Not A Regressor - Chapter 345

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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 345
Black Sky (9)
“…What?”
My head spun.
Nausea churned in my stomach.
Like staring at a mannequin sculpted in my own image, an eerie sense of alienation crawled down my spine.
“Why are you so shocked?”
The Heavenly Demon tilted his head as if genuinely unable to comprehend.
With such casual indifference, such excessive composure.
He spoke as naturally as reciting a mathematical formula.
“You think the same way, don’t you?”
“….”
“If only I can protect my sister, what does it matter what happens to anyone else?”
A single ray of starlight illuminating a life that had been like a black sky.
Yes, Ha-eun was an irreplaceable existence to me—more precious than anything else.
I would sacrifice everything else if it meant I could protect her.
That was what I believed.
That was how I had lived.
Both the me of my past life and the me of now.
“….”
I clamped my mouth shut.
Only now could I be certain.
Only now could I declare it with absolute conviction.
“I am… different from you.”
Even if we are both Kwon O-jin.
The time we’ve lived is different.
The events we’ve experienced are different.
The lives we hold in our hands, the burdens we carry—they are different.
“I am not you.”
I fixed the Heavenly Demon with a piercing gaze.
The Heavenly Demon chuckled as if I were spouting nonsense.
“No, you are me. No matter how different a life you’ve lived, that doesn’t change.”
He shook his head and continued softly.
“Why did you ask earlier if it had to be Vega?”
“…What do you mean?”
“You were asking why it couldn’t be a different Polaris instead of Vega—why couldn’t Deneb or Polaris be the one sacrificed?”
“….”
My words caught in my throat.
If it had been Deneb or Polaris instead of Vega who needed to be sacrificed.
Would my anger have burned this fiercely?
Had I felt such irrationality to this extent?
“Right now, you’re just throwing a tantrum.”
Because there was something I wanted to protect besides Ha-eun.
I was merely acting like a spoiled child.
“You know as well as I do what matters most, don’t you?”
If I could protect her.
If I could save her.
Everything else could fall apart for all I cared.
“…A tantrum?”
As he said.
Perhaps I was being stubborn.
Because I wanted to protect not just Ha-eun, but Vega, Isabella, Riak, and Cassia as well—maybe I was being unreasonable.
But.
“So what?”
“What?”
“What’s wrong with being unreasonable?”
There was no need for something precious to be only one thing.
There was no reason to abandon something else to protect one thing.
Life was not a mathematical formula.
Happiness could not be calculated by addition and subtraction.
“Hmm. You certainly are stubborn, aren’t you?”
The Heavenly Demon let out a soft chuckle and rose to his feet.
“Well, it doesn’t matter whether you’re being unreasonable or not.”
Vega would die.
And I would also cease to exist.
“Now… it’s all over.”
The Heavenly Demon turned to look at Vega, who was unfolding the Sacred Domain with a relieved expression.
Once the frozen time began to flow again.
She would be consumed by Heukcheon along with the Sacred Domain itself.
“Who says it’s over?”
Kwon O-jin’s expression twisted fiercely.
I couldn’t let everyone die like this.
‘I have to stop it.’
I had to save her before the Heavenly Demon’s Heukcheon consumed Vega.
The Heavenly Demon shrugged his shoulders as he watched Kwon O-jin glaring at him ferociously.
“Do you think you can break through Vega’s Sacred Domain right now?”
“….”
“Or perhaps you’ll try to persuade her with words?”
A bitter sneer played at the corners of the Heavenly Demon’s mouth.
No matter how much I tried to persuade her, she would not listen to my words.
“Vega thinks you’re the Fate-Reversing Star.”
She would believe that Kwon O-jin is the only way to save the world.
She wouldn’t hesitate to throw herself into Black Heaven to protect him.
“You’ve already become far too precious to Vega.”
Just as I threw away my life to save Ha-eun.
Vega would also choose sacrifice without hesitation to save the Fate-Reversing Star.
‘You protected this world even while sending the Heavenly Demon back to the past.’
The Heavenly Demon gazed at the brilliantly burning star of the Lyra Constellation in the darkness and offered a faint smile.
As long as Vega believed Kwon O-jin was the Fate-Reversing Star, she would never stop.
Kwon O-jin clenched his fists, his lips trembling.
“I’m… not the Fate-Reversing Star.”
“At least Vega believes you are.”
The Heavenly Demon let out a hollow laugh and continued.
“You know it too, don’t you? That truth doesn’t matter.”
What matters is.
“Only what appears to be the truth.”
“….”
I knew it.
How could I not know?
The life of Kwon O-jin had always been woven from lies.
“Do you think you can tell Vega the truth now?”
The Heavenly Demon approached Kwon O-jin with a bitter sneer.
A lie is like a bird falling without wings.
It cannot stop, cannot slow its descent midway.
‘Until it crashes at the bottom and shatters into pieces.’
The only way is to keep adding more lies.
The Heavenly Demon pressed his face close enough to touch Kwon O-jin’s forehead and opened his mouth.
“You are me.”
And so.
You cannot speak.
You cannot stop it.
You cannot prevent it.
“You are… no, we have lived this way.”
Because we knew no other way to live.
“Well, it’s time to part ways now.”
The Heavenly Demon turned away with a bitter smile.
Kwon O-jin stood frozen, watching his retreating figure.
“Still, it was quite enjoyable talking one last time.”
He let out a parched laugh and stepped into the black clouds.
