Women Addled by Love Are the Most Troublesome

The room was unnaturally quiet.

Pige Aaron lay sprawled on the floor like a deflated doll, drool running from the corner of his mouth as his eyes occasionally rolled mechanically.

Ella simply sat there, the blanket around her having slipped to her knees. She seemed not to feel the cold.

Her gaze rested on the husband she had in name.

"The tenth..."

Her lips moved slightly. Her voice was as soft as a murmur in a dream, yet carried a needle-sharp clarity.

"I was the tenth?"

Pige Aaron did not respond.

Illumi crouched beside him, the Nen Needle at his fingertips glinting coldly. His voice was utterly flat. "Answer her."

A vague syllable rolled from Pige Aaron's throat. "Yes."

That single word was like a rusty hammer, smashing the last trace of hope in Ella's heart.

She closed her eyes and did not cry again, but the frantic rise and fall of her chest revealed the storm beneath those ruins.

Bai Zhu dragged over a chair and sat on it backward, his chin resting on the backrest like some street loafer settling in for a show.

"Miss Ella, that's reality. It's pretty damn shitty."

His tone was not harsh, but every word rubbed salt into her wounds.

"Your husband is a professional stud mass-produced by the Creation Society. His services include romance, planting seeds, and funerals—a full one-stop package. Once you 'soil' have been drained dry and die, your inheritance naturally becomes his."

Milluki had just stuffed a handful of chips into his mouth when he froze.

"Could you not be so vicious with your wording?"

Bai Zhu glanced at him. "Crude words, sound reasoning."

Milluki thought about it and found himself unable to argue. He could only angrily crunch his chips even louder.

Bai Zhu turned his gaze back to Ella.

"According to him, your body can't withstand another baptism. If that thing in your belly keeps growing, you'll be logging off just like your nine 'predecessors' within four months."

Ella's trembling hand fell onto her lower abdomen.

This time, her movement was filled with fear.

"So, there are two paths."

Bai Zhu raised one finger.

"First, keep loving him, trusting him, trusting that bullshit Creation God. We'll pity you enough to give you a quick death, so you suffer less."

Then he raised a second finger.

"Second, cooperate with us. You live, and watch with your own eyes as the people who lied to you, used you, and treated you like a flowerpot go down one by one."

Ella finally raised her head, her eyes filled with one last struggle.

"I... I betrayed the Lord..."

Bai Zhu laughed.

He stood, walked over to Ella, grabbed her sleeve, and rolled it up. On the inside of her wrist, the tiny cross tattoo had already faded badly.

"You believed in this since childhood, right?" Bai Zhu released her sleeve. "Then you met this pretty boy, and a few sweet words had you completely smitten. The nuns advised you, your family tried to stop you, but you ignored them all. You thought the Lord would bless your 'true love.'"

Ella's breathing abruptly caught.

The scenes she had deliberately forgotten burst through the dam in an instant. A nun in a black headscarf had held her hand, telling her again and again: Child, don't hand your soul to a man who only knows how to say he loves you.

True love.

Those two words now smelled more disgusting than the vomit on the floor.

"Ella, have you ever considered," Bai Zhu said, lowering his voice with a devilish, coaxing tone, "that your god never abandoned you at all?"

Ella jerked her head up.

"When you were about to be devoured whole, we came. When your husband was about to go mad, we stopped him. When your stomach hurt so badly you were nearly dead just now, I saved you too."

He grinned, looking rather punchable.

"Of course, I wasn't sent by your god. But you need to understand one thing—"

"Faith isn't meant to make you kneel there while people fool you like an idiot."

"What you need to repent for now isn't betraying your god."

"It's throwing away your brain for a man!"

Those words were like a slap, striking Ella's soul hard.

Her tears burst through the dam again, but this time, they fell in utter silence.

Slowly, slowly, she rose to her feet and walked over to Pige Aaron.

She lowered her head and looked at the face that had once captivated her. Now, there was only emptiness and filth.

"Those women," she said hoarsely, though with unusual clarity, "where are they buried?"

Under Illumi's control, Pige Aaron mechanically gave the name of a place.

Ella swayed, but she steadied herself.

The weakness in her eyes had been burned away completely, leaving only black ash—and beneath that ash, a rekindled spark called hatred.

"I want to live."

She turned around. No longer looking at the man on the floor, she faced Bai Zhu and spoke one word at a time.

"I want them to pay their blood debt in blood!"

"Beautiful!" Bai Zhu snapped his fingers.

