Chapter 204.

Chapter 204. The Man Killer Returns to the Academy. (2/2)

“Certainly, I do not have proof. The only thing that has led me to believe it may be the case is the experiment with Angela’s fan where I didn’t offer the condition to stop aging. The sweet taste compared to the sour taste at the back of my mouth, I feel like the difference that resulted in that difference in taste was that one condition. I still need to have other guys sell their souls to verify this and even include the clause to not age with a guy. If it’s a sour taste again, that will confirm my suspicions. Luckily I have the perfect candidate in mind to perform this test.”

“You mean Alicia’s little brother?”

“Precisely, the only problem is actually tricking him to sell his soul away to me on a written contract. It seems verbal ones don’t cut it. I already had him effectively sell his soul to me verbally. Well, actually, I suppose it could be because I didn’t even know his name at the time though. Names seem to be pretty important from what I learned through your case. It was the same for Angela the first time I met her and she also essentially sold her soul verbally but she used a fake name. Damn, there’s actually a lot of things I need to test to truly confirm that verbal agreements don’t work.”

There were advantages and disadvantages to each type if they both worked though. Verbal would leave no record behind, no paper trail. They took less time and effort as well. A written contract was overall more risky as someone could use it to make the claim to others that you are a devil. That was why if verbal ones worked it could be convenient.

An advantage of a written contract though, seen from Angela’s fan’s case was that you could make them sell their soul without even realizing it. In a verbal agreement, there was no way around glossing over selling one’s soul.

There wasn’t much use thinking about it now though since there was no way to verify whether verbal agreements would even work in the first place. For all I know, they may have their own set of rules that are different from a written contract.

“Haha, it sounds like you’ve got it tough, Mr. Upstart Devil.” She laughed sweetly and poked me on the cheek.

“So do you, Ms. Broke Assassin.”

“Ah! I completely forgot because of everything that happened! I need you to sign this contract!”

She fumbled about her things and pulled out a lengthy document from her bag. When she handed it over to me, I spent about half an hour reading through it to ensure I understood what I was signing. It’d be no joke if a devil signed a contract and got scammed into somehow attending an academy for assassins. 

I got the gist of it after I read through it all, it was the long-term contract for assassins she mentioned. It was written up by the academy and part of their system for students who hadn’t yet graduated. You could think of it as an internship sort of deal. You entered into a binding agreement with the school that the assassin would be employed to you long-term post-graduation from the academy. If there were any problems that arose between the assassin and contractor within a one-year time frame, either party could annul the agreement. If there were no problems, that assassin would dutifully serve their contractor until either party died.

It was a till death do us part sort of agreement.

“Why does this sound like marriage?”

She covered her mouth with her balled-up fist as she averted her eyes and explained, “It is… like marriage for assassins. Which is why assassins search hard for a good contractor they feel they can remain loyal to and serve.”

“I see.” I signed it without caring much. Her soul was already mine, and we were already bound by that sort of agreement anyway.

“You signed it so easily… I thought you’d put up more resistance.”

“Is the contract you signed your soul away to me any different?”

“Haha, I guess you’re right.” She swung her right leg back and forth behind her left leg with her hands behind her back.

“By the way, make sure you do everything dangerous you can to find out about devils. Oh, right, also be sure to do super dangerous missions that may get you killed as well.”

“Huh?” When I said that and killed the mood, her expression froze up.

“What?”

“Sorry… I think I misheard you just now. Can you repeat what you just said? I feel like it was something super insensitive.”

“Haha. I said, make sure you do everything dangerous you can to find out about devils and also be sure to do super dangerous missions that may get you killed as well.”

She was dumbfounded by my words.

“Haaaah. It seems you don’t understand the profound nature of my words. Do you remember what I told you about the fearsomeness of flags, foreshadowing, and how annoying I found them?”

“Ah. Yeah, now that you mention it, you did teach me about that earlier, didn’t you?”

“Precisely, saying this is to kill such stupid flags. If my little sister dares to say she’ll go and do her best no matter the cost to find out about devils, I’ll personally kill her myself right here and now, you got that? If you dare say you’ll work hard at the academy, I’ll also kill you now. Take it easy at the academy and focus on what I taught you. I’m not interested in bullshit where the little sister I just got goes out and raises a death flag by saying something idiotic like I’ll become the very best assassin in the world before she departs.”

