Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 458

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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 225.
Playing Oneself (4)
All this time, Maximian had assumed that Anarose answered his questions with remarkable aptness. Had he been more perceptive, he should have noticed something amiss in the situation. Though belated, only now did Maximian realize that beneath Anarose’s unchanging countenance, something might be concealed.
“I know what you’re searching for.”
“You do?”
Joshua was somewhat startled, but since Anarose was a Mage, it was hardly something he couldn’t have guessed, nor was it something that could remain hidden through deliberate concealment. He nodded readily and spoke.
“Then please help me.”
“In exchange, you must grant me a favor.”
It could have been a difficult request, or perhaps not. Had he been more cautious, he should have attached conditions. Yet Joshua had already grown accustomed to Anarose’s indifferent demeanor.
“If it’s something I can do, I’ll comply.”
Even Maximian could not have imagined the demand that would emerge from Anarose’s lips.
“Die by my hand.”
As the wind ceased, only the breathing of three people could be heard. Unable to muster a response, Maximian clenched his lips. Joshua’s gaze fell, catching sight of the stone anchor, before returning to Anarose.
“I don’t understand.”
Anarose’s lips, now parted again, appeared more parched than before.
“You couldn’t possibly understand.”
Joshua shook his head.
“No one could understand why they must die, but that’s not what I mean. What I don’t understand is.”
Joshua blinked rapidly several times.
“You have no need to ask me for this. You could accomplish it quite easily without my cooperation.”
Surprisingly, Anarose shook her head.
“No. That’s not what I mean either.”
“It’s not?”
“Of course, killing you would not be difficult for me. Even though I pour most of my strength into maintaining the seal, leaving me with only a handful of power to wield. But what I desire is not your death—it’s your understanding.”
“….”
“I wish for you to accept that truth.”
Maximian shot to his feet.
“I can’t listen to this any longer. Whoever you are and whatever you’ve done, whatever suffering you’ve endured—we, born centuries later, bear no responsibility for it whatsoever. That’s the first thing you need to understand. Even if you’ve suffered so much you’ve lost your mind, that’s not my burden or his. It’s as unrelated as the sun that rose a hundred years ago and today’s weather! If you claim this is something you’re saying in your right mind, then allow me to interpret your words with equal clarity. If the other party understands, is it acceptable to kill them? If someone wants to die, can you push them off a cliff? Do you want to kill someone, and if they understand, does that ease your guilt? I’ve never entertained such thoughts, and I find them utterly incomprehensible, but if that’s truly what you’re pursuing, I can only call it despicable. Wouldn’t you agree? And above all, do you truly believe there exists even a single person in this world capable of such understanding? If there is, I’ll offer you my neck as well. Though it would be of little use to you. What do you say?”
Whether Anarose understood Maximian’s rapidly spilling words, given the circumstances thus far, was unclear. But Maximian no longer cared either way.
“And furthermore, even if that fool wanted to die by some chance, he absolutely must ask me first. If that were the case, it would have been simple from the start—I could have left him in that Burning Theater and been done with it. But instead, I pulled him out of there with all my might, evaded the murderers chasing us, and have been dragging him along all this time to keep him alive. What does that make me! Therefore, you must absolutely obtain my permission, and since the answer is obvious anyway, let me state it in advance: I absolutely oppose it!”
From Maximian’s perspective, there was no way to exclude the possibility that the slightly unhinged Joshua might again fall into his own transcendent logic and respond with something like “Very well, I shall die for you.”
“Maximian, I….”
As Joshua began to speak, Maximian whirled around and glared at him. The meaning was clear: if you’re going to speak, you’ll only dredge up some twisted logic to undermine mine, so keep your mouth shut.
Anarose listened to Maximian’s words to the end but showed no reaction. As if she hadn’t heard a word, she simply sent a look toward Joshua urging him to answer.
Joshua spoke.
“Before I give my opinion, I need to know why you desire this. Or rather, I must know.”
“You are the very embodiment of his form that I cannot forgive.”
Joshua’s eyes wavered for a moment as he looked at Anarose.
“You mean, simply because I am the descendant of bloodline born between Icabon and another woman?”
When Anarose did not answer immediately, Joshua pressed his lips into a thin line and shook his head.
“I cannot accept such reasoning.”
“Are you saying your existence is unrelated to his?”
“His accomplishments are not mine, just as his transgressions are not mine.”
“Then why do you bear his name? Why have you inherited his power? You have received what he achieved, and you are striving to become the fulfiller of his contract—are you not?”
Joshua’s brow furrowed with tension.
“A fulfiller of the contract… How do you know of that?”
“If you were not a fulfiller of the contract.”
