Chapter 265: Snowy Fields (5)

I'm Not a Regressor

Chapter 265: Snowy Fields (5)

"Keuhuk!" Ohjin felt his head throbbing as if he'd been hit with a club, and he let out a low groan. 'This is...?' He sat up in bed and looked around at the white wallpaper, also noticing the smell of disinfectant wafting into his nose—it was a VIP hospital room with quite a luxurious interior.

"Ah, that's right..." After he declared that he would be the Heavenly Demon, Kasia's response was a little different from what he expected. If it worked, he thought she would gratefully begin to cry, and if it didn't work, he thought she'd laugh at him and tell him to stop talking nonsense.

For some reason, she'd stepped back, her face reddening in confusion. -Y-you're just saying anything because you're a liar! D-do you think you can be the Heavenly Demon?- After shouting those words, she'd sharply turned and left.

'I don't know if it was a good thing or not.' His initial plan was to play the role of the Heavenly Demon and make her distrust the real one. Unfortunately, that plan failed for the rather ridiculous reason of him being too kind.

'Well, it's my fault.' It was his mistake for failing to properly grasp the nature of the Heavenly Demon and acting in a way that did not match, but that didn't mean he could give up. He'd changed his strategy to address the trauma Kasia harbored based on the memories he'd seen.

To put it simply... Instead of a bitter truth, he'd shown her a sweet lie.

'I don't know... if it worked or not.' Anyway, Kasia figured out he wasn't really the Heavenly Demon. Of course, it was a failure in that his lies had been discovered.

"Haa." Leaning back, he let out a deep sigh. When he thought about it, he regretted that, no matter how sweet the lie was, he might have said too much. There was such a thing as something being too sweet, after all.

"..." Even though he knew that, it was difficult to control the emotions that seemed to burst forth when he saw her collapse into tears in that white, snowy field.

'She looked too much like Ha-eun used to.' After being blinded by the Thousand Curse Dragon, Ha-eun curled up in her hospital bed and cried. That image of her shaking and sobbing had overlapped in his mind with the image of Kasia being abandoned in the snowy field. Ha-eun had him; he had Ha-eun, but in Kasia's case...

"Tsk." Ohjin clicked his tongue and shook his head. Why was he trying to sympathize with her? 'Well, I didn't die, so that's enough.' There was no other choice but to leave things to her.

"By the way..." His expression stiffened as he recalled those events. The side effects of using Heaven Unfolding and the memory loss that came with it weighed on his mind like a heavy burden. What other memories had he lost?

'I remember being together with Ha-eun, at least.' It was difficult to know exactly which memories disappeared because humans didn't have perfect memories to begin with. As he recalled all of his memories with Ha-eun one by one, the hospital room's door opened, and Isabella entered.

Click—

"Have you woken up, Ohjin?" she asked as she approached him with a worried look.

"Oh, yes. I'm up," he said.

"Are you hurting anywhere?"

"Well... I think it would be easier to find a place that doesn't hurt."

"Wait a minute. I'll call the doctor and tell him to give you more painkillers."

"No, it's alright." Suffering was something he could do better than almost anyone else.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Isabella gripped his hand, looking as if she were about to cry.

Her soft touch made the pain throughout his body seem to fade a little. "Yes. It's just a simple muscle pain," he said. It wasn't a simple muscle pain, but he didn't want to worry her.

"Fuu. That's a relief." Isabella let out a relieved sigh and lightly patted her chest. Even with that small movement, he noticed her two, fearsome mounds wobbling.

Ohjin suddenly coughed.

"Ohjin," Isabella said, "what did you talk about with my sister?" There were a lot of things she wanted to ask him. She wanted to know how he resisted her orders, why half of his body had turned into a black cloud, and more. Like stars in the night sky, she had countless questions.

"That's..." Ohjin awkwardly stopped talking. How on earth could he twist things so that he could plausibly say he hadn't been talking about the Heavenly Demon with Kasia? It was not easy for him to lie at that moment, and an awkward silence ensued.

Isabella calmly waited for his answer but soon breathed a deep sigh and shook her head. "If it's hard for you to tell me, then you don't have to ."

"Sorry."

Unanswered questions still flitted through Isabella's head, but she didn't want to force Ohjin to answer when he was looking so awkward. "After talking to you... my sister told me, before she left... that she was sorry." After the cloud wall disappeared, Kasia walked out with Ohjin in her arms and carefully placed him in front of Isabella.

