Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 471

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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 241.
Playing Oneself (17)
“Well, Grandfather is Demonic too, after all….”
Maximian cut off Joshua’s response with a smirk.
“What good is gaining the reputation of a girl fifty years your junior?”
By the time Maximian evaded the third crisis bearing down on the back of his head, the situation on the deck surrounding them had been nearly resolved. Under the command of the three Deck Masters whom Hispanie had brought—not merely because the deck was so vast—the fallen and wounded were tended to, prisoners were bound and sent to the flagship, the deck was swabbed clean, intact weapons were gathered in one place, and refuse was consigned to the sea. The Beauty’s Pinnacle, pierced by three holes, was rendered unseaworthy and lashed behind Hispanie’s ship, Chasing the Devil.
Joshua’s party and Hispanie had relocated to the third captured galley rather than aboard Chasing the Devil. Shortly after, the first mate, two navigators, and the artillery commander crossed over to this vessel. They met Joshua before Hispanie and bowed with utmost respect. When Joshua extended his hand for individual handshakes, they became visibly embarrassed.
Yet none of them were ordinary sailors. Chasing the Devil was truly fast enough to capture a demon itself. The crew of that ship maintained military discipline in their chain of command. Even in Periwinkle, I had never witnessed such organizational prowess.
“It is an honor to meet Count Armorique.”
“The gratitude belongs to you. Without your aid, I would not be standing here.”
“We merely followed our captain’s orders.”
The last speaker was the artillery commander. Hispanie spoke.
“Artillery Commander Nost. This fellow is, in a word, the finest gunner on the Continent.”
Hispanie’s praise was no mere flattery. The gun crew under the artillery commander’s direction had completely destroyed two galleys while inflicting no damage whatsoever upon the Beauty’s Pinnacle. They had even severed the chains to prevent the galley from dragging it down as it sank. They possessed not only devastating destructive power but also rapid-fire capability so swift that the enemy had no opportunity to return fire.
Joshua nodded and spoke.
“I was truly amazed at how precisely you could bombard from such a distance.”
“There is a secret to it.”
Nost, who appeared to be in his late thirties, had the impression of a mischievous imp who enjoyed mockery. Joshua asked nothing further and merely smiled. In truth, such bombardment was not something possible through marksmanship alone.
“But how did you know to come all this way?”
After the introductions and before interrogating the prisoners, Joshua asked. Hispanie grinned broadly.
“Did you not send a signal?”
“Ah.”
Joshua immediately recalled it and smiled wryly.
“You received it?”
“Yes. Who else but you would create such a thing?”
“I thought you would say that.”
Maximian wore a puzzled expression.
“A signal?”
Hispanie crossed his arms and looked down at Maximian.
“There are many ways to send word. Unless one is like you, fond of nothing but excuses.”
“Are you showing off right now? Instead of that, explain what you actually mean….”
Hispanie deliberately ignored Maximian’s frustration and spoke to Joshua.
“Before that scrap of paper reached me, it passed through your father’s hands, so by now the Duke must be considering something as well.”
Joshua hesitated briefly before responding to those words, then asked.
“Um, but have you… met Grandfather?”
“Who do you mean?”
“Well, that is….”
Hispanie quickly caught on.
“Yes.”
“How… was he?”
The answer didn’t come quickly. When Joshua looked at him with urging eyes, the old man wrinkled his nose.
“I’m not sure.”
Before Joshua could ask again, Maximian, who had been turning the matter over in his mind, interjected.
“Wait, the Periwinkle fleet that was supposed to meet us here—that was your ship, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. It was.”
“Then you came after receiving that message! So what’s this signal that Joshua supposedly sent?”
Hispanie chuckled softly.
“Wasn’t I the one who learned in advance what would happen here, made preparations for naval combat, and waited in Keltika Waters? Moreover, I knew which ship would attack you and followed them, so I pulled you out before you were sent to the depths. Of course, even if you had sunk, you wouldn’t have gone down.”
“Yes, you did well. You did well, but really, won’t you tell us what that signal was? Is it something only a Demonic could understand? Joshua, you did this on your own without even asking my permission….”
The two Demonics deliberately ignored Maximian’s protest. Then Riche, who had been listening the whole time, suddenly spoke up.
“Oh, I figured out what it was too.”
At that moment, Maximian’s expression was truly a sight to behold.
Joshua and Hispanie stood on the stern of the galley. Without crossing over to the Chasing the Devil, the remaining sailors and soldiers formed a semicircle behind the two men. Maximian and Riche had slipped in among the sailors. Some of the spoils had been moved to the Chasing the Devil, and the rest were divided into several piles on the deck. Thick rope was tied to the ship’s tail and hung down. Finally, Joshua was barefoot. Everything was as Hispanie had instructed.
Three prisoners knelt before them, bound. Joshua called out a name.
“Sir Baiyer.”
Sir Baiyer, his helmet removed, gazed at Joshua without a word. Yet his face seemed strangely at peace.
Joshua looked at Sir Baiyer’s graying hair and spoke.
“About what you said earlier.”
