Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 387

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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 157.
May Your Final Performance
Be Your Greatest (32)
The audience had witnessed the man donning a mask, and so they perceived this moment not as reality, but as a continuation of the performance itself. Rationally speaking, there was no reason for such a conclusion, yet so thoroughly had they been absorbed in the spectacle moments before that they had lost all sense of the actual world—and this delusion felt perfectly natural to them.
Besides, this was no theater but the open harbor, where one could cry out as loudly as one wished. Indeed, they abandoned all dignity, stamping their feet and shouting.
“Wow! That stance was incredible! What comes next?”
“Wait, I need an explanation of what’s happening!”
“What is this about? Is this a preview of the next performance?”
“Is it already over?”
“Let’s start from the beginning again!”
Such absurd cries they hurled, yet they were Joshua’s saviors nonetheless. As the man’s hand slipped from my throat, his voice came as a whisper.
“Demonic beings possess a peculiar fortune, you see….”
With my throat freed, I suddenly staggered. The man surveyed the uninvited spectators surrounding us. His eyes burned with the desire to slaughter them all in an instant, yet harming the Nobility would create scandal, destabilizing his client’s position. His future livelihood could not afford such complications.
The man walked a few paces, then abruptly propelled himself upward, vaulting to the adjacent dock. Rather than slip through the crowd, he vanished atop one of the moored vessels.
Left alone, Joshua barely composed myself, surveying the crowd. My head spun dizzily. It was time to depart. As I walked toward the Beauty’s Pinnacle, just before grasping the rope secured to the rail, I glanced back at the people—then executed a courtly bow with sudden grace.
The crowd applauded, bewildered though they were. Then, rope in hand, Joshua climbed aboard the ship using the same method as before.
Maximian’s greeting was thus:
“Long live traffic congestion.”
Yet the figure who entered the cabin was not the Joshua from moments before. The instant I collapsed onto the floor, my body crumpled forward. The consciousness I had been forcing myself to maintain drained away entirely.
Maximian, seated below the rail, showed no surprise—as though he had anticipated this. He glanced at Joshua, then toward the cabin where Riche had been moved, and merely grumbled.
“Damn it, this ship has become a proper corpse transport vessel.”
Sway, sway.
Joshua, drifting pleasantly into sleep with the gentle rocking, suddenly jolted awake as someone poked my cheek with a finger. Rubbing my eyes and looking ahead, I found a stranger sitting there.
I took a moment to gather my thoughts. Glancing around, I realized I was inside the Beauty’s Pinnacle. Then the only people here should be Maximian or Riche—unless this was a spirit? But spirits don’t poke cheeks, do they?
The Mysterious Man twirled the finger that had just prodded my cheek through the air and offered a greeting. Simple and direct.
“Hello.”
Joshua answered reflexively.
“Oh, hello….”
Then I sat up on the bed—or rather, I leaped from it, since what I’d been lying on was a hammock. The man stepped back and hoisted himself onto the table across from me without using his hands. He appeared to be in his mid-twenties and was as tall as Joshua.
“But….”
“Why did I poke you?”
That wasn’t what I was about to ask, but now that he mentioned it, I supposed I should ask.
“Why did you poke me?”
“I wanted to poke your cheek.”
Then he added:
“On behalf of all the countless audience members who wanted to poke yours.”
….
Though I had managed to sit in a chair, my entire body ached. Bruises throbbed everywhere, and the muscle soreness was severe. My arms felt particularly stiff, yet no matter how hard I tried to remember why, nothing came to mind.
Joshua hesitated before asking.
“Did you watch the performance?”
“No.”
“Then….”
“The audience saw them. All those people who flooded the docks. It was magnificent. Those dignified nobles, scrambling about like madmen, shrieking at the top of their lungs—truly extraordinary.”
“The docks? The nobility?”
The Tall Man’s expression grew bewildered.
“Don’t you remember? They came to see you.”
Joshua searched his memory, but no matter how hard he tried, the last thing he could recall was finishing the finale on stage and descending to the Dressing Room. Then who had brought him here? Maximian? Riche?
When he recalled the moment he’d last parted with Maximian, his cheeks tightened as though he’d swallowed something bitter. That man—now that he thought about it, he really hadn’t shown up since.
“Do you happen to know where Maximian and Riche are?”
The Tall Man pointed behind Joshua with his hand.
“In the next room.”
If this space served as both a dining hall and living area, the adjacent room—closer to a bedroom—was terribly cramped; during their last voyage, it had scarcely been used. There was a bed, but it nearly filled the entire space, making it so suffocating that sleeping outside would have been preferable. What could the two of them be doing locked away in such a place?
“Both of them?”
“Yeah.”
Joshua reached to scratch his ear but stopped, wincing at the pain in his arm. Then he asked the question he’d overlooked before.
“I’m sorry, but who are you?”
The Tall Man smiled broadly and spoke.
“I’m a hired sailor.”
“Ah, I see.”
So he wasn’t a spirit after all. Whenever a stranger appeared before him, he had to suspect whether they might be a ghost.
“Then your name is?”
“Milestone. Just call me that. You’re Joe Hispanie, right?”
Joshua nodded with an ambiguous smile. He still hadn’t decided whether it was safe to reveal his true name to this man.
