Not A Regressor - Chapter 288

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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 288
Dogs and Wolves (13)
“Ugh… Let… go, Ra!”
Leoru, his throat seized by Horus, writhed in agony.
He turned toward Riak and cried out through gritted teeth.
“Kneel… or… I can’t… stop!”
Riak’s shoulders trembled at Leoru’s pitiful cry.
“I told you to be quiet.”
Crack!
Horus struck Leoru’s cheek once more.
Leoru, thrashing wildly, spat blood and jerked his head to the side.
“Now, kneel, Riak.”
Horus fixed him with blazing eyes.
“If you kneel here, I promise to release all the Silver-maned Tribe members I’ve captured.”
“…Horus.”
“Make your choice!”
The choice he had made.
The choice he had been forced to make.
Now he demands it of another.
“….”
Riak gnashed his teeth, his lips trembling.
Watching him torn by conflict, Horus let out a bitter laugh.
“You’re the same after all, aren’t you, Riak.”
To protect those precious to you.
What does a pittance of pride matter?
No matter how wretched, how vile.
Even if one becomes a dog instead of a wolf.
If it means protecting those precious to you.
Kneeling is nothing at all.
“Sometimes… one must become a dog.”
Horus spoke to Riak, whose head hung low.
Or perhaps.
He was speaking to himself.
“…Sometimes one must become a dog, Ra.”
A hollow laugh escaped Riak’s lips.
Horus narrowed his eyes, studying him.
“Then there’s no need to worry, Horus.”
Because.
He already had.
“I’ve lived as a dog for far too long already.”
Riak gazed upward at the sky, his expression bitter as if recalling the past.
“…What do you mean by that?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. For the past hundred years, I have lived as a dog, not a wolf.”
Even as I denied it.
Even as I turned away, telling myself it was unavoidable.
Now I understand.
What I have been doing for the past hundred years.
“You asked earlier what I did for a hundred years?”
“…Yes.”
“Nothing.”
“What?”
“I did nothing at all.”
The excuse that the Divine Law’s restrictions prevented me from leaving the Sanctuary was merely that—an excuse.
A Constellation itself could not, but a Celestial Spirit could operate outside the Sanctuary to some degree.
Yet.
I never ventured beyond the Sanctuary.
After becoming Vega’s Celestial Spirit, I merely locked myself away and obsessively repeated training to grow stronger.
All under the pretense of not repeating past regrets.
Under the justification that I needed the strength to protect those dear to me.
If I could surpass the ‘wall’ and transcend my former realm, I swore I would set out to atone for my past mistakes.
That was the vow I made before Vega.
“It was all hollow.”
I never surpassed the wall.
Despite repeating obsessive training, I never grew even once.
Of course I didn’t.
Because.
I never truly intended to surpass it.
“I was afraid of repeating failure.”
When I was given another chance.
The thought of repeating the same failure was unbearably terrifying.
“I was afraid that my choice would once again lead to the death of my kin.”
So I abandoned the attempt to challenge myself anew.
Curled up within the ‘wall’ of my own making.
If only I could surpass that wall someday.
If I could just grow a little stronger.
Then.
I repeated only hollow vows of stepping outside, nothing more.
“I… chose to become a dog, not a wolf.”
Just like Horus.
Wrapping myself in endless excuses.
Justifying myself with trivial excuses.
That’s how I lived.
For a hundred long years.
“…Riak.”
“Back then, I met some crazy kid who’d lost his mind.”
I remember it vividly even now.
Kwon O-jin, drenched in blood, staggering as he forced himself to his feet.
That madman who smiled brightly despite suffering wounds that should have meant death, as if it were nothing.
Problems that can be solved through endurance? There are none?
What kind of insane sophistry is that in this world?
No matter how hard I tried to ignore it.
Pain is real.
Fear exists.
It’s not something that can be resolved through mere endurance.
But.
“That kid actually pulled it off.”
“…What are you trying to say?”
“After meeting that kid, I couldn’t help but see it.”
“See what?”
“What I didn’t want to see.”
“….”
I’d known for a long time, in truth.
No.
Perhaps I’d known from the very beginning.
That I was nothing but a coward spouting pathetic excuses.
I knew, yet I turned away.
I averted my gaze, eyes downcast.
Because I was terrified of failing again.
Because I feared bearing responsibility for those who would die by my failure.
But after meeting Kwon O-jin.
After facing the Fate-Reversing Star shining brilliantly within the dark, overcast sky.
I could no longer turn away.
I could no longer live with my gaze averted from the things I didn’t want to see.
-Are you a dog now, or a wolf?
A question I couldn’t answer then.
Now it was time to answer that question.
“This is my answer, Horus.”
Blue lightning enveloped Riak’s body.
The dyed black fur burned away in the blue lightning, consumed, as new fur covered his form.
Fur that shone with a brilliant silver radiance.
Crack, crunch!
With a sickening sound of bone, Riak’s body transformed into the form of a werewolf.
“Grrrrrrrrr!”
A deep, resonant boom echoed out.
As he stomped his feet roughly, a massive crater tore across the earth as if a hammer had shattered a windowpane.
