Chapter 87: Saintess of Rome (8)

What? Leech Queen? Fuck, they called her the Leech Queen, right? Isabella's the third-ranked Executor?

Kwon Oh-Jin found it absurd.

Wait, if that's the case, who the hell are these bastards—ah.

A thunderclap of realization struck him. The misaligned gears finally clicked into place as he recalled Pablo's words.

“Things changed a whole lot after the Black Star Society appeared. Marco Giorno, who once roamed free without a care, went into hiding.”

Shit... this is insane. Why didn't I realize it sooner? Why, why, why? The group targeting Isabella... isn't the Black Star Society.

Their men were far too clumsy to be trained assassins, mindlessly swinging their weapons at civilians without mercy. It was obvious now that the Marco Family was behind the attacks on Isabella's life.

But wait a second. I definitely sensed the power of the Black Stars from those guys.

Why would the Marco Family possess that when they were supposedly pushed aside by the Black Star Society?

Kwon Oh-Jin’s eyes widened in shock.

No way.

A memory he had inherited from Ashad Khan resurfaced.

“Haha, poison is best neutralized with poison,”

Cheon Woo-Seong—the King’s Proxy and leader of the Owl faction, the power center of their entire organization—had briefly remarked.

Neutralizing poison with poison... Was this what he meant?

It all became crystal clear—the Owl faction had joined hands with the Marco Family, which was why he had sensed the power of the Black Stars amongst their ranks.

Shit.

His head spun from the sheer absurdity of it all.

Putting aside the fact that I couldn’t sense any of the Black Star’s power from Isabella...

If she truly was the Leech Queen, then the difference in power was as vast as heaven and earth.

I’ve been completely fooled.

Saying he had let his guard down would have been an excuse—mere self-consolation if he told himself the situation had been too misleading to interpret right. He had simply been stupid enough to fall for Isabella’s sly performance.

Damn it.

A scammer like him had failed to see through a simple act. The sting of self-reproach weighed heavily on him.

I’ll reflect on this later.

Now wasn’t the time to dwell on past mistakes. He squinted as he focused on the conversation between the Marco Family and Isabella.

“

Ha!

Now that your prince has fallen, you’re putting up a front?”

“

Hmm?

Prince?

Oh...

you mean Mr. Oh-Jin,” she said with a smile. “Well, he does have a princely charm, doesn't he?”

Her eyes sparkled as she glanced down at him.

The assassins flinched at her carefree demeanor, trembling as they hurled curses at her.

“Y-You bitch!”

At that moment, a young man with a shaved head pushed through their ranks and stepped to the helm. “What are you all standing around for?”

“B-Boss?!”

The man was covered in intricate, grotesque tattoos.

Isabella cheerfully waved at him. “It’s been a while, Marco!”

Marco’s expression twisted into a menacing scowl. “You damned bitch... Let’s see if you can keep running your mouth after I rip it off.”

“

Oh

my, still as vulgar as ever. Is it because you’re bald?”

“You filthy

whore!”

Grinding his teeth, Marco raised a spiked bat into the air.

Woong!

The Stigma on his chest ignited with a fierce glow, releasing a wave of overwhelming mana.

“The curse has rendered her without use of her mana! Get her now, all of you!”

“Yes, Boss!”

His subordinates bowed deeply.

“

Haha

. I can’t use mana, you say?” Isabella mumbled. “That's a pretty nasty curse.”

The Owl faction's unexpected interference had trapped her under a curse far stronger than she had anticipated. Despite being a ten-star Awakener and the third-ranked Executor of the Black Star Society, her mana was sealed away.

“But did you know?” She spread her arms wide, gazing up at the sky, where the once-red sunset had faded into a darkness glittering with starlight. “The Stigma of the Leech becomes several times stronger at night.”

Woong!

Her Stigma glowed a deep, blood-red hue.

Marco’s eyes wavered as he shook his head in disbelief. “N-No, that’s impossible...”

He trembled, unable to accept the reality before him.

“This is the Curse of the Purple Shroud! Do you really think you can escape its influence just because it’s nighttime?!”

The Curse of the Purple Shroud wasn't just a top-tier curse—it was so powerful that it defied classification. His organization had poured years’ worth of funds and manpower into laying the groundwork for it. Even then, it hadn't been enough, so they had to seek the Owl faction’s help to finally complete it.