He then attempted to move toward the adjacent room. The moment he stood, his joints and muscles cried out in unison. He barely managed to remain upright when the Tall Man leaped from the table and spoke.
“You’re going to check on the next room? Don’t.”
“No… Why not? What are they doing in there?”
“It’s not so much what they’re doing—it’s just not a sight worth seeing.”
Joshua shrugged.
“There’s nothing I shouldn’t see.”
He shuffled forward and opened the door, and the smell of sweat hit him immediately. At the same moment, Joshua’s gaze fixed on the bed, and his pupils dilated as he stood frozen in place. So shocked was he that he didn’t even notice Maximian, who had been sitting with his back to the door, turn around.
Riche lay on the bed with one arm bent across her chest, wrapped tightly in bandages. Her face, drenched in sweat, was pale as paper. Not just her face—her hair and clothes were soaked through, clinging to her skin. The right shoulder of her garment had been cut away to apply the bandages, while her chest and left shoulder were covered by a blanket.
The usually vibrant Riche, lying unconscious with such an expression, seemed like a stranger. Seeing Joshua stare at Riche in stunned silence, unable to move closer, Maximian sighed and rose to his feet.
“Let’s go.”
Maximian pushed Joshua, who stood in the doorway, and Joshua drew in a sharp breath before stopping. Maximian asked.
“Does it hurt?”
Only then did Joshua’s mouth fall open.
“Ah… well, my whole body aches. I don’t understand why.”
“Why? You should be grateful you’re not bedridden.”
Maximian stepped out and left the door half-open. Though they were in the same cabin, the small room felt far more stifling and oppressive. Maximian placed a chair several paces away, positioning it where he could see into the room, and sat down. Joshua, lacking the strength to fetch a chair, simply sat on the floor, but his expression remained half-dazed.
“Riche… Why is she like that? What on earth happened?”
“His arm is broken. He’s in shock. He keeps breaking into cold sweats, his body temperature is dropping, and his pulse keeps fluctuating.”
As they spoke and looked at each other’s faces, they both appeared pitiful. Joshua looked as though he’d been snatched back from death’s door, haggard and drained, while Maximian seemed on the verge of collapse from exhaustion. Joshua bit his lip and asked.
“How did it happen?”
“The Salaryman. Who else would it be?”
Joshua flinched in surprise and looked at Maximian.
“When did he do it? I didn’t even see it happen?”
Maximian regarded Joshua with a look of utter exasperation, and despite his exhaustion, struck the back of his head.
“You fought and don’t even remember it. How can someone be this oblivious?”
“I fought?”
Maximian looked too tired to even bother explaining. Yet without him, there was no one else to tell the story. Joshua, having heard a rough account of what happened at the docks, was so astonished he forgot to close his mouth.
“You really don’t remember?”
“What I remember is coming down to the dressing room right after the finale….”
“Right, that’s when I hit the back of your head and dragged you out. Got you into the carriage and took you to the docks. But the coachman fled, the carriage fell into the water, and you fell in too. Then suddenly you surfaced—as if cradled in someone’s arms. But I couldn’t see who it was. Could it have been Kelsniti?”
“Kelce hasn’t shown up recently.”
“Even if it wasn’t Kelce, I figured it must have been the Spirits’ doing, but hearing about it now, something feels different from last time. Last time you had memories while possessed, didn’t you? But this time you were having a normal conversation and yet you don’t remember any of it?”
“What did I say?”
“You spoke as if you were yourself. Well, I suppose I should say you were a version of yourself with a different personality. Half you, half not you, in a way. Your personality and abilities weren’t yours, but your memories were. If you don’t remember that moment, then that personality that recognized me and Riche—that wasn’t you, was it? Then who was it?”
“….”
Joshua furrowed his brow without answering, then asked again.
“Let’s worry about my problem later. So Riche’s arm was broken by that man? We can’t just leave it like that, can we? Doesn’t she need a doctor?”
Maximian exhaled shortly.
“Need you even ask? Of course she does. But we couldn’t delay our departure from the harbor with that man firmly planted there. Damn it. If we were back home, I could’ve set the bone and made her drink some herbal remedy, but there’s no such thing on the open sea, and I’m at a loss myself. At least the bone didn’t pierce through the skin and protrude, so there’s some hope. Her shoulder was dislocated too originally, but I was afraid to touch her when she was already at death’s door—I don’t have the skill and might have killed her. In the end, Milestone over there set it back in place. That’s how we were at least able to wrap it with bandages.”
“Ah, thank you. Really.”
At Joshua’s gratitude, the man called Milestone merely wore an awkward expression.
“We’ve had help from more than just a few people.”
Maximian regarded Joshua briefly, then let out a snort of laughter through his nose.
“Why would so many people go to such lengths to help an arrogant brat like you? It’s truly baffling. You don’t even know that the people performing the finale on stage each stretched their parts by three times over to buy you time to escape, do you?”
“They… did?”
“They did. Making up lines that didn’t exist, singing slowly, dancing slowly, playing slowly—they all worked hard at it. Well, I only heard it from the waiting room while I was getting you out, but anyway, they went along with such a ridiculous request, so I’m truly grateful.”
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 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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