I’m Not a Regressor - Chapter 258

Chapter 258: Interlude – Devil of the Sky

Sssssshhhhkkk—!

Following a sharp crackling sound, snakes flooded in and pierced the black clouds.

The black clouds swung wildly.

“How come there are so many people impersonating the Heavenly Demon?” Kasia frowned as if she were unbearably dissatisfied. Come to think of it, Huan Sukothai, the King of Toads, had also called himself the Heavenly Demon and forced her to obey.

“I won’t fall for it anymore.” She’d found the real Heavenly Demon and smiled while recalling the man. Ohjin’s curly, black hair and decadent appearance had convinced her that he was the Heavenly Demon she’d been seeking.

“How dare such lowly creatures try to impersonate Ohjin…” She would kill every one of them with her own hands. “Haa.” She sighed and raised her arms, summoning shadow snakes from the nearby darkness. The snakes ate up the surrounding light and flooded toward the black cloud like a tidal wave.

“Hmm…” A low sound flowed out of the black cloud. “Yeah… so that’s what happened.” As if he understood the whole situation, the black cloud burst into a low laugh.

Shhhhkkkkk—!

The shadow snakes rushed in and instantly surrounded the dark cloud. Though it was in a gaseous state, the shadow snakes were able to directly strike at the soul.

“Disappear,” the cloud said. With that single command, the snakes melted like snow and vanished.

“What…?” Kasia’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“As I expected, should I say?” A low laugh came out of the black cloud. “I’m glad I have backup measures.”

‘Backup measures?’ Kasia faltered and stepped back from the ominous foreboding running down her spine.

“Come here, Kasia,” the dark cloud called her.

Even though she tried to resist, her legs followed its command. “Ah, eugh.”

The formless, dark cloud reached out to her. Though it had no hand, she was able to recognize its movement for what it was. “The night has come.”

Click—

Kasia froze as if a switch had been flicked. Her dull eyes stared into empty air. The previously clear night sky was covered in darkness.

“Night makes you think of many things.” The black clouds, or the Heavenly Demon’s, voice reverberated in the darkness. “The anger, sadness, desire, and memories that I wanted to forget.” The Heavenly Demon’s hand graciously stroked her cheek. “Do you remember what happened that day?”

“…” Even in the thick rainforest, she felt a biting cold. Her teeth chattered together while her face paled. She recalled a snowy, white garden and laying on an endless field of snow—it was the memory of being thrown away.

“That day, I picked the stars from the night sky and gave them to you,” the black cloud said.

Oh… how could she have forgotten that the stars on the left side of her chest were his gifts to her?

“What can you give me?” the dark cloud asked as it gently enveloped her body.

Her mind felt numb, Kasia felt that the darkness was the most comfortable thing in the world. “Every… thing,” she murmured. “ “My… everything… to you, Heavenly Demon…”

“You don’t have to give everything.” Like flowers blooming and withering, the black clouds rolled back. “I only need one favor from you…” the devil in the sky whispered in a sweet voice.

“…Yes, Lord Heavenly Demon.” Kasia’s consciousness sank into the cloud.

* * *

“We’re hooooommmmeeeee!” Ha-eun kicked off her shoes, ran into the living room, and leaped onto the luxury sofa Isabella had bought for her, which cost more than ten thousand dollars. Then, she hugged a cushion and wriggled like a caterpillar.

“Someone would think you just came back from a boot camp.” Ohjin approached Ha-eun, who was busy laughing.

It took only three days for them to subdue the Thousand Curse Dragon. Though they’d finished the dragon off on the first day, they’d stayed two more days to investigate other groups of monsters or relics Barbatos might have collected.

‘We didn’t get anything else,’ Ohjin thought. Though they suffered a lot of trouble investigating the shit-covered lair, they didn’t get much. Still, the Thousand Curse Dragon’s body alone was enough to make up for it.

“How are your eyes?” he asked as he stepped closer and looked at the eye patch covering her left eye.

“Well… I don’t feel any pain.” Ha-eun lifted her hand and undid the patch. A subtle, amber light shone from the dragon eye. Her eye had changed after they killed the pleading Thousand Curse Dragon. Afterward, something whiteish had flowed from the dragon’s body into her eye. In Vega’s words, it was the ‘dragon soul’.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Uh, I’m okay,” she replied.

He was worried about side effects since she absorbed none other than the Thousand Curse Dragon’s soul, but fortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case. “Should I say that the performance got better?”

Ha-eun touched her left eye and opened her eyes wide. “I don’t know if it’s because I became a 10-Star or because I absorbed his soul, but… I can handle more of the magic in the dragon heart, and my eyesight has improved a lot.”

