After Regressing, I Gained the Power of the Demonic Dragon - Chapter 12

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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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Episode 12
Ding.
The elevator doors slid open.
When Sang Hyeok stepped out onto the floor where the Hotel Restaurant was located, a staff member approached him.
“You must be Mr. Kim Sang Hyeok? Your companion arrived earlier and is waiting.”
The staff member turned and gestured.
Yun Chae Rin, who had been seated by the lounge window, rose from her chair.
A beige jacket and long hair tied back neatly.
Aside from small ornaments at her ears, she wore no striking accessories.
And yet eyes naturally gravitated toward her.
Even the staff member leading the way faltered half a beat when she came into view.
Yun Chae Rin was, by any measure, a beautiful woman.
Sang Hyeok had no intention of denying that fact.
Before the Regression, Sang Hyeok couldn’t even look directly at her face.
When she smiled and called his name, color would rise not just to his cheeks but all the way to his earlobes, and if she stepped even slightly closer, he’d glance away.
Yet whenever she asked him something, the desire to appear well in her eyes drove him to confess things she’d never asked about.
It remained the same even after receiving the Conditional Awakening Judgment.
That he was searching for his Awakening Condition.
That he’d failed the test again.
That no matter what, he would one day become a Player.
Yun Chae Rin knew that if she merely smiled and asked, Sang Hyeok would tell her anything.
“You’re here.”
Yun Chae Rin smiled faintly.
The old Sang Hyeok would have hesitated to answer even at that smile alone.
“Yeah.”
Sang Hyeok replied curtly.
Yun Chae Rin studied his composed face for a moment—so different from before—then followed the staff member deeper into the restaurant.
The two of them entered a private room and took seats across from each other at a table.
After the staff member set down menus before each of them, she quietly withdrew.
Click.
As the door closed, the sound of clinking dishes and piano music from the main hall faded to a murmur.
Yun Chae Rin opened her menu.
“As we discussed last time, let’s talk about us while we eat.”
“All right.”
“There’s nothing you can’t eat, is there?”
“You decide.”
“It’s the same as before.”
Yun Chae Rin’s smile deepened slightly.
“You used to eat whatever I chose without complaint.”
“That’s true.”
Sang Hyeok lifted his water glass and took a sip.
Yun Chae Rin waited for him to continue, but after lowering the glass, he said nothing.
After a brief silence, Yun Chae Rin looked down at her menu.
Once she’d selected her dishes, she pressed the call button.
When the staff member who took the order left the room, Yun Chae Rin looked back at Sang Hyeok.
“You look much better.”
“Do I?”
“Yes. I was a little surprised when I saw you at the Verification Grounds.”
Yun Chae Rin’s eyes met his directly.
Her voice carried a warmth that had never been there in how she usually addressed him.
“You seem very different from the Sang Hyeok I used to know.”
“I quit drinking.”
“I don’t think that’s all of it.”
She folded her hands neatly on the table.
As she leaned forward, the distance between them narrowed.
In the past too, Yun Chae Rin would approach like this and smile whenever she wanted to ask him something.
Before that smile, Sang Hyeok would avert his gaze—and yet still surrender whatever answer she sought.
“Are you helping out with Ilseong’s work lately?”
“Only when necessary.”
“Is that why you were in the Verification Grounds’ technical sector?”
“I needed your help.”
“I didn’t realize you were interested in equipment, Sang Hyeok.”
Yun Chae Rin didn’t press for further explanation.
She raised her water glass as if waiting for him to volunteer more.
But Sang Hyeok offered nothing further.
A brief silence settled between them.
Yun Chae Rin set down her glass.
“Could it be.”
Her voice softened slightly.
“That you’ve found your Awakening Condition?”
Rumors of Sang Hyeok’s recent Awakening had already begun to spread quietly through certain circles.
Denying it now would only deepen suspicion.
What needed to stay hidden was the nature of his Trait and the fact that he was the anonymous Player who had achieved an Impossible Achievement.
“I found it.”
Yun Chae Rin’s eyes widened slightly.
“Really?”
“Yes. I’ve Awakened.”
“Congratulations.”
A bright smile bloomed across her face.
It was the expression the old Sang Hyeok, before the Regression, had wished to see countless times.
But now it stirred nothing in him.
Sang Hyeok also remembered the look in Yun Chae Rin’s eyes as she gazed at him for the last time after Ilseong collapsed.
There was no reason to attach any new meaning to that smile now.
“What’s your Trait?”
