Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 524

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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 294.
Beneath the Almond Tree (37)
After afternoon classes ended, three boys and one girl climbed toward Acorn Villa feeling like a ragtag band standing against an enemy. Tichiel stopped by her room to retrieve what she called the “rotten celery reagent” that she had prepared during lunch. When Tichiel worried that she had used up all the rotten celery she had been collecting while making this potion, Lucian spoke with confidence.
“Don’t worry. I’ll have my father bring about a hundred bundles of celery. Of course, I can’t help you rot it.”
Apparently, Lucian’s father, Kaltz, was a merchant wealthy enough to be counted among the richest on the Continent. As the son of a family that made petty nobility look insignificant, Lucian was remarkably unpretentious. He didn’t discriminate among friends and didn’t know how to boast. However, Maximian was beginning to suspect that this fellow’s character wasn’t so much unpretentious as it was absurdly simple-minded.
Arriving at the villa, Boris and Lucian threw open the doors and fetched water. Soon four buckets brimming with water were placed in front of the room. Just as Tichiel poured in the reagent and the stench of rotten celery began spreading in all directions, Joshua appeared and peered into the villa over Maximian’s shoulder.
“This is quite the state.”
Seeing Joshua pinching his nose, Maximian frowned and gestured for him to stay back. Tichiel’s potion, after all, was water reeking of rot, and there was no benefit in it touching someone unaffected by the problematic magic.
Lucian turned around and asked.
“You’re Maximian’s friend, right? I saw you earlier but didn’t get to greet you.”
“Let’s save the greetings for after we finish cleaning.”
With those words, Maximian picked up one of the buckets. Tichiel called out from behind.
“One, two, three!”
Having witnessed the effect that morning, I harbored no doubts. After pouring out a torrent of water and stepping back, Maximian set down the bucket and peered into the living room, anticipating a clean space.
“Huh?”
The expected change had occurred. The jams that had been stickily adhered everywhere had dissolved and vanished cleanly. However, one thing that should have followed was missing.
“Makgun, what did you do?”
As Joshua poked his head in again, Tichiel stammered and looked back and forth between the boys’ faces. Lucian’s eyes widened, and Boris wore a bewildered expression. Maximian clenched his fists and shouted.
“Why is it a sea of water!”
Tables and chairs, cushions, carpets—those were just the basics. The bookshelves and books, wallpaper, windows, curtains, floorboards, and even the bedroom floors of three people where the water had seeped in…. There wasn’t a corner of the villa that hadn’t been splashed by how effectively Maximian had hurled that single bucket. Needless to say, the stench of rotten celery began vibrating throughout the entire villa.
Not just Joshua but everyone covered their noses with their hands. Unable to bear it any longer, Maximian shut the door, leaned against it, and sent Tichiel a look demanding explanation. The shrunken Tichiel eventually mumbled with a face on the verge of tears.
“Well, you see, I was so focused on getting the celery amount right that… I think I forgot another reagent. So the water-drying effect disappeared….”
“….”
Maximian lost for words and stared up at the corridor ceiling. Boris glanced back at the door with a troubled expression. Lucian pondered further, gradually taking on an expression similar to Tichiel’s.
“Oh no, what do we do? Can’t we make that disappear again with magic?”
“That’s… once it fails, the magical effect is gone and it becomes garbage, so it’s difficult to eliminate it cleanly with magic….”
“So we have to mop that up and get rid of it? Huh? Is that it? Please tell me that’s not the case!”
Unable to answer, Tichiel finally burst into tears. The boys grew even more flustered and exchanged glances with one another. In the end, Joshua, who wasn’t directly involved, stepped forward and wrapped his arm around Tichiel’s shoulders, patting her gently.
“Don’t cry. It’s okay. It’ll be okay.”
Of course it wouldn’t be okay. While Joshua consoled Tichiel with empty words, the three directly responsible gathered to one side and deliberated. Lucian spoke.
“I’ve never done cleaning before… Can’t we call servants? They’re in the village outside the school.”
“According to school regulations, it seems villa cleaning must be done directly by the students.”
When Boris spoke, Maximian spread both hands and shrugged his shoulders.
“Of course it would. If three commanders armed with towels direct a legion of mops and a battalion of buckets, deploying all free time in the afternoon to wage war, then you might manage to sleep tonight in that one room with the door closed. Though the lack of practical experience will bring crisis, if you charge in with the resolve to kill or be killed, even that rotten celery fellow will come to understand that retreat is the better option.”
One fact that Maximian pointed out provided some comfort. Since only three students were assigned to Acorn Villa, the empty room that had been locked fortunately remained intact. Lucian’s face, which had been on the verge of tears, changed as he chuckled.
“Maximian, how do you talk so well?”
Maximian was unaccustomed to such reactions, so he omitted a response. Boris suddenly spoke.
“Then what about the jam remaining in each of our bedrooms?”
“We’ll make a proper potion again and….”
Stopping mid-sentence, Maximian suddenly turned to Tichiel, narrowing his eyes as he spoke.
“We can think about that later.”
In the meantime, Joshua had barely managed to calm Tichiel down. With her face streaked by tears, Tichiel approached the three boys and spoke.
