Chapter 59 - Secretive Manners

Kairos couldn't help but furrow his brows.

"...You were watching me?"

Looking at her closer, Tiana had a life-sized butterfly pin in her hair. She tilted her head to the side and smiled.

"Why do you think I would always go to your gym classes?"

She put one hand on her cheek along with a knowing smile.

"I was there to watch you."

Kairos couldn't help but feel confused.

"Huh? Why me?"

He was never the star player or even that athletic for that matter. It was frankly rare to find him even truly participating, as nobody would ever pass to him. The only thing he would do was occasionally catch the ball before tossing it to the nearest person.

And as for the times where he had to participate because of the nature of the event, he would hardly ever do a good job, though that was on purpose.

That was why he could hardly fathom why Tiana could even want to watch him. After all, there was practically nothing to watch.

However, Tiana smiled almost like there was poison coating her lips.

"I can see that you are always thinking ahead. No matter what, your eyes would never be on the ball itself, but where the ball would be. Somehow you always seemed to be able to calculate the results of something a second before it actually happened."

Kairos' eyebrow twitched violently.

He honestly had no conscious awareness that he was doing that. Though now that he thought about it, that was something he did all the time. After all, why would he look at the ball directly when he had already seen where it had gone?

The only interesting thing to look at would be to see the new result, rather than the old.

...And it seemed someone somehow picked up on that.

Kairos pushed his glasses up as he made a mental note to be wary of that from now on.

"I'm pretty sure you are mistaken. Even if I have some basic sort of calculating ability, it isn't something that someone else couldn't have."

Tiana giggled.

"Oh, but it extends even further than that. Even when you are just walking around, it's as though you can tell whenever anything happens, whether it's avoiding bird poop that falls from the sky, or avoiding a car that drove a little too recklessly."

Kairos opened his mouth, and found himself at a loss for a moment.

How did she even know all of that?

"I... don't remember seeing you watching me?"

Tiana laughed.

"Just because someone has their head down staring at their phone, doesn't mean they aren't paying attention to their surroundings. Though, everyone assumes that. Frankly, I'm always watching everyone."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"That's creepy."

The corner of Tiana's lip curled up.

"Thank you for the compliment."

Kairos rubbed his temple.

"So you really decided to take all of us in because I was a little more calculating than the average person?"

Tiana shrugged her shoulders.

"I know what I know."

She then turned to the man and shooed him away.

"Go back to manning the walls, useless."

The man flinched, but hurriedly saluted before running away.

Jenny pouted after watching the man go away.

"Couldn't you have been a little nicer?"

Tiana rolled her eyes.

"Kindness only begets people that will act out of line. If they aren't afraid, then how can you expect them to do what they're told?"

Nick furrowed his brows.

"That's where you encourage them. They ain't gonna do their best if they are afraid all the time."

Tiana smiled and clasped her hands together.

"And what do you do when that encouragement fails?"

Nick did not have a rebuttal.

However, Eric spoke up instead.

"What if my two friends and I here try something?"

Tiana raised an eyebrow. She pondered over it for a moment.

"...You can try if you wish."

She then raised her finger.

"But!"

Tiana slowly pointed towards Kairos.

"That is under the condition that you become in charge of the logistics. Otherwise, you have to work on a farm to be here."

Kairos was almost rendered speechless, but decided to hear more about the farm.

"When you say work on the farm, what exactly do you mean?"

Tiana tilted her head to the side with a smile.

"Ah, I will give anyone that becomes a farmer a plot of land which they can grow crops on! Then, they will only have to pay by giving ninety percent of their yield to me."

Sam's head physically recoiled slightly as he blinked a few times.

"Sorry, did you say ninety?"

Tiana nodded.

"Yes. You will get ten percent of any food you grow!"

The corner of Sam's lip twitched.

"...I thought getting taxed twenty-five percent was quite unfair, but it seems my vision was a bit too limited."

Tiana chuckled.

"It was always a choice! All of these people understood the terms and did not have to choose to agree. They decided completely out of their own free will."

Chase smiled.

"I suppose when you know there will always be someone that agrees, you don't have to care too much about creating lenient conditions."

Sydney frowned and lowered her head.

"But... that doesn't mean it's right to take advantage of them."

Tiana walked up to her and lifted up her chin with the tip of her index finger.

"And what? You think I should be running a charity in the middle of the apocalypse?"

Nicole hurried over and bowed towards her.

"Please don't touch my mother!"

Tiana lowered her finger with a soft sigh before turning to Nicole.

"And on what grounds do you have to tell me what to do?"

Nicole fidgeted, but stayed strong.

"I don't think I have grounds to. I couldn't create anything close to what you have made. But still, while I respect your actions, I don't want you getting too touchy."

