Rome’s Saintess VIII

'—What? Queen of Leeches? Those bastards said Queen of Leeches just now, right?'

'Isabella is the 3rd ranking Executor of the Black Star Organization?'

'What kind of bullshit is that? Then who the hell are those bast… ah.'

—It was a sensation as if he had been struck by lightning.

The misaligned puzzle pieces, the twisted gears, they all clicked into place.

-In any case, the situation has changed a lot ever since the Black Star Organization appeared. Marco Giorno, who previously acted without the tiniest bit of fear, is now in hiding without being able to make a sound.

Paolo's words came to mind.

'Holy… shit.'

'Why was I unable to realize?'

'Why? Why? Why?'

'The ones that were targeting Isabella… weren't from the Black Star Organization.'

—An unsophisticated appearance that made it impossible to think of them as trained assassins.

—Brutal to the point where they wouldn't hesitate to swing their weapons at regular civilians.

'The Marco Family.'

They were the ones who were trying to assassinate Isabella.

'Wait a second. But I definitely felt the Black Stars' mana from them.'

Why was the Black Stars' mana felt from the members of the Marco Family when they were the ones that were being pushed out by the Black Star Organization?

'No way.'

Ohjin's eyes opened wide.

Suddenly, a part of Arshad Khan's transmitted memories came to mind.

-Fufu. Poison should be dealt with by poison.

The one known as the King's Delegate that led the 'Noctua' faction of the Black Star Organization…

Cheon Woosung.

Those were the words he had spilled.

'Dealing with poison by using poison… is this what he meant?'

The complete picture was now drawn in his head.

'The Noctua faction and Marco Family held hands.'

…And that was the reason the 'Black Stars' mana could be felt from them.

'Fuck me.'

The insides of his head that could not think of anything but swears burned up

'Putting aside the fact that I can't feel the Black Stars' mana from Isabella…'

If her true identity really was the 'Queen of Leeches', then the difference between the two of them was literally heaven and earth. Hence, being unable to sense her mana was more than plausible.

However…

'...I was completely fooled.'

Saying that it was carelessness was an excuse.

Saying that he couldn't help but misunderstand was nothing but self-comfort.

He had just been deceived like an idiot… by Isabella's skillful act.

'Goddammit.'

As a person who called himself a scammer, being unable to see through a mere act made remorse weigh down his body.

'I'll reflect on my actions later.'

He wasn't in a situation where he could dwell on his past actions out of regret.

Ohjin opened his eyes slightly and focused his mind on the conversation the Marco Family and Isabella were sharing.

"Ha! Are you bluffing now that your king has collapsed?"

"Hm? King? Ah… you're talking about Ohjin."

Isabella's lips curved up bashfully.

"Certainly, Ohjin is charming like a king."

Fufufu—

Her eyes shone as she looked down at Ohjin, who had collapsed.

"Kugh! Y-You dare!"

The assassins' bodies shook from her completely laid-back attitude.

"—What are you all doing?"

"B-Boss?!"

At that moment, a youth brushed past the assassins and appeared.

He had a shaved head and intricate tattoos all over his body.

"It's been a while~ Marco!"

Isabella shook her hand welcomingly at the youth.

"Goddamn bitch… let's see if you're able to act so frivolously once I tear off that mouth of yours."

"Oh, my. You're as vulgar as ever. Is it because you have no hair?"

"You piece of shit!!"

Grit!—

Marco ground his teeth and raised up a bat covered in sharp thorns.

Owooong!!—

The stigma on his left chest shone radiantly as powerful mana waves stirred up the surrounding area.

"She can't even use mana because of the curse! Hurry up and grab hold of her!"

"Yes, sir!"

His underlings bowed down deeply.

"Fufu. Can't use mana, huh?"

Isabella put in a thick smile.

"It certainly is a dreadful curse."

She had ended up getting bestowed with a curse much more powerful than she had predicted due to the unexpected intervention of the Noctua Faction.

—That's right.

The Executor ranked 3rd in the Black Star Organization.

Even she, who was a high-rank Awakener that had attained the rank of '10-Star', had ended up getting her mana sealed.

"—But did you know?"

Isabella spread her arms wide and looked up to the sky.

The sky with a blazing sunset had already settled down and left only bright starlight shining down.

"The stigma of Hirudo… becomes many times stronger in the night."

Owooong!!—

Deep, red light shone out from Isabella's stigma.

"...What?"

Marco's eyes shook.

"N-No. Th-That can't be true."

Unable to accept the reality in front of his eyes, he shook his head while his body trembled.

"It-It's the Purple Forbidden Enclosure's Curse!!! Do you believe that you'll be able to escape from its effects just because it's night?!"

The Purple Forbidden Enclosure's Curse…

It was one of the best curses.

No, it was a curse so powerful that it would be fine to call it something else, as it went beyond the 'curse' classification.

