Isabella heavily sighed. “Haaa...”

She pressed her forehead as if having a headache.

“I... was kidnapped?” she asked in bewilderment, struggling to comprehend the situation.

“Yeah, you don’t remember?”

“No, I don’t remember anything... Ah, wait.” Frowning in concentration, Isabella bit her lip as fragments of memory from the plane returned. “I was on my private jet. Then, suddenly, everything went dark.”

“And then?” Kwon Oh-Jin asked.

“I heard screams... Ah, serpents. I saw serpents.”

“White serpents, right?”

“Yes.” Isabella shivered as more memories surfaced. “The white serpents filled the plane, and then... Ugh.” She groaned as if the recollection itself was painful.

Kwon Oh-Jin gently placed his hand on her shoulder. “You don’t need to force yourself to remember.”

Exhaling heavily, Isabella shook her head. “I’m sorry... That’s all I can recall.”

Kwon Oh-Jin narrowed his eyes and softly patted her back.

Isabella was taken so quickly that she didn’t even have time to recall what happened properly.

Considering that she was an Awakener close to reaching eleven stars, it was impossible to imagine Mobius’s true strength.

At this rate, I don’t think even using Open Heaven will work against him.

The grim thought flickered across Kwon Oh-Jin’s mind.

Isabella interrupted him as if she knew what he was thinking. “Um... I-I’m not trying to make excuses, but I wasn’t in the right state of mind at the time.”

“Not in the right state of mind?”

“Ever since I left for Italy, I haven’t had any blood at all. I’m much weaker than usual.”

“Ah.”

Now that he thought about it, he heard that Awakeners with the Stigma of Leech would drastically weaken if they didn’t drink blood regularly.

Since she left for Italy would be...

That meant she hadn’t drunk a drop since the battle against Enceladus in Japan.

Yeah, that makes sense. No wonder she was weak.

He had heard that just three days without blood would cause their power to fade, but over two weeks? Her condition would have been abysmal.

“Then why didn’t you drink any blood before it got that bad?” he asked.

To eliminate the urge to drink blood, she had to drink directly from someone’s vein. However, she didn’t need to go that far to simply maintain her Stigma’s power.

She had large quantities of blood packs stored in her room at the Colgrande house for a reason. At the very least, she wouldn’t have been kidnapped so helplessly by Mobius if she had consumed animal blood.

“T-That’s...” Isabella trailed off, flustered. Her lips twitched as she fidgeted, averted her gaze, and muttered under her breath, “... bad.”

“Huh?”

“B-Because it tastes bad!” she suddenly shouted, her face all red to her ears.

Kwon Oh-Jin gave her a dumbfounded look. “You didn’t drink blood because it tastes bad?”

“B-But... my body’s already gotten to the point where only your blood satisfies me now!”

It sounds dirty, but it’s actually terrifying.

“Even so, how could you let yourself get this weak just because of that?”

“B-Because... if I wait, it tastes way better when I finally drink yours.”

Isabella had starved herself like someone before a buffet to make it more rewarding.

Except, no one starves themselves for two weeks straight.

Kwon Oh-Jin rubbed his temples as if he had a headache.

Going without food for two weeks would’ve been less cruel. For an Awakener with the Stigma of Leech, abstaining from blood couldn’t just be compared to hunger. Such torment withered the soul itself.

“This is your fault, Mr. Oh-Jin!” Isabella suddenly snapped and sprang to her feet. “Y-Your blood tastes so good that I can’t stomach any other blood anymore!”

“How is that my fault?”

It’s not like I chose to be born with blood that tastes good. What am I, a cow?

He sighed at the thought of those poor animals that were too smart, affectionate, and cute for their own good. Still, people denied them a place as pets simply because they tasted too delicious.

Isabella sighed and sat down again, admitting her mistake. “Anyway! I never imagined we’d be ambushed... on the flight back. I’m sorry.”

“Oh well.”

Honestly, who could’ve predicted a sudden attack by a Celestial mid-flight? Calling her careless would’ve been unfair since the situation itself had been absurd.

“Anyway...” Isabella trailed off as her eyes shifted to Kwon Oh-Jin and the woman clinging to his side like a leech. “What’s wrong with my sister?”

Isabella glared at Cassia, clinging to Kwon Oh-Jin’s arm and silently rubbing her cheek against his shoulder throughout their entire conversation.

“I don’t know either,” Kwon Oh-Jin muttered.

“You’re telling me you don’t know when she was brazenly baring her butt right in front of you just a little while ago?”

“I really don’t know,” he replied.

Kwon Oh-Jin could more or less guess why Cassia was so obsessed with him, but why she suddenly clung to him like a child and refused to let go was beyond him.

“Hey, let go for a second, Cassia,” Isabella said.

Cassia remained silent.

“Excuse me? Did you not hear me?”