“Your eyesight got better?” Ohjin asked.

“Yes.

“Ohjin, I can see everything in detail, even the insides of your nostrils.”

“…” Ohjin reflexively covered his nose.

Ha-eun chuckled and stood. “Anyway! I’m very satisfied!” She’d overcome trauma, reached 10-Star, and even strengthened her dragon eye—the subjugation was nothing short of a Christmas present for her.

“That’s a relief.” Seeing Ha-eun happy like that, even Ohjin smiled.

“Yes, it’s a relief, Ha-eun,” Isabella said as she walked in after them, smiling and nodding. “Oh, by the way, Ha-eun, come look at this.”

“Huh? What’s that?”

“It’s the heart of the Thousand Curse Dragon. Oh, even if it’s called a heart, it’s not a real heart, it’s a starstone.” Isabella took an ostrich-egg-sized stone from her bag.

As promised, the disposal of the Thousand Curse Dragon was left to the Colagrande family, and it was the item they’d found in his body. “You said your eye has the power to handle draconic mana, right?” she asked.

“Oh, yes. That’s what Vega says,” Ha-eun replied.

“Can you absorb the magic in this?”

“Oh.”

It was likely. “B-but…” Ha-eun gulped and looked at the starstone in Isabella’s hands. Since they’d received equipment from her, they had transferred all authority over the Thousand Curse Dragon’s body to Isabella. She was already in debt of more than twenty thousand dollars, so she couldn’t accept the starstone.

“Oh my, why are you like this now? It’s upsetting” Isabella sat next to her and smiled. She hugged Ha-eun’s shoulder as the other woman could not take her eyes off the Thousand Curse Dragon’s starstone and whispered in her ear, “We’re one family now, right?”

“What?” In the blink of an eye, Ha-eun, who never had a family to speak of, looked perplexed.

“Ha-eun… What do you say in Korean? Oh, sister-in-law! You’re my sister-in-law, aren’t you?”

“I… I’m not your sister-in-law,” Ha-eun timidly refuted, but her gaze did not fall away from the large starstone.

Isabella’s smile deepened as she looked at how enamored Ha-eun was with the starstone. “It’s true that you became a 10-Star… but there’s still a long way to go, right?”

It was as she said. It was true that Ha-eun reached the same 10-Star rank as Isabella. Even though they were both 10-Star, the gap between Ha-eun and Isabella was the difference between the sky and the earth.

For Awakeners, a “Star” was like a weight class. Even if they had the same heavyweight physique, wasn’t there a huge gap between a beginner, who had just started working out, and a professional with a champion belt? Naturally, that gap got wider in the higher ranks.

“This starstone… it will help you grow a lot, right?” Isabella asked.

“Ye…ss.”

Isabella looked at Ha-eun, who was slumped and slurring the ends of her words, in delight. “Ha-eun, I’ve never been to an amusement park.” She stroked her lips and looked at Ohjin. “I want to go to an amusement park with Ohjin tomorrow. Will that be okay?”

“Ugh,” Ha-eun grumbled.

She didn’t even have to say, ‘Just the two of us,’ for it to be obvious.

“You didn’t forget the promise you made, did you?” Isabella asked.

“…” Ha-eun pursed her mouth tightly and avoided Isabella’s gaze before giving Ohjin an anxious look and sighing. “Okay, you two can go.”

“Oh yeah!” Isabella jumped out of her seat and clenched her fist in victory. “Ah…” She coughed awkwardly after a moment’s silence. “I’m sorry, I’m a little excited.” She sat back in her seat, blushing.

Ha-eun glared at her and said, “Don’t forget, Ohjin is my lover.”

“Of course, I know!” Isabella nodded, desperately trying to hide her smile.

“Ah, my head.” Ha-eun sighed deeply and glared at Ohjin. She couldn’t say anything to Isabella since she had received so much, so she turned her anger on Ohjin for no reason. “You’re the most problematic thing ever.”

“…” Though he suddenly became the target of her anger, there was nothing he could say—it was his fault for not distancing himself from Isabella.

“It’s okay for you two to go out and have fun, but…” Ha-eun continued, glancing at Isabella’s pale pink lips. “Kissing is not allowed, got it?”

“Hehe. Of course!” Isabella jumped out of her seat and readily agreed before hugging Ohjin’s arm and bashfully smiling. “Did you hear that, Ohjin? Let’s have fun together tomorrow!”

“Okay…” How could he argue in such a situation? He sighed slightly as he looked at Isabella, who was as excited as a child the day before a field trip.

She clasped Ohjin’s arm, and her eyes glinted. ‘If kissing’s not allowed…’

It meant other things were okay, right?

____