Kairos raised an eyebrow.
“Secretive manners? You mean how the logistics work is going to go?”
Talia waved her hand dismissively.
“You will just have to make decisions based on the information you get, and sometimes I will come to personally consult you on decisions. It isn’t anything complicated.”
Kairos couldn’t help but think it was fairly complicated, especially since he hadn’t done something like this before, but decided to keep quiet. He looked at the butterfly that was now gently fluttering its wings on top of her finger.
“So… that’s a real butterfly?”
Talia giggled.
“Well, not really.”
The butterfly had a purple color and began glowing ever so slightly. She let out a soft sigh while looking at it.
“You see, it’s a lie detector.”
Kairos narrowed his eyes. He didn’t really believe in lie detectors as a concept. In his eyes, it didn’t really make sense for something to be able to sense that sort of thing, especially considering all the special nuances in what could be considered lies, half-truths, and actual truths.
The best he could think of was a machine that would measure various factors like heart rate, expression change, and other functions. But that was far from a lie detector in his opinion.
Nonetheless, he also didn’t think it would be possible for someone to be able to build these giant walls just a few days into the apocalypse, so perhaps he was just being too narrow-minded.
Kairos looked towards the butterfly.
“So I’m being interrogated?”
Tiana put one hand on her cheek.
“Interrogated is a bit of a harsh word. I prefer to use… interviewed.”
Kairos let out a sigh.
“Fine, what do you want to know?”
Tiana smiled.
“Haha, don’t look so glum. I will tell you some things about myself too, and you will know that it won’t be a lie as long as the butterfly doesn’t glow red. For one, I’ve always had the ability of lie detection, even before the apocalypse has started.
Kairos’ eyelid jumped.
“That’s… surprising.”
Tiana leaned in and narrowed her eyes ever so slightly.
“And it’s not too different for you, right?”
Kairos adjusted his glasses. He decided to test a few things.
With his eyes firmly planted on the butterfly, he spoke.
“No.”
He saw it glow red, but that was only in his future vision. He quickly stopped himself from talking in reality, leaving him staring at Tiana awkwardly.
Kairos took a deep breath and tried something else.
“Not really.”
Once again, the butterfly glowed red, prompting Kairos to hurriedly stop himself in reality. He lamented over it, but decided to answer honestly, as in reality, he had been silent for two seconds.
“Yeah.”
Tiana smirked.
“I thought so. Also, I’m quite surprised that you didn’t lie.”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“Didn’t you say I was good at calculating things?”
Tiana giggled.
“Yes, yes. I did.”
Kairos rubbed his chin. He wondered if it would also work on her.
“Though I don’t know if it really works. Could you try telling me a lie?”
Tiana raised an eyebrow, but didn’t seem too offended.
“I am a male.”
The butterfly proceeded to glow red. She tilted her head to the side.
“Satisfied?”
Kairos nodded, though he still couldn’t completely trust her. For all he knew, it was just a color changing butterfly that she was able to control.
“Do you mind if we exchange questions? One for one.”
He was trying to see if Tiana’s goodwill towards him truly extended that far, and honestly wasn’t that confident. But…
“Sure. I’ll even let you ask the first question.”
Kairos nodded.
“Thank you. May I know how you created the walls of this place?”
Tiana put a finger on the bottom of her lip.
“That is quite interesting, isn’t it?”
Kairos did not respond. He quickly figured out she was trying to slip in casual questions within her sentences. This made him quite concerned as the only reason she would try to do something like this is if she actually had a lie detector.
Tiana seemed a little disappointed by the lack of an answer, but continued anyway.
“It was created by a special artifact that I have found. There is a special synergy it has with my own power that allows me to create such a place.”
She raised the butterfly in her hand ever so slightly.
“Do you have your own special artifact?”
Kairos decided to try his old tactic.
“No.”
However, the butterfly turned red in his future vision. He hurriedly stopped himself in reality, then spoke some other words.
“Yeah.”
Tiana nodded and didn’t pry any further. Kairos realized that she wasn’t being too unreasonable, still allowing him to keep a certain amount of privacy.
He decided not to pry too much either.
“Are you truly confident in supporting such a large group of people with the current food supplies?”
Tiana laughed brightly, almost like the soft jingle of bells ringing in the air.
“You could’ve just asked me after, you are the logistics person after all.”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“The truth of this question is important to me.”
Tiana rolled her eyes.
“My parents were quite paranoid people, so far beneath the apartment complex is a huge food storage that only I know how to get to. Even if we only had to survive off that, there would still be plenty to feed everyone here for six months. And that is taking into consideration that some may evolve and get hungrier.”
She extended her hand out to the side.
“Not to mention, many of these rooms used to be inhabited by people, meaning that they still have some food in their fridges. As for where those people are now, they aren’t in the complex. As for water, I’ll just have to ask you to trust me that I have a method.”
Kairos untensed a few muscles he didn’t know he was straining before nodding.
“Alright.”
This place gave him a strong sense of stability already, and that was one of the things he desired. Though, he definitely had no plans of staying here all the time.