She didn't know what happened in there, but the aftermath was evident in the black gem being gone from Kasia's forehead and her sister's change in attitude before leaving.

"Has my sister been completely released from the Heavenly Demon's control?" she asked.

Ohjin slowly shook his head and said, "I don't know about that."

* * *

Translator - Rainypup

Proofreader - ilafy

* * *

For the moment, Kasia seemed to have escaped the Heavenly Demon's control, but there was no guarantee that it would remain that way. Even the Heavenly Demon wouldn't want to lose the Queen of Serpents.

"My sister's ability..." Isabella recalled how Kasia had used shadow snakes. Kasia was so powerful that even she, who was the Queen of Leeches and ranked third among the Executors of the Black Star Organization, lost without even being able to put up a proper fight.

Since it was almost impossible for someone of such power to not be known to the public, there was only one possibility... "The Queen of Serpents... was my sister."

Isabella breathed out a light sigh and made a self-mocking smile. Even though she was in the same Black Star Organization, she didn't know that the Queen of Serpents was her long-lost sister

She laughed without meaning to. "It seemed like you knew my sister...Did you meet her before?"

"Yeah," Ohjin said. "I met her when I was stuck in the Demon Realm, even though I never thought she was your sister." He knew she had a missing sister, but he hadn't known the details and had never even heard Kasia's name mentioned.

"That's what happened...?" Although her curiosity was not completely sated yet, she still felt her confusion melt away a bit. "Haa. Since the situation is like this, I can't even bring it up to Ha-eun."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Ohjin asked.

"A-ahem. The things we talked about in the Ferris wheel."

"..." For a moment, Ohjin's expression stiffened. He shook his head and gritted his teeth.

"Ohjin?"

"..."

Isabella approached him cautiously when she noticed his mood suddenly changed, but he stared blankly into the air, distracted by something. "What's wrong with you?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Nothing. Sorry." Ohjin shook his head and gave her an awkward smile.

"..."

Isabella narrowed her eyes. Why did it feel like he was on the verge of breaking, and that even a touch would push him over the edge? "Ohjin..."

He avoided her eyes, so she grabbed his cheek and turned his head toward her. His shaky eyes made it look like he was a crook who'd been caught in the act. "What we talked about on the Ferris wheel that day... Do you remember?"

"..." A brief silence filled the hospital room.

Isabella smirked and lightly pinched his cheek. "You said that you wanted to go to Lotte World with me someday. Did you forget?"

"Oh, yes, I did. Sorry, maybe I just woke up. I'm a bit distracted."

"..." As soon as she heard Ohjin's answer, Isabella's smile vanished.

Seeing her sudden change in expression, Ohjin trembled and let out a deep sigh as he swept his hair up. "I never said that, did I?"

"Right..."

"Haa." He couldn't believe he was caught with such a simple trick. A self-mocking laugh flowed from his mouth.

"Tell me, Ohjin... What happened?" Isabella coldly asked. It was clear she wouldn't let him go without a proper answer.

"Back then... you saw my body turn into a dark cloud, right?" Ohjin asked.

"Yes."

He decided to gloss over telling her about the Black Heaven. That wasn't the important part, after all. "I guess you could say it's a double-edged sword... If I use it, some of my memories disappear as a side effect."

"Y-your memories disappear?" Isabella jumped from her seat in shock. "Why would you use such a dangerous technique...?"

"Because I had to save you."

"..." She shut her mouth, lost for words at his casual reply. He was right. If he hadn't gone back for her, she would have died there. "How many times have you used that technique?" she asked.

"Two times... No, I've used it about three times." The next time would be the fourth time using it.

"Other memories are gone, then...?" Isabella asked.

"Only some memories disappear. Again... I remember our date." It was the first time a memory related to Isabella had disappeared.

"..." Isabella slumped down, looking as if she were about to cry. His having to use a technique with the absurd side effect of "memory loss" to save her shook her to her core.

Ohjin gave her a wry smile and turned his head. "Don't tell Ha-eun."

"Have you ever lost memories related to her?" Isabella asked.

"..." Ohjin's lips crept into a bitter smile. The dizzying despair he felt when he lost his memory of being in a relationship with her came back. Closing his eyes didn't mean the world would disappear, but the darkness was still strange and frightening. "Anyway, keep this a secret from her."

"But..."

"I'm begging you."

"Okay..." Isabella relented and gave him a heavy nod.

Screech—

Just then, the tightly-closed door of the hospital room opened, and Ha-eun stepped through, a clear frown on her face.

"What did you just say?" she asked.