Not A Regressor - Chapter 289

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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 289
Dog and Wolf (14)
Horus’s expression hardened into a rigid mask.
He trailed off mid-sentence, his gaze evasive.
Riak fixed him with eyes as cold as winter frost.
“I… I…”
As he struggled to squeeze out a response.
“Horus!”
A hysterical voice pierced the air.
Kalike, locked in combat with Kwon O-jin, glared at Horus with eyes wide enough to tear.
“What exactly are you doing right now?! I clearly told you to kill those bastards, didn’t I?”
“…”
“Use hostages, do whatever it takes—just kill them already! …Tch?!”
Kalike grimaced as he deflected Kwon O-jin’s spear thrust, which came crashing down with savage force.
Horus bit his lip and turned to face Kalike.
“Hostages are… pointless.”
Riak had already made his resolve.
Even if they killed the Silver-maned Tribe members they held captive, he would not stop.
“Ha! Can’t you see it’s just bluffing? Stop spouting empty words and show me an example!”
“…”
Horus clenched his fists and looked toward the Royal Guard.
Thanks to Riak’s efforts, a few of the Silver-maned Tribe members had been freed, but that was all.
Most of the Silver-maned Tribe remained in the Royal Guard’s grasp.
Even Riak could not possibly save so many people simultaneously.
“Why are you hesitating?!”
“I…”
“Horus!”
His clenched fists trembled slightly.
If Riak witnessed his own kinsmen dying before his eyes as Kalike suggested, his resolve might waver.
Or even if it didn’t, at the very least his mental fortitude could be shaken.
“I… am.”
It was simple.
As it had always been.
I need only act as commanded.
“Horus!”
“Give the order!”
The Royal Guard under Horus’s command pressed sharp claws against the throats of the Silver-maned Tribe members they held.
The moment the order came, dozens of Silver-maned Tribe members’ necks would be torn open by those razor-sharp claws in less than a second.
‘Yes.’
If I don’t kill the Silver-maned Tribe according to Kalike’s command now, he will activate the ‘leash’.
If the collar activates, I’ll lose even the Royal Guard—the only ones in the kingdom who trusted and followed me.
‘I’ve made this choice countless times already.’
To protect my kin’s lives, I must obey Kalike’s words.
I must become his loyal dog.
No matter how wretched.
No matter how pathetic.
I only need to kneel.
I only need to surrender.
Then I can save them.
All of them.
-You were simply afraid to fight.
Riak’s words became a sharp blade, carving through my chest.
“Who… is Khan, anyway.”
And he himself did nothing for a hundred years, yet here he stands
brazenly proclaiming the pride of wolves?
“You could have simply looked away!”
I couldn’t look away.
I had to watch my kin dying before my eyes, crushed by the helplessness of being unable to act.
“What I want isn’t an excuse, but an answer, Horus.”
“I—!”
Boom!
Horus scraped his foot roughly against the ground.
He glared at Riak with wide, blazing eyes.
Even though a single command from me would kill all my kin,
Riak’s gaze didn’t waver in the slightest.
‘It’s a bluff.’
Yes.
Kalike was right.
Since not a single captured kin has died yet, he’s merely pretending to be unaffected.
Riak is no wolf.
He’s nothing but a cowardly cur like me.
“Tch! If you don’t give the order right now, I’ll activate the collars around your subordinates’ necks!”
Kalike’s voice reaches me.
The voice that has bound me for a hundred years.
It hasn’t changed since then.
These knees have already worn thin from kneeling so many times.
What difference would one more time make?
So then.
“Damn it! What are you hesitating for!”
The answer was.
“Kill him faster, you fools!”
It was already decided….
“…do it.”
“What did you say?”
Horus’s gaze turned toward Kalike.
“I said be quiet, Kalike.”
Even if my knees were already worn away.
Even if my pride had turned to ash in the flames.
-That is the weight Khan must bear.
Horus looked at the old friend standing before him.
A cowardly bastard.
He let out a hollow laugh and muttered softly.
Hearing such words.
How could I remain a “dog” any longer?
“Royal Guard, listen!”
Horus turned to his Royal Guard and shouted.
Each face of theirs—faces I might never see again.
I etched the weight of life I must bear into my chest.
“By the name of Horus Khan, I command you!”
That name I had turned away from for a hundred years.
Now it was time to bear it.
“Release the Silver-maned Tribe you are holding!”
“…Lord Horus.”
The Royal Guard’s gaze converged on Horus.
Gently caressing the collar around their necks, they lowered the claws they had been bringing to the nape of the Silver-maned Tribe.
Thud, thud.
The Royal Guard’s footsteps turned toward Horus.
The Royal Guard arrayed before him straightened their spines and clenched their fists, striking their left chests three times—thump, thump, thump.
An ancient custom now extinct.
A pledge of loyalty performed only toward Khan.
“We shall obey Khan’s command.”
With those words.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
Black miasma erupted from the collars around the Royal Guard’s necks.
The Royal Guard convulsed, their faces turning pitch black.
Their eyes rolled back white as they collapsed, their tongues hanging long from their mouths.
“Ha, ha. Dogs that dare bare their fangs at their master must die.”
“….”
“I’ve kept half of them alive. If you want to save the remaining subordinates…!”