Tiana walked into the room before sitting down on one of the sofas. She then looked over to him.
“Are you afraid of me?”
Kairos blinked a few times. Though he definitely planned to be cautious around Tiana, it would be an overstatement to say he was afraid. He was still pretty confident in his own abilities, and the warning that his future vision would give him.
Kairos figured if there really was a high chance of him dying, that his ability would warn him beforehand, like how it warned him of the red sun and the red rain before.
Yet, at the same time, he felt it would be better for him if Tiana did think he was afraid.
Kairos began walking over to the opposing couch and decided to try something.
“Yes.”
He saw that the butterfly would glow red in his future vision, thus he quickly stopped himself.
Kairos then sat down on the couch as though he wasn’t planning on speaking in the first place. As a side note, he was rather surprised by how soft the furniture was.
“Of course…”
The butterfly began to glow red.
But Kairos quickly followed up another statement afterwards.
“-not.”
Tiana looked at the butterfly, then at Kairos a little suspiciously. She raised an eyebrow as she looked at him.
“You decided to lie now?”
She leaned over and held onto her chin with the base of her palm while resting her elbow on her knee.
“If it wasn’t for the butterfly, I would’ve believed you. Your fear really doesn’t show.”
Kairos simply kept quiet, while sighing in relief on the inside.
He started off by saying a lie, which triggered the reaction from the butterfly. However, he quickly added a word that changed the meaning of the sentence.
And in that way, it looked like he lied about not being afraid.
Kairos decided to follow up with his own question, pretending nothing happened previously.
“What kinds of people are you planning on letting into the city?”
Tiana continued to stare at him for a few moments, but decided to go along with his subject shift.
“The plan is to add controllable powerful people and smart people. Along with that, I want to take in a few F-ranked people for every new addition to work on the farms. That way, there should be enough food to support those experts.”
Kairos blinked a few times.
Tiana saw his look and then laughed.
“Ah, sorry, I called you controllable implicitly. You are an exception, rest assured.”
Kairos took a deep breath.
“Alright.”
Tiana tilted her head to the side.
“Now… what do you think of the conditions I gave you for your job?”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“Better than expected.”
Tiana smiled.
“I’m glad.”
He shot back a question right after.
“Would you consider it violating the conditions of my job if I leave the city?”
Tiana giggled sweetly.
“Aww, you wanna be well behaved?”
Kairos did not respond.
After a second of silence, she continued.
“As long as you come back once a week, then you can do as you wish. In fact, I encourage you to explore the outside.”
Kairos nodded.
“Understood.”
Tiana took a deep breath.
“Do you like Nicole?”
Kairos physically recoiled a little, feeling this question was a bit out of left field. However, he quickly found it in him to answer.
“No.”
Tiana looked at the butterfly on her hand intently, then raised an eyebrow with a slightly confused expression.
“…Strange.”
Kairos adjusted his glasses.
“…What is your current relationship with your parents?”
His aim in asking this question was to get a general grasp on whether or not he should avoid provoking her parents, even if they were weak.
However, Tiana ended up falling silent for a few seconds. She took a minute before laughing weakly.
“There isn’t much of a relationship. After all, they turned into monsters.”
Tiana took in a shaky breath.
“And I killed them.”
Kairos was unable to respond for a moment.
He began to somewhat understand why she was so cruel now.
“Sorry.”
Tiana smiled bitterly.
“Don’t worry about it, I’m fine.”
The butterfly began glowing red. Kairos did his best to ignore it.
Tiana shook her head, quickly regaining her bearings.
“Anyway. What is your id number?”
Kairos froze in place.
He understood the implications of that sentence and ran through several possible answers, but none of them had the effects he wanted. In the end, Kairos could only remain silent for the next five seconds.
And then, there was a knocking sound at his door.
“Kairos?”
Tiana stood up with a smile.
“Haha, I’ll be going now. Don’t worry about answering that last question, as I already got the answer.”
Kairos narrowed his eyes without responding. It seemed that she was asking about the id number because she knew about the top ten rankings. Since he didn’t respond, he basically said that he knew about them too.
Tiana opened the door.
Sam was on the other side with a casual smile on his face that froze.
“Ah.”
Tiana waved her hand.
“Don’t worry about me, I was leaving just now.”
She walked past without another word.
Sam looked over his shoulder with a bit of confusion.
“O-Oh. Alright, bye.”
He stood there a little awkwardly.
Kairos sighed.
“Come in.”
After a bit of hesitation, Sam walked in and closed the door behind him. He walked over to the sofa.
“Hey Kairos, how you holding up?”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“Fine.”
Sam sat down.
“Haha, I guess so. You were given a position out of nowhere, and even got us in by proxy!”
Kairos nodded.
“Yeah.”
Sam’s expression gradually fell down.
“…You do understand that dealing with power is complicated, right?”
Kairos looked up.
“Yes, but I don’t understand the specifics.”
Sam smiled bitterly.
“That’s normal.”
He sighed.
“Why don’t I brush you up on the basics?”