Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 310

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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 80.
Finding the Cat in the Furnace (29)
Two young boys leaned against a tree—one gazing down at the leaf-strewn ground, the other tilting his head toward the sky.
The sun would set in less than half an hour, Maximian thought as he observed the heavens. Though the dense branches obscured much of the view, one thing was certain: rain would come again soon. Joshua, meanwhile, stared down at his damp boot tips, contemplating the path they had traveled thus far.
Riche called out to her father.
“How far have we come?”
“Still a ways to go.”
Caesar yawned repeatedly, though his naturally robust frame showed no sign of fatigue. Today alone, counting the time since they departed The Island and crossed to Sword-la-Chapel, they had walked nearly seven hours without rest—yet both Maximian and Riche endured without difficulty. The one who concerned me most was Joshua, though he seemed to be managing well enough. Then again, Maximian reflected, Joshua possessed more fortitude than his appearance suggested.
“Can we arrive within four days at this pace?”
When Joshua posed the question, Caesar answered with a contemplative expression.
“We’ll need to walk through the nights. Truth be told, arrival itself isn’t what worries me—it’s what comes after.”
“What do you mean?”
They were journeying to find the method Caesar had mentioned earlier that day—something crude and risky, yet extraordinarily convenient if it succeeded. The man who would teach them this method was supposedly Caesar’s old friend, though his expression when speaking of him had seemed so awkward that Joshua harbored doubts about whether they were truly friends at all.
In any case, this man lived on the border where Lugran and Hyacan met. When Maximian asked whether he lived in Lugran or Hyacan, Caesar had tilted his head uncertainly and replied thus.
“I’m not entirely sure. He might live in both.”
Though Lugran and Hyacan were bound together in the Rugdunens Federation, the federation’s cohesion had weakened of late, and they remained distinctly separate nations under different rulers. When pressed about whether crossing the border would pose problems, Caesar shook his head and said the issue wasn’t that at all.
Recalling that conversation, which had been cut short by their hasty departure, Maximian asked.
“You said back then that crossing the border wouldn’t be difficult, but that what came after would be the problem. What exactly is this ‘after’? I’d feel less anxious if I knew.”
As Caesar hesitated to answer, Riche spoke up.
“I think I might have an idea what it is….”
“What is it?”
Riche looked at Caesar.
“Dad, we’re going to see that weird-haired man, right?”
“Ah, well, haha….”
As Caesar laughed nervously, Maximian muttered.
“She doesn’t mean his hair looks strange, surely.”
“Unfortunately, that’s exactly what she means. That man is, well….”
Watching Riche choose her words carefully made me uneasy. Joshua too gazed at her with curious eyes. Riche seemed to sense his attention, and that awareness appeared to inspire her.
“He’s like Joshua.”
This statement startled both boys equally.
“What?”
“What did you say?”
Joshua looked at Caesar in bewilderment, seeking explanation, while Maximian stared at Joshua with a shocked expression and declared.
“One of him is absolutely enough!”
Joshua added weakly.
“I’m… enough on my own.”
Maximian had always believed he knew Joshua well, but today’s events had forced me to reconsider. Five years had passed since they last met—time enough for thousands of eggs to hatch into hens, for some to fall into ditches and perish, for surviving chicks to grow stubbornly into hens themselves and lay eggs anew. But then he realized he was thinking about wanting to eat eggs, and the thought seemed so pathetic that he abandoned it entirely.
In any case, the boy was no longer the terrifyingly gentle child from before. Something that had once been merely a seed had grown like an untended vine. And if he was honest about who had left it untended… it felt uncomfortably like himself.
Perhaps Joshua himself was the one who understood this transformation most clearly.
“I’ll preface this by saying I last saw that man when I was ten, and haven’t seen him since—but if all the mages in the world are like that, then magic of any kind must be extraordinarily dangerous. I still vividly remember how he blew the roof clean off his own house because he thought the mushroom he was growing in the corner needed sunlight.”
Maximian turned to look at Caesar.
“Are you an explosives expert?”
“….”
“Damn it, should we even be going this way?”
But Joshua chuckled and nodded his head.
“If that rooftop was deliberately destroyed rather than accidentally blown off, then whoever did it is no ordinary mage.”
Maximian’s eyes narrowed.
“Are you defending him because he reminds you of yourself?”
“That’s not it… but anyway, we’ve come this far already, so what choice do we have but to keep going?”
Taking Joshua’s words as an opportunity, Caesar rose from the rocky outcrop and gestured urgently to everyone.
“Come on, let’s hurry. We only have four days left. Just thinking about that bastard makes my spine crawl.”
Both Maximian and Joshua pushed themselves up from the trees they’d been leaning against. Caesar’s mention of ‘that bastard’ proved remarkably effective.
By the fourth day, they had no choice but to find horses.
