Super Righteous Player
Chapter 692 - 233: The Fear of Being Chased by a Nightmare_1

Chapter 692: Chapter 233: The Fear of Being Chased by a Nightmare_1

...Annan Winter?

Upon hearing this familiar name, Selicia’s pale blue pupils contracted slightly.

—She certainly recognized the name.

But that was a very, very long time ago...

Back then, Selicia had still been a youth, called "Solomonik," following the teachings of "Vladimir" under the Hand of Winter. And as a reserve member of the Hand of Winter, she had of course come into contact with the Grand Duke’s son.

Of course... given her status at that time, even if she had dealings with Annan, they would never have been very intimate.

Yet, even so, she was sufficiently aware of the mesmerizing "demonic nature" in "Annan."

Annan had a nickname back then, called the "Silencer," the "traceless monster."

He wasn’t called the Silencer because he had gained the favor of the Lady of Silence—quite the opposite, in fact.

Solomonik had once, late into the night, handed over evidence of a certain Earl’s rebellion to the young "Annan."

Indeed... it was not presented to Grand Duke Ivan but to Annan. This evidence was personally compiled by Vladimir, handed directly to Solomonik with explicit instructions to give it to His Highness Annan.

Even Solomonik himself hadn’t seen the contents.

After Annan received the investigative report, he just sat silently in the study, earnestly writing something on the paper—when Annan sat on the chair in the Grand Ducal study, his feet couldn’t even reach the ground.

He was that childishly young.

Even Solomonik, who virtually worshipped Vladimir, couldn’t help but mutter inside:

—Can such a young child even recognize all the words in this letter?

"’Can such a young child even recognize all the words in this letter’... that’s what you’re thinking, right?"

At that moment, the young Annan suddenly lifted his head, gazing at Solomonik with his tired yet calm eyes, almost filled with a demonic allure.

It was a detached gaze, akin to that of a high and mighty deity.

"...I see, so that’s the kind of person you are."

After taking a brief glance at himself, the black-haired child revealed an ice-cold smile without a trace of humor, "Because your insignificant life has been affirmed by him, you’ve decided to devote your future and all your loyalty to Vladimir... right?"

As these words fell, they struck like thunder.

"The Hand of Winter" must show absolute loyalty to Winter. They needed to protect the heart like the hands protect it—willing to grasp the blade directly with their hands, to lock an incoming dagger with the back of their hands, but never allowing it to pierce the heart.

At that time, Solomonik was overwhelmed with fear.

And the child’s devilish whispers did not cease:

"Serving Vladimir... not Winter? How intriguing. I suppose you must be harboring murderous thoughts towards me now. If I’m not mistaken, you’ve probably far surpassed your peers from the Hand of Winter in strength... Is it because you couldn’t pass the Wolf’s Kiss Ritual? It’s just as well, lest when you betray us in the future, knowing too many secrets would cause problems."

"Wait, wait a moment!"

The first part chilled him to the bone with fear, while the latter part even drove Solomonik to protest involuntarily, "I swear I will never betray you—"

"You will."

Annan said calmly, with even more certainty than Solomonik, "Because Vladimir will eventually betray me."

"...Wha—?!"

"I understand him better than you do. And I understand you better than you understand yourself. Naturally, I also understand you better than he does. It’s really quite simple... I can even see your end with just a glance. Because in another course of history, I have already seen a story similar to this."

The young Annan spoke such incomprehensible words and then threw the reply letter into the hands of Solomonik, whose mind was in turmoil.

"Quite the riddler, right? But you’ll understand eventually."

Annan spoke thus.

After that, Annan returned to his silence, flipping through the books without saying a word.

But at that moment, Solomonik dared not listen to another word—he scrambled out of the study with a motion as ungainly as a rolling tumble.

It was not the human world.

It was the abyss that housed demons—

After he passed Annan’s reply to Vladimir with trembling hands, Solomonik couldn’t help but blurt out a question:

"Teacher... would you betray the Grand Duke?"

The moment he uttered those words, he regretted them.

But Vladimir merely glanced at him and replied indifferently, "Do not speak of what you’ve heard from His Highness Annan to anyone else."

"So you mean to say..."

"—Of course I would."

Vladimir calmly spoke words that were completely beyond Solomonik’s understanding, "Because betrayal, at times, has its meaning."

"The... meaning of betrayal?"

"You are not the Grand Duke, so you cannot understand."

"Then you..."

"If the Grand Duke needs me to be, I can also be the Grand Duke."

It was another statement of high treason.

Vladimir forcefully ended the conversation that day and then disappeared for two days.

Even now, Selicia didn’t fully understand what Vladimir’s words meant back then.

But she remembered...

After that day, another week passed.

The Earl who had attempted to conspire seemed to have not appeared for a very long time. When people noticed, they discovered that everyone in the Earl’s household had committed suicide within the Earl’s mansion.

Everyone left a suicide note. There were no signs of anyone entering or leaving the Earl’s mansion, no signs of a struggle. Even with the use of Prophet spells, they could not detect any traces of spellcasting, and thus it could only be concluded as suicide.

Meanwhile, the Earl’s relatives either fell gravely ill, went bankrupt, or were imprisoned for committing crimes.

The one who eventually inherited the Earl’s title was a young man from the Winter’s Hand. He was considered to be Solomonik’s senior fellow... and also belonged to Vladimir’s faction.

Latter, during the formation of the Icebreaker Army, he was one of the nobles who provided support, and he too was eventually purged, with his entire family being thrown into the ranks of the Frost Beast troops.

—To this day, Cesilia still didn’t understand what had happened that day.

But she only knew that it must have been related to the directive Annan had issued and the actions of their teacher.

Therefore, as soon as the teacher indeed betrayed, the first thing she could do... was to flee far from the Frost Speech province, to a place where Annan could not see.

Even now, she would sometimes wake up from a dream startled by the gaze of Annan.

She was not worried about being captured, nor was she worried about being imprisoned. Whether it was confinement or execution, she had nothing to fear—at the age of a teenager, she was already prepared to die for her teacher.

But if Annan was in front of her, maintaining Silence and watching her... it would make her shiver with fear.

And now...

After "Elle" had finished speaking with the Longjing tea, she turned her head.

"Elle" pressed her hands together, showing herself a smile that was foreign yet somewhat familiar.

"It’s been a long time... do you remember me?"

In a soft voice, she said, "Mr. Solomonik...?"

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