Celecia’s heart abruptly stopped.
The statement was not an exaggeration.
At that very moment, Celecia felt her heart stop beating out of fear.
She opened her mouth. Many words came to her mind, but those words stuck in her throat. She couldn’t utter a single word.
She was no longer Thoreau Nick. Her life had started over, and she was already in Gold Rank. She was no longer the loser who failed the Winter’s Hand exam. Moreover, she was a popular figure, an idol in many people’s hearts…
Sure enough, she had ample achievements.
However, in the end, she remained silent and slowly lowered her head.
Go figures!
Even after getting a whole new look and changing up how I act, Annan still knew it was me right off the bat, huh?
What exposed me?
“At your disposal… Your Highness.” Celecia responded bitterly.
—This is ridiculous.
She thought she could escape this old fear.
“You’re late.” Elle’s voice was soft and gentle.
Celecia’s azure blue pupils, which were reminiscent of a ragdoll cat, were instantly filled with pain and fear.
Soon, “Elle” smiled mischievously again, “It’s time for you to call me [Your Majesty].”
As the tension rose and then quickly subsided, Celecia couldn’t help but relax.
Celecia even felt that her initial fear had significantly lessened.
Everything fell according to Annan’s plan.
Annan could guess what kind of personality he had in his first playthrough — the kind of fear that would be in the hearts of everyone who came into contact with him.
With that, Annan came up with a new plan based on how he understood himself. Detonating the existing fear to make obey the “current” Annan.
As the saying goes, faking it till you make it.
Annan was fake, and he would be using the facade of his “other self”.
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Celecia’s tone became much more relaxed, no longer filled with bitterness, “At your command.”
“I already have a plan to escape from this nightmare.” Elle said calmly, “We may not meet the conditions this cycle, but I’ll save everyone in the next one.”
“To retain the power of ‘remembering’ to Elle, I need all of you to die once at the stipulated time.”
“Before that, I have some questions that I want to talk to you about.”
“Is it about the teacher?” Celecia quickly realized what Annan wanted to ask.
She quickly responded, “Just like you predicted back then, the teacher betrayed you.”
What had I foreseen back then?
Annan was surprised.
This message was packed with information.
Suppose Annan had known that Vladmir would betray.
Given Annan’s personality and capabilities, if it came to that, there was no way Vladimir could successfully betray him.
According to what Ivan said at the time, what Vladmir did was to use Bella to steal Dmitri’s bodily fluids to create a curse vessel that could control and tame the Frost Beast without the “Austere-Winter bloodline”.
Vladmir took control of a third of the Frost Beasts, built the Ice-shredders, and then caused the Frost Maul Disaster. As control of the Frost Beast was shaken, the loyalties of the local nobles were put to the test — many realized that their loyalty to Austere-Winter did not seem to be necessary.
Their loyalty only answered to the controller of the Frost Beast.
The Frost Beast unit was the most formidable force in Austere-Winter. The mightiest war machine was also the Frost Beast. Punishments and tortures were carried out with the help of the Frost Beast, the deterrence of the law also stemmed from the Frost Beast, and even trade exports relied on Frost Beast products.
He who controlled the Frost Beast seized everything.
Ordinary soldiers couldn’t possibly defeat a Frost Beast of a similar size — simply being near a Frost Beast would make them tremble with fear and sorrow. If they weren’t taken down with a single blow, just being close to the Frost Beast would paralyze their combat abilities.
The Frost Beast’s ability to absorb positive emotions in an area-effect manner on the battlefield was akin to a poison gas that couldn’t be defended against with gas masks. Although most Frost Beasts were wolves, there were also types like bears, foxes, and hawks… Any non-primate animal larger than a certain size that had perished as a youngling in a blizzard had the potential to be transformed into a Frost Beast.
With just one deep breath, a Frost Beast could drain the sense of “happiness” within a conical range; and when in groups, merely passing by a person was enough to freeze them in place, turning them into statues covered in frost, devoid of thought or hope.
The Frost Beast would not eat humans.
However, victims of the Frost Beast would stop avoiding snowstorms. The despair and powerlessness in their hearts would paralyze their will to act and desire to survive.
Victims of the Frost Beast, when in the wild, usually ended up freezing to death.
