristic of being invaded by a powerful evil mind.”

“What should I do then?” Veronica was horrified by Hao Ren at once. “It sounds more terrible than a warlock’s spiritual curse…”

“The dream has faded, so I can’t track it and I don’t know how to deal with it. Now I can only assume that the potions prepared by your alchemists worked. Maybe it contains the ingredients that enhance mental resistance and resist the invasion of an evil mind. But if you encounter this nightmare again, I believe I can help.”

Veronica and Ania exchanged glances and bowed their heads to Hao Ren. “Thank you very much.”

Hao Ren nodded, but deep inside, he was a little worried.

Nightmare, nightmare again.

He thought of the posts engulfed by terrible nightmares in the shadowy jungle.

Was there a connection between the two?