Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 474

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

Episode 244.
Playing Oneself (20)
The Silver Birch Forest stretched deep and endless. Along each silvery trunk, diamond-shaped markings were etched with crystalline clarity. The earth was soft beneath my feet. Clusters of modest pink flowers caught my eye, and when I stepped around them, I found few places elsewhere to tread safely. Clover cushions, mint blossoms, wild strawberry vines. Birdsong, as if forgetting the night, drifted from distant and near alike. When I lifted my gaze, white stars played peek-a-boo between the leaves.
It was not a mountain forest. Nor was it a forest that stretched along a river or encircled a lake. One person possessed this beautiful forest. It was the Nightingale Forest that wrapped around Jade Ring Castle in a perfect circle.
“Why Jade Ring?”
“Because the forest is shaped like a ring.”
“So a forest like this completely surrounds the castle?”
“That’s about right.”
Riche kept rubbing her bound arm. The inside of her bandaged arm was both hot and itchy. After walking a few more steps, she spoke.
“Impressive. The nobility, I mean.”
Joshua didn’t answer and walked ahead. His words had grown sparse since the castle came into view.
Two days ago, after the naval battle ended, Joshua’s group had transferred to another ship prepared by Hispanie and secretly entered the Bluet River. The Beauty’s Pinnacle had been destroyed beyond repair, and Hispanie’s ship, Chasing the Devil, known to belong to a pirate, was forbidden entry to Keltika. They parted ways with Milestone at the harbor.
Instead, Hispanie had accompanied them. It would have been ideal to bring the sailors as well, but many of them were wanted pirates. Even if we selected those without bounties, bringing armed men into Keltika would draw attention and might invite investigation by the Kingdom Army.
For now, it was crucial to reach Jade Ring Castle without drawing notice. Once there and meeting Duke Arnim, soldiers would be plentiful. But if Theo escaped, it would leave unfinished business. For this reason, Hispanie had issued strict orders that not a single prisoner escape. They conducted thorough searches to see if any survivors remained on the water.
At dawn, upon reaching near the castle, Hispanie parted ways with Joshua, Maximian, and Riche. Hispanie planned to visit the castle early in the morning to meet Duke Arnim. Joshua’s group could have waited until then to enter together, but Joshua stubbornly insisted on entering now. Hispanie worried about the danger but didn’t stop him in the end. He understood why Joshua was so determined.
Passing through the main gate was not difficult. No guard would stop Arnim Duke from entering, regardless of when he had left.
“Joshua, let me ask you something.”
“Yeah.”
Maximian gestured for Joshua to stop. It would have been hard to see in the darkness, but strangely, Joshua halted his steps.
“Are you ready?”
….
Joshua turned around. A moment later, Maximian spoke.
“Damn it, it’s too dark to see your expression.”
Maximian removed his glasses and wiped them on his collar as if he believed darkness could be polished away.
“Ready for what?”
He asked, though not as if he truly needed an answer.
“To face the truth. The truth you’ve been running from so desperately. That’s what you’re going to see.”
“What Sir Baiyer told me was enough.”
“There you go. I ramble on and you ignore me, but the moment that old man says something, you’re convinced? I sometimes wonder what your head is made of—how you remember all the useless things yet can’t seem to process anything that matters.”
Riche, unable to listen further, spoke.
“Stop it. Joshua can’t be feeling good about this either. You can’t possibly not understand how he didn’t want to suspect the man your sister married, can you?”
Maximian shook his head.
“I’m not saying I don’t understand that feeling. It’s not like I’ve only known this bastard for a day or two.”
“Then what are you trying to say?”
“The root. The reason such thoughts arose. Why you didn’t want to suspect your brother-in-law.”
A breeze passed, and Joshua answered.
“Right. Because of my sister.”
At this unexpected remark, Riche’s expression showed confusion. Joshua’s words continued.
“I believed he was the person who loved my sister most in the world. More than me, more than our parents. But if that love never existed, what was my sister’s life? Why did we entrust her to such a person?”
Riche’s expression became troubled, but she soon tried to comfort Joshua.
“Just because your brother-in-law hated you doesn’t mean your sister did, does it?”
Maximian interjected.
“No. That’s not it.”
Even Maximian hesitated before continuing. Only after Joshua turned his head away did the words resume.
“It’s about the original body’s identity… I suspect that creature might be my sister.”
A rustling sound came from beneath Riche’s feet. After a long pause, her response came.
“Wait, wasn’t your sister… not Demonic?”
“I don’t know either. They say the difference between a fool and a genius is just a sheet of paper.”
While Riche searched for words and stared down at the ground, Joshua’s voice emerged.
“That’s why I’m even more afraid of meeting the doll.”
A shallow sigh escaped.
“It was hard enough accepting it as another version of myself. But what if it’s even…”
Joshua stopped mid-sentence, then spoke again after a moment.
“Let’s stop. I can’t process this right now.”
As they resumed walking, Maximian said nothing more. When they had drifted slightly apart, Maximian muttered as if to himself.
“The terror of merely having to face someone identical to yourself would be trivial enough. If he feels there’s a monster sitting in that castle ahead, there’s nothing surprising about it. But why hide it? Let his insides rot away? Damn fool.”
