Tiana continued to sob while holding onto Kairos.
“Who will save me? I have nobody… nobody…”
Kairos felt like there were appropriate responses, ones that would toe around the truth and increase his probability of survival. However, he decided that he didn’t really care all that much.
“I don’t know. I honestly have no idea what you can do at this point.”
Kairos found it a little difficult to do so but reached over to gently pat her head.
“To be honest, I don’t even really understand how my mentality stabilized. So the only thing I can really say, is good luck.”
Tiana was still crying, but gradually suppressed it. After a few moments, she had calmed down enough to speak.
“My father used to say that a lot… good luck.”
Kairos blinked a few times, not sure why she was telling him this.
“I see.”
He coughed.
“Sorry about that.”
Tiana looked at him strangely.
“Sorry about what?”
Kairos furrowed his brows slightly, confused by how she suddenly became quite calm.
“Um, reminding you about your father?”
Tiana smiled.
“Then if you’re sorry about that, then shouldn’t you compensate?”
Kairos leaned back slightly.
“What are you talking about?”
Tiana took a deep breath.
“Well… if you reminded me of my father, it’s only fair that you pretend to be him, so that remembering doesn’t hurt as much.”
Kairos’ eyelid twitched. Despite the fact he heard her say that twice, he still couldn’t help but think that he somehow misinterpreted it.
“What?”
Tiana let go of him and tidied his collar before backing off.
“Exactly like I said. I pretend that you are my father, and you pretend that I’m your daughter. You respond just the way you imagine it would be like.”
Kairos massaged his temple with the tip of his finger.
“What the hell is the point of that?”
Tiana tilted her head to the side, as her calm demeanor began to break down once more.
“For the sake of my sanity.”
Kairos rolled his eyes.
“No matter how convincingly we do it, you will still know logically that it’s all false. Will it really help you then?”
Tiana flung her hand to the side, then whipped out a finger pointing at her head.
“It’s not to appease the sane side of me in the first place. It doesn’t have to make logical sense to work in the first place.”
Kairos shook his head.
“Are you kidding me? I’m sure as crazy as you are, you can still understand this doesn’t really fix the problem. It’s only delaying the inevitable, like trying to stay awake to prevent tomorrow from coming.”
Tiana kicked at the shattered remains below her.
“Yeah, I already knew that a while ago alright? But I don’t care anymore.”
Kairos let out a soft sigh.
“Ok fine. But to be frank, I don’t care enough. No way in hell I’m going to pretend to be someone’s father. That’s messed up in more ways than one.”
He stood up from the seat, but abruptly froze right after.
Tiana spoke tersely.
“Stop.”
She tilted her head to the side.
“You aren’t leaving. Not after I’ve already said so much.”
Kairos’ face twitched. He wanted to say that it was never like he wanted to listen, but felt that it would be bad for this situation.
Tiana walked over the remains of the shattered desk, causing the wooden pieces to crunch underneath her feet.
“You are going to listen to me, alright?”
She had a wide smile on her face, while her eyes widened all the way.
“I’m not sure if you already figured it out, but I’m way stronger than you.”
Her breathing became heavy.
“You just got to the D rank not too long ago, right?”
Kairos did not react when he heard that, but internally he was questioning how in the world she knew. Not to mention the fact she knew, clearly meant she must’ve been substantially stronger to say those words.
Tiana giggled.
“Let me show you I’m not bluffing in the slightest.”
She then opened up her status panel.
[Status]
[ID: 005312430000]
[Rank: D-]
[Objective: Survive]
[Proof Of Perfection Points: 76.5]
[Strength – 30.0
Agility – 30.0
Endurance – 30.0
Willpower – 30.0
Mana Capacity – 30.0
Magic Affinity – 30.0]
[Special Abilities: Ruler (D), Beyond Limits Spell (E), Earth Spell (E), Metal Spell (E)]
[Hide]
Kairos couldn’t help but curse internally after seeing that. Somehow or another, she had far more stat points than him despite the fact she was supposedly just sitting here the entire time.
Though that was more than enough to convince him, Tiana didn’t stop there. She wrapped her arm around his shoulder, before pointing towards one of the abilities on her status panel, almost like an excited friend showing him an interesting video on the internet.
Tiana tapped on one of the abilities, causing it to expand outwards and display its contents. This surprised Kairos greatly, as he remembered trying that before, but it didn’t work out like this.
Yet, before he couldn’t help but focus all of his attention on the text shown in front of him.
[Beyond Limits Spell (E)]
[Temporarily gain the full power of the rank above you for one minute. After usage, lower all stats by half for one day.
Cost: 50 evolution points]
Although a spell like that had quite a large cost, with both the period of weakness and cost of evolution points, it was most likely strong. Especially because it said “full power”.
Tiana turned to Kairos with a confident smile.
“If you try to leave again, I will cast this spell. And I will use it to punish you.”
In response, Kairos sighed.
“That’s way too overkill, and realistically just a waste. The consequences are undeniable.”
Tiana looked at him with an empty expression.
