Not A Regressor - Chapter 195

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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 195
The Sword of Justice (1)
A week had passed since the massive assault at San Fruttuoso caused by the Gate’s rampage.
Kwon O-jin, Ha-eun, and Isabella had relocated their temporary residence to the Colgrand Family Main Residence located in Rome.
Because the incident itself was so massive in scale, rumors spread rapidly, and Isabella found herself buried under a hectic schedule to manage the aftermath.
This left Kwon O-jin and Ha-eun in limbo.
Isabella had drawn a clear line, stating that this was a matter for the Colgrand Family and she would handle it herself, leaving the two of them with nothing to do but to be abandoned in the sprawling Colgrand Family Mansion.
“Yaaaaaawn.”
Ha-eun, lying on the bed in Kwon O-jin’s room, let out a long yawn as she rolled herself up in the blanket.
Wriggle, wriggle.
Ha-eun squirmed like a chrysalis in the process of metamorphosis.
But only for a moment.
“Argh! How much longer do I have to do this?”
Growing tired of rolling around on the bed, Ha-eun kicked the blanket away with her feet and sat up.
Kwon O-jin picked up the blanket that Ha-eun had kicked onto the floor and approached her.
“We just need to stay here until things settle down a bit.”
“Why can’t we just go back home and come back later? Besides, there’s a Star Palace in Rome, so it wouldn’t take long to get home.”
“That’s true, but…”
Even if we traveled through the Star Palaces, immigration checkpoints for foreign awakeners existed at each Star Palace entrance, so it took more time than expected.
“I want to stay here until we find the culprit.”
“The culprit?”
“The one who tampered with the dragon vein.”
“Ah.”
Ha-eun swallowed a groan and nodded.
In truth, living in the Colgrand Family Mansion lacked nothing.
The room was spacious enough to play basketball in, and the meals served at each sitting were so luxurious that she wondered if such food could exist in the world.
And the bathhouse?
When Ha-eun first entered the bathhouse of the Colgrand Family Mansion, she thought she had stepped into a palace of gods worthy of Greek and Roman mythology.
Everything was excessively luxurious, ornate, and refined.
But.
“Something just doesn’t fit right, you know?”
Ha-eun let out a deep sigh and flopped back onto the bed.
Kwon O-jin chuckled and answered, “Me too.”
For two people who had lived at the very bottom of the barrel, the luxurious lifestyle at the Colgrand Family felt as uncomfortable as wearing ill-fitting clothes.
“It would be different if this were actually our home.”
It was like visiting a friend’s house only to have them suddenly leave because they had urgent business—it was bound to feel awkward.
“Just bear with it for a while. Wasn’t it you who said Isabella looked vulnerable right now?”
“Well, that’s true…”
Ha-eun let out a deep sigh.
It would be one thing if Kwon O-jin could actively work to bring Isabella to their side while staying at the mansion.
Isabella was so busy that she didn’t even have time to show her face, making everything feel meaningless.
“If you’re that bored, want to spar with me?”
“Spar?”
Kwon O-jin nodded.
Since absorbing the dragon vein and reaching the 8-Star rank, I hadn’t yet fully integrated this new power into my body.
‘I’m curious how much stronger I’ve become.’
Honestly, I didn’t know exactly how powerful I was now.
Normally, an Awakener could estimate their strength based on how powerful their stigma was and what rank their Star was, but.
‘I’m different.’
The power of Heukcheon and the Lyra Constellation stigma—one of the highest-tier powers.
Even Vega, the Constellation of Polaris, had been astonished by my talent.
I myself was well aware of how anomalous my existence was.
[A sparring match with Ha-eun… that would certainly be worth trying.]
Chirp.
Vega, perched on my shoulder and gnawing on fruit like a squirrel, nodded her head.
“Ho. You’re really going to challenge your older sister at just 8-Star?”
Ha-eun’s eyes gleamed with interest as she rose from the bed.
She poked my side with a playful smile, but she herself knew well.
That no matter how much of a high-rank Awakener she was with her body reconstruction complete, she couldn’t easily defeat me.
No, deep down she was even thinking that there was no way she could win no matter what she tried.
“I want to see this too.”
Riak, who had been sitting on the wide carpet, rose and approached.
“Alright. Let’s head to the Garden then.”
Kwon O-jin nodded and led Ha-eun, Vega, and Riak outside.
* * *
Though I called it a ‘Garden’.