No one knew the forest path that bypassed the tree-lined avenue in front of the main gate better than Joshua. It was a forest he had explored thoroughly in childhood. The narrow trail was still familiar to his eyes.
But it had been years since he’d ventured this deep, and in that time the trees had grown and the grass withered—the forest had changed. Yet following the still-lush Silver Birch Forest, Joshua knew exactly what would appear. When several oak trees came into view, his pace quickened. At some point, he raised his hand to stop those following behind him.
“Don’t step there.”
“What’s there?”
It was a narrow space that looked no different from the surrounding ground. Following his instructions and detouring around it, Maximian picked up a stone with a suspicious expression and tossed it onto the spot.
With a soft thud, the ground beneath collapsed.
“Huh?”
Riche’s eyes widened. Maximian’s expression turned to alarm.
“Who dug this? Is there someone who knew we’d come this way?”
Joshua stared silently at the sunken ground, then shook his head.
“No.”
“Then what is this?”
“A false bridge.”
“Who dug that, then?”
Joshua resumed walking and answered as if muttering.
“I did.”
As the curtain stirred, Duchess Elza gazed out the window without expression. It was the time when the eastern sky was beginning to brighten with a pale glow, yet the castle surrounded by forest remained dark. It was the hour when only servants and attendants would be rising to prepare breakfast.
Elza, whose health often forced her to bed early, frequently woke at this hour. On such occasions, rather than disturb someone to talk with, she would occupy herself alone while waiting for daylight.
Before others, she would have chosen more refined pastimes like playing an instrument, but in the dawn hours when no one would visit, she could do as her heart pleased. Elza loved the detailed painting work known as the labor of monks. In her girlhood, she had worn gloves even in summer to hide the ink stains on her fingertips. After becoming a duchess, she could no longer behave like a girl, and afterward, her health had become an obstacle.
Since bearing Ivnoa until now, there had never been a time when Elza’s body and spirit felt as well as they did recently. While she could not yet claim to be truly healthy, the stamina to wake at dawn and work on detailed paintings for an hour or two without great fatigue was nothing short of a blessing to her. Of course, this dawn pastime was a secret from Franz. If he, who cherished her so dearly, were to learn of it, he would surely worry.
The window stood open because of the heat. Beyond her lowered feet, small insects struck the pane with soft taps before falling. Elza carefully trimmed her quill. She did not want the maid to hear and come. Just as she was about to make one final cut, an unfamiliar sound came from the window. Her hand slipped. The sharp blade of the penknife grazed the edge of her left index finger.
“Ah!”
The moment she dropped the pen and knife, the curtain was drawn back. When Elza turned her head, her son was sitting on the windowsill.
“Joshua? Why are you there?”
Joshua’s eyes widened slightly as he gazed upon his mother’s face. During the years he had spent in Hyacan, he had rarely found himself longing for her. A child clings desperately to their parents, yet as one’s own world takes shape, such attachment inevitably weakens. He had been a bird that fled the nest early. His world had been built far too soon.
But since he began to be hunted, Joshua could no longer recall Jade Ring Castle and his parents’ faces with ease. They were forgetting him. When he returned, there might be no place for him. Such thoughts filled him with anxiety.
Perhaps he had not even realized his own anxiety until coming home like this. Sometimes he recalled how he had once desired a glass doll to take his place as the Young Duke. A doll his heart had created long before one ever existed.
It began during his time in Kotzboldt, when he would lose himself in fantasies of a doll living in Jade Ring Castle performing his role instead. Such thoughts sometimes pleased him. When the doll became real, Joshua had been confused, yet mingled within that confusion was an uncanny sense that his dream had come true.
Yet the face of his mother, whom he encountered after so many years, deeply stirred Joshua’s heart. His mother had called his name so naturally. As though he had merely stepped out for an evening and returned. Suddenly, a surge of emotion welled up from deep within his chest. It felt like encountering his mother risen from the dead. Perhaps within his own heart.
“Mother.”
Joshua leaped down from the windowsill and approached the table, then started at the sight of Duchess Elza’s fingers.
“Your hand—are you injured?”
“Oh, only slightly, dear.”
A drop of blood fell onto the table. Without thinking, Joshua withdrew a handkerchief and wrapped it around his mother’s finger.
“It will stop soon with this.”
“Thank you.”
Duchess Elza smiled warmly. Rather than making a fuss by summoning a maid, both mother and son preferred this quiet intimacy. Yet the bleeding did not cease as quickly as expected. With her hand wrapped in the handkerchief, Duchess Elza gestured for Joshua to sit and asked him a question.
“Have you been out?”
“Ah… yes.”
“You go out often enough, yet your clothes are in such a state.”
“That is…”
Children of Rune – Winterer
Author: Jeon Min-hee
Publisher: 14 Months Publishing
The copyright to this book is held by the author and 14 Months Publishing.
To reuse all or part of the contents of this book, written consent from both parties is required.

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