“But you can tell that I hardly care about the consequences anymore.”
Kairos smiled bitterly.
“Which means I don’t have any other choice.”
Tiana pouted slightly.
“Well… it’s not like you don’t have a choice, I gave you two… It’s just that one of them is really bad.”
Kairos took a deep breath.
“Alright, I’ll try to cooperate.”
Tiana let him go and laughed.
“I knew you would listen to reason eventually.”
Kairos really wanted to say that wasn’t reason, but didn’t.
“Look, I’m not going to be able to do this the best. I’m not an actor, and I don’t even really know how your father is. It’s going to be hard to replicate it.”
Tiana shook her head with a smile.
“Just do whatever comes to mind.”
Kairos’ eyebrow twitched.
“You’re not even going to give me pointers on what your father is like.”
Tiana put a finger on her chin before the corner of her lip turned up.
“Nope!”
Kairos felt like his mind was malfunctioning, or maybe he was dreaming. Though, he was fairly confident neither of those things were the case.
An exasperated sigh came out of him.
“So you’re fine with doing it half-heartedly?”
Tiana shrugged her shoulders.
“Well… kinda. But if I see you stop trying, then I will activate that ability.”
Kairos clicked his tongue.
“Alright, alright, I’ll try my best.”
Tiana smiled and hopped on back, her gait completely changing to become rather chirpy. She took a glance at the shattered wooden table and hurriedly kicked most of it to the side.
Then, she turned around and was smiling. But this time, it was a normal smile. All traces of insanity had completely left her, making it seem as though she transformed into an innocent girl.
“Dad!”
For some reason, Kairos couldn’t help but feel that Tiana acting this way was even more creepy than when she was screaming or dangerously close to tearing him to pieces. Nonetheless, that showed how much effort she was putting into pretending.
As such, he felt pressured to at least put in effort on par with that.
Kairos forced himself to smile. It was quite unnatural at first, but remembering that Tiana was willing to throw all pretenses away if he messed this up, Kairos made it more natural and warm.
“Tiana!… My princess…”
Though he usually only had a slight frown on his face, he was also very skilled at controlling his facial expressions. It was something he practiced for the sake of fooling others more easily. Though this was the last situation he would’ve thought it would come in handy for him.
Tiana excitedly hopped over to him with shining eyes.
“Look, I was able to make this city! It took a lot of work, but now there are so many people living under my rule. Aren’t you proud of me?”
Kairos let out a soft chuckle while suppressing the urge to have his eyebrow twitch.
“Yes, of course. You’ve worked so hard, Tiana.”
Tiana smiled brightly and jumped towards him.
“Dad!”
Kairos stopped himself from flinching, and instead spread his arms out. He even gave himself a new deeper voice.
“My princess!…”
Tiana wrapped her arms around Kairos tightly and began rubbing the side of her face against his chest. Relative to Kairos, she was fairly short, making such actions more natural. It also helped fit the narrative that was happening.
Kairos gently wrapped his arms around her, but his mind was rushing like no tomorrow, desperately trying to think of what a father was supposed to say.
Tiana looked up at him with teary eyes.
“Do you have any advice for me, dad?”
Kairos sifted through moments he had with his own father. Though, he definitely couldn’t say that their interactions were normal. Even he could tell they were more like two strangers forced to talk to each other.
Nonetheless, he still thought about them.
And eventually, he was able to think about one of the few moments where his father gave him advice.
“Listen, Kairos. Remember that the only person you can truly depend on is yourself. You can control your own actions, but you can’t control others. In the end, you will have to be prepared for them to disappoint you should you ever choose to rely on them.”
Kairos opened his mouth, ready to repeat that.
However, he froze in the middle.
Because he himself didn’t agree with it.
Tiana seemed to notice him acting up, but didn’t say anything.
Kairos thought about just saying it, but couldn’t bring himself to. He then sifted through more memories, trying to think of something else his father said. And then, he came across another.
“Kairos. If you are truly capable, then you will never have to blame anything else. Even when unlucky, you will still be able to succeed. If you can’t achieve your goal because of your circumstance, then you simply didn’t work hard enough.”
Kairos got ready to say that as well, but once more, he couldn’t bring himself to say it.
Tiana’s cheery expression gradually left her face as the awkward silence ensued, instead becoming neutral.
Kairos realized this, but he didn’t care enough.
A bitter smile gradually formed on his face.
“Listen, Tiana. Remember that the only person you can’t count on is yourself. You can control your actions, but there is only so much you yourself can do. In the end, you will have to be prepared to ask for help from others to finish some things.”
By now, his fake voice had completely reverted to his own.
“If you are truly realistic, you will realize that you can’t be good at everything. Even when it’s something you are good at, sometimes you will fail, and that’s perfectly fine. It doesn’t matter if you never succeed, as long as you don’t regret doing it.”
Silence lingered between the two of them for a while.
Tiana’s cheery disposition disappeared, leaving her with the normal one. She slowly let go of Kairos and took a few steps back.
“There’s no way my father would say that.”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“And there’s no way mine would either.”