Kai and Eva's kiss lasted a few seconds in real-time. But, in their own world, it felt like an eternity had just passed in a flash.
They didn't really feel anything but the warmth of one another's lips. Especially, Eva, she felt as if every fiber of her was focused on Kai's lips, tasting them, feeling them, and greedily kissing them.
They felt so good that she found her arms moving on their own as they cupped Kai's face gently. Her lips pried his mouth open, letting her tongue go inside, exploring every nook and cranny of it.
Kai's tongue seemed to pick up the pace too as it entangled and mixed with Eva's, keeping up with it. A small, muffled moan leaked from Eva's mouth as she continued kissing Kai with even more greed.
After a long while, the two finally disconnected their lips, to catch their breaths. A string of saliva linked the two of them as they stared at each other with feverish looks. Eva's eyes were drowned in the blissful feeling of the lingering kiss. As for Kai, his hypnotizing purple eyes sparkled with a unique light.
Their faces stayed awfully close to each other for a while before Kai finally spoke with a low tone.
"It's getting late. You should go back home." He said.
"Mmm…" Eva nodded her head as she touched Kai's cheek once before she smiled and then boldly closed the distance between them and gave him a peck on the cheek.
"Goodnight, my love." She said as she stood up and walked toward the door.
When Kai heard the door close, he exhaled a long breath as he ran his hand through his hair with a conflicted look.
"What is wrong with me…" He murmured to himself.
No matter how he looked at it, he just showed a weakness in front of Eva. A glaring one at that. Throughout his life, he never did that with anyone as he knew that showing weakness is basically an easy way for others to harm him. Being the almost invincible existence that he was, people around him would obviously attack him psychologically rather than physically.
He was able to keep that iron rule going for years and years. Yet, in a few questions, Eva was able to make him open up, if even by little.
"I'm really changing, huh?" Looking at his hand, Kai shook his head. "I guess it's not that bad of a feeling after all."
***
Meanwhile, the moment Eva closed the door behind her, she rested her back on the door. Her casual face then shifted to a furious blush as she held her face.
'Oh no! Oh no! I did it! I really did it! I really kissed Kai! Huff, huff!! Calm down, Eva! I need to calm down!!'
Her feelings were as chaotic as her expression. Her heart rate was also above the normal levels to the point where she thought that she was about to feel dizzy.
However, Eva loved it. No, she didn't simply love it, she felt as if she was completely addicted to it. Granted, she had imagined her first kiss with Kai a million times before but this somehow still exceeded her expectations by a large margin.
After fighting with her embarrassed consciousness, she finally moved away from the door and left.
Whether she was going to be able to sleep that night or not. She already knew the answer to that.
***
The next day, Kai heard a knock on his door early in the morning. When he opened the door, he was immediately hugged by two massive soft melons.
"Kai!! I'm back!!" Kaya said as she hugged her beloved tightly. "Did you miss me? Cuz I definitely missed you so badly!"
Kai allowed Kaya to hug for a while longer before he finally pushed her gently and asked. "What took you so long?"
"Uh, please don't remind me! A lot of things happened! Each one more troublesome than the last." Kaya said with a sigh as she sat down on the sofa and got handed a cup of juice from Kai.
"What kind of things?"
Sipping from the cup, Kaya exhaled. "Uh, so refreshing. Ehem, as I said. Many things. First of all, I had to deal with the temporary Origin shenanigans and a stack of paperwork twice my size. Then, I needed up attending one meeting after the other about a certain person."
"Who?"
"Arthur. That bastard is in deep trouble."
Kai's eyes squinted as he recalled what happened over a week ago, right after the end of the operation, the archangels entered a conflict of theirs.
***
"Bastard, Arthur! Speak before I kill you!!"
"I'm sorry. The two of them attacked me and Lola at the same time. While I was able to dodge the attack, she wasn't as lucky. The two then immediately escaped when the weird black walls opened." Arthur said with a smile.
The four archangels stared at the handsome young man with suspicious looks. Lola's sprawled corpse looked to be in a very horrible condition. Her body was dissected into pieces ruthlessly.
Kai looked at the confrontation and then at Lola's corpse before he looked away as if it was none of his business. However, he knew one thing.
'Executioners don't kill that ruthlessly.'
That was a given considering their effectiveness as imposers of rules. They don't have time to be picky about how they kill. That was clearly the work of a sadist, a very twisted one at that.
However, the Archangels didn't know that so they couldn't really do anything. Instead, they simply collected Lola's body before they left, along with Arthur. The tension between them was still palpable in the air.
***
"Some evidence says that he actually allowed V and Q to leave and killed Lola. I still don't know whether that's true or not."
"It's very likely. The way she died was odd."
"I thought so too. But, they still can't determine the truth. However, if they do, Arthur might get executed."
Whether that guy gets executed or not was none of Kai's business even if it was a piece of interesting information to know.
"What else did happen?"
"Ah, the worst one is what happened with the old man?"
"Mikayla?"
"Yeah. A few days ago, he shockingly decided to retire completely from Divinity."
Hearing that piece of news, Kai's eyes widened slightly. Mikayla Raullot retired? Why all of a sudden?
"Did something happen?"
"No, as far as I know, it was sudden. The Virtues and even Ophanims still didn't accept that retirement. When I talked with the old man, he seemed rather adamant about it. He even told me that he would be leaving his house to somewhere where he could stay secluded."
Kai rubbed his chin as he thought about Kaya's words. If he recalled correctly, he did notice the horrible mental state Mikayla reached during his birthday party.
Perhaps that was the reason he decided to leave. But then again, wasn't he hell-bent on creating the Origin Society? Was his conviction that weak for a few setbacks to make him leave?
Kai didn't believe that. He easily read the old man and he was certain a man like him won't easily give up like that.
"Well, I will still ask him more when I meet him again. But, if Divinity accepts this retirement, I will be automatically pushed to become a Virtue."
"..." Kai looked at Kaya's conflicted expression before he asked. "You don't want to be a Virtue?"
"I… don't know, really," Kaya said.
"My belief in Divinity has been always my reason for staying there. Now that I can see where they're going… I feel, conflicted."
"I see."
Kai said before he went silent for a few moments. "Just leave then."
Kaya chuckled before she shook her head. "I thought about it but it won't be that easy. I'm considered a new member by Divinity's standards. I can't leave unless I at least spend 20 more years with them."
It was indeed the case. Since Kaya is under a contract with Divinity, it states that she can't even offer to leave before she has at least worked 40 years for them. At the time, she didn't mind that long time since she had nothing else to do.
She would end up getting sued by Divinity if she broke the contract. It was a pickle.
"Divinity is finally revealing its true intention. They're bound to break their own rules. All you need is for them to breach a thing in your contract and then you can easily leave."
Even though Kai said that he actually didn't think Kaya leaving Divinity now of all times would be a good idea. He still needed to find out what this Temporary Origin was if he wanted to make some forward steps in his initial goal to find a cure.
"Well, I will leave this matter aside for now. It will take those old fools a long time before they could assign me as a Virtue."