Chapter 43 Chapter 43- Are You Punishing Me?!

As the two fell into a thoughtful silence, the waiter approached them with their orders and settled them down on the table respectfully.

“Two cups of coffee and two tiramisus, no toppings. Enjoy!” He said before he left.

Kai looked at the coffee for a second as if he was examining it and then shifted his eyes to the tiramisu before he picked up the cup and took a sip. Although Kai was immune to all kinds of poisons, it was never bad to make sure there wasn’t something weird in his drink.

“Not bad…” Tasting the coffee, he nodded his head in approval.

“Mmm, I agree…” Eva nodded with a satisfied smile.

When she was young she didn’t really like coffee, especially bitter ones but with time, she grew to enjoy them and even actively order them whenever she could.

‘And who’s to blame?~’ She thought with a happy smile as she admired Kai’s face secretly while taking another sip of the coffee.

“Since there is nothing else to do, let’s start planning for the festival,” Kai said as he pulled out a few pieces of paper from his backpack along with a few pencils.

“From what I saw, the cafe kept the decor very minimal and they focused more on the design of the tables and the chairs. The menu isn’t that complicated either and the main focus of it is sweets and pastries rather than drinks. I’m sure people would want something good tasting…” As he gave his analysis, he drew a plan on the piece of paper where he linked all of his ideas together with arrows and circles.

‘He deducted all of that from a few minutes of looking around… As expected of my darling~’ The girl could only admire his sharp mind not that she didn’t notice that either.

“There is also the design of the cups and plats. They are very minimalistic but elegant.” Eva added her notes too which Kai also wrote down.

The two then continued sharing ideas until they quickly filled the first piece of paper. They had planned the decor, the menu, and how they are going to promote the cafe in the most efficient way and also added a few tweaks to fix the glaring problems they found in this cafe.

If the two were to give this plan to the cafe’s owner, this shop’s reputation will skyrocket to a national level.

“Should we buy the maid costumes or should we design them ourselves?” Eva asked as she took a slice of Tiramisu.

Kai thought for a second before he took an empty piece of paper and started scribbling on it at an extremely fast pace. Eva watched him confusedly for a few moments until he finally finished and twisted the paper around to show her.

“You choose, this is a rough design of what I think is a not-bad maid costume,” Kai murmured. Because of the nature of his job, he did visit places with actual maids in them and so he drew a design based on what he recalls.

Eva examined the paper and her eyes widened slightly before she chuckled amusedly.

“Calling this ‘Rough’ would make all clothes designers in the world die from a heart attack, Kai.”

What Kai showed her was an extremely detailed and intricate design of a very gorgeous and elegant maid costume from 4 different angles with precise measurements of each part and even a detailed process on how to create one.

‘Such a beautiful drawing. I’ve never seen anything close to this.’ Eva murmured.

Since she did work as a supermodel before, she had a very in-depth knowledge of the world of designer clothes and how they are made. Yet, what was in front of her was somehow way better than all of that.

“Did you take a course in designing clothes, Kai?” She asked confusedly.

“No. I only know how to draw at a basic level.” He replied calmly as he ate a bite from the sweets in front of him.

‘Basic level… I doubt this is called basic… Sigh, my darling is too dense sometimes.’ Eva shook her head as she admired the piece of art and then said.

“We will make them ourselves then. I will send this to a well-known manufacturer and we should get them ready this week.”

“Before that…” Suddenly, Kai stood up and walked around the table, and stood very close to Eva. Then, he bent slightly forward to rest one arm on the table and the other on the chair’s frame.

“You have more knowledge about this than I do. This part of the arm’s collar, is it good enough?” Kai asked as he gave Eva a side glance.

“…” However, Eva didn’t respond at all. Her eyes simply stared at him silently while her body stayed completely frozen in place.

‘Close… Very close…’ She thought to herself.

