Soul for a Girlfriend?

Lilith's POV

"I don't get it! How did I make such a trivial mistake!?" I clenched my fist and my frustration was clearly audible in my tone of voice.

I was feeling so stupid and incompetent at that moment that I couldn't out it into words. I had just one job, and that was to correctly identify the targets. But I was so useless that I couldn't even do that.

What was wrong with me?

"And, who is the target then?" I asked in an irritated tone, as Saishi narrowed his eyes and I answered in a calm tone, "Adachi Moriko."

I looked at him in surprise as those words left his mouth. He was staring at me with much certainty and the fact that he was correct baffled me. I hadn't told him about the target's name but he still knew about it somehow.

He was indeed an interesting human.

We kept staring at each in silence and I kept drowning in my own thoughts of being useless. I couldn't even help Saishi even a little bit this time, which was the only thing I'm supposed to do.

No, the only thing I can do.

If his perception wasn't so sharp then this could've turned out a lot worse for him than he could probably imagine at that moment.

"It's alright, no need to sulk over it." I heard his calm voice which made me shift my eyes towards. He had this plain look on his face by which I could tell he was oblivious of the consequences.

"You don't understand Saishi!" His dark eyes peered into mine, as I burst out in irritation and yelled at him, as my voice trembled a bit, "You… don't understand anything!"

"Then make me understand." He said in a soft voice while looking at me with his unfazed eyes.

Why was he like that?

Looking at his oblivious eyes was making me more and more irritated for some reason at that time. He had no idea what would've happened if he wasn't lucky enough to figure out who the target was.

I opened my mouth to yell at him again, but swallowed back those words. Letting out a sigh, I shook my head slightly and said in a low voice, "It's… nothing. I'm just overreacting."

Closing my eyes for a moment, I recalled the things that I observed with the target. Taking a deep breath, I said, "It's just that I was getting readings from Shiraishi even a few days ago. But when I checked it now, everything was gone."

"Gone?" He asked with a confused tone, emphasising on that part. I nodded and replied, "Yes. Without a trace. No mana trails."

He nodded while it appeared that he was thinking about something. I have been underestimating him about this stuff for a long time but that incident made me realise that ge wasn't dumb after all.

"How did you figure it out!?" I asked, and his eyes shifted towards his left hand as he replied while showing me his arm, "I didn't… It was this mark."

"Eh?" I tilted my head in confusion as he nodded and continued, "Last week I bumped into someone and this mark reacted to her touch. From what I've seen, it only reacts to either you or the targets."

I assumed that somebody was none other than the girl Adachi Moriko. I was still confused about the fact that this vessel concealed it's mana output for such a long time and remained hidden in plain sight.

I'm such a stupid!

I still had to search for which soul this girl, Adachi Moriko, had within herself.

"I don't understand how I made this mistake!?" I said under my breath while clenching my jaws as I noticed Saishi sigh and shake his head. I said in an exasperated tone, "It was clear as daylight! Shiraishi Suzuha was the target!"

"Now, would you just calm down for a moment." He showed me his palm as a gesture to calm down but I wasn't having any of it. 

My mind was a complete mess at that time. A lot of thoughts and possibilities were running wild through my mind. One thing was "There must be someone… who is sabotaging this."

"Who?"

"I don't know for fuck sake!!"

"Jeez, you are being illogical right now. Calm the fuck down."

"No, there must be someone. Who input mana in Shiraishi to make her act as a decoy."

"That… is that even possible?"

"In terms of mana, it is. Because my spell would pick up any residual mana trail."

"And?"

"Humans don't have direct mana, the ones who do must have something inside them that carries the mana."

"Ah, I get you. And you basically read the mana from people like that since only they can be the target."

"Precisely."

"But… according to you, there is someone who is messing with us."

"It's not a hunch. Otherwise this can't be possible."

"I mean, to be honest with you I never got any vibes from her which would indicate that she is the target."

"How? Wait… what?"

"You know like… I don't know how to explain. It was probably my intuition."

"Intuition about what? On what basis?"

"You sure seem restless."

"I am! I am restless, Saishi."

"Everyone 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."

"And your insignia reacted to Moriko?"

"Yes, that's how I realised that it was her."

"Your insignia… it seems to have its own perception."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Nah, I'm just seeing it for the first time."

"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 told you, I wasn't certain about my claim."

"You seem to be familiar with her."

"I knew her in the past."