Not A Regressor - Chapter 325

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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 325
Treasure Hunt (4)
“Ahhhhh. This is so good, seriously~!”
Ha-eun stretched languidly, extending her slender legs in a long, graceful arc.
Unable to leave the Hot Spring due to a certain sharp jab about towel racks(?), Kwon O-jin found himself biting his lip as he watched the smooth, glistening skin of her legs above the water’s surface.
“Oh right! I almost forgot about that!”
Ha-eun clapped her hands together while still stretching her legs out.
“…What?”
Kwon O-jin turned to look at her with weary eyes.
“I put this in the Hot Spring earlier when we were setting up the Tent!”
Ha-eun splashed through the water, swimming toward the corner of the Hot Spring.
What she retrieved from beneath a heavy stone was a round basket.
“What is that?”
“You can’t have a Hot Spring without this!”
She pulled out eggs from the basket she’d brought along and grinned widely.
Steam rose gently from the eggs that had been sitting in the hot water.
[Why did you bring eggs?]
“It’s the standard rule—you eat boiled eggs at a Hot Spring.”
[…Do humans have such customs?]
Vega tilted her head curiously as she looked toward Kwon O-jin.
Kwon O-jin chuckled and shook his head.
“That’s actually more of a Jjimjilbang thing, not a Hot Spring thing.”
“It’s basically the same thing anyway.”
Ha-eun peeled the shell off an egg she’d taken from the basket.
The plump, tender egg white was revealed.
“Let’s see… Perfect! It’s half-boiled!”
Ha-eun cracked the boiled egg in half and gave a thumbs up.
“If I just sprinkle some salt on it….”
As Ha-eun popped the perfectly soft-boiled egg into her mouth, her face lit up with delight.
“This tastes amazing, seriously!”
Kwon O-jin laughed softly and took an egg from the basket, cracking off the shell.
He sprinkled a bit of the salt Ha-eun had prepared onto the steaming boiled egg, took a big bite, and the rich, creamy yolk spread across his palate.
“Man, this would be perfect if we just had some sikhye.”
While they’d brought plenty of eggs, which were a staple ingredient, they hadn’t managed to bring any sikhye.
[…Is it really that delicious?]
“Does boiling them in Hot Spring water change the taste somehow?”
Vega and Isabella approached, seemingly curious as they watched the two people eating while continuously exclaiming in delight.
Kwon O-jin took two eggs from the basket, neatly peeled off their shells, sprinkled salt on them, and handed them to the two women.
[Well then….]
Munch munch munch.
After receiving a massage and returning to her smaller form, Vega gnawed on boiled eggs like a squirrel hoarding provisions for winter.
Isabella beside her took a bite of an egg sprinkled with salt.
[Hmm. Quite a subtle flavor.]
“…It’s just an egg boiled in hot water, though?”
The two women looked at me as if questioning why we had to come all the way to a hot spring just to eat this.
“Geez, you two don’t know anything about South Korean culture!”
Ha-eun clicked her tongue and shook her head disapprovingly.
For some reason, it looked as though an invisible traditional hat sat atop her head.
“Hot spring eggs aren’t eaten with your mouth—they’re eaten with your heart! Your heart!”
“…Your heart?”
[How does one eat with one’s heart?]
The two women naturally glanced down at their chests.
Vega’s gaze, which had been fixed on her own chest, subtly shifted toward Isabella’s.
[How much has she been eating….]
“W-what are you saying right now?!”
Isabella covered her chest with both arms, her face flushing red.
“No, I didn’t mean that kind of heart….”
Kwon O-jin pressed his forehead as if his head ached.
Cultural differences were far too complex to explain in just a sentence or two.
“Hmm. How about trying it this way instead?”
Ha-eun, who had been skillfully spinning the boiled egg on her fingertip like a basketball, glanced toward Isabella with a mischievous grin playing at her lips.
A playful smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.
