Arthur sipped on his coffee carefreely before he opened his mouth to answer. His relaxed smile still annoyed Eva but at this point, she knew that he was simply using it as a weapon to try and control people.
Arthur was a very smart and cunning man by all means and that was perhaps the reason why he was still alive. That cunningness made him escape punishment because of how useful it was. Not many people could be as level-headed as he was a psychopath.
'Now, what trick you're cooking, bastard?' Eva thought inwardly.
"First of all, I want to ask one question since it is within my contract to do this." He said as he looked up. "Do you want to join Divinity?" He asked.
"No." Eva immediately replied. "I'm living a peaceful life. I don't want anything to do with whatever you people do."
"Then, why did you accept the offer to attack the Hitman's Guild?"
"I have my reasons. Now that I dealt with that matter. I'm just staying away from problems."
"Oh? Yeah, I can see that. I was a little surprised to find you in such a small city. I mean, you're from the Lavine family. Is there any reason for that?" He asked with a smile.
"I simply wanted to live a quiet life far away from the focus of the media," Eva replied casually. She kept her calm expression the whole time even though she could see how Arthur was trying to probe her for answers."
"I see. That's indeed a very good idea. I, myself, think of getting married in the future and living in a small village in nature. It's my small dream." Chuckling, Arthur sighed.
"So, what do you want to discuss?" Eva wanted to cut to the chase and end this conversation since she needed to leave.
"Haha, sorry for my nonsense, I like to speak a lot so I end up diverging from the real topic really easily. Ehem, so what I wanted to ask you is that, do you have any idea of the current location of the Black Phantom?"
"Huh? The Black Phantom?" Eva was a little surprised but she didn't show a reaction.
"Yeah, I'm looking for him. Perhaps scout him if he wants to. Do you have any idea where I can find him? I'm sure you have a way to contact him, right?" He asked.
"No, I do not have that. He simply approached me and offered me the opportunity to join him in this mission. Now, I have no idea where he is." She replied.
Arthur went silent for a second. "Is that so? Damn, that was anti-climactic. Hahaha, well, this trip wasn't for naught as I was able to finally have a proper conversation with you." Arthur said as he sighed and stood up. However, before he turned around to leave. He suddenly stopped as if he remembered something and turned around to look at Eva who was about to relax from relief.
"Hm, one last question if you don't mind. What are the chances that the Black Phantom lives in this city?" He asked.
"Hm? How would I know that? It's probably 0 or one." She replied.
"Are you sure? Because, after doing some research, I realized that this city had faced some quite unusual events in the past 12 months or so. Events like the attack the Executioners did on the city to get you which surprisingly ended in mysterious circumstances. It's quite weird that after you arrived here, all this weird stuff started happening, don't you think?" He asked with the same innocent look.
However, Eva's face turned a little colder as she asked. "What are you trying to say, Archangel? That I'm lying?"
"No! No! Of course not. I'm just curious as my research did show some pretty interesting results that might indicate something. If you would ask me personally. I would say that the chances the Black Phantom is here are way higher than in any other place. After all, wherever he goes, special things happen. He's that amazing."
'This guy is too smart for his own good. Should I kill him? Tsk, this is really annoying.' Killing him was still a dumb thing to do with how much he was supported by Divinity.
So, Eva decided to change tactics a little bit.
"Well, if you don't believe it. You can check for yourself. I don't know where he is and you don't know either. Nobody knows. And even if he was here, I doubt you or me or anyone else could find him. He didn't hide from the eyes of the underworld for 5 years by pure coincidence, after all."
She turned from denying to neither denying nor confirming. It was a risky reverse psychology but it proved to be effective in many situations. Luckily, Arthur seemed to be convinced by it.
"You do have a point, Miss Lavine. He is hard to find if he doesn't want anyone to find him."
'Good…'
"But, since I have no other place to look. I will stay here for a while and see if he appears or not. Not that I rely on this being effective." He shrugged.
'Fuck, this guy is s stupidly annoying! Just leave and go do whatever Divinity wants you to do.' Eva cursed inwardly as she tried to hide her frown with all her power.
"Hey, do you know a good place where I can stay?" He asked.
"No. I'm still new here myself." She said.
"Can I ask you to help me find an apartement?"
"No." Eva stood up and started walking away without looking back and quickly left the cafe.
Arthur watched her silhouette disappear with a calm expression before a relaxed smile adorned his handsome face.
"Ah, you're really interesting, Eva~" He licked his lips before he also left the place. Nobody knew what was going through his mind or behind that beautiful smile of his.
***
A day passed quietly and Kai and Aria finally returned to the city. The trip was rather long since they had to travel at night. Kai especially found it long since weirdly enough, Eva didn't call him the whole day yesterday.
She usually calls him whenever she finishes school. But that day, she didn't. Kai found it odd and was intending to call her. But, then decided not to. If Eva didn't call him, it's for a reason, good or bad.
She was capable enough of dealing with most problems that arise so if she did something, it was definitely with logic. Kai trusted that fully. So, if he thought that if he called her and turned out to be a problem, then that would create an even bigger problem.
So, when the plane landed, Kai and Aria rushed out of the airport, took a taxi, and headed back home.
Kai made sure to keep his senses alerted at all times as the car moved. Something felt awfully wrong about the atmosphere of the city. It was gloomy, cloudy but with no rain. This particular city was never a cloudy or rainy one as it was near the coast of F-Country so this, in and out of itself, was odd.
"Keep yourself alerted." He whispered to Aria.
When they reached the apartement, he found it empty. Eva usually spends time there and she also knew that Kai was returning today so she definitely would've been there. However, instead of her, he found a small piece of paper on the table.
Opening it, he found a small message written in beautiful handwriting which Kai identified as Eva's.
After a few seconds of reading, his face frowned slightly as he looked at the clueless Aria.
"Put down your aura, now." He said. Aria was puzzled for a split second before she quickly retracted her senses as fast as she could.
Kai also did the same with a cold expression.
'Tsk, this is a problem. I didn't know that that bastard was here. Did my aura alert him?'
Kai made a mistake by scanning the whole city. He was a little worried about Eva so he wanted to check for her presence. Sadly, she wasn't in the city which worried him even more and made him look more carefully. That was the mistake, he didn't think that she could've simply left the city or at least ignored that possibility purely out of worry for Eva.
"Arthur from the Archangels is in the city and Eva left because he suspects I'm here," Kai said as he turned around and sat down on the sofa.
If Arthur realized Kai was there, it would be a disaster. Not only would Kai be forced to kill him which in and out of itself would make even more problems, but he will also be under even more threat of discovery by Divinity. And even if he didn't kill Arthur, the latter would definitely not leave this city unless he found Kai.
Both choices sucked and it was all because of his own mistake. A mistake that Kai usually doesn't make. But, weirdly enough, he didn't regret making this mistake. After all, for him, Eva was more important than anything else and so was Kaya. They were both his and he wants to protect them at all costs, even if it meant more problems for him