CHAPTER 202: WELL-FED HYPOCRISY AND HUNGRY GOODNESS (6)

Isabella looked at Kwon Oh-Jin with trembling eyes.

“What?” she asked.

Kwon Oh-Jin held out his bleeding arm to her and calmly said, “You need the fresh blood of an Awakener to lessen the effects of the curse, right?”

“H-How do you know that?!”

Isabella’s eyes widened in shock like a startled rabbit.

Her reaction made sense since she couldn’t have known that he had secretly eavesdropped on her conversation with Roberto using the Black Curtain.

“I’ll explain later.”

Thankfully, Damian was slowly staggering toward them and hadn’t fully recovered from the earlier collision. That didn’t mean they had time to leisurely talk about how Kwon Oh-Jin knew about the curse.

“Drink it. Quickly.”

Isabella’s eyes quivered.

Kwon Oh-Jin wasn’t a high-ranking Awakener, but she remembered how his blood tasted from last time. His dense mana and the inexplicably sweet flavor were more than enough to weaken the curse.

“I’m... an executor of the Black Star Society.”

I know.

“I helped the gypsies just to take their blood.”

I know that too.

“Why... Why are you going this far for me?”

“Who knows?”

At first, he just saw her as someone he could use like Lee Woo-Hyuk, a convenient pawn to exploit. What about now? Was he still giving her his blood for that reason?

I don’t know anymore.

At this point, he wasn’t even sure of his intentions in helping her. It could be cheap sympathy, a calculated plan, or just a fleeting whim.

“But it doesn’t matter,” he said.

The reason didn’t matter anymore. What mattered was that his blood could save her.

Isabella, her eyes still shaking, cautiously said, “To get fresh blood... I have to extract it directly from you.”

“So drinking it like this won’t work?”

She silently shook her head.

“Well, I guess we don’t have a choice then.”

Kwon Oh-Jin brought his arm closer to her mouth as if to say she could bite into it.

Isabella hesitated with worry written all over her face.

“If an Awakener of Leech drinks your blood directly... your soul will become subordinate to me.”

“Subordinate?”

“It’s not like you’ll become a vampire or anything... but you won’t be able to disobey my commands.”

In other words, he would become her puppet if she drank his blood.

“That’s fine.”

“B-But! What if I’m lying?! What if this was all a setup just to turn you into my puppet?!”

“Was it a setup?”

“N-No! It’s not, but!”

Is she wondering about trust since I’m risking becoming her puppet? If that’s the case...

“It’s alright. Scammers don’t have eyes like yours.”

He gently caressed her cheek as she looked at him with quivering eyes. After all, he was a scammer himself. He could tell better than anyone that she wasn’t lying.

“Mr. Oh-Jin.” Isabella swallowed dryly.

Kwon Oh-Jin silently held out his arm again. As his bleeding arm approached, Isabella’s breath grew heavier.

“Haa, haa.”

Like an addict being handed drugs, she stared at his arm with a burning hunger. Every exhale that touched his skin sent an odd tickle down his spine.

“Then... I’ll begin.”

Her canines grew longer like vampire fangs. As if trying to hide them, she parted her lips slightly as her sharp fangs sank into his skin.

“Hmph.”

They pierced through his flesh and into the blood vessels underneath, but it didn’t hurt.

“Mmmh!”

Instead, he felt a wave of sharp pleasure. Thick, sticky mana spread from his arm throughout his entire body as if he had taken an aphrodisiac. Heat coursed through him, and he felt blood rushing down to his lower half.

You’ve gotta be kidding me.

Kwon Oh-Jin quickly squeezed his legs together as he glanced at the obvious tent in his pants. He hadn’t expected this kind of side effect from getting bitten.

Fortunately, Isabella didn’t notice the prominent tent between his legs as she was too focused on drinking his blood.

“Mmmh... Haaa...”

Isabella trembled uncontrollably as she greedily gulped down his blood, unable to believe what she was experiencing.

This is insane...

It was on a completely different level from the small taste she had before. His mana had become several times denser now, and the unknown presence mixed into his blood also felt much stronger.

T-This...

It felt like lightning had struck her brain. It didn’t just taste amazing, but a wave of ecstasy she had never felt before spread through her every time his blood flowed down her throat.

Having tasted blood like this, I’ll never...

She instinctively knew that she would never be able to drink anyone else’s blood again.

“Haa, hmm.”

Isabella frantically sucked Kwon Oh-Jin’s blood. Even if she were to overdose on a powerful drug, it wouldn’t come close to the high she felt from this.

At this point, she started to wonder if his soul would become subordinate to hers or if he would enslave her. The pleasure from drinking his blood far surpassed anything she could ever imagine.

“Pwah!” Isabella gasped and finally pulled her mouth away from his arm.

She hadn’t even drunk that much, maybe four or five gulps at most. It was barely even half the amount she would normally take from a blood pack to calm her urges.

