Chapter 200. Sleepover... (2/4)

“You look like you’re thinking deeply about something important.” Irene’s words brought me back to reality.

“I was just thinking about jumping off a small bridge.”

“Hahahaha! What? How did you even start thinking about something random like that?” Irene asked me cheerfully.

“I thought I’d beat the world to the punchline to avoid jumping off a tall bridge in the future.”

Irene broke out into a fit of laughter unable to comprehend my random words. She just didn’t understand the fearsome thing known as foreshadowing. As an author, I was all but too well versed on such a topic. I’d do anything I could to avoid those awful events in my life.

“Just don’t hurt yourself when you jump, okay? But if you do, I guess I’ll just have to nurse you back to good health. In that case, it might not be so bad if you get just a little hurt, okay~ I’ll kiss where it hurts to make it all better~”

“Ow, my lips hurt.”

Irene’s eyes discreetly darted about the place to make sure the coast was clear before she leaned in close and planted a brief kiss on my lips.

“Do they still hurt?”

“Yeah, they do.”

Irene dragged me outside then opened the back seat of her car and threw me inside. She closed the door behind her, crawled on top of me, and gave me a deep passionate kiss.

When she pulled back, she hopped out of the car and said, “You should be more careful with your lips and avoid hurting them again, you bad kid~”

She ran back inside on her own. Every time I saw her these days, she was always in a great mood. She’d been like this ever since she cut down to one job. She had so much extra energy to spare every day that she sometimes didn’t know what to do with it all. I enjoyed seeing her with such a spring in her step.

Alicia had also been in a similar state since I’d resolved the financial stress on her family and showed her what the future held with the sort of relationship we all had. It was like this ever since she sold her soul to me. If selling one’s soul to a devil could bring people such happiness, I couldn’t help but think being a devil might not be so bad.

Devils were always portrayed as being evil vile despicable creatures, but were they really? They simply fulfilled people’s wishes with the price being one’s soul. If happiness could be bought with such an exchange, was there a problem with that? 

Was it because people viewed the person as being enslaved to that devil? Perhaps, but if they were happy to be enslaved to that devil, what was so wrong about it? 

I might just be an exception among devils.

It’s not like anyone taught me what devils should or shouldn’t do. I might be breaking some sort of rules as a devil doing things the way I have been going about my daily life.

In the end, I still know next to nothing about devils.

What are they?

What do they do?

Why do devils exist?

How did devils come to be?

Where can I find other devils?

Are there other devils to begin with?

Am I the only one?

I had so many questions, but no one to answer them.

Devils are probably meant to be lonely creatures. 

I couldn’t help but think that way.

Perhaps…

You don’t become a devil because you want to, but because you’re forced to by your environment.

Though, I still didn’t know whether I was born one or became one.

I got out of the car and returned inside. Irene had gone to her room, she wasn’t inside my room when I entered like she’d been on several other occasions over the last few weeks. Whenever she was in my room we’d spend the night together. Rosa sometimes slipped out of Alicia’s room in the middle of the night and also slept together with me sometimes. Alicia was the only one who wasn’t daring enough to try that. The only time we ever slept together was at the hotel that one time and that was only because Rosa had been there.

Regarding Chris, the only other boy in the house, we didn’t talk very much, but our relationship had still improved. I occasionally played some video games with him in the living room and his room so we did bond a bit over that. The majority of our words were exchanged through fighting in video games.

It was a work in progress. He didn’t distrust me nearly as much as our first meeting after he witnessed how much happier his sister and mother became ever since Rosa and I moved in with them. His mother dropping down to a single job had been the biggest surprise to him when she initially revealed it.

Irene had ambushed him at home when he got back after school one day and shocked him silly after he asked why she was home so early. Her bombshell response, “I quit another one of my jobs, son~” made him lose his mind thinking I’d somehow deceived her into doing something foolish.

He freaked out and shook Irene’s shoulders back and forth asking if things were really going to be alright and whether she’d actually been fired. It was only after she showed him the spreadsheet I gave her and explained the situation with Rosa and his sister that he finally calmed down.

Embarrassingly enough, that very same night, he paid me a visit and prostrated as if to worship the power of the devil. It was a rather awkward situation for me. I didn’t give a damn about his worship, I just wanted to sleep at the time, but the bugger didn’t leave until an hour later.

Truly, living life like this wasn’t bad. Everyone could enjoy their lives in a carefree manner and do what they wanted to do. Nobody had to overly stress about their uncertain future this way. They all knew they had someone they could lean on if they faced any trouble. Someone would have their back. They also had their own savings every month and could buy what they wanted to within reason.

Irene had enough breathing room thanks to the savings she received from me to give her son an allowance as well.

In a way… that brat was making free money off of me. I wouldn’t complain though. It was something I could hold over him if he ever became rebellious toward me. Heheheh, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, brat. Your allowance is made on the devil’s time, there will naturally be some strings attached.

While I laid on my bed mulling over such thoughts I heard the sound of the three girls chattering together outside. They’d exited Alicia’s room and it sounded like they were headed downstairs.

After a while, I heard some faint noises from the kitchen. I didn’t know what they were doing, but I opted to not get involved. They were probably going to bond over food and sweets or something. It was a very girl-like thing to do. It was probably Rosa’s idea to break the ice between Alicia and Wisteria.

Well, good luck with that, Rosa. That is not my problem. What use would having a gloomy guy like me around do in that sort of situation? None. Absolutely none.

As such, I fell asleep without a care in the world.

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