Kenji stared down at her, his hazel eyes locking onto her intense, scowling face.

The sheer absurdity of a literal monster experiencing a human crisis of insecurity was almost enough to make him break character and laugh out loud right in the middle of the training courtyard.

But the heavy, genuine confusion vibrating through her core stopped him.

"Who did you talk to today?"

"Amanda."

"Did you read her mind?"

"Why are you saying that like I intentionally did that?" Ayla went full-on defense mode, "I read everyone. She isn’t special." Ayla scoffed.

Amanda was just a nobody to her. She absolutely didn’t hate that annoying woman because of Kenji’s past relationship with her.

Kenji had no idea of her inner monologue. But he could see that Amanda’s toxic mental broadcast had genuinely disrupted her logical processors.

He didn’t pull back. Instead, he stepped even closer, his broad shoulders completely blocking the view of the drilling squads in the distance.

He reached up, his leather-gloved hands gently but firmly cupping her soft, pale cheeks, forcing her to look directly into his eyes.

"Listen to me, you dense slime," Kenji said, his voice dropping into a low, rough murmur that was meant for her ears alone.

Ayla instantly liked how he called her. Slime sounded more....more...? Ayla had no idea, but she liked it anyway.

"When we first met in that dark tunnel, you ate my brain god knows how many times. I am sure I hated you. If possible, I really wished to kill you."

Ayla’s pupils dilated slightly, her skin absorbing the deep, radiating heat of his palms.

"Then, like a parasite, you followed me. Tell me, if you are in my position, what will you feel about someone who killed you multiple times and invaded your family?"

Ayla lowered her head in deep thought. She had no answer for that either, because she still didn’t find any mistakes in her actions.

For her, that was an easier path to the Crusade. That’s it.

"I can’t say I am keeping you around because you are strong, Ayla. That will be a big lie. The reason I am keeping you around is.." Kenji continued, his thumb gently brushing across her cheekbone, "just like a slime, you aren’t leaving me."

"So, don’t worry, little slime. It isn’t me keeping you around, rather you have trapped me inside."

The corrupted thoughts in Ayla’s mind instantly smoothed out, replaced by a massive, overwhelming wave of satisfaction.

He was correct. There would be no one who could declare her worth, because there was no one qualified to do it.

"I understand," she murmured, her features softening as her dimpled smile returned. "I will carry me in a jar."

"Exactly. So stop listening to the garbage floating inside other people’s heads," Kenji muttered.

But as he looked down at her parted lips, the memory of their interrupted morning encounter flashed through his mind.

The lingering, raw tension of the bedroom rushed back, fueled by the quiet privacy of the weapon racks.

Before his rational mind could talk him out of it, Kenji leaned down, his mouth catching hers in a deep, consuming sequence.

This time, Ayla did not panic. She actively suppressed her biological defense mechanisms, recalling the education he had provided just an hour ago.

She lay perfectly still for a second before her hands reached up, her small fingers gripping the edge of his dark steel shoulder plates to pull him closer.

Her lips parted instinctively, allowing his tongue to slide past her teeth, curling around hers in a slow, demanding rhythm that made her internal temperature skyrocket.

Her [Emotion Weaver] trait began to hum beneath her skin, driving her pulse faster, turning the innocent confirmation into a heavy, intoxicating embrace.

"Ah! You... you freaks!"

A sharp, horrified shriek shattered the heavy silence of the courtyard.

Kenji broke the kiss, his breathing slightly uneven as he glanced over Ayla’s shoulder.

Amanda was standing at the entrance of the weapon alcove.

The calculated, beautiful mask she usually wore had entirely collapsed, replaced by a twisted expression of raw disgust and absolute shock.

She was trembling, her fingers pointing at them as her mind vomited a chaotic stream of vulgar insults.

’Siblings... they are literally doing this in the open courtyard... disgustingly sick degenerates...’

Kenji let out a heavy, tired sigh, his shoulders sagging helplessly as he looked down at Ayla. The mood was entirely ruined for the second time today.

"Kill her," Kenji said aloud, his voice completely devoid of emotion.

Ayla’s golden eyes flared with an immediate, vicious delight. She had been waiting for this exact permission.

Before Amanda could even draw her ceremonial sidearm or scream for the guards, a cluster of translucent, razor-sharp blue slime tentacles erupted directly from Ayla’s sleeve.

The appendages whipped through the morning air with a sickening whistle, piercing through Amanda’s throat and chest in a fraction of a millisecond, completely shredding her vocal cords and vital organs before dragging her limp, bleeding form into the shadows of the racks to be thoroughly processed.

