Not A Regressor - Chapter 276

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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 276
Dogs and Wolves (1)
Within the dense thicket.
Two wolves with silver-maned coats tore through the undergrowth in desperate flight.
“Huff, huff!”
Breath ragged and labored, rising to the very edge of their throats.
Without even a thought to wipe away the saliva dripping between their razor-sharp fangs, the two wolves thrashed wildly through the vegetation, pressing forward with frenzied desperation.
“O-older brother, I….”
“Just hold on a little longer!”
One of the lagging wolves stumbled and collapsed to the ground.
The wolf called “older brother” spun around urgently to check on the fallen one’s condition.
Silver fur marred by dark splotches.
The beautiful silver coat that once shimmered like silk had become matted rags caked with dirt and dust, and the entire body was covered in countless shallow wounds scraped raw by branches.
“Lilu! Stay with me!”
“I’m sorry… Leo. I can’t go any further….”
“Grrrgh!”
The wolf called Leo swallowed a low growl and bared his fangs savagely.
“Just wait a moment.”
Crack!
With a sound like bones twisting, the wolf’s form began to shift into a human shape.
Covered in dust and dirt, but now bearing the delicate features of a boy.
Though his appearance differed little from that of a human, beast ears and a tail sprouted from his body instead of human ones.
“Hngh!”
Leo, now in human form, embraced the collapsed Lilu.
“O-older brother. If you keep doing this, you’ll collapse too….”
“Be quiet.”
Leo dashed through the forest while cradling Lilu in his arms.
His frame was so gaunt he couldn’t lift a sack of rice, yet the beast’s blood flowing through his veins granted him strength that defied all reason.
“Huff, huff!”
But as all living things must, the limits of stamina inevitably arrive.
Having gone days without proper food and now carrying Lilu while moving, his strength began to drain with alarming speed.
“There!”
“We got the bastard!”
Savage shouts pierced the air.
Hunters encircled the area in an instant.
“Tsk, these brats are fast on their feet, I’ll give them that….”
One of the hunters approached with narrowed eyes.
Like Leo, this human-shaped hunter bore beast ears and a tail.
The difference was that while Leo had been covered in silver fur, this hunter possessed ears and a tail covered in dull brown fur.
“Damn it.”
Leo spat out one last curse, glaring at the hunters.
“Give it up now, kid.”
“If you come quietly, you won’t get hurt.”
The hunters tightened their encirclement with mocking laughter.
“Shut up.”
Leo spread both arms wide, positioning himself in front of Lilu.
Sharp bestial claws sprouted from his splayed palms.
“I am a wolf of the Silver-maned Wolf Tribe.”
The boy burned with determination, refusing to yield.
The hunters shook their heads in exasperation.
“These Silver-maned brats never change.”
“Don’t they realize what’s become of them for being so stubborn?”
“Well, it’s always been this way.”
The hunters abandoned any pretense of subduing him gently, placing their hands over their left chests.
Crack, crack!
With a sickening sound, brown fur sprouted across their bodies.
“You know we can’t kill him, right?”
“Still, breaking a limb or two should be acceptable, shouldn’t it?”
“Well, the higher-ups would understand that much.”
The hunters transformed into wolf-men with savage eyes, elongated snouts, and razor-sharp fangs, lunging toward Leo.

* * *
Beyond the curtain-like expanse of black Dimensional Rift.
What lay before me was a vast forest stretching endlessly.
“We’ve arrived.”
From a distance, it seemed little different from the forests of Earth.
But upon closer inspection, one could easily discern this was the land of demonic beasts, not Earth.
Or perhaps there was no need to look so carefully.
Whoosh!
From a colossal flower three meters tall, green vines lashed out like whips.
The tendrils whipped with terrifying force, cutting through the air.
“Still the same old place.”
Ha-eun squinted and flicked her finger.
Whoosh!
Flames erupted, incinerating the green vines as they whipped past at high speed.
“Indeed.”
Isabella lightly scratched her palm with her fingernail.
