Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 397

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 167.
In the Name of Loyalty and Vengeance (9)
When I opened my eyes again and looked down, my gaze was so dark it was difficult to see. My hair whipped in the sea breeze. In the moonlight, what had been gray hair now gleamed silver—no, white as starlight.
Joshua did not offer Riche his hand. To prevent her from answering. Riche tried to grasp Joshua’s hand, but he hid it behind his back and laughed.
“I know it’s ridiculous to say ‘don’t worry’ and then do this, but please understand. If, by some chance, this really were the end… there’s no one else here to say goodbye to but you, is there? I want to… say goodbye to at least one person.”
Joshua raised his index finger to his lips.
“You don’t have to answer. I’ll just assume you heard me.”
….
Watching Riche, who could not answer—or rather, could not speak—Joshua’s lips curved into a smile. Whether forced or not, it appeared to be a genuine expression.
“I was truly sorry to you, and grateful as well. Perhaps the time you spent with us felt like a bad dream you wanted to wake from. Nothing but unwanted things happened, and even now it’s so difficult. But you see, you gave me so much strength… that’s why I’m so sorry. Truly.”
Joshua’s lips trembled slightly as he continued.
“And there are other things I want to say, but it feels like I shouldn’t say them at a time like this. Well, and… as for Maximian….”
Joshua’s lips curved upward again, but this time it was clearly a forced smile.
“Don’t… tell him I was trembling.”
The opportunity to answer never came. It was only a moment. My eyes closed softly, and one leg slipped. I caught myself on the sandy beach as I nearly fell. When I opened my eyes again, Riche was already facing someone else.
“Shall we begin?”
That voice spoke—unmistakably Joshua’s voice, yet deeper and slightly hoarse, as if Joshua had aged fourteen years more.
At that moment, Maximian was dreaming. In the dream, Joshua was throwing pebbles into the river, counting their glimmers. Maximian, sitting beside him, stretched and yawned before suddenly asking.
“Do you want to go to the sea?”
It seemed his younger self had not asked that way. Joshua did not turn around, merely nodding.
“Why do you want to go to the sea?”
Joshua threw three stones in at once. Then he stood. Watching Joshua’s retreating figure descend the riverbank, Maximian awoke.
5. The One Who Borrowed a Body
When night falls on the quietest island in the world
a shadow rising from the sea
climbs up without footprints
and circles the island, until daybreak—
a shadow clad only in salt spray
wearing star earrings made of dead coral
stumbling and staggering and dancing
until the island wears away to nothing
“Excellent.”
Joshua—no, Korned, who had borrowed Joshua’s body, clenched and unclenched his fists several times. Then he sprang to his feet, rolling his shoulders and limbs, and burst into laughter. Having obtained a human body after so long, he found it novel and delightful; his cheerful laughter did not cease for some time.
Riche, watching this, could not feel at ease. Above all, she was anxious, and simultaneously filled with rage. The figure before her wore Joshua’s appearance but was not Joshua. Alone in the dead of night with an entity of unknown nature—neither ghost nor human—and unable to speak or control her own body, her anxiety was natural. Moreover, she found the being before her utterly detestable, playing with the body that Joshua had obtained with such difficulty, driven by fear and a sense of responsibility.
Most of all, the fact that this creature wore Joshua’s face and spoke with Joshua’s voice—and that she could unconsciously mistake it for him when looking—filled her with profound displeasure.
“Your expression is poor. When you make such a face, it makes one reluctant to help, even if one intended to. Wouldn’t you agree?”
….
The fact that she could not respond at such moments was almost a mercy. If she opened her mouth, surely nothing good would come out. She could not squander the opportunity Joshua had created at such cost, not for a moment’s emotion.
Korned, wearing Joshua’s face, smiled as Joshua might have after a careless mistake—a slight canine showing.
“Yes, you restrain yourself well. Even accounting for the fact that you cannot speak.”
Korned withdrew his attention from Riche and began to examine the body he now inhabited. He brushed through the disheveled hair, slowly caressing the smooth jawline, neck, shoulders, arms, and chest as though entranced by narcissistic pleasure.
Yet it was another’s body. If what Kelsniti had said before held truth, he could understand why the author found joy in touching human flesh. Perhaps he could even comprehend it. But his manner was so greedily peculiar that Riche felt revulsion and turned her head away.
Still, she could not block out the voice that reached her ears.
“Magnificent. Somewhat frail, but a truly excellent body. So elegant. Better than the one I possessed in life. Ah, I can feel the air. Skin is such a wonderful thing. Cool and… cold.”
Korned looked back at Riche and let out a soft chuckle.
“Shall I introduce myself then? Of course, you cannot respond with an introduction, but there’s no need. I don’t know you well, but I know you possess nothing remarkable enough to warrant one.”
She had heard this man was a Mage in life. She knew Mages were arrogant, but this one was among the worst of them.
