Not A Regressor - Chapter 243

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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 243
Baptism of Stars (5)
A spring as beautiful as starlight flowing in place of water.
Kwon O-jin turned his body and emerged from the spring.
Having been completely naked, Kwon O-jin quickly dressed himself and gazed back at the Milky Way Spring where he had just been immersed.
‘I absorbed so much, yet there’s no sign of depletion.’
Despite absorbing the stigmatic mana contained within the spring water through both body and soul—though the soul absorption wasn’t his doing—the Milky Way Spring still sparkled with brilliant light just as it had when he first saw it.
Just how much total mana was contained within that spring?
Even from the perspective of Kwon O-jin, who possessed the extraordinary power of Heukcheon, the mana within the Milky Way Spring was at a level difficult to handle.
‘If Heukcheon ever fully awakens one day.’
Would he then be able to drain the Milky Way Spring completely?
‘…But if I did something like that, my possession of Heukcheon would be exposed in an instant.’
Kwon O-jin let out a bitter laugh and shook his head.
Perhaps because there was nothing Heukcheon had failed to absorb until now, a strange competitive spirit burned within him.
As he set aside such pointless thoughts and swept back his wet hair.
[It is… time now.]
Polaris, who had been gazing intently at Kwon O-jin, slowly lifted her gaze toward the sky.
Polaris’s form gradually faded and began to dissolve into the Milky Way Spring, disappearing.
[May your path ahead be filled only with brilliant starlight.]
With Polaris’s gentle voice echoing softly as the final farewell, her form completely vanished.
“….”
“….”
The gazes of the Constellations focused upon Kwon O-jin.
Having witnessed that Kwon O-jin was the Fate-Reversing Star and even received the title of Destroyer of Armies, the Constellations exchanged glances with expressions that seemed to say they had no idea what to say.
[You all seem quite bewildered.]
It was Vega’s calm voice that broke the awkward silence.
Vega swept her gaze across all the Constellations and continued.
[For now, I would appreciate it if you kept what happened here a secret.]
“…Didn’t you say you wouldn’t reveal his identity or anything?”
Deneb crossed his arms and wore a sullen expression.
[There’s nothing to gain from it being known, is there?]
“Well… I suppose that’s true.”
Even if the fact that he was the Fate-Reversing Star became known, it would only draw the ire of the Black Star Society without any benefit.
“Well then, since the baptism is complete, I’ll be taking my leave.”
Deneb turned sharply and trudged toward the Dimensional Rift leading outside.
The fact that Kwon O-jin was the Fate-Reversing Star seemed to have been quite a shock; complex thoughts emanated from the boy’s retreating figure.
“Hey, hey. Can I ask you something?”
Spica approached with quick steps and poked Kwon O-jin’s shoulder repeatedly.
Kwon O-jin, who had been drying his wet hair, nodded.
“Do you know what happens to me and my children in the future?”
[Stop that.]
“Aw, why not! I’m curious!”
As Vega frowned and tugged at her shoulder, Spica kicked her legs excitedly and cried out.
“Ahem, ahem.”
“It is rather… intriguing, I must admit.”
Regulus, Aldebaran, and Aries, who had lingered instead of departing, turned their gleaming eyes toward me with evident curiosity.
It seemed that even Constellations felt the pull of wondering what their own futures held.
To those luminous-eyed Constellations, I had only one answer to offer.
“You all get devoured by the Heavenly Demon.”
Whether they actually were devoured or not, even I couldn’t say for certain.
If the first cycle had unfolded according to Polaris’s prophecy, imagining their fates was hardly difficult.
“Ah… I see.”
“Hmph. Even if the younglings meet such a fate, how could this one be consumed by mere darkness?”
Upon hearing my answer, the Constellations’ expressions grew clouded and uncertain.
Though they received word that the Heavenly Demon would devour them all, their reaction was rather lukewarm. But thinking about it, if someone told me I’d die in the future, wouldn’t I react similarly?
