Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 290

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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 60.
Finding the Cat in the Furnace (9)
Camilo shed his ornate outer coat and appeared in black leather garments, then rushed through the crowd and ascended to the very top of the towering stack of boxes in a single bound. People cried out upon spotting him.
“Camilo!”
The melody of the song transformed. Between the baritone harmonies, Camilo’s soprano solo soared upward.
The Aquarian
Who has seen his heart?
An arrow shot toward the stars
Pierced straight through his heart.
He will move forward.
Through the darkest sky
To the land of the smallest star
Empty hands without a single coin
Barefoot, even his shoes cast away
His final hat given to another.
He needs nothing.
Only one thing keeps him alive.
A star that burns even in the dead of night
To all the people of the world
A star that rains down nectar
The Aquarian
Have you heard his words?
He has laid a bridge to the stars
And now he calls to us.
The Aquarian
The revolutionary within me
The Aquarian
The revolutionary within me
Riche lacked the ear to judge the quality of the performance. She hadn’t even grasped the full plot yet. Yet in that moment, I found myself utterly transfixed in my seat.
Only then did I begin to understand what had captivated people about that masked man. This was originally a cheap comedy theater that the Nobility rarely frequented, yet today every box seat was filled with distinguished nobles. They must have paid a considerable premium for admission as well.
The Nobility seldom attended such public performances. Whenever a decent musician became available, they would summon them to their own homes and invite a select few guests to enjoy the entertainment in refined comfort. Even moderately large theatrical productions posed no problem—it was common for nobles to maintain stages rivaling proper theaters within their own Villas. Though naturally, the seating capacity was absurdly limited.
Riche reflected on this. Though she paid little attention to such matters and had grown confused about the timeline, she recalled that Max Cardi had debuted in Hyacan roughly three years prior. Before that, had there ever been a show where people lined up through the night to purchase tickets, scalpers set up their operations, and even the Nobility came to watch?
There had been many actors before, many concerts and theatrical productions, but they were all commonplace—something people would see if they wished and ignore if they didn’t. Except for those with particular tastes, it mattered little what one watched or whether one bothered to see any particular performer at all.
Most performances were mediocre at best. Without any coherent plot, they aimed merely to provoke laughter, and audiences would often rush the stage turning everything into chaos, or actors would forget their lines and proceed haphazardly before ending the show. The caliber of performers and singers was only marginally superior to that of ordinary people, which made sense—they earned their living through other means and appeared here as a hobby to pocket a little extra coin.
In other words, with Max Cardi’s debut came performances that became the talk of everyone, a popular actor whose performances one absolutely had to see, costumes and props crafted with such care by the Costume Workshop that even the Nobility commissioned them, and nobles who emerged from their homes to mingle with the common people to watch performances. All of this had come into being.
Cardi’s talent operated on an entirely different level from actors who commonly graced such stages. That song would not have been shameful even before the King himself. Riche grew curious. Why did someone of such caliber perform on a theater stage like this? More fundamentally, why had he taken up such work in the first place? With his level of skill, circulating among the homes of the Nobility would be easier work with guaranteed generous income. Why don the mask and throw himself into such difficult, complicated endeavors?
The moment that thought crossed her mind, Riche realized her own misconception and let out an incredulous laugh.
“Right, of course. You said it was a hobby.”
Maximian pretended to search the Performance Hall while slowly following the suspicious man. At first there was only one, but shortly after, he discovered another lurking in a different corner. As he continued observing, he inadvertently discovered the entrance to the Performance Hall itself. Upon reflection, it became clear that these men were circling the perimeter of the Performance Hall.
He cracked open the door and peered inside. This entrance was located in a secluded corner to the left of the stage, making it easy to slip inside unnoticed by other audience members. Once inside, Maximian closed the door behind him, leaned against it, and surveyed his surroundings. Then, from the opposite side—the right of the stage—he witnessed a man entering through a side door similar to the one he had used. For the third time, it was a familiar face.
All eyes in the Performance Hall were fixed on the stage, so no one noticed Maximian slipping in through the side entrance like he did. He approached beneath the stage and began walking with a hunched posture, as if searching for something. But just then the stage darkened, and Maximian lost sight of the man’s movements. Only a single actor bathed in light remained visible, plunging the entire Performance Hall into complete darkness.
At that moment, Riche was watching the stage like all the other spectators. She was watching, but she had no idea the actress was the famous Muchia Benevento. She truly possessed no prior knowledge of this performance whatsoever.
