"I've already told you everything you're allowed to know right now."
Little An sounded distinctly helpless as she said this. She had essentially been forced to tell him the truth. As the weaker party in their partnership, she had been pushed into making concessions-and had willingly accepted it, too. She felt rather wronged.
Of course, Little An did not really understand human culture. Otherwise, she would surely have known that humans called this psychological manipulation.
The little white-haired girl seemed sleepy. She lifted her head, twisting at the waist to turn slightly sideways. Her knees bent, and her toes lightly tapped the ground as she spread her arms. Her slender little hands opened as well, her fingers curling slightly into arches.
The gesture made Jonas pause. It took him a moment to realize what she meant.
-Was she asking for a hug?
Jonas hesitantly held out his hands as well, and the little white-haired girl moved toward him. His hands slipped beneath her armpits, while Annis Erdoka wrapped her arms around his neck. Meeting her compound eyes left Jonas briefly dazed, but the cold touch of her little hands against his neck brought him back to his senses somewhat.
"I'm tired."
Annis Erdoka's voice remained calm, but Jonas could hear a trace of exhaustion in it.
Clearly, everything she had just done for him had taken a great deal out of her.
Jonas instinctively looked toward the shattered starry sky. At some point, the tentacles and compound eyes among the stars had become unable to sustain their existence, gradually fading away.
Just then, Annis Erdoka leaned in, pressing her little head against Jonas's forehead. He froze for a moment, then felt something flowing inside his body.
That energy was not psionic energy, but something originating from a substance in his