Ha-eun swam toward Isabella like a cat, moving stealthily through the water.
“Here goes!”
“Kyaaah!”
Crack!
Ha-eun cracked the egg in her hand against Isabella’s head.
“W-what are you doing, Elder Sister?!”
Isabella, who had been enjoying an elegant soak in the hot spring, turned to Ha-eun in bewilderment.
Ha-eun burst into giggles and peeled the shell off the boiled egg.
“In South Korea, this is how we’re supposed to eat them.”
“Don’t lie to me!”
Cracking boiled eggs against someone else’s head to eat them?
There was no way such an absurd custom could possibly exist.
“No, seriously, that’s how it’s done!”
“Hmph! I’ve been in South Korea long enough that I won’t fall for such an obvious lie!”
Isabella turned to Kwon O-jin, demanding the truth.
“Well… you see…”
Kwon O-jin offered an awkward smile.
“It’s not really a hot spring thing, but there is a culture like that at the Jjimjilbang.”
You could only see it in variety shows or outdated dramas—it was a culture that had largely died out in modern times.
“…What kind of country is South Korea, exactly?”
Isabella watched Ha-eun, who was contentedly peeling a boiled egg with an expression of utter bewilderment on her face.
“Come on, don’t be like that. Bella, you should try it too.”
Ha-eun tapped the crown of her own head as she spoke.
“Hmm. Understood. I’ll give it a try as well.”
She gripped the boiled egg in her hand and assumed a solemn expression.
Learning South Korean culture was an absolute necessity for living with Kwon O-jin in the future.
No matter how incomprehensible their customs were, she had to accept them for the sake of what lay ahead.
“No, why do you look so serious about it…?”
“Hah!”
Her arm sliced through the air in a powerful arc.
The egg in Isabella’s hand collided with Ha-eun’s head and shattered into fragments.
Ow!
A shriek erupted from Ha-eun’s lips.
“Hey, hey you! I told you to crack the eggshell, not obliterate the egg!”
“Oh, oh my? Wasn’t this the way to do it?”
Isabella stared down at the pathetically mangled egg in her palm, tilting her head in confusion.
[I too! I wish to try as well!]
Vega’s eyes gleamed with interest in this peculiar culture of cracking boiled eggs on someone else’s head, and she lifted an egg of her own.
“…Stop. That’s enough now.”
Kwon O-jin muttered in the hollow voice of a lifeless corpse, drained by the boundless stamina of these women.
‘Damn it.’
I should just make my rounds instead.
It was a moment when I found myself envying Riak for his absence.

* * *
“Sigh.”
After the egg incident(?) that had raged like a tempest finally subsided.
Only then could I leisurely enjoy the hot spring bath.
Or rather, I thought I would be able to leisurely enjoy it.
But then.
“Oh right, O-jin.”
Ha-eun whispered with her lips pressed close to my ear.
“You asked earlier whether I was wearing underwear, didn’t you?”
“…You said you cut up sportswear to wear.”
“That’s what Isabella did.”
Ha-eun pulled the towel wrapped around her body down slightly, flashing a mischievous smile.
“Want me to show you what’s underneath?”
The towel descended precariously.
Just a bit lower and her pristine white skin would be completely exposed.
Ha-eun stopped lowering the towel and stepped closer to me, gazing at me with deep, meaningful eyes.
“What’s it called—Heimerdinger’s principle? Some famous philosopher said you can’t know the truth until you observe it.”
“It’s Schrödinger, Elder Sister.”
And he’s a physicist, not a philosopher.
“Oh, w-well anyway! You need to personally confirm whether I’m wearing underwear or not!”
Ha-eun let out an awkward cough and pressed the end of the towel into my hand.
“Come on! Unwrap it like you’re tearing off Christmas wrapping paper!”
Christmas wrapping paper—what’s with the Christmas wrapping paper.
I chuckled and shook my head gently.
I wrapped the towel she’d given me back around her body.
