Not A Regressor - Chapter 327

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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 327
Treasure Hunt (6)
“What’s going on here?”
Baek Moo-gang approached with a bright, innocent smile.
The rusted iron sword he held swayed back and forth like a tail.
Kwon O-jin concealed his agitation and responded in a calm voice.
“I came looking for you, sir.”
“Huh? Me?”
Baek Moo-gang widened his eyes and tilted his head in confusion.
“How did you find me?”
“I used the compass you gave me last time.”
“A compass…? Ah! I did give you that!”
Baek Moo-gang clapped his hands as if he’d completely forgotten.
Still clapping enthusiastically, Baek Moo-gang extended his hand toward Kwon O-jin.
“Good to see you again! Um, so… what was that nice person’s name again?”
He’d forgotten his name too.
“It’s Kwon O-jin.”
“Ah, that’s right! Kwon O-jin! Hehe. I remembered!”
Baek Moo-gang’s eyes sparkled as if seeking praise.
For a moment, I questioned whether asking for his cooperation after helping him find the treasure was truly a wise decision.
“Ugh…”
Jackal, who had been kneeling and watching for an opening, groaned and pushed himself up.
Using his spear—broken in half—as a crutch, Jackal began fleeing without looking back.
When Kwon O-jin furrowed his brow and tried to pursue Jackal.
“Wait a moment.”
Baek Moo-gang took a single step forward.
Whoooosh!
An ice rink formed instantly beneath his feet.
Baek Moo-gang’s body slid forward as if skating.
“You can’t run away.”
In an instant, Baek Moo-gang caught up with the fleeing Jackal and severed his shin with his sword.
Jackal, his legs cut off, tumbled across the ground.
Baek Moo-gang approached the fallen Jackal and pointed his sword at his throat.
“Where did you hide my treasure?”
“What… what exactly is this treasure you’re talking about?!”
“A treasure is a treasure.”
“You… you madman!”
Jackal stared up at Baek Moo-gang with a pale, sickly expression.
“A bad person stole my treasure. The treasure is precious.”
Fine tendons rose across Baek Moo-gang’s hands as he gripped his sword.
Baek Moo-gang glared at Jackal with eyes burning as fiercely as flames.
“Where is the bad person right now?”
“…Are you talking about Deimos?”
I didn’t know what treasure the old ghost was searching for.
But I could vaguely sense that the ‘bad person’ he spoke of was referring to Deimos.
Deimos’s greed for precious treasures was legendary, after all.
“Don’t know the name. But he stole my treasure. I need to get it back.”
“Ha. You’re asking me, of all people, where Deimos is?”
Jackal let out a scoff and gripped his broken spear.
To think this creature would ask him—Deimos’s own knight, not just any Demon Race member—where his master was located.
“Glory to gold.”
Jackal drove the broken spear through his own throat.
Cough.
Jackal’s body, spewing blood, crumpled to the ground.
“Aah!”
Baek Moo-gang cried out and rushed toward the fallen Jackal, but the knight’s breath had already ceased.
“Again, I didn’t hear again!”
Baek Moo-gang stamped his feet in frustration.
‘A Demon Race member took their own life.’
I was equally shocked.
I had never anticipated that the Demon Race could possess such loyalty—loyalty enough to commit suicide for their master.
‘So not all Demon Race members are the same.’
I turned my gaze from Jackal’s corpse toward Baek Moo-gang, my expression complicated.
“Were you capturing Demon Race members here while searching for the treasure?”
“Yes. The bad person is here. But they won’t tell me where.”
So he’d been recklessly hunting down Demon Race members while searching for Deimos.
Now I understood why Deimos’s knights had been terrified upon seeing humans.
“Would it be alright if I helped you find the treasure?”
I had hesitated for a moment about whether to request cooperation from Baek Moo-gang.
But seeing his skill—how he’d chased down Jackal and severed his leg in an instant—I leaned toward the idea of helping him find the treasure.
“You’ll… help me find the treasure?”
“Yes. However, once you find the treasure, I would like to….”
“Wow! You really are a good person! Kwon O-jin is a good person!”
Without even hearing the rest, Baek Moo-gang clapped his hands like a child and bounced up and down excitedly.
I swallowed hard and turned my body.
“Let’s go back first and make a plan.”
“Okay! Got it!”
Baek Moo-gang nodded with an innocent, cheerful smile.
“Ah, could you wait here for a moment?”
“Huh? Why?”
“I have some things to take care of. Ten minutes should be enough.”
Ha-eun and Isabella were currently wearing nothing but towels wrapped around their bodies.
If I suddenly brought Baek Moo-gang over, it would create quite an awkward situation.
“Mm… okay! I’ll wait here!”
Baek Moo-gang plopped down on the ground, settling his rear firmly on the earth.
Kwon O-jin nodded and made his way back to where Ha-eun and Isabella were.
“Did you catch the one who was running?”
“We’ve cleaned everything up here.”
As I returned, Ha-eun and Isabella approached me, waiting for my arrival.
“Where are Riak and Vega?”
“Riak returned to the Star Palace because of his wounds, and Vega went with him to care for him.”
“Is that so?”
Well, that made sense.
Though Riak had the upper hand in the fight itself, the burn wound on his cheek was not an injury to be taken lightly.
“But there’s something I need to tell you first.”
“Huh? What is it?”
I told the two women about my encounter with Baek Moo-gang.
“You met that strange old man?”
“Yeah. So I thought I’d call him over and plan out our next moves together…”
I continued speaking while catching glimpses of the two women’s exposed shoulders and legs.
“First, let’s get you both properly dressed.”