“Hahahaha! Big brother, I understand, I understand. You actually love this little sister a lot, don’t you?”

“Yeah, yeah. I do since you’re an important person I want in my life now.” She’d be my proofreader and editor in the future after all. My life would be so much easier with one of those. “Though I wish you’d knock it off with the sexual harassment, I could definitely live without that.”

“I can’t do that, big brother. I’m attracted to you since you’re my ideal type. Heheh, especially when you say things like that.”

She leaned in close, hugged me tight, and gave me an unexpectedly innocent kiss on the lips. I heard a camera shutter sound from my side and noticed she’d taken a picture with her phone.

Before I could snap out of my daze from her surprise attack to protest the picture she took without my consent, she collected her things in a hurry and quickly ran off on her own leaving me behind. As her back figure grew distant, I felt a bit lonely. It would be some time before I saw her again. A year and a half in the worst case. Though we exchanged contact information and I’d still teach her remotely in her free time, it was a first for me to see someone I referred to by such an intimate term like little sister go somewhere far away.

I’d always been the one to disappear on others. But this little sister had come and gone like the wind. Before she could do anything else, she had to make it out in one piece and survive another lonely year and a half in an academy filled with assassins. 

She’d also still have to do missions that might endanger her life to a certain degree. However, I was confident the words I told her before she left just now would stick with her. She wouldn’t do anything stupidly dangerous that would guarantee death.

Deep down, I hoped we’d see each other again in person sooner rather than a year and a half later. It really depended on what she did at the academy though.

Haaaah. She’d probably still have to take on missions that made the best use of her skill set to earn her living expenses at the academy every month. I wouldn’t judge her for those sorts of things though. If she worked hard on proofreading and editing on the side, it would give her more breathing room where she could take up less of those sorts of missions. 

The stuff I published may also go up in quality with her work and there could potentially be an increase in the number of monthly sales for my stories. If this happened, it l would lead to me sending her more royalties every month. Though it wasn’t much, I’d promised her all of the royalties for the time being.

That was the most assistance I could offer at the moment. The small savings I had was for emergencies, I’d never factored my royalties into the equation when I made my eight-year projection as there was no way to tell what they would consistently be over time. They could plummet to nothing from one day to the next for all I know, writing was just that unstable and unreliable from a self-publisher’s point of view.

A small tweak to the Amazon algorithm could result in such a drastic result. There was also the possibility I could get shadowbanned or even outright banned for something unreasonable like the kind of content I publish on the platform. There existed a tradeoff with the more freedom one acquired in life, that tradeoff was the level of stability that person had in their life. The more freedom, the greater the uncertainty that everything would suddenly collapse and fail one day.

Not having an employer meant you were constantly living on the edge and constantly weathering the storm life bombarded you with. That was why I’d always think twice about not at the bare minimum working a part-time job to fall back on to ensure a baseline amount of money for myself every month should things fall through.

I remained at the airport and waited until Wisteria’s flight took off while I grimaced over how unstable life as a self-published author was. Only when her flight departed did I finally return home.

I fell asleep that night with my thoughts of Wisteria at the back of my mind. Her scent still lingered on my bedsheet where we sat together side by side throughout the night before. It was the only thing that reassured me that the lonesome little sister-like existence in my mind hadn’t been a fleeting dream.

For the first time in my life, I felt a desire to reunite and see someone again. Was this what it meant to long to see someone you thought of as family?

I’d experienced all sorts of different emotions I’d never felt before ever since I began my second time through life. Even this occurrence was a result of Rosa’s involvement. If she hadn’t been called down by Wisteria at that time, would things have turned out the same? No, probably not because Wisteria wouldn’t have learned where we lived if she hadn’t followed Rosa back home. She might not have found me at the museum that day either.

If Rosa hadn’t been in a relationship with me, this situation would never have been established to begin with.

Haaaaaaaah. 

Everything... always stemmed back to Rosa.