Chapter 202: Fake Kindness And Lawful Good (6)

Chapter 202: Fake Kindness And Lawful Good (6)

"...Eh?"

Isabella looked at Ohjin with trembling eyes.

Blood dripped down his extended forearm, and he continued speaking with an indifferent expression.

"Don't you need the fresh blood of an Awakener to weaken the curse's influence?"

"H-How do you know that?!"

Isabella's eyes widened in an expression of shock.

Well, that kind of reaction was only natural since she couldn't have possibly imagined that Ohjin was eavesdropping on her conversation with Roberto.

"I'll explain later."

Fortunately, they had a bit of time because Damien had yet to recover from the last clash and was slowly trudging toward them, but that didn't mean he had the leisure to explain how he learned about the curse.

"Hurry up."

"..."

Ohjin wasn't a high-rank Awakener, but due to the concentrated mana in his blood and unidentifiable sweetness she had a taste of before, she knew that his blood would easily weaken the Purple Forbidden Enclosure's curse.

However...

"I'm... an Executor of the Black Star Association."

"I know."

"I only helped the Romani so that I could use them for their blood."

"I know that, too."

"Why... why are you going so far to help me?"

"Hmm."

At first, he thought he'd obtained a good chess piece to use like Lee Woohyuk, but was he really offering his blood just to use her?

'I don't know.'

Not even he knew why he was trying to help her anymore.

It may have been sympathy, a cunning stratagem, or a whim.

"Well, the reason doesn't really matter."

The important thing was that he could save her with his blood.

"..."

Isabella looked at him with shaking eyes and then carefully spoke.

"...In order for it to be fresh blood, I need to extract it directly."

"So receiving it like this doesn't work?"

She quietly nodded her head.

"Then I guess it can't be helped."

Ohjin put his forearm even closer to her mouth as if he was telling her to suck his blood directly out of his skin.

Isabella opened her mouth with an anxious look on her face.

"Getting your blood sucked by an Awakener of Hirudo... means that your soul becomes subordinate to them."

"Subordinate?"

"It doesn't mean that you'll become a vampire like me, but you won't be able to refuse my orders."

In other words, it meant that he would become her puppet.

"That's fine."

"B-but what if I'm lying? What if all of this was an act to turn you into my puppet?!"

"It was an act?"

"N-No, but still!"

It seemed like she was trying to question if he could trust her with the risk of becoming subordinated to her.

If that was the case, it didn't matter to him.

"It's fine. Scammers don't have those eyes."

He gently stroked Isabella's cheek as she looked at him with trembling eyes.

As a scammer himself, he could be more certain than anyone else that she wasn't lying.

"...Ohjin."

Isabella gulped, and he extended his forearm to her without a word.

"Haa, haa."

As his bleeding arm approached, Isabella's breathing grew heavier.

She stared at his arm with an intense, heated gaze like she was a drug addict with drugs dangling right in front of her.

Ohjin felt a strange tingling sensation every time her ragged breath touched his arm.

"Then... I'll begin."

Isabella's canines extended like a vampire's, she opened her mouth slightly like she was trying to hide her fangs, and then...

"Hmpf."

Her sharp fangs penetrated his flesh and reached his blood vessels, but he didn't feel anything particularly painful.

"Mmh...!"

In fact, he actually felt a refreshing sensation.

Thick, sticky mana that was like tar spread through his body from his arm.

His whole body heated up and blood rushed to the lower half of his body as if he had taken an aphrodisiac.

'What the fuck?'

Ohjin looked at the tent that was set up between his legs and quickly crossed them.

He couldn't have imagined that there would be such a side effect from getting his blood sucked.

"Mmmh... Haa."

Fortunately, Isabella was so focused on sucking his blood that she didn't notice.

'No way...'

Isabella trembled in disbelief as she ravenously gulped down blood—it was on a different level compared to when she had tasted his blood before.

Compared to back then, his mana was several times thicker. In addition, she could also feel the unknown energy mixed in his blood much more intensely.

'Th-This is...'

—A sensation like a bolt of lightning striking down rushed through her head.

The taste being heavenly wasn't the issue.

With every gulp of blood, exhilarating pleasure and ecstasy she had never experienced before spread through her body.

'Now that I've tasted this blood... I...'

She instinctively realized that she wouldn't be able to drink any other blood again.

"Hmh, mmh."

Isabella frantically sucked Ohjin's blood.

Could intaking fatal amounts of drugs even come close to the pleasure she was experiencing? The pleasure she felt from drinking his blood was to the point it made her question who was actually becoming subordinated to the other.

"Fua!" Isabella exhaled a rough breath and detached her mouth from his arm.

She hadn't drunk that much blood—it was only four or five mouthfuls at most, not even half of the blood pack she usually drank to satisfy her cravings.

"Are you finished already?"

"Huff, huff. U-Um..."

Isabella turned her head with her face red as an apple.

She couldn't tell him that she wasn't able to drink anymore because it felt so good.

