Not A Regressor - Chapter 384

—————
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 384
Interlude – Sisters (8)
“….”
Cassia stared at Kwon O-jin with her mouth hanging open.
She didn’t speak the words aloud, but the look in her eyes was clear enough—something along the lines of “who do you think you are to say that?”
“Why… why would you go so far for someone like me?”
She was perceptive enough to know that his excuse about not liking her appearance was merely a flimsy cover.
Cassia clutched at her chest, consumed by a guilt that burned like fire.
Transparent tears traced down her snow-white cheeks like falling snowflakes.
To be protected by another.
That unfamiliar sensation tickled and stimulated her in ways she couldn’t explain.
Absurdly enough.
Even in this moment, her heart pounded as though it might burst, and her body burned with heat.
If she had to describe the emotion swelling in her chest in a single word… yes, it was closest to “happiness.”
‘Insane woman.’
She cursed herself bitterly.
To feel happiness while being protected by the man she had betrayed—there was no limit to her shamelessness.
A wave of nausea rose at the sight of her own despicable self.
And yet.
Still.
“Why… why do you protect someone like me?”
How could it be?
Whenever she looked at that broad back shielding her, an indescribable sense of relief and happiness welled up inside her.
“I don’t know.”
“…You don’t know?”
“Exactly as I said. I don’t understand why I’m doing this either.”
Kwon O-jin exhaled softly and shook his head.
By any rational measure, the correct choice would be to take Isabella and escape from this place.
He had no reason to feel guilt over her sacrifice, no obligation to bear responsibility.
After all, it was Cassia who had drawn him into this situation.
And yet.
Why.
Why couldn’t his feet move, as if nailed to the ground?
“….”
He could justify it with any number of reasons.
That if he fled now, he didn’t know what Mobius might do afterward, or that Isabella would grieve if Cassia died.
Or he could even attach the foolish reason that Cassia looked too beautiful trembling pitifully with tears streaming down her face for his feet to move.
A shallow sense of justice, a hollow morality—it didn’t matter.
‘I don’t know the reason myself.’
It was neither a judgment born of perfect logic nor an action calculated with meticulous precision.
I simply want to do this.
Yes, this reason alone should suffice.
‘That’s enough, isn’t it?’
Hadn’t I made this resolve when I faced the Heavenly Demon beneath the Black Sky?
To abandon nothing.
To sacrifice no one.
To release nothing held in my grasp.
To protect everyone.
So then.
“Stop struggling and stay down there.”
Leaving Cassia to her futile attempts at rising, Kwon O-jin advanced with deliberate steps.
“…Ha.”
A quiet chuckle escaped from Mobius, who sat perched atop the Building Ruins observing the situation.
He regarded Kwon O-jin with an expression of disbelief.
“Are you truly the same person as the Heavenly Demon?”
How could two beings differ so vastly from one another?
“I had heard tales, but witnessing it myself is quite remarkable.”
Mobius shook his head with a weary expression and exhaled a soft sigh.
“I believed I had witnessed countless humans throughout my long existence, yet never have I encountered one as voraciously greedy as you.”
To surrender nothing, to relinquish nothing.
To challenge a Constellation once deemed comparable to Polaris itself.
It was an act that could only be deemed the height of madness.
“So when will you stop flapping your jaws?”
Kwon O-jin gestured toward Mobius, extending his arm with a subtle motion.
The spear embedded in the wall rose into the air and materialized in his grip.
‘I’ll need to use Gaecheon eventually.’
The issue was timing.
Without a precise understanding of Mobius’s full capabilities, I couldn’t afford to deploy Gaecheon prematurely.
‘For now then.’
Drawing upon the essence of Heukcheon, I activated the Sacred Domain.
Uuuuuung!
The stigma of the Lyra Constellation blazed with radiance as my entire body was enveloped in a soft silver luminescence.
The Sacred Domain—the very foundation of a Constellation’s power—unfolded through the body of a mere human.
“…A Sacred Domain?”
Mobius let out a quiet exclamation of surprise.
A human wielding a Sacred Domain—in all his long years, this was only the second time he had witnessed such a thing.
“So despite the difference in temperament, the power you possess is the same.”
Mobius nodded thoughtfully and slowly rose to his feet.
Slither, slither.
Pure white serpents emerged from his shadow with the rustling sound of fabric.
‘It’s coming.’
I swallowed hard, tightening my grip on the spear.
Deploying the Sacred Domain consumed an astronomical amount of mana, so I wanted to engage in combat as quickly as possible.
‘Not yet.’
Without knowing Mobius’s abilities, I couldn’t afford to strike recklessly first.
I activated the Canis Major Constellation stigma, tracking the movements of the pristine white serpents.
And then.
Shhhhwack!
A searing pain erupted from my side.
In the blink of an eye, a snow-white serpent had closed the distance and torn a chunk of flesh from my ribs.
“Ugh….”
I hadn’t seen it.
Despite activating the Canis Major Constellation stigma, my flesh was shredded in an instant—so fast that I couldn’t even comprehend when or where the attack had come from.
‘This isn’t just fast.’
At this speed, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to say the serpent was transcending space itself.
‘Sight is too slow.’
