Not A Regressor - Chapter 280

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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 280
Dog and Wolf (5)
Kwon O-jin watched Riak’s retreating figure as he trudged forward, drenched in blood, his lips pressed firmly together.
“….”
From a rational standpoint, it would be wise to play along with the hunters here and use them as guides.
Of course, that would only prolong the children’s despair.
But I could always rescue them after successfully infiltrating the Kingdom.
That approach would be far more rational and efficient.
However.
“There are times when you shouldn’t hold back, Ra.”
Kwon O-jin turned his head with a self-deprecating laugh.
He saw the trembling girl held captive by the hunters and the blood-soaked boy who had sacrificed himself to protect her.
Could turning a blind eye to them and chasing immediate gain truly be called ‘efficient’?
“Tsk.”
Not everything rational and efficient is always right.
The world.
Wasn’t constructed so simply.
“Fine, fine.”
Kwon O-jin released Ha-eun’s shoulder and turned his body around.
Following Riak, he conjured blue lightning in both his hands.
“Besides, I was getting frustrated holding back anyway.”
No matter how much of a con artist I was, living off others’ misfortune, I couldn’t help but feel something seeing these trash trying to capture children and sell them into slavery.
“You bastards…!”
When the lead hunter fell, the panicked hunters stumbled backward.
“D-Don’t come closer! If you do, this brat’s dead!”
“Kyaaah!”
The hunter holding Lilu pressed sharp claws against her throat and screamed.
Kwon O-jin and Riak’s footsteps froze.
“Y-Yeah, that’s right. Stay right there.”
“One step and these brats are done for!”
Did they think the hostage situation would work?
The hunter holding the boy also transformed one arm into a beast’s limb and shouted urgently.
The gazes of the stopped Kwon O-jin and Riak crossed.
“I’ll handle the boy.”
“Okay.”
As if they had coordinated beforehand, both of them pushed off simultaneously.
Just before the terrified hunter could slash the girl’s throat with his claws.
Twang!
The wire shooter erupted with fire.
The wire shot at high speed seized the hunter’s arm.
“Damn it! Damn it all!”
The hunter thrashed violently, trying to tear the wire coiled around his arm free.
Muscles bulged and rippled as brown fur spread across his entire body.
Crack!
An immense pressure transmitted through the wire.
No wonder he wasn’t just any resident of the Demon Realm.
The beastman, transformed into a half-human, half-beast form, wielded such absurd strength that he could snap the wire bare-handed—reinforced with powdered sacred stone to increase its durability.
But.
Bzzzzt!
Blue lightning coursed through the wire.
“Aaaaaaahhhhh!!”
The hunter who had been trying to tear the wire away with his bare hands twisted in agony, releasing a anguished howl.
My body was lifted into the air, dragged by the beastman’s convulsive thrashing.
“Tch!”
The hunter barely endured the shock of the electricity and swung his wire-bound arm violently.
I soared through the air like a tin can in a sparkler game.
The hunter hurled me toward a protruding rock formation.
“This bastard’s got ridiculous strength.”
As I flew through the air, dragged by the beastman’s monstrous power, I smirked slightly.
Unlike awakeners, beastmen bore no stigmata, but instead possessed physical abilities that defied all standards.
But.
Combat wasn’t simply won by being strong.
Whiiiing!
The slack wire suddenly pulled taut.
My body, which had been flying toward the sharp rocks, was yanked by the wire, changing direction toward the hunter.
“Huh?”
The hunter’s eyes widened in shock.
Before the hunter could react, I used Lightning Stigma Step to dash through the air.
I drew Tantalian from my waist—folded into knife form—and drove it down into the hunter’s brow.
Squelch!
Blood erupted from the split brow.
“Kyaaaaaahhh!”
Lilu, still held by the hunter, screamed as she looked up at the gushing blood.
I grabbed Lilu’s waist and pulled her away, shielding her from the fountain of blood.
The blood that had sprayed upward cascaded down onto my back instead.
“Ah… th-thank you.”
Lilu bowed her head with a dazed expression.
I gently stroked her silver hair to reassure the trembling girl.
At the unfamiliar touch, she flinched slightly, but soon her cheeks flushed softly and she quietly accepted my hand.
It seemed to be working.
I felt the girl’s trembling body gradually calm down.
‘Riak…’
I turned my gaze toward Riak.
“Grrrrr!”
Riak raked his claws downward as if tearing through the very air itself.
Flash Lightning.
A blade of azure lightning materialized along the path carved by his claws through empty space.
A sonic boom erupted as the lightning blade shot forward.
“Kch!”
The hunter holding the boy twisted his body with an expression of shock.
The razor-sharp blade narrowly missed him, passing by with a whisper.
“Huff, huff!”
As the hunter exhaled in relief, drenched in cold sweat, as if he’d been given a second chance at life.
Clang.
The thick iron chain binding the boy snapped cleanly and clattered to the ground.
From the eyes of the boy, beaten bloody and bruised, blazed a fierce, burning light.
“Grrrrr!”
“Aaaaah! You, you damned little brat!”
The boy raked his claws across the face of the hunter who had been holding him.
Blood streaming from his face, the hunter swung his fists savagely at the boy.
Just before the brown-furred fist could crush the boy’s head.
“Well done, kid.”
Riak surged forward at blinding speed and seized the hunter’s throat like snatching a fish, twisting it with his fangs.
Crack!
The hunter’s neck broken, he collapsed limply to the ground.
“Insane!”
