Not A Regressor - Chapter 360

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

I Am Not a Regressor Chapter 360
Interlude – Three-Way Vacation (6)
“What in the world….”
Spica’s mouth hung open like a fish, gaping soundlessly.
But only for a moment.
She turned a sharp glare toward Kwon O-jin, her voice dripping with indignation.
“I never took you for someone like this—I’m truly disappointed!”
True to her nature as the virgin goddess embodying pure love, Spica made no attempt to hide her displeasure.
Before such a goddess, Kwon O-jin responded with a composure so brazen it bordered on shameless.
“I arrived at this decision only after considerable deliberation and reflection.”
“Hmph! As if deliberation and reflection absolve you of guilt? If anything, this is premeditated infidelity—premeditated!”
“Love is hardly a crime, is it?”
Wait.
I’d heard that exact line before—from some trash male lead in a drama.
“Three-timing IS a crime, you bastard! What kind of pathetic excuse is that?!”
Fair point.
If I were in her position and my unfaithful lover claimed that falling in love wasn’t a crime, I’d think the same thing.
But.
“Surely you’re not the one to speak, having known I have two lovers and still suggesting Vega hide in a tent dressed like that.”
“Ugh.”
In truth, it was Spica herself who had been egging Vega on from behind.
It made no sense for her to suddenly condemn three-timing now.
“And looking at the people passing by, it seems those Constellations over there don’t have just one lover either, do they?”
Kwon O-jin casually shifted his gaze, surveying the Constellations moving about the Starlight Plaza.
While some pairs consisted of one man and one woman, it wasn’t uncommon to see one man with multiple women or one woman with multiple men walking together.
‘Though, I suppose in their case, it’s one Constellation with multiple Awakened ones attached.’
As mentioned before, Constellations possessed conditions so favorable they could rightfully be called the ultimate romantic partners.
Even the so-called alpha males and alpha females couldn’t dare present their credentials—their superiority was that overwhelming.
So why would such beings confine themselves to a single lover?
They didn’t even have social conventions or legal restrictions forcing them to date only one person.
“That’s… that’s different because they’re Constellations.”
“So Constellations are permitted, but humans are not?”
“That’s not what I’m saying.”
“That’s exactly what you’re saying. Constellations can have multiple lovers at once, yet you dare suggest a mere human like you shouldn’t? Isn’t that exactly it?”
“That’s… well…”
“Isn’t this racial discrimination… or rather, human discrimination?”
You f***ing racist!
“Ugh.”
Caught in Kwon O-jin’s dazzling gaslighting, Spica turned to Vega with an aggrieved expression.
“Hey, Elder Sister—you’re okay with this? Three people, I said three!”
And Vega, the great Polaris Constellation’s third star, was not even the first to join!
If I were to compare it to a medieval class society, it was as if an empress had become the concubine of a rural nobleman—no, not quite that far, but close enough!
[I am rather grateful to Kwon O-jin. He accepted my feelings despite the burden it placed upon him.]
Yet here was this empress-turned-concubine spouting such nonsensical words, which left Spica utterly dumbfounded.
[Hehe. Do not make such a face. This is what I desired, and the other two children are wonderfully kind and good souls.]
Vega spoke with a radiant smile.
Even Spica, who had watched Vega for centuries, had never seen her wear an expression so brimming with happiness.
“If Elder Sister is satisfied, then I suppose there’s nothing to be done about it….”
What could she say when the parties involved were content?
Spica released a deep sigh, then shook off her concerns and asked with a bright smile returning to her face.
“So, where are you two going? From the direction you were heading earlier, it didn’t look like the Starlight Plaza.”
[That is….]
“If you go that way… a grave? Don’t tell me you’re heading toward the Grave of Stars?”
Spica turned to Vega with startled eyes.
Vega glanced back at Kwon O-jin with a flustered expression, then released a short sigh and nodded.
[Indeed.]
“That’s a place no one ever goes. Why would you deliberately…?”
[There is… such a reason.]
Vega hastily turned and tugged at Kwon O-jin’s arm.
[Let us depart quickly.]
“Ugh, what? Tell me too~”
[…Do you wish to be struck by lightning again?]
“Eek! N-not that!”
Leaving Spica to leap up with a deathly pale expression, Vega strode forward with long steps.
Kwon O-jin offered Spica a light bow and followed in Vega’s wake.
“What is the Grave of Stars?”
[You will understand once you follow me there.]
“…?”
I couldn’t fathom why the Grave of Stars warranted such secrecy.
‘Well, I’ll find out once we get there.’
I followed Vega toward this place called the Grave of Stars.
The distance from Starlight Plaza to the Grave of Stars was considerable.
A leisurely walk would waste too much time, so midway through, Vega conjured a sphere made of lightning and rode upon it, with me in tow.
“This place….”
The starlight that had illuminated the Sanctuary began to fade, and the surroundings grew progressively darker.
In the distance loomed an enormous black rift, like a black hole, drawing in the starlight from all around it.
[That is the Grave of Stars.]
Vega lightly flicked her hand, dissipating the lightning sphere we had been riding.
[Follow me.]
Vega gently grasped my hand and led me toward the black rift.
What appeared beyond the Dimensional Rift.
“…Wow.”
Countless starlight embroidering the black space.
It felt as though I had stepped into a realm where all directions were blanketed by an autumn night sky.
Kwon O-jin unconsciously reached out and touched the empty air brimming with starlight.
Kururu.
Something soft brushed against his hand in the empty space where nothing should exist.
“What is this…?”