If I couldn’t perceive Mobius’s attack even with my senses amplified by the Canis Major Constellation stigma, then tracking it with my eyes alone was impossible.
Then.
Crackle, crackle-crackle-crackle!
Faint lightning, invisible to the naked eye, spread like mist around me.
I closed my eyes and focused my consciousness on the lightning I’d dispersed.
‘Right!’
Shhwack!
I twisted my body to evade the white serpent hurtling toward me at terrifying speed.
I felt the sharp fangs graze perilously close to my collar.
Boom!
Capitalizing on my successful dodge, I drove my foot toward Mobius.
My spear, infused with black lightning, thrust toward his throat.
Crunch!
The sensation of flesh transmitting through my hands.
The black lightning, piercing through the Serpens Constellation’s Sacred Domain, began tearing Mobius apart like a ravenous beast.
“Gack, cough!”
Mobius’s eyes rolled back as his throat was pierced, blood spilling from his lips.
His body crumpled and rolled across the floor.
“…Tsk.”
The moment I withdrew my spear from Mobius’s throat, I leaped backward to create distance.
‘A vessel.’
I knew better than anyone that this wasn’t the end—I’d faced Constellations before.
“Impressive.”
As expected, Mobius’s voice echoed from elsewhere.
When I turned my head, I saw Mobius standing there with a leisurely expression.
Slither, slither.
Mobius’s corpse, which had been rolling across the floor moments before, transformed into a mass of pure white serpents and vanished into the shadows.
“Even if it was just a vessel, the Sacred Domain should have held some resistance… I never expected it to be breached so easily.”
Mobius let out a soft exclamation of admiration.
He was genuinely impressed, not mocking.
‘This is different from what the Heavenly Demon told me.’
Had he truly grown this powerful in such a short time since leaving the Demon Realm?
The rate of growth was so absurd it was almost laughable.
“A rather delicious morsel happened to roll in not long ago.”
“Ah, you mean Anselladus?”
“That’s right.”
I twisted my lips into a smile and looked Mobius up and down.
“Snake meat should be more palatable than seahorse meat, wouldn’t you say?”
“Ha, how terrifying. As expected of the master of Heukcheon—you speak just like him.”
Mobius gazed at me with a final chuckle.
“I’m afraid I have no intention of becoming your prey at the moment. There’s something I absolutely must do.”
“So you’re saying you might become my prey later?”
“Who knows? Perhaps once my business is concluded, it won’t matter.”
With those words, Mobius offered a faint smile.
Why was it?
That smile on Mobius’s lips felt as lonely as someone abandoned alone in an endless snowy field.
‘He said he shared the same purpose as the Heavenly Demon.’
As I pondered the “business” Mobius had spoken of, I shook my head and drew upon my mana once more.
“Enough idle talk.”
Deploying the Sacred Domain consumed mana so wastefully that maintaining it for long was difficult.
Before my mana was completely depleted, I needed to seize the right moment to use the “Heavenly Path.”
“Why aren’t you coming? Will you just stand there?”
I flicked my hand, spreading lightning bolts widely around me as I finished preparing to evade Mobius’s attacks.
‘If I concentrate, I can dodge them.’
With my eyes closed, I was reading the movements of the pure white serpents one by one.
“No, let’s stop here.”
The pure white serpents melted like snow into the shadows and disappeared.
“…Stop here, you say?”
“My purpose was simply to see what kind of person you are, after all.”
As if he had already achieved his objective, Mobius shrugged his shoulders.
“You did all this just to see what kind of person I am?”
I kept my guard up, watching Mobius’s movements with sharp eyes.
Despite his words, I couldn’t know when he might attack again.
“Ha. There’s no need to be so tense.”
Mobius turned his body around with a final laugh.
“We’ll see each other again soon anyway.”
“….”
“Soon now… it will all be over.”
“…What?”
“Haha. Well, who knows? You’ll be able to find out when the time comes.”
Even if I don’t want to know.
Leaving behind an eerie remark, Mobius’s body disappeared as if melting into the shadows.
The suffocating atmosphere that had filled the Abandoned Building disappeared.
“…sigh.”
Even after Mobius had completely disappeared, O-jin continued to scan his surroundings without letting his guard down, and a low sigh escaped from his lips.
“What the hell is that guy doing?”
In some ways, he was even more incomprehensible than the Heavenly Demon.
Kwon O-jin squinted his eyes as if his head was aching.
“Anyway, what about Cassia…?”
Let me turn her body to check on Cassia’s condition.
“Ah…”
Cassia stood there in a daze, staring at the spot where Mobius had disappeared.
Her emerald eyes were hollow and vacant, like an empty ruin.
Are you okay?
“Oh, Mr. Kwon O-jin.”
She looked up at Kwon O-jin with tears streaming down her face.
“Ah, uh.”
She, who had been backing away with a pale and exhausted expression, suddenly crawled toward Kwon O-jin on all fours.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I was wrong. Please forgive me. I-I don’t want to be abandoned anymore. I don’t want to be alone. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
Clinging to Kwon O-jin’s leg, Cassia repeats the same words over and over like a broken machine.
No.
Why is he/she acting like this again?

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