Chapter 202
Chapter 202
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 202
Chapter Title: Well-Fed Hypocrisy and Hungry Goodness (6)
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"...What?"
Isabella looked at Oh-jin with trembling eyes.
With a calm expression, Oh-jin held out his arm, blood streaming down it, and spoke.
"You said you need an Awakened's fresh blood to lessen the curse's effects."
"H-How do you know that, Mr. Oh-jin?!"
Isabella's eyes widened in astonishment, like a startled rabbit.
Well.
Of course, she couldn't possibly know I'd been eavesdropping on her conversation with Roberto from the shadows, so her reaction was only natural.
"I'll explain later."
Fortunately, Demian still hadn't recovered from the impact of their earlier clash, so he was staggering toward them slowly.
But that didn't mean we had the luxury of time for a calm explanation of how I knew about the curse.
"Hurry up and drink."
"......"
Isabella's eyes wavered.
Oh-jin wasn't a high-ranking Awakened, but she recalled the brief taste she'd had of his blood before—the dense mana and the unidentifiable sweetness within it—and knew it would be more than enough to weaken the Curse of Jamiwon.
But.
"I'm... an Executor of the Black Star Organization."
I know.
"Helping the gypsies was just a means to siphon off their blood."
I know that, too.
"Why... why are you doing all this for me?"
"Who knows."
At first, I just thought of acquiring a useful pawn, like Lee Woo-hyeok.
But now?
Am I still giving her my blood just to use her?
'I don't know.'
At this point, I wasn't even sure myself why I was trying to help her.
It could be cheap pity, a cunning scheme, or just a momentary whim.
"Does it matter?"
The reason didn't matter.
The only thing that mattered was the fact that my blood could save her.
"......"
Isabella looked at me with trembling eyes, then cautiously opened her mouth.
"...To receive fresh blood, I have to drink it directly myself."
"You can't just drink the blood I give you?"
Isabella quietly nodded.
"Well, can't be helped then."
Oh-jin brought his forearm closer to her mouth, as if telling her to suck the blood directly.
Isabella spoke with an anxious expression.
"If you're bitten by an Awakened of the Leech constellation... your soul will become subservient to me."
"Subservient?"
"You won't become a vampire or anything like that, but you'll be unable to defy my commands."
In other words.
If I let her drink my blood, I'll become Isabella's puppet.
"It's fine."
"B-But! What if I'm lying right now! What if this is all an act I put on to make you my puppet!"
"Was it an act?"
"W-Well, no, but!"
Is she asking if I can trust her, even at the risk of becoming her puppet?
If that's the case, it doesn't matter.
"It's fine. Con artists don't have eyes like that."
I gently caressed the cheek of Isabella, who was looking at me with trembling eyes.
As a con artist myself, I knew better than anyone.
I could tell she wasn't lying.
"...Mr. Oh-jin."
Isabella swallowed dryly.
Oh-jin silently held out his forearm to her.
"Hah, hah."
As the bleeding forearm drew closer, Isabella's breathing grew ragged.
Like a drug addict being offered a fix, she stared at the arm with a burning gaze.
Every time her ragged breath touched my forearm, I felt a strange tickle.
"Then... I'll begin."
Isabella's canines elongated, like a vampire's.
She opened her mouth slightly, as if to hide her lengthened fangs.
And then.
"Hahp."
*Shlk.*
Sharp fangs sank into my flesh.
The long fangs pierced through my skin and into the blood vessel beneath, but I didn't feel any particular pain.
"Ngh...!"
Instead, what I felt was a thrilling pleasure.
A rich, viscous mana, thick as tar, spread from my forearm throughout my entire body.
My whole body grew hot, as if I'd taken an aphrodisiac, and I could feel blood rushing to my lower half.
'Ah, for fuck's sake.'
Oh-jin glanced down at the tent pitched between his legs and quickly closed them.
I never thought being bitten would have this kind of side effect.
"Hahp... haah."
Fortunately, the prominent tent seemed to escape Isabella's notice; she was completely focused on sucking Oh-jin's blood.
'Unbelievable.'
Isabella greedily gulped down Oh-jin's blood, her body trembling in disbelief.
This was on a completely different level from the sip of Oh-jin's blood she'd had before.
The mana was several times denser than before.
And the unidentifiable energy mixed in the blood also felt much, much stronger.
'Th-This is...'
A sensation like a lightning bolt striking inside her head.
This was beyond a matter of the taste being ecstatic.
With every swallow of blood that went down her throat, a dizzying pleasure and euphoria she had never felt before spread through her entire body.
'If I get used to the taste of this blood... from now on.'
She instinctively realized she would never be able to stomach any other blood again.
"Hahp. Hahp."
Isabella frantically sucked and drank Oh-jin's blood.
Even if one took a lethal dose of a drug, could it even begin to compare to this pleasure?
It was to the point where she wondered if it was her soul, not Oh-jin's, that was becoming subservient through the bite.
The pleasure she felt from drinking Oh-jin's blood far transcended her imagination.
"Puha!"
Isabella let out a ragged breath as she pulled her mouth away from Oh-jin's forearm.
She hadn't drunk that much blood.
Four or five sips at most, perhaps.
It was a small amount, not even half of the blood packs she usually drank to soothe her urges.
"Finished already?"
"Hah, hah. W-Well."
Isabella turned her head away, her face as red as an apple.
How could she possibly say it?
That it felt too good to drink any more.