Once the data was harvested, Ayla turned back to Kenji, her lips still smeared with a tiny trace of Amanda’s blood.

Without a single word, her tentacles flashed outward again, wrapping around Kenji’s neck and snapping it with absolute, practiced precision.

[You have been slain.]

[Ayla rejected the Regression request.]

The pitch-black void flickered once and instantly vanished.

When reality snapped back into place, the crisp morning air was still carrying the scent of fuel, and the double doors of the inner courtyard had not yet opened.

Kenji was standing by the weapon racks, systematically cleaning the edge of his blade with the treated cloth, his hazel eyes tracking Ayla as she walked toward him with her hands clasped behind her back.

The timeline had successfully reset to the exact moment before Amanda entered the alcove.

Ayla’s emotions were perfectly settled, though the heated moments between them were completely ruined.

Both of them were clearly dissatisfied because of that.

A second later, the gravel crunched. Amanda stepped onto the pathway, a bright, flawless smile gracing her features as she projected absolute warmth and respect.

But the moment her eyes landed on Ayla standing in close, comfortable proximity to Kenji, her step faltered for a microsecond.

Her calculated expression returned to normal almost instantly as she approached the siblings, bowing slightly.

"Lady Ayla, Kenji," Amanda said sweetly, her voice carrying the perfect tone of a dedicated retainer.

"I have just received word from the logistics wing. I am also assigned to accompany you to the Spire."

Kenji stopped cleaning his blade, his hazel eyes narrowing slightly as he looked at her. He was genuinely surprised.

The deployment orders for the Spire were incredibly strict, usually reserved exclusively for heavy vanguards or high-tier talent vessels.

"You don’t have any combat traits, Amanda," Kenji said, his voice level and analytical. "Why would you be entering the Spire allocation?"

He didn’t mean any mockery by the statement, as he was simply calculating the survival rate of a common human in the Spire.

But in Amanda’s hypersensitive ears, the question hit like a brutal, condescending insult targeting her lack of systemic talent.

Amanda’s fists clenched tightly at her sides, the fabric of her uniform straining against her knuckles.

She forced her facial muscles to remain perfectly still, maintaining her beautiful, smiling mask, but inside her head, Ayla heard a violent torrent of sinister thoughts.

’Look at him, looking down on me just like the rest of the high houses,’ Amanda’s inner voice hissed, the thoughts rotting with intense jealousy.

’You think you’re gods just because the system handed you legendary traits? You think this mistress’s brat is better than me? Just wait until we cross the threshold. Let’s see if your vanguard armor can protect you from what’s waiting inside.’

"The command staff required a certified administrative surveyor to catalog the logistics of the advance vanguard," Amanda explained smoothly aloud, her eyes shining with false devotion.

"But more importantly... they found an Event inside the Spire."

The moment the word Event left her lips, Kenji’s entire posture shifted.

His stoic expression vanished, replaced by a sharp, sudden gravity that made him grip the hilt of his sword tightly.

"What?" Kenji asked, his voice tight with surprise. "A Spire Event?"

Ayla stood beside him, her face remaining entirely blank.

She had absolutely no contextual data for what a "Spire Event" actually implied within the Spire’s logic.

Sensing Ayla’s silence and the lack of comprehension on her flawless face, Amanda snickered silently in the dark recesses of her mind, an intensely arrogant sneer echoing through her thoughts.

’Ha! Look at her. This little genius bitch has absolutely no idea what a Spire Event even means,’ Amanda thought, her internal voice dripping with smug satisfaction. ’What is the point of inheriting a legendary Celestial Vessel if your brain is as empty as a common wall-born peasant? She’s just a clueless animal elevated by luck.’

Ayla’s patience was running exceptionally low. She thoroughly disliked the repetitive insults of this ugly woman.

It would be remarkably simple to deploy her blue tentacles right now, pierce this scrawny woman’s throat again, and end her forever.

She preferred to end this woman here, permanently, without the safety of a regression loop.

’Since she is coming with us into the Spire, I will simply end her life there, where the casualties are expected,’ Ayla thought, a predatory calculation anchoring itself within her brain.

However, her clinical curiosity overrode her immediate desire to consume Amanda’s brain.

She needed to extract the parameters of this new variable first. She leaned slightly toward Kenji, her voice maintaining its flat, curious tone.

"Kenji," Ayla murmured, her eyes fixed on Amanda’s smiling face. "What is an Event?"