The Regressor Only Protects Me [EN]: Chapter 142

142. The Witch’s Trail

Festival preparations were in full swing in Bitnam.

“Auntie! Here’s firewood.”

“Ho ho. Good job. Thank you.”

It was such a peaceful scene that anyone who saw it would believe it was a village preparing for a festival.

The village was bustling.

Everyone was smiling and chatting, helping each other out.

Ghouls were filled with anticipation for the upcoming feast.

And that was the same for the young ghoul boy carrying firewood.

The boy was regretting his actions, trying to act tough in front of the girl he had a crush on.

“Ugh! Feels like it’s about to spill!”

“Showing off again. You’ll get tired quickly if you use your strength like that.”

“Don’t worry about it! Mister! I’m almost an adult now!”

The man putting firewood into the hearth chuckled and scolded the young boy.

Thanks to carrying more firewood than he could handle, the boy was constantly staggering.

Today was the village’s feast day.

The ghouls were excited at the thought of eating humans.

At that moment, an axe flew in from somewhere.

Whoosh, thud-!

The flying axe struck the boy’s chest.

Bright red blood splattered into the air.

The man putting firewood in the hearth, and the women picking forest berries to eat with the human meat, were all surprised.

Starting with the boy’s small body falling to the ground with the firewood, pillars of silver light rose from all over the village.

Koo-oong-! Bang! Bang!! Kwaang-!!!

In an instant, the village was engulfed in silver flames.

A man walked out from the flames.

It was Choi Myung-joon, thoroughly enraged.

“You have to kill the young ones first. The insects.”

Choi Myung-joon slowly approached and pulled the axe from the young ghoul’s chest.

Chyu-roo-reuk-.

The ghoul’s thick blood dripped down the axe blade, soaking the young ghoul’s neck and face.

Choi Hyun-ji clicked her tongue as she watched Choi Myung-joon getting increasingly excited at the sight of the blood.

“Seriously, what a psycho.”

Nevertheless, Choi Myung-joon couldn’t hide his smile.

“Shall we have some fun?”

Choi Hyun-ji shook her head and summoned a black object.

Anyway.

It was cleaning time.

“Let’s finish quickly. I want to take a shower.”

At Choi Hyun-ji’s signal, the ghouls began to flee.

“What happened to the hunters?!”

“Ah… Ah… How could this happen!”

Most of the ghouls remaining in Bitnam were the elderly, the weak, or children who couldn’t fight.

They died without putting up a proper resistance.

Black objects, pillars of light, hand axes, and more.

The village had become a sea of blood in no time.

Pillars of silver light rose from all over the village, smashing houses.

A one-sided massacre.

The ghouls were no match for Kang Si-on’s group.

They didn’t even try to attack the group.

Faced with overwhelming force, they simply began to flee into the surrounding forest to save their own lives.

It was a stark contrast to the forest hunters who had charged in like beasts.

But.

Pshuk!

The ghoul running at the very front towards the forest collapsed with a small hole in their forehead.

It was Bitnam’s artisan, who wove constellations [likely a reference to their craft or storytelling].

And the ghouls running after him could see a small sphere floating in the air.

And then.

The sphere began to move again.

Pa-ak!

To another forehead.

To another heart.

To another eyeball.

That’s how the ghouls fell one by one.

Choi Myung-joon slit the throat of an old ghoul clutching his shoulder, which was bleeding profusely.

It was the old man who had been sitting in the center of the village, basking in the sunlight, the day Kang Si-on’s group first arrived in the village.

The wooden house that was once Chaeong’s home exploded into pieces.

Splinters scattered in all directions, piercing the bodies of the ghouls.

There were also ghouls who were being gnawed away from their feet by an invisible black object and collapsing.

The ghouls of the village were losing their lives far too easily.

Battle or massacre?

Such words might not have suited the village’s scenery.

Perhaps words like pest control or cleaning were more fitting.

* * *

Shuaaa…

The rain slowly subsided.

The last raindrops falling from the sky collided with the tips of the leaves and shattered.

How many had died?

A ghoul, unable to overcome their fear, took their own life.

With that ghoul as the last, there was no longer anything alive and moving inside Bitnam except for Kang Si-on’s group.

Kang Si-on stood in the middle of the ruins that were once Bitnam.

And he scanned the ruins with a bored look.

Nothing was intact.

The village’s houses were all destroyed.

The ghouls’ blood spread into the puddles on the ground, and the stench of blood permeated the air.

The group members each sheathed their weapons, covered in bright red blood.

Choi Myung-joon roughly wiped his face with a piece of cloth lying nearby.

At that moment.

A tearful voice was heard from somewhere.

Kang Si-on focused on the sound and walked towards a pile of debris in one corner of the village.

And he lifted a wooden plank.

“Hieeik!”

A young ghoul hiding inside shrank back and let out a small groan.

“Hana……”

Choi Hyun-ji recognized the last remaining ghoul and murmured the ghoul’s name as if groaning.

Hana was terrified and cowering.

Kang Si-on stared blankly at Hana’s appearance with an expression devoid of any emotion.

‘If the pig you brought home to eat ends up killing your whole family, you’d be scared too.’

He didn’t particularly feel any pity for Hana in front of him.

He was just able to understand a little more about the behavior of the ghouls who were running away in fear.

The ghouls had been acting no differently from humans.

‘But it’s none of my business.’

Si-on pressed his temples, feeling a throbbing headache.

He had been in this state ever since he came to this forest.

He was seeing things, his head was dizzy, and he couldn’t even stand properly.

Seeing that everyone else was fine, it seemed like only Kang Si-on himself was like that.

Was the air in the forest strange?

Or……

Kang Si-on reached out his hand towards Hana while thinking that.

“H, Hieeik!”