“This time will be different.”
I turned to face the Constellations and continued.
“I will make it different.”
“My.”
Aries approached me with a deep smile.
“I thought you were a cute puppy, but you’re a dependable wolf instead?”
Aries, drawing close, gently linked her arm through mine.
A warmth bloomed within me.
The soft sensation transmitted through my arm.
In that instant, a vision flashed across my mind—vast plains with two fluffy peaks of woolly terrain rising majestically.
[Ahem!]
Vega wedged herself between us, pulling Aries away from my arm.
[Aren’t you growing tired?]
“Not particularly…”
[The Baptism of Stars is a trial that drains both body and spirit alike.]
Vega seized my arm and dragged me toward the Dimensional Rift.
I smiled wryly and allowed myself to be led outside by her hand.
After pulling me along at a brisk pace for some time, Vega glanced back to ensure no Constellations were following, then fixed me with an intensely serious gaze.
[Spica is one thing, but never—and I mean never—become entangled with the Constellation of Aries.]
“I wasn’t planning to anyway… but why?”
Was there some unsettling rumor circulating?
‘Could she be secretly colluding with the Black Star Constellations behind the scenes?’
It wasn’t an impossible scenario.
No matter how transcendent Constellations were, their emotional nature differed little from humanity.
They clashed, rejected one another, reconciled, and loved.
The Star Palace, where hundreds of Transcendents gathered, was nothing less than a microcosm of human society.
Then again.
It wouldn’t be strange at all if a ‘traitor’ was mixed among them.
As I looked at Vega with anxious eyes, she cried out in an urgent voice.
[It is, isn’t it!]
Big? What’s big about it?
[Anyway! From now on, you are forbidden from speaking with the Constellation of Aries!]
Vega placed both hands firmly on her hips, her expression stern.
“I shall obey your command, Vega.”
Kwon O-jin let out a soft chuckle and turned away.
“Then I’ll be heading out.”
[Go carefully.]
After a brief farewell with Vega, I stepped outside the Star Palace.
The familiar landscape of Gray Street unfolded before me.
“So Noe-rang is receiving the baptism today?”
“I wonder what name he’ll receive….”
“Something like Heavenly Wolf Star?”
“That’s not even part of the Big Dipper, you idiot.”
Rumors had spread that Kwon O-jin would receive the baptism of stars today, and crowds of onlookers and reporters had gathered like clouds around the Star Palace.
‘Heukcheon.’
Using Heukcheon to conceal my presence, I slipped through the throng of people filling the area before the Star Palace.
To build an image as a ‘hero,’ it would have been better to do a light interview, but there was something more important to attend to now.
Whoosh!
Using even the wire shooter to return home quickly, I opened the entrance door.
Ha-eun was nowhere to be found—the empty living room came into view.
“Phew.”
Sitting in seiza in the center of the living room, I took a deep breath and slowly closed my eyes.
‘They said the inheritance was delayed because of mana control.’
Then, if I could calm all the surging mana, the inheritance would proceed as scheduled.
I steadied my breathing and observed my inner state.
Splash, splash, splash.
I felt the mana of the stigma coursing roughly through my mana circuits like a river swollen by flood.
I guided the excess mana into Heukcheon and calmed the mana within.
About two hours passed like this.
-Ding!
[With the elevation of the Blooming Stage, some memories of Awakened One Lee Shin-hyuk are being inherited.]
The world twisted as the message I’d been waiting for arrived.
* * *
“Haa, haa!”
I could see Lee Shin-hyuk, breathing heavily with breath caught at his throat.
Boom, boom, boom!
Violent tremors shook the cavern as rocks cascaded down like rain.
‘This place.’
It was a location Kwon O-jin recognized instantly.
‘Where the Dragon Sleeps.’
The dungeon hidden within Baekdudsan.