There was no answer, but he continued.
“I understood.”
Somewhere along the way, the formal speech he had used when addressing his father’s friend had returned.
“All of it. Every last word.”
A faint color of satisfaction appeared on Sir Baiyer’s face.
“Then please do as I asked.”
“No.”
Joshua stepped forward and bent at the waist, bringing his face close to Sir Baiyer’s.
“I won’t. You betrayed me and broke my father’s trust in you. Even if it was ultimately for the sake of my father’s and Arnim’s names, it doesn’t change anything. I was disappointed in you, and because of that, I cannot grant your wish as you hope.”
“Young master….”
“There is no granting the wishes of such a person. You understand, don’t you?”
Joshua straightened and issued an order without waiting for an answer.
“Release him.”
Two sailors drew their daggers and cut the bonds that held Sir Baiyer. Sir Baiyer made no move to rise.
“Young master, or rather Count Armorique. You must not so easily forgive one who sought your life in this manner.”
“I said I would not grant the wishes of such a person, and I will not speak further with them either.”
Joshua truly turned his head away and withdrew. Hispanie approached the other two and drew forth the staff he had been cradling, leaning upon it. A real shoe was attached to the end of the staff, and it was difficult to tell at a glance whether this arrangement would make walking easier or harder.
“I once said that those who target one bearing the name Arnim must be shown clearly what becomes of them. Five years ago, I said this before Duke Arnim, who had lost his daughter.”
At Hispanie’s gesture, the sailors approached and hauled them to their feet. Then the old man drew forth the staff he had been cradling and struck the ground several times. He then turned his gaze to Sir Baiyer, who still knelt.
“It seems you might know me.”
“….”
“You hated me, didn’t you?”
“….”
That was when I heard something shatter—or perhaps collapse.
Everyone on the deck heard that sound, yet afterward, not a single soul could say with certainty what it had been. It was the sound of a destruction they had never witnessed nor imagined. The deck was reinforced with layers of solid oak grain crisscrossed atop one another, and beneath the sterncastle, there was nothing but a cramped space where one could barely stand. Yet from beneath that confined space, something of tremendous force erupted through the deck. We all saw it. It was a hand—a right hand so colossal that it was difficult to believe it belonged to a human.
The hand gripped Hispania’s staff and, in the next instant, snapped it like a toothpick and hurled it away.
“Move!”
It was Maximian who cried out. At that signal, countless people on the deck erupted into chaos. Some rushed forward, others stumbled. The moment the giant right hand was followed by a left hand that seized Hispania’s ankle, someone burst from the crowd and delivered a kick to that hand—it all happened at once. The instant his leg broke free, Hispania rolled with an agility that belied his age and lifted his head with a shout.
“Joshua!”
It was Joshua who had kicked away the assassin’s left hand. Yet despite the brilliance of the move, the moment he landed on the opposite deck, he stumbled badly.
“Ah, I came up just a bit short….”
It was fortune that Hispania’s leg had been caught by the left hand. The figure grasped by the right hand after the staff snapped like the staff itself. Someone fired an arrow, but the right hand merely batted it aside.
Riche was pushed by the sailors toward the rail, where she barely managed to steady herself and look ahead. She then noticed that the sailors had somehow armed themselves with thick iron chains fitted with hooks at the ends. They had retrieved them from beneath the piles of plunder scattered throughout the ship.
“Has your journey been enjoyable?”
It was a familiar voice. As always, it was light and carefree. He did not seem to acknowledge that he was surrounded.
In the center of the sterncastle, surrounded by sailors, stood a figure before a hole torn open as if by cannon fire—and it was someone Riche could never have forgotten. Beneath the hat and mask were short blonde hair and a pale chin.
Fury surged within me in that instant.
Perhaps it was because so many others were present. Perhaps it was the memory of being hunted relentlessly in terror, of barely escaping through the strength of only three. Yet within all of that, a rage rose up that was difficult to define clearly. I could not say what that feeling was that made my head spin, nor could I explain why.
Riche’s hands were empty. In the moment she turned and drew a sword from the pile of plunder, she moved.
“You were far better off than that fool who couldn’t even decide where to travel.”
As Maximian delivered the first retort, the assassin’s body sprang up like a coiled spring. Several soldiers who had caught his intent moved to block Joshua’s path. Yet neither spear nor shield availed them. He seized whatever came to hand, snapped it, and hurled it aside—in an instant, the formation crumbled. Five soldiers were sent flying in all directions, crashing against the rail, and some even plunged into the sea. Now he was nearly upon us.
Someone blocked his path.
Sir Baiyer’s limbs were free. Weapons lay in abundance within the piles of plunder. He did not look back. He drew his sword directly toward the assassin’s left hand.
“!”
The first wound appeared on the assassin’s hand. Perhaps he had grown careless, thinking them allies. In that moment of hesitation, Riche, who had positioned herself with a thrust stance among the soldiers, extended her blade. She drove it deep into his right shoulder. It was truly a single chance. The blade sank nearly a hand’s breadth into his flesh.
The assassin’s movement ceased.
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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