Not A Regressor-Chapter 299: Sky Mountains (5)

“I-I’m not a hallucination!” Vega shouted furiously as Kwon Oh-Jin ignored her and walked toward his sleeping bag.

Kwon Oh-Jin slowly turned his head to the side like a rusty machine. Sheer disbelief filled his wide-open eyes. “You’re actually Vega...?”

Vega hiccuped and frantically shook her head. “N-No! I am a hallucination! You're dreaming right now!”

What is going on?

“Where on earth did you even get that outfit?” he asked.

Baek Mu-Kang did have things like dog and cat ears, but not an outfit as niche and revealing as a bunny girl costume. Now that Kwon Oh-Jin looked more closely, the bunny ears headband looked like a cheap cosplay accessory compared to Baek Mu-Kang’s finely crafted models.

Vega lowered her head as her cheeks turned so red that they could burst. “T-That’s... I-I borrowed it from Spica.”

“From the Celestial of Virgo...?”

Why would a goddess representing Virgo own such a skin-tight, revealing outfit?

Didn't Virgo represent love and purity?

Even if Spica really did own a bunny outfit, why would Vega borrow it and actually wear it?

“I-I just wanted to cheer you on...”

“Cheer me on?”

“S-Spica said that if I wore this, your strength would double or even triple!”

“...”

What kind of ridiculous nonsense did that delusional Celestial tell my goddess?

Seeing someone in a bunny girl outfit boosted a man’s strength two or three times?

Unbelievable. Just because my goddess is pretty doesn’t mean that it’ll make me feel better. Men aren’t that simple, y’know.

As if seeing a bunny outfit would magically energize him.

“S-So... did it work? Do you feel stronger?”

“Yeah. I feel so fucking strong.”

At this point, I could probably crush Kalike’s skull.

Vega exhaled in visible relief and rubbed her chest. “What a relief.”

When Spica first gave her the outfit, she doubted whether wearing something like this would actually help Kwon Oh-Jin. Seeing the sparkle in his eyes, it seemed to work.

“But why cheer me on out of the blue?”

Standing inside his tent in a bunny girl outfit at the crack of dawn felt way too random.

“I-I just felt like I should all of a sudden.”

How could she possibly explain that Spica had discovered the feelings she had been secretly harboring in her heart?

Still, this is purely to support my child.

She convinced herself that this shameful getup absolutely wasn’t to seduce him. Didn’t Kwon Oh-Jin say it himself that he felt stronger because of this?

Come to think of it, he seemed pretty happy when Ha-Eun and Isabella dressed as beastkin too. Wait a minute...

An alarming thought flashed through Vega’s mind. “My child.”

“Yeah?”

“C-Could it be... Do you get excited by animals?”

“What...?”

Come again?

“T-There’s no need to hide it!”

“What do you even think I’m hiding?”

“I can accept and embrace every part of you!”

“What?”

What is this goddess even saying?

“But didn’t you say seeing me in a bunny outfit gave you strength?” she asked.

“That’s... not what I meant.”

Where do I even start untangling this massive misunderstanding?

“You also stared at Ha-Eun and Isabella when they dressed as beastkin just like now!”

“That’s because it was Ha-Eun and Isabella.”

“And I once heard on TV that there are people with twisted desires called furries!”

What kind of lunatic says something like that on TV?

“I don’t like animals. It’s more like... pretending to be one is fun, I guess? Not that I want you to pretend now.” He quickly reached out to stop Vega from bouncing like a bunny again. “Just... look.”

How was he supposed to clear himself of this awful accusation? He had zero confidence in logically explaining the niche appeal of animal ears and tails to someone who clearly lacked basic knowledge of human society.

With a deep sigh, Kwon Oh-Jin gave up trying to explain. “I feel stronger not because I like the bunny costume, but because I like you, Vega.”

Vega flinched, her eyes widening in surprise. “W-What did you say?”

She nervously averted her gaze.

“I-Is that right?” Her lips trembled.

“Yeah, so I don’t have any weird preferences or anything.”

The goddess kept clearing her throat, her face turning bright red.

“Ahem! If you say so, then I shall believe you!” As her excitement died down and she regained some clarity, she deeply sighed and gently clenched her fists. “How pathetic...”

“Hey, I’m telling you. I don’t have weird preferences like that.”

I swear I'm telling the truth.

“I-I wasn’t saying that you’re pathetic!”

“Huh?”

Then who was she talking about?

Vega shook her head with a bitter smile. “I meant myself since this is all I can do for you.”

The mood was definitely serious, but it was hard not to imagine all sorts of things when she said that in a bunny girl outfit.

“Don’t say stuff like that.”

“But still—”

“If it weren’t for your blessing, I wouldn’t have been able to beat Kalike.”