"Th-This is more than enough."
It wasn't an excuse she'd squeezed out just to avoid answering.
Even though she hadn't drunk much blood, she could feel the Curse of Jamiwon that had been gnawing at her Stigma vanish as if it had been washed away.
'No, it's more than that.'
Normally, the Leech constellation's Stigma was at its most powerful on nights when the sky was covered in thick, dark clouds.
On those pitch-black nights where not even the moonlight could be seen, the power of the Leech was at its peak.
But for some reason.
After drinking Oh-jin's blood, she felt in even better condition than on a night with a sky full of dark clouds.
Her skin was supple as if she'd just had a spa treatment, and every step felt as light as if she could fly.
And above all.
'The urge to drink blood... is gone.'
The bloodlust that had constantly tormented her—while eating, while sleeping, even while taking a simple breath—had vanished completely.
Normally, sinking her fangs directly into someone and drinking fresh blood should have intensified her bloodlust.
"Haaah."
Isabella wrapped her arms around herself and let out a moan filled with ecstasy.
Back when she was plagued by her bloodlust, she had lived under the constant pressure of walking along a cliff's edge every day.
An endless precipice from which there was no return if she took a single misstep.
But after drinking Oh-jin's blood, that cliff had turned into solid ground. How could she not tremble with joy?
"Isabella?"
"Please rest for a moment, Mr. Oh-jin."
Isabella calmed her soaring heart for a moment and gently laid Oh-jin on the ground.
She hadn't noticed while frantically craving his blood, but now she could see that Oh-jin was in a very precarious state.
Parched lips and dazed eyes.
A ragged breath that sounded as if it could stop at any moment.
'In this condition.'
He told me to drink his blood?
"......"
Isabella's eyes turned cold.
She slowly rose to her feet and turned to look at Demian.
*Grrrrr!*
A dense, blood-red aura enveloped her body, making the ground around her vibrate.
"Kugh..."
Demian, who still hadn't fully recovered from the shock of his clash with Oh-jin, swallowed a groan.
He struggled to raise his sword and pointed it at Isabella.
"O, Zuben, Constellation of Libra. Grant me the power of light to fight the darkness—"
*CRUNCH!*
With a sickening crack, Demian's sword arm was crushed from the shoulder down.
"Aaaaaargh!"
Demian clutched his crushed right arm and let out a scream of agony.
"Does it hurt?"
*Clack, clack.*
With cold eyes, Isabella stared at Demian as she slowly walked toward him.
If Demian had been in his normal state, things might have been different.
But weakened from the previous battle, he stood no chance against Isabella.
"Mr. Oh-jin was in more pain."
Isabella casually extended a hand toward Demian.
Was it because she had drunk Oh-jin's blood?
Mana was overflowing from her on a level incomparable to her usual self.
*Swiiish!*
The blood-red aura swirling around her body formed into sharp blades and rushed toward Demian.
"Kugh! You wicked witch!"
Demian raised his sword with his remaining left arm and hastily swung it.
The rushing blood blades clashed with Demian's sword.
*Claaaaang!*
With a harsh metallic screech, Demian was pushed back.
"Cough! Cough!"
The dizzying impact that traveled up his sword shook his insides.
"I can't... fall... here...!"
*Clang! Clang! Clangclangclang!*
Even as he felt his insides being rattled, Demian didn't stop his sword.
One step, then another.
Cutting through the storm of blood blades, Demian closed in on Isabella.
"To you who are stained by darkness!"
Demian charged, fiercely swinging his sword with his one remaining arm.
The sword in his hand emitted a brilliant light, splitting the blood blades.
"Receive the judgment of light!"
*Vwooooom!*
The light erupting from the sword shot up, forming a massive pillar.
As the blade of light, now tens of meters long, swung down toward Isabella.
"Are you finished now?"
Isabella flicked her fingers as if bored.
*Fwish!*
Demian's crushed right arm.
The blood flowing from that arm moved as if it were alive, wrapping around Demian's body.
"Ah."
Demian's eyes widened as he looked down at the tendrils of blood coiling around him.
And then.
"Then die."
*CRUUUNCH!*
Wrapped in the blood tendrils, Demian's body was crushed like a crumpled can.
"......"
Isabella gazed coldly down at Demian's corpse lying on the ground.
She walked past him as if he were of no interest and approached the people huddled together and trembling amidst the rubble.
"U-Um, Lady Isabella."
"W-Well, you see."
The same people who, just moments ago, had been screaming that Isabella was a filthy witch, now retreated step by step with awkward smiles, as if that had never happened.
"W-We had no choice, it was Lord Paolo's order..."
*Splat.*
Isabella waved her hand lightly, and the head of a middle-aged woman with a heavily powdered face was crushed.
"Kyaaaaaaah!"
"Sh-She's crazy!!"
Screams erupted from all directions.
Isabella turned to them with eyes as cold as frost and took another step, *clack, clack*.
*Splat! Crack! Crunch!*
With every step she took, tendrils of blood shot out and crushed the bodies of the fleeing collateral family heads.
After she had taken several more steps.
"Ha, haha."
In the deepest part of the collapsed ruins.
A middle-aged man who had been curled up like a hermit crab staggered to his feet.
He spread his arms wide and smiled.
The same smile that remained in her faded photo albums.
A kind and gentle smile.
"My beloved princess... you must have suffered so much all this time."
"...Father."
Isabella bit her lip gently as she looked at the smiling Paolo.