Not A Regressor-Chapter 265: Snowfield (5)

A dull throb pulsed through his head. His entire body was in pain as if a blunt weapon had struck him.

“Ugh.”

Where am I?

He slowly pushed himself upright in bed and glanced around. White walls surrounded him in a surprisingly ornate room, and he could smell sterile medicine. He was clearly in a VIP hospital room.

After he declared that he would become her Heavenly Demon, Cassia reacted differently than he expected. If it worked, he thought she would tear up and nod. If it didn’t, he figured she would just scoff and call him delusional.

Instead, she blushed bright red and stepped back in a fluster, not knowing what to do.

“Y-You really are a liar! You’ll say anything, won’t you? Do you honestly think you could ever become the Heavenly Demon?!”

She snapped back before spinning on her heel and storming off.

I have no idea if that went well or not.

Originally, he had planned to fully impersonate the Heavenly Demon and completely convince her to start doubting the real one. However, that plan crumbled due to a simple and absurd reason. She found him too kind.

Well, that part is on me.

He hadn’t fully grasped the Heavenly Demon’s personality and played a role that didn’t quite match. Even so, giving up wasn’t an option.

Therefore, Kwon Oh-Jin changed strategies. Instead of pushing the truth, he wrapped her wounds with sweet lies and took advantage of the traumatic memories he had inherited from her. To put it simply, he told her a sweet lie instead of the bitter truth.

I’m still not sure if that actually worked or not.

Either way, Cassia now knew for a fact that he wasn’t the Heavenly Demon. In that sense, he had failed since all his lies had been exposed.

He leaned back against the bed’s headrest and deeply sighed. “Haaa.”

Now that he thought about it, maybe he had gone too far. Even if it was a sweet lie, too much sugar could still leave a bitter aftertaste. Despite knowing that, something inside him had snapped when he saw her sitting in that snowfield with tears in her eyes.

She looked just like Ha-Eun.

After Barbatos’s curse took Song Ha-Eun’s sight, she had quietly wept in her hospital bed just like that. The trembling Song Ha-Eun looked identical to the Cassia abandoned in the snow.

Song Ha-Eun and Kwon Oh-Jin had each other, but Cassia had no one.

“Tsk.” He clicked his tongue and shook his head, cutting off the thought.

Who was he to pity her?

I didn’t die, so I guess that’s something.

From here on out, it would be up to Cassia. He would just have to wait for whatever decision she made.

“Anyway...”

He stiffened as he replayed the events from that day in his head. The side effects of using Open Heaven began to weigh on him. His nagging memory loss pressed down on his heart like a heavy stone. He wondered what memory he had lost this time.

I remember dating Ha-Eun.

Memory was fickle. No one remembered everything, so he had no way of knowing exactly what had vanished. As he sifted through his memories of Song Ha-Eun one by one, the hospital door opened and Isabella stepped in.

“You’re awake, Mr. Oh-Jin?” She walked in with a deeply concerned look and quickly approached his bedside.

“Ah, yeah, I’m up.”

“Are you in pain anywhere?”

“Well, it’d probably be easier to point out where I’m not in pain.”

“Hold on. I’ll get the doctor to administer more painkillers.”

“No, it’s fine.”

Enduring pain was one of the things he did best.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

Isabella looked like she would cry as she gently took his hand. At her soft touch, the pain stabbing through him slightly eased.

“Yeah. Just a bit of muscle soreness, that’s all.”

It was far worse than just muscle pain, but he didn’t want to worry her any more than necessary.

“Phew, thank goodness.” She exhaled with relief and lightly brushed over her chest.

Even that small gesture made the two towering peaks on her chest ripple in a way that demanded attention.

Kwon Oh-Jin cleared his throat for no reason and turned his head away, but Isabella kept her eyes on him.

“Mr. Oh-Jin, what did you talk about with my sister back then?”

She wanted to ask so many questions. How had he resisted her command? What happened when half his body transformed into black clouds? Countless questions sparkled in her mind like stars in the night sky.

“That’s...” He trailed off with a troubled look.

How could he convincingly reframe his conversation with Cassia in a way that completely omitted the part about him being the Heavenly Demon? Even a seasoned liar like him found it difficult.

An awkward silence fell between them.

Isabella quietly waited for an answer, but eventually sighed and shook her head. “If it’s hard to talk about, you don’t have to.”

“Sorry.”

Though unanswered doubts tangled her heart, she didn’t want to press him when he looked so genuinely conflicted.

“After she spoke with you and before she left, my sister said something to me.”

The wall of black clouds had disappeared, and Cassia had carried an unconscious Kwon Oh-Jin to Isabella.

“She said she was sorry.”

