Chapter 432. Soul Exchange. (4/7)

“Yeah, I do.” Before I left the room at the hospital I’d actually ripped out and folded up a few pages from the notebook since I figured the carbon copy paper could prove to be quite useful. I’d never really considered how it could be used before since it was something I never used.

When I pulled out my pen and the folded papers from my pocket, Rosa said, “You sure are prepared.”

“I never know when there’ll be an opportunity to acquire a soul after all.”

I wrote up a very rudimentary contract where Rosa would sell me her soul and receive nothing in return.

“Here you go.”

When she signed it she asked curiously, “Did it work?”

“No… it doesn’t seem like it.”

“How can you tell?”

“My body reacts a certain way.”

“Can you see souls?”

“No, but I can taste them.”

“You mean you eat them? 

“I don’t think I’m eating them.”

“You mean you aren’t going to eat me?” She had a mischievous smile as she asked that.

“Enough with the innuendos.”

“Do souls taste good?”

“It depends.”

“You mean if I’m a rotten person it’ll taste bad?”

“No, I don’t think the taste depends on the person.”

“It doesn’t? Then what does it depend on?”

I started writing up the serious contract while I explained, “Whether the deal was in my favor or not. If it was a shit deal it tastes sour and bitter. If it was a good deal it tastes sweet. The better the deal, the sweeter it tastes. The worse the deal, the more sour and bitter. Oh, there are also other effects that happen when it’s a bad deal though.”

“I see. What are the other effects?”

“Cold sweat and abnormal heart palpitations accompanied by a stabbing pain. But from what I’ve experimented with, this is specifically in the case when a certain condition is offered in the contract.”

“What’s the condition?”

“That’s a trade secret.”

“Why~ that’s not fair~ tell me~”

“Here you go, please sign on the dotted line.”

“I won’t sign it if you don’t tell me.” She pursed her lips cutely.

“Then I guess it can’t be helped. I suppose we’ll just have to forget about this contract.” 

I moved to rip the contract in half, but Rosa snatched it out of my hand and grumbled, “Jeez, you’re supposed to cave in when your girlfriend asks you something sweetly.”

“Who made that law?”

“I did.”

“When?”

“Just now.”

“Sorry to inform you but I’m a hardened criminal who doesn’t abide by the law.”

Rosa disgruntledly signed the contract.

The second she did my face contorted and I shut my eyes tight. Sour! It was so freaking sour! What followed was a throbbing heart palpitation accompanied by intense pain far worse than ever before. It felt like my heart was being forcefully ripped out. I started to sweat profusely. I grit my teeth through all of it and did my best to not let Rosa see by averting my head to the side away from her.

I felt extremely lightheaded. I genuinely feared I’d fall out of the tree at this rate. I’d more or less gotten accustomed to these symptoms the last few times, but this time was completely different. I hadn’t expected it’d be this awful. Was this the result of a devil selling his own soul to someone else? What the hell! Why’d nobody tell me it’d be this awful! This definitely wasn’t something I’d ever want to experience again.

However, something suddenly changed without warning. The extreme sourness was abruptly replaced by an extremely sweet one. Sweeter than I’d ever tasted. That striking pain in my heart suddenly eased. What was left behind was a soothing sensation.

It was bittersweet?

Screw you!

Bittersweet my ass!

Sweet and sour? What the hell is with that? I’d never had a combination before. What was sweet and sour supposed to mean?

When I opened my eyes, I was blinded and had to immediately cover and shut them.

What the hell, it was night the last time I checked. Why’s it so bright all of a sudden?

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?” Rosa, who noticed my peculiar action just now, suddenly asked.

I split my middle and ring finger apart and squinted to take a peak. It was still bright. Rosa couldn’t see this? What the hell is it?

“Rosa, can you see a bright light?”

“Huh? A bright light… Ran! Don’t walk into the light!”

“I’m not dying… probably.”

“What do I do? Do I rip up the contract?”

“Absolutely not. I’m fine. I’m just experiencing something I never have before.”

“Did you do some drugs? I don’t see anything, it’s as dark as ever, are you sure you’re not just hallucinating?”

“Unless you slipped some weird mushrooms into the burger you made I should be clean.”

“It was just rabbit meat, some spices, and normal produce we bought from towns and cities along the way during the day.”

“Oh? So it was rabbit meat. I’ve never had rabbit meat before. I didn’t expect it’d taste so good.”

“Forget about the rabbit meat. What’s happening to you right now?”

I lowered my hand and slowly opened my eyes. They gradually grew accustomed. It seems it appeared so bright at first because I’d suddenly switched from dark to bright without a chance for my eyes to adjust. It was similar to when you were blinded by headlights when they suddenly turned on in front of you.

Once my eyes adjusted to it, I could see a strange light in front of me, it was blurry and out of focus though. I couldn’t make much out of it when focusing on it directly. However, I quickly noticed something strange, if I focused on the background in the distance behind it, it came into focus.

Once the blurry brightness came into focus, I could make out a color. It was gray. But that’s not all I discovered. I realized it wasn’t the origin of the light. The origin was actually directly by my side.

I turned my head to Rosa and that brightness was radiating off of her. When focusing directly on her I couldn’t make out the color though.

“What is it? Are you… okay?” Rosa seemed rather worried.

“Uh… I’m not really too sure.”

I tried to refocus my eyes on the soul. Rosa’s figure split in two as my eyes viewed her from two separate angles.

The blurry brightness came into focus again. It was still gray.

How peculiar. 

Is what I’m looking at… her soul?

Are all souls gray or are there other colors?

If there are, what would the color represent though?

And why can I suddenly see it?

Is it because I went and sold my soul to her?

Can I see other people’s souls now too?

Can I see my own soul?

Wait, before that… souls… really exist and can be seen?

Even though I’d accepted the existence of souls to a certain degree, I still held my doubts since I hadn’t seen one before.

But if this was really a soul… I had no way to deny its existence now.

Actually… isn’t this going to be really annoying seeing this all the time? It was kind of cool at first but… wouldn’t this make it a pain in the ass to fall asleep with her around?

I closed my eyes and confirmed I could still see the bright light through my eyelids. You’ve got to be kidding me.

“Why’d you close your eyes?”

“I’m thinking about something very important.”

“What?”

“How I’m supposed to fall asleep from now on.”

I opened my eyes in time to see Rosa’s lips twitching.

“That’s really the first thing you worry about?”

“Of course, sleep is very important.”

“Haaaaaah. If your first concern is that, I was worried about you for nothing.”

I refocused on the blurry light around Rosa and made a new discovery. It had changed to green.

What caused this?

What changed?

Her mood?

If that was true, did that mean the color was related to how she felt?

“Rosa, sorry for worrying you. I love you.”

Pink. It had changed colors again. This time I’d seen it right as it happened. The change occurred the second I told her I loved her.

Rosa moved in close and kissed me on the cheek.

“It’s fine I guess. As long as you’re alright.” She shot a brilliant warm smile back at me.

It seemed the colors were basically a mood detector.

… so freaking useless. I don’t need to see her soul to know what mood she’s in.