Not A Regressor - Chapter 309

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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 309
A Faded Promise (1)
Three days had passed since that day when all manner of tumultuous(?) events had unfolded.
Kwon O-jin’s party had managed to escape the Sky Mountain Range and arrive at the long narrow gorge leading toward the Draconian Kingdom.
“Finally!”
Ha-eun, confirming that the oppressive mist had vanished, threw both arms up in the air with a roar of exultation.
Even though Behemoth had died, the mist blanketing the Sky Mountain Range hadn’t dissipated, so considerable time had been consumed in finding their way through.
“So we just need to keep going straight down this path from here, right?”
“Yeah. If the map Leoru drew is accurate.”
Kwon O-jin nodded, recalling the map that Leoru had sketched for him.
“By the way….”
Ha-eun trailed off and scratched her head.
“Vega’s been staying in the Sanctuary this whole time since then, right?”
“Uh… well.”
Kwon O-jin cleared his throat awkwardly and avoided Ha-eun’s gaze.
Since that incident, Vega had remained shut away inside the Sanctuary, not showing her face.
“Well, given what happened that day.”
Fair enough.
Her preferences had been laid bare so openly in front of the entire party that even Vega couldn’t have endured it.
“Let’s not call her unless it’s absolutely necessary for now.”
“Understood.”
For now, confirming the state of the Draconian Kingdom took priority, so Vega’s assistance wasn’t immediately essential.
“By the way, Kwon O-jin.”
Isabella linked her arm through his with a beautiful smile playing at her eyes.
Pressing herself against him, she whispered in a sultry voice near his ear.
“Wouldn’t you like to spank me too?”
“…I told you that’s not my thing, seriously.”
Though Vega had nearly led him into a strange new world(?), Kwon O-jin fundamentally lacked that peculiar inclination to enjoy spanking.
“Hehe. Really? What do you think?”
Isabella pressed herself even closer with a playful smile.
‘No wonder Vega locked herself in the Sanctuary.’
Kwon O-jin sighed and moved his steps through the narrow gorge.
After the incident three days ago, Riak had also shut himself away in the Sanctuary alongside Vega (supposedly to seek her forgiveness), so Kwon O-jin had taken the lead.
‘The stigma of Canis Major Constellation.’
He heightened his senses and mounted Poppy’s back.
“Grrrrr!”
“Take it slow.”
Poppy nodded and began moving forward.
Though they proceeded carefully while surveying their surroundings, their actual pace was quite good thanks to having escaped the Sky Mountain Range’s territory.
After running continuously for several hours without rest.
“Phew, now that those mist creatures and demonic beasts are gone, I can finally breathe.”
Ha-eun giggled and tightened her grip around Kwon O-jin’s waist.
Though she had been scanning her surroundings with a tense expression at first, after hours of not spotting a single creature, her vigilance had noticeably eased.
“Should we set up camp here for the night?”
The sun was already beginning to set, and they had discovered a suitable gorge nearby where they could bathe.
While they needed to reach the Dragon-race’s kingdom as soon as possible, they couldn’t push forward without sleep.
“Okay, let’s pitch the tent first!”
After dismounting from Poppy, Kwon O-jin and his party cleared an empty field and set up their tent as usual.
“I’m going to take a quick bath!”
Once the tent was fully erected.
Ha-eun waved her hand and rushed off somewhere.
While Ha-eun was away, I lit a cigarette and Isabella approached me with a question.
“How much further do we need to go from here?”
“Hard to say. According to the map, it shouldn’t be too far.”
But all that surrounded us was a massive gorge reminiscent of the Grand Canyon.
There were no artificial structures worthy of being called a ‘kingdom’ anywhere in sight.
“We’ll just have to search a bit more.”
Crossing the Sky Mountain Range had bought us some time.
“Understood. Oh, I’ll start preparing dinner soon, so could you call Elder Sister for me?”
“Sure.”
I nodded and set out to find Ha-eun, who had gone to smoke.
After activating the stigma of Canis Major, I followed the scent of tobacco and spotted Ha-eun smoking in the distance.
“You came all the way out here to smoke?”
“Oh!”
At my approach, Ha-eun hastily stubbed out her cigarette, which still had more than half remaining.
“Why waste it like that?”
“Well, it’s just…”
Ha-eun hesitated and looked away.
“I heard that men don’t really like women who smoke.”
Where did she pick up such a strange rumor?
“It’s pointless to hide it now, isn’t it? I’ve been with you for years.”
“I know, but… actually seeing you smoke feels different somehow.”
Ha-eun scratched her head awkwardly.
So that’s why she’d been going off somewhere every time she smoked lately.
“I think it’s attractive.”
“Huh? Y-you really do?”
There was something undeniably sexy about it.
With her tall, model-like frame and fierce eyes, Ha-eun smoking had an almost gangster-like charm that suited her remarkably well.
“Though I hate the smell of tobacco.”
“Oh.”
Ha-eun’s hand, which had been reaching for a cigarette from her smiling pack, came to an abrupt halt.
Ha-eun let out a short sigh and tucked the cigarette back into the pack.
“O-jin, come sit here for a moment.”
Ha-eun tapped the space beside her.
“I came to call you for dinner.”
“You just started preparing, didn’t you? We should have about ten minutes.”
“That’s true.”
Kwon O-jin nodded and sat down beside Ha-eun.
Ha-eun, moving with the swift grace of a cat, leaned against his thigh and lay down.
The night sky had grown dark, adorned with beautiful stars scattered across its expanse.
“O-jin.”
“Hmm?”
“Vega has feelings for you too, doesn’t she?”
“…That is.”
Kwon O-jin’s expression stiffened slightly.
