Not A Regressor - Chapter 268

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

I Am Not a Regressor Chapter 268
Interlude – Ninth Memory (2)
My head burned with an intense, searing heat.
My heart pounded as if it might burst, and my breath came in gasps that reached the tip of my chin.
Thoughts erupted like a volcano, tangling and intertwining with one another.
“Haa, haa.”
I exhaled roughly, gripping my head with both hands.
I carefully retraced Lee Shin-hyuk’s memories from the very beginning, recalling them piece by piece.
“…It’s not there.”
No matter how much I retraced my memories.
The name ‘Black Star Society’ had never appeared in Lee Shin-hyuk’s recollections.
“What is this, exactly…?”
Where did things go wrong?
When did things go wrong?
“…False Star Sect.”
A word that appeared frequently enough in Lee Shin-hyuk’s memories.
Based on his recollections, the Black Star Society and the False Star Sect were essentially the same organization, differing only in name.
There was Cheon Do-yoon, the King of the Owl Faction, and Isabella.
So naturally.
I had assumed that at some point, the ‘Black Star Society’ had changed its name to the ‘False Star Sect’.
There was no other way to think about it.
“But if that were the case… it doesn’t make sense.”
The memory that had been transmitted was from roughly three weeks after Lee Shin-hyuk and Kwon O-jin first met.
It was the timing when a Gate opened in Mokdong, and Yujin entered it, targeting the Black Star Constellation’s sacred relic inside.
And at that moment.
Yujin confidently revealed himself to be a member of the ‘Black Star Society’.
‘Then why.’line>
In the transmitted memory of Lee Shin-hyuk, why had Yujin called himself a believer of the ‘False Star Sect’ rather than the Black Star Society?
In the transmitted memories of Lee Shin-hyuk, did Yujin say that he was a follower of the ‘False Star Sect’ rather than the Black Star Society?
‘The timeline doesn’t match up.’
The day Kwon O-jin and Yujin first met was November 15th.
And the encounter between Lee Woo-hyuk and Yujin, when he traced the traces of the sacred relic, occurred sometime between the 21st and 30th at the earliest.
A difference of merely one to two weeks.
There was no way the Black Star Society’s name had changed to the False Star Sect in such a short span.
Then.
There remained only one possibility.
“In other words.”
In the first cycle of the world that Lee Shin-hyuk experienced.
Not even once.
Had the ‘False Star Sect’ ever been called the ‘Black Star Society’.
“What on earth is going on…?”
Kwon O-jin muttered under his breath, his lips pressed thin.
His mind churned in chaotic confusion.
Could Lee Shin-hyuk’s memories be wrong?
Were the memories transmitted through Heukcheon all this time not actually Lee Shin-hyuk’s memories at all, but false recollections filled with illusions?
“…No.”
There were far too many instances where Lee Shin-hyuk’s memories aligned perfectly with future events for that to be the case.
The Gate opening in Mokdong, the monster sleeping beneath Seoul Station, Cheon Joo-ryong Barbatos’s Lair being located beneath Pyongyang—
All of it.
Matched Lee Shin-hyuk’s memories exactly.
‘Then what in the world is the False Star Sect?’
Why had Lee Shin-hyuk called the Black Star Society by the name False Star Sect?
Kwon O-jin continued his thoughts with a furrowed brow.
‘Did the future change when Lee Shin-hyuk died?’
No.
No matter how much I thought about it, the connection between Lee Shin-hyuk’s death and the Black Star Society’s name changing from False Star Sect was far too tenuous.
Of course, as the butterfly effect suggests, I understand that unforeseen consequences can arise from the smallest, most trivial events.
‘But there’s no way an organization’s name would change in just one or two weeks simply because Lee Shin-hyuk died.’
The Black Star Society wasn’t some ragtag gang of local thugs.
It was an organization directly created by the Heavenly Demon.
There was no way such an organization would casually change its name overnight.
“False Star Sect… False Star.”
Kwon O-jin’s eyes widened suddenly as he muttered the name with furrowed brows.
A conversation he’d once had with Isabella flashed through his mind.
-Do you know anything about the Heavenly Demon?
-Well… I’ve heard that he created the Black Star.
-…What?”
-Wait. The Black Star refers to a Constellation, right?
-Yes, that’s right. The Heavenly Demon gave power to the Constellations called ‘False Stars’ among the Constellations and made them into the Black Star.
The Heavenly Demon transformed the Constellations called False Stars into the Black Star.
In other words.
The beings now called Black Star Constellations were once called ‘False Stars’ before they met the Heavenly Demon.
“So… the False Star Sect?”
What if.
The False Star Sect from Lee Shin-hyuk’s memories wasn’t created by the Heavenly Demon, but by the Constellations who were called ‘False Stars’?
Then.
Then.
Then.
The Black Star Society was…?
“…Ah.”
Kwon O-jin’s eyes snapped wide open.
A chill ran down my spine, spreading through my entire body.
I had been thinking about this wrong from the very beginning.
The very first puzzle piece I had laid down was misaligned.
“The Black Star Society didn’t emerge from the False Star Sect…”
The False Star Sect had changed its name to become the Black Star Society.
