Not A Regressor - Chapter 176

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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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I Am Not a Regressor Chapter 176
Living Armor (1)
“Hmm… So a place like this exists in South Korea too.”
The streets of Yonghyun-dong, where Isabella and I had just arrived.
The desolate avenue—littered with collapsed Building Ruins, trash strewn across the pavement, and the acrid stench of decay wafting from every corner—bore little resemblance to South Korea’s reputation as a “safe nation,” just as she had remarked.
“Well, it’s not that there was no damage here either. It’s just that the impact was less severe.”
I surveyed the surrounding streets, where a gloomy atmosphere hung heavy in the air.
Even if it differed from South Korea’s typical image, this atmosphere wasn’t unfamiliar to me.
Before I became an Awakener, I had lived in a neighborhood with precisely this kind of desolate character.
‘I wonder if this feels strange to Isabella.’
She was the cherished daughter of one of Europe’s most distinguished families.
A street with this post-apocalyptic atmosphere would surely be alien to her.
“A place like this must feel rather unfamiliar to you, doesn’t it?”
“Hm? Oh no, that’s not quite it.”
Isabella shook her head with a gentle smile.
“I used to come to places like this quite often for volunteer work.”
“Ah.”
Now that I thought about it, Isabella had frequently volunteered for the Roma communities.
I had completely forgotten about it, overwhelmed by the shocking state I’d seen her in afterward.
“If anything, this is relatively decent.”
“…This is considered decent?”
“Things have improved somewhat now, but… the situation in Italy was far more severe.”
More severe than this ghost town overflowing with garbage and filth?
“After the monster catastrophe struck Italy, the entire nation fell under the control of mafia organizations.”
She must be referring to the Marco Family.
“Corpses—children, adults, the elderly, without distinction—were scattered among the trash and sewage. All mixed together.”
“That’s…”
I could certainly understand what she meant by the situation being worse than here.
I gazed intently at Isabella’s profile as she walked forward with a bitter expression.
Was the expression she wore now a mask to play the role of the “Saint of Rome,” or was it her true face?
‘I can’t tell.’
Reflecting on it, I realized how little I actually knew about her.
Not the Saint of Rome, not the Leech Queen of the Black Star Society.
About the woman herself—Isabella Colgrande.
“Why did you join Suhoseong in the first place?”
“Hm? Didn’t I mention it earlier? When I heard that you were affiliated with Suhoseong, I contacted you first, saying I wanted to join.”
“That’s exactly what I’m asking—why did you join just because I’m there?”
A question that had lingered unresolved all this time.
Why did Isabella show such interest in me?
Of course, I was aware that she harbored a deep obsession with my “blood.”
But was there really a reason to go this far just for that?
To be blunt, if she only wanted my blood, she could have kidnapped me, locked me away, and simply drained me dry.
“I wanted to see you, Kwon O-jin. Isn’t that reason enough?”
Isabella smiled with a radiance that rivaled the stars themselves.
Before that beautiful smile—one that bore no trace of a blood-crazed witch—I found myself at a loss for words.
“It was my first time.”
“Your first time?”
“Someone protecting me the way you did.”
Isabella tilted her head as if reminiscing, gazing up at the overcast sky laden with heavy clouds.
“What about your family members?”
It made no sense that Isabella—who even had dedicated bodyguards—would claim I was the first person to ever protect her.
“Well, they protect me in exchange for compensation. You were different, weren’t you?”
“I suppose so, but—”
“You were my first. The first person to protect me without asking for anything in return.”
Isabella said this with a charming smile that reached her eyes.
‘I was her first,’ I thought.
A question naturally surfaced in my mind.
“…What about your family?”
“Hehehehe.”
Isabella covered her mouth with one hand, laughing lightly as if something amused her greatly.
“That’s right. You don’t know much about our family, do you?”
“What do you mean?”
“The Colgrande Family provides no protection to their children. Not until they ‘survive.'”
“….”
Her voice carried a sticky, unpleasant undertone.
I narrowed my eyes and demanded an explanation.
Isabella opened her mouth with a bitter expression.
“Children of the Colgrande Family are exposed to various dangers from a young age. Assassination attempts, kidnappings, that sort of thing.”
“And your family doesn’t protect you at all?”
That was essentially no different from being abandoned by my parents from birth.
In some ways, it was even more brutal.
At least I hadn’t grown up under constant threats of assassination and kidnapping.
“To be precise, we only receive family protection until age ten. After that… we have to survive however we can until we’re designated as a ‘successor.'”
“That’s one insane family.”
“….”
At my blunt assessment, Isabella’s eyes widened like a startled rabbit’s.
“What?”
“Oh, no. It’s just… you’re the first person to curse our family so candidly.”
Isabella murmured the curse I’d uttered several times under her breath.
“One insane family… hehe. Ahahaha!”
Isabella finally burst into laughter.
It was the most genuine laugh I’d seen from her yet.
“That’s right. They really were… utterly foolish people.”
The way she spoke in past tense made me wonder if they’d all died when the monster outbreak occurred.
Or perhaps.
She’d killed them with her own hands.
Isabella laughed so hard that tears welled up in her eyes, and she wiped them away while nodding.
“What happens to the children who aren’t chosen as heirs?”
