I’m not a Regressor

Chapter 206: Interlude - New Hope (3)

“Huff, huff.”

Exhilarated, her warm and moist breaths tickled his neck.

“Then… I’ll begin.’

Gulp—

Isabella gulped and carefully stroked the nape of his muscular neck.

Just looking at his neck made her heart palpitate, and chills ran down her spine.

“Haa.”

The scent of his skin stimulated her nose as she tilted her face closer to him.

An impulse for blood along with a different kind of desire rose up and made her feel something ticklish between her legs.

Lick—

Her long tongue licked his neck.

“Ah!” Ohjin flinched in surprise.

He cleared his throat and looked at Isabella, who was licking his neck like a puppy.

“Let’s go with my forearm.”

“The nape is more efficient than the forearm.” Isabella put on a stern expression and shook her head.

In honesty, there wasn’t much of a difference between drinking from the nape or forearm. She had just claimed that the nape was more efficient because she wanted to be closer to him.

“But you used my forearm before.”

“Th-That’s because I was overwhelmed by the situation.”

“You look like you’re in better condition than last time… Is it really necessary to use my nape?”

“Hey…” She grabbed his shoulders with both arms as he kept trying to move away. “Stay still.”

Red light shone in Isabella’s eyes.

Ohjin’s body stopped in its tracks while he was trying to avoid her.

“This is…”

His body stiffened like it had turned into stone.

‘Is this the soul subordination thing she talked about before?’

As if a switch had been turned off, strength left his body the moment he heard Isabella’s order.

Ohjin narrowed his eyes and tried to forcefully move his body. Black energy poured out of the left side of his chest, and he slightly moved the tip of his finger.

‘Hm? That’s strange.’

He thought he wouldn’t be able to retaliate at all since she used extravagant terms such as ‘soul subordination’. If that was all it amounted to, he imagined he would be able to go against her orders with enough time.

‘Is it because of the Black Heaven?’

While he was moving the tip of his finger, his head tilted—

“I’m sorry for using an order.”

—Isabella extended her tongue and started licking his nape once again.

“But… this is your fault.”

Her excited breathing tickled his nape.

Isabella invested her whole mind in licking his nape without even noticing that Ohjin was moving his fingers.

“Not being allowed to eat something that looks delicious is too harsh.”

She roughly exhaled, and two fangs grew once she opened her mouth.

“Nom.”

Stab—

Her fangs pierced his flesh.

Ohjin didn’t feel pain like the last time, and a dizzying sensation of pleasure stunned him.

“Ugh.”

“Mmh… it’s delicious.”

Isabella lovingly embraced his flinching body and sucked his blood.

Gulp, gulp—

Every time she took in a mouthful of blood, an unworldly sensation of pleasure and exaltation was sent running through her body.

‘Wow.’

Isabella shook while she slowly savored the blood filling her mouth. Despite it being only the second time she’d tasted his blood, she was so addicted that she couldn't imagine living without it anymore.

‘Just… Just three mouthfuls.’

She had no confidence in her ability to resist the temptation if she drank any more than that.

“Huff, huff, Ohjin.” Isabella whispered to him as she drank his blood.

A certain part of his body stood out to her.

Her eyes shone as she licked his nape.

“Does it feel good?”

“…”

“Then… you don’t have to hold yourself back.” She spoke in a seductive voice and carefully stroked his chest.

Her hand went past his belly and slowly headed down…

“Stop.”

Ohjin lightly pushed Isabella away and put pressure on the holes in his nape.

An exclamation of shame left her mouth. “…Is it because of Ha-eun?”

He avoided her gaze, his lips pursed.

Isabella nodded with a bitter smile on her face. “Well, I guess you are lovers, after all.”

“You knew?”

“Wouldn’t it be stranger if I didn’t?”

He thought they did a good job hiding it, but it appeared that she already knew for a while.

Isabella pulled a potion from her chest area and carefully poured it over his nape.

“I don’t mind being your second.”

“…What?” Ohjin was surprised by her unimaginable answer.

“Fufu. I’m just kidding.”

It was unknown if she was really kidding or not.

She smiled and helped him clean the blood and saliva on his neck. The holes in his nape disappeared in an instant thanks to the effects of a high-quality potion.

“Thank you.”

Isabella felt refreshed as her cravings vanished. Not only that, but it felt like the mana flowing through her body had become thicker.

“Well, sharing a couple of mouthfuls of blood is no big deal.”

“Not just that… Thank you for everything.” She leaned her head on his back; the warmth of his body radiated against her skin.

Emotions of the happiness that she thought she would never feel again filled her chest.

‘My new hope…’

Isabella felt like she had received so much from him that she didn’t know how she could possibly pay him back.

‘I’m so jealous of her.’

Throb—

She felt pain in her palpitating heart as Ha-eun crossed her mind.

How nice would it be if she could monopolize Ohjin’s love like she did?

