Not A Regressor - Chapter 244

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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 244
Interlude—The Left Path
“Haa, haa!”
Breath came ragged, filling my throat to the brim.
Blood seeped from the gaping wound, soaking my clothes with a sickly dampness.
“Ugh.”
I poured a potion supplied by the False Star Sect onto the wound.
“Damn it. Even Madecassol would work better than this garbage.”
I harbored no illusions about the quality of supplies given to a low-ranking member without even a proper title.
I crawled across the cavern floor on my belly, rummaging through the pockets of a dead believer whose skull had been caved in by a Valhalla Guild member’s hammer.
“At least this bastard had something decent on him.”
After pouring more potion onto my wounds, I leaned against the cavern wall and exhaled deeply.
“Already… half a year?”
Six months had passed since I left Ha-eun’s side and became a believer of the False Star Sect.
During all that time, unable to see her face or hear her voice, a loneliness that was difficult to bear pressed down upon me.
‘Just a little more… just a little more.’
I touched my left chest.
With the blessing of the Owl Constellation, my wounds had healed enough to move my body freely.
Yet my left chest still bore no stigma—that mark which symbolized an awakened one.
‘The fake Aquarius stigma I once bore had also vanished during the healing process.’
Now there was only smooth skin beneath my fingertips.
“Once I become an awakened one… I’ll definitely return to you, sister.”
I spoke an oath against the cavern wall that no one would hear.
For now, without a stigma, I lived as nothing more than cannon fodder.
But once the stigma formed and I accumulated merit, I would gain access to the Moon Palace—where the False Star Sect hoarded its most precious sacred relics.
‘Pull off one big score there and vanish.’
As a mere foot soldier, approaching the Moon Palace was nearly impossible, but I had devised a plan.
‘If I can only deceive the Snake—the one controlling Cheon Do-yoon.’
I had spent a lifetime running cons.
Deceiving others was something I was quite confident in.
“Though I doubt sister will accept me even if I brazenly return after all this time.”
I smiled sadly and clenched my fist.
Even now, half a year later, that day’s memory haunted me.
The memory of having to leave her side, leaving only a single, pathetic line asking her to take care of Ha-eun.
“….”
My chest throbbed as if pierced by a sharp blade, yet I harbored no regret about that choice.
Even if I could return to that moment, I would make the same decision.
‘At least… I don’t want to be a hindrance.’
Ha-eun, who had become a member of Valhalla Guild and was even selected as part of Shou Xing.
I didn’t want to become ‘filthy dust’—as my name suggested—in the brilliantly shining life she had begun to live.
So I left.
Leaving behind only a single letter asking Lee Shin-hyuk to look after Ha-eun.
I disappeared from her side without even a final goodbye.
“Time to make my move.”
Once I confirmed the wound had stopped bleeding adequately, I slowly pushed myself to my feet.
‘By now, they should have all escaped through the External Passage.’
During the skirmish with Valhalla Guild, I deliberately leaked information to them that the False Star Sect’s Executors were positioned in the Internal Cavern.
They would certainly know of the monstrous power granted to the Executors by ‘The Snake’, so upon hearing the news, they would have immediately fled toward the External Passage.
‘There are some troops stationed there too.’
But with the combined strength of Lee Shin-hyuk, Lee Woo-hyuk, and Ha-eun, they had more than enough power to break through.
“Huff.”
I staggered toward the Internal Cavern.
By now, the False Star Sect’s Executors in the cavern should have already obtained the ‘Dragon’s Heart’—their objective—and left the dungeon.
‘Let me just check if there’s anything worth salvaging inside.’
For someone like me who didn’t even have a stigma yet, even scraps from the ‘Dragon’s Heart’ would be a windfall.
I made my way across the rubble of stone and arrived at the Internal Cavern.
“Wow.”
What lay before me was a vast space composed of blue crystals.
I couldn’t properly sense mana yet, but I could instinctively feel that this space itself was suffused with something tremendously powerful.
“I might actually be able to find something worthwhile here.”
My eyes gleamed as I looked around.
Then, a peculiar trace caught my attention.
“…Is this melted?”
The floor and walls bore blackened scorch marks and charred impressions.
As if seared by intense flames.
I followed the traces with my footsteps.
Between the collapsed debris, I spotted a bundle of thread with a reddish glow.
“This is…”
It wasn’t thread.
It was hair.
“Huh?”
A chill ran down my spine.
“No, no. She went toward the External Passage.”
I pushed away the ominous thought that had surfaced and cleared away the crystal debris.
My breathing grew ragged.
With each piece of debris I removed, something beneath gradually came into view.
Clothes soaked in blood.
And.
A woman with hair redder than blood itself.
“Wh… what…?”
A grotesque corpse with its left eye socket gouged out.
Half of the face was gone, yet Kwon O-jin recognized the body’s owner with terrible, unmistakable clarity.
“No… me…?”
Why.
Why.
Why.
Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why.
“Why… is my sister… here…?”
His breathing grew ragged and desperate.
Kwon O-jin’s trembling hands reached out again and again, touching the corpse buried beneath the rubble.
“No… it can’t be…”
It couldn’t be Ha-eun.
It mustn’t be Ha-eun.
“I… I told her there was an Executor in the Cavern Chamber.”
