Chapter 81: Saintess of Rome (2)

In the city engulfed in flames, vampires reveled in a bloody festival, laughing maniacally as they attacked civilians and gluttonously sucked their blood—it was a scene straight out of hell.

On a nearby rooftop, Lee Shin-Hyuk stood with clenched fists, overlooking the devastation below. His voice, tinged with deep regret, resonated softly.

“In the end... it came to this.”

The rooftop door swung open, and a young man with sharp eyes and flawless features stepped forward. It was none other than the Black Lion, Lee Woo-Hyuk.

“Shin-Hyuk, how’s the situation?”

Lee Shin-Hyuk shook his head with a somber expression.

“It’s already too late. The entire city has been overrun by the False Star Cult.”

He closed his eyes and gripped his spear tightly. Engraved with a roaring lion, the weapon blazed fiercely with blue mana.

“Shin-Hyuk, we don’t have much time left...”

“I know.”

Lee Shin-Hyuk dropped his head in despair.

Just then, his smartphone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and answered,

“Yeah, Sis, I got it. Woo-Hyuk and I will head over there.”

After hanging up, he stared blankly at the screen, which displayed the date, June 29, 2023.

“Woo-Hyuk... that incident happened two years ago on June 30, didn't it?”

“That’s right.”

Lee Shin-Hyuk looked up from the screen and bit his lips as he surveyed the city engulfed in flames, its streets overrun by vampires lost in madness.

“If I...”

He gritted his teeth as though wringing the words out.

“If I had only met Isabella that day... would things be different now?”

“... Shin-Hyuk,”

Lee Woo-Hyuk murmured, his gaze filled with pity.

Bang!

Lee Shin-Hyuk crushed the rooftop railing under his grip and lowered his head. A single tear rolled down his cheek.

“If only I had met her back then...!” he cried out in anguish.

Bzzzt!

Kwon Oh-Jin’s vision flickered and glitched like static interference.

Ring!

[Pyxis Spearmanship has reached Lv7.]

He gasped for air as if he had almost just drowned. “

Ugh...

Fuck, it feels like my head’s about to split open.”

Clutching his throbbing forehead, he furrowed his brow.

Just what the hell happened back then?

The grotesque images of Rome’s streets ablaze and vampires sinking their fangs into people’s necks lingered in his head, like a horrific scene straight out of a zombie apocalypse movie.

“I need to organize all the information I just got.”

He recalled Lee Shin-Hyuk’s memories that had flooded into his mind, sorting through the key details one by one.

In two years, Italy would be destroyed by vampires in a siege led by an organization called the False Star Cult. Lee Shin-Hyuk had lamented that if he'd met a woman named Isabella two years prior, he could have prevented the collapse of Rome.

“False Star Cult,

huh...

” Kwon Oh-Jin muttered, narrowing his eyes at the unfamiliar name.

What kind of group is that?

Is it an independent organization unrelated to the Black Star Society? Damn it.

The Black Star Society alone was a massive entity he could barely handle, and now some mysterious group was being thrown into the mix.

Was it an organization led by the Heavenly Demon?

Kwon Oh-Jin didn’t even know if the Heavenly Demon would still exist in the future, so there was no way to confirm anything.

I’ll worry about that later.

For now, he needed to focus on the other pieces of information.

“Isabella...”

The name felt vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t pinpoint where he had heard it before.

I don’t know what happened on June 30, but... is meeting Isabella on that day the key to preventing that catastrophe?

He glanced at the calendar hanging on the wall. Today was June 24, leaving less than a week till the incident.

“Ugh.”

With no clue as to Isabella's identity, he was running out of time. He had to meet her on June 30 to prevent the demise of Italy in two years.

“Hmmm.”

Frankly, he didn't care about the catastrophe itself. What did it matter if Italy fell and thousands perished? In a world where even holding onto the warmth of those dear to him was a struggle, living for the sake of strangers was meaningless.

“But as a Regressor... I have to stop it.”

He couldn’t ignore the disaster that would unfold in the future as long as he pretended to be the Heaven-Defying Star.

“Besides, the Black Star Society’s influence in Italy was said to be spreading like crazy.”

If the False Star Cult was connected to that and the Black Star Society was lurking behind the destruction of an entire city, Kwon Oh-Jin knew he had to act. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be long before the flames devouring Rome reached his own doorstep.

He sighed and stepped outside the house.

I need to find out who Isabella is. But first, there's somewhere I have to go.

***

Lee Woo-Hyuk’s eyes glimmered as he grabbed the USB. “So this is the information on the Black Star Society?”

The frail man who had previously been confined to a hospital bed was nowhere to be seen anymore. Now, his ferocious aura rivaled that of a lion.

“Guild Master,” Kim Seon-Young called out, and instantly, Lee Woo-Hyuk's murderous aura faded away.

“

Ah

, sorry.”

Kim Seon-Young then turned toward Kwon Oh-Jin and bowed deeply. “Thank you for undertaking such a dangerous mission on our behalf.”

“No worries," Kwon Oh-Jin replied. "We’re in a mutually beneficial relationship, after all.”

