Dragon Monarch System
chapter-774

The Dune Sovereignty

Knock!! Knock!!!

"Your Highness, are you awake?" The voice belonged to Garrick Flameheart's butler.

But there was yet to be a response. Everything was very silent.

On the other side of the door, Alfred was silently waiting for the Crown Prince to respond.

Butler Alfred showed no sign of displeasure or impatience. He calmly stood before his door without moving an inch.

After waiting for about 2 minutes, he gently knocked on the door twice.

Ever since Crown Prince Garrick started bringing women to sleep in his bedroom, Alfred was forbidden from entering his bedroom without his permission.

Fortunately, Garrick did not ignore his knocks this time.

His hand reached out of the blanket and looked for something that was beside his pillow.

He found the hexagon-shaped purple crystal next to his pillow. The crystal was tiny. It wasn't bigger than his thumb finger.

After getting the crystal, Garrick passed a tiny bit of his Mana into it.

In the next second, the small rune lines drawn on all four walls of his bedroom started to fade. The runes looked like thick, black, straight lines from a normal distance. There were three thick black lines, each separated from the others by a 3-inch distance. These lines ran parallel to each other around the walls of the room in straight vertical lines.

If someone were to look at the lines very closely, only then would they notice that these lines were not just simple lines. What appeared to be thick black lines were actually runes. To the eyes of a non-cultivator, these lines would appear as black lines no matter how closely he/she looked at them. Only cultivators would be able to see the runes.

This was the Royal Castle. This was the most important place in all of Dune Sovereignty. The security of the Royal Castle was the best out there.

Even the bedrooms of the Royal Family members were protected using various kinds of runes.

What Garrick did just now has temporarily disabled the runes around his room. One of the rune spells prevented any noise or sounds from Garrick's rooms from leaking outside. So if Garrick hadn't turned off the runes, then he wouldn't have been able to answer his butler's call.

Of course, Garrick can specifically turn off one Rune spell even though he wasn't a runemaster. But doing that would require him to pay more attention. Since he was feeling sleepy, he turned off all the rune spells for a short period. This mysterious Hexagon-shaped crystal allowed him to do so. This was one of the many products of their research.

The Dune Sovereignty spent hundreds of millions of gold coins each year in magic and rune research. It wasn't surprising that the Empire managed to possess such ways of using runes. Compared to the outside world, the magic and runes in Dune Sovereignty were many times more advanced. However, the Empire has made more progress in magic than Runes. They simply did not have any talented Runemaster like Aditya. But that doesn't mean they have stopped trying to innovate. Whether it was magic or Runes, the Empire has funded hundreds of Magic and Rune enthusiasts with hundreds of millions each year to carry out various experiments, new studies, and research. Aside from money, The Emperor has given his full support in every way possible. "Come in, Alfred!!" Alfred opened the door after hearing Garrick's lazy tone. Click!!!

"Your Highness, please get up. I have some important news that I wish to share with you." Hearing Alfred's serious tone, Garrick became serious. It was as if the feeling of wanting to sleep a little bit disappeared when he heard Alfred's serious tone. His butler Alfred had been this serious in very rare times. When Alfred was this serious, it was usually bad news. "What happened?" "Did the Istarin Empire launch an attack on us?" Garrick asked in a panicked tone. Hearing this, Alfred inwardly sighed. Ever since His Highness's visit to the capital of the Istarin Empire, His Highness had completely changed. The humiliation that Garrick felt that day had left a deep mark on his mind and heart. Sometimes, Garrick had nightmares of the Istarin Empire taking over the Dune Sovereignty. Sometimes, Garrick becomes too obsessed with the Istarin Empire and ends up ignoring his other duties. In short, His Royal Highness hasn't been able to stop thinking about the Dragon Monarch and the Istarin Empire. This has caused his every action to be driven by the desire to take out Aditya and his Domain. While Garrick says that he is doing this for the greater good of this Empire, everyone around him can see that he is just trying to take revenge for that day. It seems even His Royal Highness hadn't realized the truth yet. Alfred was afraid that even if Garrick was confronted with the truth, he wouldn't accept it. This has also caused the Crown Prince's character to change slightly. Garrick has become a bit more rushed and aggressive than before. The previous Garrick was a very calm and collected man. "Which part of our territory was attacked?" Garrick asked while quickly putting on his clothes. Seeing Garrick's serious attitude, Alfred became slightly nervous. He wiped the sweat from his forehead before hurriedly adding. "Your Royal Highness, please calm down!!"