“They’re all expelled from the family.”
“Without a single coin?”
“A coin? Ah, you mean money. Yes, that’s right. Literally—they’re abandoned on the streets. In some distant foreign land, so they can never return.”
“…Huh.”
A hollow laugh escaped my lips involuntarily.
There really were all kinds of insane families in this world.
“So after you became the heir, Isabella…”
“Yes. My older sister was cast out by the family in the same way.”
Beneath Isabella’s matter-of-fact tone, I could sense an unmistakable sadness.
But it was fleeting.
Isabella gently tugged at my arm, her usual innocent smile returning.
“Hehe. Now you understand why I was so eager to see you, don’t you?”
“Mm.”
I swallowed hard, feeling the soft sensation of her arm against mine.
Everything she was showing me now could be a lie designed to put me at ease.
She might have approached me with an entirely different purpose.
‘After all, Isabella is an executive of the Black Star Society.’
Without knowing the Leech Faction’s true objectives, I couldn’t let my guard down.
But.
“Well… fine.”
Just this once.
It seemed acceptable to be deceived by her words.
“Then let’s start searching for the Demonic Beast right away!”
Isabella called out in a spirited voice and strode forward with confident steps.
I chuckled softly and followed after her.
“Is it really okay for the supporter to go ahead like that?”
“Oh.”
Isabella let out a short exclamation, her face flushing red.
“I-I got excited because I was embarrassed.”
“That’s quite aggressive for someone who’s embarrassed.”
“D-don’t say things like that!”
Isabella stammered and fumbled over her words.
Kwon O-jin shrugged lightly and stepped past her, moving forward.
They’d talked enough—it was time to begin tracking the Demonic Beast, just as she’d suggested.
‘No obvious traces.’
He’d patrolled every corner of the alley, but found nothing that resembled a Demonic Beast’s trail.
The street was already so dilapidated to begin with that any signs of the creature were impossible to discern.
“What type of Demonic Beast do you think it is?”
“Hard to say. If there aren’t any conspicuous traces like this, it’s probably not a large one.”
If it were a Demonic Beast exceeding ten or twenty meters in size, it would be impossible for it to move about without leaving any traces whatsoever.
‘At most, it’s probably human-sized.’
Demonic Beasts with humanoid physiques weren’t uncommon, so it was certainly plausible.
“Let’s search the area a bit more for now.”
“Ah, have the other teams reported anything?”
“Not yet.”
Thirty minutes had passed since they began tracking, but the communication orb hadn’t glimmered once.
“Let’s search for another thirty minutes or so, then contact them.”
“Yes, Kwon O-jin!”
Isabella nodded with a radiant smile.
The sight reminded me of a puppy wagging its tail, and I couldn’t help but smile.
Together with Isabella, I searched the surroundings for another thirty minutes.
Just as we were nearly finishing our sweep of the assigned sector.
—Shhhhhhiiiiiii.
A faint sound echoed through the darkness.
A chilling hiss, like gas leaking from a pipe, reverberated through the shadowed alley.
“…Kwon O-jin.”
“Yeah.”
I withdrew a palm-sized metal rod from my waist.
Clang, click!
As I channeled mana into it, the rod transformed into the shape of a spear.
“I’ll cast a buff on you!”
Isabella raised her staff and shouted.
Brilliant golden light poured from the golden gem embedded at the staff’s tip, seeping into my body.
Vitality began to surge through my frame, which still carried a dull ache from internal injuries not yet fully healed.
‘This won’t completely mask the internal damage.’
But at least I could draw enough mana to reach a level where I could fight.
—Clang, clang.
The metallic sound continued, echoing closer.
This was the kind of noise one would hear if wearing armor made entirely of steel.
I pointed my spear toward the direction of the sound.
Tension hung thick in the air.
Beyond the next alley, I could sense the Demonic Beast moving.
‘It’s coming.’
Crackle!
Blue lightning ignited across the tip of the spear thrust forward.
And then.
Shhhh
i
i
i
i
ik.
Like air escaping from a punctured tube.
The sound that had echoed through the alley began to fade into the distance.
“What?”
Kwon O-jin furrowed his brow and rushed urgently beyond the alley.
Had he been hearing things?
The eerie sound that had hung over the darkened alley vanished without a trace.
‘Where did it go?’
Kwon O-jin squinted and stamped his foot.
He raced through the labyrinthine alleys, pursuing the beast.
About a minute of frantic running had passed.
When he lightly vaulted over a crumbling wall.
—Splash!
The sound of viscous liquid spraying upward.
A familiar fishy stench assaulted his nostrils.
‘This is…’
Lifting his gaze downward, he saw a pool of blood pooling thickly on the ground.
At the center of the blood pooled on the ground.
“…Damn it.”
Jegal So-young’s head, split cleanly in half, lay scattered.
“O-O-jin, this is—!”
Isabella, who had caught up moments later, trembled with a deathly pale expression.
On the surface, she appeared to be shaking uncontrollably in terror.
But Kwon O-jin could see it.
The coldness that had settled in her eyes.
‘Surely… no, that can’t be.’
An ominous thought flashed unbidden through his mind.
Kwon O-jin’s gaze naturally turned toward Isabella.
Gulp.
Dry saliva traveled down his throat.

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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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