Not A Regressor-Chapter 328: Treasure Hunt (7)

“What do you mean by that, Gramps? You killed her?” Song Ha-Eun asked in shock. “But earlier, you said a bad person killed her...”

“Yeah. I’m a bad person.” Baek Mu-Kang looked down at the half-bitten dumpling in his hand and smiled sorrowfully. “I’m a fool. There’s not a single thing I can do on my own. Because of that, my wife had to endure so much.”

The hardships and the pain became unbearable.

“She got really sick. A terrible illness. And... she died.”

It wasn’t because of anyone else.

“I’m the one who killed her,” Baek Mu-Kang said with a faint smile.

Strangely, Song Ha-Eun felt like she could understand the distant emotion behind that smile because she had experienced it too.

“Gramps...”

Blinded and with one leg gone, unable to walk, she had also become a heavy burden on Kwon Oh-Jin’s shoulders. She could still remember it vividly. The way Kwon Oh-Jin saved every bit of money for her, the stench of old, secondhand clothes, the rustling of five-hundred-won protein bars being unwrapped.

The despair of having to watch that pitiful life from the sidelines, unable to do anything, felt like falling endlessly into a bottomless abyss.

What if...

Kwon Oh-Jin had died in an accident while trying to earn money for her? What would have become of her then?

Her eyes reflected Baek Mu-Kang. The man known as Megrez, a figure of reverence, now seemed unbearably fragile.

A heavy silence fell over them.

Song Ha-Eun opened her mouth as if to say something, but bit her lip hard, not knowing what to say. “That’s not your fault, gramps.”

“It is my fault.” He cut her off firmly, shaking his head. “If I hadn’t existed, my wife could’ve lived a happy life.”

His cold clarity sounded as if he were reading from a manual.

Song Ha-Eun clenched her fists in frustration. “That’s not—!”

“That’s not true,” Kwon Oh-Jin interjected before she could continue. “Whether you’re the one giving care or receiving it, just having someone precious by your side is enough to make a person happy.”

Happiness wasn’t far away. Even beyond a sky blanketed with storm clouds, stars still shone. No matter how painful it was, no matter how hard life got, surely it was better than a life without Song Ha-Eun.

“Hehe. I’m too much of a fool to understand hard words like that.” Baek Mu-Kang smiled innocently and began scarfing down more dumplings.

Kwon Oh-Jin watched him with a bitter gaze. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand. He just chose not to understand because he could only soothe his grief by holding onto the guilt and blaming himself for her death.

“Is the treasure you’re looking for connected to your wife?” Kwon Oh-Jin asked.

Baek Mu-Kang cocked his head with his cheeks stuffed with dumplings. “Hmm?” After chewing and swallowing, he grinned like a child. “A treasure is a treasure.”

For some reason, that childlike smile looked so fragile that it could shatter at any moment.

“For now, let’s focus on finding Deimos.”

Whatever the treasure’s identity, they would have to find it eventually if they wanted Baek Mu-Kang’s help.

“Yeah! Let’s go find the bad guy!” Baek Mu-Kang jumped up with energy and nodded vigorously.

***

The next day, they began searching the Black Rock Mine. They pushed through the thick clouds of sulfur gas and combed through the granite-covered mountain range.

During a short break, Song Ha-Eun slumped down on a rock with an exhausted sigh. “Ugh. There’s nothing around here.

“You’re right, unnie.”

The heat wasn’t too bad, but the nauseating stench of the sulfur gas wore even them down.

“I’m going to head back to the Sanctum for a bit, kid.”

“Alright. Thanks for your help.”

Riarc deeply sighed and looked even more drained than Song Ha-Eun. Among their group, he possessed the most sensitive sense of smell. The heavy stench of sulfur took its toll on him.

I’m sure this is hard for him.

Even Kwon Oh-Jin experienced searing headaches whenever he used the Stigma of Canes Venatici. For Riarc, whose sense of smell was even more refined, the pain was unimaginable.

Perched on Kwon Oh-Jin’s head, Vega quietly sighed as she watched Riarc disappear with a glimmer of silver light. “This is truly the worst possible place for him.”

“You’re not going back with him, Vega?”

“I can still manage for now.” She turned her head slightly while tightly holding on to his hair.

She was looking at Baek Mu-Kang, who was hopping around like a child and holding up a bug he had found between some rocks.

“Whoa! A centipede! Look, a centipede!”

“But what about him? Is he really okay?” Vega asked.

With how giddy he seemed, it made them wonder if the sulfur gas did something to Baek Mu-Kang’s brain.