In the blink of an eye, Kwon O-jin and Riak’s martial prowess in rescuing the hostage sent shockwaves of panic through the hunters.
Exchanging nervous glances, they turned and fled without a word.
“Where do you think you’re going, you bastards!”
Ha-eun withdrew a cigarette from her bosom and wielded it like a staff.
A wall of flame erupted, encircling the area.
“Kugh!”
“W-where is this fire coming from…?”
The hunters stumbled backward, their fur singeing in agony.
“I’ll finish them off.”
Isabella approached the hunters with unhurried steps.
Trapped with no escape, the hunters bared their sharp fangs at Isabella as she walked leisurely toward them.
Five hunters remained.
It wouldn’t take long to tear apart a single woman who appeared so delicate.
The remaining hunters transformed into hybrid forms and rushed at Isabella simultaneously.
Isabella raised her nails and leisurely dragged them across her palm.
Drip, drip.
Beads of blood fell to the floor.
When the hunters who had charged at terrifying speed surrounded Isabella.
“Die.”
A quiet command.
The blood droplets that had fallen to the floor swelled dozens, hundreds of times over, forming thin blood vessels.
Like unraveling a tangled ball of thread, the blood vessels spread out in all directions.
“Hack, cough!”
“Kerrrgh!”
The bodies of the hunters who brushed against the blood vessels were sliced into fragments like puzzle pieces.
Inhaling the thick scent of blood that bloomed forth, Isabella licked her lips with a satisfied expression, her tongue darting out.
“…Hey, that expression of yours is seriously terrifying.”
“My goodness. What do you mean by that, Elder Sister?”
Isabella shifted her expression with shameless ease.
Ha-eun let out a hollow laugh and turned her body toward where Kwon O-jin and Riak were standing.
“There aren’t any other enemies around here, right?”
“Doesn’t seem like it.”
Kwon O-jin nodded and unfastened the iron chains binding the trembling girl.
“Lilu!”
“L-Leo!”
The boy freed from the chains rushed urgently toward where Lilu was.
“A-are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?!”
“Y-yes. I’m fine.”
Lilu nodded slightly while held in Leo’s embrace.
Seeing Lilu without a single drop of blood on her, Leo exhaled a sigh of relief, then suddenly spun around and glared at Kwon O-jin’s group.
“W-who are you people?!”
His eyes were filled with wariness.
Leo bared his fangs savagely and glared at Kwon O-jin.
More precisely, at his ears and tail covered in black fur.
“Why would the Black-maned Tribe save us?”
His voice carried a deadly killing intent.
No matter how much Kwon O-jin’s group were his saviors, to Leo, who had suffered at the hands of other tribes, they were equally objects of suspicion.
“B-brother. But they saved us….”
“Lilu, stay quiet. Those guys are the Black-maned Tribe. Who knows what schemes they have!”
The boy took a combat stance, positioning himself protectively in front of Lilu.
Kwon O-jin swallowed a short breath and furrowed his brow.
‘This feels like I’m being more suspicious because of the fur color.’
The prosthetic ears he had worn to blend easily into beast-kin society were now holding him back instead.
After a moment of deliberation, Kwon O-jin removed the ear prosthetic from his head.
“There’s no need to be so cautious. We’re not from the Black-maned Tribe.”
“…?!”
Leo’s eyes widened as his mouth fell open.
“W-wait, could you be… humans?”
“That’s right.”
“Eek! B-big brother!”
“H-how did demons from beyond the Black Curtain end up here?!”
Leo and Lilu stumbled backward as if seized by panic.
“Huh?”
Kwon O-jin tilted his head at their far more violent rejection than when they’d seen the Black-maned Tribe.
“What do you mean by demons from beyond the Black Curtain…?”
“W-well, that’s right! Demons from the Black Curtain beyond the Forest of Mahae!”
Leo cried out in a voice trembling with fear.
“I-I heard it from the tribal chief! Humans are creatures we must be even more cautious of than the Black-maned Tribe!”
“Hmm.”
I’d thought humans wouldn’t warrant much caution from them, but it seemed my thinking had been too simplistic.
“Don’t be so frightened.”
Isabella opened her mouth in a gentle voice, as if soothing a crying child.
“If we intended to harm you, why would we have saved you?”
Isabella approached the children slowly, offering a logical explanation.
At the gentle aura emanating from her, Leo and Lilu’s expressions softened in an instant.
Leo, whose expression had melted as if intoxicated, suddenly shook his head.
“T-that’s…!”
“We’re not bad people, so don’t be afraid.”
Isabella, approaching Leo, gently caressed his cheek.
“D-don’t touch me!”
Leo swatted Isabella’s hand away sharply and glared at her fiercely.
Isabella didn’t yield, instead gently grasping Leo’s head and drawing him into an embrace.
“You were very frightened, weren’t you?”
Isabella held Leo close, whispering in a warm voice.
The killing intent radiating from Leo quickly dissipated beneath her gentle hand stroking his back.
“Y-you think I’d fall for that…?”
A soft sensation.
An impossibly tender touch pressed against both of Leo’s cheeks.
Perhaps because he was a beastman—or rather, precisely because he was a beastman—a fierce masculine instinct awakened within him.
Leo’s expression melted beneath the soft sensation compressing his cheeks, and a smile tugged at his lips.
“Y-you think I’d fall for… mmph.”
“….”
The boy burrowed into Isabella’s embrace without even realizing it.
“Brother… you’re pathetic.”
Lilu fixed Leo with a contemptuous glare, her eyes brimming with disdain.

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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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