The space that sprawled outside the Colgrand Family Mansion was far too vast to be described as a garden.
“Seriously, what kind of crazy house has a lake and a mountain inside it?”
Ha-eun walked through the Colgrand Family Garden, which seemed to stretch endlessly, and clicked her tongue.
It was the very essence of capitalism.
“Makes you want to start a revolution.”
“A revolution, really?”
Kwon O-jin chuckled and found a suitable spot for sparring.
“This place looks good.”
In the barren field, as wide as an elementary school soccer field and apparently built for the guards’ training, Awakener-exclusive training equipment was arranged.
“Should we start right away?”
Ha-eun clenched her fists and took her stance.
[Wait a moment.]
Vega fluttered into the air and stretched her hand high.
Crackle!
Blue lightning spread out like a curtain of light from her center, extending across the surroundings.
“Wait. You didn’t just deploy a Sacred Domain, did you?”
[I have not unfolded a Sacred Domain, so worry not. It is merely a barrier of sorts that prevents shock and noise from spreading to the surroundings.]
“It won’t strain your divine essence?”
[Hehe. What a worrisome child you are. Do you truly believe I cannot control even this much?]
Fair point.
There was no reason to damage divine essence just to set up a barrier for a mere sparring match.
“Alright! So I can go all out then?”
[The barrier is not that sturdy, so do moderate your strength accordingly.]
“Roger that. Got it.”
Ha-eun nodded, and as if a brilliant idea had struck her, she snapped her fingers with a sharp crack.
“Kwon O-jin. Just sparring alone seems a bit boring, so how about we make a wager?”
“A wager?”
“Yeah. Whoever loses has to grant the winner one wish.”
Well.
I had no idea what wish she might ask for.
“Fine.”
“Hehe! You promised, right?”
Ha-eun grinned and pulled a cigarette pack from her pocket.
She drew out a slender stick of tobacco and slipped it between her fingers.
“Ignite.”
I think.
I imagine.
I crave.
Blazing flames that burn with fierce intensity.
Crimson fire that blazes brilliantly, like the breath a dragon exhales.
“Burn with all your might.”
Whoooosh!!
A massive wave of fire crashed down upon Kwon O-jin.
“Ugh!”
Even without direct contact, the heat alone turned my skin a deep red.
‘If I took that head-on.’
I’d collapse as a charred husk.
‘She’s definitely superior to me in terms of firepower.’
If I were to compare her to an old popular game, she was like a siege tank.
Slow in movement, but possessing long range and devastating single strikes.
‘However.’
My eyes gleamed with sharp intensity.
In pure firepower, I could not match Ha-eun unless I wielded the Thunder God’s Body.
But in every other aspect, I was not inferior to her in the slightest.
No, it wasn’t just that I wouldn’t lose.
I had confidence I could overwhelm her.
“Exceed.”
Crackle!
Blue lightning wrapped around my body.
I stomped my feet roughly and shot upward into the air.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
Ha-eun raised the cigarette pinched between her fingers toward me.
Like a conductor wielding a baton to lead an orchestra, the flames changed direction and surged upward following the cigarette’s movement.
Crackle!
Using Thunder Step, I evaded the flames and plummeted downward with meteoric speed.
‘Lightning strike.’
Crackle, crackle, crackle!
A bolt of lightning fell from the sky, aimed at Ha-eun.
“Hah!”
Ha-eun let out a sharp cry as she rolled both feet.
Flames exploded, propelling her body backward like a shot.
Boom, boom, boom, boom!!
Using the momentum from my descent, I charged forward fiercely toward Ha-eun.
Gripping the pitch-black spear in my hand, I swung it wide, scraping across the ground.
“Hup!”
Ha-eun jumped up, dodging the spear.
She stretched her right arm forward and flicked the cigarette pinched between her fingers toward me.
Whoooosh!!
A wide curtain of flames engulfed me.
‘I can’t dodge this.’
Sizzle.
My skin burned under the intense heat pouring from the curtain of fire.
“Ha! You can’t do anything now, can you, you bastard?!”
Ha-eun shouted with a triumphant expression.
I lowered my body as I watched the approaching wall of fire.
‘No.’
There’s something I can do.
“Explosive Thunder.”
Boom!
I concentrated lightning at the spear’s tip and unleashed the explosive thunder.
My target wasn’t the wall of flames, but the ground beneath it.
‘Fire always rises upward.’
The explosive thunder’s impact created a crater about three meters deep.
I threw myself into the crater, evading the flames.
