Chapter 188: Vacation in Rome (4)

Chapter 188: Vacation in Rome (4)

Ohjin's expression stiffened with the oil bottle Isabella had given him in his hand.

'...'

Isabella had her bikini untied and was laying down on the sunbed in an alluring posture.

Her white skin was akin to snow, and a smooth curve ran down from her back to her hips.

Isabella's breasts being pushed against the sunbed leaked out to the sides and displayed their immense presence even when she was lying down.

"You... want me to apply oil for you?"

"Fufu. Yes."

"..."

It felt like his head had stopped functioning.

Spit trickled down his dry throat.

Just looking at her attractive back was enough to take his breath away, but he was being asked to rub oil over it with his hands.

'Am I in some kind of outdated romcom manhwa?'

He chuckled whenever he saw protagonists get flustered from an event like that, but he was beginning to understand how they felt.

Having to rub the back of a woman as outrageously attractive as Isabella with his bare hands was a difficult test of endurance.

'Ha-eun...'

He looked back at Ha-eun, who was having fun with Riak and Vega while being completely ignorant of what was going on.

Ohjin knew he shouldn't accept Isabella's request out of consideration for her—

'What if it makes Isabella go berserk...?'

—but Isabella's mental state was so erratic that not even Ohjin could predict what she would do.

She was gentle like a meek lamb at the moment, but her true identity was the Queen of Leeches, the 3rd-ranking Executor of the Black Star Organization.

Considering the fact that every Executor he met until then had a few loose screws, it was right to assume that she wasn't normal, either.

It meant that there was a risk of her going wild whenever and wherever at an unexpected moment.

The only thing that could stop Isabella in an unrestrained state at that moment was Vega after she materialized her true form.

'Damn it.'

Ohjin gulped and looked down at her white back with contemplation.

"Ohjin?"

"Ah, yeah. I got it."

"Fufu. Please apply it over every nook and cranny."

Isabella playfully shook her leg, a thick smile on her face.

He could see her butt move slightly as she shook her leg.

'This is driving me crazy.'

Ohjin closed his eyes tight and squeezed a bunch of oil on his hands.

Squish—

His oily hand left a mark on her snow-white skin.

"Mmh."

A lewd groan leaked from Isabella's mouth.

Ohjin chewed his lips and continued spreading oil on her back with robotic movements.

A soft sensation was transmitted through his palm.

He needed to finish before that addictive sensation corroded his rationality to nothing.

"Ohjin... a little slower."

Isabella slightly turned her head and asked for him to slow down, but he felt like he wouldn't be able to last if he slowed down any further.

Ohjin went as far as using mana to make it faster.

"Ahh...! O-Ohjin!"

"I'm finished."

It only took ten seconds for him to spread oil all over Isabella's back.

He quickly finished what had to be done before his sense of reason was taken away.

"Hmm... already?"

Isabella fidgeted her feet with an expression of shame.

"Then..."

Without hiding her expression, her eyes sparkled as she looked at Ohjin.

Isabella tied up her bikini and turned herself over. She extended her slim legs to Ohjin.

"Then... could you do my legs as well?"

Sweet temptation rang in his ears.

There weren't many men in his position who would bring up the reasonable argument that she could apply the oil to her legs by herself.

"...Even the legs?"

He felt like he barely managed to defeat the final boss, but then it revived and went into phase 2 with full HP.

Ohjin opened his mouth with a dumbfounded look.

Isabella smiled while her eyes shone like a predator that had captured its prey.

"Yes. Please do my—"

When she was about to seductively extend her slim legs—

"Ah...!"

—Isabella suddenly clutched her chest and frowned.

She breathed roughly with a pale face, and her shoulders trembled.

"Isabella?"

"Ah... I... I'm sorry."

Isabella got up from the sunbed with an awkward smile.

"It appears that my condition isn't very good today."

"Are you okay?"

"Yes. I just have a slight case of anemia. I'm okay now."

She smiled and hopped on the spot like she was trying to prove she was fine.

"Still, I'll leave first and rest in the van just in case. You should bathe in the sea for a little longer."

"But..."

"You won't be able to enjoy the starzone's benefit of healing your internal injuries if you don't go in the water."

"Hmm, alright."

"Then, I'll be leaving first."

Isabella turned around and walked in the direction of the van that was parked far away in a slight hurry.

Ohjin narrowed his eyes while watching her walk away.

'Something's strange...'

She was suffering from anemia when she was not only the 3rd-ranking Executor of the Black Star Organization but also had abilities related to 'blood'.

No matter how he looked at it, the story didn't add up.

Ohjin looked at Isabella's back growing gradually distant and took a big step in that direction once she disappeared.

'Black Curtain.'

Black clouds erased his presence.

* * *

"Huff, huff!"

Isabella took in deep breaths and clutched her chest after passing the van and entering a dark alleyway.

