Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 386

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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 156.
May Your Final Performance
Be Your Greatest (31)
“Exactly. You knew I wouldn’t abandon Riche, so you came at such a leisurely pace, didn’t you? Confident that I’d never leave her behind?”
“Of course.”
Joshua raised both hands and shrugged his shoulders. It was precisely the posture Maximian habitually adopted.
“Then how do you propose to get her back?”
“I’d like to make an exchange.”
The Tall Man laughed as he spoke. Riche, standing beside him, watched as white teeth flashed across his face.
“For what?”
“For you.”
Joshua answered immediately.
“Deal.”
The moment the words left his lips, Joshua leaped from the ship’s rail. He jumped from a height that would normally require climbing rope, landing cleanly on the dock below.
The Tall Man whistled and clapped twice.
“You’ve learned quite a few new tricks in the time we haven’t seen each other.”
Joshua, standing a few paces away, spoke.
“That’s the second time you’ve applauded me.”
He remembered the applause the Tall Man had given in the audience seating. Maximian had grown confused about where Joshua remained himself and where he became something unfamiliar. Surely there was some distinction between the two?
“Then, let her go.”
“Bring her here.”
With those words, the Tall Man didn’t release the rope binding Riche’s hands—instead, he yanked it hard. As Riche nearly stumbled backward, he extended his right hand to seize her throat.
But what he grasped was her right shoulder instead.
A crack echoed through the air, followed by a scream that tore through the void. In that instant, both the Tall Man and Joshua were no longer focused on Riche—they faced each other. Joshua had moved at an inhuman speed, snatched Riche away, and deflected the hand meant for her throat. Now he drove his knee toward the Tall Man’s abdomen while throwing a punch at his jaw. The Tall Man had clearly let his guard down, assuming Joshua’s strike would be merely ordinary. But his expectations shattered spectacularly.
Crack!
The impact snapped the Tall Man’s jaw sideways, and the blow to his abdomen was forceful enough to bend him double. As he jerked his body to evade the follow-up attack, Joshua’s foot swept beneath his knees. The Tall Man retreated two quick steps. He needed to reassess his opponent. Regardless of the reason, he had to accept that Joshua had grown stronger. He adapted quickly to such realizations.
“You’ve acquired quite the impressive skills, Young Duke.”
Joshua kicked a sword he’d thrown to the ground, caught it, and charged forward with it leveled directly at the Tall Man. The Tall Man took a defensive stance without a weapon. Joshua’s blade struck the Tall Man’s right forearm. It truly did strike.
It did not cut through.
When Joshua hesitated and stopped, the Tall Man relaxed his arm and spoke.
“A blade of that caliber won’t suffice.”
Joshua swung the sword horizontally, knocking the Tall Man’s hat away. That served as the signal—they clashed in earnest.
Maximian did not remain idle. The moment Joshua and the Tall Man began fighting, Maximian grabbed the rope that had been draped over the ship’s rail and slid down, jumping to the dock. He rushed immediately to Riche and assessed her condition.
She was still conscious. But when he tried to support her, a cry of pain escaped her lips.
“My arm…”
When Maximian examined her, there was no bleeding, but her right shoulder was dislocated and the bone in her upper arm was completely fractured—a state that even professional Mercenaries would struggle to endure with composure. The Tall Man had decided the moment Joshua drew near that Riche was no longer necessary, and he’d intended to kill her outright. True to one who placed no more weight on human life than a grain of millet.
As Maximian’s hands touched her, Riche’s entire body trembled. Yet even as she shook, her eyes remained open and fixed. She even managed to speak.
“That… that person… how… how is Joshua… how…”
“Joshua’s condition is somewhat abnormal, but thanks to that, he’s managing well. On a day like today, perhaps we should count our blessings.”
Maximian glanced at Joshua once more, but he judged that Riche’s condition was more urgent. The dislocated shoulder couldn’t be reset immediately because of the fractured upper arm. In truth, merely witnessing it made Maximian’s teeth clench and his body recoil. But he was the only one who could keep his wits about him.
“Just hold on a little longer. I know you’re tough, so you have to endure this.”
Maximian helped Riche sit up. Even that simple motion caused her tremendous pain. She forced herself to bear it, tears streaming down her face, her lips trembling so badly that saliva dripped from the corners of her mouth. Next came the matter of supporting her weight on his shoulders and carrying her—he couldn’t be certain she could endure it, but they couldn’t remain sitting in this dangerous place.
“Just one more time….”
Even Maximian broke into a cold sweat, struggling so hard he could barely remember how he managed it. Riche bit her lips to stifle the moans rising between her clenched teeth, and the flesh tore in several places, drawing blood. Maximian hoisted Riche onto his shoulders and stood. He examined her face and spoke.
“You should just lose consciousness. If you pass out like that bastard over there, you won’t feel the pain anymore. Why are you being so stubborn about enduring it?”
As Maximian began walking toward the Ship, Riche’s answer came between her moans.
“I… I can’t… pass out….”
Joshua had broken two swords and now stood facing the Tall Man with a third blade in hand. It was difficult to say who held the advantage, yet it remained true that the man, who was only defending, had sustained no wounds. And for some time now, Joshua’s eyes had been growing dim, closing and opening repeatedly. He was struggling to keep them open, as though desperately clinging to a soul trying to slip away.
