Not A Regressor - Chapter 353

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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 353
Starlight (5)
[W-What…!]
Vega stumbled backward, her eyes wide as a startled rabbit’s.
She touched her lips in disbelief, her cheeks flushed crimson.
[What did you do!]
Vega cried out, her face burning as if steam might burst from the crown of her head.
Kwon O-jin watched her flustered state with a faint smile.
“If you’re not sure, should I do it again?”
[T-That’s…!]
Vega trembled delicately, recalling the lingering sensation of his lips like an echo.
She touched her lips with her fingertips, her head bowed low.
[Haa…]
My mind was spinning.
So many emotions tangled and intertwined that I couldn’t fathom what expression to wear.
I gazed at Kwon O-jin with trembling eyes, listening to my heartbeat thunder louder than I’d ever heard it before.
[You truly…]
As I trailed off, a faint smile bloomed across my lips.
I exhaled a deep breath and approached Kwon O-jin.
Carefully extending my hand, I placed it upon his forehead.
He flinched, his body trembling.
[Stay still.]
Uuuuung!
Brilliant silver light seeped into Kwon O-jin’s body, and his tattered form began to recover rapidly.
The agony that had ravaged his entire being faded at incredible speed.
[Are you alright?]
“Yeah, yes. I’m fine.”
Kwon O-jin nodded with a bewildered expression.
Vega gently caressed his cheek with a faint smile.
[When I heard that Spica had given her heart to her child, I rebuked her for being foolish. But true foolishness lay elsewhere.]
Even knowing that he had deceived me from our first meeting.
Even realizing that everything I’d seen of him was a false illusion hidden behind a mask.
I could not sever my feelings for him.
‘Truly, I am a foolish woman.’
I caressed his cheek with a self-deprecating smile.
The warmth transmitted through my fingertips.
Seeing his wide, round eyes and the way he averted his gaze as if embarrassed by the moment, something ineffable bloomed in my chest—a happiness beyond words.
To borrow a rather clichéd expression, it felt as though my body might float away.
[There are several things I wish to ask you.]
“Yeah, go ahead.”
[Why did you lie to her and say you were a Regressor when you first met?]
“Well, that’s….”
Kwon O-jin’s expression grew uncomfortable.
[I wish to hear an explanation, not an excuse.]
“Hmm.”
After a moment of contemplation, Kwon O-jin nodded.
“To be honest, I was afraid at first.”
[Afraid of her? What could she possibly have to fear?]
Vega looked at Kwon O-jin with an aggrieved expression.
“I didn’t know you well back then. And… I was worried you’d think I killed Lee Shin-hyuk.”
[Lee Shin-hyuk…?]
Vega’s eyes narrowed at the unfamiliar name.
“When we first met, there was a man lying dead, remember?”
[Ah yes, I recall it now.]
“He was the Regressor, not me.”
[What?]
Vega’s eyes widened in shock at this unexpected twist.
Kwon O-jin offered a bitter smile and slowly explained what had happened with Lee Shin-hyuk.
How they encountered the Enthorn swarm while exploring Gates together, how Lee Shin-hyuk suddenly suffered a seizure and died, and how Kwon O-jin had awakened Heukcheon at that very moment and absorbed the Star Mark of Lyra Constellation that had been dwelling within Lee Shin-hyuk.
[Ha.]
After hearing Kwon O-jin’s explanation, an exasperated sigh escaped Vega’s lips.
[How could such an absurd coincidence even occur….]
“To be precise, it wasn’t a coincidence.”
[It wasn’t a coincidence?]
Kwon O-jin nodded with a grave expression.
“All of this was intentionally orchestrated by the Heavenly Demon.”
[…What do you mean by that?]
After the events in Niflheim concluded, Vega had immediately secluded herself in the Sanctuary, and unlike Ha-eun and Isabella, she had not yet learned about the Heavenly Demon’s true identity and purpose.
“The Heavenly Demon is me—or rather, the me from my past life.”
[W-What?]
Vega’s eyes widened in shock at this bombshell revelation.
[W-What are you saying?!]
Vega leaned forward urgently, her voice strained with desperation.
Kwon O-jin calmly explained the Heavenly Demon’s true identity.
[Such… an impossible thing.]
The Heavenly Demon was Kwon O-jin from his past life, and he had sent Lee Shin-hyuk back in time to awaken Kwon O-jin’s Heukcheon.
Vega pressed her forehead with a bewildered expression.
[What possible reason could he have for doing such a thing…?]
“Well… this is going to be quite a long story.”
To properly explain the Heavenly Demon’s purpose, he would need to discuss Ha-eun, which meant unraveling his entire past from the beginning.
[It’s fine. Take all the time you need. Tell me everything you’ve kept hidden until now.]
Vega grasped Kwon O-jin’s hand with burning eyes.
The truth he had concealed all this time.
The desire to know his story—the one hidden behind the mask—flooded her mind completely.
“Understood.”
And so Kwon O-jin’s story began.
All the things he had never told her until now.
[…Ah.]
Vega listened intently to his account, occasionally releasing short gasps of emotion or sighing with sympathy.
“…So the Heavenly Demon sent Lee Shin-hyuk to the past to protect you, didn’t he?”
At the end of the long tale.
[….]
After hearing everything, Vega stared at Kwon O-jin with trembling eyes.
Not a single part of his story lacked shock, but the most devastating revelation was about what had transpired in the Niflheim Kingdom.