“We will continue tracking the group based on the intel you've given us.”

“Thank you. I appreciate it.”

Despite suffering a crushing defeat at the hands of Cheon Do-Yoon, the Valhalla Guild remained one of the top ten guilds—a powerful force whose support was essential in the fight against the Black Star Society.

“As for the reward, shall we compensate you with Starstones as you requested?”

“Yes. From seven-star monsters or higher, if possible.”

“You don’t need to worry about that,” Lee Woo-Hyuk assured.

I’m glad he’s extravagant,

Kwon Oh-Jin remarked. He had noticed it before when Lee Woo-Hyuk had casually handed over a whopping three billion won like it was nothing. Despite his unassuming looks, he was bold and decisive.

Unlike his brother,

Kwon Oh-Jin thought with a smirk. He continued, “I have a few other things I want to ask.”

“Go ahead. I’ll answer anything I can.”

“Have you ever heard of an organization called the False Star Cult?”

“The False Star Cult...?” Lee Woo-Hyuk furrowed his brow and cocked his head. He glanced over at Kim Seon-Young, gesturing to her with his eyes.

“No, this is the first time I’ve heard of such an organization,” Kim Seon-Young replied, pushing her glasses up.

“Hmm... If Seon-Young hasn’t heard of the organization, it must have gone to great lengths to hide itself. Are they connected to the Black Star Society?”

“That... I’m not sure about.”

There wasn’t enough evidence for any connection between the False Star Cult and the Black Star Society.

“We’ll investigate on our end as well," Lee Woo-Hyuk declared. "Seon-Young, look into the False Star Cult.”

“Understood.”

Lee Woo-Hyuk turned back toward Kwon Oh-Jin. “Seon-Young has a wide information network. You should be hearing back from us soon.”

“

Haha

, thank you.”

Kwon Oh-Jin had wondered how a small group like the Valhalla Guild excelled at gathering information, but it turned out to be all thanks to Kim Seon-Young.

“Do you have any other questions?” Lee Woo-Hyuk asked.

“I have one more. Have you ever heard the name Isabella? She’s likely Italian.”

Since the incident had occurred in Rome, Kwon Oh-Jin had made a reasonable assumption.

“An Italian by the name of Isabella... Are you perhaps referring to the Saintess of Rome, Isabella Colgrande? She's not very well-known in Korea, but she's a celebrity overseas."

“Ah.” Kwon Oh-Jin vaguely recalled hearing her name on the news once.

“I have a photo of her...

Ah

, here it is,” Kim Seon-Young said, clicking around on her tablet. Like a projector's beam, a holographic image of the Saintess of Rome formed in mid-air.

Kwon Oh-Jin gasped without even realizing it. “Wow...”

Isabella Colgrande looked like a princess straight out of a fairy tale, with platinum blonde hair cascading to her shoulders, skin as pale as snow, and radiant blue eyes gleaming with clarity.

Kwon Oh-Jin, whose standards for beauty were significantly raised by Song Ha-Eun and Vega, couldn’t help but be awed by her stunning appearance.

“She’s one of the world’s most famous super rookies like you," Kim Seon-Young said. "They say she reached six stars within a year of awakening.”

If she had grown that fast, she was certainly worthy of the title "super rookie."

“Well... that might not seem like much for you.” Kim Seon-Young smiled bitterly and shrugged. “Anyway, you want to know more about her, right?”

“Yes, please make it as detailed as possible.”

“Give me a moment.” She adjusted her glasses and tapped on her tablet. “To start off, she has the Stigma of Aries, one of the twelve Zodiacs.”

Kwon Oh-Jin had expected as much. She wouldn't be called a super rookie otherwise.

“Like Aquarius, Aries is mostly a support-type constellation... but that doesn’t mean she’s weak in combat. In fact, it's quite the contrary.”

He had never personally encountered an Awakener with the Stigma of Aries. “Is there a reason she’s called the Saintness of Rome?”

“Of course. To begin with, she’s a phenomenal philanthropist. She runs dozens of centers that care for children and the elderly who lost their guardians due to gate incidents.”

“Dozens?”

Even if she's hailed as a super rookie, can a single person operate so many centers?

he wondered.

It wouldn’t be easy for me.

Kim Seon-Youn rubbed her thumb over her index and middle fingers. “The Colgrande family has a lot of wealth. She also provides free medical care to the homeless in areas where healthcare systems have collapsed...

Oh

, and, honestly, her looks play a big part in her fame.”

“Well, that’s understandable.”

What can possibly attract fame as much as beauty can? Add to that the Zodiac Stigma and a natural talent for growth... No wonder she’s called a saint.

He mused that Isabella might be more famous on a global level than himself, an apostle of the North Star.

“And... we haven't acquired decisive evidence, but there seem to have been several assassination attempts on Isabella.”

“Oh, now that you mention it, I’ve heard it on the news.”

That report was the first time he had come across her name, though he hadn’t paid much attention to it.

“Yes. And...” Kim Seon-Young’s eyes gleamed sharply behind her glasses. “We suspect that the Black Star Society was behind the attacks.”

“What?”

It’s those motherfuckers again?