Milluki instinctively shrank back and muttered quietly to Illumi, "Big brother, why do I feel like he looks even more like a villain than you?"

For once, Illumi replied, "He's just better with words."

"Enough with the mutual flattery." Bai Zhu clapped his hands. "Time to discuss serious business—the plan."

He pointed at Pige Aaron.

"This guy is just a tool stuffed with Nen. There have to be real Nen experts behind them. So we need to send him back to fish for information."

"Have him bring his 'wife' back to the Creation Society," Bai Zhu said, laying out the plan clearly. "Say the mother had a severe reaction after the baptism, that the situation is abnormal, and needs to be reported."

Milluki frowned. "But Ella's current condition will give her away the moment she walks in."

Bai Zhu's gaze fell upon Illumi, and he smiled like a fox.

"So, we need a professional actor."

The room fell deathly silent.

Even Milluki stopped chewing his chips.

Illumi's hollow catlike eyes quietly watched Bai Zhu. A few seconds later, he spoke in a cool voice.

"Troublesome. Killing them all would be more efficient."

"Kill them all?" Bai Zhu laughed. "If we kill them all, who's taking us to that so-called 'god'? Don't forget, our mission is investigation, not slaughter. Ella—or rather, the identity of 'Ella'—is currently the only key that can reach the core of the Creation Society. If that key breaks, we'll have to start over."

Illumi fell silent.

Bai Zhu was right. The task his grandfather had assigned was to "investigate," though Illumi still did not know what exactly they were investigating.

"You want me to impersonate her?" Illumi finally relented.

"Yes." Bai Zhu nodded, then glanced at Milluki, who was so shocked that his chips had fallen to the floor. "Aren't you pretty skilled at it? That gorgeous married woman last time was quite good."

Milluki's face flushed, and he immediately lowered his head to pretend to adjust his equipment.

Illumi rose and walked over to Ella. With those inhuman eyes, he copied her height, build, and even the rhythm of her breathing into his mind.

The next second, his bones gave a faint series of cracks.

When a second "Ella" appeared in the room, the real Ella turned deathly pale with fright.

"I will control Pige Aaron," "Ella" said in a voice identical to hers.

"Milluki will handle remote surveillance," Bai Zhu added.

Milluki immediately carefully took three even more vicious-looking mechanical spiders from a metal case. As he adjusted them, he muttered, "Spider Punk No. 2 is expensive. If they break, you're paying for them!"

One spider was tucked into Pige Aaron's collar, while another was handed to Illumi.

"Big brother, hide this one well. If the signal cuts out, I'll assume something happened to you." Milluki looked at Bai Zhu, his chubby face solemn. "Then I'll blow this place up first."

"Why blow me up?"

"Because you look the most like the culprit."

"..."

Everything was ready.

Illumi controlled Pige Aaron into standing up, while disguising himself as the weakened Ella. He draped himself in the blanket and held the man's arm. The two looked no different from the couple who had just endured a storm of wind and snow.

The real Ella stood before the fireplace for a long time.

She tore the silver cross necklace from around her neck. It was the only thing she had taken with her when she ran away from home.

She gripped it until the metal dug painfully into her palm.

Then she walked to the fireplace and opened her hand.

The silver chain fell into the flames with a soft hiss, quickly burning red-hot.

"From today on," she said softly, "I hold my own life in my hands."

At that very moment, a translucent panel burst open before Bai Zhu's eyes!

[Congratulations, Host, on activating the series achievement: Ella's Suffering Holy Infant (2/?) · Cradle of the Holy Infant!]

[Mission Description: Protect the "Holy Infant Mother," uncover the truth behind the Creation Society's resurrection ritual, and gain Ella's trust.]

[Phase Reward: 100 Achievement Points!]

[Additional Reward: Unlock one new Kidō draw!]

One hundred points!

And a free draw too!

That damn system was finally acting like a person today!

Seeing him suddenly grin as though he had won the lottery, Milluki frowned. "What bad scheme are you cooking up now?"

Bai Zhu waved a hand. "Nothing. I just thought of something happy."

"What happy thing?"

"Getting rich."

Milluki scoffed. "Broke-ass."

Bai Zhu could not be bothered with him.

Illumi had already controlled Pige Aaron to stand up.

The man's movements were somewhat stiff, but after adjustments from the Nen Needle, he quickly returned to normal.

Illumi, disguised as Ella, draped himself in the blanket and held Pige Aaron's arm.

The two truly looked like a couple who had just weathered a storm of wind and snow.