Naia flinched, looking at the phone in disbelief. "Kael?!"

The voice in her past and this one had differences, but Kael had certain inflections and habits that immediately alerted her on who it could be. Although logically, it was a bit absurd, she just ended up blurting out the name.

How? No way, right?

...right?

But...wasn’t she here? Why couldn’t Kael? He’s the space user!

Her heart was palpitating in both excitement and disbelief. Her mind was whirling. Logically, she thought that there was no way such a miraculous thing happened, but at the same time, she was hoping with all her being that the supposition was true.

"Hmn."

When the confirmation came, her eyes immediately reddened, and her voice choked up.

"You were here with me all along? You knew? Why haven’t you seen me? Don’t you want to see me that much? What’s the point in contacting me at all?!"

On the other side, Kael’s eyes were soft. He listened to her rants as if she were saying love words.

First of all, hearing her voice, his heart was warm.

And she recognized him so quickly.

One had to know his voice now, and voice then was similar, but there were also differences. It certainly wasn’t enough to identify someone in a second.

"It’s inconvenient for me to move around for now," he said, tone a little coaxing. His voice was low and velvety, tickling the ears.

Naia pursed her lips, wanting to rub her ears. This damned guy! So unfair!

"How did you get my number?" she tentatively asked.

"You know I studied more advanced things back then," he said, implying she hadn’t studied hard enough.

Naia couldn’t retort to that.

She finished the required courses with flying colors, but more advanced lessons were either self-study or through apprenticeships.

Her interests had always laid in plants and other biological studies. In contrast, Kael had skills with machines that were unmatched in their generation. No, he was a great talent even compared to the previous generation, especially since a lot of technicians died early.

"But I haven’t touched suspicious links..." she mumbled, curious and confused. She was fairly sure that there had to be malware to send locations remotely.

Kael smiled, not explaining. The way he tracked her down certainly didn’t have to depend on malware.

Since finding her in Freisa City back then, he had been tracking her movements, in some ways through some grey-area methods, like hacking the public safety department.

The firewalls and the like were certainly tough, but it wasn’t anything Kael couldn’t handle given time. During the days he couldn’t stand or walk around, he spent much of his time studying current technology, making sure he was as updated as possible. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

As he watched, he realized that her movements were erratic and often untraceable. She would disappear from one place, as if staying in that building for days, but then she’d be sighted in another city.

At the time, Kael could only be shocked. Other people wouldn’t surmise this from the videos and traces, but Kael certainly could.

Naia could teleport!

How? He didn’t know either.

Anyway, the amount of information he could get was limited—she hid really well—but he could at least have an overview of her itinerary.

After she landed in Varma country, he eventually followed her to this town. She had hidden herself well, but he only had to study the trend of ’successful’ stone opening over the past months. It showed that the rate had increased significantly over the past few days.

Although she used several disguises, Kael could tell it was Naia.

She definitely had a lot of gains in this trip, and he was happy for her.

Then, there was the random firework near a gem mine, followed by police movements, showing that there was an anomaly. A few more questions showed that there had been a massive heist.

According to witnesses, it was as if the gems had disappeared into thin air. Hearing this, Kael was 100% certain Naia was behind it.

At the same time, he knew that Naia wouldn’t make such blatant moves without a reason.

He was also worried that she could be in trouble. The backing of the mines was not small. This included large gangs and even government officials.

It didn’t take long for him to understand what happened, even if he wasn’t there at the time or even after the place got cleaned up. Human trafficking was common here. At the very least, it gave him a point to attack.

The rule of law and its execution were a bit different in a different country, so he directly contacted the embassy as well as some international nonprofit organizations, claiming that he had a lead about several missing citizens.

He was purposely vague at the exact location, lest the enemy had people in their ranks, but he wanted them close enough and on-call.

He had already booked the same inn as she did, waiting for a bit of news. And this news came rather suddenly—and she really went in big.

Basically, he was already in the area when the livestreaming began. He was even on one of the helicopters that flew past.

He was tempted to teleport to her, but he didn’t. His legs were still in pain at this time. If he rushed over to hug him, he’d fall down like a bowling pin. Too embarrassing.

"Not telling?" she asked again, referring to her question about how he tracked her so well.

"No."

"..."

She’d definitely wonder about this for a long time. Kael liked it when her mind was filled with him.

Naia had no idea what was in his head. "Where are you?"

"Preparing for the inevitable," he said. "Naia...it will be happening."

Naia’s lips pursed. She knew this, but hearing someone else say it made her stomach drop anyway.

"What are your preparations so far?"

"The basics—enough for the two of us to last a few decades. I’m studying technology that could help our survival be sustainable for the next generations."

Naia’s mind was still on the fact that Kael was here and only got the main points of his succeeding words. "I’m also preparing. I think it will also last us a while. My only problem so far is where to stay during and after the Fall."

"You don’t have to worry about the house anymore," he said. "I have found a place with the highest survivability rate. It’s not a hundred percent guaranteed, but it’s much better than other places."

Kael remembered the notes written on her mysterious whiteboard, with ’house’ in red marker. His lips twitched, but he didn’t say it.

He also wanted to ask more about that mysterious space, but he felt like it was a discussion for another time.

"I’ll send you some photos of the house and its location. It’s currently under renovation, but you can go over sometimes if you have time. It should be ready to move into in a month."

Naia listened well to him. However, whether she had absorbed his words or was focused on listening to his voice, only she knew.

"I’ll come for you when the time comes," he said. "Just prepare as you wish—I will handle everything else."