The entire Royal Palace trembled as though an earthquake had struck.
“I, Riak Khan, swear by my name!”
A ferocious roar reverberated through the air.
“I shall!”
Even if I repeat the same failure once more.
Even if those precious to me lose their lives because of my choice.
“Become a wolf.”
Crackling, sizzling!
A storm of azure lightning swept around Riak’s body, spreading wide.
Boom!
Stomping roughly, he charged toward Horus.
“Ugh!”
Riak’s fist, moving at a terrifying speed, struck Horus’s philtrum with precision.
Crack!
Horus’s head snapped back violently as his body was hurled away.
Horus skipped across the ground like a stone across water, propelled by the tremendous force concentrated in that single punch.
“Lord Horus!”
Horus’s alarmed Royal Guard rushed toward Riak.
“Hah!”
A Royal Guard warrior with a crimson mane swung his fist at Riak.
Riak twisted his head slightly, evading the punch with ease, then seized the guard’s arm roughly.
Crack!
With the sound of bone breaking, the arm bent at a grotesque angle.
“Get out of my way, whelps.”
Riak swung the captured arm violently, hurling the pursuing Royal Guard warrior toward the others.
The guard’s body shot forward like a projectile, colliding with his comrades and sending them tumbling.
“St-stop! If you move, these ones won’t live to—!”
A Royal Guard warrior pressed sharp claws against the throat of a Silver-maned Wolf Tribe member he held hostage.
Without responding, Riak raked his claws toward the guard holding the Silver-maned Wolf Tribe member as a hostage.
Lightning claws formed along the trail of his raking motion through the air.
Blazing azure lightning shot toward the Royal Guard warrior at blinding speed.
“Huh?!”
The eyes of the Royal Guard warrior holding the hostage widened in shock.
The lightning claws were not aimed at him alone.
A single strike that would pierce through both him and the Silver-maned Wolf Tribe member he held captive.
“Y-you absolute madman!”
Seeing Riak unleash his attack as though willing to kill the hostage as well, the Royal Guard warrior cursed viciously and threw his body to the side.
“Krraaaaaah!”
The Silver-maned Tribe member held hostage couldn’t evade in time and was struck by the lightning claws.
A horrific scream tore through the air.
“Don’t worry. He won’t die.”
Riak threw himself to the side, evading the lightning claws, and charged toward the Royal Guard warrior.
Crack!
He kicked the warrior’s abdomen as though striking a ball.
“Kugh-hack!”
The Royal Guard warrior, sent flying dozens of meters, crashed through the Royal Palace wall and embedded himself within it.
“Riak!”
Horus, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth, charged toward Riak.
Boom! Crack! Boom-boom-crack!
Colliding fists.
Though it was merely fist against fist, thunderous explosions erupted in succession, shaking the entire Royal Palace.
“You don’t care if your own kin dies!”
Horus’s fist struck Riak’s cheek brutally.
“Even if all those who followed you in faith perish! You alone would preserve your pride as a wolf!”
“What remains in a life where you abandoned that very pride?!”
Riak’s fist drove upward into Horus’s jaw.
Horus’s head snapped backward.
Gripping Riak’s shoulders, Horus brought his forehead down like a hammer.
“Life remains!”
“Only life remains!”
Bleeding from his split brow, Riak seized Horus’s shoulders and brought his forehead down in turn.
Crack!
With a dull sound, Horus spun backward, spraying blood.
“You became a hound to save your kin?”
“Kugh!”
He stomped brutally on Horus’s prone abdomen.
“Stop spouting nonsense, Horus.”
Eyes blazing like molten fire fixed upon him.
“You were simply afraid to fight.”
Unable to bear the weight of lives that would perish because of your own powerlessness.
You merely abandoned the struggle.
“What do you know! What gives you the right to speak!”
“Have you forgotten who I was?”
Silver-maned hair whipped in the howling wind.
“I am Khan, Horus.”
The weight of life that I had to bear more than anyone else was immeasurable.
And yet.
No—precisely because of that.
“I had to become a wolf.”
If I submit, everyone else submits.
If I break, everyone else breaks.
If I collapse, everyone else collapses.
“That is.”
Riak’s fist descended toward Horus’s face with brutal force.
“The weight that Khan must bear.”
Boom!
Just before Riak’s fist came crashing down.
Horus barely twisted his head, evading Riak’s punch.
Where Riak’s fist struck the ground, the earth cratered and crumbled.
Horus rolled across the floor, creating distance between himself and Riak.
“Hah, hah!”
A thin stream of blood trickled from the corner of Horus’s mouth as he breathed heavily.
Riak advanced slowly toward the gasping Horus.
“You would understand, having stood in that position for a hundred years.”
“I am….”
“Not Khan?”
A faint chuckle.
Riak let out a dry laugh.
His eyes had turned cold and pitiless as he stared at Horus.
“How much longer do you intend to keep running?”
….
“I have given you my answer, Horus.”
Now it was his turn to provide one.
“Are you a dog? Or a wolf?”
Riak asked quietly, regarding his old friend.

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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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