Where the blood dripped, it bubbled and churned, red thorns surging upward and extending in a straight line.
Crack.
The flower, pierced through by the red thorns, drooped limply.
“Let’s go, Kwon O-jin.”
“Got it.”
“…Wait, you pup.”
Riak dashed forward and swiped his front paw at the drooping flower.
Blue lightning crackled as the earth beneath the flower inverted.
Beneath the overturned soil writhed grotesque roots.
“Raflé regenerates instantly and attacks again unless you destroy it completely, roots and all.”
Riak severed the writhing roots with his sharp claws as he spoke.
Ha-eun let out a short gasp.
“…So you really were from the Demon Realm.”
“Hmph. Didn’t Vega already tell you that, lizard woman?”
“She did, but I couldn’t really grasp it until now.”
Riak snorted derisively and turned his head away curtly.
[Where should we go now?]
“Hold on.”
I pulled out the compass Allen had given me from my pocket.
As I channeled my magical power into it, the needle began spinning with a soft whirring sound.
After a moment, the crimson needle stopped and pointed in one direction.
“That way.”
“…That’s where the kingdom is.”
“If we go this way, we’ll reach the beastfolk kingdom?”
“That’s right.”
Riak nodded once more.
Ha-eun grinned mischievously and hopped onto Riak’s back in one playful bound.
“Then having the mutt guide us would be perfect!”
“Grrgh! G-get down, lizard woman!”
“Come on, it’s not like I’m that heavy.”
“Hmph. Still, you’re easily over 110 pounds….”
“D-don’t you dare finish that sentence!”
Ha-eun urgently clamped her hand over Riak’s mouth.
“It’s just because I’m tall, okay?!”
Her face flushed as she glanced back at me.
I chuckled softly and approached Riak.
“Anyway, if you know the way, can you guide us?”
“Grrrr… Follow quietly, pup.”
Riak nodded and walked forward.
The figure of Riak leading the way seemed somehow listless and drooping.
It looked as though he was hesitating about returning to the Demon Realm itself.
Or perhaps, it even looked like he was… afraid.
“Why is he acting like that?”
Ha-eun turned to Vega and asked.
[That is….]
Vega, who had been watching Riak’s retreating figure with a bitter gaze, exhaled a short sigh.
[It’s not something I should speak of. Ask Riak directly yourself.]
“Hmm. Is that so?”
Ha-eun swallowed at the sigh laden with complicated emotions.
“…Looking at him drooping like that, he really does seem like a pathetic puppy.”
Even as she grumbled, she didn’t approach Riak to ask directly.
No matter how oblivious Ha-eun could be, she could tell that Riak had no desire to converse with anyone else right now.
“By the way, Kwon O-jin. You mentioned you’d be meeting Cheon Gwon-seong first, didn’t you?”
Isabella approached naturally beside Kwon O-jin and asked.
“Yeah. I want to gather some information there and, if possible, secure their cooperation.”
“…Will that be alright? There isn’t much known about them, after all.”
Cheon Gwon-seong Baek Moo-gang.
Though a member of the Seven Stars, almost nothing was known about them.
They engaged in no public activities whatsoever, and despite holding the immense position of first-ranked among Deneb’s 12 Apostles, they were an Awakened One who had settled and lived alone in the Demon Realm.
“Well… I’ve heard they have quite an eccentric personality.”
“Then wouldn’t that be even more dangerous?”
“Well, there aren’t many other options.”
Most Awakened Ones who settled and lived in the Demon Realm were either those who had committed grave crimes or those who had fled after becoming targets for elimination.
At least Cheon Gwon-seong didn’t fall into that category, so it would be worth meeting them.
[Come to think of it, I’ve barely heard Deneb speak about Cheon Gwon-seong at all.]
“Even from Deneb?”
Yet they were the first-ranked Awakened One among merely twelve apostles, and I’d heard nothing about them?
[Cheon Gwon-seong wasn’t selected as first-ranked due to personal martial prowess alone. If we’re talking pure strength, Allen Oskal would likely be far superior.]
“Then what?”
