Chapter 177. The Angel of Death’s Real Name (2/5)

He signed without even verifying the contents of the contract. It was a very naive thing to do. But he was only a student who still hadn’t experienced the real world yet. He was short-sighted. What if I’d put in some unreasonable condition like he had to pay me an exorbitant sum of money?

Oh well, his nativity isn’t my concern. Unlike the last two occasions where someone sold their soul to me, my body didn’t have the same reaction. Well, I’d like to say there was no reaction, but… there was one. A sweet taste rose up at the back of my mouth. There weren't any heart palpitations nor was there a burning sensation in my chest, only that phantom sweet taste at the back of my mouth.

Did that mean the contract was a success? If I didn’t fulfill the contract, would my body have another strange reaction? Actually, was what I experienced all some sort of placebo effect my brain unconsciously formulated on its own? 

Maybe a signed contract favorable to me, my brain interpreted as a sweet taste in my mouth, whereas one I considered as an unfavorable one that I was on the losing end tasted sour. It could just be something psychological like that, where one eats a bitter pill. The fact that I didn’t have the heart palpitations and burning sensation in my chest maybe could have been just written off as an unlikely coincidence.

Though… there was a major difference in the contract. The part about aging. What if it was that sole condition itself that resulted in my body’s strange reaction. It meant… I’d need to write up at least one more contract with such a condition to verify my suspicions.

In this case, I guess Rosa was the last on my list. What a strange development. The order of contracts went opposite the order I met these three women in. 

Haaah. I could still hardly believe in the nonsensical conclusion I’d come up with about me being a devil whom they’d sold their soul to. But as a man raised with the scientific process, I’d at the very least see this experiment through to the end.

“Write your number down on the back for me. I’ll notify you once I get that autograph for you if she does show up here again in the future.”

“Alright, thanks.” He flipped the contract over and wrote his phone number down.

He handed the contract back to me and I stored it away inside my bag.

“Can you leave now?”

“Sure, since I don’t need to wait around for my Goddess all day in a boring place like this, why would I stay?”

With those rude words, he took his leave and I was finally left to my own devices.

I stuck around for the rest of the day, but Angela didn’t show up by the time I had to go to work. Today’s shift was with Rosa.

Our shift went by without anything significant to note. We returned home together with her hugging my arm in a good mood.

This was how it had been ever since she started working with me. There wasn’t much I could do about it. She hadn’t been able to do so at school with how I always skipped and wanted to keep our relationship a secret, so she made up for that when I was disguised and we headed home together after work. It was a compromise I’d made for being such a troublesome boyfriend.

She didn’t seem to mind this arrangement much though. It actually felt like she enjoyed the thrill and excitement that came with keeping her love life a secret from everyone. She’d gotten used to it and even developed such a weird sort of kink at some point.

The following day, I paid another visit to the museum. It was now Thursday, Rosa’s day off at work. She’d be at home relaxing after school today while I’d be together at work with Alicia. 

But that was for later.

Right now, I was working on a story while simultaneously waiting for Angela to grace me with her presence. Yes, for once, I wanted that silver-eyed venomous Angel of Death with white hair to appear before me. It was a strange turn of events, one where I wanted her to pay me a visit.

And it seemed the Gods above had heard my prayers and sent their fallen messenger my way.

When I heard footsteps behind me and music from someone’s earbuds on full blast draw close, I turned around. Our eyes met and she raised a hand to wave at me. I didn’t return the greeting and she frowned.

“You have a celebrity taking time out of her busy schedule to pay you a visit and you won’t even greet her?”

“I didn’t ask you to come here, did I?”

“I’m your girlfriend, I’m free to pay a visit to my boyfriend whenever I want.”

“Haaaaah. A self-proclaimed girlfriend can hardly be called a girlfriend. You just want to keep me quiet and don’t have a single positive feeling toward me.”

“That’s not true.”

“Oh? It isn’t?”

“It isn’t.”

She’d walked over to my side and looked like she was about to take a seat. She’d done so on her last visit as well, but I absolutely wouldn’t let her this time.

I put my foot up on the couch where she was trying to sit down and laid down resting my head on my bag in the process.

“This seat is taken.”

“You should be happy that a pretty celebrity wants to sit beside you. Most people would even be so humbled as to stand up and present their own seat to me.”

“Well too bad, I’m not giving up my seat and I also don’t want to share it with you either. I’m comfortable hogging this side of the couch all to myself. If you want a seat you can use the couch on the side. I don’t want people who may pass by to make the mistake to think we’re on good terms.”

“Haaaaaah. Your personality is such a pain to deal with.”

“No, yours is.”

“Oh, is that so? Then please don’t mind me then.”

She suddenly sat down on top of my abdomen.

“Hey… do I look like a chair to you?”

“Was that not your intention by lying down in front of me?” She looked down at me with a grin.

“Can you please get off me?”

“I don’t feel like it. I’ve already made myself quite comfortable. Who knew you’d make such a comfortable chair?”

“You’re heavy.”

“Oh? Well, that’s a shame. Maybe if you’d complimented me about how light I was I would have gotten off you. But now I know that you’re in pain from me sitting on you I won’t.” She raised her right hand and placed it on my right cheek while she said that.

“Haaaaah. Hey, can I have your autograph?”

When I asked that out of nowhere her eyes shot up a bit in surprise.

“You want my autograph? What are you planning to do with it? Are you short on money and want to sell it?”

“No, I’m not going to sell it. Some idiot came in here yesterday looking for you. They were apparently a fan of yours who saw you come in here the day before. Their plan was to wait here and ‘coincidentally’ bump into you so they could start up a conversation with you in a natural fashion and get your autograph. They don’t want to actually bother you though by pestering you like an annoying fly for it though. In the end, I made a deal with them that if they never return here again in the future I’d get that autograph from you if you ever showed up again.”

“Oh! I see, I see. That makes sense. But do you really think I’d give you an autograph so easily?”

“No. So name your price. What do you want? Though if it’s too expensive or requires too much effort on my part, forget it.”

“Hmm… I was going to ask for $10,000, what a shame.”

“You would really request that much money from some broke kid like me?”

“Haha, it was a joke of course. I’ve got more money than I know what to do with. I don’t have any need for that sort of monetary compensation from you.”

“Then? What’s your price?”

“How about a kiss on my foot?”

“Hah? Are you supposed to be some sort of queen?”

“Heheh, if you can’t even do something like that I’m not going to sign that autograph for you.”

“So the price you thought of is my dignity?”

“Yes. Are you too prideful for that sort of thing?”

“You actually think I have something useless like pride?”

“Huh? Wait, you mean you’ll do it?”

“Present them.”