Bloodline is Everything - Chapter 45

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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【Bloodline is a Thug Chapter 45】

Chapter 45: Jealousy (3)

It was astounding.
I had anticipated that Catalina Blaga would intervene in some manner, but I never expected her to burst in so brutally.
‘I cannot move.’
No matter how much force I exerted, my fist remained fixed against the wall as if cemented there.
“Catalina! Please release your grip!”
Suddenly, Ruin Aspadam’s voice thundered through the air. At that cry, Kwon Han-ul snapped from his reverie.
“That insolent bastard—I will personally….”
“Ruin, prostrate yourself.”
A single utterance.
At those words alone, Ruin Aspadam’s forehead struck the ground instantly.
It was not loyalty. The power of Retainer’s Blood had manifested.
“Little Dragon, I apologize. I hope you can understand. Ruin cares for me so deeply that this situation arose.”
Catalina Blaga smiled and released Kwon Han-ul’s fist. Only then could he move his hand again.
“You should manage your subordinates more carefully.”
“Subordinates? Ruin and I are partners who share genuine trust.”
Rather than respond, Kwon Han-ul glanced sideways at Ruin Aspadam.
How could someone who bows their head at a single word be called a partner?
“Still, I will handle this matter properly. So won’t you ask that witch from Heukcheon to withdraw her magical power?”
Only then did Kwon Han-ul notice. Joo Ha-yeon’s magical aura was swirling throughout the entire restaurant.
The air had transformed. It was beyond that. It felt as though submerged in water. The magical power she was emanating was that dense.
I had forgotten.
Joo Ha-yeon was the closest aide to Chairman Kwon Seon-woo and a hunter who had operated alongside him.
Her momentum was comparable to Catalina Blaga’s own.
“Ha-yeon.”
“Not until that woman withdraws.”
“So it seems.”
Kwon Han-ul spoke curtly. In truth, he had no desire to let this matter pass smoothly either.
Catalina Blaga had made Ruin Aspadam prostrate himself with a single word.
That meant she could have stopped him before this chaos erupted, yet she had allowed it to unfold.
“I’ve earned quite the enmity. Hmm, what shall I do?”
Catalina Blaga grasped her right forearm with her left hand.
Crack.
With a sharp yet striking sound, Catalina Blaga’s arm tore away from the shoulder.
Blood welled from the severed surface. Droplets of crimson stained the floor.
“Will this be enough to earn your forgiveness?”
Catalina Blaga spoke with an unbothered smile, but Kwon Han-ul’s face had turned rigid.
“Ah, don’t worry about that. If I just apply a bit of power like this….”
The moment she spoke, the torn flesh began to regenerate.
Blood vessels and muscle tissue proliferated on their own, bone regrew, and in the blink of an eye, her right arm had reformed down to the forearm.
‘…What is that?’
Regenerating a lost body part was no easy feat, even with Dungeon relics.
Doing so at such a rapid speed was exponentially more difficult.
‘Now that I think about it, I heard that Retainer’s Blood has an ability called immortality.’
The dominion of Retainer’s Blood didn’t limit itself to others—it granted perfect command over one’s own body as well.
This extraordinary regenerative power was one of the abilities gained through mastery of one’s own flesh.
“Well, if I do this, there’s no real punishment in it, is there?”
Rip.
Catalina Blaga tore off her arm once more.
A woman who would sever her own limb twice over—it was truly a grotesque sight.
“I’ll live with just one arm for the next week. Do you think my sincerity has come across now?”
“…It seems sufficient.”
“How merciful of you.”
Catalina Blaga smiled brightly, blood streaming from her blunted shoulder.
“I’ll be going now.”
“Then I’ll see you in the morning.”
If we were meeting tomorrow morning, it could only be for the wager.
To continue with the bet after enduring such a harrowing ordeal—it was absurd.
While I found Catalina Blaga’s attitude incomprehensible, I simultaneously saw an opportunity to settle things with Ruin Aspadam.
“Yes, I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
After responding, I left the restaurant immediately.
In the elevator heading up to the Suite Room, I spoke to Joo Ha-yeon.
“What could she possibly be scheming?”
Setting aside her sudden appearance, there was the sponsorship proposal.
“She claims it’s all coincidence, but…there’s no way that’s true by any reasonable standard.”
Everything was clearly orchestrated by Catalina Blaga.
But there was something I couldn’t understand.
“What does she hope to gain from going this far?”
“While Catalina Blaga is a woman of inscrutable motives, her objective itself is likely simple. She wants to make you submit to her.”
“She’s causing all this trouble just for that?”
“You may not understand, but Catalina Blaga has committed similar acts countless times before.”
Her nickname is the Human Collector, after all.
“Moreover, you’ve overcome Catalina Blaga’s dominion. It’s only natural she’d take interest in you.”
Recalling the past, Catalina Blaga had repeatedly used the power of Retainer’s Blood.
What if the reason was to verify whether her dominion truly wouldn’t work on me?
“You’re trying to dominate me when the Kwon Family exists?”
“That’s Catalina Blaga for you. The troublesome part is that she’s just as thorough with cleanup as she is bold.”
“Cleanup?”
“Catalina Blaga has touched talented members of major families several times. And among those incidents, she’s never been held accountable… not even once.”
Joo Ha-yeon added that there was circumstantial evidence but no concrete proof.
“I should be careful too. The thought of ending up like Ruin Aspadam is terrifying.”
“Do you really think that way?”
“What do you mean?”
“There are actually quite a lot of people in this world who’d say they’d gladly be dominated by Catalina Blaga. She possesses tremendous charm as a woman and wields enormous power.”
“Come on, where would you find someone like that in this world….”
Kwon Ji-seok suddenly came to mind. Kwon Han-ul subtly changed the subject.
“…Well, they might exist, but I’m not one of them.”
“Really?”
“She’s not my type.”
Kwon Han-ul shrugged and added.
“I prefer someone my own age. Women that much older aren’t really….”
Joo Ha-yeon burst out laughing.
“Ah, but I’ve made quite a mess of the restaurant.”
“Don’t worry about it. This hotel is owned by the Heukcheon Group. Headquarters will take care of it.”
“Having money is nice at times like this.”
Kwon Han-ul chuckled with amusement.
“Ah, Kwon Han-ul.”
“What is it?”
“I’m the same age as you.”
At this unexpected confession, Kwon Han-ul was taken aback.

