Not A Regressor - Chapter 148

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

I Am Not a Regressor Chapter 148
A Man (4)
“….”
Koshiro lay sprawled on the ground, his body trembling as he kept his head pressed against the floor, unable to lift it.
‘He slaughtered people… indiscriminately?’
Even as the shocking news burned through his mind like white-hot fire, he couldn’t bring himself to defy Sosuke.
The moment he surrendered to the surging emotions, his most precious person would vanish forever.
“Koshiro.”
He flinched.
Koshiro’s shoulders trembled as he lay prostrate on the ground.
Sakaki’s voice, so devoid of emotion it seemed hollow, cut through his chest like a sharp blade.
‘Boss.’
The memory surfaced.
It was the memory of when I first met Sakaki.
Before I had even been chosen by a Constellation, I volunteered to join the Self-Defense Militia to protect my younger sister.
I was rejected several times for being an Unawakened, but I didn’t give up.
After days of kneeling in front of the Vigilante Corps Base, waiting.
-Why are you so desperate to join the Self-Defense Militia?
A man appeared before me, looking as though he might collapse at any moment.
A man with hair cropped short in a buzz cut and muscles so dense that merely brushing against him would shatter bone.
Sakaki Ryo.
The captain himself, who oversaw the Self-Defense Militia, had come to meet me personally.
-I want to… protect my family.
I forced the words out, my lips barely cooperating.
Sakaki stood silent for a long moment, then burst into a hearty laugh and patted my shoulders enthusiastically.
-Kahahaha! That’s right! A true man must protect his own flesh and blood! Protect his family! Protect his nation!
Sakaki lifted my limp body from the ground, his face radiant with a bright smile.
-Perfect! I’ll make you into a true man!!
That was how I became the first Unawakened to join the Self-Defense Militia.
At first, I handled menial tasks and errands, but it wasn’t long before I awakened the stigma of the Shield Bearer, allowing me to fight on the Frontline alongside Sakaki.
“….”
Each day brought exhausting battles that made me want to retch.
Yet every moment with Sakaki filled me with joy.
Watching him sweep through monsters like an enraged bull, I yearned to become like him—a magnificent man.
Through grueling effort, I obtained eight marks, the same as Sakaki.
I thought I could finally stand confidently beside him.
I believed I could become a man as splendid as he was.
‘But in the end, this is what I’ve become.’
With my forehead pressed to the ground, a bitter laugh escaped my lips.
My eyes had run dry of tears long ago—there was nothing left to shed.
It was pathetic.
The fact that I, who couldn’t even protect a single family member properly, had dared to aspire to become a magnificent man like Sakaki.
Disgust at myself welled up, threatening to make me retch.
‘I…’
I could never become like Sakaki in the first place.
“Get up, Koshiro.”
“…Boss.”
“You said you wanted to protect your younger sister, didn’t you?”
Sakaki took a stance with his fists clenched.
“Then rise like a man and fight.”
“I’m… not like a man at all.”
Koshiro’s voice trembled.
“I’m different from you, boss… I’m a cripple who couldn’t even protect a single sister properly.”
His shoulders shook as he pressed his forehead against the ground.
“…Please kill me, boss.”
Would death bring peace?
Could I escape this nauseating wretchedness?
I couldn’t know for certain, but it had to be far better than continuing to live.
“Get up.”
Sakaki’s gaze, dark and profound, fixed upon Koshiro.
A sensation as though my breath had caught in my throat.
At the cold resonance of Sakaki’s voice, I felt tears threatening to spill forth unbidden.
“Boss.”
Unsteadily.
Koshiro pushed himself upright.
Bracing himself on both arms, he planted his feet firmly on the ground.
“Come on, Koshiro.”
Sakaki raised his fist.
“If you want to save your sister—try to stop me.”
Boom!
The earth trembled.
Gravel scattered as the ground cratered inward as though a bomb had detonated.
“Guh!”
Koshiro hastily crossed both arms.
A blue barrier materialized before him.
‘It’s not enough!’
This alone couldn’t withstand Sakaki’s overwhelming strength.
“Hnngh!”
Three layers of blue barriers formed.
Sakaki’s fist collided against the stacked barriers.
-Crash!!
A deafening roar that threatened to burst eardrums.
As if struck by a hammer across my crossed forearms, the impact sent Koshiro’s body flying upward.
“You can’t even withstand a single blow!!!”
Sakaki bellowed, pulling his elbow back.
I bent my waist and flexed my knees slightly.
Springing upward, I unleashed a full-powered uppercut toward the airborne Koshiro.
-Crash!
Koshiro swiftly conjured a shield mid-air, blocking Sakaki’s fist.
A bone-shattering impact radiated through both arms.
Tracing a parabolic arc, Koshiro barely managed to land safely with a proper breakfall.
“Why….”
Koshiro’s voice trembled as he spoke.
“Why aren’t you angry with me?”
No matter the coercion he’d endured.
He had betrayed the organization and attempted to drive a blade into Sakaki’s back.
He had repaid the kindness he’d received with enmity.
And yet.
Why, exactly.
“Why…! Why do you say nothing at all!!!”
If only you had raged like fire.
If only you had condemned and reproached me.
Perhaps I wouldn’t feel this utterly wretched.
“You talk too much for someone so insignificant.”
Sakaki swung his fist through the air as if slashing through emptiness.
