CHAPTER 198: WELL-FED HYPOCRISY AND HUNGRY GOODNESS (2)

A memory from childhood resurfaced like a faded page from an old photo album. One so worn she could barely recall it anymore.

She remembered making a little crown from wildflowers in the garden and gifting it to her older sister.

“Hehe, Cassia! Look at this!”

“Oh my, how pretty.”

Her sister, frail since birth, sat in a wheelchair as she received the tiny crown of wildflowers.

Cassia lovingly stroked the crown and gently placed it on Isabella’s head instead.

“But I made this for you, Cassia!”

“No, it looks much better on you, Bella.”

“Really?”

Her sister smiled tenderly and patted her head with the crown still on.

Maybe even back then, her sister already knew that she would never wear the crown.

“Hehe, I love you the most, Cassia!”

The young Isabella laughed brightly and climbed onto her sister’s delicate knees.

“Oh my, my little princess. You mustn’t bother your sister like that.”

“I’m not bothering her!”

Their father approached the garden with a warm smile and patted their heads. His touch felt like spring sunshine.

“It’s okay, Father.”

“Cassia?”

“I want to stay with Bella a little longer.”

Cassia pulled her into a gentle hug with arms as delicate as glass.

“Because... if not now, there may not be many chances left for us to be together like this.”

“Are you going somewhere, Cassia?” I asked.

“Hehe, I’m not going anywhere.”

Being young back then, Isabella had no idea what her sister was talking about. She simply loved being held gently and having her cheek caressed like a pouty child.

The faded album page ended there and turned to the next page.

No.

Isabella reached out desperately, but couldn’t stop the page from turning.

Stop...

Curling up like a child, she tried to shut out the sound. No matter how tightly she covered my ears, she could still hear it.

“Why, why! Why does Cassia have to be exiled from the family?!”

“It’s the rules of the house.”

“What good is that stupid rule?!”

A priceless vase shattered as she furiously screamed.

Crash!

Her father bit his lip and shouted back, “It’s not some stupid rule! It’s the tradition that’s upheld the name of Colgrande for hundreds of years!”

“I don’t care! Bring Cassia back right now!”

“I told you. That’s impossible!”

Tears streamed down his twisted face.

“Do you think I wanted to send Cassia away?!”

“Then why?!”

“If we don’t follow the rules, we lose the tradition to continue the Colgrande name! The branch families are waiting like starving hyenas to rip us apart!”

Her father held himself and trembled in fear.

“Then we can just leave this damn family! I only need you, Mom, and Cassia!”

He stared at her, sobbing, and his expression contorted with rage.

Smack!

With a sharp sound, her cheek snapped to the side. She could taste the metallic blood from her split lip.

“Leave the family? Who do you think paid for the clothes you’re wearing?! The lavish meals you eat every day? This mansion you’re standing in right now?!”

“That’s...”

“All of it! Every single thing comes from the wealth the Colgrande Family has accumulated over hundreds of years!” he screamed like a man pushed to the brink.

The kind and charismatic father she once knew had disappeared. Only a pathetic middle-aged man remained, trembling in fear of losing his power.

The bitter taste of blood filled her mouth again, and the page turned once more.

The world had been overrun by monsters, starting with the Demonic District that opened in the North Pole.

On her journey to find her sister, she encountered a Celestial of the Black Star and received the Stigma of Leech. Consumed by bloodlust, she spent her days ravenously craving blood.

Stop, stop... just stop.

Finally, she learned to control the thirst that made her throat burn all the time. She wasn’t sure if it was the Black Star’s blessing or the curse, but she grew at a much faster pace than anyone else after mastering how to control her impulses.

And so, she returned to the family.

“I-Isabella? Y-You were alive?”

“Hehe. Yes, Father.”

With the Stigma of Leech and the Black Star Society in both hands, she quickly seized control of the family. She crushed the arrogant branch families and trampled her father’s authority.

If she could take hold of everything the Colgrande name had to offer, find her missing sister, and persuade her father... Maybe, just maybe, she could return to the first page of that faded album.

Isabella bolted upright, gasping for breath. “Haaah!”

A small pool of cold sweat had collected between her breasts overnight.

“Looks like I’ve overexerted myself lately.”

Isabella sighed as she looked down at the white negligee clinging to her sweat-drenched skin.

A week had passed since the San Fruttuoso incident. For the first time, she managed to get some sleep. No wonder it triggered such a dream.

Just then, a sharp pain stabbed into her left chest as if a scalpel were carving into her.

“Agh!”

She opened the drawer beneath the nightstand next to her bed and pulled out a blood pack, chugging it down. The blood trailed down her graceful neck, staining the white negligee in crimson.

“Haa...”

The pain subsided a little.

Isabella reached out and felt around her left chest. The Stigma of Leech had partially disappeared. Compared to a week ago, the faded area had grown larger.

Just blood packs alone won’t cut it anymore...

She needed blood, but not just any blood. She needed fresh blood from a high-ranking Awakener with a sufficient quantity of pure mana.

“Haaa...”

