Soul for a Girlfriend?

Chapter 95 - There Are No Roses Without Thorns

I was returning home after seeing Reina off. She finally confessed her love to me. I had to buy her a drink because she won't stop crying and apologising to me.

She also sounded quite jealous when she was complaining about me talking with Chiaki. So it turns out that she is quite possessive of me. I don't know if I should be happy about that or not.

Well, at least I could help her in finding herself out and again learning to love herself. With the mindset she used to have, no one would ever love her. 

It was selfish of her to want people's love when she couldn't even love herself in the first place. Albeit, she blamed no one for not loving her. She kept cursing herself and making her life more miserable.

She was indeed a cute girl to some extent who was even smart. She had good things going for her, but she had too many unnecessary things that she lingered for.

She told me to keep this thing a secret between us, but it won't matter anyway since everyone will forget about this entire ordeal, including her. 

And I was feeling great since I was successfully able to capture another vessel. The insignia on my hand was shining when I hugged her, that's why I had to keep my hand in my pockets.

Seems like this mark glows without Lilith having to magically activate it. I have to be careful that no one notices this because I don't know what sort of trouble they will get into for only seeing an insignia from hell.

As for Lilith, I'm sure she was probably excited for me to return home. Comparing Reina with Saki in terms of vessels, Reina was quite difficult to capture.

While reminiscing about the events that took place with Reina, I reached my apartment. I climbed up the stairs and walked towards my room. I noticed the door to my apartment open with a clunk noise of the hinges and Lilith poking her head out from behind the doors.

She looked around, and our eyes met. Instantly, her lips curved into a smile and she narrowed her crimson eyes at me. I stepped inside and she closed the door behind me.

"What's with that smile?" I asked, while taking off my shoes and keeping them aside.

"So… second target down too." I nodded and walked towards my room, with Lilith following me behind. She was quite excited about the fact that the second vessel was captured, too.

Entering my room, I put my bag on my computer chair and opened the buttons of my sleeves and loosened my tie a bit as I breathed an air of relief. I remembered the last time when I was thrilled after Saki was captured. But Lilith hit me with the plane of reality about this contract.

"Sakamaki?" I heard her call out my name as I turned my head towards her and she was looking at me with an avid look in her crimson eyes.

"Yeah…?" I nodded, and she continued.

"How do you feel?"

"Huh?" I was a bit confused about the context when she asked me that.

"You know like… girls are falling for you but at the same time they won't remember anything." She was playing with a silver brooch in her hands that I haven't noticed till today. It looked really weird as it had a chain hanging from it which gave it an appearance of a necklace.

I understood what she meant and after a moment of contemplation, I answered, "To be honest… I'm a bit taken aback by the fact that I made two girlfriends, one after another, in a course of 2 two months."

"Of course, for a loner like you, a girlfriend is like something you can't imagine having." Her lips curved into a smug smile and laughed at me.

"No… how do you come up with such crap!?" 

"Teehee!" She showed me her tongue mockingly.

"It's just that I'm making people love me when I don't even understand what love is." I said because that has been going inside my mind for quite some time now.

"That's wrong." Lilith glanced at me with a smile that somehow irritated me.

"Huh?" I sat down on the bed.

"You do understand what love is." She walked closer to me.

"I don't." 

  "You just have never felt what it is like to be loved." She was now standing in front of me, as I was looking up at her.

"Just like a rose… it's loved by people… but it doesn't know what it feels to be loved." She said as she extended her left arm towards me and patted my head with a warm smile.

"I'm definitely not comparable to a rose." I removed her hand from my head, and she looked at me with a mischievous smile.

"You are." She nodded.

"Huh?"

She took a seat next to me on the bed, resting her chin on her palms. She asked, "You know why a rose doesn't understand the feeling of love?"

"Because it's a plant." I replied in a plain tone.

"It's because it doesn't let anyone approach it." She sighed and a few strands of her snowy hair fell in front of her face.

"If you pick a rose, you get hurt by it's thorns." She chuckled.

"Interesting."

"But the thorns are just there for it's protection."

"I know, they are a modification." I replied.

She glanced at me, narrowing her eyes and she replied, "Yeah, of it's stem. I know."

I thought she was dumb, but maybe I was wrong. As I was thinking that, she gave me an irritated look, probably because she read my mind and knew I was calling her dumb.

"But… that's not what I was talking about." 

"Eh…?"

"There are no roses without thorns." She stood up and walked towards the door.

"What?" I asked her, because what she said didn't make any sense to me whatsoever.

"You'll understand when the time comes." She said, while closing the door behind her.

Well, at least I can relax and sleep peacefully for the time being. But this was just my second target, I don't know how many more are there to come yet. I was just playing a king's gambit at this point, with no probability of winning.

It's true that I can make them fall for me, but I can't live with a blade hanging across my neck with each passing day. Eventually, one slight mistake from me can lead me to my demise. Even though I didn't want to think about this, I can't stop this thought.