Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 344

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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 114.
Ninety-Eight Souls (27)
‘Bird’ was slang for the Kingdom 8 Army, a unit directly under the King’s command tasked with rooting out dissidents of the Divine Kingdom, particularly members of the Friends of the People. On the surface, Langie was merely an ordinary student of the Royal Grome School, but even the Kingdom 8 Army was beginning to suspect there was something suspicious at his core.
Langie responded only with a smile, and Hen rose, limping away to disappear among the crowd. Yien turned his head.
“You’re investigating the Young Duke?”
“If we discover how Moro intends to handle the Young Duke, we can anticipate his future actions as well. We’ll know when he might sever ties with us, when he’ll reveal his ambitions—everything.”
Langie added a moment later:
“Besides, the Young Duke is someone we need to eliminate anyway.”
“Of course.”
Yien agreed with the rational judgment, yet suddenly felt an emotional discord and flinched. The Amaranth Count Family was in the Southern Region, so I had never met the Young Duke Joshua von Arnim in person. But as a fellow nobleman, rumors had reached me. Most concerned the Demonic’s unpleasantness. Yet there were one or two who spoke from a relatively objective perspective.
A boy without aristocratic dignity but possessing elegant bearing, eyes that seemed to wander through dreams, singing with an unbelievable beauty, uttering startling words without thought, yet because one could sense the absence of malice, one’s own hatred felt contemptible, making one hate even more—a person who gave the feeling of having one’s secrets exposed.
The Demonic Joshua, detached from the anguish of ordinary humans, absorbed only in his own solitary torment, indifferent to anything his peers might cherish. Could such a being, as if accidentally fallen into this world, truly comprehend something like the spirit of the Republic? Could he understand the original sin inherent in being born a nobleman?
Because I unconsciously believed this could not be so, I felt a trace of sentimental pity toward some delicate existence who didn’t even know the reason for his own death, and I flinched.
But Langie would harbor no pity for a human who brings harm to the Republic. The red light more transparent than wine—I felt that Langie’s pupils held that light today precisely because they did not fear blood. Yet as a nobleman who had chosen to live for the Republic, I harbored no regret, and I knew this was merely a fleeting mood.
The staircase echoed with commotion. A dozen people were descending from the second floor all at once. Two of them supported an unconscious woman, while another carried a struggling child tucked against his side. The strange procession soon crossed the Grand Hall and disappeared out the door. The people glanced back briefly, but soon forgot and returned to their amusements.
As the door closed behind them, Langie spoke softly:
“Sold for gambling debts. In a place where no one will save them, they’ll spend their entire lives violated. The child will grow up a pickpocket….”
Though I had only glimpsed them briefly when ascending to the second floor, the situation was painfully clear to his eyes. Yien, who knew roughly what kind of childhood Langie had endured, could not refute those words with romantic logic. The underworld’s nature required no flowery language. Only primal desire governed there, making it an endlessly raw place.
“The Young Duke is around the same age as you and me. I don’t know what kind of person he is at all. Without a single conversation, without even human courtesy, I intend to treat his life like a game stone. I cannot forgive myself for doing such things, and therefore my life is not my own. To receive another’s life, mine must be equally mortgaged. That child being sold away is someone’s childhood, the grown youth consumed by rage cursing the world… everything repeats. I am sin itself because I cannot rush out and stop them right now. Because I seek to take the life of someone like the Young Duke. He is a genius, beautiful, living his youth like a raging torrent. Can we rest even for a moment having received the price of such a person’s life? Can I escape even briefly? No, I cannot. Absolutely not. I can never stop.”
Yien watched Langie in silence and accepted his fastidiousness. Langie was a person who could be sincere in such conviction. Because he had taken another’s life, he abandoned his own happiness as well. Yet even he needed the waters of oblivion in this moment. Because he was human. The single sip of wine he drank was blood. It was the sacrificial wine placed upon the altar to which he would offer himself.
Nodding, Yien too erased his pity for the Young Duke.
2. Voyage Across the Star Sea
A ship flowing along the Milky Way
That ship crosses the sky
To the world of those
Who have left our side.
If I climbed high enough into the sky, would the stars appear larger? I wondered such things before I was five.
The stars had not grown any larger. They remained smaller than grains of wheat, casting only their trivial light. They seemed to have increased in number somewhat. But that might simply be the weather’s effect. I had never spent much time gazing at stars anyway, so objective comparison was impossible.
Stars didn’t matter one way or another.
“The stars are showing well tonight.”
Riche’s voice came from a distance—I wasn’t sure when she had arrived. Though it was dark, my eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness, so I could make out her silhouette gripping the railing.