The stage was decorated like the hall where the performance took place, and on one side stood an empty tiered seating area that was part of the set. Adriana, rescued from the Warehouse, had regained consciousness lying beneath the stage set. After delivering a few lines of soliloquy, she hesitated about climbing up to the stage she had long yearned for, repeating her hesitation and looking around. But finally, gathering her courage, she climbed onto the stage alone and began to dance.
A moment later, harmonica music began to drift from the audience section. Adriana startled and stopped dancing, and the accompaniment ceased as well. But soon she began dancing again, her movements now far more fluid. And the harmonica grew more spirited.
Gradually they approached the second act finale. The harmonica accompaniment slowly blended with the orchestra, and dancers began preparing at both entrances. Cardi, who had stopped playing the harmonica, began singing from his hiding place, so Riche glanced around trying to locate him. Having so little experience watching theater, she looked in all directions, and when she happened to glance upward, she felt something moving beside the chandelier hanging high above. She rubbed her eyes and looked again.
The ceiling was shaking!
Riche jumped to her feet without thinking. Immediately, complaints erupted from behind her about blocking the stage. Complaints or not, Riche spotted someone lurking on the right side of the stage and, assuming he was a staff member, rushed toward him.
Now an elaborate ensemble dance was unfolding on stage. Muchia Benevento, playing Adriana, had finally executed brilliantly the very section she had been going back and forth about whether she could manage. At last, Max Cardi, playing Camilo, leaped out from within the audience seating set and matched the dance. Every eye in the Performance Hall except Riche’s was fixed on his movements. Even Maximian watched him, though for a somewhat different reason.
Perhaps five years is enough time for a person to change. Or perhaps it was because he was performing as someone else on stage. His height had shot up, his body remained gaunt, his voice had changed, and a strange mask covered his face. Could this really be the Joshua he once knew?
What was he trying to hide by wearing that mask?
Suddenly, a sound like a downpour—no, like thunder—echoed through the Theater. So clear that everyone forgot they were indoors and looked up. Then came a rumbling crash, followed by a splintering crack.
The light surrounding the stage vanished all at once. Everything transformed into complete darkness.
Few people grasped the situation quickly. But moments later, those seated in the front rows began screaming and rushing out. Simultaneously, terrifying crashes sounded as if heavy logs were falling in succession.
Gradually the back rows and beyond erupted as well, people surging up like waves, trampling chairs and pushing through one another in blind panic to escape toward the rear. The large entrance through which everyone had entered lay in that direction.
But one person alone was running in the opposite direction.
“Damn it all!”
Thanks to everyone else rushing backward, Maximian reached the front of the stage with ease. What had happened was exactly as he’d feared. The ceiling above the stage had collapsed, burying the stage where the actors stood. Dust hung thick enough to make him cough, and the darkness made it hard to see, but Maximian leaped directly onto the collapsed debris.
Heavy support beams that had held up the roof had fallen, destroying more than half the stage. Finding any trace of people in that rubble was not easy. Comparing the timing of the sounds with when the collapse occurred, it seemed the lead actors in the center would have had no chance to escape. Maximian felt heat rise to his cheeks as he raised his voice and shouted.
“Joshua! Where are you!”
But the screams and noise filling the Performance Hall made it impossible for even his own ears to hear him properly. Around that time, a new cry erupted from the entrance behind the audience seating where people had fled.
“F-Fire!”
“The Theater is on fire!”
The entire Performance Hall descended into utter chaos. The Theater’s ceiling collapsed and fire suddenly broke out simultaneously—there was no time to even consider how likely such a coincidence could be. Those who reached the entrance first saw the flames and panicked, only to be knocked down and trampled by those pushing from behind, who themselves fell under the weight of the next wave of people. Some remembered the side entrances on either side of the stage and rushed toward them, but for some reason those doors were firmly locked, and no amount of pounding or kicking could open them.
Maximian tried to stay calm. He attempted to clear away the collapsed debris based on where Joshua had been positioned, but unless he possessed the strength of a strongman who could heft logs effortlessly, there was no way to dig deeper. Slowly his anxiety solidified like a steel ball, pressing down on his lower abdomen. He had rushed here because he sensed the crisis coming—he hadn’t come merely to be a witness. Never. He was someone who had never once thought of himself as the type to give up from birth.
Children of Rune – Winterer
Author: Jeon Min-hee
Publisher: 14 Month Books
The rights to this book belong to the author and 14 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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