The organization had poured in multiple years worth of funds and manpower in order to lay the foundations of that curse, and because not even that was enough, they were barely able to complete it due to receiving support from the Noctua faction.

"There's absolutely no way it has been released already when it hasn't even been half a day!!!! Not even the Seven Stars can escape from the Purple Forbidden Enclosure's Curse!!!"

"Hmpf. Well, I guess you're right."

Isabella smiled brightly while nodding her head.

"However, isn't that the case of the 'Seven Stars'?"

"...What?"

"Fufu. I'm not one of the Seven Stars, am I?"

She spoke in a tone like she believed that she was above the Seven Stars.

"Y-You delusional bitch!"

Marco shouted out of absurdity and looked at his underlings.

"What are you all doing?! Hurry up and kill her!!"

"B-But."

"It's all a bluff, you fucking dumbfucks!! What are you being scared for?!"

"Y-Yes, sir!"

Marco's underlings fixed their grip on their weapons even while their bodies trembled.

"Dieeeeeee!!"

"Uaaaah!"

—Awakeners that numbered in the hundreds charged at her.

"—Oh, my."

Isabella smiled brightly as she looked at the Awakeners heading her way.

"You children really don't value your life, do you?"

Her fingernails became dyed in red.

From left to right,

with her index finger extended out,

she drew a red line in mid-air.

———————————————!!!!!!

There was no sound.

Following the line of blood that split apart the air—

Pshk!! Phsssshk!!!—

—their heads dropped down.

Decapitated heads rolled around the ground.

Red fountains scattered all around the riverside that was set in darkness.

"Uh, ah."

"Ah… ah."

In an instant…

When not even a second had passed—

"Aaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!"

"M-Monster!! She's a monster!!"

—Over half of the members of Marco's family that had numbered in the hundreds had lost their heads and died.

"Fuu. Ha~"

Isabella looked at the pouring blood fountains and took in deep breaths.

Soon, she furrowed her delicate eyebrows.

"Hmpf. They only smell fishy and disgusting. I really do wonder what they go around eating in general."

Isabella looked at the remaining members who survived with distaste.

"E-Eeeeeeek!!"

"Witch!! She's a witch!!!"

The members, engulfed with fear, turned away from Isabella and tried to desperately escape.

"Oh, my. Where are you going?"

A voice drenched in bloodlust rang out in their ears.

"Aaaaahhh!! S-Spare me!! Please spare meeeeeee!!!"

"Wh-What are you bastards doing!! Don't run away!! I'll kill the ones that run away!!"

Marco urgently shouted out to his escaping underlings, but it was too late to stop their movement.

And in the place those frightening underlings were going…

Pshk!! Slash!!—

"Kugh!! Kuk!"

"Krrr!"

Hundreds… no, thousands of beings wearing blood-red masks were massacring Marco's underlings.

"Th-The Black Star Organization!"

Marco's expression distorted severely as he looked at the beings that wore red masks.

"Damn it!"

He raised up his bat covered in thorns and aimed for Isabella.

"Die, you fucking leech!!!"

He roared as he kicked off in a last-ditch effort.

Bang!!—

His stigma shone radiantly as his bat made the currents nearby blow violently.

"Hmpf."

Isabella frowned as she puffed air out of her nose.

"I most certainly… told you not to call me a leech, did I not?"

—A voice that rang out eerily.

Boooom!!!—

Red energy started to stir up the surroundings like a tornado.

"Argh!!"

S-S-S-Slice!!—

Small scratches started to pile up on Marco's body as if his entire body was being sliced by sharp razor blades.

Although they were scratches, as the number of them far exceeded a thousand, they developed into wounds that couldn't be called scratches anymore.

"Ah, uha, uh."

Blood gushed out of Marco's body as he stumbled while taking steps back.

Isabella slowly extended her hand towards him.

The drops of blood bled by Marco floated into the air and slowly flew to Isabella.

"Nom."

Isabella licked Marco's blood and drank it.

Suddenly, her expression distorted.

"Twe!"

She spat out the remaining blood in her mouth as if she had drunk something dirty.

"I intentionally incited you to use the curse since you all kept hiding like little cockroaches… but it appears that hardship was in vain."

It was more edible than the blood from his trash underlings, but that was all.

The taste didn't make her feel rewarded in the least for sacrificing herself to be the bait.

"S-Spare me…"

"Hm."

Isabella grabbed both of Marco's arms and brutally twisted them off.

"Uguaguagahak!!!"

"Even the sound of your scream is vulgar."

Tch—

Isabella grabbed onto Marco's chin this time as if something wasn't to her liking.

"—You said that you would tear off my mouth or whatever, yeah?"

A beaming smile was placed on Isabella's lips.

"Uh, ua, ah, no… Aaaahhhhhhh!!"

Rrrrrip!!—

She violently tore off the chin in her grasp.

Blood spurted out and drenched the ground.

