Freyja was silent for exactly one second.
Then she laughed.
It wasn't a restrained, delicate, or polite laugh.
It was an open, clear, vibrant laugh—the kind of laugh that springs from the heart and spreads through the room like ripples in a pool. The sound echoed through the temple garden, making the flowers vibrate, the leaves tremble, and the water itself ripple in gentle circles.
She reflexively brought a hand to her mouth, her shoulders trembling slightly as she laughed genuinely—not out of irony, not out of disdain, but out of genuine surprise.
"Ah…" she said between laughs, taking a deep breath to catch her breath. "So that's it."
Freyja looked up at Vergil again, now with a different glint in her amber eyes. It wasn't desire. It wasn't provocation. It was pure curiosity—the rare attention of a goddess who had seen everything… and yet had just found something new.
