_Chapter Begins_
The faint sounds of water drops hitting the solid ground could be heard throughout the cave.
Thankfully, the water drops weren't crimson in color this time around, but they were still pretty annoying.
William looked up at the ceiling of the cave—his teeth grinding against each other.
Every few seconds, a small drop of water slipped from the uneven rock ceiling and plummeted down toward his face.
Elsa chuckled in amusement as she observed the very annoyed-looking man.
After another droplet hit his face, he was done staying quiet about it.
"Elsa, could you please hurry it up a little?"
Her chuckling halted, and she decided to lower her head and focus on whatever she was doing.
William closed his eyes—a slight grimace appearing on his face.
"It hurts so bad that I would rather be unconscious right now."
Elsa had both of her arms placed on his chest—a pale crimson glow covering both him and her.
He felt his damaged soul slowly begin to reconstruct itself to its former glory.
It felt nice to know that his soul was being healed, but the process itself was not as delightful as one would imagine.
The process of his soul being patched together was nothing less than a ten on his pain scale.
He glanced at Elsa, a small frown appearing on his face.
She had lowered her head, so he couldn't quite get a read on her... as usual.
There were many questions and theories in his mind, but one thought took priority over the rest.
"What he told me back then… should I trust him on that?"
Adam had given him a single ominous warning back when he was trapped in the Judgment Realm.
And that warning was—
"If I get involved with her, it won't end well for anyone."
That was what Adam, the Pillar of Death, had told him.
So, the question of the day was—
"Who do I trust?!"
William had a bad premonition about the situation.
It seemed that he was slowly but surely getting dragged into the plot of a much bigger and terrifying story.
It didn't really matter which one he decided to trust; either way, he was undoubtedly going to get dragged into the smme conflict.
Choosing between Adam and Elsa was like picking heads or tails on a coin.
The sides might have been different, but they both still came from the same coin.
It truly felt like Fate itself was making sure that he would be at the center of whatever conflict was coming up.
William let out a mental scoff while making sure that his outward expression did not change even a little.
"Favored by fate… so this is what you meant, Adam."
Being at the center of the conflict was what Adam considered being favored by fate.
That type of mindset was one that William couldn't hope to understand or come to terms with.
There was no time for these thoughts; he had to make a decision and stick with it for the foreseeable future.
His eyes twitched slightly, and a shaky breath followed right after.
These two details were not missed by Elsa's perception.
She brought her head up and looked at William with an indifferent expression.
"Are you worried about my intentions?"
Her voice was that of a sweet young lady, but her tone was that of an emotionless killer.
The way her voice sounded and the way she toned her words completely contradicted each other.
He looked up at her with an indifferent expression that was very hard to maintain due to the pain he was feeling from his soul being repaired.
"As a matter of fact,yes I am worried about your intentions."
Her expression did not change at his words at all.
She spoke again, her voice carrying a tiny bit of curiosity.
"Why don't you trust me… did someone perhaps tell you not to?"
William pursed his lips.
His eyes shifted slightly, but he still managed to keep eye contact.
"Maybe someone did tell me that."
He tried to sound confident, but he simply couldn't hold it together.
He was in a dire state right now, so Elsa probably wouldn't have that much trouble ending him right here.
But the concern for his own life was not the only one he had in mind at the moment.
Jane was still lying unconscious—her arms wrapped by the thin fabric of the black cloth he had torn from his own robe.
If he was dragged into conflict, would his sister be dragged down with him?
His expression turned somber, and his hands trembled slightly.
"It's the same thing all over again."
It was indeed the same situation, although a little bit different at the same time.
He was going into conflict and dragging his sister with him—just like he had done to her in the past when he decided to sabotage his family's company, and the same thing he was doing now.
The only difference was that in the past he had been blessed with a lot of different options but still decided to choose conflict over peace.
Now things were a little different; he only had two options, and both would probably lead to conflict.
There was no escaping it…
"Well… I think I made up my mind."
Elsa did not break her indifferent expression—however, she did lean closer to him, which showed that she was interested.
"You made up your mind for what exactly?"
He let out a sigh and finally broke the intense eye contact duel they were having.
Of course, now that he could look elsewhere, he immediately decided to look over at his unconscious sister.
Without looking at Elsa, he spoke in an even tone.
"I choose to trust you, Elsa… you did say that you would guide me through this hell, didn't you?"
She blinked a couple of times, her indifferent expression remaining.
However, after a few moments of awkward silence, a small smile enveloped her face.
She leaned back and removed her hands from his chest—the crimson light disappearing as soon as she broke contact with him.
He raised an eyebrow at her sudden movement.
"You have made the right decision, William. I promise that my service will not disappoint you."
William raised a hand and pointed toward Jane's unconscious body.
"Go and help her as well, please."
His voice sounded a little tired and drained, probably due to how much pressure he had been under just a few seconds ago.
Elsa gave a nod and walked over to where Jane was lying.
Overall, things did not look too bad at the moment.
William had gained a new ability and a new ally.
But despite the fact that things looked good now, he knew that the decisions he made today would no doubt affect his future.
Whether that effect would be positive or negative, he simply did not know yet.
"I better get to work preparing, then."
Fate was going to bring him into the center of every conflict, so he needed to be ready for it.
His interest and curiosity about fate were growing with each passing day.
What was fate exactly?
And why did it choose him to be at the center of every conflict?
So many questions and so few answers.
But now that he had Elsa with him, maybe a few of his questions could finally be answered.
_Chapter Ends_