Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 266

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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 36.
Not All Children Are Angels (36)
Joshua didn’t understand what was happening, but Hispanie’s expression of utter disappointment cut him deeply. No, he protested.
“Grandfather, why are you like this too? We’re in the same situation, aren’t we?”
“How are you and I the same? Do you think all Demonic are alike?”
“Then were you happy because you were abnormal, Grandfather?”
Hispanie drove the walking stick he’d been holding into the ground with a shout.
“Happy? Why would I be? Then was I unhappy? Why would that be? Who decided what’s normal and what’s abnormal anyway? I was satisfied being myself. By your age, I’d already finished preparing to leave home cleanly and was just waiting for the right moment. I didn’t ask anyone if that was acceptable. Why would I ask anyone when I was the most exceptional in the world? Back then, people were terrified to exchange more than ceremonial greetings with me. Speaking to me at gatherings was called ‘becoming an idiot in five words.’ There was some fool who challenged a fourteen-year-old to a duel out of anger, but he just became a laughingstock for decades afterward. I had nothing to apologize for. I thought, why should I be blamed for that fool’s stupidity?”
Joshua was left speechless while Maximian began to snicker.
“Wow, Old Man, you really were the worst kind of brat when you were young. And look at you, not missing a chance to brag about it. You’re definitely not in the category of normal people.”
“Shut up. Looking back, I was a kid whose arrogance exploded, but I never felt ashamed of myself. Are you truly sorry I’m not normal? I’m only sorry this world is full of idiots.”
“Whoa, impressive. So humility really is a virtue of idiots, isn’t it? If someone like you tried to imitate it, anyone watching would feel like throwing up?”
Around this point, Maximian’s back narrowly escaped another crisis. He was about to be struck down by a fatal blow when Hispanie suddenly stopped and turned to Joshua.
“What did you just say?”
The two Demonic faced each other. Taking advantage of the gap, Maximian fled to a safe distance and was now performing a harvest blessing dance toward the flock of sheep returning to their pen, expressing his joy at escaping danger in modest fashion.
“So, where did you go back then?”
“Back then?”
Hispanie shrugged his shoulders.
“To a place where no one knew who I was, and where it was full of people who loved me for being myself.”
“Where is that place?”
“Why, do you want to go too?”
The answer didn’t come immediately. In the meantime, Hispanie watched from the corner of his eye as Joshua clasped and unclasped his hands. Soon Joshua nodded.
“I really want to go.”
“To go there, you’d have to leave everything you have now behind. Once you go, you might not be able to return easily.”
Instead of asking why, Joshua smiled faintly.
“That’s even better.”
Maximian, who had convinced those indifferent to the harvest why this year’s harvest needed to come in, returned and asked.
“Really? Are you going tomorrow? Before you go, make sure to write a will leaving all your possessions to me. Oh, and you’ll need the Abbot’s signature too. But if that’s the case, you can’t go tomorrow. How about the day after tomorrow?”
“I don’t have any property to inherit.”
“Don’t worry about that. Your father must have definitely bought around a hundred thousand acres of countryside land in your name.”
Joshua was at a loss for words and laughed awkwardly while looking down at the ground. When Hispanie let out a hollow laugh beside him, Maximian shot him a questioning look. Then Hispanie replied.
“What would you do with the land? Would a lazy fellow like you till fields or herd sheep?”
“Yes, I’ll hire five hundred sheep and ten shepherd dogs and have them help each other.”
“So the dogs shear the wool and the sheep feed the dogs? I’ll leave you a hundred thousand acres of seawater instead. Try farming fish.”
“Of course, that’s the kind where if you plant fish seeds, the fish grow on their own, right? Since it’s the sea, you don’t even need to water it. Perfect, that works out.”
Hispanie turned to Joshua.
“Will you go too?”
“Seawater farming?”
Joshua’s expression became puzzled. Hispanie raised and lowered his eyebrows.
“The place I went is different, but it’s hard to recommend for you. If you go and farm seawater with Maximian for about ten years, you’ll eventually realize your great weakness—that you can’t communicate with fish—and learn humility. The water is quite salty, so I’ve made sure it’s of good quality.”
Joshua grew even more bewildered by what could have been a joke or earnest truth, and Maximian interjected.
“Wait, unlike Grandfather, Joshua doesn’t have a problem with arrogance, does he? If anything, he seems dispirited?”
“No, he does. You just can’t see it.”
“This old man, treating people like they’re blind despite having eyes.”
“Can’t be helped. You go around thinking you’re the greatest in the world, and then you’ll see it.”