“Wh-what?!”
Ha-eun stumbled backward, her expression flustered.
Kwon O-jin seized the opening and lunged toward her.
Reversing his grip on the spear, he drove the shaft toward her abdomen.
Just as Ha-eun, retreating helplessly, seemed about to be struck—
“Did you really think I’d go down that easily?”
The panic that had crossed Ha-eun’s face vanished in an instant, replaced by a smirk as she twisted her body with a sharp pivot.
She caught the incoming spear shaft with one hand while clenching her fist.
Whoooosh!
Savage flames erupted from her clenched fist.
“Haaaah!”
Crack!
Kwon O-jin’s body was violently hurled backward, struck squarely in the philtrum.
“Hehe! How’s that? That one really connected, didn’t it?!”
Ha-eun cried out triumphantly.
As I was sent flying backward, I crossed both arms.
And then—
Screeeech!
Six strands of wire erupted from the crater I’d created with the explosive charge, coiling around Ha-eun’s body.
“Ugh!!”
This time, Ha-eun let out a genuine cry of alarm.
She could easily burn through these wires with her flames and snap them apart.
Whiiiiing!
The wires wrapped around her body shrieked as they retracted toward the launcher.
Ha-eun desperately planted her feet to maintain balance, but instead, my body was pulled toward her like a projectile.
Crackle!
Blue lightning danced savagely across the obsidian spear.
“Damn it!”
Realizing there was no escape, Ha-eun pulled six cigarettes from a pack.
“Ignite!”
Whoooosh!!
Six crimson fire dragons erupted from the cigarette tips, coiling around her body.
“Burn with everything you’ve got!!!”
With a fierce cry, Kwon O-jin and Ha-eun collided.
Booooom!!!
A deafening roar accompanied a tempestuous wind that swept across the surroundings.
The wind, absorbing scattered stone fragments and laying waste to everything around it, was deflected back by the blue lightning barrier that enveloped the Empty Field.
As the dust settled like mist—
“Cough!”
I knelt on one knee, collapsed to the ground.
“Huh? Did… did I win?”
Ha-eun’s eyes widened as she glanced around uncertainly.
While Kwon O-jin’s clothes hung in tatters and his entire body bore the scorch marks of flames, Ha-eun appeared completely unscathed.
“Ugh. Yeah. You won, noona.”
Kwon O-jin shook his head with a wry smile, as if he couldn’t help himself.
“Yes! I won! I actually won!”
Ha-eun let out a triumphant cry and bounced up and down in place.
“….”
Kwon O-jin watched Ha-eun leap about with an expression of pure delight, his own smile warm and contented.
“A wish! You promised to grant me one wish!”
“Yeah. What do you want?”
“Um. Wait, just a moment! Let me think about it—stay right there!”
She clearly hadn’t expected to actually win.
Ha-eun clutched her head frantically, lost in thought.
“…Kid.”
While Ha-eun remained absorbed in deliberation, Riak quietly approached Kwon O-jin.
His eyes narrowed with displeasure as he spoke.
“Why did you throw the match?”
So Riak’s eyes hadn’t been fooled after all.
Kwon O-jin chuckled and shrugged his shoulders, then walked toward Ha-eun without a word.
“….”
Riak’s gaze followed Kwon O-jin’s retreating figure with cold intensity.
‘There’s no way I misread that. That kid could have easily beaten the lizard woman.’
Yet in that final clash.
He deliberately released his power.
“Hah.”
Losing intentionally during a sparring match wasn’t difficult.
But.
Doing so in a way that made the opponent completely unaware was an entirely different matter.
‘A monster.’
Riak stared at Kwon O-jin with wavering eyes.
It had been just over a year since Kwon O-jin received the Lyra Constellation’s stigma.
Even if it ranked slightly below Polaris, for an awakener with a higher star than himself—and a 9-star awakener who had completed physical reconstruction at that—to be able to fight while ‘going easy’ on him was extraordinary.
‘If that monster reaches 9-star… how much more of a monster will he become?’
A spine-tingling chill ran through his body.
Like gazing up at a night sky laden with dark clouds.
An abyss of dread pressed down upon Riak.
‘…Then what about me.’
Riak squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head.
“Oh! I just thought of a wish!!”
Ha-eun grinned widely, raising one arm with a flourish.
She wrapped her arms lightly around Kwon O-jin’s, her eyes sparkling with mischief as she opened her mouth to speak.
“My wish is—”

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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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