Not A Regressor - Chapter 39

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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 39
Paradise (6)
“….”
In that instant.
The auction house fell into a silence as if frozen solid.
Breaking the brief silence.
“W-well! 10 billion! We have 10 billion!! Since the hammer price was called immediately, the auction for the ‘Dragon’s Eye’ is now concluded!”
The auctioneer cried out in a flustered voice.
“I’ll take the item right away.”
Thud, thud.
Kwon O-jin walked toward the Dragon’s Eye displayed on the stage.
A sacred relic shaped like a blue crystal carved into the size of a ping-pong ball.
He turned his body while gripping the Dragon’s Eye in his hand.
“Why… why are you here….”
Song Ha-eun stood trembling, her face drained of all color.
Questions repeating like a broken machine.
One step, another step.
He descended from the stage.
He moved his feet, following her ashen gaze.
“And who the hell are you?”
The man sitting beside Ha-eun glared at him with sharp, hostile eyes.
“….”
I could see his hand resting on Ha-eun’s thigh.
“What are you doing interrupting the auction….”
“Move it.”
“What?”
“Your hand. Remove it.”
I turned my cold gaze toward the man.
In that moment.
A blue ghostfire flickered across my black pupils.
“…!”
Flinch!
Choi Jong-chul hastily withdrew his hand from Ha-eun’s thigh without thinking.
‘What… what was that?’
It lasted only a brief moment.
As if a blackout had occurred, the auction house was engulfed in pitch darkness.
A chilling dread rippled down his spine.
“Ugh!”
But it was only momentary.
As the auction house interior brightened again, Choi Jong-chul looked around frantically and pushed himself up from his chair.
He glared at O-jin with a face flushed in anger.
“What kind of punk are you to dare give me orders….”
“Didn’t you hear me earlier?”
I waved my Awakened Users Association Special Investigator credential lightly.
Choi Jong-chul let out a scoff as he stared at the credential.
“Ha! A mere lapdog of the Association dares to pick a fight with the Starlight Lake Guild?”
He glared at O-jin with a bitter smile.
No matter how powerful an Association Special Investigator was, they couldn’t touch the Starlight Lake Guild, which belonged to the top ten guilds.
‘But was there ever a Special Investigator like this guy?’
Association Special Investigators were well-known figures precisely because their authority was so formidable.
‘He definitely wasn’t on the list━ Ah.’
Then.
A newspaper article he’d seen a few days ago suddenly came to mind.
The commotion that occurred at Seoul Station.
News that a single awakened user from the Association had defeated a monster that appeared underground without any casualties.
The young man before him was definitely the face he’d seen in that photograph.
“Wait, wait. Could it be… Brain?”
Hesitantly.
Choi Jong-chul’s mouth gaped open like a crucian carp as he stumbled backward.
In truth, if he were merely an awakened user who had defeated a monster at Seoul Station, there would have been no reason to be this shocked.
━But.
‘Brain’s stigma is definitely.’
The stigma of Lyra Constellation.
He bore the stigma of Polaris, the constellation before which even the constellations of the Zodiac Twelve Palaces bowed their heads.
‘Th, this is insane!’
Choi Jong-chul’s expression turned deathly pale.
The apostle of Vega, the Weaver Star, was an awakened user drawing attention not only throughout Korea but across the entire world.
A rookie among rookies to whom dozens of “super” prefixes wouldn’t be excessive.
That was the true identity of Brain standing before him.
“That seems to be what they call me.”
A cold, icy gaze turned toward Choi Jong-chul.
“You said Starlight Lake Guild, correct?”
“Y, yes, that… I….”
Choi Jong-chul stammered, his face drained of color.
Shortly after news spread that an Apostle of Polaris had appeared in Korea.
Most major guilds entered emergency meetings.
The Starlight Lake Guild, which belonged to the top ten, was no exception.
After a lengthy meeting, the official directive came down as follows.
-Maintain absolutely amicable relations with the Apostle of Polaris at all times.
It was a directive that could be called obvious, if anything.
There was no way anything good could come from making an enemy of the Apostle of Polaris, let alone just any awakened user.
“W-wait, there’s been some kind of misunderstanding….”
“Oh, so it was a misunderstanding?”
Heh.
O-jin laughed coldly.
“Let’s ask the Starlight Lake Guild master if she thinks the same way.”
“…!!”
Choi Jong-chul’s eyes went wide.
-Thud!
He hurriedly dropped to his knees and bowed his head.
“I-I didn’t know you were part of their group, and I-I’m so sorry for being rude!! Please, please don’t tell the guild master anything…!”
“Fine.”
“…Yes?”
“If you do me one favor, I’ll let this matter slide quietly.”
“Ah…!”
Choi Jong-chul’s expression brightened instantly.
“Thank you so much! Just tell me anything….”
“Get out.”
“Pardon?”
“Get out of here right now.”
“….”
Choi Jong-chul’s face flushed red and purple.
Thick veins bulged from his clenched fists.
A visage steeped in humiliation.
‘So what are you going to do about it?’
I looked down at him indifferently.
For now, Choi Jong-chul had more experience and possessed a higher Star than I did.
That was all.
Considering the future ahead, compared to myself as the Apostle of Polaris, Choi Jong-chul’s value was no different from an insect.
“Hehe. Then I’ll be in your debt.”
Not foolish enough to miss that, Choi Jong-chul rose to his feet with a servile smile and left the auction house.
“Tsk.”
After the commotion settled down.
“Let’s go.”
I placed my hand on Ha-eun’s shoulder.
“W-wait, why are you….”
She was still stammering out questions, unable to comprehend the situation unfolding before her.
“Follow me.”
“H-hold on!”
I pulled her along by the shoulder.
Song Ha-eun’s urgent voice reached me.