"Th-This is enough."

Her answer wasn't just a desperate attempt to avoid the question—despite not drinking much of his blood, it felt as if the Purple Forbidden Enclosure's curse that had been gnawing away at her stigma was swept away.

'No, it's not just that.'

The stigma of Hirudo usually reached its peak strength on the darkest nights when even the moonlight was covered in thick clouds.

But why...?

After drinking Ohjin's blood, she felt that her condition was even better than on those dark, cloudy nights.

Her skin was firm as if she had received aesthetic treatment, and each step she took felt extremely light.

Most importantly...

'My craving for blood... has disappeared.'

Her craving for blood that tormented her while she ate, slept, and even breathed had completely vanished.

Normally, sucking fresh blood directly with her fangs should have had the adverse effect of worsening her cravings.

"Mmmh."

Isabella let out an ecstatic groan as she embraced herself with both arms.

When she was tormented by those cravings, she suffered from anxiety akin to walking along the side of a cliff every day—a bottomless abyss from which she could never return with just a single misstep.

How could she not tremble with joy when drinking his blood turned it into a flat surface?

"Isabella?"

"Please rest for a moment, Ohjin."

Isabella momentarily calmed her elated heart and lay Ohjin on the ground.

She hadn't realized it while she was desperate for blood, but she could see that Ohjin was in critical condition.

He had dry lips and cloudy eyes, and he took gasping breaths as if they would cease at any moment.

'He told me to drink his blood in this state...?'

"..."

Isabella's eyes grew cold.

* * *

Translator - Maccas

Proofreader - ilafy

* * *

She slowly rose to her feet and looked back at Damien.

Rumble!—

A dense, blood-red aura enveloped her body as the surrounding earth trembled.

"Ugh..." Not having fully recovered from his clash with Ohjin, Damien groaned quietly.

He struggled to lift his sword and aimed it at Isabella.

"Jubene, the celestial of Libra, grant me the power of light to stand against the darkn━"

Crunch!

Damien's sword-wielding arm crumpled.

"Aaargh!" He clutched his broken right arm and screamed in pain.

"Does it hurt?"

Step, step—

Isabella looked at Damien with cold, heartless eyes and slowly moved her feet.

The situation might have differed if Damien was in his normal condition, but he was exhausted from his previous battle and stood no chance against Isabella.

"It was probably more painful for Ohjin."

Isabella extended her hand toward Damien.

Was it because she drank Ohjin's blood? Her mana overflowed like never before.

Slash!—

The blood-red aura wrapped around her body transformed into a sharp blade and shot at Damien.

"Ugh! You evil witch!"

Damien desperately held his sword with his remaining left arm and swung it.

The red blade and Damien's sword collided.

Claaaang!—

He was pushed back.

"Cough! Cough!"

The numbing impact that ran through his sword shook his insides.

"I can't... fall here...!"

Clang! Bang! Cl-Clang!

Despite feeling concussive force shaking his insides, Damien didn't stop swinging his sword.

One step at a time, he cut through the barrage of blood-red blades and approached Isabella.

"Hand down divine judgment—"

Damien charged forward, swinging his sword fiercely with his remaining arm, and the sword emitted a brilliant light as it cut through the blood-red blades.

"—to those tainted by darkness!"

Owooong!—

The light bursting out of the sword formed a massive pillar that soared upwards.

When the blade of light that extended for dozens of meters struck down at Isabella—

"Are you finished?"

—she flicked her finger as if she found it tiresome.

Slash!—

The blood flowing in his crushed right arm moved as if it was alive and wrapped around his body.

"Ah."

Damien's eyes widened as he looked down and saw his own blood wrap around his body.

Then—

"Then go ahead and die."

Crunch!—

—The blood around his body constricted, and Damien was crushed like an empty can.

"..."

Isabella coldly looked down at Damien's corpse.

Uninterested, she walked past him and headed toward the trembling people gathered next to the collapsed debris.

"Um... L-Lady Isabella."

"Th-The thing is..."

Just moments ago, they had been shouting at Isabella, calling her a filthy witch, but they had turned face, retreating with awkward smiles on their faces as if it had never happened.

"W-We had no choice but to follow Sir Paulo's or—"

Thud—

Isabella lightly waved her hand and the middle-aged woman's head, red with anger, imploded.

"Kyaaaaaaaa!"

"O-Oh my god!!!"

Screams erupted from all directions.

Isabella continued walking, staring at them with ice-cold eyes.

Thud! Crunch! Squish!—

With each step she took, strands of blood quickly crushed their skulls.

How many steps had she taken?

"Ha, haha."

She eventually reached a middle-aged man who had been crouching in cover. He staggered to his feet at the deepest section of the collapsed debris.

He spread his arms wide and smiled—it was the same gentle and affectionate smile that remained in her faded album.

"My beloved little princess... You must have gone through a lot during all that time."

"Father..."

Isabella bit her lips as she looked at Paulo's smile.