Henry, seeing the faint smile lingering on Ivy’s face, couldn’t help but frown slightly.
The curve of her lips felt out of place, almost distant, as though it belonged to soone who was rembering sothing far beyond the present mont.
’Why does that smile feel... unfamiliar?’
For a fleeting mont, a thought crossed his mind, one so absurd that he almost dismissed it instantly.
’Was I... sohow part of her past life?’
It reminded him of that particular day when Ivy had asked Silas to contact Felix.
Silas had ntioned unconsciously about how Ivy knew her half past life from the temporal storage and wanted to know the full past.
He still rembered how shaken she had looked afterward.
Her hands had trembled ever so slightly, her eyes clouded as if she had glimpsed sothing she wasn’t ready to face.
At that ti, he hadn’t understood.
’Did she see sothing terrifying... or sothing she couldn’t accept?’
Yet, whatever the result had been, it clearly hadn’t brought her peace.
Even when she tried to maintain composure, there had been a subtle heaviness in her expression.
Taking a slow, steady breath, Henry looked directly at Ivy,
"Was I... actually involved in your past life? Did I help you in so way?"
Ivy turned her gaze toward him, one brow arching slightly as a faint glimr of amusent flickered in her eyes.
"What do you think?"
Henry paused, his thoughts swirling before settling into a reluctant conclusion.
"Well... with Silas around, I definitely would’ve helped you. After all, it was only because of Silas that I treated you well back then."
Hearing that, Ivy gave a small nod, her expression softening.
"That’s true." Her voice was calm, but there was an underlying depth to it. "But I can say one thing... all of you were always closer to Silas."
A quiet truth echoed in her heart as she spoke. She had long understood it, even if she never voiced it aloud.
’They were loyal to him... not to .’
Every subordinate of Silas had undoubtedly been close to him, bound by trust and unwavering loyalty.
But when it ca to Ivy, that connection was different. Distant, even.
They respected her, perhaps even admired her, but they never truly embraced her as one of their own.
She could feel it every single ti, the invisible line that separated her from them.
’Maybe to them, I was just a savior... or a companion at best. Never soone irreplaceable.’
Still, that never made her bitter. Instead, it grounded her.
The only reason they were willing to risk their lives for her was because of Silas. That alone was enough proof of their character.
And for Ivy, that was enough.
’Not everyone is ant to be close,’ she thought quietly. ’And I accepted that a long ti ago.’
After Henry left, Ivy shifted her focus back to the expansion plans spread before her.
With little else demanding her attention, her thoughts often wandered back to Silas.
She missed him. More than she expected.
Whenever he had been around, ti had slipped through her fingers unnoticed, like sand carried away by the wind.
She would venture out for base related matter.
And when she returned, there would always be sothing waiting, either she would find herself anticipating the als he cooked, rich with warmth and comfort, or she would prepare sothing for him instead.
Sotis, they would end up cooking together.
Those had been so of the happiest monts of her life.
And then... There was his occasional new ’cooking’ thod.
A faint smile tugged at her lips. ’He really was... sothing else.’
If it weren’t for him, she might never have managed to beco confident enough to be together with him.
As she reviewed the reports by Martha, her expression gradually turned serious.
The more the base expanded, the clearer one issue beca: the population was spiraling out of control.
Even with multiple departnts and layers of high-ranking authorities, Ivy knew how fragile order truly was.
’All it takes is one mistake... one lapse... and everything could collapse.’
That realization led her to add a new rule to her rules, sothing she had never considered before.
Anyone harboring corrupt intentions... would be automatically teleported directly in front of her house at exactly 6 p.m.
As she wrote it down, she didn’t expect much.
’How accurate could it really be?’ she wondered skeptically.
But she had severely underestimated the capabilities of temporal storage.
The very next evening, as the clock struck six, a faint ripple distorted the air outside her house.
One by one, figures began to appear, materializing abruptly as if pulled from thin air.
Ivy’s eyes widened in genuine surprise.
’...It actually worked?’
For a mont, she almost felt like giving the temporal storage a silent thumbs-up.
It had accomplished sothing that countless humans had failed to achieve: absolute, unbiased detection.
Her gaze hardened as she looked at the individuals gathered before her. Faces filled with unease, guilt, and barely concealed fear stared back at her.
Without hesitation, she stripped them of their positions.
From that day onward, a rumor began to spread throughout every departnt.
"The base has an anti-corruption rule..."
"Anyone who tries anything shady gets caught instantly..."
The effect was imdiate and undeniable. Efficiency across the base skyrocketed.
From cri handling to docuntation, everything beca sharper, faster, and far more disciplined.
It was as if an invisible pressure now lood over everyone, forcing them into alignnt.
Ivy, observing the changes, couldn’t help but smile faintly. ’Temporal storage... you never cease to surprise .’
However, while she remained focused on maintaining order, sothing else was quietly unfolding in the shadows.
Nora, Ron, June, Felix, Alana, and Pearl had gathered in secret.
This wasn’t their first eting. In fact, the group had been ford long ago, carefully hidden from Ivy’s awareness.
At its center stood Felix... the one who had brought them together.
Felix looked at the five mbers before him, his expression grim, his voice low but firm. "From what I rember... we need to speed things up."
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