He wasn’t some oblivious male protagonist from a typical romantic comedy, and he’d known for a long time that Vega harbored affection for him.
But.
“That probably isn’t the case.”
“It isn’t?”
“Even if she has feelings, they’d be closer to maternal affection.”
“Maternal affection…”
Ha-eun herself knew well that those words didn’t quite make sense.
“…Alright, let’s go with that for now.”
It wasn’t as though she lacked possessiveness.
She couldn’t just ask him to accept Vega when she’d only recently accepted Isabella.
‘I’m sorry to Vega, but.’
Just a little longer.
I wanted to savor this time with him.
I wanted to share memories that only we two could have.
“Being like this reminds me of the old days.”
“The old days?”
“You know, we used to sneak up to the Orphanage Rooftop to avoid the Director and lie around like this all the time.”
“Ah, I remember.”
Whenever she’d tricked the Bald Director with a lie, she’d always hide up on the rooftop like this.
Ha-eun giggled and began pulling out memories, one by one, that only the two of them could share.
“Do you remember when the Director teased you about your name and you got so mad you fought him? You threw a mop right in that bastard’s face.”
“Of course I remember.”
“Damn! That bastard Director’s expression was so hilarious back then!”
Back then, the name “Kwon O-jin” carried quite a significant trauma, so whenever it was used to tease him, he’d flare up in anger.
Well, thinking about it now, I wondered why I’d been so sensitive about something as trivial as a name.
When I was young, the fact that my parents—who abandoned me—left me with a name meaning “filthy dust” felt like a despair deeper than anything else in the world.
“Come to think of it, Elder Sister deliberately slurred my name back then, didn’t she?”
Looking back now, it was quite a delicate consideration for a child who knew nothing.
Kwon O-jin and O-jini.
There was barely any difference aside from slightly slurring the pronunciation.
But for someone who carried such deep trauma about his name itself, that trivial difference felt immeasurably significant.
“How is it? Your Elder Sister’s got great taste, doesn’t she, O-jini?”
“But now there’s no real need to call me that anymore.”
“I’ve gotten used to it, so it feels more natural this way.”
As always, Ha-eun slurred the name with her characteristic lisp and smiled brightly.
Among everyone who knew Kwon O-jin, only she called him O-jini.
Others couldn’t even guess why she did so.
Because of that, it felt like a pet name that only the two of them could share, and it made her feel oddly proud.
“Which is why Elder Sister’s name really does have such a beautiful meaning.”
“Grace from the heavens?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Ha-eun—shortened from “grace from the heavens.”
Compared to my name, which literally means “filthy dust,” how beautiful hers was.
“You said something like that before too. That you’d become ‘grace from the heavens’ like your name suggests and shine down on me….”
“Hey, hey, hey! Stop it!”
Aaahhh!
Ha-eun shrieked and writhed as if remembering some old embarrassing history.
“How did I say something like that so casually back then?”
“You were at that age.”
Now that I think about it, wasn’t that the age when I cared deeply about the meaning of names, however meaningless they seemed now?
“God, thinking about it now makes me so embarrassed.”
“Why? Have you given up on becoming ‘grace from the heavens’ and shining down on me?”
“Hey, I told you to stop.”
“Well, honestly, it’s way better than ‘filthy dust.'”
Kwon O-jin—a name meaning filthy dust.
Ha-eun—a name meaning grace from the heavens.
There was no need to even consider which was better.
“Though those bastards who gave her that name did throw away grace from the heavens.”
Ha-eun offered a bitter smile, then gently raised her hand and caressed my cheek.
“But thinking about it now, I’m grateful.”
“For what?”
“If those bastards hadn’t thrown away grace from the heavens, I would never have met you.”
…
Had I become so precious to her that she could call being abandoned by my parents a blessing?
Along with an indescribable sense of gratitude, a heavy guilt pressed down on my shoulders.
Did I truly deserve to hear such words from her?
“You brat, you’re thinking useless thoughts again, aren’t you?”
Ha-eun grabbed my cheek and stretched it out playfully.
“Come on, let’s go grab some food!”
Ha-eun, who had been lying with her head resting on my thigh, suddenly sprang to her feet.
She grabbed my arm and pulled me up, her smile radiant.
Perhaps it was because she had just shared those old stories.
For a moment, I had the strange illusion that the face of a young girl was overlapping with Ha-eun’s brightly smiling face.
“….”
Of course, even if they did overlap, it wasn’t exactly her face from back then.
All my memories of Ha-eun’s face from childhood had vanished beyond the dark clouds of Black Heaven.
“Huh? What? Why do you look so sad?”
Ha-eun approached me with a worried expression.
“It’s nothing, really.”
She didn’t know that I had forgotten all my memories of her face from childhood.
I turned away, burying the torn album of memories deep within my heart once more.
“Let’s go eat.”
“Wait.”
Ha-eun gently pulled my arm.
As I tilted my head and turned to look at her, she rose slightly on her toes and brought her lips to mine.
A light kiss, as delicate as a bird pecking at seeds.
“How’s that? Does your sister’s kiss make you feel better?”
Ha-eun playfully patted my rear with a mischievous smile.
“…Ha.”
A soft laugh escaped my lips.
Seeing her playful expression, the heavy, suffocating feeling that had been pressing down on me like a stone suddenly lifted.
‘I really do have a simple personality.’
I moved forward with a much lighter expression.
After finishing dinner with Isabella and Ha-eun, and completing the day’s training routine.
I dragged my exhausted body into my sleeping bag and lay down.
“The Grace of the Sky.”
I closed my eyes, thinking how perfectly that name suited Ha-eun.

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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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