Dragon Monarch System

Chapter 1210: Chapter 1210:- Home Coming [II]

The Imperial Royal Palace was exactly as Aditya remembered it. To everyone else, this place was a gigantic fortress standing at the very centre of the Capital. It was the heart of the Celestial Dragon Empire. It was a symbol of Imperial authority that had stood for countless generations.

But to Aditya, this place was something much simpler and something extremely dear.

It was his home. This was where he had been born. This was where he had spent almost his entire childhood. Every courtyard, garden, corridor, and building seemed to carry some fragment of his past.

As a child, Aditya would spend entire afternoons roaming around the enormous Imperial Royal Palace. Sometimes, he would prank the maids before running away. Sometimes, he would play different games with the other children living within the palace. Other times, he would deliberately hide somewhere just so that his servants would panic and spend hours searching for him.

Back then, Aditya had found such simple things incredibly exciting and fulfilling. This was also where he had spent much of his childhood with Riya, the Goddess of Nature. Back then, neither of them could have possibly imagined that the childhood friend he played with inside these palace grounds would one day become one of his future wives.

More importantly, this was where Aditya had spent the most time with his parents. Every corner of the Imperial Royal Palace carried countless memories for him. Yet now, many years later, Aditya had finally returned as an adult.

And strangely enough, he had returned to his own home while wearing a disguise.

Aditya was not here because he desperately wanted the Imperial Royal Palace back. If someone told him that he could never own this place again, he would not particularly care. The buildings could remain where they were. The enormous gardens, luxurious halls, ancient courtyards, and countless treasures inside could belong to someone else.

Those things were never what made this place precious to him. The memories were what made it special. And those memories only existed because of the people who had created them with him. Without those people, the Imperial Royal Palace was nothing more than an enormous collection of buildings in Aditya’s eyes.

That was why he had returned. He had come to take back the two people who had made so many of those memories possible.

As they continued following Roy deeper into the Imperial Royal Palace, Rin quietly observed their surroundings. Her eyes moved across the massive walls, heavily protected entrances, enormous courtyards, and seemingly endless structures surrounding them.

She then moved slightly closer to Aditya and whispered into his ear.

”This place feels like a prison.” Hearing this, Aditya smiled but did not immediately respond.

Strangely enough, now that he had returned as an adult, he could understand exactly why Rin felt that way. Looking at the Imperial Royal Palace through his current perspective, the place did feel more like an enormous, luxurious prison than a normal residence for the Imperial Family.

But there was a historical reason behind its unusual design and massive size.

The Imperial Royal Palace had originally been expanded and structured according to the needs of previous generations of Emperors, especially those who maintained enormous harems. Many former Emperors of the Celestial Dragon Empire had possessed numerous wives and concubines.

Because of this, the palace contained countless separate courts and residential quarters. Traditionally, each important wife or high-ranking concubine would be given her own court within the palace, along with servants and everything else she required.

Even the servants working within the inner sections of the Imperial Royal Palace were overwhelmingly women.

As far as Aditya remembered, almost every servant permitted to regularly work within those private sections was female. The few male servants who were allowed to work there had been castrated, ensuring that they could no longer use their manhood.

Considering how the Imperial Royal Palace had originally been designed and operated, Rin describing it as a prison was not entirely unreasonable.

Once they were inside, Rin could not stop herself from looking around. Her eyes moved from one building to another, filled with curiosity as she quietly observed everything around her.

Aditya, on the other hand, had no reason to look around. He had been born and raised in this place. Before being forced into exile, Aditya had spent his entire life within the Imperial Royal Palace. He had explored its courtyards, gardens, corridors, halls, and countless hidden corners since he was a child.

It would not even be an exaggeration to say that Aditya was more familiar with the overall layout of the Imperial Royal Palace than Roy himself.

After entering through the main gate, no one attempted to stop them or assign guards to accompany them. The three were allowed to move around freely.

Roy’s presence alone was enough. Whenever guards or servants noticed the former Prime Minister, they either respectfully greeted him or simply nodded before continuing with their duties. No one questioned why Aditya and Rin were accompanying him. As far as everyone was concerned, if Roy had personally brought these two people inside, then there was no reason to become suspicious of them.