Isabella didn’t know what happened inside that dome of clouds, but Cassia looked deeply sorrowful after the black jewel embedded in her forehead disappeared. Then, she vanished into the shadows.

“So does that mean my sister is completely freed from the Heavenly Demon’s control?” Isabella asked.

He slowly shook his head. “I’m not sure.”

It seemed like she was free for now, but nothing guaranteed it would stay that way. From the Heavenly Demon’s perspective, the Serpens Queen was a powerful asset that he wouldn’t want to lose.

“And my sister’s ability...”

Images of Cassia summoning shadow snakes flashed in her mind. Cassia possessed overwhelming power. So much so that even Isabella, the infamous Leech Queen who ranked third among the Black Star Society’s Executors, had been defeated without putting up a real fight. Someone that powerful could rarely remain unknown to the world. That left only one possibility.

“So my sister was the Serpens Queen.” Isabella bitterly smiled and sighed.

She had been in the same organization and never realized that the Serpens Queen was her own sister, whom she had desperately searched for.

Isabella scoffed without even realizing it. “She seemed to recognize you, Mr. Oh-Jin. Have you met the Serpens Queen before?”

“Yeah. I ran into her once when I was trapped in the Demonic District. I never imagined she would be your sister, though.”

Kwon Oh-Jin knew Isabella was looking for her missing sister, but had never heard a name or seen a photo. He never made the connection.

“I see.”

Though not all her questions had been answered, her swirling thoughts began to settle at least.

“Haaa. With everything going on, I don’t think I can bring that up to Ha-Eun unnie.”

“Hm? Bring what up?”

“Ahem. You know... the stuff we talked about on the Ferris wheel.”

Kwon Oh-Jin’s expression suddenly froze. He slightly dropped his head and clenched his teeth.

“Mr. Oh-Jin?” Isabella cautiously approached him.

His mood suddenly changed as he blankly stared into space like he was preoccupied with something.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

He forced an awkward smile and shook his head. “Ah, sorry. It’s nothing.”

Isabella narrowed her eyes. Something felt off. He smiled and shrugged it off, but looked so fragile as if he could shatter with a touch.

“Mr. Oh-Jin.” She gently reached out and turned his face toward her.

His eyes trembled anxiously like a scammer who had just been caught lying.

“You remember what we talked about on the Ferris wheel, don’t you?”

A short silence filled the hospital room.

Isabella softly laughed and lightly pinched his cheek. “Come on. You were the one who said it, remember? That someday you wanted to go to Latte World with Ha-Eun unnie too. Did you forget already?”

“Ah... right. I did. Sorry, I just woke up. My head is still a bit fuzzy.”

The moment she heard his response, Isabella’s warm smile faded into a cold expression. Kwon Oh-Jin flinched at the sudden change.

He sighed heavily and ran his hand through his hair. “We never actually talked about that, did we?”

“No...”

He couldn’t believe he fell for such a simple trick and bitterly laughed. “Haaa...”

“Tell me the truth, Mr. Oh-Jin. What’s going on?” Isabella had calmed down, and her tone made it clear that she wouldn’t let this go.

He couldn’t get out of this.

“You saw how I turned into black clouds back then, right?” he asked.

“Yes.” 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Kwon Oh-Jin hesitated and wondered about bringing up the Black Heaven, but decided to gloss over that part for now as it wasn’t important.

“It’s kind of a trump card, I guess? But the side effect is that it erases parts of my memories.”

Isabella shot up to her feet, her eyes wide in shock. “I-It erases your memory? W-Why would you use something that dangerous—!”

“Because I had to save you.” His straightforward answer left Isabella speechless.

If he hadn’t shown up then, she would have died.

“H-How many times have you used that ability until now?”

“Twice... no, maybe three times.”

Including this most recent time, he had used Open Heaven four times.

“What about the other memories?”

“It only takes bits of my memories. Even this time, I still remember that we went on a date.”

For the first time, he forgot something about Isabella. She collapsed back into her seat, looking as though she would cry. The thought that he had to use a skill with such a cruel cost to save her tore at her heart.

“Don’t tell Ha-Eun.” Kwon Oh-Jin looked away with a bitter smile.

“Have you ever lost memories of her too?”

He made a painful smile. The despair he felt when he realized that he had forgotten they were lovers came rushing back. Closing one’s eyes didn’t make the world disappear. Still, a world plunged into darkness felt unfamiliar and unbearably frightening.

“Anyway, please keep this a secret from Ha-Eun,” he pleaded.

“But—”

“Please.”

“Alright...” Isabella nodded with a heavy expression.

Then, the tightly shut door to the hospital room opened.

Creak.

Song Ha-Eun stood there, framed in the doorway, with a twisted expression.

“What did you just say?”