[The high ranking comes from the symbolic significance of being the first apostle. Of course, that doesn’t mean they’re weak by any means.]
“Well, they’re one of the Seven Stars anyway.”
If their personal strength were lacking, they couldn’t have survived alone in the Demon Realm for years.
[Hmm. Now that I think about it, it is rather strange. When I first made Allen an apostle, that child came to my Divine Temple and boasted for hours on end, yet they were oddly reserved when it came to speaking of Cheon Gwon-seong.]
I recalled the memory of when Deneb first introduced Allen.
Deneb, who spared no praise for Allen like a doting father.
Not only Allen, but when speaking of the Xiaolin and Xiaoran sisters or the other apostles, Deneb never tired of boasting about them.
‘Yet they held back when it came to Cheon Gwon-seong?’
Given Deneb’s personality, it was behavior difficult to comprehend.
[Ugh. I should have asked about this beforehand.]
“Never mind. We’re not exactly close anyway.”
If anything, our relationship leaned more toward the unfavorable side.
“Well, we’ll find out once we meet in person.”
I followed in Riak’s footsteps, moving toward the direction the compass indicated.

* * *
For a week, we pushed through the dense undergrowth, pressing onward without pause.
After camping intermittently along the way and walking without rest, we finally managed to escape the Forest.
“At last—I’m finally out of this blasted Forest!”
Ha-eun spread both arms toward the blazing sunlight and roared with exultation.
“It really is monstrously vast.”
“Right. And there were so many demonic beasts in the middle….”
Isabella also shook her head with an expression of exhaustion.
Kwon O-jin, Ha-eun, Isabella.
Despite all three possessing transcendent bodies that far exceeded human limitations, it had taken a full week to traverse the Forest.
Even accounting for the frequent attacks by demonic beasts, it had been excessively vast.
“The Forest of Mahae is notorious even within the Demon Realm.”
Riak also gazed back at the Forest with a visibly exhausted expression.
“Had the First Rift opened anywhere other than the Forest of Mahae, the damage to Earth would have been far less severe.”
“…True enough.”
Even at the Forest’s periphery, the number of demonic beasts had noticeably decreased compared to where we first arrived.
‘When I came here riding Poppy before, it wasn’t like this.’
That journey had taken considerable time as well.
But we hadn’t faced relentless attacks from all directions like we did now.
“Ugh… How much farther to where that Baek Moo-gang or whatever, and the Heavenly Authority are, Kwon O-jin?”
“I don’t know that either.”
The compass only indicated direction, not distance.
“Anyway, let’s pick up the pace now.”
“Can’t we rest a bit?”
“You know we don’t have time, noona.”
A week had passed since entering the Demon Realm, yet I still hadn’t encountered the Heavenly Authority.
“Ugh.”
“…Wait.”
Riak, who had been leading the way, lowered his nose to the ground and sniffed.
“I smell humans.”
The direction he indicated matched precisely with where the compass needle pointed.
Our group accelerated, rushing in the direction the compass indicated.
After running for about five minutes.
A small Cottage came into view beside a gently flowing stream.
Click.
The one who emerged from the Cottage’s door was an elderly man.
His height barely reached my chest.
His back was hunched like that of a hunchback, and his face was covered with age spots.
An old man with features so grotesque they made one’s eyes narrow in discomfort.
“Huh?”
The elderly man who spotted Kwon O-jin’s group approached with eyes gleaming brightly.
Perhaps due to his hunched back, the old man shuffled forward in a rather comical gait and looked up at Kwon O-jin with a chuckle.
“Not Allen. Someone else. First time.”
The old man grinned widely and raised his hand.
I thought he might be offering a handshake, but instead he began picking his nose with the raised hand.
“I’m Cheon Gwon-seong… Huh? Is it Cheon Gwon-seong? Well. Anyway. I’m Baek Moo-gang. Pleased to meet you.”
“….”
Kwon O-jin’s expression hardened into a rigid mask as he stared at Baek Moo-gang, who stood there grinning widely with a booger-covered hand extended.

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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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