Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 384

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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 154.
May Your Final Performance
Be Your Greatest (29)
The carriage Strauss had mentioned was parked directly across the street. As Maximian received a transmission from Callaimon, he loaded Joshua into the carriage like cargo and bellowed confidently at the coachman sitting in front beside Strauss.
“Take us to Pier 8!”
Moments later, the carriage began moving in the opposite direction from the docks. Just as it had been yesterday, today the roads around the Diamond Rush Theater and especially the path leading to Pier 8 were completely congested with over a hundred carriages.
Beneath the theater stage, decorated with painted backdrops, lighting, and elegant props, lay surprisingly sparse mechanical apparatus. The winches used to make actors vanish or appear suddenly on stage, along with the pulleys and gears needed to operate them, occupied considerable space there. The paths threading through these devices were difficult for ordinary people to navigate without a guide—only the actors who rode the winches directly or the technicians operating the machinery truly understood them.
Walking this path alone, it was only natural that Riche initially failed to find what she sought and wandered. However, Riche possessed an exceptional spatial sense and a talent for drawing maps and structural diagrams accurately. After circling the same area several times, she grasped the internal layout and began walking along the correct path.
Piles of half-loosened rope lay scattered about, abandoned scraps of material accumulated in corners, broken tools and hardened paint brushes were strewn everywhere, making it difficult to find solid footing. My clothes caught on nails and tore; my hands, reaching out to feel the way forward, were scraped raw multiple times as I pressed onward. Soon, I became certain I had found the right path. I could see traces of someone having roughly cleared the way ahead—the person I was pursuing.
What Riche needed to find was one of the winches. Specifically, the one Joshua would ride up from behind the stage to appear behind the translucent curtain.
Because Joshua, who had appeared on stage moments ago, must have used that winch. And he must have come back down. Riche absolutely had to meet him. Who was he? Not on stage now, yet possessing the ability to stand upon it.
There was only one person.
The thought made my heart race violently. Why would he do something so dangerous?
Perhaps heightened emotion made me sensitive—I thought I heard something crack with a sharp sound and froze in place, listening intently. But no sound followed, so I soon resumed walking.
When I encountered the technician at the corner, my startled reaction was amplified because my nerves were already on edge from that sound.
“Oh! You scared me!”
The technicians working beneath the stage rarely interacted with those above it. This was my first time seeing this one. The technician wore tattered work clothes and had a hat pulled low over his head, yet for some reason, he offered no apology, no acknowledgment of his own surprise, no question about why I was here.
The path was narrow, so I pressed my body against the wall and barely managed to step aside. The technician passed through. I felt inexplicably irritated and spoke.
“If you see someone, at least acknowledge them.”
“….”
“What? Are you ignoring me?”
“….”
“That’s rude.”
I decided not to engage further and turned to leave, but I felt the technician lift his hat slightly and look at my face. Not my concern, I thought, and hurried on my way.
In the distance, the base of a winch came into view. One foot protruded as if someone were lying down. As I approached, I thought: lying down… lying down?
Drawing closer, a figure finally came into focus. The black velvet coat Joshua had worn in Act One, trousers so long they bunched at the ankles… one shoe half-removed. The other lay scattered across the floor. I covered my mouth with my own hand. It was useless. A sound—whether a gasp or a sob—escaped my throat. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move.
Had Ines felt responsible for somehow completing the stage after Joshua vanished? Had she not wanted to ruin the finale’s climax? Was it for love of the stage? Or for love of the person who loved this stage?
“Why did you… do that….”
I didn’t notice the footsteps approaching. Only when they reached behind me did I realize. Trembling, I lifted my head. I saw the person standing before me—or rather, the person who had returned.
The Tall Man opened his mouth.
“Many words… invite death.”
The carriage, which had been moving frustratingly slowly, began to pick up speed as it escaped the congested area. Since the main road to Pier 8 was blocked, they had to take a winding route, climbing up from the other docks one by one. Under these circumstances, it was inevitable that traffic congestion would be called the greatest enemy. Maximian inside the carriage muttered angrily.
“All those bastards dragging carriages through the streets should be eliminated.”
The statement lacked conviction coming from someone riding in a carriage himself. Moreover, thinking about it, the very cause of people flocking here with carriages was that fellow sleeping soundly beside him. “Soundly sleeping” was something of an exaggeration—he was more accurately collapsed from severe exhaustion after expending so much energy on stage. Perhaps because of that, it was fortunate he had obediently lost consciousness from a single blow to the back of his head. Otherwise, dragging him away while ruining the finale on the very stage he cherished would have been impossible from the start.