“Are you alright?”
Maximian asked abruptly, and Riche tilted her head, looking at him.
“What do you mean?”
“We’re flying. This ship.”
“So?”
“Aren’t you a bit anxious… never mind, forget it.”
Even in the darkness, I could see Riche’s lips protrude.
“Yes, I’m anxious. Is it fun reminding me of it? You weren’t the only one who spent over a decade with your feet on the ground below.”
What they stood upon, drifting through incomprehensible heights of empty air, was merely a floor made of a few wooden planks lashed together. Neither Maximian nor Riche was the type to forget such facts. Both seemed to be contemplating the stars above their heads rather than the darkness below the railing for the same reason.
Riche shook her head and spoke.
“The wind isn’t as fierce as I expected.”
She had simply left the ship as Juspian had arranged it, so she didn’t know anything about altitude. Truth be told, she barely understood the direction either. Among the three people aboard, only Joshua knew how to operate the vessel, yet he remained asleep even now, half a day after departure and well into the night. So until Joshua awoke, there was nothing to do but let the ship drift wherever it pleased.
Upon an empty sky, only the three of them drifted. When the sun had hung above, the waves had pressed forward with such peculiar slowness from their great distance that they were beautiful yet terrifying at once. The cool clouds that resembled mist, the birds that scattered in alarm, the radiance at the bow following the setting sun, the golden islands scattered across the twilight horizon—all were breathtaking visions she would never witness again in life, yet no exclamation escaped her lips. Her legs and lower abdomen felt drained of strength, and though she tried to eat, her appetite had vanished.
The two of them had spent the half-day in near silence. The ship was large enough to accommodate a dozen or more, so three people could easily go an entire day without crossing paths.
Why hadn’t she thought of this when she first heard the word “airship”? Could three people truly manage such a massive vessel? Wouldn’t they drift to some wrong location overnight? And if they crashed into the open sea where no land was visible, what would they do? The more she pondered, the more her worries multiplied.
Of course, no matter how much she thought, no solution emerged. Riche came to stand beside Maximian and spoke through a yawn.
“Whether you or I stay awake fretting, what good will it do? I think it’s better to forget everything and just sleep. Unless Joshua were awake.”
“If Joshua were awake.”
Maximian tapped the ship’s railing and let out a pitiful chuckle.
“He’d probably be so thrilled about flying through the sky that worries about falling would be the last thing on his mind.”
“The world is full of all sorts of people.”
Riche seemed to consider her own words before continuing.
“The world is full of all sorts of things. I never thought I’d leave Blue Coral in my lifetime, yet here I am sailing to another country—not just another island, but another country in a flying ship! In that sense, there’s something I absolutely must ask.”
“What?”
Riche took a breath and spoke.
“Does Joshua really have the ability to see spirits?”
The wind grew slightly stronger. The sails that Juspian had rigged were folded, but the ropes and canvas fluttered, their sounds echoing all around.
A moment later, a dismayingly simple answer came.
“Yeah.”
Riche coughed and spoke.
“How can you talk about such a problem so easily? I want to hear more details. To be honest, the reason I can’t sleep isn’t just because of this flying ship.”
Maximian yawned.
“Ah, are you worried a spirit might come stand at your bedside and stare right at your face? You can put that worry to rest.”
“Why?”
“Because you can’t see them anyway. It doesn’t matter if you’re awake. How would you even know if one is staring right at you this very moment?”
Riche tried not to show it, but she flinched involuntarily and turned her face away. Maximian neither laughed nor did anything but rest his elbows on the railing.
“I only found out about this not long ago myself.”
“Weren’t you childhood friends?”
“We were, but it wasn’t like this before.”
Riche waited a moment before asking again.
“But what does seeing spirits have to do with that commotion this afternoon?”
“I don’t know either.”
Riche crossed her arms with a dissatisfied expression.
“Like I said before, explain what you do know. Am I some princess you’re attending to? Are you keeping quiet to avoid worrying me?”
“You’re right, but—”
Maximian suddenly removed his glasses and wiped them on his collar. As if trying to see something clearly.
“I really don’t know much. Ask that brat Joshua when he wakes up. Otherwise… there is a friend who could explain it better.”
“A friend?”
Riche began to ask, then abruptly fell silent. She had understood what Maximian’s words meant.
“Wait, Maximian—so you can see ghosts too?”
Children of Rune – Winterer
Author: Jeon Min-hee
Published by: 14 Months Publishing
The copyright to this book belongs to the author and 14 Months Publishing.
To reuse all or part of this book’s contents, 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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