Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 259

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 29.
Not Every Child Is an Angel (29)
There was no point in denying it, and I had no intention of doing so. When Joshua nodded, everyone bristled with indignation and clicked their tongues. The villagers—farmers and shepherds—were honest folk, but rough around the edges. One man clenched and unclenched his fists as he shouted.
“Do you even understand what you’ve done? Are you out of your mind?”
Had Joshua been a small, pretty child trembling with fear, they might have felt sympathy, thinking he’d made a terrible mistake by accident. But the child’s composure, so unbecoming of his age, only stoked their fury. As everyone growled menacingly, the Old Monk spoke again.
“Why did you do such a thing?”
“Because those children were going to kill my friend.”
As Joshua spoke the word “friend,” something felt strange. It wasn’t an unfamiliar word, yet the sensation of it on his lips felt remarkably peculiar. It was as though he were pronouncing an unknown word for the first time. Had he ever called anyone by such a name before?
“What? Children killing someone? Listen to this nonsense! Unbelievable!”
The father of the boy who’d brought the dog raised his voice. A middle-aged woman, unable to contain her anger, pointed accusingly and scolded.
“So you set fire to the Windmill House? Has this brat lost his mind? Do you have any idea how important that building is?”
Joshua, sitting on a small chair, turned his head toward her.
“I thought a human life was more important than that.”
“But no one died! What are you talking about?”
“But if I hadn’t done it….”
“What? So you’re saying you did the right thing? That you did what you were supposed to do?”
“You can’t judge right or wrong in a choice that was unavoidable.”
Displeased with Joshua’s response, someone grabbed his head repeatedly and shouted.
“Look at this brat! What kind of corrupted parents raised you to commit such acts without even knowing it was wrong? How dare you talk back and claim you did right!”
“Whose child are you? Where did you come from?”
“Why are we wasting time questioning a child who doesn’t know any better? We should go fetch his parents. Do you have no parents? Where did you suddenly appear from?”
At the mention of parents, Joshua lowered his eyes and spoke quietly.
“My situation has nothing to do with my parents.”
“Listen to him talk! A pint-sized brat who won’t apologize for his wrongs, just keeps talking back!”
“Remarkable—that Maximian is alive and well, so what was the point of setting fires and causing all this chaos?”
The man who spoke was the uncle of the child who’d been fighting with Maximian. But until that moment, Joshua, who had been answering relatively calmly, suddenly opened his eyes wide and glared at him.
“Alive and well? Did you see what happened to Maximian’s legs? Did you see how large that dog was, how viciously it bit? Are you saying this after witnessing it?”
When Joshua talked back, the man was taken aback but soon grew even angrier.
“What an awful child! Do you think such words are appropriate? Do you know what happens to wheat farmers without the Windmill House? Your parents should sell their home to rebuild it! What kind of vagrant brat causes such a commotion? Can’t you even distinguish between what’s important and what isn’t in this world!”
At those final words, Joshua’s face flushed crimson, and he shot to his feet.
“The person who needs to distinguish between what’s important and what isn’t is not me—it’s you! Are you saying the Windmill House is more important than a human life? Because Maximian looks like a vagrant, it’s fine if he dies? The Windmill House costs money to rebuild, so that makes it more valuable?”
Caught off guard by the sudden outburst, the man stammered before bellowing.
“That’s not—stop spouting nonsense and shut your mouth!”
“Maximian has four younger siblings. What would happen to them without Maximian? Fortunately, Maximian survived, but what if his injured leg doesn’t heal properly? If he loses the use of one leg, is it the responsibility of the children who brought the dog? Will they carry Maximian on their backs for the rest of their lives? Why do you think this is trivial? Because it’s not your problem? Because he’s not your child?”
“I said be quiet! Stop boasting about what you did!”
As everyone began talking at once, even the Old Monk’s attempts to silence them proved futile. When one man spat out that such a vagrant brat had burned the Windmill House, that even a barn was too precious to waste, Joshua turned toward him and shrieked.
“A barn? The Windmill House? Do you think we monks can’t burn them? I wouldn’t hesitate to burn this entire Monastery down!”
“What? Did you just say that?”
“What a despicable wretch!”
Had the Old Monk not shielded him, Joshua would have been beaten. As the room buzzed like a hornet’s nest, the door opened and two figures in monastic robes appeared. The agitated villagers didn’t even notice who had entered.
“Everyone, be quiet.”
The first to speak was none other than the Abbot of this monastery. When his low, measured voice failed to settle the crowd quickly enough, another man opened his mouth.
“Did you not hear me tell you to be quiet?”
He was a man in his sixties, and his voice resonated so powerfully that it seemed to fill the small room entirely. Only then did people turn to look behind them, startled to see who had appeared.
“Oh, the Abbot!”
The people felt embarrassed at having chattered away without noticing the Abbot’s arrival, and their fervor quickly subsided. Once the commotion settled, the Old Monk stepped forward and asked.