* * *

The restaurant had become a complete disaster.
“Hmm.”
Catalina Blaga sat in her chair, tapping the ground rhythmically with her heel. Even her humming seemed to radiate genuine delight.
Beside her, Ruin Aspadam knelt with a face etched in humiliation and fury.
“Ruin, what do you think?”
“I apologize. Today was a failure, but next time I will surely kill that bastard——”
“That’s not what I’m asking about.”
Catalina Blaga spoke with unbridled excitement.
“He resisted my seduction again. Two times in a row, no less.”
“That’s only because that fool’s eyes are blind! He’s too stupid to recognize a jewel when he sees one——”
“At the Delos Auction House, I wondered what Kwon Seon-woo was doing. But it doesn’t work even when he’s alone?”
Catalina Blaga continued with her own train of thought.
Either she couldn’t hear her retainer’s words, or she was simply ignoring them.
“Especially that last moment—it was quite shocking. I seduced him as a woman. He clung to me so openly, yet he rejected me so easily.”
Retainer’s Blood’s dominion is influenced by multiple factors.
One can subjugate through violence, control through negotiation, or seduce through sexuality as she was doing now.
That last method was Catalina Blaga’s greatest strength.
Countless hunters, despite knowing of it and preparing thoroughly, had still fallen to her seduction.
“It felt less like he was resisting and more like it simply had no effect… What secret could he possibly possess? Could he have been born with both bloodline and Gift simultaneously?”
Extremely rare, but cases existed where individuals were born with both bloodline and Gift.
Mere fortune was insufficient. Since dungeons opened, such cases throughout human history could be counted on one hand.
“If that were true, it would have to be a mental Gift… Then did he use his Gift when he defeated the Mud Troll? I have no idea. There’s not a single thing I can be certain about.”
Catalina Blaga moistened her lips with her tongue.
“I covet him. I’ve never desired a treasure this much. What should I do? I feel like I’m going mad with want.”
Ruin Aspadam swallowed involuntarily.
Because madness—beyond mere greed—emanated from Catalina Blaga’s expression.
“My business here is finished. Let’s return to the family.”
“…Pardon?”
Ruin Aspadam could only be shocked by Catalina Blaga’s words.
After all, she still hadn’t achieved her objective.
“You haven’t captured the Little Dragon yet…”
“Ah, Ruin, really.”
Catalina Blaga waved her hand dismissively, as if hearing something absurd.
“This is Korea. How could I possibly steal the Little Dragon from Heukcheon Group’s territory?”
“Isn’t that why you joined hands with Kwon Chan-seong? Kwon Chan-seong agreed to cooperate in exchange for kidnapping the Little Dragon——”
“Ah, that man.”
Catalina Blaga’s expression turned dismissive.
Though she took great interest in talented individuals, she harbored no fascination whatsoever for Kwon Chan-seong.
“Kwon Hyuk would be different, but I can’t trust a mere whelp like Kwon Chan-seong. Besides, that man never even revealed the secret of how the Little Dragon could resist my seduction.”
Catalina Blaga’s motives were simple. Yet her calculations were anything but.
“This time, this much is perfect. I’ve confirmed once again how brilliantly you shine, and above all… I got to see your face, didn’t I?”