Hana curled up even more among the debris to avoid being caught, but eventually, with nowhere to escape, she was grabbed by Kang Si-on’s hand and dragged out of the debris.

Thud.

Choi Myung-joon stepped forward towards Hana, who had fallen to the ground from the rough touch.

He was still panting, as if his excitement hadn’t subsided.

“Hyung-nim [term of respect, like ‘older brother’], there’s no need for Hyung-nim to get your hands dirty with that thing’s dirty blood. I’ll take care of it.”

Choi Myung-joon raised the axe he was holding high.

It was an axe soaked in blood, so much so that you couldn’t find its original color.

But.

“Go.”

Kang Si-on let Hana go.

Choi Myung-joon stared at Kang Si-on with wide eyes, and soon, without a word, he hung the axe back on his waist.

Hana, confirming that, looked at Kang Si-on’s group alternately with an unbelievable expression.

“R, Really? H, Hana. Live?”

Hana said that in a voice that was neither a cry nor a scream.

Kang Si-on gestured to the surrounding group members to step back.

The group members had puzzled expressions, but they didn’t argue with Kang Si-on’s instructions and cleared the way.

“Heueueu… Heueueueueu… Thank you! Hana! Live! Thank you!”

Hana shed tears and bowed repeatedly.

And without looking back, she ran towards the forest.

“But if she tries to take revenge later… Back when I was living, I used to…”

The group members approached Kang Si-on with uneasy expressions, and he said with an indifferent expression.

“I never said I’d let her live.”

Kang Si-on looked in the direction where Hana had disappeared.

The silver flames gradually subsided, and the dark shadows of the gray forest loomed.

Kang Si-on, watching the scene, staggered.

It was getting harder and harder to hold on.

It was as if someone was holding his head tightly and wouldn’t let go.

The world began to blur, and his consciousness gradually faded.

Kang Si-on fell backward as it was.

Thud-!

It was Jin Jae-hee who caught him as he fell.

* * *

Along with the rain, the handful of sunlight that had been pouring into the forest also faded.

Before long, the day, which had been filled with small commotions, passed, and a suffocating silence settled in the forest.

A young footstep was running through the forest.

“Heuaaa……”

Hana, the only one who survived in Bitnam, ran through the dark forest.

Wada-da!

It was a movement so fast that you couldn’t believe she was a child.

Hana pushed through branches, climbed over rocks, and went deeper and deeper into the forest.

She moved along a path that only ghouls knew, following only a chaotic path that no outsider could find.

And as she got closer to her destination, Hana’s tears stopped.

Hana shouted in a tearful voice.

“Witch! Please save me! Please……”

An ancient language that no one but the ghouls knows now.

In the old language used by her elven ancestors, Hana shouted as if possessed by evil.

The witch was strong.

The ghouls all believed that the witch was absolutely strong.

Hana recalled when the witch had come to the village before.

When the heads of several of the village elders were blown off in an instant as a price for not fulfilling their quota properly.

Hana trembled slightly.

“If it’s the witch… The witch might help me…!”

Hana recalled what Chaeong had said before.

Hana. If you have any difficulties, be sure to tell the adults. Hana is the cutest in our village, so anyone will help Hana.

Chaeong’s warm voice.

Hana briefly wondered if the witch was also included in the ‘adults,’ but soon shook off the thought.

Because now, the witch was the only one she could trust.

Soon, a familiar cabin came into view.

The cabin hidden in the deepest part of the forest.

Hana reached the front of the cabin and wiped away the tears that were flowing with the sleeves of her clothes.

And just as Hana was about to raise her hand to the door of the cabin to knock.

Kkiiik-!

The door of the cabin opened on its own with a bizarre sound.

“Hieeik!”

Hana was startled and stepped back.

“It’s quiet……”

Hana regained her courage and entered the cabin.

The cabin was dark.

So dark that you couldn’t see an inch ahead.

And then.

A woman appeared from the darkness of the dark cabin.

A woman wearing a dress made of elegantly woven leaves and holding a staff that looked like a branch of an old tree in one hand.

It was a woman with a breathtakingly beautiful appearance.

It was the witch.

“Little child. What brings you here?”

The witch asked softly with a seductive smile on her lips.

Hana was startled, but recognized the witch and shouted in an urgent voice.

“W, Witch! The foods [referring to the hunters] killed all the villagers! There was a fire Kwaang! The orbs Kwaaaang……”

The witch, still with a relaxed gesture, approached Hana, who was rambling.

And she reached out her arms and hugged Hana warmly.

“That’s right. That’s right, child. Calm down. There are no more scary beings now.”

“Heueu… Witch! I was so scared.”

Hana began to cry sadly, as if she was completely relieved now.

The witch slowly waited for Hana’s crying to subside and stroked Hana’s hair.

How long had she been crying?

Hiccup.

Around the time Hana stopped crying and started hiccuping softly, the witch opened her mouth again.

“Child. So, all the ghouls are dead?”

“All the villagers are dead… Hiccup! Please punish them, Witch… Those people… Hiccup! Those people… Were scary! Were scary……”

“That’s right. That’s what happened. But don’t worry. Child. You have done your job well. So……”

The witch wrapped her long fingers around Hana’s head. Wooddeuk!

Soon, the sound of bones twisting and distorting was heard, and the cabin regained its silence.

Only Hana’s neck was twisted at a bizarre angle, hanging behind her shoulder and swaying.

Hana fell to the side.

“…Now, rest in peace. Now, you’ve served your purpose.”

The witch picked up a small sphere that was stuck in Hana’s hair.

The witch looked at the sphere and smiled sweetly.

The sphere was Kang Si-on’s.

It was what he had left behind to track where the fleeing Hana was going.

(To be continued in the next episode)