Soul For A Girlfriend?

Lilith's POV

I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I ended up making a terrible mistake in identifying the actual target. Though I was certain about what I saw when reading the mana outputs from that vessel and it indeed was the target.

How did it switch with someone else?

Was the target that other girl all along, or I was just seeing things?

The possibility of the soul changing its vessel was really narrow, but not zero. So there was indeed the probability of that happening, but even if it happened, I would've got some residual mana traces from the former vessel, but it was empty.

Like no soul ever inhabited inside that body.

But that explains the weird mana readings I've been getting from tracking Saishi for the past few days. He has a few interactions with the vessel, but it appeared like he wasn't aware of the fact that the girl was the actual target.

I was trying to muster up the courage to tell Saishi that he has been working his ass off after the wrong girl all this time. He seemed to be quite calm, but it was easier said than done.

"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 put 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 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 to 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 did not know 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 he 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 its 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. But there was one thing that I've been feeling for quite a while by that point.

Ever since the day I discovered this target, I haven't been able to shake that feeling off. Something uneasy and ominous crept its shadow over me and everything would come tumbling down again.

It would be the same again.

"There must be someone… who is sabotaging this." I thought it out loud and Saishi's eyes shifted towards me. He was peering into my eyes with a dark orb while I felt like a complete idiot.

I ended up saying something stupid and far-fetched.

What was wrong with me?