When he woke up, he might complain endlessly, but Maximian didn’t care. If he made it through to the ending, that was enough. Facing a matter of life and death, that should suffice—what more could you ask for, you madman.
Pier 8 began to appear in the distance beyond the carriage window. Their ship, the Beauty’s Pinnacle, floated not far from the docks. The Beauty’s Pinnacle was a small caravel-class sailing vessel, and since it carried little cargo, its draft was shallow enough that it could be kept close to shore in Calaisso Harbor’s waters.
Not only welcome figures appeared. As I scanned the docks, men who looked like mercenaries emerged smoothly from behind stacks of boxes piled on the wharf, from corners where posts were driven in, from behind other ships, from inside empty barrels—and surrounded both sides of where the carriage would stop. There were roughly thirty of them.
Maximian thrust his head out of the carriage window and shouted.
“We have to escape!”
The coachman shouted back.
“Where could I possibly flee to!”
“Just flee anyway! Otherwise those people will kill us!”
At the word “kill,” the carriage driver’s mind snapped into focus. Being a man of perfectly sound reasoning, he abandoned the carriage carrying someone shrieking about death and leaped out, bolting away without hesitation.
The moment the driver vanished, the horses began rearing wildly. Maximian cursed the fleeing coachman as he threw open the carriage door and attempted to reach the driver’s seat by any means necessary—though it proved no simple feat without an acrobat’s skill. Just as he managed to step across the carriage frame and his fingers grasped one of the reins, his body lurched dangerously. Without thinking, he yanked the reins with all his might.
In that instant, the horses changed direction.
There was no time to scream. The two horses, the carriage, and the two figures within plunged headlong into the sea, where gentle ripples danced across the surface. This was no proper dock—there wasn’t even a railing. The thirty mercenaries watching involuntarily cried out.
“Ahhh!”
Of course, it was a reaction born of forgotten duty. Once they regained their senses, they began rushing toward where the carriage had disappeared.
Raised in the countryside, Maximian was accustomed to rough swimming, but weighed down by his clothes and disoriented, he couldn’t think clearly from the start. Moreover, a heavy purse of gold hung from his inner pocket. Yet the moment he remembered Joshua, who had fallen unconscious into the sea, fury surged through him. If I don’t act now, that fool will surely drown. I have to save him somehow…
But the salt water made it nearly impossible to open his eyes. The dock’s depth was considerable—deep enough to moor small sailing vessels. When his flailing limbs found nothing to grasp, Maximian decided he would surface for breath, then dive again to retrieve Joshua.
That was when it happened.
‘Sis…’
He heard something. In the sea? How could he hear anything?
But it soon became certain. In that brief moment, there was no mistaking it. Joshua’s voice. Impossible as it seemed, it was unmistakably his cry.
‘Sister! Sister!’
Before Maximian could even contemplate what was happening, I had surfaced. Gasping for breath, I simultaneously spotted the mercenaries swarming the docks. It seemed wise to distance myself from the pier before surfacing again. Just as I prepared to dive back beneath the water, something suddenly rose behind me. I turned around.
Maximian was not the only one left speechless.
“Wh…what?”
“What is…?”
There was no time to savor the mercenaries’ slack-jawed expressions. Maximian, still half-submerged, stared wide-eyed at the incomprehensible sight before me.
Joshua, who should have been underwater, was floating. Not on the surface, but suspended in the air above it—unsupported, hovering motionless. More precisely, he remained unconscious and limp, water dripping from him, cradled in the two hands of someone invisible.
Yet the ‘someone’ could not be seen.
“Th-th-th-that is absolutely—”
“A g-ghost!”
Maximian thought quickly. Whoever could do such a thing must surely be Kelsniti, right? He had written words and turned pages, so surely he could lift a person as well.
Should I simply leave it as is then? Yet something felt… off.
The terrified mercenaries began backing away toward the far end of the docks. Joshua did not remain suspended indefinitely. He descended slowly through the air toward the edge of the pier, and as he did, his posture shifted as he was released from the invisible hands supporting him. By the time his feet touched the dock, he stood completely alone.
And Joshua’s eyes opened.
“Ah.”
When I heard his voice, relief washed over Maximian—yet simultaneously, something felt wrong. Something… unfamiliar?
“So you lot mean to trouble me?”
It was unmistakably Joshua’s voice. Yet the tone was entirely different. Was he acting? But why would he perform now, having just regained consciousness after nearly drowning?
Joshua’s voice carried far greater confidence than on any stage. No—it was a different breed of confidence altogether. It was the arrogance of one regarding insects beneath him.
“I cannot simply overlook this.”
Children of Rune – Winterer
Author: Jeon Min-hee
Publisher: 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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