"Sigh. I went through all that trouble for this?"

—Overwhelming.

Even though Marco was one of the 'High-rank Awakeners' that was deemed to be outside the scope of humans, he was nothing but a commonplace 3 to 4-Star Awakener in front of Isabella.

"I apologize for being late, your Majesty."

An old man with finely taken care of gray hair who gave off a well-mannered impression approached her after the Marco Family was annihilated.

"...Roberto."

Isabella looked down at the bowing old man and commanded with a cold voice.

"Kneel."

"Yes, ma'am!!!"

Bang!!—

The old man called Roberto kneeled down on the floor with both knees without hesitation.

"Chair."

"Y-Yes!"

After kneeling down, he placed his hands on the ground.

Plop—

Isabella nonchalantly sat down on Roberto's back and twisted her slim legs.

"Even if the communications went down, weren't you a little too late?"

"F-Forgive me!"

"And you didn't even notice at all that Noctua intervened…"

"Please kill me, your Majesty!!"

"Oh? Really?"

Isabella's blue eyes shone as she unhesitantly stabbed the back of Roberto's neck with her fingernail.

Pshk!—

"Kugh! Kaah!"

Roberto's eyes flipped to the back of his head and he started to throw up blood from his mouth.

"Should I really kill you?"

Isabella stirred around the finger that was dug into Roberto's neck.

"Kurh! Kuk! Kuuugh!! P-Please, kill me!"

Roberto's attitude didn't break down even as he spat out blood.

"Fufu. I'm kidding."

Isabella smiled alluringly and took out her finger.

She licked her finger that was drenched in blood and continued.

"In any case, that bothersome Marco Family should be finished with this."

"I-It's all thanks to your Majesty's exceptional scheming."

"Hmm. Is that so?"

Isabella furrowed her brow as if something was unpleasant.

"To be honest, it was quite dangerous this time."

As she hadn't predicted that Noctua would cooperate with the Marco Family, she had completely fallen into the 'Purple Forbidden Enclosure's Curse'.

If she had been captured by those men earlier…

'Hmm. Quite some horrifying things would have happened to me.'

Marco wouldn't kill her in one go with his personality. Isabella would have been humiliated until night came and then slaughtered every person there once the curse was released.

'Though the fact that the Marco Family would have been annihilated doesn't change.'

It was most likely that she would have ended up with a new 'trauma' that was hard for even her to bear.

—A trauma so horrific that she would lose her grip on the faint thread of rationality.

"Fufu. In regards to that, Ohjin could be said to be my benefactor."

"By Ohjin…"

Crack!!—

Isabella used the heel of her shoe to stomp down on Roberto's hand.

"Kmpf!!"

"It's not Ohjin to you, but 'Sir' Ohjin. Understood?"

"F-Forgive me!! By Sir Ohjin… do you mean that Awakener who's famous in Korea?"

"That's right."

Isabella nodded and got up from Roberto's back.

"I was simply interested at first… but I didn't imagine that it would be to this extent."

With heated eyes, she approached Ohjin, who was lying on the ground.

She crouched down and sniffed him.

"Ahhh! This sweet smell…! It really is the best!"

Even when compared to any other smell she had smelled to date, the 'smell' that Ohjin gave off was overwhelmingly sweet.

"No, the act of comparing them is insulting in itself."

Compared to his smell, every smell she had smelled until then was nothing but food waste in the gutter.

"Well, then."

Isabella carefully held out her hand and dipped the tip of her finger into the drops of blood that trickled out of Ohjin's wounds.

She slightly licked the droplet of blood that formed on her finger with the tip of her tongue.

"—Ah."

Her soul shook.

"Ang! Haa… uht!!!"

Isabella leaked out lewd moans and twisted her body as if she was constipated.

'Wh-What is this?!'

The smell was great on its own…

But the taste was in a 'league' of its own compared to other blood.

'I-I've never imagined anything like this before.'

It was to the point where she would believe that what she drank until then was not blood but feces.

"...Haa."

Isabella dipped her finger into Ohjin's blood and licked it with a rhapsodic expression.

If Isabella had it her way, she would want to just drink up all the blood that collected on the ground in one go, but…

'If I do that—I might just die from pleasure.'

The taste of Ohjin's blood was to that degree.

"Fu, fufufu, fufufufu."

The sound of sticky laughter rang out from her mouth.

"Roberto."

"Yes, your Majesty!"

"Bring me an elixir."

"A-An elixir?"

"Hurry."

—A potion of dreams that could only be made by a high-rank Awakener of Aquarius.

"H-Here it is."

"Hand it over."

Isabella poured the elixir into Ohjin's mouth.

His wounds were recovered in an instant.

"Fufufu."

Isabella looked down at the collapsed Ohjin and stroked his cheek lovingly.

While she stuck out her tongue and licked her lips—

"I won't ever let you go."

—her blue eyes shone with deep greed.