Chapter 267 - A Close Friend

Lilith's POV

"There must be someone… who is sabotaging this." I thought it out loud and Saishi's eyes shifted towards me. He was peering into my eyes with a dark orb while I felt like a complete idiot.

I ended up saying something stupid amd far-fetched.

What was wrong with me?

"Who?" Saishi asked immediately and I looked at with my irritated clearly illustrating on my face as I yelled with clenched fists, "I don't know for fuck sake!!"

"Jeez, you are being so illogical right now. Calm the fuck down." Saishi said clicking his tongue in annoyance as I stared at him without uttering a single word from my lips.

I was indeed being illogical at that moment.

I averted my eyes from and walked back a few steps to take a seat on his bed. My eyes wandered around as I took a brief breath and started thinking about a more legible possibility rather than jumping to conclusions.

But even after a lot of brainstorming, the only possibility I could came up with was, "No, there must be someone. Who input mana in Shiraishi to make her act as a decoy."

"That… is that even possible?" Saishi asked with a dubious look on his face, as I nodded and replied, "In terms of mana, it is. Because my spell would pick up any residual mana trail."

"What do you mean by that?" Saishi asked with a completely dumbfounded look on his face which was quite hilarious, but I continued to explain him, "Humans don't have direct mana surging through their bodies, right?"

Looking at me with narrowed eyes, he nodded slowly and I said, "Then, the ones who do must have something inside them that is carrying the mana."

"And?" He asked, so I decided to leave the theoretical part and jump into an example. Pointing my index finger upwards, I started, "So like your friends don't have mana since they're humans, right?"

"Yes." He nodded as I asked, "If one of them does, then what could that mean?"

He looked at me for a few moments as I could tell that he was thinking a lot of things in that moment teying comprehend the premise for the correct answer to my question. After a few moment, he said, "That they have a mana source inside them which is basically how you identify the vessels, don't you?"

"Precisely." I nodded and showed him a thumbs up gesture as he slowly nodded his head and continued with much uncertainty in his voice, "But… according to you, there is someone who is messing with us."

"It's not a hunch. Otherwise this can't be possible." I answered, keeping my head cool. Saishi seemed to have agreed with me as he nodded and said, "I mean, to be honest with you I never got any vibes from her which would indicate that she is the target."

Vibes from the vessels? What vibes were he talking about?

"How? Wait… what?" I asked raising my eyebrows as his eyes shifted diagonally upwards and he said, "You know like… I don't know how to explain. It was probably my intuition."

"Intuition about what? On what basis?" I asked with curiousity in my voice. He leaned back a bit and raised his hands as a gesture for me to calm down and said with a nervous tone, "You sure seem restless."

"I am! I am restless, Saishi." I replied instantly while peering at him as he sighed and started, "Everything Shiraishi did felt rather unnatural. Even the thing that was troubling her seemed way too out of place. It didn't make any sense, and I was at a loss, to be honest."

"So it was just vague assumptions." I said crossing my legs and sitting a bit comfortably on the bed as he nodded, "You can say so. I told you, it's my intuition."

"And how did you know who the actual target was?" I asked as his previous answer didn't make any sense to me. Pointing towards his left palm, he said, "This helped me."

"Your insignia reacted to Moriko?" I asked and he nodded, "Yes, that's how I realised that it was her."

I was quite surprised at that moment.

I have had quite a few people as the monkey for this contract but I've never witnessed any scenario with anyone getting such control over the insignia and using it's unknown powers.

Even I didn't have any idea what the true power of insignia would grant to the monkey if it's used to it's full potential since none of the people had that sort of connection with it. Only the person who made this contract knew about all the details and loopholes.

Though I wasn't aware if the circumstances under which the insignia decided to grant it's powers to the monkey.

Saishi was indeed interesting if the insignia was growing that much upon him.

"Your insignia… it seems to have its own perception." I said while staring at his left arm. He raised his left arm and asked in a confused tone, "Is that a bad thing?"

"Nah, I'm just seeing it for the first time." I answered shaking my palm as a gesture for him to calm down. He flipped his palm and said while glancing at it, "Though it has never reacted as aggressively as it did that day. I passed out for a moment from the pain."

"You… Why did you keep quiet for so long? Huh?" I asked with a slight hint of irritation in my voice as he answered in a nervous tone, "I told you, I wasn't certain about my claim."

"You seem to be familiar with her." I said recalling the tone in which he replied back when I asked him who the actual target was. I noticed his eyes stare towards the floor.

"I knew her in the past." He replied with much repentance in his voice. A slightly wry smile formed on his face as he added, "She was a close friend."

So he seemed to have some past with this target already.