He seriously realized that through his image training against Kalike.

“And honestly, even without your blessing, you’re always helping me in other ways.”

Vega faintly smiled and placed her hand on his cheek. “You really are kind.”

She gently stroked his cheek as if handling a precious treasure. He could feel his fatigue settling in all at once at her warm touch, and he let out a big yawn.

“Oh dear, you must be really tired.”

“No, I’m fine.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re clearly not fine.”

Kwon Oh-Jin’s eyes were already half-closed as if he would fall asleep at any second.

“Here, lie down.” Vega patted her thigh.

“Wait, hold on—”

“I said lie down. Or are you defying the words of a Celestial?” Vega pulled him down with a stern expression.

Already weighed down by exhaustion, Kwon Oh-Jin didn’t have the strength to resist. As he lay his head on Vega’s thigh, he could feel the softness of her skin through the thin stockings. This would only make it harder for him to sleep.

Vega gently pressed down his head as he tried to get up. “Stay still.”

She didn’t have the power to issue commands like Isabella, but somehow drained away all his strength anyway.

“You pushed yourself too hard today.” Her gentle hand ran through his hair.

He felt at peace like a bird chirping softly on a warm spring day. Even though he hadn’t taken any sleeping pills, his eyes slowly drifted shut.

Vega leaned in and gently kissed his forehead. “Sweet dreams, my child.”

That night, he dreamed of a bunny.

***

“Are those the Sky Mountains?” Song Ha-Eun asked.

Thanks to Boppy, they made it out of the forest much faster than expected. Now, massive mountains loomed ahead of them. More precisely, it seemed to take the shape of mountains.

Song Ha-Eun clicked her tongue and stared up at what she presumed to be the Sky Mountains. “No wonder we couldn’t see it at all from the forest.”

Even when she looked up, it still wasn’t really visible.

“There’s a massive fog covering the mountains.” Isabella squinted as she examined the area around the Sky Mountains.

Like flying into a cloud on an airplane, a milky haze cloaked everything.

They had pictured towering mountains when they first heard about the Sky Mountains. Now, it seemed the name came from the thick, cloud-like fog that covered everything.

“I worry if we’ll even be able to find our way through this,” Vega said.

“Well, that’s why we have Riarc.”

With beast-like senses and an acute nose, Riarc could probably guide them even with their vision obscured like this.

“No, this isn’t just regular fog, kid.”

“It’s not?”

“Activate your senses.”

Kwon Oh-Jin didn’t know any fancy martial arts energy sensing like in wuxia novels, but he did have something similar. He activated the Stigma of the Canes Venatici. As his senses heightened, the shape of the terrain began to form in his mind. To be exact, it should have.

“What the hell?”

Even with his Stigma activated, nothing changed at all. His field of vision only reached about twenty to thirty meters, and he couldn’t smell any grass or trees as one would expect in the mountains. No chirping birds or buzzing insects could be heard either. It felt like floating in a void of clouds in utter sensory deprivation.

Kwon Oh-Jin squinted into the thick fog around them. “Is this fog blocking our senses?”

“It seems that way,” Riarc said.

“Haa.”

This was the worst situation they could be in.

Riarc frowned as he looked around. “This place didn’t exist a hundred years ago... I wonder when it appeared. Kid, you don’t know anything about the Sky Mountains either?”

“All I know is what Leoru told me.” Kwon Oh-Jin clicked his tongue and looked up.

Despite the thick fog, he could still make out the general shape of the mountains in the distance. True to its name, the Sky Mountains consisted of tall peaks with smaller ones descending like steps.

They needed to cross the mountains and reach the Dragonian Kingdom. If they picked the lowest ridge, it wouldn’t take long to get over.

The problem is, we have no way of knowing which peak is the lowest just by looking.

Kwon Oh-Jin stared at the mountains.

A faint skittering swept past him.

Shhhhh!

Something dark rapidly crawled across the ground and darted straight at Kwon Oh-Jin.

“Mr. Oh-Jin!” Isabella swiftly swung her hand, and a crimson blade pierced through the black blur.

“This is...”

The meter-long demonic beast resembled a spider, but had a grotesquely protruding jaw. Most notably, it had no eyes. Where a spider’s eyes should be were twisted, snail-like antennae.

The same slithering echoed from all directions.

Shhh! Shhhh!

Because of the thick fog, they couldn’t tell how many of the demonic beasts were lurking around them.

“Oh-Jin,” Song Ha-Eun said.

A mysterious fog disrupted their senses, the towering peaks seemed to pierce the sky, and monsters swarmed as if waiting at the entrance.

On top of that, Behemoth was said to dwell here.

Now, they finally understood why others considered the Sky Mountains a forbidden zone.

“Can’t we just turn back...?” Song Ha-Eun asked.

I want to, too.