Super Righteous Player
Chapter 774 - 314 Maria’s Gift_1

Chapter 774: Chapter 314 Maria’s Gift_1

That’s right... home is where family is.

Even if memories of the past had been completely forgotten by oneself, even if the other person couldn’t feel love at all... but as bloodlines link, their hearts remain connected.

Maria thoroughly inspected Annan for a long while.

With her fingertips, she checked whether there were any scars on Annan’s skin, pinched his left shoulder and upper arm, and felt his back to ascertain whether he had gained or lost weight.

Annan was moved around like a doll, but he didn’t show the slightest impatience.

After a full body check, Maria let out a deep sigh.

"Little Annan... you’ve grown up.

She took a step back and murmured, "Your body too, has finally become strong."

That was, of course... When I left home, my strength was at 7 and my constitution at 6, but now my strength has reached 15, and my constitution attribute has even broken fifty and entered the Transcendent realm.

Annan thought to himself.

Maria took Annan’s hand not holding the scepter in both of hers and carefully felt the muscles in his fingers, and said in a low voice, "It must have been hard being out there on your own, right?"

"...It was okay."

Annan paused for a moment before responding quietly.

It wasn’t all that hard.

"After all, I am not alone, I also have friends and people I can trust."

"...You must choose your friends wisely."

Maria lifted her head and repeated with a hint of worry, "Some friends are meaningless. Bad friends will only drag you down, lead you astray, hurt you... You have to choose your friends carefully, choose good friends. Choose those who can keep up with your pace, who can help you, who can motivate you or supervise you.

"Don’t think... that you can take everyone with you to faraway places. That would be too exhausting..."

Maria’s ice-blue pupils focused on Annan, as if gazing intently at the whole world, "Even though you are now a Grand Duke, you don’t have to sacrifice your life for this country... it’s okay to be selfish sometimes."

She spoke words starkly different from those of Ivan and Dmitry.

Because for Maria, Annan was the most important person in the world.

Maria had a very clear "hierarchy" for different people—how close she could be to someone, what she could say to them, what kind of help and reciprocation she could offer... If two friends argued, whose side she should take, she had always had very clear standards in her heart.

Even, not just friends.

For Maria, whether it was power, ability, mission, honor, kinship... all such things had an exceptionally clear hierarchy in her heart.

She was the one who truly possessed the Heart of Winter.

Perhaps because she was a relatively rare female descendent of the Winter family, the signs of reversion to her ancestors were more apparent—her character, talents, and bloodline traits were closer to her great grandmother’s.

Cold, rational, head-of-family feel... and the theory of Sacrifice.

If it weren’t for the Book of the Celestial Chariot, she would no doubt be the strongest in will and power within the entire family.

In Maria’s heart, Annan’s "status" was very high.

Because Annan was Maria’s closest kin... closer than Dmitry.

This was a common sense that always existed in this world, in this era, but was always deliberately ignored by people—that is, the closeness between half-siblings and full siblings is bound to differ.

Even if covered with terms of "brotherly love," the gap in bloodline ties objectively exists.

The affection between Maria and Dmitry was bound to be less close than between her and Annan. Whether it was the large age gap or the fact that only half of their bloodlines overlapped.

If it were an ordinary child, perhaps to make up for this objectively existing gap in affection, they might deliberately distance themselves from Annan—to show Dmitry that this "brotherly love" is fair and equal.

It’s like when parents are more inclined to take the side of an adopted child over their own during a dispute.

But Maria didn’t do that at all.

From the beginning, she was aware that her feelings for Annan were much stronger than for Dmitry. She didn’t try to hide it or pretend to be fair by enforcing equality... Her favoritism was not concealed in the slightest, and this was apparent to everyone.

This was, in fact, one of the reasons why Annan was mainly raised by Maria—this was her adamant demand. She managed to get involved in the upbringing of Dmitry’s brother, Annan, at an age just less than four years older than him, refusing to let Dmitry intervene in anything she could handle herself.

The results were significant.

Annan’s innate and exceptional intelligence was not initially revealed to Maria and Dmitry. The ones who knew about it were mainly Ivan... then the old grandmother, followed by Vladimir.

Annan even came into contact with the "Ten Fingers" earlier than Dmitry.

Before that, Dmitry always thought Annan was a "shy" person, while Maria believed Annan was a "gentle" person.

In reality, it was because Annan couldn’t be bothered to go out and play with the little brats, and he also didn’t want to show a rude face to his stubborn sister who tried so hard to take care of him.

It wasn’t until Annan and Dmitry bet against the rotten husband...

That his intelligence began to initially appear before his siblings’ eyes.

Time passed, and little by little Dmitry got used to Annan’s leadership and supervision. It wasn’t until last year when Annan left home and erased his own memories that Maria finally learned everything from Ivan, albeit belatedly.

Annan could guess why his past self had kept it all from Maria. Her temperament put Annan above everything else... His own idea to abandon his memories in search of the Heart of Justice and to align with the Doctrine of the Heavenly Chariot was sure to be unsupported by Maria.

—This was also the reason Maria was somewhat out of control emotionally the first time she contacted Annan.

Annan had thought that when he returned to his country and saw Maria... Maria would have even more dramatic reactions. Like slapping him, or holding (Annan’s) head and crying, or turning moody and ignoring him.

But unexpectedly...

She just carefully inspected him from head to toe.

Annan could, in fact, understand Maria’s thoughts.

After all, not long after Annan was born, their mother also died.

She had given birth to four children, and Annan was the third—she died after giving birth to the fourth child. The second and fourth children died at the age of two and one month, respectively, leaving only Maria and Annan alive.

Maria watched her younger brothers being born and dying, saw her mother pass away in her youth, and now the father she revered was also gone from their lives.

—In the truest sense, Annan had become the dearest person to Maria. Every time she looked at the face that was almost identical to her own, her affection deepened.

And now, after this return.

Annan finally had differences from her.

Whether it was that unfamiliar warm smile, heterochromic pupils, the curse pattern on his shoulder, or his body that had become more robust...

She shook her head vigorously, dispelling those images.

"I’ve brought you a gift, Annan,"

Maria extended her hand, held it in front of her lips, and said earnestly, "It’s something you mustn’t tell Dmitry about... and it will definitely be very useful in your current situation."

"...What is it?"

"This."

With that, Maria pulled out a claw from her bosom.

It was a real [claw]. The claw of a canine.

"I went through a lot of trouble to dig this out from the wasteland of the Pillar of Toxiferous Ferns...

"The [Nightmare Coordinates] of that traitor Bella."

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