The place Cheon Do-yoon had sought to claim the Dragon’s Heart.
“Damn it all!”
Inside the collapsing cavern.
Lee Shin-hyuk stood before a fork in the path, his expression taut with anxiety as curses spilled from his lips.
“Shin-hyuk! We don’t have time! We have to save the Guild Master now!”
Kim Sun-young’s voice, the Vice Guild Master of Valhalla Guild, echoed through the cavern from beside him, her tone urgent.
“But… but if we do that… my sister!”
“Ha-eun is already lost! The False Star Sect’s enforcers are in the Cavern Chamber!”
“That’s…”
Lee Shin-hyuk’s pupils trembled.
“We have to go toward the outer passage now! The Guild Master is holding off both the Owl Faction and the Seahorse Faction alone!”
Kim Sun-young, who typically led Valhalla Guild with cold judgment and decisive commands, now shrieked with hysterical desperation.
“But… but… but.”
Lee Shin-hyuk stared down the path leading toward the Cavern Chamber, his eyes trembling.
If he ran toward Ha-eun right now.
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.
Against all odds, one chance in a thousand.
Could he save her?
Could he protect her?
“Shin-hyuk!”
Her voice pressed harder.
Lee Shin-hyuk remained frozen at the fork, his legs quivering uncontrollably.
Crack!
His cheek snapped to the side, burning with sharp pain.
“What are you hesitating for?!”
Kim Sun-young glared at him with blazing eyes.
“He’s your brother! Your only family!”
She twisted his collar, her voice raw with anguish.
“Do you know how much Lee Woo-hyuk has sacrificed to protect you?! And now you’re going to betray him?!”
“…”
“It’s because of Ha-eun, isn’t it?”
Contempt flickered in Kim Sun-young’s eyes.
“You know what? No matter how hard you struggle your whole life, Ha-eun will never belong to you.”
A hollow laugh escaped her.
Sharp words like blades carved through Lee Shin-hyuk’s chest.
He bit his lip, unable to offer any rebuttal.
Kim Sun-young was right.
Over all this time, I had courted Ha-eun dozens of times, yet she had never once looked back at me.
Not even when I gifted her the Dragon Eye I had borrowed money from Lee Woo-hyuk to obtain.
Not even when I threw myself into danger to save her from the False Star Sect.
Not even when I gathered the courage to confess my feelings to her.
Always.
Always.
Always.
Her eyes were fixed solely on her lost younger brother.
‘Why… why not me.’
A grinding sound escaped my teeth.
Lee Shin-hyuk clenched his fists tightly, gnashing his teeth.
Her brother—a name I didn’t even know—flashed through my mind.
‘That bastard… abandoned his sister and joined the False Star Sect!’
Ha-eun’s brother had left her side to become a follower of the False Star Sect.
In exchange for healing his crippled body, he became their dog and attacked Shou Xing.
Of course, even as a False Star Sect follower, he held no rank—he was nothing but a foot soldier—but there was no denying the fact that he had pledged himself to a terrorist organization threatening the world.
The reason she was in danger now was because she had abandoned the camp alone to search for her brother and headed toward the Cavern Chamber, wasn’t it?
‘I…’
A fork in the road appeared before me, splitting into two paths.
The left path led toward Ha-eun.
The right path led toward Lee Woo-hyuk.
‘I…!’
Lee Shin-hyuk squeezed his eyes shut.
And turned his steps toward the right path.
“I’m sorry.”
I sprinted through the crumbling Cave.
Memories of when I first met her surfaced.
Reddish-brown hair scattering like flames.
Ha-eun hunting monsters with both eyes lost, her body unable to even manifest her stigma.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
I had sworn to protect her.
I had resolved to stay by her side.
“I’m sorry… sister.”
Lee Shin-hyuk rushed toward where Lee Woo-hyuk was, leaving Ha-eun alone in the Cavern Chamber behind.
Repeating an apology only I could hear.

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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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