The question he’d anticipated followed.
“I’m not planning to tell you.”
Yun Chae Rin’s smile faltered ever so slightly.
“Not even me?”
She laughed again and added softly,
“We’re engaged, after all.”
Sang Hyeok’s gaze drifted down to her left hand.
An Engagement Ring sat delicately on her slender finger.
Following his gaze, Yun Chae Rin looked down at her own ring.
Her finger traced the smooth surface of the band slowly.
“Now that I think about it, I’ve been quite thoughtless.”
“Suddenly?”
“Even after our families arranged the engagement, we’ve barely spent time together.”
She paused as if choosing her words carefully.
“I’ve rarely been the one to reach out, and I never made a real effort to understand how you’ve been doing.”
“That’s true.”
“We’ve hardly had time to know each other.”
Yun Chae Rin’s voice grew softer still.
“What if we gradually spent more time together, the two of us?”
“More time together?”
“We could have meals sometimes, share what we’re working on, that sort of thing.”
She looked at him with a faint smile.
“I’d like to know what kind of person you really are.”
Sang Hyeok said nothing, only studying her smile.
From the moment she’d broached this subject, her true intent was transparent.
It was right after she’d confirmed his Awakening and probed whether he’d been involved in repairing Ilseong’s equipment.
“For that to happen, I’d like you to open your heart a little, too.”
“You want me to open my heart?”
“Yes. We need to start hiding less from each other.”
Before the Regression, he could never have imagined her saying such things.
Sang Hyeok asked,
“Even before you knew I’d Awakened?”
Yun Chae Rin’s finger stilled on her Engagement Ring.
“Did you want to know me better even then?”
The smile lingering at the corner of her mouth froze.
Yun Chae Rin held his gaze without speaking, then her lips curved into a faint smile once more.
“Isn’t it more important to understand things going forward than to dwell on how things were before?”
“You’re dodging the question.”
“You can’t divide a person’s heart into neat sections like that.”
“What I asked was simple.”
Sang Hyeok met her gaze directly.
“Did you have any interest in me before I awakened?”
Yun Chae Rin’s hand shifted from the engagement ring to her water glass.
“Back then, you wouldn’t let anyone get close to you.”
“Did you ever try to get close?”
Her fingers tightened around the glass.
Sang Hyeok didn’t press for an answer.
Looking back, the number of times Yun Chae Rin had reached out first could be counted on one hand.
Even during those days when he’d failed Awakening Test after Awakening Test and drowned himself in drink, locked away in his room, she’d never once come to see him.
“That was my fault.”
It was Yun Chae Rin who broke the silence first.
“That’s why I want to try harder from now on.”
“Because I’ve changed?”
“Since you’ve changed so much, our relationship can change too.”
“Only I changed?”
Her lips pressed into a thin line.
“I can change too.”
Before the regression, those words alone would have shaken him.
The old Sang Hyeok would have believed her promise to work on the relationship, would have thought the two of them still had a chance.
But the Sang Hyeok of now already knew how this story ended.
He remembered with perfect clarity whose side Yun Chae Rin had stood with after Ilseong fell.
“There’s no need.”
Sang Hyeok looked down at his left hand.
An engagement ring identical to hers encircled his finger.
He pushed it off with his thumb.
It fell with a soft clink.
The ring lay between them on the table.
“I have no intention of continuing this relationship.”
Her gaze, which had been fixed on the ring, slowly rose to meet his.
“Sang Hyeok.”
“Let’s break off the engagement.”
The smile vanished from her face.
Her grip on the glass tightened.
“Are you serious right now?”
“Yes.”
“I came here today hoping we could start to truly understand each other.”
“I understand.”
“And you’re ending it anyway?”
“Even if you say you’ll make an effort now, my feelings won’t change.”
Yun Chae Rin didn’t answer immediately.
She studied his face for a long moment, as if trying to discern whether he was testing her or merely confirming something.
But Sang Hyeok’s expression remained unshaken.
Only then did she lower the glass.
“What’s your reason?”
“I don’t want to continue this relationship anymore.”
“That’s all?”
“Why would I need another reason if I don’t want to marry you?”
She closed her lips briefly.
“You’d already decided before coming here today, hadn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“You came here only to announce the broken engagement.”
“That’s right.”
At his terse response, her expression hardened.
“This isn’t just our problem. This engagement was made with both families’ consent.”
“But it’s us who marry. If I don’t want to, the engagement has to end.”
“What are you going to tell both families?”
