Not A Regressor - Chapter 197

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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 197
Satiated Hypocrisy and Starving Virtue (1)
“Well then, I’ll take this child so he can receive proper punishment. You two are free to leave.”
Demian turned to face Kwon O-jin and Ha-eun with a faint smile.
“You’re not going to help?”
Kwon O-jin regarded him with eyes sunken deep in thought, his voice steady.
“If you’re the Heavenly Saint, you’d certainly have the ability to help.”
“…So you knew who I was.”
“It would be strange not to know someone so famously renowned.”
As Kwon O-jin nodded calmly, Ha-eun’s expression shifted to one of startled surprise as she stared at Demian.
“The, the Heavenly Saint? Then, then you’re not one of the Seven Stars?”
Ha-eun’s face betrayed her bewilderment, as if the realization had caught her completely off guard.
In truth, despite the grandiose title of Seven Stars, Demian’s appearance was utterly unremarkable.
Even celebrities with striking features often go unrecognized in person—so it was hardly surprising that someone with a face as common as Demian’s would be overlooked.
“Yes, that’s correct. Providing financial assistance to this child would be no difficult matter for me.”
Demian nodded in acknowledgment.
Yet he continued, his voice dropping lower.
“However, I cannot help someone who has committed a crime out of mere sympathy. If I did, what would become of all the other people who live diligently without committing sins?”
It was a valid argument.
Excessively so.
“There are countless virtuous people in this world groaning under the weight of suffering. To help this child would be an insult to them.”
“I see.”
Kwon O-jin nodded in agreement.
His words were so perfectly righteous that no counterargument was possible.
‘This is the sword of justice.’
Flawless in its straightness.
Impeccable in its righteousness.
Unbending to human sentiment, unwavering in conviction.
Above the suffering of the weak, above despair, above anguished cries.
What mattered to him was the absolute value of ‘virtue.’
“I understand.”
Kwon O-jin let out a dry chuckle and turned away.
“Then I’ll leave the boy in your care.”
“Yes.”
He seized Ha-eun’s arm and pulled her along behind him.
“Wait, O-jin!”
Ha-eun followed after him in bewilderment.
“You’re just going to leave him like that?! You know what’ll happen to him if he gets dragged to the police!”
The fate of a nameless boy meant nothing to Kwon O-jin either way.
But for the tenderhearted Ha-eun, the life of this stranger they’d just met seemed to matter quite a great deal.
And.
If it mattered to her, it mattered to me.
“I’ll ask Isabella later to contact the police on our behalf. I’ll also look into the medication costs and cover them.”
“Ah… th-thank you.”
Ha-eun nodded with an embarrassed expression, apparently too heated to have thought of that approach herself.
She squinted as she glanced back at Demian, who was leading the boy away into the distance.
“By the way, that guy said his name was Cheon Seon-sung, right?”
“Yeah. Probably.”
“He kept going on about being the Sword of Justice and all that, but he’s really just stubborn as hell, isn’t he?”
“Well… he wasn’t exactly wrong, to be fair.”
He just expected too much.
There was nothing inherently wrong with Demian’s actions.
After all, stealing someone’s wallet couldn’t be justified just because one’s mother was ill.
“That’s true, but…”
Ha-eun scratched her head with a frustrated expression.
“From other people’s perspective, what we’re doing might look hypocritical.”
Sheltering criminals out of cheap sympathy could rightfully be called hypocrisy.
But.
“At least I think well-fed hypocrisy is better than starving virtue.”
Starving virtue can’t save anyone.
But well-fed hypocrisy can save at least one person.
Even if it’s not ‘righteous’.
Because that’s better than no one being saved at all.
“…That’s so like you.”
Ha-eun chuckled and playfully ruffled my hair.
“This is why I love our O-jin so much.”
“Alright, let’s find a bar and get going.”
“Sure thing.”
I headed to a bar with Ha-eun.
* * *
After drinking enthusiastically with Ha-eun, I returned to the Mansion.
While Ha-eun went in to shower first, I took a light walk outside the Mansion to clear the alcohol from my system.
“Hmm?”
A familiar silhouette caught my eye during the walk.
“Isabella?”
It was Isabella, whose face I hadn’t seen in days.
“Ah… Kwon O-jin?”
Isabella, who had been sitting on a bench in the Garden, turned her head upon noticing me.
Even in the dead of night, her face was visibly etched with deep exhaustion.
“Are you alright? You look quite tired.”
“It’s fine.”
Isabella offered a faint smile and shifted slightly, making room for me to sit beside her.
As I settled into the seat next to her, I studied her complexion carefully.
Despite her reassurance, her condition looked anything but fine.
‘Is the curse growing worse?’
What troubled me most was that this was the middle of the night—not even daylight when her symptoms might naturally ease.
Her state appeared far more serious than I’d anticipated.
“I hear you went sightseeing downtown with Ha-eun today?”
“Huh? Who told you that?”
“Hehe. No matter how busy you are, I keep tabs on your every move.”
Isabella continued with a bright smile.
“I should have been the one to show you around… I’m sorry about that.”
“Don’t worry about it. How are things with the cleanup?”
Such a catastrophic incident wouldn’t be easy to manage in its aftermath.
“We’ve dismissed Uncle Gilford and gathered the bereaved families to apologize… It’s been hectic.”
“You shouldn’t have to shoulder all the responsibility alone.”
The incident at San Fruttuoso had been a disaster—like an earthquake or typhoon.
At least, that’s how the public had been told.
While Gilford’s punishment for negligence made sense, it was unreasonable for Isabella, who had merely come as a guest, to bear the entire burden alone.
“Still, I’m the future head of the Colgrande Family.”