“There’s no way you could break it in less than half a day! The Curse of the Purple Shroud is inescapable, even for the Seven Stars!”

“

Hm, well,

that much is true,” Isabella said with a smile and nodded. “For a Seven Star, right?”

“...

What?”

“

Haha

, but I’m not a Seven Star, am I?”

Her tone implied that she was above their level.

“Y-You crazy bitch!” Marco yelled and glared furiously at his subordinates. “What are you all doing?! Kill her already!”

“B-But...”

“She’s just bluffing, you idiots!" he shouted. "What are you scared of?!”

“Y-Yes, Boss!”

Hundreds of Awakeners trembled as they readied their weapons and charged toward her with their own battle cries.

“Ahhhh!”

“Die!”

Isabella smiled deeply as her nails turned crimson red. “Oh my. You guys really don’t value your life, do you?”

She extended her index finger and traced a glowing red line in the air from left to right.

What followed was a silence devoid of even a single scream. Along the blood-red line in the air, Marco's men had their necks severed.

Splurt! Gush!

“A-Ah.”

“W-What?”

Several heads rolled across the riverside, which was painted an eerie red by fountains of blood. In less than a second, more than half of Marco’s subordinates had died instantly.

“Aaaahhhhhhhhhh!”

“M-Monster! She’s a goddamn monster!”

Isabella deeply inhaled beside the blood fountain and frowned. “

Hmm

. Such vile, stinking blood. What on earth have they been eating?”

She glared at the remaining survivors with visible disgust.

Panic swallowed them whole.

“H-Hic!”

“A witch! She’s a witch!”

One by one, they turned their backs and scrambled to flee, terrified.

“Oh my! Where do you all think you’re going?” Her blood-soaked voice echoed in their ears.

“

Ahhhhhhh!

Spare me! Please spare

me

!”

“Y-You cowards! Stop running!" Marco shouted desperately. "I'll personally off anyone who runs away!”

However, his words couldn't reach them. Thousands of figures wearing blood-red masks appeared at the scene and started slaughtering Marco’s fleeing subordinates mercilessly.

Slash!

“Gahh! Ugh!”

“Argh!”

Marco’s face twisted in rage. “B-Black Star Society! Damn it!”

He raised his spiked bat, glaring at Isabella. “Die, you damned leech!”

He roared and jumped up. His Stigma blazed brightly, and fierce winds whipped around his bat.

Boom!

Isabella scoffed, her eyes narrowing slightly. “Didn’t I tell you not to call me that?”

Her voice echoed, cold and laced with lethal intent.

Boom!

A storm of red energy swept through the area.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

A storm of red energy erupted, sweeping through the area. Marco was covered in countless tiny cuts like he had been slashed by a thousand razor blades.

“Argh!”

Even if they were mere scratches, a thousand of them resulted in actual wounds. Bleeding profusely from every inch of his body, Marco stumbled backward.

“A-Agh.”

Isabella slowly extended her hand toward him. The droplets of blood he had shed slowly floated into the air and drifted toward her.

“Hmmm.”

She licked one of the blood droplets and immediately scowled. She spat the blood onto the ground as though she had tasted something foul.

“Ptui!

Since you kept hiding like a cockroach, I went through the trouble of baiting you by receiving that curse... but what a waste of effort.”

Although his blood tasted better to her than that of his subordinates, it was still "trash"—far from satisfying.

“S-Spare me...” he stammered lowly.

“Hmph.”

She grabbed both of his arms and ripped them off with brutal force.

“Aaaarrrghhhh!”

“Even your screams are vulgar.

Tsk

.” Dissatisfied, she grabbed his chin this time. “Didn’t you say something earlier about ripping my mouth off?”

A bright, blood-chilling smile spread across her face.

“U-Uh,

n-no

...”

Before he could continue, she violently ripped off his jaw.

“Aaaahhhhhhh!”

Blood gushed down as he screamed unceasingly.

She sighed. “I went through all that trouble for nothing.”

Although Marco was a high-ranking Awakener—an individual beyond the bounds of humanity—he was no different from a three or four-star before the Leech Queen.