From this angle, Eva could see Kai’s face hidden behind his hair, and her breathing halted. God! He is too handsome for her mind to handle!

No matter how much she looked at him, he was still beyond gorgeous. Was he even human at this point? She always wondered since no human could look this perfect. His long eyelashes, his purple void-like eyes, his nose, his lips, his jaw, his cheeks, everything about him made her heart beat loudly.

A healthy blush appeared on Eva’s face before she quickly averted her eyes and looked at the paper.

“W-What was it?”

“This part,” Kai replied with a confused expression.

“A-Ah, right, yeah, it looks very well made. But, maybe…” Taking a pen, Eva started drawing and fixing the design.

However, even though her speed was amazing, her mind was completely in a different dimension. Feeling Kai’s breathing near her ear, his presence, his warmth, and even the occasional accidental touches between them sent her heart flying.

‘This is torture!! I can’t stay sane like this!! Is he punishing me?! This must be his punishment for me!!’ She screamed with a furious blush.

So, the duo continued their work in a rather calm atmosphere. Unbeknownst to them, somewhere far away in a different part of the world.

***

“Elu, what’s up with you calling me two weeks in a row?!” Kaya complained with an angry expression as she glared at her friend who was drawing behind countless computer screens.

“Uh… Kaya, help meeee~~ I’m dying!!” Elu replied as she fell down from the chair and crawled toward Kay like a Zombie. Her face was extremely pale and her eyes had huge dark bags under them from the lack of sleep.

“What happened to you?” Kaya sighed as she bent down and supported her tired friend.

“Work… I couldn’t… Sleep for a week…” The girl replied weakly.

“Sigh, you are such a workaholic. Here, sit down while I get you a cup of water.” Kaya scolded her friend like a tired mother.

“Before… that… There is something important I need to tell you.” The girl halted her as she pointed at her computer.

“There is… footage… There…” She said.

“Footage?”

“Yes… A person was sighted a few days ago in the capital of D-Country Lunaria… I have a suspicion that it could be… The Black Phantom.”

Kaya’s eyes widened slightly when she heard that. Her eyes squinted slightly before she walked toward the computer and clicked on the video. There, she could see the footage camera showing a lonesome silhouette standing in the middle of a street. 𝒪𝗏𝔩xt.𝔠𝐎𝚖

When the camera zoomed in slightly, the silhouette miraculously turned blurry and impossible to recognize.

‘He used Origin to interfere with the camera’s functionalities. This is not something anyone could do.’ Kaya thought coldly.

A second later, a huge building fell down on the figure and a huge cloud of dust covered the camera for a few moments. However, when Kaya looked closer, she could see a huge boulder launching into the air, and someone rose from under the rubble basically unscathed.

“What… the hell?” She murmured in complete shock.

She couldn’t believe her eyes. In all her career working with Divinity, Kaya had never seen someone survive a building collapsing on them. While many could survive the first impact if they cover their bodies with a layer of Origin, they can’t sustain that Layer for long because of the tens or even hundreds of tons of weight that collapsed on them and so they eventually die from the pressure.

However, this person not only survived a skyscraper falling on him, he somehow dug his way out without sustaining any major injuries.

“That footage… is horrifying… I doubt even Virtues or Ophanims could survive that.”

“They can’t,” Kaya replied with certainty. “The only people that have any chance of not dying from that are the legendary Seraphims.” She said as her face darkened.

Whoever that person was, Black Phantom or not, he was a huge powerhouse that can’t be trifled with.

“Kaya… He was sighted awfully close to the country you live in. Because he completely blurred his body and face, I can’t identify him at all but I will still try to. However, be… careful.” As Elu said the last few words, her eyes started closing before she dozed off into deep slumber.

Kaya looked at her friend for a few seconds and then back at the footage. She kept staring at the silhouette of the person for a while. Something about him was familiar but she couldn’t understand what or why it was familiar.

‘This is odd… Why do I feel like I met him before?’