In the narrow passage, a pure and clear light suddenly blossod.
Annan, with two wings of light raised high and his whole body radiating brilliance, pierced forward into the dim realm like a teor.
"Indeed, it is you, Vladimir."
The winged humanoid, holding a scepter of three colors and shimring with light, hovered in the air, emitting a voice with overlapping echoes.
Vladimir simply reduced the influence range of his Subli Falsehood, shielding himself within it.
"Oh?"
He uttered a deep and chilling voice, "And when did you discover ... Your Majesty?"
"Naturally, from the very beginning."
Annan answered, "I saw you the mont you arrived here."
Shortly after Selicia was sent down to the dungeon.
Annan’s Curse Binding, "Angel’s Left Eye," suddenly sent a faint sensation of burning pain.
He clearly saw a bright red humanoid figure suddenly light up underground.
This was proof of the "Traitor" appearing by his side—and that was precisely the mont Vladimir appeared.
At the sa ti he detected the other, Annan imdiately felt an imnse sense of threat.
Together with Selicia being sent down...
There was no need for deduction.
Annan could directly guess that Vladimir had likely used so special thod to appear directly beneath the ducal mansion.
Vladimir was a Transcendent of the Gold rank, and among those of the Gold rank, he was one of the stronger ones.
Zoya and the others were not a match for Vladimir even before his promotion, much less after. Moreover, the red light shining on Vladimir had already proven his stance.
So Annan imdiately stopped Zoya and the others from going down to check, to avoid unnecessary casualties. He sent the most powerful Victor to confront, to buy ti... and began to assemble the players to gather within the ducal mansion, while he himself took off his clothes and used "Ritual Spell: Trace of the Chariot" again.
He had only recently returned from the Blackrock Curse Vault.
Dawn had not yet arrived, so his remaining Order Mana was not plentiful... and the ti he had left to fight was not considerable.
—But he had to fight.
The players were not soldiers; they could not simply obey commands. Even if Annan issued an ergency summons, they wouldn’t respond imdiately... this was determined by their very nature.
Since Annan had to rely on their passion for this world to rely maintain "interest," he could not possibly demand discipline from them any longer.
Even if the players were gathered by Annan, with their current levels, directly confronting Vladimir... the odds of victory were still worrying.
But Annan could not run, nor did he want to.
The ducal mansion could not be compromised, as it was directly related to the stability of the Winter Principality. The dungeon and the Frost Beast could not be destroyed either—that would only cause a second internal turmoil.
And with the spare ti waiting for backup, Annan would stand in.
He didn’t need to defeat the enemy... he only needed to buy ti.
He activated "Trace of the Chariot," simply to avoid being instantly killed.
"From the very beginning, eh."
For so reason,
having heard Annan’s words, Vladimir fell silent for a mont.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, "I see... I understand now."
Hold on.
...What do you understand now?
Seeing Vladimir’s reaction, Annan was sowhat bewildered.
But regardless, the players were still gathering—any delay was better than none.
Naturally, Annan would not ask Vladimir what misunderstanding he had pierced through. Instead, Annan continued along the lines Vladimir had provided:
"Now, the truth is self-evident. I don’t need to ask Selicia to know what you thought and planned when you left back then. Only when one knows very little about sothing does ’inquiring’ beco aningful... just as the act of destroying evidence can itself serve as evidence.
"Upon seeing Victor, you decided to stop concealing yourself—I suppose you’ve realized ’after the discovery of your arrival here, Annan could deduce the remaining truths.’
"Vladimir, is there anything else you would like to say?"
—In fact, these were words without aning.
It’s like after soone says a bunch of things, Annan just slowly nods his head, "Yes, that’s exactly what I was thinking."
But strangely, Vladimir really fell for it.
The old man with a face full of scars was silent for a long while, and then remarked pensively:
"...I indeed wondered whether His Highness Annan had known everything all along, which is why he let leave."
"Looking at it now, it seems to be true. This is precisely the ’fishing’ technique His Majesty excels in. But the fish that has been caught is not only those who fight for power and profit, those shortsighted and ignorant nobles... but also myself."
...It really was so.
Vladimir had been a Worm Cultist from the very beginning. When I first chose to task Vladimir with this mission, part of the reason was to lure out those Winter Hands and local nobles with rebellious intentions, and another part was to "exile" Vladimir, this unstable elent, to a distant place.
So that when I entered the second cycle, he wouldn’t mislead or deceive .
—Not bad, .
Vladimir’s rebellion, it turns out, was also within my expectations... I even made this deduction without any evidence at all.
How did I manage to do that at the ti?
Vladimir rely leaned on his cane, looking back at Selicia.
He said in a deep voice, "Although this operation has failed, it also exposed my weakness.
"If it had been thirty years ago, I would have killed Solomonik before he saw and then left. You wouldn’t be able to catch , nor would you see .
"But before acting... I thought, perhaps I should give him a chance to say goodbye. I should let him know why he’s dying, to fulfill his small wish—to die for .
"I clearly know people change, yet I still imagined him in the way that little dog used to be. I’ve heard people say that one becos indecisive with age, it seems I really am old."
...Wait, are you really not going to hit ?
If you keep rambling, my transformation ti is almost up, you know?
Annan, on the other hand, began to hesitate.
If he had known he could talk this long with Vladimir, he wouldn’t have rushed down after transforming... Just delaying with a chat could have sufficed to achieve his goal.
And now, as they were talking, the holy light that had covered his body suddenly disappeared.
Is, is this going to be awkward...?
But after expressing his reflections, Vladimir still made no move to attack Annan.
Instead, he put away his lofty guise, took a half step back, and looked deeply at Annan, "Fortunately, this mistake cos early enough, so it’s not yet fatal..."
Vladimir hadn’t finished his words.
Without giving Annan and Victor a chance to react, he disappeared into thin air without any warning—as if a burned photograph, his body broke apart into ashes.
He left behind only a phalanx bone on the ground.
"...He ran away?"
Annan was stunned for a mont, "But... why?"
Why would he run?
It was he who had the advantage...
"This is Dream Realm Stealth, Your Majesty," Victor imdiately recognized Vladimir’s technique: "That was not his own body, just a projection from the Dream Realm. Or perhaps... he might have already abandoned the body of this world, transforming himself into a creature of the Dream Realm."
"...A creature of the Dream Realm, huh."
Annan narrowed his eyes, releasing his transformation effect, "It’s not unfamiliar to ."
Not long ago, he used the Genesis secret of ’Winter’ to directly confront and kill a giant spider in the Dream Realm.
Moreover, the bodies the players used were also a type of Dream Realm projection.
Don’t know if it’s an illusion.
Annan always felt... that Vladimir seed to be fearing him.
But why?
He should not fear the deterrence of the Grandmother if he can enter the Dream Realm at will. Moreover, the Grandmother has not yet awakened... And as a silver-rank Transcendent, without the Philosopher’s Stone, there was no way he could defeat Vladimir.
On the contrary, Vladimir had many ways to trouble Annan.
But not only did he not attack Annan, but after Annan appeared, he never made a move again. As soon as Annan showed a little bit of strength, he imdiately chose to retreat.
That’s definitely not respect.
The mark of a betrayer blazed like fire.
He was being wary... or rather, fearing Annan.
But that brings up the question.
"...What exactly is he afraid of?"
Annan murmured to himself.
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