After passing another pair of patrolling guards and returning their greetings, the trio eventually reached an area where no one else was nearby. Roy finally stopped and turned toward Aditya.

”I have done my part.” Roy said quietly.

”From this point onward, everything depends on the two of you.”

He briefly looked around before continuing. ”I’ll find an excuse to separate from you and then leave the Imperial Royal Palace using one of the teleportation arrays inside. Whatever happens after that is entirely up to you.”

Aditya calmly nodded. This had been their arrangement from the beginning. Roy had already fulfilled his role perfectly by bringing them inside. Asking the former Prime Minister to remain with them any longer would only unnecessarily drag him deeper into their plan.

So far, everything was proceeding exactly as Aditya had hoped. However, before Roy could leave, Aditya suddenly thought of something.

”Uncle, there is one more thing I want to ask you.”

Roy looked at him. ”Do you know where the underground chamber containing the power source for the palace’s rune formations is located?” Roy’s expression changed slightly upon hearing the question.

According to Boris, the main power source responsible for maintaining the countless rune formations protecting the Imperial Royal Palace was hidden inside a secret chamber more than one thousand meters beneath the ground.

The problem was that Aditya had absolutely no idea where the entrance leading to that underground chamber was located. If he could somehow learn its exact location, then perhaps he could modify his current plan.

In fact, depending on where the entrance was located and how heavily it was protected, Aditya might be able to create an even better plan than the one he currently intended to follow.

Hearing Aditya’s question, Roy almost coughed out blood in anger. For several seconds, the former Prime Minister simply stared at Aditya as though the young man had just asked him the most ridiculous question imaginable.

His eyes widened before his eyebrows began twitching uncontrollably. ’How the hell am I supposed to know something like that!?’ Roy felt the sudden urge to grab Aditya by the shoulders and shake him.

Did this brat seriously think that being the Prime Minister meant Roy knew every single secret hidden beneath the Imperial Royal Palace?

”Aditya...” Roy took a deep breath and rubbed his forehead, desperately trying to remain calm. ”

What exactly do you think I used to do as Prime Minister?” Aditya blinked innocently. Seeing this, Roy’s eyebrow twitched even harder.

”I was the Prime Minister, not some damn thief who spent his free time sneaking around the Imperial Royal Palace searching for its greatest secrets!” Rin immediately turned her face away and covered her mouth, trying very hard not to laugh.

Back when Roy was still the Prime Minister, he had neither a reason nor any business trying to discover the location of the secret chamber containing the power source of the Imperial Royal Palace’s formations. That information had absolutely nothing to do with his responsibilities.

And this was not merely the power source of a single formation.

The underground chamber supplied energy to almost every major formation within the Imperial Royal Palace. It powered the enormous defensive formations protecting the entire palace from external attacks, along with numerous smaller formations specifically placed around important buildings and other key locations.

From what Roy remembered hearing from the former Emperor Boris, even the teleportation arrays located throughout the Imperial Royal Palace received their energy from that same power source.

”You’re asking me about one of the most heavily protected secrets in the entire Imperial Royal Palace.” Roy hissed while glaring at Aditya.

”How exactly am I supposed to know where it is?” Only a very small number of people were permitted to know the exact location of the underground chamber. Roy’s old friend, who was responsible for overseeing practically everything within the Imperial Royal Palace, happened to be one of those few individuals.

But there was absolutely no chance that the man would reveal such information simply because someone asked him. The location of the power source belonged to the highest level of security within the Imperial Royal Palace. Only a handful of specifically authorized individuals were permitted to know about it.

Not even Roy, despite serving as Prime Minister of the Celestial Dragon Empire for centuries, had been given access to that information.

Not that he had ever wanted to know in the first place. Roy took another deep breath before pointing an annoyed finger at Aditya.

”And before another ridiculous question comes into your head, no. I cannot casually walk up to my friend and ask him where the secret power source of the Imperial Royal Palace is hidden. Unless you want him to immediately suspect that I have finally lost my mind.” Seeing Aditya’s calm expression and Rin desperately suppressing her laughter only made Roy feel even more irritated.

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