Not A Regressor - Chapter 376

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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 376
Interlude – The Snake’s Master (2)
“Hey, Kwon O-jin! Where have you been off to?”
When I returned to the hospital, Sakaki stood in the garden outside the hospital entrance, dressed in patient clothes.
Behind Sakaki, who was waving his hand with a hearty laugh, I could see Koshiro fidgeting nervously.
“Oh, oh boss! You shouldn’t just leave your hospital room like that!”
“Hahaha! A real man endures through sheer willpower, Koshiro!”
“Ah… I, is that so, boss?”
Koshiro’s eyes widened in a perfect circle as if he’d just gained some profound enlightenment, his body trembling with excitement.
“That’s not how you say it, big brother.”
Yoko, who had followed them out, glared fiercely and yanked Koshiro’s ear.
“Ow, that hurts!”
“It’s fine if big brother gets hurt!”
Yoko sighed deeply and shot a look at Sakaki.
“Sakaki, you should get back to your hospital room too. Your body still hasn’t fully recovered, has it?”
“Haha! A real man can overcome wounds like this through sheer willpower….”
“…I’ll tell the lady of the house about this?”
“Gulp.”
Sakaki’s shoulders flinched.
“Th-that’s… anything but that….”
Even a bull chosen by Aldebaran becomes a calf before his wife.
Sakaki, stammering and glancing around nervously, hurried toward me as if fleeing.
“Hmm?”
Sakaki’s eyes narrowed as he examined my complexion.
“Did something happen, little brother?”
“…No.”
“No? What do you mean no!”
Sunken cheeks and a pallid, ashen face.
My trembling legs, like those of a long-distance runner who had just finished a marathon, betrayed that my current condition was far from normal.
“Could it be that the sea serpent’s poison is still lingering in your body or something?”
No.
To be precise, the problem is that there’s nothing left inside my body at all.
“Then your internal injuries haven’t fully healed yet!”
That’s true, they haven’t healed.
But that’s not the reason.
“Then say something!”
It’s just…
It’s… a bit awkward to talk about, that’s all.
“Do you know why Kwon O-jin is in this state?!”
“Uh, huh? Me?”
“Didn’t you two just come back from going out together a moment ago?”
“W-well, yes, but… the thing is…”
Ha-eun whistled awkwardly, her gaze drifting away.
As she turned her head, her cheeks flushed crimson as if scorched by flame.
Kwon O-jin exhaled a sigh and opened his mouth.
“I thought my internal injuries had fully healed, so I stepped out for a bit of fresh air. But suddenly I felt dizzy.”
“Tsk. What are you thinking, letting a patient who hasn’t fully recovered wander outside like that?”
“….”
You’re one to talk.
“I’ll call a doctor right now! You sit here and wait!”
“N-no! I’m fine!”
If he ended up in the emergency room because he’d spent a secretive—or rather, public?—no, that wasn’t the point.
Either way, if he got admitted to the Intensive Care Unit because of those passionate moments alone with Ha-eun, it would become a lifelong source of embarrassment.
“…Are you really sure you don’t need to go to the Intensive Care Unit?”
“Yes! I just got a little dizzy for a moment, but I’m doing great, sir!”
Kwon O-jin burst into hearty laughter like Sakaki would, pounding his chest with his clenched fist.
In truth, his body wasn’t in the best condition after exerting himself (?) while his internal injuries hadn’t fully healed.
‘Absolutely not.’
He desperately wanted to avoid being admitted to the Intensive Care Unit for such a ridiculous reason.
“O-jin says he’s fine! I’ll escort him back to his room, so don’t worry, sir!”
Ha-eun, sharing the same thoughts as Kwon O-jin, offered an awkward smile as she helped support him.
Sakaki, arms crossed, swallowed heavily.
“Well, if even the young lady insists, I suppose there’s no helping it.”
“Ha ha. Then I’ll be on my way… oh.”
“Hmm? Is something wrong?”
“There’s one thing I’d like to ask of you.”
Kwon O-jin pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Sakaki.
On the paper was drawn the image of a white-haired man, rendered with photographic clarity.
“I’d appreciate it if you could investigate this person.”
Honestly, I don’t expect Sakaki to be able to find the white-haired man.
But if I can obtain even the smallest clue… or even if I find nothing at all, it’s still worth making the request.
After all, within Japan, no organization could match Kuroushi’s intelligence network.
“Who is this person?”
“I have no information beyond his appearance.”
“Hmm.”
Sakaki swallowed heavily, his eyes narrowing slightly.
No matter how superior Kuroushi’s intelligence network was, finding someone with just a single photograph would be difficult.
“I’ll give it a try, but honestly, finding someone with only this seems quite challenging.”
“I understand. I’m only asking on the off chance. You don’t need to worry too much about it.”
“Ha ha ha! Still, it’s a request from my proud younger brother—I should at least send some people to look into it.”
Sakaki burst into hearty laughter as he examined the white-haired man drawn on the paper.
“Say, did your younger brother draw this himself?”
“Yes.”
“Wow, he’s got quite the artistic talent! Anyone would mistake this for a photograph rather than a drawing.”
In truth, I had transferred the white-haired man’s appearance from Lee Shin-hyuk’s memory onto the paper by applying an illusion skill, so it was closer to a printed photograph than an actual drawing.
There was no need to explain such details.
“Then I’ll be counting on you.”
“Ah yes, this morning the team submitted a report on the damage assessment and the remaining remnants of the organization. Nothing particularly noteworthy, but take a look anyway.”
Sakaki pulled out several documents from his pocket and handed them over.
True to his word about there being nothing significant, the stack didn’t look particularly thick.
“Thank you.”
Kwon O-jin accepted the documents from Sakaki and headed toward the hospital room.
Ha-eun, who had been following behind, let out a relieved sigh while patting her chest.
“Wow, I thought I was going to die when he said he was calling a doctor.”
“That’s why I told you not to do it.”
“Hmph, you were the one who got even more worked up halfway through.”
“That’s….”
Ugh.
Kwon O-jin swallowed hard, having no excuse to offer.
Click.
Back inside the hospital room, Kwon O-jin immediately collapsed onto the bed.
“Ahhh. There’s nothing like a bed.”
The comfort was like sinking into bed after a hot shower.
I could feel the fatigue pressing down on my body melting away gradually.
“You sound like some overworked salaryman.”
“Be quiet.”
And whose fault is all this anyway.
“Would you like me to peel an apple for you?”
“I’d rather not eat an apple that’s nothing but the core.”
“H-hey, I’m much better at it now!”
Ha-eun huffed indignantly and picked up a knife.
“W-wait, why is it like this….”
As expected, watching the flesh being ruthlessly carved away along with the skin, I found myself thinking of the white-haired man.
‘Who could he be.’
A man who seemed to embody a pristine snowy field.
Recalling those emerald eyes that gleamed with an eerie light, I furrowed my brow.
“Tsk.”
No matter how much I racked my brain, it wouldn’t reveal the man’s identity.
Kwon O-jin clicked his tongue lightly and unfolded the documents he had received from Sakaki.
They contained detailed information about the scale of damage from this battle.
While I was reviewing the documents, an apple with only crooked seeds remaining around its edges approached my lips.
“Here, say ‘aah’~”
“…The apple’s gotten pretty shriveled, hasn’t it?”
Had it been through some kind of physical therapy?
“Stop talking and eat.”
“Yes.”
“Is that the one that man gave you earlier?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Let me see it for a moment.”
Ha-eun took the documents and flipped through the papers with a rustling sound.
After confirming the extent of the damage, Ha-eun let out a relieved sigh and opened her mouth.
“Still, despite all that chaos we caused fighting, it’s fortunate there were no casualties.”
“We evacuated everyone beforehand.”
The aftermath of the battle had been so devastating that the beach—the very foundation of their livelihood—lay in complete ruins.
Fortunately, since we had evacuated the villagers in advance, we managed to avoid any loss of life.
‘The only casualties worth mentioning were…’
The Kuroushi Organization member who had filmed Anselladus’s initial manifestation and the missing truck driver, perhaps.
Numbers weren’t everything, but for a direct manifestation of a Black Star Constellation member on Earth, the damage was remarkably minimal…
“…Huh?”
Then.
A chilling sensation rippled down my spine.
I snatched the documents Ha-eun had been reading and examined them more carefully once again.
“What? Why are you like that?”
“…It’s gone.”
“What’s gone?”
“The truck.”
With Anselladus’s sudden attack, I hadn’t given it any thought whatsoever.
“Where is that truck that supposedly went missing?”
Why was this happening?
A sinister premonition spread through my entire body like viscous tar.

