Chapter 151. Convincing Irene. (3/6)

She grabbed my arm and shook it uncontrollably.

“What is it?”

“Why is this number so big here? It doesn’t make any sense!”

She pointed at the number at the very bottom of Rosa’s column.

“Oh, that? No, it’s no mistake. Rosa’s potential for saving is just that stupid and broken because of you. Even if her parents don’t keep wiring her money for the entire eight-year projection I’ve made, if they do it just for high school, it’s still an idiotic sum for a kid straight out of high school. Worst case, she saves $74,000 with their help by the time she graduates high school, which is more than enough to cover her university education in this city.”

“In the best case, where her parents keep wiring her money throughout university, she finishes university with about $197,000. Of course, it would probably be lower than that, but it should be somewhere in that ballpark at least. With the expenses I estimated for Rosa before she moved, it’s pretty safe to assume she gets wired around $2000 from her parents to cover her monthly expenses.”

“As for her parents, you don’t need to worry about them. They’re pretty well off from my understanding of them, so I don’t think $2000 even makes a dent in their financial situation. Rosa still wants to work though and said she’d personally contribute half the money she worked for. The money she receives from her family is to be strictly set aside for university or things that would help her throughout university, for example, a car.”

“Anyway, forget about her. Look at your daughter’s savings as well. If she keeps working until the end of university, she should be able to graduate and finish while not being six feet under in debt. She can finish without owning a single cent just by working from now. Even if you completely ignore the scholarship money she has the potential to get, she can end her education in a much better position than many other students find themselves in.”

“If she wants, she can even take extra time in university to figure out what she really wants to do with her life and go at a leisurely pace. She doesn’t need to rush and take a maxed out course load every semester to finish in three to four years just to kill herself through studying and working.”

“And why does she have all this freedom? It’s naturally because of all the hard work you put in suffering alone for the last two years. Because you did so, patiently biding your time without giving in to despair, this opportunity presented itself to you. This can all be considered the fruits of your labor. All because you held on firmly to the residence you and your husband paid for together while he was alive and how you refused to give it up.”

“If you didn’t have that extra bedroom, I would never have rented a room out at your place. This plan wouldn’t have ever come to fruition if that were the case.”

“You would have never been convinced to allow your daughter to work if not for this meeting with the devil who you’ll soon sell your soul to.”

“Rosa might not have ever moved in either if I didn’t convince her it was in her best interest to do so.”

“Your daughter might not have ever met me if you didn’t hold onto your place. You may have ended up living somewhere else entirely where your daughter would have gone to a different school from the one I attend.”

“Everything is a result of that single bedroom and the way you stubbornly worked so hard to keep your place.”

Irene bent her knees up, wrapped her arms around them, and curled up into a ball in the driver’s seat. With her face buried in her knees, blocking off my view with her arms, her shoulders trembled uncontrollably.

She was crying silent tears. They were flowing down her cheeks and dripping onto her thighs like an endless river.

I waited silently beside her until she settled down.

When she was finally able to open her mouth without sounding like a mess, she said, “Ran… I will sell my soul to you.”

“Oh? Are you sure? What if you’re actually getting scammed here? Maybe there’s some fine print.”

“I trust you more than I trust my own judgment at this point. My soul already became yours without me even realizing it. Even if I don’t sign this contract, you snatched it away from me.”

“But… you’re really a shit devil. What kind of crappy devil writes up a contract that gets him nothing? You already have my soul, are you stupid? Where do I go to file a complaint against your license as a devil? What organization do I write in to? You clearly need more training. They obviously didn’t teach you the 101 of contracts where you’re supposed to actually get something in return for what you’re offering. Aren’t you too stupid? A big dummy.”

“Haha… shouldn’t you just shut up and take a good deal when it’s presented to you? If the other party gets scammed it’s because they were too stupid to see through the scam. You shouldn’t feel pity for them. You should naturally take the deal and run away with it without looking back while laughing all the way to the bank.”

“Haaaaaah. You really are the worst you know. It’s been a while since I cried my eyes out this bad. The last time was over my husband’s death. That was around two years ago while I was still mourning. Six months straight of crying in secret before I finally pulled myself together and swore never to cry again. I had to be strong for my children and pull myself together.”

“Take responsibility for that.”

“Just sign right here on the dotted line and I’ll take responsibility for your future, no questions asked.”

“Including a child like you promised?”

“Yes, including a child.”

“But how will things work out to raise him with the way things are scheduled?”

“Well, the schedule I wrote down is because I had no idea what you wanted to do yourself. Whether you wanted to be full-time on one job or part-time between two. Since I used an estimate for the pay rate, I just took an average between the two jobs and used the same rate for both. You’re free to pick whichever one you want.”

“If you choose to work as a barista alone and just keep your current schedule there, that would be the ideal condition to raise a child between us with how the three of us work at 4:00 PM, you would be able to be back in time from work so someone would always be there to take care of that child. Under normal conditions we would need to wait until after I graduate high school, but… if need be, it could be any time you feel prepared to take on the task of raising a child. I don’t actually need to attend high school to pass due to the arrangements I’ve made with the school already, meaning I could look after a kid at home while you’re at work.”

“Don’t need to attend? You mean you can skip without consequences?”

“Yeah, I just forged some documents and convinced them I have a chronic illness. It was pretty easy. All I’ve got to do is the assignments, projects, tests, midterms, and final exams. I’d only need to go to school just for the latter three. The former two I can do at home effortlessly.”

“You’re such a bad kid. But would you really be able to pass like that? You’d need to learn everything on your own at home and teach yourself, wouldn’t you?”

“It’s child’s play for an old devil like me, Irene. Remember, your soul is mine and I have your complete trust.”

“Certainly, if you say it’s not a problem, I’m willing to believe it. Some normal high school brat definitely wouldn’t be able to woo or bully me to the point I turn into a crying little girl curled up in a ball inside my car. They definitely wouldn’t be able to convince me to bear their child either.”

“You know what, are you even really a high schooler? Are you actually just some repeater disguised as a high schooler? No, maybe you’re an undercover secret agent or something. I’d be far more inclined to believe that than if you seriously tell me you’re really just a fifteen-year-old brat in high school. Are you lying to me about your age? You’re definitely a forty-year-old man in the skin of a fifteen-year-old’s body. I refuse to accept you’re younger than me.”

“Hahaha. Aren’t you just grasping at straws to save your dignity?”

“Haaaaaah. Maybe I am. But… are you really prepared?”