With the village chief and the servants gone, Raze and the priestess were the only two people left in the massive hall.
With no one speaking, a strangely uncomfortable silence took over, but neither of the two seemed to mind.
Eventually, it was broken by Raze.
"I'm glad to see you're safe now, priestess."
He seemed to say more, but before he could, he was interrupted.
"Layla, that's my name. Please call me that."
Raze seemed taken aback at suddenly learning her name, as he assumed she probably didn't have one since everyone just referred to her as the 'priestess'.
The shock on his face was evident from his eyes widening slightly, but he quickly composed himself.
"Layla, huh? It has a nice ring to it. I will be sure to call you that." His voice sounded even and composed despite the turmoil in his heart.
"My name is Lucas; since you've revealed your name, it's only proper for me to do the same."
"What a wonderful name," Layla said with a smile on her face.
Her beautiful smile, which would have smited almost any other man, did nothing to him, but he still had to pretend to have found it beautiful.
"You have a really pretty smile; it suits someone as pretty as you."
"Y-you th-think I look pretty?" She asked with a clear stutter, making her flusterness obvious, and if that wasn't enough, the clear red blush on her face was eye-catching.
She tried to hide her embarrassment, but she did a very poor job, allowing Raze to read her like a book.
'Too easy, I guess good looks have some advantages after all'
He almost wanted to laugh at how easy it was to make her dance to his rhythm.
But he couldn't; after all, for his plan, the next few moments were crucial.
"Yeah, of course you're the prettiest girl I've seen in this lifetime," he said, his voice containing a slight flirty tone as he moved towards her.
Which startled her and made her take a step back, almost falling back down in the process, but she managed to hold on.
His statement was technically correct, as he hadn't seen Rose in this lifetime.
Not to mention Layla was the first girl he had seen in this lifetime, so that made his statement true by default, even if he hated her guts.
Of course, Layla didn't know any of this; to her, he was just being flirty.
She originally had a lot of questions for him, especially ones related to his origin and how he had found her.
But at the moment, she couldn't think about any of those, as her head felt on fire and like it was spinning.
It was like some sort of spell had been cast on her, but whenever she looked into his eyes, her knees felt weak.
While it may have just been her illusion, she could've sworn that steam was coming out of her head.
His lips The closer they moved towards her, the more she wanted to kiss them.
'What's going on with me?' she thought
It was like a spell had been cast on her.
Her whole life, she had gotten anything and everything she wanted.
Throughout the years, many men had tried to propose to her, and they were all met with the same fate.
Layla was the apostle of the goddess; the priestess,lusting after her was no different from lusting after the goddess herself, and that was a sin that only had one result.
Death.
And besides, she didn't even think of herself as a human like everyone around her.
She was the chosen one, the child of the goddess, the priestess.
The only one who could freely communicate with all races, so to her, all the humans around her were no different from monkeys.
So she naturally felt a sense of superiority around everyone around her, repulsion even at the thought of being considered the same as them.
So why did she feel no such emotion in his presence?
Instead of her usual superiority and repulsion, all she felt was kinship and attraction.
It was almost like he was the only one in the world who was her equal.
The only one who could understand her.
Unaware of the wild turmoil inside her heart, Raze moved towards her, closing the distance between them.
But even he couldn't help but be taken aback.
'Isn't the plan working a bit too well?'
He couldn't understand why she seemed so into his little, snarky flirting attempts.
While it was indeed his plan to use his charm to get information out of her,.
Not once did he imagine it to be so easy.
She didn't even try to question him or anything, and instead, all it took was one or two compliments from him for her to start blushing and stuttering.
'Do I have some sort of hidden talent for flirting?' he thought to himself, but he didn't give the idea a second thought.
And before long, he was before her, towering over her.
But she seemed lost in a world of her own, with her head bowed.
Noticing this, Raze moved his hand towards her chin to uplift it, allowing both of their eyes to make contact for the first time.
Finally noticing his sudden actions, Layla's eyes widened, unable to believe his bold actions.
She seemed to try and say something.
But before she could, she found a finger atop her lips, sealing them shut momentarily.
"You should make eye contact when talking to someone, Layla." His voice was a bit coy, but nothing extreme.
And yet it sounded incredibly sexy and seductive to Layla's ears.
Her lips quivered under his finger.
Her eyes widened as the red tint on her face vanished.
She looked into his eyes.
His deep blue eyes.
She felt herself getting lost in them.
The beauty of those eyes was hypnotising to an overwhelming degree.
Anyone who stared at them for long was bound to get lost in them.
He didn't look human to her, but rather divine.
After all, only an angel could possess such beauty.
She had already lost her rationale, and before she knew it, her lips were touching his.
It managed to catch even Raze off guard for the first time today.
As he felt her soft, succulent lips on his own, the only thought in his mind was:.
'This wasn't part of the plan'