Chapter 270
Chapter 270
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 270
Chapter Title: Greed and Love (2)
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Sanctuary.
A world of Constellations, accessible only to the Awakened who possessed a Stigma.
The entrances to the Sanctuary, located throughout the world, were so precious that their mere existence could elevate a nation’s prestige.
Countries without an entrance to a Sanctuary were often mocked and called ‘lands forsaken by the stars.’
“Hah.”
In the bustling streets of Hongdae.
A woman walked, letting out a short breath.
Her brilliant platinum-blonde hair fluttered gently in the night breeze that caressed her cheek.
Her surreal beauty captivated the attention of everyone around her.
Though hundreds of eyes were fixed on her, no one dared to approach and speak, deterred by the noble aura that naturally emanated from her.
All they could do was whisper from a distance.
As if completely unfazed by the focused gazes, the woman strolled down the street with elegant, haughty steps.
She glanced at the entrance to the Sanctuary and smiled faintly.
“Vega must have arrived by now, right?”
Isabella, practically chased out of the hospital room by Ha-eun, paced anxiously outside the door.
No, perhaps ‘anxious’ wasn’t the right word.
Her steps as she wandered the hallway were strangely excited, and the corners of her mouth kept twitching upward.
*Maybe this will drive a wedge between Ha-eun and Oh-jin.*
Oh-jin had been hiding the fact that his memories of Ha-eun had disappeared.
From Ha-eun’s perspective, she must have felt a sense of betrayal.
That much was obvious from the way Ha-eun’s face had been terrifyingly rigid when she’d stormed into the room.
If the two of them were to have a falling out…
*Gulp.*
Isabella swallowed dryly, staring at the firmly shut door.
She forced down the corners of her lips, which were trying to curl into a smile.
*Ah.*
*If he and Ha-eun fall out, Oh-jin will be deeply hurt.*
She knew very well how much he cherished Ha-eun.
So much so that even his own life seemed trivial in comparison.
He devoted everything to Ha-eun.
*I’ll be the one to comfort the wounded Oh-jin.*
Isabella placed a hand on her fluttering heart, her imagination taking flight.
She pictured herself approaching the disheartened Oh-jin, comforting him with utmost devotion.
*I’ll gently embrace him and stroke his hair.*
*It would be nice to share a sweet kiss like last time.*
Fortunately, she possessed a captivating beauty that could mesmerize even a monk who had practiced asceticism for decades.
And their relationship had progressed to the point where she could, at the very least, occupy his ‘second’ place.
‘Of course, Oh-jin doesn’t remember.’
Still, as long as his memories of her hadn't completely vanished, she was certain there was a place for her in his heart.
‘Perhaps.’
Isabella’s gaze, fixed on the door, burned with heat.
*Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.*
*This incident could be my chance to become his ‘first.’*
The desire she had suppressed deep within her heart reared its head once more.
But her time of swelling anticipation was brief.
The moment she heard the lewd moans coming from beyond the door, her heart, once swollen with hope, deflated like a pricked balloon.
“Hah.”
Isabella let out another deep sigh.
Staring blankly at the hospital room door, she turned and headed for the Sanctuary.
Her purpose was to inform Vega that Oh-jin had woken up, but deep down, she also wanted to interrupt the sweet time the two were likely having.
After all, they both tended to be more cautious in front of Vega.
“…What am I even doing?”
To call Vega just to interrupt their sweet moment.
Even to her, it was a pathetic display of jealousy.
Isabella walked through the streets with a self-deprecating smile.
She felt like taking a short walk to clear her head rather than returning directly to the hospital.
It was then, as she wandered through a nearby park like a dazed person.
“……”
Isabella’s steps came to an abrupt halt.
With sharp eyes, she scanned her surroundings and lightly drew a line across her palm with her fingernail.
The blood that flowed from her palm formed into the shape of a scythe.
“Oh my, how frightening.”
The park had fallen silent.
A woman emerged from the shadows cast by the darkness.
Her physique was more akin to a girl’s than a woman’s.
The outline of her slender body seemed so fragile that one might worry she would break if touched incorrectly.
But contrary to her girlish, delicate frame, the woman’s features were seductive and alluring.
She was a woman who evoked a primal sense of transgression, like the forbidden fruit Adam had reached for.
Cassia Colagrande smiled brightly at her younger sister.
“…Sister.”
Isabella glared sharply at Cassia.
Although Cassia had suddenly stopped her attacks after their conversation inside the black veil with Oh-jin, she had been trying to kill her with a crazed smile just before that.
It was a situation where instinctual wariness naturally preceded the joy of meeting the sister she thought was dead.
“There’s no need to be so guarded, you know?”
Cassia’s shoulders shook with quiet laughter, as if she found Isabella’s tense state quite amusing.
“What are you doing here, Sister?”
“Ah. I was on my way back from meeting him and thought I’d stop by to see my beloved sister’s face.”
“By ‘him’… you don’t mean you met with Oh-jin?”
Cassia nodded silently.
Isabella bit her lip and aimed the scythe in her hand at Cassia.
“You didn’t do anything to Oh-jin, did you?”
“Don’t you worry. That man is…”
Cassia trailed off, looking up at the night sky.
“He is?”
“……”
Cassia looked up at the dark night sky with a complex expression.
She let out a deep sigh and shook her head.
“…I’m not quite sure yet.”
