"Enough!" Azekiel grabbed Lia's wrist and pulled her hand out.
Following his shout, even Raphael woke up. He saw Lia lying near Azekiel and her hand being grabbed by him.
"What happened to you? Come to your senses!" Azekiel called out, seeing Lia still in the same phase.
Lia cutely looked at Azekiel before bringing her face forward, placing her lips on his lips. It was as if his scolding didn't work on him, and she was still under the same spell.
Her lips touched Azekiel's lips as the distance between the two was completely gone.
Azekiel freed Lia's wrist and placed both his hands on her shoulders. He didn't mind a kiss, but when Lia was under the intoxication of some kind, it wasn't good since this could be dangerous for him. He didn't want to be affected by the same intoxication spell that she was affected by.
It was even better to be safe since he didn't know how she got affected by it in the first place.
Azekiel pushed Lia back, creating some space between her and him. He got down from the bed.
"What happened to her?" Raphael also stood up, finding Lia's actions strange.
"No idea," Azekiel shrugged. Everything was fine until recently. It was not after he returned that she started behaving strangely.
'Hmm? Wait? After I returned?' Azekiel realized that Lia was perfectly fine, and it was only after he came back from outside that she started changing. So it wasn't this room that made Lia enter this phase.
'It was probably some scent or something that caught onto me when I was there. That should be what affected Lia after I lay on the bed.'
Even though Azekiel realized what might be behind this change, he couldn't tell Raphael, or he would've had to tell him about the place he secretly went to.
"It's probably something in the room that intoxicated her. The effects of this intoxication should be over with time but until then..."
Azekiel looked at Lia, who was throwing tantrums like a child, trying to get close to him.
"Get me a rope," Azekiel told Raphael.
Raphael brought a rope for Azekiel.
*****
Half an hour later, Azekiel sighed a breath of relief. He was finally free of Lia's mess. Lia's hands and legs were tied to make it impossible for her to move.
"Let her stay like that until she is free of the effects."
Raphael also agreed. With Lia in a condition like that, it wasn't good to travel since it was dangerous. They could fall for any traps, thanks to being distracted by her.
For the next six hours, Lia kept asking to be freed, but Azekiel didn't free her. It was only after her actions returned to normal that he finally sighed in relief.
It took her six hours to come to her senses, but when she came to her senses, her face turned red as she remembered what she had done. She could still feel what she had grabbed in her hand...
She didn't want to even talk about what happened or what she did, and what better way than to pretend that she didn't remember anything?
Instead of telling others that she remembered everything, she pretended to know nothing.
"What is happening? Why am I tied here?" she asked. "And why are you two looking at me like that?"
As she asked the question, she looked somewhat confused. Her acting didn't get past Azekiel's observation, but he didn't call her out.
"It's nothing. You were just intoxicated by some trap or something. It seems you're back now." Azekiel freed Lia, not mentioning much about what she did.
While Lia felt pleased that her acting worked and that she could just forget what happened, she didn't realize that both the men knew that she was acting.
When it came to acting and lying, Azekiel was the greatest at it. As for Lia, she was particularly bad at it. Even Raphael was better than Lia at lying since he had managed to fool Alion before.
After being freed, Lia also stood up. Generally, if a person lost their memories of certain instances, they would definitely ask what happened before, but she didn't. It further convinced Raphael that she remembered everything. He didn't talk about it either.
Instead, he was the first person who changed the topic.
"I think we have had enough rest. We should get moving."
****
Five hours and hundreds of traps later, Azekiel finally reached the main entrance of the chamber that he was looking for. They were already at the center of the Castle according to the map that Azekiel had.
All they had between them and the secret chamber was a golden door between them.
Azekiel pushed the door open and took his first step inside, accompanied by Raphael and Lia.
Raphael and Lia were quite curious as to what was actually here. On the contrary, Azekiel looked to be very unaffected. It was like he already knew what was there and that no one could take it from him.
Passing through the door, they were inside a massive chamber. However, inside that chamber, there was nothing!
The room was around ten meters long and seven meters wide, making it the biggest room in the entire castle, but it wasn't just the biggest room. It was also the emptiest room.
Inside the room, there wasn't much to see. In fact, it was so empty that it was hard to believe that this was the place where some treasure was lying.
The walls of the room were stark white with not even a single smudge on them. The floor was covered with white tiles with a strange pattern that seemed to make a beautiful formation, connecting in the middle of the room.
Azekiel brought the key out of his inventory again before walking to the center of the room.
He stood one foot away from where the formation on the tiles connected at the center of the room.
"This is it…."