“Oh, right.”
“Y-yes, you’re right.”
The two women nodded and hurried back to the tent.
After changing into proper clothes, I returned with them to where Baek Moo-gang was waiting.
“You’re here! I kept my promise!”
Baek Moo-gang, who had been sitting quietly without moving a muscle, suddenly sprang to his feet.
“It’s been a while, grandfather.”
“Have you been well?”
“Well? What do you mean by well?”
Watching Baek Moo-gang tilt his head like a child, sucking on his fingers, Isabella offered an awkward smile.
“It means whether you’ve been living without any accidents.”
“Oh! I’ve been doing great!”
Baek Moo-gang nodded with a bright, innocent expression.
“That’s fortunate.”
“Hehe.”
His back was bent like a hunchback’s, and his face was covered in age spots—an unsightly appearance.
Yet the innocent smile etched across his wrinkled lips held a strange beauty to it.
“There’s a tent over there. Shall we go together?”
“Okay!”
Kwon O-jin led Baek Moo-gang back to where he had set up the Tent.
Baek Moo-gang’s eyes sparkled with delight at the sight of it.
“A house! It’s a house! Does O-jin live here?”
“No, sir. This isn’t a house—it’s a tent.”
“A tent?”
….
Kwon O-jin continued in a slightly weary voice.
“It’s like a portable dwelling.”
“Wow, such things exist?”
“How do you usually sleep, sir?”
“Me? I lie down and sleep. Like this.”
Baek Moo-gang sprawled flat on the bare ground.
Though I’d suspected as much, it appeared Baek Moo-gang had been wandering through the Demon Realm with absolutely nothing—no proper equipment whatsoever.
‘Is the treasure truly so precious that he must search for it at such cost?’
No matter how elevated an Awakener might be, transcending humanity itself, fundamentally they remain ‘human.’
Sleeping on bare ground with starlight as a blanket might last a day or two, but after several days, the psychological strain becomes unbearable.
Homelessness itself is something that instinctively repels those who have lived in civilized society.
Even if Baek Moo-gang suffered from dementia, he was still human.
Yet he wandered through the distant Demon Realm, sleeping on bare earth.
For years on end.
All to find the lost ‘treasure.’
“Sir, what is this treasure you’re searching for?”
“Huh? A treasure is a treasure.”
There was that answer again.
“But what exactly is this treasure? Could you at least describe what it looks like…?”
“A treasure is something precious.”
Baek Moo-gang cut me off with a broad grin.
“I must find it.”
….
It seemed impossible to learn what he was searching for anytime soon.
“Sigh.”
As I exhaled and pondered how to handle this incomprehensible old man,
Grrrrrowwwl.
A thunderous sound rumbled from Baek Moo-gang’s stomach.
“Are you hungry, sir?”
“Yeah, I’m hungry. There’s nothing to eat here.”
“How long have you been without food?”
“It’s been ten nights since I last ate! Ten nights!”
“…Let’s have a meal first.”
Even for a high-ranking Awakener, enduring ten days without food was no trivial feat.
“Kwon O-jin. I… I didn’t have time to prepare anything properly since we went straight to the hot spring.”
Isabella trailed off with an awkward expression.
“Then let’s just eat something instant.”
“Are you sure that’s alright?”
“You haven’t eaten in ten days.”
I’d be hungry enough to chew through steel at this point.
“Let me see what we have… ah, I brought frozen dumplings. Should we eat these?”
Ha-eun rummaged through her backpack and pulled out a large package of frozen dumplings.
The backpack Kim Si-hu had given her had thermal insulation, so the frozen dumplings remained solid and icy, exactly as they’d been when first packed.
“Sounds good.”
“Okay, I’ll boil some water right away.”
Ha-eun tore open the frozen dumpling package and dropped them into vigorously boiling water.
After waiting about five minutes, appetizing dumplings emerged, steam rising delicately from their surfaces.
“Dumplings? These are dumplings?”
“Yes. There’s plenty, so please let me know if you’d like more.”
Isabella placed the dumplings on a plate and offered them to Baek Moo-gang.
“Here are the chopsticks….”
“Wow! Dumplings! I love dumplings!”
Before even taking the chopsticks, Baek Moo-gang grabbed the hot dumplings with his bare hands and shoved them eagerly into his mouth.
“Hehe.”
A smile full of happiness spread across his wrinkled lips.
Isabella pulled out another package of frozen dumplings and placed it in the pot, asking in a gentle voice.
“Did you enjoy the dumplings?”
“Yeah! My wife used to make them for me all the time!”
Baek Moo-gang nodded vigorously, his cheeks puffed out as he chewed the dumplings.
“It sounds like your wife took good care of you.”
“Yeah. My wife was a good person.”
“Then where is your wife now…?”
“She’s dead.”
Isabella’s shoulders flinched slightly.
“A bad person killed my wife.”
“Ah….”
She let out a low exclamation and averted her gaze.
“…I’m sorry.”
“Huh? Sorry for what?”
Baek Moo-gang tilted his head, seemingly confused why she was apologizing.
Ha-eun, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, carefully spoke up.
“That bad person… was it Deimos who killed her?”
He hadn’t just stolen the treasure.
He had also killed Baek Moo-gang’s wife.
“Our Grandmother?”
“…Yes.”
“No.”
Baek Moo-gang shook his head vigorously, a faint smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
“I killed her.”
“…What?”
“Our Grandmother.”
A smile tinged with sorrow, like dark clouds gathering across a once-clear sky.
“I… killed her.”
As if searching for a star hidden behind those dark clouds.
The old man’s eyes wandered forlornly across the Night Sky.

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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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