It would be impossible to acquire fresh blood from a high-ranking Awakener without hunting.

Isabella gripped the hem of her white negligee and fell into thought. If she started hunting again, she could lose control of the bloodlust she was barely suppressing. However, she couldn’t just sit and do nothing either.

The stronger the curse grew, the more intense the bloodlust became.

“Time to get up.”

Her schedule was packed once again today.

Getting out of bed, Isabella stripped off the blood-soaked negligee and changed into her favorite white dress.

Suddenly, her gaze shifted to the drawer beneath the shelf that had contained the blood pack. Inside was a photo from her childhood with everyone in her family all smiling brightly as if they could never be happier.

She gently pulled the worn photo out and wiped it clean with a towel.

Her sister was missing, and her mother had died in the gate incident. Her father, clinging desperately to the last shreds of their family’s hollow authority, had been at odds with her for years.

“Haa... Looking at it now, we really are a broken family.”

Isabella turned away with a self-deprecating smile.

She quickly freshened up and began tackling the day’s agenda. As she walked down the mansion’s vast hallway, her steps came to a halt in front of Kwon Oh-Jin’s room.

“Mr. Oh-Jin...”

She recalled sharing wine with him under the moonlight.

Remembering it made her heart flutter strangely. It brought a faint liveliness to her weary self. Isabella gently caressed her chest with a soft smile, feeling her heartbeat quicken.

I never thought this would happen.

At first, she had approached him intoxicated by the alluring taste and scent of his blood. The more she got to know him, the more she found herself being drawn to him.

These foolish feelings of mine...

Just as she reached out to knock on his door, she bitterly smiled and dropped her hand instead. She couldn’t afford to waste time just because she wanted to see his face for no reason. With a tinge of loneliness, Isabella turned away.

She skipped breakfast and dove straight into paperwork. There were compensation documents for the victims' families, approvals for the dozens of shelters she managed, and even documents encrypted in secret code for the Black Star Society.

If only Roberto were here, things wouldn’t be this difficult.

“Haaa...” She sighed deeply and kept working through the piles of documents.

After going through about half of it, she stretched her back and widely yawned. Her impressive bust slightly lifted her dress and asserted its overwhelming presence.

She checked the time. It was almost noon.

It’s already this late?

She had to move on to the next agenda.

“Let’s see... next is a press conference and an interview.”

Normally, Roberto would summarize and inform her of the schedule. However, she had sent him to keep an eye on the Sword of Justice. No one else could handle these things for her.

Isabella clicked her tongue and reviewed her remaining schedule.

Come to think of it, there’s been no report from Roberto today.

She had completely forgotten because of the unsettling dream.

Every morning, he would report on Damian Salvatore’s movements and recent activity. Today, oddly, there had been no contact.

“What’s going on?”

Frowning, Isabella tried calling Roberto.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

His phone had been turned off.

The result remained the same even when she used a communication Astral Relic and spread out a wave of mana only detectable by Awakeners with the Stigma of Leech.

An ominous feeling crept down her spine.

Isabella narrowed her eyes and cautiously prepared to leave the mansion.

Clatter!

The anti-terror security barriers suddenly dropped and sealed off the exits.

“What the?”

As Isabella turned around in confusion, the ceiling collapsed and chunks of concrete rained down like a storm.

Rumble!

“Agh!”

She winced and dodged the falling debris.

The rising clouds of thick dust and the acrid smell were bad enough. What tormented her even more was the searing sunlight pouring through the broken ceiling.

“Agh, nngh...”

The Curse of the Purple Forbidden Enclosure, eating away at her Stigma, flared up violently due to her being exposed directly to sunlight.

Her breathing grew ragged. “Haa! Haa!”

The burning thirst scorched her throat and ate away at her sanity.

Blood, blood, blood!

She needed fresh blood. Sweet blood coursing through someone’s veins. It didn’t matter who. If she could just grab someone, sink her fangs into their carotid artery, and drink deeply.

How sweet would it be?

So sweet it could melt her tongue. So blissful it could melt her brain.

“Hrk, ahh, ahhh.”

She clutched her chest, struggling to suppress the rising bloodlust.

Just then, a familiar metallic scent of blood wafted toward her from beyond the rubble. She knew this scent well. It belonged to the blood pouches she often consumed.

“Where...” She instinctively moved to find the blood pack.

Paolo called out from on top of the rubble, “Looking for this?”

With a twisted smile, he held a blood pack and spilled the contents all over the floor.

Isabella looked up at him in utter confusion. “Father?”

Paolo’s face contorted into a scowl as he coldly glared at her. “Father? Did you just call me father? How dare you call me that with your filthy tongue?”

“What?”

“Your true identity has already been exposed, you filthy witch.”

Those words coming from Paolo left a deep wound on her heart.

Isabella looked up at him with shaken eyes.

Since when?

When had her identity been discovered?

A young man stepped forward from behind her father.

“Isabella Colgrande, I’m here to punish you.”

He had messy brown hair and a gentle face, but the murderous intent in his eyes didn’t match the image of a simple country boy.