Not A Regressor - Chapter 379

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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 379
Interlude – Sisters (3)
“What… do you mean by that?”
My voice dropped to a low, dangerous tone.
A sickly unease crawled up my spine, clinging to my entire body like something viscous and suffocating.
-The signal from Miss Isabella’s private jet vanished abruptly just before arriving in South Korea. Initially, we thought it was simply a radio malfunction, but the fact that she still hasn’t arrived means….
Missing.
The aircraft carrying Isabella had simply evaporated as if it had never existed.
“Just before arriving in South Korea—how close are we talking?”
-I’ll send you the location where the signal was last confirmed via text.
My smartphone vibrated moments later, and a photograph arrived for Roberto.
The last confirmed signal location was near the West Sea.
It was a position with barely ten minutes or so remaining before landing.
‘But it suddenly disappeared?’
I bit my lip and pressed the smartphone back to my ear.
“Was there any unusual mana fluctuation?”
-Yes, I also suspected a Dimensional Rift might have opened in the air and checked with the Korean Association, but… no significant mana fluctuation was detected.
If it wasn’t a Dimensional Rift, then what reason could there possibly be for a perfectly functioning aircraft to vanish?
-For now, I’ll request cooperation from the South Korean coastal Guard Corps and conduct a search focused on the area where the signal was last detected.
“I’m heading there immediately as well.”
Even if the aircraft had disappeared over the waters of the West Sea, it was absolutely not a distance a person could swim to—but I had long since transcended the limitations of ordinary humans.
With my water affinity skill, swimming through the sea for extended periods posed no problem.
“Damn it.”
A curse rose unbidden from my throat, driven by the sticky, ominous premonition clinging to me.
I was moving anxiously toward the airport exit when—
Sssssslither.
A chilling sound, like a snake crawling across the floor, reached my ears.
That distinctive, unsettling gait—I’d heard it enough times now to recognize it instantly.
I turned my head toward the source of the sound.
“…Cassia?”
“It’s been a while, Kwon O-jin.”
Cassia lifted the hem of her black dress, which extended to her feet, gracefully and bowed with elegant poise.
“What are you doing here?”
“Sigh. It’s naturally because of my incompetent younger sister.”
“…!”
I immediately kicked off and rushed toward Cassia.
I grasped her slender shoulders roughly and demanded urgently.
“Do you know where Isabella is right now?!”
“Ah… p-please, calm down a little.”
“Do I look like I can calm down right now?!”
There was no way I could maintain my composure when Isabella’s plane vanished as if it had simply evaporated.
“I know Bella’s location, so please don’t worry.”
“…Phew.”
Only after hearing Cassia’s answer did I let out a relieved sigh.
But that didn’t mean all my questions were answered.
The biggest question on my mind right now was this:
“How did you know to come here?”
The moment I heard about Isabella’s disappearance, she appeared as if she’d been waiting for it.
The timing was far too convenient to be mere coincidence.
“Well, that’s…”
Cassia’s gaze turned toward me.
Or more precisely, toward the shadow cast beneath my feet.
Slither, sssslither.
With a light gesture from Cassia, a black snake wriggled out from within my shadow.
“I’ve secretly attached one of ‘The Snake’ to you, Kwon O-jin.”
The black snake that crawled out from my shadow slithered up Cassia’s body.
‘What is that?’
How long has it been attached to me?
I stared at Cassia with an incredulous expression.
“What exactly is that…”
“It’s a kind of familiar.”
“No, I understand that much. But when exactly did that thing get into my shadow?”
“Hehe. Who knows?”
Cassia winked and gave a delicate shrug of her shoulders.
From that expression, it seemed like it had been following me for quite some time.
“…Don’t tell me you’ve been constantly monitoring me with that thing?”
“My, monitoring? Could you refrain from using such ominous language?”
“If that’s not monitoring, what is it?”
“Hmm… love?”
She’s spouting nonsense about love.
I pressed my forehead, as if my head was aching.
In any case.
I now understood why Cassia could arrive with such perfectly timed precision.
“So this ‘Snake’ is also attached to Isabella?”
“That’s right.”
“Where is Bella right now?”
I asked urgently.
Cassia raised her hand and pointed northward.
“You know that place where you hunted Cheon Joo-ryong before?”
“Pyongyang?”
Why had the private jet headed to Pyongyang instead of Incheon?
‘And right now, Pyongyang was….’
A ghost city where not a single soul dwelled.
“Someone hijacked the private jet and flew it there.”
“…Who on earth could do that?”
Isabella was an Awakened User on the verge of reaching 11-Star.
Even Kwon O-jin couldn’t face her without using the “Heavenly Path”—so who could possibly hijack her private jet and redirect it to Pyongyang?
“That’s….”
Cassia trailed off for a moment, then bit her lip.
“I’m not entirely sure either.”
“Weren’t you monitoring her through The Snake you planted on Isabella?”
“The greater the distance, the fewer sensations I can share with my familiar.”
“…I see.”
Something felt off.