“He’ll be fine... I think.” Kwon Oh-Jin chuckled bitterly as he stood up. “Let’s get moving again.”

“Ugh. Already?” Song Ha-Eun asked.

“It’s not like resting here will make the gas go away.”

Song Ha-Eun sighed and rose to her feet.

Isabella followed, brushing off her vest and clicking her tongue. “I didn’t expect the sulfur gas to be worse than the heat.”

“No kidding.”

In hindsight, they would’ve been better off bringing oxygen masks instead of flame-resistant vests. Not that the Dragonian Kingdom had anything like oxygen masks.

“Wait, wasn’t this supposed to be that Deimos guy’s territory?” Song Ha-Eun glanced around and scanned the area.

She could only see black granite cliffs and thick sulfur clouds. Not a single sign of roads, buildings, or any trace of civilization marked this as a proper territory.

Is this why the elder couldn’t find Deimos and just kept wandering around the area?

At least some demonkin were patrolling the area last time, which hinted at where to look. This time, even that was missing.

“If he was really that obsessed with treasures, would he leave his land looking like this...?”

Someone that greedy wouldn’t neglect his territory and have no security.

It doesn’t add up.

People usually showed off their treasures and flaunted them to others.

Kwon Oh-Jin furrowed his brow in thought.

Isabella calmly suggested, “Maybe the territory is beneath the mountain.”

“Beneath it?”

“Technically, inside it.”

“Are you saying that their territory is made from carving out the inside of this mountain?”

Isabella nodded and continued, “Even if a treasure is meant to be flaunted, no one leaves it just lying around outside.”

“Ah... that does make sense. Gold bars are stored in vaults, after all.”

“Of course, like you said, Mr. Oh-Jin, it’s not like these guys don’t have any desire to show off. Treasures are a contradictory thing by nature.”

She had a point. The very idea of treasures came with a built-in oxymoron. The desire to flaunt it and the desire to protect it. One had to show it off to satisfy that desire, but also risked their treasures being stolen.

It was like walking a tightrope between the need to show off and also protect. Treasures were an inherently conflicting thing.

Not that I’d know. It’s not like I’ve ever owned anything worth flaunting.

Kwon Oh-Jin had never possessed anything he’d call a treasure, so the thought hadn’t occurred to him before.

Baek Mu-Gang’s eyes sparkled as he raised his rusty sword. “So we dig, right?!”

He jammed his sword into the hard granite and started digging as if scooping soft dirt.

“I’m good at digging!”

A flustered Isabella rushed to stop him. “N-No. We can’t just start digging.”

“Why not? You said it’s down here.” Baek Mu-Kang sucked his finger.

“I’m not certain. If you dig straight down, who knows what’s waiting beneath us.”

In the worst-case scenario, they could fall straight into the den of Deimos and his knights.

We need to find the mine entrance.

If a city had been carved into the mountain, an entrance had to exist somewhere outside.

“Then where should we go?” Baek Mu-Kang asked.

“If there is an underground city, it should connect to the surface through a mine entrance.”

“Really?”

However, even that entrance would be difficult to find.

Should I use Vega’s Hunting Dog?

This technique allowed Kwon Oh-Jin to absorb all surrounding information at once like performing a mental CT scan of the environment. It would be excruciatingly painful even when using this skill in a wasteland.

To use it in a place currently flooded with sulfur gas, Kwon Oh-Jin wasn’t sure he could survive the backlash, especially when even Riarc couldn't handle it.

I’ll be lucky if it ends with just vomiting.

He had a bad feeling the side effects would be far worse and wrestled with the dilemma.

Baek Mu-Kang suddenly dropped a bombshell. “I know where the mine entrance is!”

“What?”

He knew?

“Yup! I even went in once! But there was nothing, so I left!”

“Why are you only telling us this now?”

Had they been running around in circles for no reason this whole time?

Baek Mu-Kang cocked his head innocently. “No one asked.”

“Right...”

That was technically true.

God, I really want to smack him.

Kwon Oh-Jin could feel his anger boiling up, but it quickly dissolved when Baek Mu-Kang looked at him with those big, clueless eyes.

“Let’s head to the mine entrance,” Kwon Oh-Jin said.

Beaming like a child waiting to be praised, Baek Mu-Kang grinned brightly. “Okay! I remember where it is! I did a good job, right?”

“Haaa...”

Was it really a good idea to rely on this guy? Kwon Oh-Jin’s doubts resurfaced as he followed Baek Mu-Kang toward the mine entrance.