“Not sure about what?”
“It’s nothing.”
Cassia shook her head, avoiding the question.
That day.
The image of Oh-jin she had seen inside the black veil came to mind.
The man who had arrogantly and presumptuously declared he would become her ‘Cheonma.’
The man who had whispered sweet lies, telling her to turn her back on the Cheonma she served and follow him instead.
Her feelings for him were still too complex to be summed up in a few words.
Because there was too much blood on her hands to be so easily swayed by his sweet lies.
“……”
A heavy weight of guilt and regret constricted her chest.
She might have been out of her mind after receiving the ‘star’ from the Cheonma, but for the past ten years, she had served as his limb, trampling countless lives.
Could someone like her…
A filthy, hideous snake…
Now follow those sweet whispers and find happiness?
No, to begin with, did she even have the right to feel happiness?
Cassia shook her head as if to clear the tangled thoughts from her mind.
“In any case, I didn’t do anything to him, so you have nothing to worry about.”
“……”
Isabella lowered her scythe, her wariness slightly abated.
“So what do you want?”
“My. Does a sister need a reason to visit her sister?”
“Cut the nonsense.”
She said coldly, glaring sharply at Cassia.
Cassia shrugged lightly and walked closer to Isabella.
“By the way… it seems he has another woman?”
*Flinch.*
Isabella’s shoulders trembled.
Watching her, Cassia burst into a peal of laughter.
“Are you going to steal him?”
“St-steal what?”
“Don’t play dumb.”
Cassia stuck out her long tongue and continued.
“Our Bella is greedy, isn’t she?”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Hehe. You know what I mean.”
Her sinister, snake-like eyes raked over Isabella.
“Or… should I take him?”
Cassia said with a seductive smile, stroking her chest.
Though she lacked feminine curves, her charm, reminiscent of the forbidden fruit, was destructive enough to captivate even the gaze of her own kin.
“If you so much as lay a finger on Oh-jin! I won’t let you…”
“What are you to him?”
“Th-that’s!”
Isabella was at a loss for words.
Even she didn’t want to reveal that she was Oh-jin’s ‘second’ in front of her sister.
Cassia’s eyes gleamed as she watched the speechless, stammering Isabella.
Even as her sister, she could see at a glance what a captivating woman Isabella was.
A full, curvaceous bust line and a slender waist that seemed impossibly narrow for supporting such large masses of flesh.
Skin as flawless as a snowfield and beautiful hair that looked as if it were spun from molten gold.
Cassia prided herself on not lacking in feminine charm, but she couldn’t compare to Isabella.
To make such a woman wear that kind of expression…
“Hmm. I wonder who she could be.”
Recalling the strong scent of a woman that clung to Oh-jin’s body, Cassia narrowed her eyes.
Why was it?
The thought of that woman made her blood boil.
“……”
It wasn’t as if she had feelings for him.
Cassia bit her lip, annoyed by the inexplicable irritation welling up inside her.
“Well, whatever. Good luck. Stealing things is your specialty, isn’t it?”
“…Shut up.”
“Hehe. Well then, I’ll be on my way.”
Cassia waved her hand lightly and turned away.
“Why did you even come here…”
Isabella let out a deep sigh and shook her head.
“Where are you going?”
She asked Cassia, who was disappearing into the shadows.
Cassia stopped and turned her head, her face hardening.
“The Demonic Realm.”
With that short reply, her figure completely vanished into the shadows.
“……”
Isabella stared blankly at the spot where Cassia had disappeared, then bit her lip and turned away.
Her destination was the hospital where Oh-jin was.
She wanted to see him, right now.
\* \* \*
When she opened the door to the hospital room, she saw Oh-jin sleeping.
‘Have they both left already?’
Confirming that Ha-eun and Vega were not there, Isabella quietly approached Oh-jin.
He was sleeping, breathing evenly.
—*Stealing things is your specialty, isn’t it?*
Cassia’s voice echoed in her ears.
“I…”
Isabella reached out to the sleeping Oh-jin.
She gently touched his cheek, then his lips, which were letting out even breaths.
The soft feel of his lips.
An intense, suppressed impulse began to boil within her.
“Umm?”
Did he sense her presence?
The sleeping Oh-jin opened his eyes.
“…Isabella?”
“Are you awake?”
Isabella gently pressed on Oh-jin’s chest as he tried to sit up, pushing him back down onto the bed.
“Do you remember… the promise you made to me?”
“A promise?”
“Yes. The promise we made inside the Ferris wheel.”
“…About that.”
Oh-jin’s expression hardened.
Due to the aftereffects of Gaecheon, his memory of what they had talked about on the Ferris wheel had been completely erased.
“Sorry. Like I said before, my memory…”
“Then why don’t I remind you?”
Isabella climbed onto the bed.
She looked down at Oh-jin with a breathtakingly alluring gaze and continued in a low voice.
“Oh-jin…”
A moment’s hesitation.
Isabella, who had been looking down at him with eyes full of conflict, pressed her body down onto his.
“You said… you would make me your ‘first’.”
He didn’t remember what happened on the Ferris wheel that day.
In that case.
She could become his first, not his second.
Her, not Ha-eun.
She would become his most precious person.
“Oh-jin… you’ll keep your promise, won’t you?”
Isabella looked down at him with eyes glistening with desire, letting out a hot breath.