An invisible shockwave rushed toward Koshiro like a tidal wave.
“Shield forth!!”
Koshiro’s stigma blazed with light.
Six shields unfurled like petals, blocking his path.
Against a shockwave emanating from there rather than a fist condensed with mana.
“Repel it!”
Boom!
The shockwave bounced off the shield, ricocheting back to strike Sakaki.
A dull, heavy sound echoed as if a hammer had struck solid steel plating.
“Ugh!”
Sakaki’s eyes narrowed.
The shields created by a Shield Bearer Awakener possessed the power to amplify reflected attacks by infusing them with mana.
As the amplified shockwave struck his body, a jarring impact shook his internal organs.
“Khahaha! Now that’s a tingling sensation—quite the potent strike!”
Sakaki burst into hearty laughter, casually wiping away the blood trickling from his lips.
“You’ve grown quite a bit in the time I haven’t seen you, Koshiro!”
I bared my teeth in a grin, clenching my fists.
“But!”
Rumble, rumble, rumble!!
The Taurus Constellation Mark blazed with fierce light, shaking the surrounding earth as if an earthquake had struck.
“You won’t be able to stop me at this level!!”
Like an enraged bull charging forward.
Sakaki lunged toward Koshiro with his waist lowered.
A violent wave of force swept across the ground, converging upon Sakaki’s body.
“…Boss.”
Koshiro bit his lip and crossed both arms in an X formation.
Six shields that had unfurled like flower petals surrounded him protectively.
“Haah.”
I exhaled deeply and drew forth all the mana from my entire body.
The six shields enveloping my body multiplied into twelve.
The twelve shields expanded into twenty-four.
The twenty-four shields expanded into forty-eight.
“The shields that guard the stars encompass the four cardinal directions and four corners, encircling the eight trigrams such that not a single gap remains.”
With a whispered incantation.
Forty-eight shields meshed together like interlocking gears.
Thus was created a single shield.
No—it was no longer something to be called a “shield,” but rather resembled a fortress.
“Koshiroooooooo!!!”
Toward the impenetrable fortress, a single bull charged.
With each step, the earth trembled and clear footprints were carved into the ground.
Condensed waves of force swept like a tempest across the surroundings.
Twenty meters, ten meters, five meters.
The distance between Koshiro and Sakaki rapidly closed.
━━━━━━━━━━!
An impact that swallowed even sound itself.
Following the collision of the two figures, the earth tens of meters around them fractured with a sickening crack.
Rocks several meters high shot upward, and the ground collapsed inward as if a sinkhole had opened.
Devastation so immense it seemed impossible that it could be wrought by human collision alone.
Thick dust settled like fog across the area.
“Ugh, cough!”
From within the dense dust came the sound of Sakaki’s coughing.
His two fists were mangled pathetically like clay toys in a child’s hands, and blood mixed with his coughs drenched his broad chest entirely.
“….”
Sakaki turned his head with a grim expression.
Forty-eight shields, shattered into fragments.
I caught sight of Koshiro standing precariously, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
“Oya, bro….”
Sway, sway.
Koshiro’s body swayed as though it might collapse at any moment.
He leaned his back against the jagged rock that had erupted from the twisted earth.
“Ha, haha.”
A hollow, empty laugh echoed out.
“I’m… pretty stupid, aren’t I?”
My vision blurred and dimmed.
Tears traced down my cheeks, gathering into droplets at my chin.
“I wanted to become a man as magnificent as Oya-bro….”
At first, I thought he was a foolish person.
I mocked him for spouting outdated talk of manhood in this day and age.
But then.
-Kuhaha! Did you see that, Koshiro! That’s what being a man is!
When monsters flooded in like a tidal wave and engulfed the city.
While everyone else was paralyzed with fear and scrambling to flee, I remembered how he had charged forward with a hearty laugh.
Childish, reckless, foolish—yes.
But as he rushed toward those monsters, his back seemed more magnificent than anyone else in the world.
I wanted to be like him.
I wanted to become a man capable of protecting those who mattered.
“But….”
Strength drained from my core.
“I couldn’t protect myself, let alone my family, let alone anyone.”
In the end.
I could never become like Sakaki.
All that effort, all that struggling.
It was nothing but meaningless thrashing in the end.
“I’m sorry… Oya-bro.”
My consciousness grew hazy.
Strength left my core as I bent forward.
My body, having lost its balance, crumpled.
-Thud.
Sakaki caught my falling body.
He slammed me against the rock, gripping my collar.
“….”
Is this where it ends?
I closed my eyes tightly.
I never harbored any illusions about surviving after betraying the organization.
‘I’m sorry.’
Poisoned and addicted.
The face of my younger sister, trapped somewhere and desperately waiting for me, surfaced in my mind.
How terrifying it must be.
How afraid she must be.
The guilt of failing to protect her to the end pierced my chest like a blade.
‘I’m such a pathetic older brother… I’m sorry.’
For failing to protect you.
For failing to save you.
Sorry.
“How many times do I have to tell you, Koshiro?”
Sakaki placed a hand on Koshiro’s head.
“A man should never bow his back so easily.”
Leaving Koshiro leaning against the rock, Sakaki walked past him.
Toward Kwon O-jin, who was fighting Sosuke alone.

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