Ruin Aspadam doubted his own eyes. Catalina Blaga’s cheeks were faintly flushed.
It was absurd.
Catalina Blaga was blushing not in bed but somewhere else, for such a trivial reason.
Ruin Aspadam trembled. An emotion he had never felt before consumed his entire being.
“Tomorrow morning early… ah, that’s right. There was still a wager left.”
Catalina Blaga lifted her head as if just remembering.
“Little Dragon caught more than twice as many Mud Trolls, didn’t he? If the situation had been reversed, I could have insisted that Ruin won anyway and ended it early.”
Catalina Blaga exhaled softly.
“I suppose I’ll have to stay a bit longer. Ah, but even if we try again, won’t Ruin just lose anyway?”
“…No. Tomorrow I will absolutely reverse the situation.”
“Really? You’re confident?”
Ruin Aspadam bit his lip and cried out.
“I will definitely win!”
“You’re lying.”
Catalina Blaga’s eyes turned cold and sharp.
“Ruin, what will you do if you try to deceive me? You know, don’t you? What my eyes can see.”
Retainer’s Blood is a bloodline that interferes with mental fortitude.
Therefore, perceiving the emotions and mental state of others was simple.
“Both your reason and emotion are wavering. You’re not confident, are you?”
He wanted to say it wasn’t true.
But Ruin Aspadam ultimately could not open his mouth.
“This is troublesome. I don’t mind losing Baekto, but if Ruin loses, Little Dragon will doubt my judgment.”
Ruin Aspadam felt a sense of injustice.
Was she concerned about Kwon Han-ul even in a situation like this?
“Since I’m leaving anyway, it would be better to leave a good impression, wouldn’t it?”
Catalina Blaga spoke while gazing at the ceiling.
“K. Are you there?”
-Yes, speak your command.
A voice echoed from empty air where no one stood.
Ruin Aspadam started in surprise and looked around. Yet he could not sense even a presence, let alone see a figure.
Ruin Aspadam immediately recalled the identity of this invisible existence.
Cavalieri Umbra.
Catalina Blaga possesses special retainers who have walked beside her through long ages.
Their gender, age, and race are all shrouded in mystery, so no one knows who they are.
All that is known is that each of them possesses formidable power.
“Just in case, I had you stand by with the others. How did it go?”
-I have already brought two bloodline members. We have also prepared artifacts to use when entering the dungeon.
“Excellent.”
-You are too kind.
With those words, no further sound came through.
“Then Ruin, shall we retire now?”
Catalina Blaga extended her hand. Ruin Aspadam supported her with a darkened expression.
“Ruin, you seem dispirited.”
“I’m not.”
“Is it perhaps because I’ve taken an interest in the Little Dragon? That would be rather disappointing.”
Catalina Blaga wrapped her arms around Ruin Aspadam’s neck.
At the waft of her warm scent, Ruin Aspadam’s face flushed crimson.
“You see, I adore men who remain obsessed with me until the very end.”
Ruin Aspadam’s face burned with heat.
“The weather is rather chilly tonight. I’d be cold if I were alone.”
“I shall attend to you with utmost devotion.”
Ruin Aspadam fumbled helplessly like an innocent youth, and Catalina Blaga smiled as though finding even that endearing.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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