“You know my name, don’t you? I am a Mage who has lived for a very long time. If one counts living while dead as living, that is. Does my speech sound contradictory? The words of Mages are naturally riddles to ordinary humans like yourselves. Don’t concern yourself with it—just understand this: I am a great Mage, I possess power beyond your imagination, and throughout the long ages, the only thing I lacked was a human body.”
Korned suddenly fell silent. Then he began to walk across the sandy beach. After a few steps, he even removed his shoes. Heedless of the sand clinging to his feet, he circled around Riche several times. From her prone position, she could hear the vivid crunch of sand collapsing beneath his steps.
At first, she wondered what he intended. But soon she realized he was absorbed in the act of walking itself. He strode back and forth rapidly without speaking, and when he finally stopped, his expression was one of profound reluctance. He rubbed his bare feet against the sand and murmured softly.
“Later… later…”
Riche recalled Kelsniti’s words once more and considered whether she should try to understand this man’s feelings in any way. But she shook her head inwardly and cast the thought aside. As Maximian often said, such things were not her concern.
“Well then, let’s see how far we’ve progressed.”
Korned, who had been standing vacant, withdrew something from his pocket—something Joshua must have placed there beforehand. The first object he pulled out was an elongated wooden stylus. Then he retrieved a small bowl and another item of unknown purpose.
Korned smoothed the sand on the ground and, holding the stylus inverted, began to draw something. First, a right triangle, and along its sides, he inscribed something densely. Once finished, he held his right hand about a handspan above the sand, then his left, and waved them both.
In that instant, the patterns and characters drawn on the ground began to emit a heat-laden radiance like a brand seared by flame. Only then did Riche realize with alarm that he truly was a Mage. What was about to happen?
“Ah… uh… um… draw…”
At first, Korned’s murmuring seemed like an incantation. But listening more carefully, it was not.
“Find the broken, broken places… good. Right, so the next step is…”
He was merely muttering through the tasks at hand.
“Do it that way, that’s still… will this work? No, this first. That would be better…”
Even hearing it all, there was no way to understand what he was actually doing. The light from the drawing gradually faded. Eventually, no light remained at all. When Korned rose and approached Riche, the object she had not recognized before was now gripped in his hand—a folding pocket knife. As he opened the blade and held it toward her, Riche started in alarm. Korned sneered.
“If I intended to kill you, would I bring a knife? I have magic.”
Korned cut a handful of Riche’s hair with the pocket knife and placed it in the small bowl from before. Then he seized her left hand and, before she could comprehend what was happening, drew the blade across her fingers. Unable to cry out, Riche could only draw in a sharp breath.
A few drops of blood fell into the bowl. It was not a deep wound. Without explanation, Korned rose and returned to the sandy beach, erasing the pattern he had first drawn and beginning to sketch a larger, more intricate figure. Since Riche lay prone, she could not see well what he was drawing. The bowl containing her hair and blood sat to one side.
Riche harbored suspicions, but she waited steadily. There was nothing else she could do. Yet inwardly, she wanted to ask countless times. With a voice that would not come, she repeated the same words dozens of times over: How much longer must I wait?
So when it finally happened, she did not even notice at first.
“…must I wait? How much longer…”
The beginning was inaudible. But the latter part was unmistakably her own voice, clear and distinct. Riche, about to speak once more without thinking, suddenly stopped.
Korned, wearing Joshua’s face and Joshua’s smile, turned back. But now it was a sneer she had never seen before.
“Ah, were you growing bored with waiting?”
“Wh-what… what’s happened?”
Her voice was so natural that it seemed impossible it had been sealed all day. Realizing this, she was even more astounded. Korned spoke with infuriating slowness.
“What’s happened? What did you think would happen? Surely you didn’t think I was incapable of doing anything?”
“Th-that’s not… not what I…”
“It’s not fully healed, so stop fidgeting and wait quietly.”
“Not fully healed?”
“I moved it elsewhere. Inside your body.”
After delivering this horrifying statement, Korned stood. Riche blinked in confusion, then cautiously tested her limbs. Her ears could hear and her eyes could see—that much was certain. Of course, she could breathe, and all sensation remained intact except in her injured arm.
“Exactly where?”
“Don’t ask. It’s annoying.”
Korned was intently studying the figure he had drawn on the sandy beach moments before. I was curious about what it depicted, but my broken arm prevented me from rising to get a better look. Yet when I saw something emerging from the sand shortly after, I nearly forgot the pain and jolted upright.
What had been drawn upon the sand was a human form. No—it was no longer merely a drawing, but a bas-relief. It rose from the sand in the exact shape he had sketched, a kind of doll fashioned from sandy flesh, lying motionless in that very spot.
“What is that? Surely not….”
To Riche’s eyes, it was no simple sand doll. It bore the visage of a girl… and it resembled her. It was her doll.
Just as Joshua’s doll existed far away in Jade Ring Castle.

Children of Rune – Winterer
Author: Jeon Min-hee
Publisher: 14 Months Publishing
The copyright of this book belongs to the author and 14 Months Publishing.
To reuse all or part of the contents of this book, you must obtain written consent from both parties.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————