Tiana raised an eyebrow and stared at her for a few moments. It seemed as though she was going to say something harsh, like usual. Though reality turned out to be a little different.

"It seems you aren't as worthless as you made yourself out to be."

Nicole let out a small gasp.

"Eh?"

Tiana shrugged her shoulders.

"From what I've seen before, you never seemed to be the type of person to stand up for yourself, much less others."

A small smile spread out on Nicole's face.

"I... I guess some things changed."

Tiana sighed before turning to Kairos. She had both hands on her hips along with a smile.

"So, are you willing to take on the position?"

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"Could you give me a quick briefing on what I will do and what I will get from it? Also, are there any caveats if I want to quit?"

Tiana smirked.

"You will make decisions on how we spread out the city's resources, which at most will be once a week. You will get more than what you need for food, and when we establish a monetary system, you will get one of the highest pay. There are no restrictions on quitting, as long as you inform me beforehand."

Kairos raised an eyebrow.

"That sounds relatively... lenient."

Tiana winked.

"Let's just say I am confident in your ability."

Kairos deliberated over whether or not he should accept this. It sounded like a fairly good deal, and there was also the untold benefit of having a position of power. Though he couldn't be sure about how much power it would give him and what exactly he could do with it, resources were surely important during the apocalypse.

Thus, managing those resources should be quite useful.

In a certain sense, this was essentially most of what he could ask for. Originally, he was planning on fighting hard to barely survive and create a somewhat sustainable shelter. At the earliest, he figured it would take a month.

Yet here it was, right in front of his very eyes.

Ironically, his main concern wasn't the benefits, potential traps, or even Tiana's character.

It was whether or not he could actually perform an adequate job. After all, what Kairos said was pretty much true. He did not have some sort of innate talent in calculating things.

Tiana simply misinterpreted his ability to see in the future as extremely high proficiency in that regard.

Kairos closed his eyes and took a deep breath, staying silent for ten or so seconds.

Then, he opened his eyes.

"Sure, I will try my best."

Tiana smiled brightly.

"Great! Now, let me assign you to the rooms in the building! I assume all of you are Kairos' friends, so you will also have your own rooms and a decent amount of food allocated."

With that, she began leading the way to the center of this miniature city, while the others followed behind.

Kairos couldn't help but notice a few people off in the distance farming had begun staring at him quite intensely. Their gazes seemed to indicate jealousy, but also fear.

Kairos grew curious about how Tiana managed to herd these people. It seemed that there were two cases. She was either extremely powerful, enough to overwhelm them completely, or charismatic...

And relatively powerful.

Either way, he decided to try and stay on Tiana's good side. She would be quite frightening to have as an enemy, but also an extremely useful ally.

Soon, Tiana made it to the ground floor of the apartment complex. She pointed towards one of the rooms on the first floor.

"That will be your room, Kairos."

She then turned to the others.

"As for you all, your rooms will be on the third floor."

Tori tilted her head to the side.

"Could I get a room on the first floor instead? It would be more convenient."

Tiana smiled strangely.

"Haven't you realized that the reason you can't get a more convenient room is that you are only a friend to someone that has a higher position? If you want a room on the first floor, prove your abilities to me, and I shall grant you one."

Tori blinked a few times, wondering why she had gotten such a strong response. She didn't think that it was that big of a deal.

"Um... ok."

Tiana led the group to the third floor and showed them each to a room. Most of them decided to check them out. One exception was Eric, Nick, and Jenny, who seemed to have formed their own plan that they wanted to execute.

Tiana looked towards Kairos, once the two of them were alone in the hallway.

"Should I show you what you will be doing for your job?"

Kairos blinked a few times.

"Alright."

Tiana brought him back down to his room and opened the door, revealing the interior.

"I will get someone to deliver you information on the status of the city at various points in time. As for delivering your decision, I hope that you can send it straight to me. My room is the opposite of yours, so it will be rather easy to do so."

Kairos was trying to pay attention, but was having difficulty doing so. That was because the interior of the room was just way too luxurious. It wasn't as though everything was inlaid in gold, but he was able to instinctively recognize that everything was very expensive.

The room was generously large, probably enough for four people to live without feeling cramped, with quite a few sofas, carpets, and various paintings. He could even make out a second floor just in this one place.

Ironically enough, Kairos was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to live in a place like this if it wasn't for the apocalypse happening.

Talia laughed.

"Is it high end? I feel my family didn't do the best job of making these places."

The corner of Kairos' lip twitched.

So she was from a wealthy family.

Talia smiled strangely as she picked out the butterfly pin in her hair... which began fluttering its wings.

"Now that it is only the two of us, I hope we can talk about some more secretive manners."