“You’re done already?”

“Haa, haa. I-It’s just...”

Her face flushed red like an apple as she turned away. How was she supposed to explain that it felt so good that she couldn’t drink anymore?

“I-It’s more than enough...”

This wasn’t just an excuse to avoid explaining herself. The Curse of the Purple Forbidden Enclosure, gnawing at her Stigma, had completely disappeared after drinking so little.

No, it’s more than that.

The Stigma of Leech always grew stronger on cloudy nights shrouded in darkness. Her Stigma’s power peaked when the moon was hidden. For some reason, she felt even better than on a moonless night after drinking Kwon Oh-Jin’s blood.

Her skin felt vibrant like she had just walked out of an aesthetic clinic. She felt so light as though she could fly with each step.

The urge for blood... is gone.

Normally, biting someone directly with her fangs and drinking fresh blood would increase the cravings. However, the bloodlust that always haunted her had completely disappeared.

Isabella softly moaned in ecstasy and hugged herself.

“Mmmh.”

It had felt like walking along the edge of a cliff every day because of the bloodlust. One misstep and she would fall into an abyss with no return. Now, that abyss had become solid ground after drinking Kwon Oh-Jin’s blood. How could she not tremble with joy?

“Isabella?”

“Rest for a moment, Mr. Oh-Jin.”

Isabella calmed her excitement and gently laid Kwon Oh-Jin down on the ground. She hadn’t noticed it while frantically drinking, but now she clearly noticed his terrible condition. His lips were cracked, and his eyes were hazy. His breathing was shallow like it could stop at any moment.

Even in this condition, he told me to drink his blood.

Isabella’s eyes grew cold. She slowly stood up and turned to look at Damian.

A heavy blood-red aura enveloped Isabella, shaking the very ground beneath her.

Rumble.

Still affected by his clash against Kwon Oh-Jin, Damian grimaced and swallowed hard.

“Urgh.”

He lifted his sword with great effort and aimed it at Isabella.

“Oh, Celestial of Libra, Zuben, grant me the power of light to stand against the darkness—!”

Crack!

The grotesque sound of shattering bones echoed as Damian’s arm holding the sword was crushed from the shoulder down.

He clutched his mangled right arm and screamed in agony, “Aaagh!”

“Does it hurt?” Isabella asked.

She walked toward him while staring with frosty eyes.

Things would’ve been different if Damian were in his normal condition, but he couldn’t stop Isabella now after that exhausting fight against Kwon Oh-Jin.

“But Mr. Oh-Jin must’ve been in even more pain.”

Isabella extended a hand toward Damian. Maybe it was because of Kwon Oh-Jin’s blood, but she had never felt this much mana flowing through her. The red aura that surrounded her turned into sharp blades that launched at Damian.

Swoosh!

“Damn it! You wicked witch!”

Damian raised his remaining left arm and desperately swung his sword. The crimson blades and Damian’s sword clashed with a thunderous roar.

Clang!

Damian was sent skidding back from the impact. The jarring shock traveled through his sword and shook him to his core.

“Kugh! I... can’t collapse here!”

Even as the impact rattled his insides, Damian didn’t stop swinging his sword.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Step by step, he cut through the raining crimson blades and advanced toward Isabella.

“To the one tainted by darkness!” Damian charged with all he had and slashed fiercely with his remaining arm. “Judgment of light!”

His sword brilliantly glowed as he slashed through the crimson blades.

Woong!

A pillar of light erupted from his sword and stretched high into the air. His blade of light, which had grown tens of meters long, came crashing down toward Isabella.

“Are you done now?” Isabella snapped her fingers as if she felt bored.

Splat!

The blood from Damian’s crushed right arm moved as if it had a will of its own and coiled around him. Damian widened his eyes at the tendrils of blood snaking around him.

“Ah...”

“Then die,” Isabella said.

Entangled in his own blood, Damian was crushed like a tin can.

Craaack!

Isabella stared coldly at Damian’s lifeless body on the ground. Without sparing him another glance, she walked past and approached the group of people trembling amid the debris.

Those who had been calling her a filthy witch just moments ago now backed away with awkward smiles as if nothing had happened.

“M-Miss Isabella...”

“T-Thats...”

With a casual wave, Isabella crushed the head of a middle-aged woman caked in makeup.

Crack.

Screams echoed from every direction.

“Kyaaaaaah!”

“S-Shit!”

Isabella stepped forward while coldly looking at them. With each step, blood tendrils lashed out and crushed the fleeing branch family heads.

Thud! Crack! Crunch!

A middle-aged man, curled up like a hermit crab in the deepest part of the collapsed debris, stumbled to his feet.

“H-Haha...”

He spread his arms wide and smiled. The gentle, affectionate smile looked just like the one in Isabella’s faded photo album.

“My beloved princess... You’ve been through so much, haven’t you?”

“Father.” Isabella bit her lip as she looked at Paolo.