The Regressor Only Protects Me [EN]: Chapter 189

189. Upheaval (2)

I said,

“I can’t let you go. You must be punished for harming Mangyeong. While you’re locked up here, there must be a way for you to contact Junho. Find it out. And…”

Chaeyeon interrupted me again, spitting blood as she spoke.

“No, am I Junho’s girlfriend…?”

“If you interrupt me again…”

I grabbed her neck and struck her abdomen.

Thwack-!

Chaeyeon vomited blood.

“…I’ll undo the red restraints and make you suffer until you’re on the verge of death. Think I’m joking? Let me make one thing clear. I’m the leader of Mangyeong now. Mangyeong’s victory is my top priority. I don’t have time to worry about how my brother will react if I kill you. But I’ll give you a chance. I’m offering to help you get a fair trial. If you want even that, you’ll answer only my questions.”

“…”

Chaeyeon’s eyes, looking into mine, wavered.

I asked her,

“You must have come with someone. You didn’t travel alone, did you?”

“…”

“Where are they? Answer me.”

“I do have someone… but.”

“My question is where.”

I struck her abdomen again.

Thwack-!

She screamed in pain as she answered.

“In Mangyeong! They’re in Mangyeong! Ugh…!!!”

“Mangyeong?”

“…That sister too. She said she was going to find my brother… Ugh…”

Chaeyeon, who had been acting tough, was now bawling.

I released her neck.

I’m not thinking rationally right now.

I needed to calm my emotions.

But it wasn’t easy.

What have I been working towards all this time?

If that goal is right in front of me, no one could stay sane.

Still, trying my best to regain my composure, I asked her,

“What’s her name?”

“…Lee Juyeon.”

That name sounded familiar.

I couldn’t quite remember.

“Good. I’ll find Lee Juyeon and bring her here. I’ll decide your fate after that.”

I ordered a subordinate to release Chaeyeon’s red handcuffs so she could recover.

I surrounded the spherical prison to prevent her from escaping while they were being removed.

Chaeyeon’s mournful cries erupted from inside the spherical prison.

“…I’ll tell everything. I’ll tell everything…!!! Do you know how much Junho cares about me…? Junho would destroy an entire faction for me alone… A brother like you… Junho can take you down in one shot… You really shouldn’t do this to me… You shouldn’t do this to me… Waaaaah…!”

I listened to her cries and tried to leave the tent.

Just before I did, I made eye contact with Jin Jaehee, who was in a corner of the tent.

She had anxious eyes, but quickly lowered her head.

“…”

I sighed briefly and went outside the tent.

Then, I called for Commander Hwang Minjae.

* * *

The sun was setting.

Jin Jaehee had been sulking all day in a corner of the campus.

Was she dispirited, or disappointed?

She had no appetite and only occasionally quenched her thirst.

She sat on the wall, looking down at the campus.

The intervention of players capable of mass destruction was devastating to the infantry.

Chaeyeon’s intervention brought Kang Si-on’s army to a standstill.

The spores caused more damage to the soldiers than expected.

Soldiers directly affected by the spores died instantly, and those around them were not safe either.

A flu-like epidemic began to spread, and spores stuck to their bodies, causing their skin to rot.

Many people couldn’t even walk.

Kang Si-on ordered a reorganization of the entire army and seemed to be staying here for a few days.

Jin Jaehee watched the ailing troops and felt she had to do something, so she got up.

As she walked around the unit, many soldiers bowed their heads in greeting.

According to a report earlier, Chaeyeon only knew how to release the poison, not how to detoxify it.

However, she said that regularly wiping off the poisonous spores on the body would greatly improve the condition.

Over 100 people had died instantly on the battlefield, and over 200 were suffering from the spores sticking to their bodies.

Seoul National University’s athletic field.

Patients were lying there in rows.

In fact, Jin Jaehee wasn’t focused on the patients.

She was worried that Kang Si-on might change.

In any case, if he met his sister through this incident, there would be a change of heart, big or small.

In the worst case, Kang Si-on might leave Jin Jaehee and go to his sister.

Jin Jaehee clenched her fists.

‘…That can’t happen.’

Kang Si-on’s plan.

Now, as the first puzzle piece was about to fall into place, if he suddenly defected, it would disrupt the entire plan.

After all, Kang Si-on was the only one who could end this league.

Then, a rough male voice was heard.

“Hey-! Busan! Did you wash the rags?!”

“Ah, yes! Coming!”

Jin Jaehee, wearing a mask, spotted Lee Hoseung holding a towel.

Lee Hoseung was taking care of the patients with his unit members, carrying water.

Jin Jaehee cautiously approached him.

And called him in a small voice, like a stray cat.

“…Hey.”

“Ah, you scared me.”

Lee Hoseung was startled and flinched.

Lee Hoseung’s senior officer immediately stood up and shouted.

“C, C, C, Commander! H, H, Hello!”

Jin Jaehee apologized to Lee Hoseung’s senior officer and showed her palm.

“Relax.”

“Y, Y, Y, Y, Yes!!!”

From the perspective of a regular soldier, Jin Jaehee’s position was the second-highest in the power ranking within the faction, someone they couldn’t dare to look at.

So, regular soldiers couldn’t help but freeze up just by encountering her.

No matter how hard they tried to relax in front of her, they couldn’t.

Lee Hoseung squinted, looking back and forth between his senior officer and Jin Jaehee, then dragged her to a place where there were no people.

Thud-.

Lee Hoseung put his hat on Jin Jaehee.

“…?”