* * *
“What are your thoughts on calamities?”
In the forest shrouded by darkness.
A man as pale as a snowy field sat perched upon a boulder, his gaze fixed upon the thicket draped in deep shadow.
In the empty forest, the man’s soliloquy continued softly.
“Something that cannot be anticipated, prepared for, or avoided… doesn’t it resemble fate itself?”
Emerald eyes turned toward somewhere within the undergrowth.
There lay a truck, shredded as if torn apart by massive claws, scattered in tatters.
“So perhaps his meeting me… being fated to meet me… was itself a predetermined destiny.”
The man let out a soft laugh, a gentle smile playing at his lips.
“Don’t you think so, Cassia?”
Rustle, rustle.
The undergrowth trembled, and an eerie sound like a serpent crawling across the ground echoed through the forest.
A woman emerged from the shadows cast deep upon the earth.
A woman with such a slender frame one might mistake her for a girl at first glance.
Yet despite her delicate, girlish form, her beauty was striking enough to send shivers down one’s spine—an alluring, seductive charm that could never be called merely girlish.
Cassia approached the man, her black dress trailing across the ground, and bowed respectfully.
“I greet you, Mobius, the Constellation of the Snake’s Seat.”
“Ha ha. There’s no need for such formality.”
The white-haired man called Mobius shook his head with a gentle smile.
“I gave you my stigma, but Cassia is not my ‘child.'”
“….”
Words as resolute as if carved by a sharp blade.
Cassia’s expression grew anxious as she clenched her fists.
She swallowed dryly and opened her mouth with a voice taut with tension.
“…There’s something I’d like to ask of you.”
“Is that so? What a curious coincidence. Or perhaps this too is fate.”
Mobius let out a soft laugh and turned his head.
Emerald eyes that gleamed with an eerie light fixed upon Cassia.
“I also have something I’d like to ask of you.”

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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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