“Tell them we agreed it was a personality clash.”
“I never agreed to that.”
Sang Hyeok slid the ring toward her.
“Then I’ll have to tell them the real reason.”
“What reason?”
Sang Hyeok looked at Yun Chae Rin directly.
“Kang Tae O.”
Yun Chae Rin, who had been biting her lower lip, went rigid.
She stared at him for a moment, then composed herself.
“Why would you bring up Director Kang’s name here?”
“I’m asking what relationship you and he have.”
“He’s just my superior in the same department.”
“Is that really all?”
“It’s nothing more and nothing less.”
“Then you can say that in front of both families’ elders, right?”
“Are you suggesting something inappropriate between Director Kang and me?”
“We could call Kang Tae O in as well. If necessary, we can have both legal teams present too.”
The last trace of composure drained from Yun Chae Rin’s face.
“Do you understand what you’re saying right now?”
“I do.”
“If you link Director Kang and me without evidence, both families will be compromised. Ilseong and Taeseong could both face scandal.”
“I’ll know there’s evidence once I check the communications between you two.”
Yun Chae Rin couldn’t respond immediately.
She studied his face, trying to gauge how much he already knew, but Sang Hyeok said nothing more.
“What do you gain by escalating this?”
“Nothing. I want to end this quietly too.”
“Then what are you proposing?”
“Tell the public it was a personality clash and we reached an agreement.”
Sang Hyeok continued evenly.
“But we’ll draw up a separate confidential settlement stating that you’re responsible for the broken engagement and that you’ll pay a corresponding settlement fee. Only both families’ legal representatives will see it.”
“That means I’d be admitting fault.”
“Yes.”
“Why should I sign an agreement like that?”
“If you won’t, I’ll tell both families everything.”
Sang Hyeok leaned back in his chair.
“If you and Kang Tae O really have nothing to hide, there’s nothing to conceal.”
Yun Chae Rin slowly aligned the crooked napkin’s edges and took a measured breath.
When she spoke again, her voice had grown calm.
“What amount were you thinking?”
That was the end of explaining anything about Kang Tae O.
The moment she asked about the sum, her choice became clear.
She was going to bury this quietly.
“I don’t need money.”
At his unexpected answer, Yun Chae Rin’s eyebrows rose slightly.
“Then what do you want?”
“The Yeongmaek Hwan.”
The fingers pressing the napkin stopped.
“Where did you hear that name?”
“Where I heard it doesn’t matter.”
“The fact that Taeseong possesses it has never been made public.”
“But it’s in the Warehouse, isn’t it?”
Yun Chae Rin’s eyes narrowed.
“It’s a cursed artifact. It drains all the magical power from whoever wears it. Taeseong has attempted countless exorcisms but failed every time.”
“I know.”
“And you’re asking for it anyway?”
“Yes.”
“You plan to wear it yourself?”
“I’ll handle it once I have it.”
“If you can’t lift the curse, the Hero Grade name means nothing. Right now it’s just a failed artifact that no one can use.”
“Then Taeseong has nothing to lose.”
Sang Hyeok met her eyes.
“Hand over the Yeongmaek Hwan, and we end this here.”
Yun Chae Rin didn’t answer at once.
A single cursed artifact sealed in the warehouse—that was all it would take to prevent word of her relationship with Kang Tae O from reaching both families.
It wasn’t a proposal that left her worse off.
“It’s Taeseong’s property. I can’t make that decision on my own.”
“I know.”
Sang Hyeok glanced at her phone.
“Ask Kang Tae O.”
Yun Chae Rin’s expression hardened again.
“Why him?”
“You were going to report everything that happened here to him anyway.”
Yun Chae Rin studied him in silence for a moment.
“You mean right now?”
“Yes.”
She picked up her phone and rose from her seat.
“I’ll check with the company first.”
She never actually said she’d contact Kang Tae O.
Sang Hyeok didn’t press the point.
The door closed quietly behind her as she left.
Sang Hyeok’s gaze fell on the Engagement Ring sitting before him.
Before the Regression, it was Yun Chae Rin who had returned the ring first.
He’d left empty-handed, never finding the courage to ask why.
This time, he’d placed the ring down first.
When he walked out of this room, he meant to take the ownership of a Hero Grade artifact with him.
The door opened not long after.
Yun Chae Rin set her phone face-down on the table and sat.
“Transferring the Yeongmaek Hwan has been approved.”
The softness that had threaded her voice before was gone now.
“But there’s a condition.”

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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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