Jin Jaehee looked at Lee Hoseung, slightly lifting the brim of the hat.

“You’re going to be a celebrity later. Don’t you have the basics?”

“…What basics.”

“Here! Wear a mask too. I can’t give you sunglasses.”

Jin Jaehee obediently took the mask Lee Hoseung handed her and put it on.

Lee Hoseung naturally went to another patient and continued his task.

Hoseung’s hands were covered with several layers of rubber gloves.

The towel used to wipe the patient had a little purple spore on it.

He wiped the patient’s body with a towel and asked.

“But what brings the commander of the ability unit to such a humble place? This is an infantry barracks.”

“…Can’t I come here?”

“There’s no reason why you can’t.”

Lee Hoseung chuckled and turned the towel to a clean area to wipe the patient’s body again.

Jin Jaehee picked up a towel next to him and went to the opposite side of Lee Hoseung to start wiping the patient’s body.

It was a young woman.

The same age as Jin Jaehee, or younger.

The woman was groaning in pain.

Jin Jaehee bit her lower lip once and carefully wiped her body.

The two wiped the patient’s body in silence for a while.

Then Lee Hoseung asked.

“…Why? Did you fight?”

“…?”

Jin Jaehee was surprised and looked back at him.

Lee Hoseung pushed up his glasses with his sleeve and diligently wiped the patient’s body again.

Then, he spoke again to Jin Jaehee, who didn’t answer.

“You know, your emotions have always been written all over your face. If you’re sad, you make a crying face. If you’re happy, you laugh. If you’re angry, you frown. If there’s someone you want to beat up, you beat them up. If there’s someone you like, you run to them. You’re really simple, you know?”

“…When did I ever do that.”

“Bull-shit [a more emphatic way of saying ‘nonsense’]. You definitely did. To some extent. Even if you don’t actually have emotional ups and downs, it looks like you do because your facial expressions change so quickly.”

“…The word ’emotion’ is forbidden in front of me.”

“Emotion? Oh… You fought because of emotions?”

Jin Jaehee barely suppressed the urge to give him a flick on the forehead.

Lee Hoseung had always been quick to notice things like this.

“Did the Hero scold you?”

“Hey.”

“What. It’s written all over your face. It’s written on your forehead.”

Lee Hoseung chuckled and put the dirty towel in the bucket.

Then, he brought a new towel and approached the next patient.

“It’s okay to get scolded, why are you so discouraged?”

“You. You were dying in your nest.”

“I’m different.”

“What’s so different?”

“I had no meaning in life. Hey. Honestly, it was really hard back then.”

Lee Hoseung and Jin Jaehee approached the soldiers’ shelter side by side to get new towels.

Thanks to the hat and mask, fewer soldiers recognized Jin Jaehee.

Jin Jaehee asked Lee Hoseung.

“But now it seems like you’ve found your old self?”

“…I guess so. I’m struggling because I want to live.”

“How did you find that meaning of life again?”

Jin Jaehee asked naturally, and Lee Hoseung stopped in his tracks.

Then, he tilted his head and said nonchalantly.

“You.”

“Huh?”

“It’s you.”

Jin Jaehee frowned and said.

“…I told you not to confess.”

“Bull-shit. Please. It’s not like that. You told me why I should live.”

Hoseung grabbed as many towels as he could from the box full of towels in the shelter.

Jin Jaehee followed Hoseung and grabbed towels in both hands.

“What did I tell you?”

“I don’t know either.”

Jin Jaehee squinted at Hoseung’s simple answer and said.

“Usually, at times like this, don’t you say, ‘No, it’s not’?”

“It’s different. You.”

Lee Hoseung walked side by side with Jin Jaehee on the campus.

This was a university.

Jin Jaehee wanted to go to university, but she couldn’t.

She felt strangely awkward walking here with Lee Hoseung.

Of course, the world had been destroyed, and the meaning of university was gone.

“No matter how much a comforter tries to comfort with all their heart, if the person receiving it doesn’t feel that way, it’s not comforting.”

On one side of the campus, there was still a living ginkgo tree.

The ginkgo leaves were shining yellow in the sunset.

“But even if the person comforting speaks carelessly, if the person receiving it cherishes it more than the other person’s heart, they will be comforted enough.”

“Are you saying I’m the latter?”

Lee Hoseung chuckled and answered.

“You could say that.”

The two went down to the athletic field with sparse grass.

Many soldiers were lying down, receiving treatment.

Lee Hoseung lowered his voice and said.

“It’s a good thing you’re the latter.”

“…?”

“So, accept it well. I don’t know what kind of conversation you had with the Hero. But from my point of view, if the Hero comforted you, he wouldn’t have said those words to look down on you or treat you poorly. Again, I don’t know what was said between you two.”

At Lee Hoseung’s words, Jin Jaehee lowered her head slightly.

“Accept it well. The Jin Jaehee I know is a strong person.”

Lee Hoseung put down the towel.

Not only that, but he also took the towel from Jin Jaehee and neatly arranged them.

Lee Hoseung had enlisted in Kang Si-on’s army and was performing his assigned duties.

He had a sword on his back and had fought in several battles so far.

Jin Jaehee was worried about him, but on the other hand, she was proud of him.

Lee Hoseung squatted down and was putting clean towels in the water that had been collected in a basin.

Jin Jaehee, finding that funny, lightly pushed Lee Hoseung’s butt with her foot.

Lee Hoseung fell straight into the basin.

Splash-!

He fumbled for his glasses, put them on right away, and shouted at Jaehee.