I’m not a Regressor

deout, you won’t let just anyone in, right?

-Y-Yeah.

He avoided the girl’s gaze and clenched his fists.

–Even… even if mom and dad come, I won’t ever let them in.

Was it just the childish vindictiveness of a child? Even if his parents came looking for him one day, he vowed that the last thing he would do was let them into his secret hideout.

-…Really?

The girl smiled bitterly while looking at him speaking with his fists clenched.

That’s right…

The girl and the boy already knew…

They realized it before they had even memorized the multiplication table…

—The fact that by no means would their parents come back to look for them.

-Then what about big sis?

-…Huh?

-Will you let me in?

The girl asked as she put on a pretty smile that was like gems.

-Big… sis?

-Since I’m two years older than you!

-…

-I can do what your mom and dad aren’t allowed to do, right?

-Uh? Y-Yeah.

After hearing the reply that came in the heat of the moment, she took a big step into the shabby hideout.

At that moment, she took a step into his worthless life…

-Hehe.
Since I’ve come in, you need to think of me as your big sis forever, alright?

The girl smiled brightly.

Thinking about it now, the words she said probably had no special meaning—they were probably just words she had said playfully in the flow of the moment.

In fact, she probably didn’t even remember she said those words in the past.

However… did she know that single line… that childish brief joke… would be the biggest salvation that came to him?

“S-Stop it, Ohjin!!”

“Huff, huff, huff.”

Exhaling breath mixed with blood, he pressed against the ground with his trembling arms.

“Ah, ugh.”

Ohjin’s body screamed as it exceeded its limit.

It creaked, twisted, and cried out that it shouldn’t be moved anymore.

 

-Ring!

 

[Warning.
Your body has been harmed to the extent that it cannot maintain mana.]

[Your mana is going out of control.]

[Entering the ‘Overload’ state!]

Sponsored Content

[Entering the ‘Unstable’ state!]

 

 

“Shut… up.”

He didn’t care if his body broke down.

He didn’t care if his body was destroyed.

If he could stand up this one time, he didn’t care if he couldn’t stand up ever again.

“Please.”

He slammed his fist down at his shaking legs.

“Please… move.”

For the first time in his life, someone he wanted had appeared.

For the last time in his life, someone he wanted to protect appeared.

In his life that was dark like a starless night, she was the only thing that shone.

“Oh…jin?”

Looking at Ha-eun, who was looking at him with shaking eyes—

Bang!!!—  

“Uaaaaahh!!!”

—he got up as he roared out.

He firmly stepped on the ground and straightened his back.

“Huff! Huff!”

Exhaling out ragged breaths, he took a step forward in her direction.

Even though he staggered and stumbled, he didn’t fall.

“Ohjin… why…? Why won’t you give up?”

“Why… won’t I give up?”

Was that something a woman who was trying to pull out their eyes to save another’s life should say?

“You entered someone else’s secret hideout as you pleased… so you’re not allowed to go out now.”

“What? Wh-What are you talking about?”

Did she forget about it?

‘Well, it doesn’t matter.
Even if she did forget… I still remember.’

“Holholhol!! To think that you’d get up in that state!”

Cheon Doyoon’s ridicule-mixed voice could be heard.

“However— what changes now that you’ve gotten up?”

Things wouldn’t change easily.

The thing about the matters of the world was that, even if you endured, it wouldn’t be resolved on its own.
Even if he did manage to get back on his feet, the gap between him and Cheon Doyoon still remained distant.

‘However.’

There was a method he had thought up.

‘I’m certain that bastard said that the Dragon Eye is used to control the mana contained within the Dragon’s Heart.’

In that case, there was a possibility that the Dragon Eye had the power to control not only the mana inside the Dragon’s Heart but also the mana of the dragon vein.

“Whatever happens from now on, don’t ever move.”

“Wh-What are you planning to do?”

“I don’t have time to explain.”

Ohjin carefully put his hand next to her left eye.

Rumble—

The black clouds that flowed out of the tip of his fingers gently covered her left eye.

“Kyaaa! Wh-What is this?!”

“Stay still.”

Controlling the Black Heaven meticulously so that she wouldn’t get hurt, he absorbed a tiny bit of the Dragon Eye’s power.

And then—

Owoooong!!!—

—the dragon vein’s mana that had quietly coiled itself within the black clouds slowly raised its neck.

-Ring!

Sponsored Content

 

[You have achieved part of the conditions needed to unlock ‘Heaven Unfolding’.]

 

With the sound of clear bells ringing in his head, a line of text appeared in front of his eyes.

 

 

[Αυτοί που με προσπερνούν στον κήπο των αναστεναγμών]

 

 

The unidentifiable letters were the ones written in the explanation of ‘Heaven Unfolding’.

Ohjin raised his head and looked at the letters.

He didn’t know why, but it felt like the meaning of the unidentifiable letters was flowing into his head.

Slowly opening his mouth, he recited the chant that flowed into his head.

 

“Through me, you pass into the garden of lament.”

 

With the chant that rang out ominously—

“Ah.”

—the sky opened.

Crack!! Crackleeee!!—

The blue lightning that wrapped around Ohjin’s body gradually lost its color and faded black. 

The blood that wet the ground turned into black clouds and was sucked back into Ohjin’s body.

As if he had drunk an elixir, the cut wounds all around his body quickly disappeared.

“Wh-What?”

Cheon Doyoon’s body flinched as he looked at the blazing black lightning.

An unidentifiable, ominous feeling pressed down on his body.

Clatter, clatter, clatter!—

His teeth shivered noisily.

Not even being confronted by a North Star had caused him to feel that much immeasurable fear.

‘What is this…’

Cheon Doyoon looked at Ohjin with an expression of fear.

Crack! Crackle!!—

With his entire body wrapped in black lightning, Ohjin looked up at the sky with hazy eyes.

For some unknown reason, despite being able to feel the bright sunlight burning his skin, the sky he looked up to couldn’t be any darker.

 

“The sky is too dark.”

 

Looking up at the blue sky without a single speck of clouds, he asked with a somewhat rapturous voice.

“Isn’t that so?”

____

T/N: 

“Through me you pass into the garden of lament.” is a reference to the Italian narrative poem The Divine Comedy (Divina Commedia), Inferno.  (And the garden of lament is probably from Lost Ark)

Through me you pass into the city of woe:

Through me you pass into eternal pain:

Through me among the people lost for aye.

 

Justice the founder of my fabric moved:

To rear me was the task of Power divine,

Supremest Wisdom, and primeval Love.

 

Before me things create were none, save things

Eternal, and eternal I endure.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.