“The swords aren’t good enough….”
It wasn’t so much that the swords were poor, but rather that his own transcendent speed and the man’s bizarre strength required weapons of exceptional quality. Yet Joshua still raised his blade with an air of composure and spoke.
“But the opponent is decent.”
Seeing this, the man suddenly kicked up a sword from the ground and seized it. Then, from behind his mask, he smiled broadly.
“Then shall we try with the same blade?”
The two swords clashed immediately. Joshua’s blade possessed speed; the man’s possessed strength. Yet neither advantage was exclusive to one fighter. Joshua, who casually deflected the man’s powerful downward strike with a single sword held in one hand, and the man, who evaded all of Joshua’s dozens of rapid thrusts without fail.
When a thrust came at his shoulder, he quickly sidestepped, then used the elasticity of his corrected stance to flick the blade’s tip away. He narrowly dodged a frontal thrust, and as his lowered body rotated, he swept a kick at the ankles as though brushing the ground. The elasticity of his wrist as he blocked and deflected a downward thrust from above was formidable. The attacks and defenses exchanged between them were so extraordinary that only the combatants themselves could fully comprehend the gap in their abilities.
Yet Joshua was tiring rapidly. Along with that exhaustion, his strength began to fade in an instant, as though he were accepting defeat. The man, confident in his victory, cast aside his sword. He always preferred to finish with his right hand.
Joshua’s eyes closed for a long moment. When they opened again, the man’s hand was wrapped around his throat. With that powerful right hand, he could have lifted him effortlessly.
The palm was oddly rough—less like a human hand and more like untreated rawhide. The man savored the sensation of the warm, soft throat beneath those hands, slowly adjusting his grip. Soon he found the pulse with his thumb and paused. The act of suppressing that tiny, frantic pulse, beating right up to the point of breaking—that was his greatest pleasure.
With his finger resting on a pulse that beat neither slowly nor quickly, he spoke.
“That was quite entertaining, Demonic Joshua.”
Joshua opened his eyes and offered a faint smile. Before the man gripping his throat, his voice emerged thin as a thread yet undiminished in confidence.
“You… Those hands… They came from that place, didn’t they?”
The man did not understand.
“What?”
“That place… Long ago… It vanished….”
That was when it happened.
“There he is!”
“There he is!”
“There! Right there!”
“Ohhh! There he is!”
So absorbed in each other had they been that it took a moment to realize the Docks, which they’d believed held only the two of them, was in fact surrounded by countless people. The path leading to Pier 8 and the adjacent docks were completely filled with carriages. From within the carriages, people opened windows, and many others descended to the ground, all staring at them with wide, eager eyes.
They were not merely watching. They were shouting. Cheering, encouraging, marveling, and even attempting to rush toward them without hesitation.
The two combatants did not know it, but their sudden appearance was due to Etern. When the finale ended strangely with Joshua absent, the audience, just as they had the day before, rushed to the Dressing Room in an uproar, demanding to see the actor directly. It was then that Etern, stepping forward, had shouted loudly.
“Anyone who wishes to meet Joe Hispanie should go to Pier 8 immediately! He’s about to board the Ship and depart! Hurry, before he leaves!”
Etern’s declaration had been made at Riche’s prior request before leaving the Theater. The countermeasures prepared by Maximian and Riche differed from each other, but in any case, they proved remarkably effective.
Joshua was the one with the leisure to look around. He showed no surprise and spoke lightly, as though he had been performing death mere moments before.
“The audience has grown quite large.”
But the man’s expression was not as composed as Joshua’s. He was originally an assassin. A creature of darkness, and remaining unnoticed wherever he went was a crucial skill. For such a man to be exposed to so many people, and to have all their gazes fixed upon him at once—it was something he could never have experienced.
The corners of the man’s mouth, which had never once lost their composure, twisted strangely. It was the complete opposite of Joshua’s reaction, who could enjoy himself even if thousands watched, cheered, and roared with enthusiasm. Perhaps it was a form of agoraphobia. In any case, for the first time in this encounter, Joshua held an overwhelmingly superior position to the man.
The man took a long while to respond. Or rather, it was more of a murmur.
“Useless wretches….”
It was unclear whom he was referring to—the audience, his own subordinates, or perhaps both. Either way, his expression was rapidly destabilizing.
Moreover, the audience in question were all nobility. Every prominent family in this region had flocked to today’s performance. Among them were several high-ranking aristocrats with connections reaching into the upper echelons of Durnensa, and even to Keltika itself.
What would happen if the Tall Man broke Joshua’s neck in this situation?
It seemed such thoughts had crossed the Tall Man’s mind as well. His hand trembled around Joshua’s throat as if he were wavering between action and restraint. The confusion wrought by all these eyes upon him, the certainty that if he killed Joshua before them, those who had been cheering for this actor would become frenzied and riot—requiring him to slaughter dozens to escape—and even if he somehow managed to flee, those who loved Joshua would relentlessly investigate not only his identity but also the reason for his death in such a place and who orchestrated it all.
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 content, 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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