“Haa. Lord Oh-Jin... you’re so warm.”

Isabella’s eyes sparked with fury. “The hell?”

She tried to pry Cassia off by grabbing her shoulders, but Cassia clung even tighter and hooked Kwon Oh-Jin’s arm between her legs as if coiling around him like a serpent.

“I said let go! What do you think you’re doing with someone else’s boyfriend?!”

“No.”

“What?”

“I’m not letting go.” Cassia shot Isabella a sharp, venomous look. “From now on, Lord Oh-Jin is mine. No, my body and heart already belong to him.”

At the sudden bombshell, Isabella’s eyes went wide. “What?” W-What the hell are you talking about?”

Cassia faintly smiled at Isabella, who was completely confused. “Haha. While you were unconscious... Lord Oh-Jin and I shared a deep, physical conversation.”

“Wait,” Kwon Oh-Jin said.

Saying it like that makes it sound very wrong. All we did was fight.

“I tried to hold out, but in the end, I couldn’t resist his strength. My body, my heart... Everything gave in to him,” Cassia said.

That’s a hell of a dramatic way to say that you lost a fight and got knocked out.

“I realized then... I can’t live without his warmth anymore.” With glazed eyes like someone intoxicated, Cassia hugged Kwon Oh-Jin’s arm tighter.

Isabella’s eyes turned hollow as she looked at him. “Mr. Oh-Jin? What the hell is going on here?”

“This is a misunderstanding,” he immediately replied.

“A misunderstanding?”

“Yes, um... See, in Korean, sometimes the same phrase can mean very different things depending on how you say it.”

It might be hard to catch since you’re Italian, but...

“So, what you’re saying is, you and my sister really did have a physical conversation while I was passed out?”

“No, um... The wording makes it sound weird. What I mean is, we fought. I already explained before, remember? I thought your sister was the one who kidnapped you at first.”

“What is this, some kind of shounen manga? People fight and then end up like that? Be honest. Did you two really just fight?”

“Well, uh...” Kwon Oh-Jin averted his eyes with an awkward expression.

The truth was, he hadn’t told Isabella that Cassia had stood in his place against Mobius, but he had fought Mobius instead to protect her.

If I told her, I’d definitely get a beating.

If Isabella found out that he had risked himself to protect her sister, he could already imagine her reaction.

Helping your girlfriend’s sister is the normal thing to do...

With these two, even the obvious became complicated.

“Anyway, what really happened was—”

“Lord Oh-Jin saved my life,” Cassia cut in.

Isabella’s face twisted with fury. “Saved your life? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“To protect me, he fought against Mobius, the Celestial of Ophiuchus.”

“That was to protect Isabella—”

“Oh my. If you really only wanted to protect Bella, then shouldn’t you have just left me behind and run away with her? I even told you I’d buy you time. Instead, you threw me behind and fought, didn’t you?”

Dammit. I don’t have anything to say if you put it like that.

“That’s why... You’re clinging to him because he saved your life?” Isabella asked.

“Oh my. Isn’t it only natural to feel affection toward your savior?” Cassia replied sweetly.

Of course, it wasn’t just because he had saved her that she obsessed over him.

Loneliness had always haunted Cassia. Her existence was as barren and cold as an endless tundra. For her, Kwon Oh-Jin was more than just a savior. He was the light that had pulled her decaying soul back from the brink.

“I’ve decided to dedicate everything I am to Lord Oh-Jin.”

Even if Kwon Oh-Jin never thought of it that way, he had still saved her in the end. Where only frost and solitude had once filled her heart, now a brilliant starlight shone.

“Do you even realize what you’re saying to your younger sister’s husband?” Isabella growled.

“Um... Technically, we aren’t married yet—”

“Shut up, Mr. Oh-Jin.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Isabella glared daggers at Cassia. “As long as I’m here, there’s no place for you beside him.”

“Oh my. Aren’t there already two others besides you?”

“T-That’s... w-whatever! Either way, you can’t!”

“Haha. You don’t need to worry about that.” Cassia shrugged lightly as if it were no big deal. “I don’t particularly want to be Lord Oh-Jin’s lover.”

At her calm reply, Isabella’s eyes widened. “What?” 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

“You said earlier that you can’t survive without Lord Oh-Jin’s blood, right?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“It’s something like that for me too.”

Cassia didn’t care if she wasn’t his partner. She didn’t care if he didn’t love her.

“As long as I can stay by his side... He can think of me as a servant, a tool to use when convenient, or even just a rag to wipe his feet after a bath. I’d be satisfied.”

The absurd words spilling from Cassia’s mouth made Isabella press her forehead as if she had a headache.

Why did Cassia’s crazy expression overlap so clearly with herself from the past?

Figures... She really is my sister, after all.

Cassia’s state was far more serious than they had thought.