Anarose seemed to gather herself, then rose to her feet with perfect composure. Her posture no longer wavered. She raised her right hand and caressed the empty air, and the grass beneath her feet bent in response to her gesture. Then, rotating her wrist as though grasping something delicate, her fingers curled slowly through the void. In that same instant, Joshua felt a sharp, piercing pain in his head—as though her fingers were boring directly into his mind.
“I would have simply dominated you.”
Maximian watched as Joshua’s face drained of color and his eyes clenched shut. He had witnessed this once before—outside Juspian’s Mage House, when Joshua had first attempted to launch the ship.
But this time, nothing of that magnitude occurred. Joshua forced his eyes open and glared at Anarose.
“Do not attempt to draw out my power.”
Anarose’s hand stilled. With it, the source of the headache vanished. Joshua, still trembling as he steadied himself against the lingering pain, spoke.
“This place cannot be entered by spirits anyway, can it?”
“Any prohibition shatters before sufficient force. Is that not so?”
Joshua’s eyes hardened.
“You mean that if my power to summon spirits is strong enough, the constraints of this place that bar their intrusion would break?”
Anarose’s lips curved into a bitter smile.
“You do not yet possess such power.”
By then, color had returned to Joshua’s face. Seeing this, Maximian spoke.
“But he is not dominated by you either. That one is accustomed to foreign consciousness boring into his mind. He could suppress seventy intruding consciousnesses, and survive ninety-eight without perishing.”
Anarose’s eyebrows shifted slightly. Maximian continued.
“But I must ask this: even if you could discern that Joshua is a medium, how did you discover that those who desire Joshua to fulfill the contract—the People of Promise—have not vanished but linger around him? You must have parted from them before they died, surely?”
“When a spirit enters and exits a medium’s body, do you truly believe it separates without leaving any trace?”
It was something Maximian had never considered. He furrowed his brow and studied Joshua.
After a moment, Joshua answered.
“It seems they do not.”
“What happens then?”
Maximian pressed further. Joshua’s expression suggested he was recalling something. Soon, he replied.
“The world changes.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“My world. The world that exists within the consciousness of every person—not just mine. For some it might be a small chamber, for others a distant cliff and sky. Normally it is difficult to visit directly, but you would have one too. When I channeled Korned and lent him space to use magic, I waited there. I heard a story then. About ‘traces.’ I did not understand what they were at the time, but now I think I comprehend. If I were to return there, the landscape of that world would have changed. Because so many spirits have entered me.”
“You mean you yourself change? Little by little?”
“I do not know. I am uncertain. But fundamentally… it seems it must be true.”
“Then you should not perform spirit channeling at all!”
Joshua offered an awkward smile.
“I have never done it because I wished to.”
Maximian seemed to have more to say, but deferred it for now and turned his gaze to Anarose.
“So you discovered the traces of spirits remaining in Joshua and identified who they were?”
Anarose’s lips twisted faintly.
“You don’t need to know who they are. Spirits leave behind their ‘will’—I can discern what those who entered yearned for. And no one knows the masters of that wish better than I do.”
Joshua turned the question over in his mind. When had he come to understand? The moment Anarose had seen through him and discovered the traces of ‘Promise’ within. The moment centuries-old rage had returned. The moment it had driven him to say, ‘Die by my hand.’
Maximian spoke.
“Right… fine. Good. This is good. You saw that something—whether you call it a trace or a will—left by those Promises wandering in Joshua’s mind, and you guessed he must have tried to tear things out of him, but if I’m being blunt, aren’t you jumping to conclusions far too arbitrarily? Assuming he’d naturally be swayed by those so-called Promise people. Not even considering the possibility that he refused on this end? Whether it’s fulfillment of contract or whatever?”
The moment Maximian finished speaking, he turned to Joshua. Before he could even send a warning glance, Joshua was already speaking.
“I didn’t refuse.”
Maximian vowed that if they made it safely out of here, he’d give his friend a good smack on the back of the head.
“But I didn’t accept either. However, that wasn’t because I ignored their demands.”
A self-deprecating smile played at Joshua’s lips.
“It was because I lacked the ability to.”
Though her gaze had been fixed there all along, Anarose’s eyes seemed both to see Joshua and not to see him. Yet in the moment his words concluded, she was looking at him. For a brief instant, green flames seemed to flicker in her eyes.
“That’s precisely why.”
Even her tightly closed lips trembled faintly.
“Icabon is someone who can think of very many things at once. Hundreds of hearts fit within one heart. He could give his whole heart to one person and still accept hundreds of hearts in return. When the moment of choice finally came, he tried not to abandon any of it. He tried not to choose either side with his own hand. As a result, I was left behind. I can be alone, but they—endlessly demanding as they are—can never be alone!”
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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