Helena stiffened. "Why would you think that?" she asked, confusion flickering in her eyes.
"I’ve heard similar words before," Ivy murmured.
"Silas once said he felt manipulated while we were sleeping." Her gaze sharpened. "And now... I feel the sa."
Helena’s expression darkened, her heart tightening. "What are you trying to say?"
"When Nora asked to promise I’d stay alive," Ivy said quietly, "I was about to agree. Then a voice in my mind told not to."
Helena’s eyes widened in horror.
Ivy clenched her fists. "I don’t know if it was real," she continued.
"Maybe it was a hallucination. Maybe stress is making imagine things... "
"What if it wasn’t?" Helena interrupted sharply. "What if that was the mont your power began to awaken?"
Ivy stared at her, stunned. Then realization struck.
Her gaze hardened as she looked at Helena. "Are you still hiding sothing from ?"
Helena’s hands tightened at her sides. She glanced around nervously before forcing a weak smile. "That’s not the case," she said quickly.
She stood up abruptly. "I will be leaving for now."
Ivy remained silent. She didn’t push.
She didn’t demand answers.
She knew her mother too well.
’If I force her,’ Ivy thought, ’she’ll only hide more.’
Helena had always been like this... when she chose to speak, she did so of her own will. And until then, silence was her shield.
Even after she had agreed, she had clearly hidden certain facts, and even now it felt as though there were things she herself didn’t fully understand.
Powers? What kind of powers could there possibly be?
Ivy frowned slightly as the thought lingered, a faint crease forming between her brows.
’This doesn’t make sense.’ She shook her head slowly, her pink hair brushing against her cheeks.
She had already awakened a Safe Zone superpower, sothing that very few could ever achieve.
On top of that, she possessed the ability to pick up supplies at will.
’So how could there be more?’ The confusion pressed against her chest, heavy and uncomfortable, like fog refusing to clear.
Just as the uncertainty deepened, Ivy felt a familiar itch crawl across her palm, subtle yet unmistakable.
Without hesitation, she lifted her hand slightly and spoke in a calm, steady voice, "Right here."
The air trembled faintly, and in the very next second, an illusory tir flickered into existence before her eyes, its numbers beginning to count down with an almost mocking precision.
When Ivy lowered her gaze to the ground, she froze completely, her breath catching in her throat.
Spread across the entire area, as far as her eyes could see, was cotton.
Soft, white, endless cotton. For a brief mont, she even wondered if exhaustion had finally caught up to her.
’Am I hallucinating?’ She crouched down and grabbed a handful, the fibers warm beneath her fingers, real and undeniably tangible. Once she was sure of it, her hesitation shattered.
She began picking it up at a frantic pace, her movents sharp and efficient, her breathing growing heavier with each passing minute.
By the ti forty minutes passed, her arms trembled violently, muscles screaming in protest, and sweat clung to her skin.
Still, Ivy smiled, her eyes shining with excitent despite her weakness.
’This is enough.’ With this much cotton, she could continue mass-producing clothes without pause.
’If only it had been fur,’ she thought briefly, before her excitent surged again.
’But if cotton is possible... fabric might be too.’ The realization made her heart race with anticipation.
A day passed in what felt like the blink of an eye.
That evening, Jade sat at the dining table alongside General Frank and Frank’s wife.
Suddenly, a sharp knock struck the door, cutting through the calm like a blade.
General Frank stiffened instantly, his instincts flaring. "I’ll check," he muttered, rising from his seat with a guarded expression.
As he approached the door, every step felt heavier than the last.
Peering through the peephole, his face drained of color.
Standing outside was the very leader who had once threatened to kill him.
Cold sweat broke across his back, his heart pounding violently against his ribs.
’What if my son was wrong?’ Fear clawed at him as he turned and hurried back to the table.
"It’s him," he whispered, his voice tight. "The leader."
For the first ti in a long while, General Frank truly panicked, not because he lacked power, but because his wife and son were sitting right there.
Compared to them, his own life ant nothing.
’Is there a way for them to escape?’
The thought burned desperately in his mind as he searched for a solution.
Jade t his father’s gaze and smiled calmly, almost reassuringly.
"There’s no need to worry," he said softly. "He didn’t co to make things difficult. He’s here to thank you."
General Frank stared at him, his expression grim. "How can you be so sure?"
Jade’s smile didn’t falter.
"Why not believe for once and open the door right now," he replied evenly. "And I promise that even after ten or twenty days, you’ll still be alive."
After a long pause, General Frank exhaled deeply. ’I’ll gamble.’
He nodded once and turned toward the door. His wife’s fingers clenched tightly around her napkin, her worry plain on her face.
Jade reached out and gently reassured her, "Everything will be fine."
The mont the door opened, General Frank was pulled into a sudden embrace.
He froze, stunned, before instinctively returning the hug. The man stepped back, smiling warmly.
"My na is Sky," he said. "I ca here to thank you, Frank. If it weren’t for you, I don’t know when I would have been able to et my wife again."
Sky’s voice softened as he continued, "If you ever need help in the future, just say the word. My son holds a decent position in one of the official departnts now."
Internally, Frank released a massive sigh of relief, though his face remained calm. He waved a hand dismissively. "It was nothing."
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