“….”
How could that even be possible?
The name Black Star Society, which didn’t even exist in the world Lee Shin-hyuk had experienced, had somehow now replaced the False Star Sect—how?
It couldn’t be explained away by saying the future had changed.
The Black Star Society had existed even before Lee Shin-hyuk died, before Kwon O-jin awakened Heukcheon and absorbed his power.
“Then…”
If the future had already been altered before the point in time when Lee Shin-hyuk regressed.
If the past had been changed before the future was changed.
There could only be one answer.
“There wasn’t just one regressor.”
Someone.
Someone had gone back to a far more distant past than when Lee Shin-hyuk regressed and changed the future.
And the name of that being was—
“…the Heavenly Demon.”
The Heavenly Demon.
The being who had transformed the Constellations once called False Stars into Black Stars.
He had changed it.
A future where the False Star Sect should have existed into a future where the Black Star Society exists.
“Ha.”
A hollow laugh escaped Kwon O-jin’s lips.
Wobble, wobble.
His body swayed precariously as the strength drained from his legs.
If the Heavenly Demon was another regressor.
Then who was he really?
Who could have gone back to a past even more distant than Lee Shin-hyuk’s and changed the future?
It didn’t take long to find the answer.
“There’s only one person who could do that.”
Why hadn’t I realized it sooner?
Why hadn’t I understood it from the start?
The clues had been scattered everywhere from the beginning.
The answer had been written on the problem sheet from the very start.
He had been openly telling me, even going so far as to change the name “False Star Sect”—which didn’t need to be changed—to “Black Star Society.”
-You’ve come. I’ve been waiting.
When the black Dimensional Rift had run rampant and I was sucked into the Demon Realm.
A memory surfaced—someone whispering to me in a voice filled with joy.
Yes.
The Heavenly Demon had been waiting.
Waiting for me to notice.
Waiting for me to realize.
Waiting for me.
To reach him.
“…Yes. So that’s how it was.”
The scattered puzzle pieces clicked into place.
How I had never once heard the name Black Star Society in Lee Shin-hyuk’s memories.
How Heukcheon could exist as two entities simultaneously.
How the Heavenly Demon could corrupt the Constellations once called False Stars into the Black Star.
When I thought about it, the answer was simple.
There was only one possibility that could explain everything that had happened before.
“You were… me.”
Kwon O-jin murmured softly, gazing up at the dark sky laden with storm clouds.
* * *
A black sky.
In the darkness where the sun had faded and even the moon had lost its light.
A hill blanketed with countless corpses stretched out.
Upon that distant mountain of the dead.
Stood a goddess with radiant silver hair and a young man.
“Very well. Send me back to the past.”
With those final words, spoken with unwavering resolve.
A brilliant aura of light enveloped the young man’s body.
The youth’s form, wrapped in starlight that shimmered like the Milky Way, gradually crumbled into dust and scattered.
[….]
The goddess caressed the silver luminescence drifting through the void with her hand.
The radiant glow gradually dimmed.
Where the starlight had vanished.
There remained only an empty, desolate space, as if nothing had ever existed there from the beginning.
The goddess, who had gazed silently at the vacant void, slowly turned her head.
A hill of corpses filled the surrounding landscape.
Countless humans, heroes, and Constellations.
Had lost their lives in this place.
By a single being.
Looking down upon the sea of corpses where not even a handful of life remained, she finally opened her lips.
[The promise… has been kept.]
To whom were these words spoken?
Upon the hill of blood and flesh, no living being could be seen besides her.
The goddess clenched her fist, her trembling lips pressed tightly together.
Eyes gleaming with a beautiful golden light turned toward the hill of corpses.
Where her gaze fell lay the body of a young man, a spear piercing through his heart.
As the goddess’s voice echoed emptily across the hill, filled only with death.
Crack.
The corpse of the young man lying on the hill moved.
He grasped the spear embedded in his left chest and slowly pulled it free from his heart.
Clang.
The spear that had been lodged in the young man’s heart tumbled down the hill and struck against the rubble of a collapsed building.
“….”
The young man’s closed eyes slowly opened.
Two eyes burning with an azure brilliance.
He staggered to his feet, then twisted his neck gently side to side as if loosening his stiffened body.
“It hurts more than I expected.”
A parched voice escaped from between the young man’s lips.
He looked down at the fist-sized hole in his chest, then flicked his hand lightly.
Rumble, rumble, rumble.
Black clouds gathered and filled the gaping void in his chest.
“Hah.”
The young man exhaled softly, leisurely surveying the hill blanketed with corpses, then twisted his lips upward and let out a dry laugh.
“At last… the curtain has fallen.”
A chilling laugh echoed through the air.
The goddess’s golden eyes, fixed upon the young man, wavered.
She kept her lips firmly sealed, regarding him with sorrowful eyes.
The young man, who had been leisurely surveying his surroundings, turned his head toward the goddess.
Splash, splash.
Walking across the blood-soaked hill, the young man placed his hand gently on the goddess’s trembling cheek.
Tenderly, warmly.
As if comforting a frightened child.
“You did well, Vega.”
The Heavenly Demon smiled brightly.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————