Throne Hall, Royal Palace, Royal Capital of Aetas Kingdom.
At that moment, Irzoch stood a few meters away from the throne canopy and was in deep thoughts. Melody also stood next to Irzoch and stared at the right side wall with a solemn look on her face.
It had been more than five hours since Charles entered the Dream World. When he disappeared from the Throne Hall, Irzoch waited for a few minutes and soon started to get nervous. But after some thought, she decided to do other works in that free time. First, she stored Prince Quinn's body in her space ring to preserve it for the funeral ceremony and started cleaning the hall.
During that time, she also met with Melody and told her what had happened earlier.
On the other hand, Melody also agreed with her decision, and both decided to concentrate on other works.
After some discussion, Melody went to the Eastern Entrance gate and opened the gate for elite army men to enter the city. Under Commander Corey's help, she then took full control of the Royal Palace and returned to the Throne Hall.
Meanwhile, Irzoch asked a few elite knights and ordered them to prepare for the funeral ceremony. At the same time, she also wrote many letters, placed Duke Michael's noble seals on the covers, and gave the letters to some trusted knights to deliver them to all the noble households.
After that, she also asked Commander Corey to check if any other Royal Members like Third Prince and his mother were imprisoned in the dungeon.
Even though Charles wasn't there with them, both of them didn't lose their calm and did everything they could to stabilize the situation.
Melody and Irzoch finished their other works within the next five hours and then waited in the Throne Hall.
At that moment, Melody currently held a strange emerald bow in her hand and stood while leaning her back against the nearby wall.
Just as she was about to ask Irzoch about nobles, she sensed a spatial fluctuation and hurriedly gripped her emerald bow.
In the meantime, the space near her twisted suddenly, and soon a young man appeared before her.
Once she confirmed that it was Charles, she instantly lowered her bow and greeted him with a bow.
"Greeting, Your Highness!"
Meanwhile, Charles stood up from the tiled floor, glanced at Irzoch, and asked with a frown.
"How long has it been since I entered the Dream World?"
Upon hearing those words, Irzoch took out an old-fashioned pocket watch from her grey robe, looked into it, and answered.
"It's been more than five hours, My Lord."
'Oh? The time anomaly is indeed a troublesome matter in the Dream World.' He nodded his head and started walking towards the throne canopy.
Soon, he stepped on the dais, sat on the golden throne, and then shifted his gaze towards the silver crown.
Currently, a reddish layer of flame surrounded the crown, and it looked more like a fire cube.
Even though a layer of rebirth flame wrapped the crown, Charles felt a creepy gaze from there!
It was as if something terrifying was hiding deep inside the crown and was watching his every action.
The silver crown appeared simple, had a unique black gem at the front, and emitted a strange eerie aura. Charles first used the wisdom power to probe it but found no anomaly. Although he vaguely felt that something was living in the crown, he couldn't figure out what it was or how it could affect the surroundings.
After some thought, he activated his [Arcane Eyes] skill and observed it closely. For the next few minutes, he remained in the same position and soon saw a glimpse of information through some mysterious link. But due to the presence of some barrier around the crown, he couldn't decipher it.
'Should I use that stone now?' He touched his space ring, took out the 'Stone of Insight' from it, and tried to probe the crown while using it.
The next instant, a flash of surprise appeared on his face. At that moment, he noticed that his eyes managed to see a piece of information from the silver crown and widened his eyes.
'A shard of the Hell's Crown? Is this an Intellectual Artifact like the Holem's Crown? Or, is it some broken piece of an Artifact?'
After some thought, Charles took out the mysterious Star Constellation book, wrote his personal information on the black page, and searched for answers from his future self.
Soon, the page moved like a wave, and then Charles received two short replies from his future self.
'An Evil God's play? Beware of its Avatar?' As he read the replies, he couldn't help but show a blank look on his face.
'What does that mean? That creepy serpent was an Evil God's remnant Will? Moreover, what's the difference between a God and an Evil God?'
He stayed motionlessly for a few more seconds, let out a deep sigh, and then thought about the earlier incident.
'My next question is about the origin of the remnant Will. What is that creature? Why did it try to control me? Wait. Could it be? Is this the same 'Nightmare' that once invaded the Faith Realm? That 'Nightmare' is the Evil God?'
'Now that I think about it, it is indeed quite possible. When I chased after the Demon Sorcerer Nash into the Dream World, I got pulled into another dream and woke up in front of a similar palace. At that moment, I also saw my statue along with two creatures. One was a winged serpent, while the other was the Red Bird. Maybe the Shadow Princess (The dream snake that appeared in Volume 1) isn't the Winged Serpent but this Deformed Serpent? Or, did this creature read my memories without alerting me and create such a realistic dream?' Confusion appeared on Charles's face.
'There are indeed many terrifying monsters out there! But what should I do now? Should I send this crown to the Holy See?' He pondered for a moment but decided to refrain from doing so.
'If this is indeed some intellectual artifact, I can ask Runeth's help to try and enslave it in the future.' In truth, he also wanted to get a Series-S or above level artifact in the future!
His main priority was to gather as much wealth as possible in this plane and return to Edhen World like some wealthy merchant. Then, he planned to auction all his wealth like artifacts, awaken stones, or other things and upgrade his System Cube into a true intellectual artifact.
'I also need to take care of that Victor.'
Shaking his head, he stored the silver crown into his space ring and shifted his attention towards the green pendant.