As the Marco Family's annihilation was all but guaranteed, a dignified old man with neatly groomed gray hair approached her.

“Apologies for the delay, Your Majesty.”

She gazed down at the bowed old man and spoke with a petrifying voice.

“Roberto.

Kneel.

”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

Without hesitation, Roberto dropped to his knees.

Thud!

“Chair,” she instructed.

“Yes, ma’am!”

Still kneeling, he placed his hands on the ground, allowing for her to casually sit on his back with elegant, crossed legs.

Plop.

“Even if our communication channel was cut, aren’t you a bit too late?” she asked.

“M-My deepest apologies!”

“And you completely failed to notice the Owls had intervened...”

“Please kill me, Your Majesty!”

“Oh? Really?”

Her blue eyes sparkled as she unhesitatingly drove her sharp nail into the back of Roberto’s neck.

“Kugh!”

Roberto’s eyes rolled back as he began frothing blood at the mouth.

“Should I really kill you?” She wriggled and twisted her finger within the puncture wound.

“

Agh...

K-Kill me, Your M-Majesty!”

Even as he coughed up blood, he didn’t waver.

“

Haha

. I was only joking.” With a fascinated smile, she withdrew her finger and licked the blood off it. “In any case, the troublesome Marco Family has been completely dealt with.”

“Th-Thanks to your brilliant plan, Your Majesty.”

“

Hmm

. Is that so?” Her brow furrowed. “Honestly, it was a close call this time.”

She hadn’t expected the Owl faction to collaborate with the Marco Family, leaving her fully vulnerable to the Curse of the Purple Shroud.

It would've been quite gruesome if they'd captured me earlier.

She knew Marco wouldn’t have killed her immediately. Instead, he would have subjected her to unspeakable humiliation until nightfall, when the curse would finally break. Then, she would have slaughtered the men who tormented her.

I guess the Marco Family would've met its end either way,

she noted. Though she would likely have been left with a trauma—one that would threaten to break the thin string holding her reason together.

“

Haha

. In that sense, you could call Mr. Oh-Jin my savior.”

Roberto began, “Oh-Jin, as in—”

She quickly drove the heel of her shoe down on his hand.

Crunch!

“Agh!”

“Not just ‘Oh-Jin.’ You must add ‘Mister,’ don’t you think?”

Roberto stammered, “I-I apologize! Mr. Oh-Jin, as in the famous Awakener from Korea?”

“That’s right.” She hopped off Roberto's back. “I was interested in him before, but I never imagined he’d be this extraordinary.”

With a smoldering gaze, she approached Kwon Oh-Jin, who was lying on the ground, and leaned down to sniff him.

“

Ahhh!

This sweet aroma...! It’s divine!”

The scent emanating from Kwon Oh-Jin was intoxicatingly sweeter than anything she had encountered before.

“No, drawing a comparison is an insult to this smell. Everything else feels like rotting garbage! Now...”

Carefully, she extended her hand, dipped her fingertip into the blood trickling from his wounds, and brought a single drop of blood to her mouth.

“Ah.” The sensation shook her soul.

“Haah! Hngh... Mmm!”

With an odd moan, she shifted uncomfortably, like someone struggling to hold in their bladder.

W-What is this?!

The scent had been overwhelming enough, but the taste was on a whole 'nother level.

I’ve never even imagined something like this...!

All the blood she had consumed until now might as well have been sewage water in comparison.

“... Haa.”

With an ecstatic expression, she dipped her finger in his blood and licked it again. Part of her wanted to swallow up the entire pool of blood on the ground.

But if I do that, I might just die from the pleasure. His blood is just that good.

A sticky laugh left her mouth.

“H-Hahahaha, hahaha.

Roberto

.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

“Bring me the elixir.”

“Th-The elixir?”

“Quickly.”

Elixirs were fabled potions that could only be crafted by high-ranking Aquarius Awakeners. They were the highest-level potion one could get—a priceless commodity.

“H-Here it is,” Roberto said, handing her an elixir.

“Give it.” She tilted the elixir into Kwon Oh-Jin's mouth, causing his wounds to start healing right away.

“Hahaha.”

She gazed down at him while stroking his cheek lovingly and licked her lips with her long tongue. Her blue eyes glistened with greed as she mumbled, “I will never let you go.”