"Ugh..."

She expressed her pain and crouched.

"...Are you okay, my queen?"

An old man wearing a neat butler outfit appeared from the other side of the alleyway.

—Roberto.

He was the Bufo faction's second-in-command and Isabella's most loyal subject.

"Huff, huff. I'm alright."

"Here is some blood."

Roberto took out a blood pack he'd prepared in advance and held it close to her.

She opened the pack and chugged down the blood inside.

"Fuu."

Isabella exhaled a short breath as her condition stabilized.

However, it appeared that she hadn't recovered completely. Her hair was wet and tangled from the cold sweat running down her forehead.

"...It seems that the influence of the 'curse' has worsened due to being in close proximity to the starzone."

"I know."

Isabella bit her lips and placed her hand over the left side of her chest.

Owoong—

Once her cross-shaped necklace emitted light, the stigma of Aries engraved on her chest changed into the stigma of Hirudo.

The stigma of Hirudo was faint in a few areas as though someone had scrubbed at it with a rubber eraser.

"..."

—Purple Forbidden Enclosure.

The curse that she once believed to have disappeared was stuck to her stigma and growing like a parasite.

"My queen..."

Roberto approached her with worry.

He looked at the empty blood pack and continued.

"As expected, we need blood with a higher concentration of mana. If you permit the hunting of Awakeners, I will personally—"

"Don't make me repeat myself..."

Isabella looked at him with cold eyes.

"Like I said before, only use blood from blood donations, not hunting."

"H-However—"

"Snap out of it, Roberto."

Isabella's expression turned ferocious.

"If we start obtaining blood through hunting, we won't be able to endure the Hirudo stigma's vampiric impulses."

Once that happened, they would lose their humanity and devolve into a being no worse than a monster.

"Blood must only be obtained through donations. Why do you think we've been taking care of the Romani?"

The blood she just drank was from the Romani who voluntarily donated blood to the Colagrande Household that provided them with food and a place to sleep.

Naturally, the reason they donated blood was to help the unfortunate Romani that weren't able to get proper medical treatment. Isabella was just siphoning a portion of it and using it to solve the Awakener of Hirudo's desire for blood.

In other words, they were using the Romani as some kind of 'cattle' to obtain blood.

That was the true reason behind why she used the Colagrande Household to operate dozens of charities.

"But if this continues...!"

Roberto looked at Isabella with an expression full of worry.

Blood gathered through donations could reduce the impulse, but what she needed to heal the 'Purple Forbidden Enclosure's Curse' was an Awakener's blood with a high concentration of mana.

Not only that, but it needed to be the blood from at least a high-rank Awakener.

There was no way she could obtain that kind of blood through donations, and she couldn't hunt.

"It's fine, Roberto. Who do you think I am?"

Isabella swiped back the blond hair stuck to her forehead and smiled.

Roberto's expression improved after he saw her confidence.

"You are our queen who is more beautiful and intelligent than any other."

"Fufu. I'm glad you know."

Translator - Maccas

Proofreader - ilafy

* * *

It seemed that her condition had gotten better. She leisurely crossed her arms with a thick smile on her face.

"More importantly, did you see how Ohjin got completely charmed by me?!"

Isabella recalled how Ohjin's face turned red and how he had been flustered before spreading the oil.

She continued with a haughty expression.

"This was all~ only possible thanks to my meticulous preparations!"

Their vacation plans were all thoroughly calculated.

Isabella explained her strategy in a boastful manner with a joyful look on her face.

"First came showing Ohjin my capabilities!"

—A massive mansion built on top of a cliff.

—Dozens of employees and a grand feast.

For someone like Ohjin, who used to be in poverty and grew up in an orphanage, the lifestyle of the 'rich' would be like a whole new world.

Plus, the master of that world was nobody other than Isabella herself.

It wasn't hard to imagine how 'special' Ohjin would think she was.

"I also showed him the difference between me and Miss Ha-eun."

First, were physical differences that were shown through their swimsuits.

Second, she displayed the gap in their fame by using the males that tried to approach her as soon as they arrived at the beach.

Looks, wealth, and authority...

She proved that she was incomparable to Ha-eun in every aspect.

"Lastly, I even got closer to him mentally by using physical contact!"

The plan was near 'perfect', even for her standards.

"What do you think? Don't you think that it was perfect?"

"..."

Roberto smiled awkwardly while looking at Isabella asking him questions with excitement.

The old butler scratched his wrinkly cheek and opened his mouth.

"Um... my queen, how about you stop making these plans and just confess to him?"

"Wh-What did you say?"

Isabella's eyes widened like a rabbit's, and she was aghast.

'Confess to Ohjin?'

"B-But then what will I do if he turns me down?!"

Isabella kicked Roberto's shin, her face as red as a beet.