Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 459

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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 229.
Playing Oneself (5)
The moment Anarose’s furious voice rang out, the invisible ceiling—or perhaps the very air itself—trembled. Even the hems of their garments swayed.
“Do you know what a Fulfiller of Contracts is? The People of Promise—they took everything of mine and still wanted me to become their servant. Even if I were to concede a hundred times that I had no share in that place, where is my honor? What did he do to protect my honor? I do not love others in ways that bring me shame. A Fulfiller of Contracts is the image of that person who asked me to remain at his side while abandoning my honor. His image, which I cannot accept. His cowardice—I cannot forgive that even when my soul turns to dust. Even if I were to love him for another thousand years.”
Anarose raised her hand, pointing at Joshua.
“That is why. That is why I cannot forgive you. You, who insist on becoming a Fulfiller of Contracts to the very end. What you just said is exactly what you would have said if Icabon were here!”
Joshua did not answer. Only the lingering echo of her voice stirred the air. Was it because she was a Mage that even her voice carried mana? Or was this tremor the result of one person’s rage—accumulated over centuries, her pain—finally pouring forth from her heart for the first time?
As the tremor barely subsided, Maximian opened his mouth.
“Very well. Then does that mean if Joshua does not become a Fulfiller of Contracts, he need not die by your hand?”
Joshua spoke instead.
“Max, that answer is unnecessary. She herself cannot accept that she lacks the ability to fulfill the contract.”
Yet Maximian clung stubbornly to that single thread of hope.
“Truly. If you genuinely have no intention of accepting the contract?”
Instead of answering, Joshua pointed to Maximian for Anarose to see.
“He is my friend.”
Maximian did not understand what Joshua was about to say either. Joshua bit his lip and continued.
“As you have seen, perhaps because I resemble Icabon, I cannot easily abandon what dwells in my heart, regardless of the circumstances. As you can see, my friend came from far away determined to save me, shared hardship with me, and stands beside me even in a perilous place like this. If I were to say just one thing for his sake—that I do not wish to become a Fulfiller of Contracts—perhaps you might let us go. Yet I cannot say those words. I remain exactly as Icabon was, whom you despise.”
Maximian truly wished to stop Joshua’s words, but there was no way. Then came the reversal.
“But does not our appearance like this remind you of another image of Icabon? The way he was with a friend who brought such hardship upon himself, yet never abandoned his side?”
It was a moment when the eyes of all three met. Joshua moved only his lips to speak.
“Kelsniti.”
Anarose lowered her gaze before speaking.
“He would have died centuries ago.”
“That is true. But what is a Fulfiller of Contracts? Why have the People of Promise remained until now?”
The moment those words fell, the air began to resonate again. A humming sound grew audible to their ears.
“I am a medium.”
With a crack, something shattered. Where Maximian’s gaze fell, a strange fracture appeared. A portion of empty air broke as if it were glass. Blue light seeped through the cracks.
“You will have to prove your words.”
“Who brought me to this place? To the Island of the Magical Tempest that only Icabon could penetrate in those ancient days, to the hidden seal within it—who do you think could guide me there?”
At that moment, something unexpected occurred. Anarose covered her face with both hands and sank to the ground. Tears—the transparent liquid that only the living shed—flowed through the gaps between her fingers, she who had spoken as though all emotion had withered away.
“Why… does his spirit… still remain? For centuries… why could he not rest and continued to wander? It should be enough that I alone cannot rest….”
Both Joshua and Maximian stood bewildered, at a loss. Words would not come easily. They could not offer hasty comfort. The sight of someone like Anarose crumbling tore painfully at the hearts of those who witnessed it.
Soon Anarose lifted her reddened eyes and looked at Joshua.
“Tell me. What happened to Kelce?”
To Anarose as well, he was ‘Kelce.’ Just as Joshua had always called him.
“When Jade Ring Castle came under attack… Icabon was not there….”
Even without Joshua finishing his words, Anarose understood. Why Icabon had to leave the castle, abandoning Kelsniti. Silence stretched for a long time. During that silence, though there was no wind, the grass around them swayed back and forth. Twisted furrows were carved into the lawn and then erased.
“So that is why Icabon never came again.”
Anarose rose to her feet, but her shoulders trembled faintly.
“How does Kelce fare? What is your relationship with him?”
“Kelce remained bound to Jade Ring Castle for a long time after his death, until he met me and was finally freed. Since then, he has been at my side for several years now. He was the one who told me countless stories about Icabon. But perhaps because Kelce’s presence had become so familiar to me, I never seriously considered what you were grieving over just moments ago. The fact that Kelce cannot rest and remains in this world…. Perhaps only someone who has lived for centuries like you would truly understand. During all that time, Kelce was like a friend to me, and like an Uncle as well. One thing is certain—he cherished me.”
Anarose spoke with a subtly composed voice.
“Are you saying that because Kelce cherished you, I should do the same?”