“Why did you even come here in the first place… No, wait! Kwon O-jin!”
I ignored her.
“Hey, where are you going! Hey!”
I pulled her along, my grip firm on her arm.
Our destination was the aerial garden located on the rooftop of the Yongsan Auction House.
It was a place renowned throughout Seoul for its spectacular views.
-Whoosh.
As we arrived at the aerial garden, a cold night breeze brushed against her cheek.
“Hah, hah.”
Perhaps it was the shock of the sudden situation.
Song Ha-eun’s breathing had grown ragged.
“O, O-jin, you….”
Her ashen eyes wandered through the empty air.
“What about the Paradise residence rights? Why did you buy that!!”
She cried out as if reproaching me.
The ten billion won I had paid for the Dragon’s Eye was money that should have been used elsewhere.
“Paradise?”
Smirk.
A faint smile crept across my lips.
Paradise.
I had desperately saved money for that over the past five years.
More precisely.
I had made her believe that’s what I was doing.
‘If I hadn’t, she would have thrown another fit.’
Then or now.
She was a troublesome woman who could never accept being indebted to anyone.
‘Though that’s part of what makes my sister charming.’
I slowly lifted the Dragon’s Eye I held in my hand.
A blue crystal the size of a ping-pong ball.
Within the translucent crystal lay a yellow iris that resembled the eye of a reptile.
“Right! So what about Paradise and why are you….”
“Just stay still for a moment.”
I reached out and cupped her cheek in my hand.
Flinch.
Through my palm, I felt her trembling.
“O, O-jin.”
As if sensing something.
She returned to the affectionate nickname she usually called me.
Tears glistened in her ashen eyes.
-Whoooosh.
As I brought the Dragon’s Eye to her left eye, the translucent blue crystal emitted a soft glow.
Like ice melting away.
The Dragon’s Eye flowed into her pupils.
-Sizzzzle!!
With a sound like oil crackling in a pan, violet smoke poured from both her eyes.
“Ugh!”
A sharp, searing pain shot through her.
The sensation of her pupils being branded by something scorching hot.
━But.
“Ah, ah.”
Such pain barely registered anymore.
Her chest pounded. Her heart thrashed as if it might burst.
“You’re alright. Just hold on a little longer.”
A warm voice drifted through the vast, lightless darkness.
Her wildly beating heart began to calm.
The searing pain burning her eyes gradually subsided.
And then.
Rumble!
It crumbles.
The solid darkness that had imprisoned her.
The endless night she thought would never end.
Crumbled away like a sandcastle swept by the tide.
“━Ah.”
A brilliant night view unfolded before her eyes.
A river of stars made of countless lights adorned the city, as if the night sky had been turned upside down.
“Ah, ah.”
She touched her eyes in disbelief.
She could see.
The delicate streetlights illuminating the park, the neat branches and leaves.
Most of all.
“How is it?”
His face, which I hadn’t seen in five years.
Somewhat gaunt now.
“How does Paradise look?”
“You, you….”
Song Ha-eun staggered backward.
So many emotions swirled within her that she could barely speak.
“Oh, right. There’s one more thing.”
“What?”
Kwon O-jin pulled out an elegant black case.
“What, what is it this time?”
Song Ha-eun asked with a trembling voice.
“You’ll see when you look.”
Click.
Kwon O-jin opened the black case with a broad smile.
Inside the case lay a premium prosthetic leg crafted so meticulously it was nearly indistinguishable from a real limb.
“This is…”
“Wait, let me see your right foot for a moment.”
“…”
Song Ha-eun’s face flushed slightly as she extended her right foot.
Kneeling on one knee, Kwon O-jin removed the cheap prosthetic she had been wearing and fitted the one from the case onto her leg.
“Wow.”
An involuntary gasp escaped her lips.
The sensation was so comforting it felt as though soft skin were touching her own.
Though she moved her leg cautiously, worried it might slip off due to its softness, it moved as naturally as if she had regained a real limb.
“How is it? Much more comfortable than what you were wearing before, right?”
“…”
Song Ha-eun bit her lip firmly.
She could see Kwon O-jin’s face, radiant with a smile.
━The fact that she could see that smile.
For some reason, it felt unbearably painful.
“…Why.”
Her voice trembled.
“Why, why, why!”
So many emotions swirled together that they defied definition in a single word.
Yet the emotion that crystallized most vividly within her now was an overwhelming, irrepressible ‘rage’.
“Why did you do something so pointless!!!”
She cried out as though her heart would break.
“That was precious money!! Money you scraped together with such desperation!!”
I know how desperately he has lived these past five years—his entire life, even.
Only I know.
What he was like before he became an Awakened User.
His pitiful existence.
I watched it all unfold.
Gasping in the suffocating heat, trembling in the bitter cold.
Subsisting on cheap calorie bars, wearing tattered hand-me-downs scavenged from the streets.
Enduring, enduring, enduring.
Clawing and scraping desperately to accumulate every coin.
“You told me you’d buy a residence permit for Paradise! You said you wanted to live comfortably, just once!”
Five years ago.
The day I lost everything.
Kwon O-jin came to me and spoke.
That he would go to Paradise.
That he couldn’t live like this anymore.
That he would save up money and leave.
“You promised me you’d stay with me until we saved enough money!!!”
“Oh, that?”
Kwon O-jin shrugged his shoulders.
He turned to look at her and grinned wickedly.
“Ah.”
Song Ha-eun’s eyes widened.
A fragment of memory from more than fifteen years ago surfaced.
A dusty recollection that had long been buried.
-Kwon O-jin!! You need to escape too! The kitchen’s on fire!!
-Oh, that?
Just like back then.
Unchanged from back then.
No different from back then.
He burst into a chuckling laugh and answered.
“━It’s a lie.”

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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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