"Nothing that serious happened." Hearing this, Garrick sighed in relief, but only for him to freeze upon hearing his next sentence. "His Majesty has reduced your monthly allowance." Hearing this, Garrick was stunned. This was the first time in his life something like this had ever happened. When he was young, even if he made any mistakes, the Emperor never reduced his monthly allowance as punishment. This is why Garrick was so stunned upon hearing this. "What did you say?" Seeing Garrick's face, Alfred inwardly sighed again. The old butler can see that his master doesn't believe what he is hearing. "This morning, I was informed by His Majesty's personal butler that His Majesty has decided to cut your allowance by 50%." Hearing this, Garrick felt anger. "Then what are my earnings from my three territories?" Due to his excellent performance, Garrick was given three territories within the Empire to govern on his own. The three territories were not that big and were located in various parts of the continent. These three territories were very underdeveloped. For years, Garrick has used his own pocket money to slowly develop these territories. It was only 13 years back that he started earning gold coins from these territories. Before, whatever he earned from there was reinvested. "Your Royal Highness, you can rest assured. Nothing has happened to your territories." "But still, without my monthly allowances, I won't be able to run my personal information-gathering network, and also, my other operations will be temporarily stopped." Garrick already had an information-gathering network across the entire Empire. But he expanded his network after being humiliated by the Istarin Emperor. But expansion meant that he had to spend the money that he had saved up. Gathering even small information about the Istarin Empire proved to be very expensive. Garrick has been relying on his allowance for the last few months to run his operations. In addition, Garrick has invested some money in new ventures. He believed some of these ventures had the potential to become money-printing machines, which would completely replace his dependence on using his allowance to fund his personal projects. Unfortunately, some of the businesses will take at least a few more months to produce any income. While the future of other businesses still looked bleak and shaky. The chances of even getting his investment money back were less than 25%. "Why did His Majesty do that?" Garrick couldn't help but ask out loud. "Your Royal Highness, I do not have any answer to that. This morning, when I was heading to the kitchen, I was stopped by His Majesty's trusted butler." "There were also a few other things that I was told to notify you." "Hmm? What else?" Garrick was starting to feel irritated. He was the Crown Prince, and this kind of important thing should be directly told to him by the Emperor. Yet, he was having to hear such important notice from his butler. Alfred was about to respond, but then he saw another figure coming out of the blanket. While talking to Garrick, he completely forgot about her.

The woman came out of the blanket. She used the blanket to cover her curvaceous body, leaving only her head and beautiful pink hair exposed. "Why did you stop?" Garrick was already in a foul mood after hearing what kind of punishment the Emperor had given him, and now, seeing that his butler was speaking, he was becoming even more irritated. Garrick sounded very impatient. "Your Royal Highness, I don't think it would be appropriate to talk in her presence." Normally, regardless of who it was that slept with Garrick, that woman had to leave his bedroom as soon as Garrick woke up or, sometimes, even before he woke up. But how this woman behaved made Butler Alfred feel that this woman's relationship with Garrick was special. She wasn't showing any signs of getting out of bed. 'She is a Succubus.' This was the first time Garrick had ever brought a Succubus back to the Royal Castle.

"Don't mention her so causally. Her name is Emma. She is a very trusted subordinate of mine. The last few weeks, she has been really helpful in gathering information about the Istarin Empire." She has also given Garrick very useful advice. Garrick took an instant liking to Emma's beauty. His interactions with her made him like her even more, suggesting that she was a very intelligent woman. Garrick felt very drawn towards Emma which is why he decided to bring her to his bed last night. Having someone like her by his would help him a lot. These days, Garrick felt that he needed an advisor. Emma happens to fulfill all of the requirements. Not to mention, as a Beginner 3rd-order cultivator, Emma was really strong. "From now on, you will call her Miss Emma." Although Alfred was very shocked to hear this, he still nodded his head. "It doesn't matter if Emma listens to our conversation."

"As I said before, she is someone whom I trust as much as I trust you. So there is no need to hold back." Alfred doubted Garrick's decision to bring a Succubus to listen to their conversation, which should have been between the two of them. But he didn't dare object. He was a servant of Crown Prince Garrick, and he would obey his every order regardless of how he felt. Alfred opened his mouth, but suddenly, he hesitated. What he was about to tell the Crown Prince might really trigger him.

But in the end, he went ahead.

"I was told that, From now on, You're forbidden from bringing any woman to the Royal Castle."

Booom.....!!!

Garrick was unable to contain his killing intent after hearing this. Alfred felt very suffocated the moment he finished his sentence. If he wasn't a powerful cultivator, then he would have fallen to his knees by now, or perhaps he would have died. "Calm down....!!" It was Emma who began comforting Garrick. She pressed her naked body against his arm. She started caressing his head while blowing gentle air into his right ear. Garrick retracted his killing intent after taking a deep breath. "I lost my calm there."

Garrick felt a strong unwillingness in his heart to accept such punishment. 'Why I am being punished even though I did nothing wrong?' 'From time and time, I have done everything in my power for the greater good of this Empire, yet this is how I am treated by the Emperor?' Garrick knew that the Emperor often skipped breakfast because he went out in the name of work to have fun with beautiful women around the Empire. But Garrick always pretended to be ignorant mainly out of respect for the Emperor. Garrick felt that this was unfair. "Is there anything else that His Majesty said?" This time, Emma asked the question in Garrick's place. The Prince just silently stared at his butler and waited for his response. Alfred took out a napkin and wiped the sweat from his face.

"His Majesty would like to have lunch with Your Royal Highness." In other words, the Emperor won't be having breakfast with them. He would have lunch with Garrick to discuss the rules that were imposed on him.