If that were true, Ha-eun should never have come here.
Under no circumstances.
She should never have been here.
“I told her! I leaked the information! But… but… why…?”
If she had tried to venture into the Internal Cavern alone, someone should have stepped forward to stop her.
He had already arranged for someone to take his place in that role.
And yet.
Why.
“You said… you’d protect her… you said you’d protect her!”
Kwon O-jin pulled Ha-eun’s corpse into his arms with trembling hands.
The body still retained its warmth.
He desperately held her fading heat against himself as it grew cold.
“Sister, sister, sister, sister.”
It was strange.
Despite such overwhelming sorrow.
Despite the anguish that felt like his chest was being torn apart.
No tears came.
“You’re not dead, are you, sister?”
The entire world felt like some vast theatrical stage.
As if a black-and-white film were playing, the world had drained into shades of gray.
The world he had lived and breathed in until now felt impossibly foreign.
“Ha… haha. Right? Sister…?”
Yes. In truth, his entire life had been nothing but a single performance.
The Orphanage Director who had tormented him so relentlessly, Lee Shin-hyuk who had stolen his hope—
They were all merely actors hired for this play.
At the end, they would appear with bright smiles and say, “Ta-da! Thank you so much for watching~!”
“Please… please tell me it’s a lie, okay?”
But.
Then why.
Why won’t the curtain fall on this damned performance?
Cough.
Then.
A searing pain erupted from my left heart, consuming me entirely.
“Ugh!”
With the pain came a crystalline chiming sound that pierced my ears.
Ding!
[Heukcheon begins its first Metamorphosis!]
[Heukcheon absorbs the Constellation Mark of the Dragon!]
“…Heukcheon?”
My eyes narrowed at the unfamiliar word.
But only for a moment.
Rumble.
Black clouds billowed forth from my palm, engulfing Ha-eun’s left chest.
A power I’d never felt before flowed through my body, riding those dark clouds.
The mana of the Dragon Constellation Mark that should have belonged to Ha-eun.
“No… stop.”
I reached out toward the black clouds that were ravenously devouring the mark.
The mana I’d yearned for so desperately was filling my body.
“Don’t consume it…!”
This belongs to Ha-eun.
It must belong to Ha-eun.
Otherwise.
“Don’t you dare consume it, you bastard!”
I swatted at the black clouds clinging to my left chest.
The clouds scattered like smoke, then coalesced again, continuing to steal Ha-eun’s mana.
“Please… stop! Please!”
I screamed.
I wailed.
But Heukcheon’s clouds devoured Ha-eun’s mana greedily, as if my screams meant nothing.
“Stop, stop, stop, I’m begging you, you goddamn thing!!!”
The Constellation Mark’s mana flowed into my body.
And with it, the mana remaining within her corpse began to fade.
The lifeless body cooled rapidly.
The warmth that lingered.
Her warmth, which I’d longed for so desperately.
Disappeared.
The warmth drains away.
Cold crystallizes through me.
Ding!
[You have successfully absorbed the Dragon Constellation’s Star Mark!]
[The Dragon Constellation’s Star Mark has been designated as your Primary Star Mark.]
Sizzzzle.
A searing pain, like the touch of a branding iron, consumes my left chest.
“…Ah.”
With trembling hands, I reach toward my left chest.
What my fingertips feel.
The Dragon Constellation’s Star Mark that Ha-eun had possessed.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”
The world crumbles.
Crushed, trampled, obliterated.
-Whoooosh!
Flames erupt and coil around my body.
These were flames far too familiar to me.
Beyond the roaring inferno, Ha-eun’s face overlaps with the fire.
“Sister…?”
With trembling hands, I reach toward the flames.
Ha-eun’s face, superimposed with the fire, scatters like smoke and vanishes.
“….”
Eyes devoid of light.
I stare down at her corpse, now cold and lifeless, with hollow eyes.
“Hmm, there’s still a person here?”
Then.
A voice reaches my ears.
“Looks like this bastard came here hoping to salvage something like us?”
“Oh, isn’t that the guy? You know, that woman from Shou Xing? The one they said was her brother.”
“Yeah, that’s him.”
The voices reaching my ears feel strangely artificial.
Like amateur actors reciting a predetermined script.
“…Ha, haha.”
A hollow laugh escapes me.
Of course.
Of course the voices feel artificial.
“Because this is all… a lie.”
This world was an intricately constructed theatrical stage.
I slowly rise to my feet.
Whoooosh!
Flames as scorching as a dragon’s breath wrapped around my body.
“What? That bastard didn’t have a stigma?”
“Did he perhaps obtain some kind of sacred relic?”
“Heh. How fortunate.”
The False Star Sect devotees approached with dark smiles spreading across their faces.
Kwon O-jin turned to face them, his own lips curling into an equally dark smile.
“Yes.”
If all of this was an intricately orchestrated play.
“Then it’s time to bring down the curtain.”
As Kwon O-jin raised his head, a brilliant blue flame ignited in his eyes.
In the next moment, terrible screams filled the cavern chamber along with the acrid smoke of burning flesh.
This was a story never recorded in the epic of the hero who overcame countless trials and tribulations to slay the Heavenly Demon.
The unchosen.
The tale of the left path.

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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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