Looking at the girl with dusty purple hair clinging attentively to his side, Annan also felt sowhat helpless.
Selicia was like an abandoned puppy who had found a new master... behaving exceptionally well, as if she feared being abandoned once again. Even at the cost of deaning her own dignity, she desperately tried to show Annan her loyalty and usefulness.
This also revealed the extent of the damage that Vladimir’s attempt to kill her to silence her had caused Selicia.
——It was probably enough to create psychological scars.
"You don’t need to do this, Selicia."
Annan said calmly, "I’ve told you, I will make good use of you."
He had changed back into that outfit, his left shoulder shining faintly, looking as if it signaled "charging" like a mobile phone.
They sat back down in the living room where they had first t, each in their original seats.
Only two hours had passed.
But their statuses and positions had undergone a massive shift.
Selicia’s wariness and vigilance towards Annan had completely vanished—not because she instantly trusted Annan, but because she forced herself to trust him utterly. She did this to avoid being abandoned again because of lost trust.
——That must definitely be so kind of psychological disorder.
Annan could only sigh helplessly.
But to Selicia, his sigh imdiately made her anxious, "Your Majesty, forgive my stupidity... What is the hidden aning in your words? What should I do?"
...No, I haven’t hidden anything.
Annan thought to himself, but his expression hardened, "Of course, there will be many things.
"It is precisely because you are useful and trustworthy that I will entrust these tasks to you. But because of this, you are more valuable than they are, and you need to protect yourself better. Do not allow yourself to be injured lightly... For your life belongs to . Do you understand?"
Annan comforted her in the gentlest terms she could understand and wanted to understand, repeatedly reassuring her, "I will not abandon you."
——Selicia was no longer a child.
She was accustod to being a tool or a pet—this strange personality had already ford, and it would not be a quick fix to heal her.
If she did not continually get the response she sought, Selicia might develop bigger issues due to restlessness and fear... or perhaps, worsen significantly.
For now, it was better to go along with her. Later on, Annan could cultivate her self-confidence, cheer her on gradually, and help her adjust...
After all, Selicia was indeed talented.
She was now among the higher ranks of the silver-tiers, having reached the gold-tier before, with experience in wielding Elental Power. As long as her power continued to grow, she would find it easier to enter the gold-tier than others.
Moreover, when Selicia was in the Winter’s Hand Reserves, she was especially skilled at killing.
After she beca Selicia, to conceal her identity and not to hold too many commonalities, she stopped using swordsmanship—after all, Selicia’s first appearance coincided almost with the ti Solomonik vanished.
But things were different now.
She had beco a mber of Winter’s Hand, her identity completely concealed. Solomonik would also be secretly pardoned, and Selicia could return to the swordsmanship she first learned and in which she was most talented.
When that ti ca, "The Ten Fingers" might need to add another mber.
And coincidentally, Annan had new trouble—his "Tyrant" form of the Third Siren had lost the absolute control over Winter’s Hand. Thus, promoting soone from the old Winter’s Hand to "The Ten Fingers" would be risky.
But the players were not familiar enough with Winter’s Hand nor with the Winter Principality yet.
"The Ten Fingers" essentially managed Winter’s Hand and the shadow rulers of the entire Winter Principality. If they weren’t familiar enough with the ministers, nobles, and very unfamiliar with their own subordinates of Winter’s Hand, it would be hard to manage for the players who were parachuted in.
——But Selicia was different.
Born in the Winter Principality, she had ample understanding of Winter, and due to her background, harbored a particular hatred for the nobility... there was no worry she would collude with the local nobles.
When Selicia was still a youth, she too had co from Winter’s Hand. Back then, she was one of the few students personally ntored by the forr "Right Hand Thumb", Vladimir—the highest responsible person of Winter’s Hand—recognizing to so extent the managent and authority of Winter’s Hand, especially of "The Right Hand".
She was indeed the best choice.
Using Selicia, the "newest of the Ten Fingers," to prove that Annan’s phase of rule had begun... seed like a rather good idea as well.
"I shall entrust you with a significant mission," Annan declared.
He repeated, "That is, provided your answer satisfies ."
"—Please feel free to ask."
Selicia sat upright in her chair, hands resting on her knees, looking earnestly at Annan and said, "I shall withhold nothing."
"It’s actually quite simple... It’s about that matter you previously wanted to conceal from ."
"...That, that’s what the old—no, what Vladimir had ntioned before."
Selicia instinctively started to refer to him as "teacher," but corrected herself at once, "The reason he left you back then... was to search for The Worm."
"I know he has found it now," Annan nodded and asked, "But besides that, are there any other details? I feel what he told wasn’t comprehensive... If you know more, feel free to reveal it all.
"Even things Vladimir once ntioned to you about The Worm could be important, perhaps in what you think is insignificant, lies sothing I am particularly concerned about... you never know."
"...I rember teacher saying that the Elves had been worshipping The Worm since ancient tis, at least while they still dwelled within the living desert... And it seems that the discovery of Curse Binding was sohow linked to The Worm."
Selicia frowned, playing with a lock of her hair subconsciously as she tried hard to rember, "It’s not that Curse Binding itself is related to The Worm, but rather, its use led the Elves to uncover so secret about The Worm. It was after that they began to worship The Worm on a grand scale.
"The Worm is a creature so vile that even demons avoid it. It does not physically resemble a worm, but rather a grey and white dual-ring snake with many ’∞’ shaped patterns on its body, biting its own tail. Therefore it is called ’Non-Snake,’ and in more secretive worship, it is also known as ’Ouroboros.’"
...Wait a minute?
Annan suddenly paused: "That image..."
Had he seen it sowhere before?
No, it wasn’t an illusion—
Annan rembered.
It was when he had perfectly cleared "Nightmare: Gallery" and advanced to silver.
One of the three Curse Bindings he chose was called "The Cycle Continues," and it bore this image!
Due to the harsh negative effect of that Curse Binding, "Every ti you betray another, you will be betrayed in turn," Annan hesitated for a mont and chose not to take it in the end.
That Curse Binding seed to be the weakest in effect. As long as Annan did not betray others, it was effectively non-existent.
But Annan didn’t want his patterns of behaviour to be dictated by a Curse Binding.
He was never particularly normal to begin with... He had always strictly adhered to his own sense of "morality" and "common sense" in his actions, never stepping out of line. However, if his actions were constrained by a Curse Binding that dictated "betraying others would bring retribution," it would be a different story.
His will would weaken, and his personality would change as well.
Annan would not want, when making the right choice not to betray others, to do so because "it would better serve his own interests" rather than his own morals and common sense.
If he had chosen that Curse Binding back then,
perhaps when he was climbing the spider’s web, his will would have weakened, and he would have remained forever lost in that nightmare.
So Annan never regretted his decision.
But it was not until now...
That Annan realized what was hidden within that Curse Binding.
"...Was I already targeted by The Worm from the very beginning?" Annan murmured, "’The Cycle Continues’? Is it the cycle between betrayer and betrayed...
—Or the cycle of The Worm and the sky chariot?"
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