章 5: Vera

"May I know your name, handsome?"

Seeing the devilishly beautiful demoness suddenly appear behind him without even making a single sound, Blake flinched a little before taking a small step backward, ready to turn his body and run away again if the beautiful demoness decided to attack him.

However, when he saw the most charming smile that he had ever seen in his entire life plastered onto the demoness' face, Blake's mind went blank for a split second as he registered what the demoness had just said to him.

'She called me handsome…' Blake said in his head, repeating the scene where the demoness said it to him again and again with the maximum clarity that his photographic memory enabled him.

Blake wasn't a fool and his mind was on the brighter side, of course, he would realize that his face back then when he was still a human was considered to be above average and he was in the attractive spectrum of the human male. It wasn't narcissism on his part, rather, he saw magazines, news, and articles about the world out there and found out about the beauty standard of his world.

By comparing the people in those articles that were said to be attractive and have a lot of fans and admirers with the characteristic of his own face, Blake was able to determine that his face was far from ugly.

However, despite realizing that, no one had ever called him handsome. The fact that he was a dud that couldn't even use a drop of mana was eclipsing his other notable features such as his attractive face or his flawless memory. But knowing and actually hearing someone saying that to him was a whole different feeling that couldn't even be compared to each other.

And now that the demoness had actually called him handsome, flustered was simply downplaying the feeling that he actually felt when he heard the compliment for the first time ever in his 14 years of life.

"Um… Hello? Are you okay?" The demoness asked when she saw Blake staring blankly at her.

Blake might not have noticed it before because she was yelling at him the first time, and he was startled the second time, but now that the demoness was speaking towards him normally, Blake finally realized how sweet and gentle the demoness' voice was.

He felt as if the demoness' sweet voice was gently flowing into his ears before seeping into his brain, cementing the demoness' existence even more prominently in his memory.

Seeing that Blake didn't respond to her questions, the demoness walked closer to him and bent over a little so that her face would be at the same level as Blake's face.

Blake was still lost in the imaginary space in his mind before he was suddenly jerked back into reality when seeing the beautiful demoness' face right in front of him.

"AA!" He yelped as he unconsciously took several steps backward.

"Are you okay?" The demoness asked once again, this time with a slight confusion on her face.

"No! I mean Yes! What was your question again? My name? My name is Blake, beautiful miss!" Blake quickly answered while trying to look as cool as possible while regaining his balance.

The demoness stared at Blake for a few seconds as he tried to look as poised as possible and miserably failed due to his legs almost tripping on themselves and his body bent over in a weird way. Seeing that, she let out a small chuckle that genuinely came from her heart.

She didn't know how, but she got the impression that the humanoid demon in front of her was just like a child that hadn't even lived for a quarter of her age. And the chuckle that she did earlier stemmed from that feeling that she was getting, it almost made her completely let her guard down and made her want to just mess around with the demon in front of her.

"Umm… Miss, may I know your name?" Blake asked when he saw the demoness now look less wary and tense than before.

"You can call me Vera." She replied as soon as he asked the question.

"Nice to meet you, Miss Vera," Blake said, still with a shy smile on his face.

"You can just drop the miss, Blake."

"Ah, yes!"

"By the way, Blake, can I ask you some questions?" Vera asked while she made sure that the spell that she cast behind her back had been cast successfully.

"Of course! You can ask me anything!" He replied as quickly as possible.

"What are you doing around here, Blake? I have never seen you here before."

Although Blake was still flustered and he was trying his best to keep his excitement down from talking with the beautiful ange- demon in front of him, his mind was still working properly without being clouded with his excitement. He had been through enough humiliation, including the ones from the beautiful girls that he thought were very nice to have his judgement clouded just because an otherworldly beautiful girl was talking to him.

So when Vera asked him the question, Blake's mind went into overdrive as he thought about how he should answer the question.

'Should I tell her that I came from someplace near here and I am currently just walking around before stumbling onto her? No, I don't even know anything about this world and where I am currently. My cover would be blown up the moment she wanted me to mention the name of the place where I come from.'

'Then should I just tell her the truth? I used to be a human and I was suddenly thrown here without knowing why? But aren't the demons supposed to be the humans' enemy? Would she kill me on the spot if she knew I was a human?'

'But should I really lie to her?' Remembering how she was able to defeat six of the wolves without breaking a single sweat, Blake knew that Vera could probably deal with him right at this second if she wanted to. But seeing that she was now talking to him with smiles on her face, Blake knew that she also wanted to gain something from the conversation.

'I can't lie to her, but I can't be fully honest with her. And I don't know what her reaction will be after I told her my answer. So I think this is the best thing I can do right now…'

While still keeping the flustered smile on his face, Blake shyly rubbed the back of his head before keeping one of his hands at his back, ready to draw the demonic runes that were able to summon the tendrils of darkness to hold her down just in case she decided to attack him, while simultaneously replying,

"I actually don't know why I am here, Mis- Vera. I lost my consciousness earlier and when I woke up I suddenly found myself here. Then after that, I saw you fighting those wolves, you looked so mesmeri- cool and amazing that I actually stayed to watch you fight. I'm sorry if I bothered you…"

Vera had started to doubt Blake once again when she saw Blake was taking his time in answering her question, but when he heard Blake's answer and her spell told her that there was not a single lie in Blake's answer, she relaxed a little bit and thought that he was just still flustered.

But she soon returned her focus back on her spell before once again asking,

"Can you please tell me where did you learn to draw those demonic runes you just used, Blake?"