As Kalike turned to Horus and began to shout.
Crack!
My spear pierced through Kalike’s solar plexus.
“Ugh, cough!”
“Stop your whining, you bastard.”
Kalike, having unleashed the Heavenly Demon’s power, was formidable.
Even I, blessed by Vega, found myself struggling against him.
Had we fought properly, it would have been impossible to subdue him before Vega’s blessing faded.
“Did you really think you could endure while muttering complaints like that?”
Because Kalike’s attention was divided elsewhere, I managed to drive my spear into his solar plexus before Vega’s blessing expired.
“Hack, cough, gasp!”
The blue radiance that had gathered in Kalike’s eyes gradually dimmed.
Kalike collapsed forward, clutching at the gaping wound in his solar plexus, spewing blood.
“Phew.”
I exhaled deeply and withdrew my spear from Kalike’s solar plexus.
The brilliant silver light enveloping my body gradually receded, revealing Vega with an exhausted expression.
[I-is it finally over?]
Vega gasped painfully, clutching at her chest as the Divine Law’s constraints began to take hold.
I carefully laid Vega on my palm and nodded.
“Yes.”
[But there’s still that man, Horus….]
“That’s not my fight to take.”
I shook my head quietly, looking down at Horus’s subordinates sprawled on the ground with ashen faces.
“….”
A bitter taste spread through my mouth.
I had wanted to kill Kalike before he could activate his collar, but even with Vega’s blessing, I could only barely push him back.
If Kalike had known that Vega’s blessing didn’t last very long, it might have been me lying cold with a pierced solar plexus instead.
‘This is the power of the Demon Race.’
I could understand why they had become the rulers of the Demon Realm.
I exhaled deeply and turned my gaze toward Horus.
Horus stood motionless, staring down at his fallen subordinates.
“….”
Horus gazed down at his fallen subordinates with bitter eyes.
As Kalike had said, half of them were still alive.
Conversely, the other half were dead.
Because of his choice.
For the sake of trivial pride.
“…Was this the weight you had to bear?”
Khkh.
Horus’s shoulders trembled as he laughed.
“Unbearably… heavy indeed.”
No.
He roared.
“Grrrrr.”
Crack!
Horus’s body swelled as black fur engulfed his entire frame.
Kalike was already dead.
But there remained one final matter for him to settle.
“Come, Riak.”
The black wolf’s gaze fixed upon Riak.
“Let us end this.”
“…Horus.”
“Surely you don’t mean to say it’s over now that Kalike is dead?”
Riak clenched his fists, his expression bitter.
Just as Horus said, Kalike’s death was far from the end.
“If you wish to reclaim Khan’s name!”
Horus’s lips curled into a savage snarl.
“Then kill me!”
Boom!
The black wolf charged forward.
A fist brimming with terrifying force tore through the air and slammed across Riak’s cheek.
Blood spilled from Riak’s lips.
Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, Riak grinned wickedly.
“Ha! Is that all you’ve got?”
“What?”
“Seems the dog’s become a cat!”
“Your mouth’s still running!”
Spouting nonsense about cats while blood dripped from his lips.
Horus grabbed Riak’s shoulder with an expression of utter disbelief.
He drove his knee upward like lightning to strike Riak’s abdomen, but—
“Grrrrgh!”
Riak pressed his palm down on Horus’s knee and brought his head down like a hammer.
Crack!
Blood sprayed as Horus staggered backward, unsteady on his feet.
“Tch… Your skull’s always been damnably hard.”
“There’s just too much in this head of mine.”
“There you go spouting nonsense again. Who was it that ran off to the Forest whenever lessons began?”
“Didn’t you come along?”
“That was because you dragged me with you!”
Memories of their carefree childhood.
A time when peace still filled the Kan Kingdom.
While their mouths chattered away with nostalgic laughter and warmth, the fists of the two wolves swung at each other with merciless ferocity.
Fist colliding against fist.
Blood and sweat sprayed into the air as the two wolves grappled savagely.
“Hngh!”
Crack!
Riak’s fist drove deep into Horus’s solar plexus.
Horus slid backward as if he’d anticipated the attack, seizing Riak’s arm.
“Grrrrrowl!”
Horus hurled Riak to the ground while gripping his arm.
The earth caved inward from the tremendous impact, dirt erupting in all directions.
Slammed against the ground, Riak gnashed his teeth.
Riak snapped his waist and kicked at Horus with both legs.
Horus caught his legs as if he’d been waiting, spinning his body in a violent rotation.
The scattered earth swirled into a miniature cyclone as Horus spun at breathtaking speed.
At the apex of the centrifugal force, the spinning Horus released the legs he’d been gripping.
Riak’s body, hurled like a shot put, crashed into the fountain in the Royal Palace Garden.
Crash!
The statue erected in the fountain’s center toppled, its debris cascading down upon Riak.
“Ugh…”
Riak groaned as he staggered to his feet amid the rubble.
“Wasn’t it you who was just going on about cats?”
Horus gazed down at the groaning Riak with a sinister grin.
“Have you forgotten after all these years, Riak?”
His nails had grown long and sharp as blades.
“You never won a single sparring match against me in combat training class.”
The black wolf bared his fangs savagely and planted his feet.

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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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