[It is Heukcheon.]
“What?”
Heukcheon?
Heukcheon, you say?
Kwon O-jin, wondering if he had misheard something, turned to Vega with wide eyes.
[To be precise, it would be more accurate to call it the remnants of Heukcheon.]
“The remnants of Heukcheon?”
[Did I not tell you before that in the distant past, Heukcheon once devoured all the Constellations?]
“Ah yes, that’s right.”
A past so distant that even its time was unknowable.
Before Vega and the other Constellations were born.
I had heard that there once existed Constellations called the ‘Ancient Stars’.
‘And they were all consumed by Heukcheon.’
After all the stars were devoured by Heukcheon once, the current Constellations were born anew.
[This place is precisely the trace left behind when Heukcheon devoured the stars in the past.]
“Huh….”
So that’s why it was called the ‘Grave of Stars’.
“Then this is the Heukcheon that once destroyed the world in the past, right?”
Kwon O-jin reached out and touched the black clouds filling the surroundings.
He slightly stirred Heukcheon and tried to absorb the black clouds.
‘Not a shred of power remains.’
It was as if only the shell remained.
From the remnants of the ancient Heukcheon, not even a handful of power lingered.
[In truth, what exactly transpired in that distant past was never accurately transmitted.]
Why Heukcheon was born.
For what reason it devoured the Constellations.
Only speculation abounded, but nothing was ever properly clarified.
“Well… records can only be left by someone who survives to tell them.”
Kwon O-jin clicked his tongue lightly as he gazed upon the corpses of stars filling the grave.
[Still, among several plausible conjectures, there exists this one as well.]
“What conjecture?”
Vega continued speaking as she gazed intently upon the Grave of Stars.
[Perhaps Heukcheon exists not for its own sake, but for the birth and death of stars themselves.]
The birth and death of stars.
Here, “stars” refers not to the celestial bodies scattered across the cosmos, but to the “Constellations” created by Titan, the primordial creator.
“What do you mean by that?”
[Heukcheon is indeed the force that once destroyed the ancient Constellations, yet it is also the power that gave birth to the Constellations of today.]
“…Wait, then that means…”
Vega nodded slowly.
[All Constellations, including myself, were born within this “Grave of Stars.”]
The death and birth of Constellations.
If Heukcheon is connected to all of it…
“…Didn’t you say before that Titan created the Constellations?”
The primordial giant said to have created this world.
If I think of it like a game, Titan would be the creator, and the Constellations would be the administrators running it.
[But what they created were not the Constellations of today, but the ancient Constellations of old.]
If that’s the case…
‘Then Heukcheon is like… a reset button.’
A force that destroys the world once, like the great flood in scripture, and allows it to be reborn anew.
[Hmm. You don’t seem surprised at all.]
“The scale is just too massive for any of this to feel real, you know?”
Kwon O-jin let out a dry laugh and shook his head.
Even hearing that the power dwelling within him was the force to destroy and resurrect the world, the sheer absurdity of the scale left no room for genuine astonishment.
[Hehe. Truth be told, I feel the same way.]
Even for her, the Constellation of Polaris, such words felt impossibly distant.
[Well, everything I just said is merely groundless speculation, after all.]
Vega let out a soft laugh and shook her head.
[Yet the reason I spoke of such things to you was…]
Vega approached Kwon O-jin slowly, her expression tender as she caressed his cheek.
[To show you that the Heukcheon you possess is not merely an ominous force of destruction and ruin.]
“…Vega.”
[Recently, I’ve come to think something.]
“What is it?”
Vega’s hand, which had been caressing his cheek, came to rest upon his left chest.
[Perhaps you yourself are the true Fate-Reversing Star.]
“The Fate-Reversing Star isn’t me, but…”
[The Fate-Reversing Star may not necessarily refer only to a regressor, might it not?]
According to prophecy, the Fate-Reversing Star is a savior who ascends against the flow of time and rewrites the world’s destiny.
Though Kwon O-jin did not ascend against the flow of time himself.
But is it not true that by absorbing the stigma of Lee Shin-hyuk, who did reverse time, he changed the predetermined fate?
[Unlike the Heukcheon possessed by the Heavenly Demon now, a Heukcheon created not for the world’s destruction and ruin, but for its birth. I believe… that is the Heukcheon you possess.]
Vega smiled faintly, her eyes reflecting the countless starlight that shimmered in the black expanse.
The Silver-haired Goddess gazed up at the starlight with quiet reverence.
Kwon O-jin found himself momentarily speechless, lost in the breathtaking beauty before him.
“Is that why you brought me here? To tell me that?”
[Indeed, it is.]
Vega nodded, her smile as warm and gentle as a spring breeze.
Despite this being a date meant for her, Kwon O-jin’s heart began to race at her thoughtfulness in considering his feelings.
[Ah, and… there is one more thing.]
Vega opened her mouth hesitantly.
[I wished to share with you a myth about descending to this place.]
“A myth?”
[Rather than a myth, it is more akin to a legend—or perhaps a superstition—passed down among the Constellations.]
A superstition whispered among the Constellations themselves.
[This… this is the place where stars are born, is it not?]
Vega clutched the hem of her dress, stealing glances at Kwon O-jin.
[Stars that are bound together in this place… they say they remain together for eternity. That is the tale…]
“….”
Wait.
Bound together… could she possibly mean…?
[So, that is to say. I…]
Vega, who had been stammering, suddenly clenched her fists with determination and cried out.
[I wish to form a celestial c-c-connection with you in this place!]
…A celestial connection?
“Ah.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————