‘That would be too greedy of me.’

You could tell how deep the relationship between Ha-eun and Ohjin was with a glance. Their bond was so tight that she couldn’t possibly undo it.

However…

‘I won’t give up.’

She had no plans of splitting them apart.

Instead, if she could just put a new tie around what already existed…

“Isabella?”

“Ah, I apologize.”

Isabella cast her thoughts aside and smiled happily at Ohjin.

“You don’t need any more blood?”

“Yes. I’ll be fine for a while.”

“Then, since we’ve taken care of the situation at hand, there are some things I’d like to ask you.”

“Ask me anything.”

Isabella courteously sat on the premium carpet laying out on the floor.

* * *

* * *

“I would like to hear about the Black Star Organization. Everything you know.”

“Hmm.”

It appeared that she expected him to ask that question because she nodded her head without a change in expression.

“I don’t know where to start.”

“Why don’t we start with how you got the stigma of Hirudo?”

“It wasn’t much different from normal Awakeners. I heard the voice of a celestial in my journey to find my sister and I ended up receiving their stigma.”

Her words seemed to imply that the celestials of a Black Star didn’t approach Awakeners in a different manner.

“Where was that?”

“Iceland. It was where my sister was abandoned after being exiled from the family.”

“If it’s Iceland…”

“Yes. It isn’t that far from the ‘First Fissure’.”

Ohjin narrowed his eyes.

Greenland was where the first gate that connected Earth to the Demon Realm, the world of monsters, appeared.

It wasn’t that far from Iceland.

‘Does that mean that the Black Stars and Demon Realm are connected?’

Ohjin remembered that he once heard from Jang Sukho that the Black Star Organization hid in the Demon Realm in the past.

“Isabella, did you also go to the Demon Realm?”

“No. I’ve never been there before.”

It seemed that not all factions of the Black Star Organization went to the Demon Realm.

“Anyway, so what happened after you received a stigma from a celestial of a Black Star…?”

“I roamed around Iceland for several years while suffering cravings for blood. I was determined to find my sister no matter how… but, in the end, I couldn’t.”

“……”

Ohjin sat in silence, his expression hard.

If her sister was abandoned in a place so close to the First Fissure like Iceland, it was hard to imagine her still being alive.

“And then you came back to Italy?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“How did you join the Black Star Organization?”

“There was a revelation from our celestial.”

‘A revelation…’

“I met Roberto there, and Awakeners with the stigma of Hirudo secretly gathered.”

“Did you meet other factions?”

“We did. We also fought with the Noctua Faction over a couple of shared interests.”

‘Aha, so that’s why the Noctua faction called Isabella a witch and freaked out around her.’

“What factions do the Black Star Organization consist of?

“Hmm. I’ll write them down in order of their rank for you.”

Isabella took out a small note and started writing down the names of factions.

1. Serpens Faction.

2. Musca Faction.

3. Hirudo Faction.

4. Felis Faction.

5. Bufo Faction

6. Noctua Faction.

7. Hippocampus Faction.

The factions ranked 5th, 6th, and 7th on the list were already eliminated.

“…So the Serpens, Musca, and Felis are left.”

“The only one of these we were able to contact was the Felis Faction. The Musca Faction is known to have settled down in South America.”

“What about the Serpens Faction?”

“We don’t know anything besides the fact that they are crazy worshippers of the Heavenly Demon.”

The title ‘Heavenly Demon’ garnered more of Ohjin’s interest.

“Have they met this Heavenly Demon before?”

“No. I also only heard of them in the rumors and never in person.”

As he expected, not even Isabella had met the Heavenly Demon before.

“Is there anything you know about the Heavenly Demon?”

“First of all… I’ve heard that they created the Black Stars.”

“…What?”

‘They made the Black Stars?’

“Wait, these Black Stars you speak of are celestials, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right. They say that the Heavenly Demon gave power to the celestials called ‘Pseudo Stars’ and turned them into Black Stars.”

“……”

The Heavenly Demon creating the celestials of the Black Stars?

‘Does that make any sense?’

How could a human make celestials?

No matter how you looked at it, it was beyond understan—

“Ah.” A short exclamation left Ohjin’s mouth.

—An answer that solved all of his complicatedly entwined questions in one blow came to him.

It didn’t make sense for a human to have the power to make transcendents such as celestials.

In that case… wasn’t the answer simple?

“‘Heavenly Demon’… was never a title given to a human in the first place?” Ohjin asked in a deep voice.

“Correct.” Isabella nodded her head. “The Heavenly Demon is not human.”

T/N: North Pole was changed to the Arctic. They share the same word in Korean and I assumed that they were naturally referring to the North Pole, but it is revealed in this chapter that the first gate was actually in Greenland, which is included in the Arctic.

Musca is ‘the fly’ in Latin, meaning the Fly Faction.

Felis, as many of you already know, is cat in Latin.