An inexplicable sense of unease washed over me.
“We need to get to Bella’s location as quickly as possible.”
Like misaligned gears grinding against each other, the unsettling feeling left no room for further contemplation as Cassia grabbed my arm and pulled.
“Understood.”
She was right—there was no time to dwell on anything else.
If Isabella had truly been kidnapped, I had to find her as quickly as possible, even if only for her safety.
“Hold my hand tightly. We’ll move by crossing through shadows.”
“Crossing through shadows?”
“Yes. You’ve seen it several times before.”
That thing where she’d vanish into the shadows and reappear.
‘So she can cover the distance from Seoul to Pyongyang in one go like that.’
I looked at Cassia with surprise.
Understanding what I was thinking, Cassia let out a short sigh and shook her head.
“Even I can’t cover such a vast distance in a single jump. I’ll have to emerge and re-enter several times.”
“Got it.”
Either way, it would be far faster than running on foot.
“Don’t let go of my hand.”
I nodded and grasped her hand.
So delicate it seemed it would snap with even the slightest pressure.
A hand that didn’t match the fearsome epithet of the Serpens Queen.
“…Hm?”
My eyes narrowed slightly as I held her hand.
The mana flowing through her hand felt extremely unstable.
As if she’d fought a fierce battle and sustained internal injuries.
‘No, this wasn’t “as if”—she’d actually sustained internal injuries.’
Injuries so severe that it wouldn’t be strange if she collapsed at any moment.
“Ugh….”
Cassia’s expression twisted for a moment as my suspicion proved correct—she was drawing upon the magical power of the stigma.
She turned her body away from me as if to hide the cold sweat trickling down her forehead, then slowly walked into the shadows.
‘With internal injuries of that magnitude, even standing would be difficult.’
Using ‘Shadow Veil’, I discreetly channeled mana into her body to examine her condition from within. Her mana circuits were twisted so severely that “a complete mess” hardly did it justice.
Who on earth had she fought before coming here to sustain such catastrophic internal damage?
Whoosh, whoosh.
Before I could voice my questions, black shadows engulfed my entire body.
As if I’d entered the vacuum of space, my body felt weightless. When I opened my eyes,
“…This place…”
An unnamed Forest stretched before me.
“Haa, haa. Just three more transfers and we’ll be there.”
“…Are you alright?”
“Hehe. Are you worried about me?”
Cassia shrugged her shoulders and played it off naturally enough,
but knowing her true condition as I did, I could clearly see the distorted face of hidden agony beneath her composed smile.
“Cassia. There’s something I want to ask…”
“We don’t have time. If we don’t hurry, Bella will be in danger.”
Cassia cut me off and prepared for the next transfer.
Black shadows wrapped around both our bodies as I felt that weightless sensation again, as if drifting through the cosmos.
After three transfers,
a crashed airplane came into view before me.
“Haa, haa, haa!”
“Wait here for a moment.”
Leaving Cassia behind as she gasped for breath, I rushed urgently toward the airplane.
Inside the aircraft, so mangled it was barely recognizable, the corpses of what appeared to be flight attendants who had been aboard with Isabella lay scattered about.
A wave of dread washed over me—what if Isabella’s corpse was among them?
“…Phew.”
Should I call this fortunate?
Isabella’s body was nowhere among the scattered remains of the crew.
I exhaled a short breath and examined the scattered corpses.
‘Are these people from the Colgrand Family?’
Since the airplane itself belonged to the Colgrand Family rather than a commercial airline, that seemed highly likely.
Examining the scattered bodies more closely, I discovered one additional fact.
‘They weren’t killed by the crash.’
Every corpse here had already been murdered by someone else before the airplane ever crashed.
‘…Probably whoever kidnapped Isabella.’
After surveying the immediate surroundings, I turned my body.
“Where is Isabella?”
“Phew. Just a moment.”
Cassia steadied her breathing and pointed toward an old abandoned building not far from the crashed airplane.
“I can sense Bella’s presence over there.”
I nodded and summoned the magical power of my stigma.
Wrapping my entire body in fierce lightning that crackled with raw energy, I carefully entered the abandoned building.
The moment I stepped through the entrance, what caught my eye was—
“Isabella…!”
Isabella, unconscious and bound by something that looked like a black shadow.
I urgently activated the Canis Major stigma and examined her condition.
‘No wounds… she’s unharmed.’
Her hair and clothes were slightly disheveled, but fortunately, she didn’t appear to have been injured.
Gripping my spear tightly, I carefully surveyed the area around Isabella.
As I drew closer to her, I could finally discern what the black shadow binding her was.
“…A snake?”
A black snake composed entirely of shadow.
‘This is….’
Yes.
Identical to the ‘snake’ that Cassia had created—
“Don’t move, Kwon O-jin.”
Then.
A chilling sensation, and something sharp pressed against the nape of my neck.
I turned to look behind me and saw Cassia staring at me with cold eyes.
“…Cassia?”
“If you take even one step, Bella’s life is forfeit.”
What in the world was happening here?

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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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