Maximian finally couldn’t hold back and began making retching motions. Hispanie pretended not to notice and looked back at Joshua.
“So, will you go? Once you leave, the condition is you won’t be able to return for at least ten years.”
Joshua couldn’t answer immediately. At first, he’d thought it was a joke, but now it didn’t feel that way. It seemed Hispanie had been planning something regarding Joshua’s future for quite some time—including how he’d ended up here.
I imagined it. Hispanie was the closest resemblance to Joshua among all people in the world. Who would need the secrets of life that Hispanie had discovered more than Joshua?
If it were a fishing village, physical labor would be the main work, so a Demonic would be nothing more than a novice with slightly better memory. Perhaps arranging a place where no one would recognize a Demonic was the best childhood Hispanie could conceive. Following that plan, I might avoid the mistakes Hispanie might have made and reach the safe future Hispanie wished he could have gone to.
Should I accept it then?
At the same time, Joshua thought: Did Hispanie have someone who could have helped him like this?
No.
Hispanie had decided one day that he needed to leave home and acted on it. Without his Family Clan’s help, he found work to do, and above all, he’d survived until now. And yet he was proposing to send Joshua to a safe place he’d prepared—a “cradle to protect the self.”
Deep in my heart, a conviction arose that Hispanie’s judgment was right, alongside a small, firm emotion that didn’t want to admit it. Every person’s life unfolds differently. Even if both were Demonic, how much could they truly be the same?
“I understand this is a proposal made out of consideration for me, but….”
“You don’t want to become a fisherman?”
“That’s not it….”
Their eyes met. Hispanie burst into laughter.
“You said you wanted to go so badly when you first mentioned it. Why, don’t you like work that smells of fish?”
“No, that’s not it.”
Joshua took a moment to gather his thoughts and spoke.
“I said I wanted to go to ‘a place where no one knows who I am, where people love me for being myself’—a place like that. But thinking about it again, I realized the place I would choose couldn’t possibly be the same as the one Grandfather chose. In other words, such a place is something neither Grandfather nor anyone else can give me. Not until I find it myself.”
Hispanie looked at Joshua for a moment. His expression was blank, so I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Soon, Hispanie spoke.
“I hope you develop the will to find such a place. It must exist somewhere. Surely you won’t fail to find it if you travel around the entire Continent?”
“I’ve barely returned, but it might end up being the same place as Grandfather’s.”
“Then that would be fine too. Let’s look forward to it.”
Only then did Maximian, who had stopped his retching motions, speak.
“Ah, what is this? So the seawater farming failed before it even started? Did you two make some grand promise to meet on a seven-colored rainbow’s end three thousand years later on a straw mat? What about my job prospects? Shouldn’t you two geniuses leave some crumbs for me, who’s standing here retching in the middle of your touching promise?”
This was the moment when the two Demonic’s reactions diverged most clearly. Joshua felt somewhat embarrassed, but Hispanie looked down at him with an expression that said ‘what would you know?’ and spoke.
“Crumbs? Why would I give you something like that? If I’m going to give, I’ll give something proper.”
When Maximian’s eyes grew suspicious, Hispanie added one more word.
“How about a story about treasure?”
Maximian immediately straightened his posture and adjusted his glasses before speaking.
“Please share your wisdom, Master.”
“You only call me Master at times like this.”
Even when Joshua teased him lightly, Maximian paid no attention. Hispanie turned back to Joshua and began his first words.
“The story of Duke Arnim, the first Demonic Icabon.”
Joshua tilted his head. He’d thought he knew almost everything related to Icabon. But he couldn’t recall any particular treasure.
“During Icabon’s time, our Family Clan wasn’t in the state it is now. What’s one castle in Keltika? We were a Family Clan that possessed the greatest wealth and honor on the Continent, rivaling the royal house itself. We had so many trivial treasures that we couldn’t even remember all their names.”
“Ah, well, I’m trying to move past this because of the treasure, but it’s hard to resist singing my own praises.”
Hispanie elegantly wielded his stick, making a motion as if to strike Maximian across the back. At this point, he didn’t actually need to hit him—the gesture alone was effect enough.
“But what I’m about to tell you takes place before Icabon became Duke, back when the Kingdom of Keltika existed instead of Anomarad. The name Duke Arnim came into being the moment Anomarad was founded, after all.”
Children of Runes – Winterer
Author: Jeon Min-hee
Publisher: Books of the 14th Month
The copyright to this book belongs to the author and Books of the 14th Month.
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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