“Being part of a noble house isn’t all glamour, is it?”
“Power always comes with responsibility.”
Isabella gazed up at the night sky, her smile tinged with bitterness.
“I’m sorry. I invited you here, and then all this happened.”
“It’s fine. I’m resting well enough as it is.”
“…Thank you.”
Isabella gently placed her hand over mine, offering a soft smile.
“It’s late. You should go rest. You’ve barely slept these past few days, have you?”
I looked at Isabella, who appeared as exhausted as blanched bean sprouts, and spoke.
She nodded and rose from her seat.
“Yes. Will you stay out a bit longer?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I’ll go rest first.”
Isabella disappeared into the distance.
Left alone, I sat on the bench and gazed up at the night sky.
Brrrring.
Just then, my smartphone rang.
‘Come to think of it, it’s about time they contacted me.’
It was only natural.
I hadn’t been idle these past seven days.
I had entrusted a reliable source with investigating the origin of the sacred relic fragment discovered in the crevices of the collapsed Underwater Cave.
“Hello?”
-This is Lancioni.
Paolo Lancioni.
An informant I had relied on once before when I came to Rome searching for Isabella in the past.
“How did the investigation go?”
-It was difficult, but… I found out.
My eyes sharpened with intensity.
“Where did the sacred relic come from?”
-The Colgrand Family.
“…What?”
The sacred relic that caused the dragon vein to go berserk belonged to the Colgrand Family?
-I’m certain. The records are almost completely erased, but… it’s definitely an explosive-type sacred relic that the Colgrand Family directly obtained in the past.
“….”
Then was it the Colgrand Family who caused the dragon vein to go berserk, sending thousands upon thousands of monsters pouring out beyond the Gate?
‘Why?’
I couldn’t understand it.
If that place were managed by a rival family, perhaps. But who in their right mind would plant a bomb in their own front yard and detonate it?
-O-jin?
“Ah, yes. Thank you. I’ll send your compensation later.”
-Yes, understood.
Click.
The call ended.
I closed my eyes tightly, lost in thought.
If the dragon vein’s rampage was a scheme orchestrated by the Colgrand Family…
‘Then it wasn’t Isabella’s doing.’
There was no reason for her to cause the dragon vein to go berserk when her condition was deteriorating so severely that the curse’s influence remained even in the dead of night.
“…Wait.”
My brow furrowed as my thoughts continued.
‘When did Isabella’s condition become this severe?’
Certainly, when I overheard the conversation between her and Roberto on the first day, she had said that things improved once night fell.
But what about now?
Even though considerable time had passed since sunset, her condition appeared far worse than what I witnessed on the Beach that first day.
‘She used her power.’
To hold back the surging monsters, she had activated the sacred stigma of Canis Major Constellation.
And during broad daylight, no less—the time when she was most vulnerable to the curse.
“Ha.”
A hollow laugh escaped my lips.
“So… that’s how it happened.”
“I see… So that’s how it turned out.”
I covered my face with my hands and bit down on my lips.
—The hope that someday, like a miracle, all the resentment and misunderstandings would dissolve, and we might return to how things once were.
On a night when the moon hung high in the sky.
Her words, spoken with a melancholy smile, surfaced in my mind.
“We can’t go back to how things were… not anymore.”
I exhaled a long sigh and muttered to myself.
Even though I knew it.
Even though I had anticipated it.
My mouth tasted bitter.
“Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue sharply and pushed myself to my feet.
Now that I knew who had caused the dragon vein to rampage, it was time to move.
‘The mastermind.’
I concealed my presence and slipped into the Mansion.
I had already mapped out the internal layout of the Mansion over the past week.
Without hesitation, I made my way toward Paulo Colgrande—Isabella’s father and the current head of the Colgrande Family.
Standing before his firmly closed door, I activated the stigma of Canis Major Constellation.
‘Hmm?’
At this hour, Paulo should have been in his room, yet there was a suspicious absence of sound.
‘Has he sealed it with some kind of barrier?’
I reached out lightly and touched the door.
As I suspected, a rhythmic flow of mana enveloped Paulo’s door.
‘I’ll need to break through the barrier first.’
It wouldn’t be difficult.
I used my transformation ability to liquefy part of my body.
The liquid flowed through a small gap beneath the door.
If the barrier on the door was designed to prevent sound from leaking outward, this simple method should be enough to breach it.
“I apologize for calling you at such a late hour.”
“Not at all. When it comes to eliminating evil, there is no distinction between day and night. As for me, it simply took some time to shake off the tail that was following me.”
“Haha. That’s a relief.”
There was someone else in the room besides Paulo.
A person with a voice I knew all too well.
“Is this all the information you have on The Witch?”
“Yes. The Witch pretends to protect the Gypsies by using our family’s Center, but behind the scenes, she cruelly drains their blood.”
“…A hypocrite of the most despicable sort.”
Demian’s eyes burned with intense fury as he gripped the sword at his waist.
“I will eliminate her at once.”
“No. I believe it would be better to wait until tomorrow.”
Paulo’s eyes gleamed as a thin smile played at the corners of his mouth.
“Tomorrow, when the sun reaches its highest point—when that Witch will be at her weakest—we shall end her then.”
“Understood. I’ll visit again tomorrow.”
Kwon O-jin, who had been eavesdropping on their conversation while leaning against the door, turned away before Demian could step outside.
Footstep, footstep.
Walking through the darkened corridor, I let a smirk play across my lips.
‘A hypocrite without equal.’
Isabella’s filthy hypocrisy had built thousands upon thousands of sanctuaries.
‘Then.’
Whose salvation had your pristine virtue ever wrought?

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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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