When the Frost Beasts moved in groups, it only took a few of them, each taking a bite, to consume someone’s spirit entirely, driving them to despair and death.
However, the Frost Beasts could not enter the water, nor could they enter the Gray Mists.
Therefore, the Frost Beast troops could only be used for defensive measures and maintaining law and order.
That was the biggest flaw of this army.
However, on the other hand, seizing control of the Frost Beast would neutralize any other private soldiers, especially those under the nobles.
If the Frost Beasts got close, just a dozen or so could instantly paralyze the resistance of a hundred-man squad. Ordinary metal arrows had little effect on them… only oil-soaked fire arrows could inflict effective damage.
Vladmir’s betrayal didn’t result in significant destruction. However, the appearance of the “Ice-shredders” directly sparked a rebellion that swept across the entire Austere-Winter continent and led to a purge within Winter’s Hand.
If Annan had known about it and wanted to stop it, he would have done so.
However, he didn’t.
What would that mean?
Was Annan expecting the rebellion launched by “the Winter Insurgent” Vladmir at the first playthrough?
Or was it already in Annan’s plan at the first playthrough?
1500 military-grade Frost Beasts were lost.
This number was nearing the “bottom line” that the Austere-Winter Dukedom could tolerate.
So, conversely…
If the rebellion of “the Winter Insurgent” was what Annan had needed, then which of the subsequent events was ‘essential’?
“I see.” Annan murmured.
His eyes grew brighter.
After that, two “unprecedented” events happened.
The first event was the dismissal of the upper echelons of the Winter’s Hand — the authority over foreign affairs, which was the power controlled by the ‘Right Hand’, was brought back under the direct control of the Grand Duke.
Until then, even Ivan hadn’t realized that the true power of the Austere-Winter Dukedom had already fallen into the hands of the ‘Ten Fingers’ of the Winter’s Hand.
The second thing was that the Northern Brotherhood had completely lost their loyalty to the Austere-Winter family, openly rebelling against them. That was their “Satiated Gold” plan. This was the first family since the founding of the Austere-Winter Dukedom that dared to trade with the Fallen. Their audacity clearly stemmed from the ‘Artificial Frost Beast’ initiative.
However, what if the Winter Insurgent’s “betrayal” was merely an act to prompt the Grand Duke to reclaim his authority?
Suppose this plan aimed to single out those among the local nobles who made deals with the Fallen.
Then, why hadn’t Vladmir come back yet?
Did he actually turn against Austere-Winter for real, blurring the lines between pretense and reality?
Or…
“So, where is Vladmir now?”
“Elle” asked Celecia after thinking for a long time.
However, without missing a beat, Celecia replied with a bitter smile, “I don’t know. I haven’t seen the teacher for a long time.”
After a long silence, Celecia replied in a low voice, “Since the Ice-shredders were formed, I have never met the teacher again.”
“It was only after I became the ‘Captain in Stone’ that I found out that the teacher didn’t die.”
“But no matter what, I can’t reach the teacher. Ship ‘Silver’ has the ability to pursue the target, but it has never been able to lock on the teacher’s location. I even doubted whether the teacher was still alive. However, I always get to learn from others that the teacher is indeed living well.”
“All I can conclude is that the teacher has been hiding from me… I don’t know why. If it’s for the teacher’s sake, I’d rather have people recognize me as Thoreau Nick… even if it means being wanted, even if everyone knows I was once the outlaw. The only thing I truly don’t want is for the teacher to turn a blind eye to me.”
“I see.” Annan mused.
He had grasped most of the facts.
All it would take was to meet Vladmir once and everything would be clear.
“Great.” “Elle” nodded and stood up from the chair leisurely.
“I still have to look for someone. It’s not a condition for clearing the nightmare. It’s just my personal matter. Work for me, Thoreau Nick… No, Celecia. If everything goes well, I may forgive you.”
“Who will that be?”
“That person is ‘Lily Rasputin’ on your ship.”
“Elle” smirked, “Of course, if we’re talking about her real name…”
“Euphemia·Melvin, right?” Celecia replied softly.
“That’s right.” “Elle” threw a brief and calm reply, “Lead the way.”
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