Having walked through two entire nights without sleep, even accounting for brief rests during the day, everyone was on the verge of collapse. And true to form, Arnim Duke, who had grown up knowing nothing of physical hardship, had entered a state of near-death and was becoming a burden to the group.
Of course, there was no way they had enough money to buy something as expensive as horses. Maximian sat leaning against a tree at the village entrance, eyes closed like Joshua, and vented his frustrations aloud.
“How is it that the son of a family that’s second to none in Anomarad left home without a single valuable item to his name? His mental state is completely broken. And my mental state isn’t exactly normal either for dragging along such a useless fellow.”
Riche, who had been sitting beside him massaging her legs, opened her eyes just enough to look at him and spoke.
“Then what about us, who drag along the two of you?”
Maximian glanced at Riche and Caesar, then changed his tone.
“Of course, you two possess the most noble spirits in the world.”
Riche continued to mock him.
“Right. Nobly insane. All of us.”
A short while later, seeing Joshua in a state that was impossible to tell whether he was asleep or unconscious, Riche spoke.
“Shouldn’t we be looking for a cart instead of horses?”
“Are you planning to pull the cart yourself?”
“No, of course horses would pull it.”
“So when you buy a cart these days, do they throw in the horses for free?”
Walking continuously without sleep was no ordinary hardship. If the deadline hadn’t been just four days away, they would never have devised such a foolish plan. Yet remarkably, no one objected. Even when they tried to rest for a moment, the urge to go just one step further, even if it meant collapsing on the road, would drive them to their feet. The pressure driving them was that intense.
In the end, Maximian reached a conclusion.
“Let’s strip that bastard of his outer coat and sell it.”
Hearing those words, Riche let out a deep sigh, rose, and approached him. Maximian looked up to see what she was doing when a money pouch suddenly dropped in front of him.
“Oh, these are gold coins? If you had this kind of money, you should have said something earlier.”
Maximian opened the pouch and brightened up. Riche replied flatly.
“It’s money Joshua gave me, so I’m handing it over. It’s only right to use this before selling his clothes.”
Maximian didn’t understand what she meant, but Riche’s expression was far from pleasant. It was emergency funds she had scraped together by selling two admission tickets to the Aquarian that Joshua had given her, along with some extra money.
But unfortunately, even that money fell short. So Maximian’s plan went ahead as intended.
Everything happened before Joshua woke up. They stripped him of a short cloak made of green kid leather, a silk blouse, a belt studded with topazes, and other items without ceremony. When Riche confirmed that the gems set in the belt were genuine, Maximian’s expression was worth seeing.
Maximian handled the negotiations. While Riche and Caesar kept watch over Joshua, Maximian went into the village and exchanged the clothes for one horse, a plain linen shirt, a gray sack-like cloak, and some travel expenses.
They were about to depart with Joshua, whose clothes had been changed while he slept, and Riche, whose feet were completely blistered, mounted on the horse, when Caesar, bewildered, looked at Riche’s face and asked.
“What’s wrong? You look sad.”
When Riche turned away without responding, Maximian glanced back and shrugged his shoulders.
“Gold coins are beings that leave behind memories, aren’t they?”
“Even I’ve endured far better than I imagined.”
Maximian murmured as he watched Joshua, who remained unbroken even after being set down from the horse. They had entered the forest path again and now stood at a small lakeside, preparing to drink.
“Acting requires quite a bit of stamina, doesn’t it?”
Riche, who had been washing her face endlessly about ten times, responded without lifting her head. Then she turned back to Maximian and spoke.
“But you’re holding up better than you look. On the surface, you don’t seem much different from Joshua.”
“You’re saying I look the same as that fellow? How do you even measure clothes sizes with eyes like that?”
“What good is a measuring tape if you don’t use it?”
The conversation ended. Maximian thought he might as well wash up too and went to the lakeside. After rinsing roughly and drying off, Caesar came and sat down, suggesting they eat lunch. Maximian nodded but then smiled awkwardly and spoke.
“You and the old man certainly have gone through troubles for such peculiar reasons.”
Maximian couldn’t say such things openly to Riche either—his face would flush with embarrassment. Caesar absently crumpled the bread Riche had handed him, then looked up at the sky with a contemplative expression and spoke.
“This is a secret, but…”
He waited a moment for Riche to sit down at a distance.
“It may sound absurd, but even through something like this, knowing I’m actually helping my daughter somehow feels a bit rewarding.”
“….”
Caesar was still boyish at his age, or to put it harshly, immature. That he was training the children who studied under him haphazardly wasn’t due to any particular policy—it was simply because he found work tedious, and money came in as time passed. If I had to make an excuse, it would be that these little ones needed time to play energetically more than they needed sword practice.
Children of Rune – Winterer
Author: Jeon Min-hee
Publisher: 14 Month Books
The copyright of this book belongs to the author and 14 Month Books.
To reuse all or part of the contents of this book, you must obtain written consent from both parties.

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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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