“What brings you here at this hour?”
“Is it that child?”
Without answering the question, the Abbot pointed at Joshua. When Joshua looked at the Abbot, his expression was solemn, but upon closer inspection, the corners of his mouth twitched as though he found something amusing.
The Abbot exchanged a few whispered words with the Old Monk, then gestured to Joshua.
“Follow me.”
While the people murmured in confusion, Joshua followed the Abbot out. When the mysterious elderly man also followed, the Old Monk who remained addressed the crowd.
“Dawn will break soon. We cannot remain here until morning, can we? The Abbot has said he will settle this matter, so all who wish to hear the resolution should follow.”
The Abbot’s Reception Room, like everywhere else in the monastery, was austere and unadorned. A wreath made of dried wildflowers hung on the bare wall, but even that was a humble thing that might have been woven and sent by some country woman.
Beyond the window, the hillside ascending the mountain ridge was turning reddish. Lacking enough chairs, several backless stools had been brought in so that the villagers could barely all sit in a circle. The Abbot sat in a large armchair with armrests. His frame was so much larger than the farmers’ that he could not have fit in a small chair.
The mysterious elderly man who had come with them earlier stood by the window, gazing at the mountain ridge, and irreverently whistled softly. The farmers seemed uneasy and kept glancing sideways at the old man.
Though he wore monastic robes, none of them had ever seen a monk quite like this one. This man in his sixties possessed an impressive, unforgettable presence once seen. By any measure, he was neither a farmer nor a shepherd. Yet he did not appear to be a nobleman or scholar either.
“Well then, shall we hear from the villagers first? Let us listen to the circumstances in order.”
The Abbot, who looked more like a farmer than any farmer, leaned back in his chair, constantly scratching his bare head and rubbing his ears. Despite this demeanor, the people held the Abbot in great respect and nodded at every word he spoke.
“That child is not from our village, and no one knows where he came from. But you know the Lipf Family House, don’t you? That place where children live together without parents. Maximian, the eldest of that household, allegedly stole chickens from Selmik’s place last night. So the sons and cousins of that house plotted together to teach him a lesson. They told him to come to the Windmill House in the middle of the night. Well, you know how it is, don’t you? The children just wanted to exchange a few blows among themselves, that’s all.”
The Abbot shrugged as if to say, “Well, that’s possible.” Someone else continued.
“So when they got to the Windmill House, that strange child was already there from the start. Anyway, Selmik’s eldest son Dimango and Maximian were fighting, and well, when children fight, they might hit each other a bit, right? But then that child who was watching saw that Maximian was at a disadvantage, so he said he would stop the fight, and then—can you believe it?—he set fire to the straw!”
“That’s absolutely despicable!”
“Please find that child’s parents at once!”
“The Windmill House must be rebuilt! We must receive compensation!”
“Without the Windmill House, how will we harvest the autumn wheat?”
Joshua, who had been sitting like a doll beside the Abbot, suddenly let out a musical laugh, causing the people to flinch.
“Sir, I have just one question. So those large wounds on Maximian’s leg were made by biting from this Dimango, then?”
“What, what did you say?”
“I mean the large bite marks. Dimango’s mouth is this big, is it?”
Joshua pressed his palms together and spread them apart, then made a snapping motion with them several times. Eventually, someone said this.
“That… there must have been a dog inside the Windmill House. He was bitten by that dog. Well, the dog was sleeping in the straw, and when the fire started, it must have jumped out.”
Joshua’s laughter rose and then fell.
“So nowadays, when a dog sees fire, instead of running away, it chooses one of two people who are tangled in a fight and bites that person’s leg?”
“Joshua, be quiet!”
Someone shouted, and the Old Monk beside him offered a warning.
“The Abbot himself is settling this matter. You must not bully the child.”
“Ahem, well! In any case, there’s no doubt that child set the fire! That dog was… not even that large!”
Joshua no longer laughed but fixed a piercing gaze on his opponent.
“That dog was large and fierce enough to kill an adult. First, you can tell by the size of the bite marks on Maximian’s leg, and second, you can learn more by inquiring about the dog that Selmik’s household kept.”
“A dog bite won’t kill a person!”
Joshua’s eyes flashed with displeasure.
“If you’re so eager to experiment whether it’s fatal or not, why don’t you test it on your own son instead?”
“What, what?! This insufferable brat!”
The farmer’s face flushed crimson as he lurched to his feet, taking a step toward Joshua—only for the Old Monk to block his path with a stern expression, forcing him back down. The Old Monk then cautioned Joshua against speaking so carelessly. Joshua responded with a mechanical, cherubic smile.
“Understood.”
Children of Rune – Winterer
Author: Jeon Min-hee
Publisher: 14th Month Books
The copyright of this book belongs to the author and 14th Month Books.
To reuse all or part of the contents of this book, written consent from both parties is required.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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