[Then… you willingly gave up the chance to kill the Heavenly Demon to save me?]
Vega asked, her fingers clenching the fabric of her dress.
Kwon O-jin avoided answering, his expression troubled.
[…My child.]
Tears streamed down Vega’s cheeks.
How could she possibly put this emotion into words?
The turbulent torrent of tangled emotions robbed her of her voice.
“Don’t worry. I’ll stop him.”
Though he spoke with confidence, Vega knew just how immense the burden he carried truly was.
‘If I had died by the Heavenly Demon’s hand…’
Heukcheon would have vanished, and all the Black Star Constellation members and demons threatening the world would have disappeared.
Kwon O-jin had turned away from an opportunity to end everything.
To protect me.
[I… I didn’t know.]
That in the past, I had made a promise with the Heavenly Demon, that by dying at his hands, I would cause Heukcheon to perish.
How could I have ever imagined such a thing?
The shock of such a devastating truth made her head feel as though it were burning away to ash.
‘Then when Kwon O-jin revealed the truth back then…’
It was to save me, wasn’t it?
[….]
Vega clasped her hands together over her chest.
It ached.
Her heart throbbed as if pierced by a sharp blade.
‘And I, not knowing any of this…’
Had I really locked myself away in the Divine Temple, pathetically swearing never to see him again, all because I thought he had deceived me?
[Ah… ugh.]
My head burns with searing heat.
Guilt consumes me so thoroughly that my chest feels as though it might shatter.
What a foolish, selfish woman I am—thinking only of myself.
‘Now I understand why O-jin deceived me.’
O-jin said it was unavoidable, but from his perspective, it truly was an unavoidable situation.
For the Constellations, Heukcheon represents the most catastrophic force—one capable of bringing about the world’s annihilation.
It was an existence that had to be eliminated above all else, regardless of the cost.
O-jin couldn’t have been unaware of this, so how could he have boldly declared to a Constellation—especially to Polaris, who stands at the very apex of all Constellations—that he possessed Heukcheon?
[It truly was unavoidable, wasn’t it?]
Vega embraced O-jin, tears streaming down her face.
[I am the one who should apologize.]
I had never even imagined that O-jin was bearing such an enormous burden alone.
[You must have suffered so much… so very much.]
Vega wept as she gently stroked O-jin’s head, holding him close.
[I’m sorry. I was ignorant of everything, and I unfairly blamed you for your deception.]
“No, regardless of my reasons, the fact remains that I deceived you.”
O-jin shook his head and carefully pulled away from Vega.
“I could have told you sooner… but I was afraid to speak the truth.”
Because that’s how I had lived.
Because I knew no other way to survive.
I continued to hide the truth from her.
“From now on, I will never deceive you again.”
[…My child.]
Golden eyes glistening with tears.
Vega carefully placed her hand over O-jin’s left chest and asked.
[So you’re saying that inside here dwells Heukcheon, just like the Heavenly Demon?]
Strangely, even as she placed her hand directly upon him, she felt no trace of Heukcheon’s aura.
What emanated from O-jin was solely the aura of the Lyra Constellation’s stigma that she herself had bestowed upon him.
“It’s not exactly the same. I possess your Lyra Constellation stigma, after all.”
According to the Heavenly Demon’s description, the Heukcheon that O-jin possessed was in a ‘perfected’ state.
Judging by how it rampages with increasing frequency these days, perhaps ‘perfected’ is indeed the right word.
[…I see.]
Why was it?
Upon realizing that thanks to her stigma, O-jin was not being dominated by Heukcheon’s power, an inexplicable sense of pride welled up within her, and a smile bloomed naturally on her lips.
‘Until now, I didn’t even know that the Lyra Constellation’s stigma contained the power to control Heukcheon’s force.’
In any case.
The reason O-jin can possess Heukcheon and remain unscathed is because I exist.
[….]
That fact brought her an almost unbearable joy.
[I swear by the name of Lyra Constellation.]
Vega placed her hand on O-jin’s cheek and slowly drew his face closer to hers.
[Even if the Black Sky sleeps within you.]
She pressed her lips carefully against his forehead.
[I shall become the starlight that illuminates the Black Sky, shining upon you.]
Forever.
An unwavering vow was etched into her heart.
“…Vega.”
[Hehe. If the other Constellations learned of this, I would lose my position as Polaris.]
She had sworn by her name as a star to protect the master of Heukcheon, a grave betrayal that would warrant expulsion from the Sanctuary just like the former “satellites” of old.
“That will never happen.”
O-jin’s eyes gleamed sharply as he spoke.
[I trust you.]
Vega nodded with a faint smile.
[And, well. One more thing.]
“Hmm? What?”
Vega’s face flushed as she turned her head away slightly.
Her voice grew timid and hesitant as her fingertips fidgeted.
[Do I not owe you a debt for my transgressions?]
Unaware of O-jin’s circumstances, she had locked herself away in the Divine Temple, causing him trouble simply because he had deceived her.
Was that all?
She had unilaterally rejected his attempts at conversation and inflicted deep wounds upon him.
[S-surely this requires a ‘punishment’, does it not?]
The goddess drew closer, her eyes sparkling with anticipation.
O-jin instinctively took a step back at her uncomfortably close proximity.
“…Again?”
Why does this goddess keep insisting on punishment every other moment?
O-jin swallowed hard and found his gaze naturally drifting toward Vega’s posterior.

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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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