“Please take good care of my sister.”
With those words.
Time, which had frozen, began to flow once more.
Whoooooosh!
A radiant silver flame blazed brilliantly.
I drew my true power forth, my hands clasped together in prayer.
[Ugh…!]
The constraints of Divine Law crashed down upon me, followed by excruciating agony.
[My… child.]
If I could only protect Kwon O-jin.
If I could only save the Fate-Reversing Star.
This much pain was nothing at all.
“….”
Kwon O-jin stood frozen, staring blankly at the radiant silver flame.
If he simply remained still, all problems would be resolved.
He would lose Vega.
Riak, Isabella, and Cassia would vanish.
But still.
‘My sister would remain.’
Wasn’t it enough as long as Ha-eun was safe?
Whether others died or disappeared.
What did it matter to him?
“Ha, haha.”
A hollow laugh escaped between his lips.
Once the Heavenly Demon died and all beings who had received Heukcheon’s power vanished, there would be nothing left to worry about.
The monsters that had crossed over to Earth could be handled well enough by other Awakeners without Kwon O-jin’s involvement.
There was no need to fight anymore.
There was no reason to struggle anymore.
There was no value in suffering anymore.
He could simply return home and live a cozy life with Ha-eun, just the two of them.
Now that money was no longer a concern, it might be nice to wander through resorts around the world together and spend a leisurely remaining life.
Yes.
Just as the Heavenly Demon said.
It was all over now.
“…Stop spouting nonsense.”
Crunch.
He ground his teeth, biting his lips.
Who did he think he was, trying to end the story on his own terms?
Whoooooosh!
He stepped forward toward the radiant silver flame.
His body bounced back as if blocked by an invisible wall.
The powerful recoil tears through my skin, and blood streams down.
Again and again.
I repeat the same motion.
[Stop this, I beg you!]
I see Vega’s form turning urgently toward me.
“You’re the one who needs to stop, Vega.”
I speak in a low, sunken voice.
“Release the Sacred Domain.”
[That would be… difficult.]
“Do it.”
[My child…]
Vega gazes at me with sorrowful eyes.
While maintaining the Sacred Domain, she slowly flies toward me.
[I do not wish to part from you either.]
Tears gather in her golden eyes.
I do not wish to part from Kwon O-jin.
I know it is shameless, but I have only just confessed to him the feelings I had hidden deep within my heart.
I wish to be with him a little longer.
And if possible, like Isabella, I wish to earn Ha-eun’s approval and draw closer to him.
I wish to nestle in his warm embrace and whisper love to him as any lover would.
But.
[Before I am a woman, I am a Constellation of Polaris.]
A Constellation bears the duty to manage and protect this world.
I could not allow Heukcheon to consume the Fate-Reversing Star that prevents the world’s destruction.
[Do you not have a more important mission?]
“…A mission?”
Vega smiles faintly and nods.
[Did you not once witness this world being consumed by Heukcheon?]
Kwon O-jin was a regressor who had returned from the past, defying time itself.
[A regressor who has transcended time… only you, who bears the destiny of the Fate-Reversing Star, can stop Heukcheon.]
“…”
[Do not worry. Even without me, you will surely be able to save the world.]
Saving the world.
The Fate-Reversing Star.
A regressor.
“Ah… ugh.”
My lips tremble as my face turns deathly pale.
I want to deny it, but for some reason, my voice refuses to come.
—You… no, we have lived that way all along.
The Heavenly Demon’s final voice echoes through my mind.
He was right.
Truth was so bitter that I could only swallow it by mixing in sweet lies.
“…Vega.”
[There isn’t much time left now.]
Vega turned her body as she gazed upon the approaching tsunami of black clouds.
[My child.]
A faint smile graced her lips.
[Be happy.]
Vega advanced toward Heukcheon.
“….”
Kwon O-jin stared blankly at her retreating figure.
Within my consciousness, dulled as if intoxicated by a drug, a single thought suddenly struck me.
‘What do I tell her?’
What could I say to deceive her without causing her pain?
“…Ha.”
A dry laugh escaped between my lips, rising unbidden like instinct.
Again.
Again, again, again—I think of lies first.
‘Just like this.’
As always.
As it has always been.
Must I continue living without a single grain of truth ever passing my lips?
Kwon O-jin’s expression twisted with disgust.
‘Because that’s how we’ve always lived, isn’t it.’
Wrapped up in pretty packaging.
But isn’t it just cowardice—desperately avoiding the truth because I’m afraid to face it?
If that’s what the life of Kwon O-jin amounts to.
“Then go to hell.”
I placed my hand over my left chest.
“Those who pass through me….”
I whispered the incantation quietly.
Kurrrrrgh!
Black clouds erupted explosively from my body.
Between the black clouds, blue flames blazed forth.
“Hnngh!”
Crack!
I seized Vega’s Sacred Domain with both hands and tore it open.
I felt the transparent wall blocking my path splitting apart.
[My, my child? What, what is this…?]
Vega turned to look at Kwon O-jin, now engulfed in black clouds, her expression filled with shock.
Kwon O-jin walked toward her, his voice emerging at last.
“No.”
[What do you mean, no? More importantly, that appearance….]
I had lived a life woven entirely of lies.
Denying truth, I had followed only what appeared to be truth.
I knew no other way to live besides that.
No—I had never even tried to know.
“I am….”
Not anymore.
“I am not a Regressor.”
I would not live that way again.

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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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