“What, you’re not going to check?”
“The fact that you’re so confident tells me the answer is pretty obvious.”
“Ugh, seriously.”
Ha-eun pouted her lips in disappointment.
She’d been planning to tease me thoroughly, but it ended far more anticlimactically than expected.
‘Well then.’
One failure wasn’t reason enough to give up so easily.
Ha-eun’s eyes sparkled like stars as she thought of her next move.
“O-jin, O-jin. Come here.”
Ha-eun beckoned me over.
“Why?”
“Hurry.”
As I approached, Ha-eun quickly wrapped her arms around me and rested her head on my shoulder with a bashful smile.
“Mmm~ this feels nice.”
The moist warmth of her skin against my shoulder.
Wet, rust-colored hair clung to Kwon O-jin’s body with a soft slap.
“I can hear your heartbeat, O-jin.”
Ha-eun, resting her head on his shoulder, smiled brightly and pressed herself even closer against him.
She loved listening to the rapid beating of his heart like this.
It made her feel the reality that he was here with her.
“O-jin.”
“…Yes?”
“I love you.”
A sensation as though my breath had caught in my throat.
Her words, delivered with such directness, transformed my racing heartbeat into a thunderous pounding.
Honestly.
My heart raced far more intensely than when she had seduced me by offering to show her true self.
“Hey, isn’t it unfair that only Elder Sister gets to do that?”
Isabella, who had been stealing glances at the affectionate pair, wrapped her arm around Kwon O-jin’s opposite side.
“I love you too, Kwon O-jin.”
“….”
Faced with such embarrassingly straightforward affection from both women, I pressed my lips firmly shut.
[Ugh.]
Only Vega, who had yet to properly confess her feelings to me, remained apart, gazing enviously at Ha-eun and Isabella.
“Ahem.”
I let out a strained cough as the soft sensation transmitted through both my arms.
With only a thin towel draped around me and Ha-eun and Isabella clinging to either side, I was in no state to actually enjoy the hot spring.
[E-everyone is pressing against me far too much!]
“Come on, what does it matter? We’re not strangers.”
[B-but there’s such a thing as propriety that a woman must maintain!]
Vega, her cheeks puffed out indignantly, glared at the two women clinging to me.
Ha-eun’s lips curled into a smirk as she looked at Vega.
“Really~? Unlike someone else, I’ve never asked him to spank me, so I wouldn’t know anything about that~.”
[T-this is infuriating!]
Vega’s face crumpled as she lunged at Ha-eun.
Once again, cheerful chaos erupted across the hot spring.
“Sigh.”
I leaned my back against the stone wall, tilting my head upward as if exhausted.
Submerged in the warm waters of the hot spring, I gazed up at the stars scattered across the night sky.
Though my mind was somewhat scattered, I felt a warm sensation spreading through my chest.
‘This is nice.’
To think I could feel such happiness even in the heart of the Demon Realm.
Honestly, when I first arrived here, I couldn’t have imagined such a thing.
‘It’s not about where you are, but who you’re with that matters.’
Even if this place was the Demon Realm rather than Earth.
At his side were Ha-eun, Vega, and Isabella.
But.
The question was—who truly remained by his side now?
Kwon O-jin’s expression hardened imperceptibly.
BOOM!
A deafening roar shook the earth, and a cloud of dust billowed up in the distance.
“That’s….”
“That’s where Riak is patrolling.”
Kwon O-jin scrambled to his feet and turned toward the direction of the sound.
Ha-eun and Vega, who had been playfully bickering moments before, instantly shifted to grave expressions and fixed their sharp gazes on the source of the noise.
GRRRRRRRRR!
The distant roar of Riak echoed across the landscape.
Tsk.
Kwon O-jin clicked his tongue and bolted from the Hot Spring.
The sweet respite had come to an end.
As if they had coordinated beforehand, Kwon O-jin’s party simultaneously sprinted toward the direction of the sound.

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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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