“Let me help with the cleaning too. It’s my fault, so I’ll work twice as hard. I’m good at mopping.”
Boris objected immediately.
“That won’t do.”
“Why not?”
Maximian glanced at Boris, cleared his throat with a soft cough, and spoke.
“We can’t have a girl cleaning the boys’ chambers. You should go and try making a proper new medicine instead.”
Lucian, who had brightened up by then, added his voice.
“And it’s not your fault either. You were trying to help us, weren’t you? Without your help, we’d still be covered in jam.”
Tichiel still hesitated, but the three had reached their conclusion. They obtained plenty of mops from the Dormitory Supervisor and fetched fresh water in new buckets. As the three were wrapping towels around their noses before entering the “rotten celery den,” Joshua smiled broadly and spoke.
“Should I help too?”
Lucian, oblivious to anything, brightened considerably.
“Yes! You can help since you’re a boy. But we should at least introduce ourselves first. Since you skip class so much, we haven’t had a chance to talk. What’s your name?”
“Joshua von Arnim.”
Joshua said it lightly, but Lucian blinked and fell silent in thought for a moment before suddenly gasping in surprise.
“Wait, wait—are you the Arnim Duke who just enrolled?”
At those words, Boris also glanced at Joshua. Joshua rolled his eyes upward and laughed awkwardly.
“You don’t need to be so formal. I came here to live comfortably.”
“But my father would absolutely say we shouldn’t act that way.”
“You’re not your father. Do as you wish.”
Saying this, Joshua looked toward Boris.
“Then would you introduce yourself too?”
Boris, who had already turned away, crouched down and began soaking a mop in the bucket as he answered.
“Boris Jineman.”
A major cleaning operation unfolded over half a day. First, pooling their strength, they gathered up the wet curtains, carpets, cushions, and other items, sending them to the Laundry Room and removing the furniture. Joshua and Tichiel mainly wiped down the furniture left in the corridor, while Maximian, Lucian, and Boris tackled the living room floor, walls, window frames, and doors, wringing out mop after mop to dry everything. It was inevitable that miscellaneous items occupied the corridor. Students from the same floor poked their heads in to gawk at the devastation like war refugees, but soon fled, unable to bear the stench. Before long, the second-floor corridor held only five figures looking like flood victims and closed doors.
“I used to hate egg pudding the most, but now it’s celery. I even hate the smell. I’m never eating it again.”
Maximian, who was wiping the floor, responded to Lucian’s complaint as he pushed a mop tied to a stick against the wall.
“Disliked foods? You’ll eat anything once you’re hungry enough.”
Lucian spoke seriously.
“No. I really won’t eat what I dislike.”
“Have you ever gone hungry?”
Maximian was about to say more but merely smacked his lips and stopped. A moment later, Maximian spoke again.
“Damn, my hands are freezing. Are you alright, Boris?”
Boris was wringing out his fifth mop in the freshly drawn bucket. He said quietly, “Not particularly,” and continued his work. Lucian spoke.
“Boris has never minded the cold much, even before.”
“Must be from a cold region.”
Since they had opened the windows wide for ventilation, it was indeed quite cold. When the work was done, so much firewood had been burned that several buckets of ash remained. It was worth the effort of skipping dinner to leave the villa in the middle of cleaning—as the sun set, the living room had returned to looking reasonably presentable.
“Phew, is it finally done?”
“The smell hasn’t completely faded though.”
“If I leave the window open while sleeping, it should clear out by tomorrow.”
“Do you want to be found tomorrow as one of three frozen corpses?”
Boris’s eyes suggested he didn’t believe he could freeze to death, but he offered no counterargument. Soon after, Maximian rubbed his frozen hands and exclaimed.
“That was genuinely exhausting. Everyone must be starving, and we could use some warmth—how about a drink?”
Tichiel’s eyes widened.
“The school doesn’t have alcohol. We’re not allowed to bring any in.”
“Who said anything about drinking here? Let’s go out. I know a place.”
Though Maximian’s time at the Vineyard was far shorter than Joshua’s, he had certainly scoped out the nearby taverns. The place he had in mind was in a small village that required about half an hour’s walk from the school. The Gatekeeper had told us to return by ten o’clock when we left, and we’d loudly agreed—but it was already nine. Still, we’d just finished grueling work, we were famished, and what happened next hardly seemed to matter.
Lucian was the most excited. He couldn’t resist anything that seemed new and entertaining. Boris remained composed, though he didn’t seem unfamiliar with alcohol itself. Tichiel declined and didn’t come along. According to Maximian’s assessment, she was a “model student” who would never dare attempt returning past bedtime.
Maximian noticed Joshua seemed lost in thought, but Lucian’s incessant chatter left no opportunity to ask. Soon the four boys settled into a small tavern on the village corner. The owner remembered Maximian.
“Ah, you’re that friend who came every day last year and had just one beer before leaving?”
Joshua looked at Maximian.
“You came every day?”
“To be honest, it wasn’t every day.”
The tavern owner then corrected himself.
“He’d skip about one day out of five.”
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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