“No.”
Joshua grimaced, empathizing with the other’s pain as he spoke.
“I’m not asking for that. What I wanted to say by bringing up Kelce’s story was about his meaning that once existed between you and Icabon in the past. Kelce was a friend to both of you. He wished to bless you both. You didn’t hate him either.”
Anarose whispered.
“He was my friend.”
“Yes. But he was one of the People of Promise.”
At this unexpected point, Anarose’s face hardened.
“Kelce was different from them.”
“His attitude toward you was different, but fundamentally, Kelce also believed in Icabon’s promise. And he was someone who yearned for its realization. Aren’t those two things the clearest criteria that define the People of Promise?”
“….”
“Moreover, Kelce is still working tirelessly now to fulfill Icabon’s promise. Even going back and forth to the Land of Mortals, a place that even the dead fear to approach. In that sense, Kelce may have been the one among the People of Promise with the strongest yearning. Adding to that his desire to keep the promise that Icabon could not fulfill himself. Though as his descendant, I have always opposed being drawn into that promise.”
Anarose was steadying her breathing. She had said she hated all those people who tried to keep Icabon’s promise. Even Icabon himself, who tried to become the one to fulfill the contract. But not Kelsniti. He alone was both one of the People of Promise and Anarose’s friend. Moreover, it could be said that Icabon tried to keep the promise for the sake of a friend he cherished like a part of his own body.
“If Kelce had asked me just now, saying that because he cherished you, I should not harm you, I would have done exactly that.”
Anarose’s breathing became calm.
“That is how much I respect Kelce. We were Sworn Brothers. People would have thought we made our vow for the sake of our goal, but we made our vow to each other’s existence. At least, I did. That is why when the bond of my heart was broken, I broke the vow and left. Yes. That is how precious Kelce was to me. But you did not ask that of me.”
Joshua nodded.
“And if you truly resembled Icabon, you would not ask for such a thing, and you know it.”
“Yes. That’s correct.”
Though he stood before an opponent he could never oppose, Joshua spoke with firm conviction. Leaving no room for doubt.
“Then our contract still exists between you and me.”
Joshua nodded without begging for forgiveness. Anarose’s words continued.
“First, let me tell you this. The original body of the puppet you are searching for is not here.”
3. Flowers Growing from Stone
Stone embraces dew and moss-flowers bloom
Earth holds the river and willow-flowers bloom
Stars scatter rain and star-flowers bloom in all directions
Stone brought to life by people at play
Earth stirred awake by circling wind
Stars scatter rain upon the rough, stone-laden earth
Star-flowers bloom in all directions along the flowing rainwater
“Not here?”
Maximian repeated this, and without thinking, he turned to look at the stone anchor. And he understood why it had to be so. That coffin, from which Anarose had recovered her sense of self each time she slept and awakened—who else but her could have laid hands upon it?
The first emotion that came to him was despair.
“If it’s not here, then what…. Was our initial assumption completely wrong from the start? Was everything that charlatan Mage told us nothing but nonsense?”
There was no one to answer. Maximian thought it a shame that he could not summon Juspian to this place, and he kicked at the ground. Where should he begin to think again?
Anarose’s voice reached Maximian’s ears as he fell into confusion.
“To create a puppet of Demonic, you would have needed Demonic’s corpse. That is why you came here searching for his coffin, which would have been buried in this place.”
“That much is correct, then?”
Even if it was correct, the words remained strangely incomprehensible. If what The Assassin had created on Sunset Island through magical amplification was truly a puppet, did that mean there was another Demonic corpse on Sunset Island besides Icabon? Or if not, had the one who came here done something else entirely, with the Demonic corpse hidden elsewhere?
In the next moment, Anarose spoke as though she had read Maximian’s thoughts.
“Why would you think I know what you are searching for?”
Joshua answered instead.
“Because you know what The Assassin did in this place.”
Maximian countered.
“But you said you didn’t see that person’s form?”
“Even if I didn’t see it, I could have felt what happened. That’s a matter of magic.”
As Maximian’s gaze turned back to Anarose, I saw her nod.
“I knew they had created a puppet. But I didn’t know whose corpse it was, or whose puppet it would be.”
“You should have said so from the beginning instead of playing word games….”
Maximian, muttering with displeasure, suddenly grasped something crucial.
“When you say you didn’t know whose corpse it was, does that mean they had a corpse to serve as the original from the start?”
Joshua turned to look at Anarose.
“Is that true? Did they have a coffin with them?”
Anarose gazed into Joshua’s eyes for a long moment. When her head nodded, Joshua’s expression shifted subtly.
“…Whose?”
The Jade Ring Castle Crypt contained no Demonic corpse. The Periwinkle Crypt showed no signs of destruction, and none of the coffins bore traces of missing bodies.
And the coffin of Icabon buried on Sunset Island could not be touched by anyone in this world.
Then whose could it possibly be?
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.

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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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