Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 530

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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 300.
Beneath the Almond Tree (43)
10. The Offering
Since childhood, I’ve dreamed of becoming an Aquarius.
Now I know that’s impossible.
The reason I love them
is that I was cast into a world parched from the moment of birth,
desperately needing even a single drop of water.
My scales are always drying out.
The fireplace cast a ruddy glow across the living room floor. There were no other lamps. It was the hour when the bedtime inspection had concluded and everyone lay sleeping.
Before the hearth sat Maximian, Boris, and Joshua. They had forgone chairs, crouching before the flames and sharing a blanket. Given the hour, no light could escape beyond the fireplace.
Boris listened to the fragmented story Maximian and Joshua offered, and for a long time he said nothing. Then Maximian spoke.
“You understand this isn’t the sort of matter to discuss with others. Keep it secret. Even from Lucian.”
….
After a moment, Maximian sighed and rose, adding fresh wood to the fire. He took the poker and stirred the embers.
“What happens to him now?”
Joshua felt Boris’s gaze but could not answer readily. Boris asked again.
“I saw the wounds on his arm. Is he deteriorating?”
Joshua nodded weakly.
“He was separated from his original body for too long. No one knows what will happen. We can only wait. For whatever ending comes.”
Again, silence fell over them all. Presently, Boris spoke once more.
“Do you want the Puppet to continue living? Like this?”
Joshua kept his gaze on the flames as he answered.
“My feelings toward him are complicated. Cardi and I can never become one again, so we’ve agreed to become shadows walking the paths the other cannot walk. Sometimes I hope he lives on with all his strength. But sometimes, merely seeing his face is unbearable. I don’t know. I don’t know what I truly want.”
“In this world, only he would be uncertain how to treat a Puppet created from his own image. What would you do, Boris? If you were in his position, would you struggle to keep such a Puppet alive? Would you try to share your life with him? Or would you let him die?”
To Maximian’s question, Boris unexpectedly did not answer quickly. When his answer finally came, it was equally surprising.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
Maximian’s eyes betrayed disbelief. Yet at Boris’s next words, even Joshua lifted his head sharply.
“I’ve seen a Puppet before.”
“You’ve seen a Puppet? One that was a copy of you?”
“No.”
The Puppet Boris had seen was not a replica like Joshua’s, but rather a creature of Ganapoli’s everyday creation—something that resembled a person but possessed only rudimentary judgment and could do nothing but repeat certain tasks. It was a Puppet from the records, the kind Juspian had also spoken of. That was the more conventional meaning of Puppet.
Maximian asked.
“Where in the world did you see something like that?”
Joshua’s expression as he looked at Boris was nearly desperate.
“Juspian said the Puppet Master no longer exists in this world. Only the one who created Cardi. A Puppet that even Juspian cannot make—who created those? Where can I meet that person? There’s something I absolutely must ask them.”
Boris remained silent for a moment, then spoke briefly.
“I’m sorry, but no such person exists. It wasn’t created by anyone in the present. Those Puppets are different from replicas—they can die, but they have no lifespan.”
Ah….
Could it be that a Doppelgänger created by a Ganapoli Magic mage still existed somewhere? Likely so. Joshua’s mood grew unsettled, and I turned my gaze toward the fireplace. Boris had said “Doppelgängers”—plural. What he had witnessed might not have been just one.
“What was that Doppelgänger like?”
“It wasn’t plaster or a bundle of rags.”
Boris’s eyes too held the distant look of contemplation.
“In any case, after seeing that Doppelgänger back then, I came to understand, at least somewhat, the hearts of those Ganapoli people who cherished their Doppelgängers. So while the circumstances differ, I cannot bring myself to dictate what must be done with your Doppelgänger either.”
“Boris. Then tell me just one thing. Does that Doppelgänger you saw still exist in this world?”
The firelight wavered in Boris’s pupils.
“No.”
The words fell silent. All three sank into their own thoughts.
Maximian thought of the Doppelgänger’s feelings—the one who had said he came to speak with him. The more he considered it, the more the resolve he had tried to maintain so firmly began to crumble. It was a confusion he did not welcome. What on earth was the right course?
“Maximian.”
Even as Joshua called to him, Maximian continued thinking until finally rubbing his temples and looking toward Joshua.
“What.”
“If I were to disappear, would you still pretend not to know Cardi?”
Maximian nearly shot to his feet but barely restrained himself, responding tersely.
“Say something like that again and I’ll kick you into the fireplace.”
“No, think about it seriously. The only difference in memory between him and me is barely two years. You and I have known each other far longer than that. That man who caught fish with you in Kotzboldt and stole goat’s milk—he is me, but he is also Cardi.”
“Who doesn’t know that? What I cannot accept is that he is both. One is enough for me. I absolutely do not need two.”
“Right. So you’re asking whether, if he became one, you could accept him even if I were gone.”
Maximian’s head snapped up, his gaze piercing Joshua.
“What mad scheme are you plotting now?”
Joshua tried to smile. But only an ambiguous expression emerged. Maximian spoke as if spitting out the words.
“Fine. If you want to hear it, I’ll tell you. I don’t need a substitute. A friend is a friend and a Doppelgänger is a Doppelgänger. I can live well without you. When Father disappeared, did I bring the neighbor to play the role of father? No—children simply fend for themselves. When Mother died, my aunt didn’t become my mother. When a friend vanishes, I don’t have to become new friends with his sibling. That’s not how it works.”
“He is neither the neighbor nor my sibling. He was originally me.”
“Not anymore! Whatever he was before, he is not now!”
Maximian paused mid-sentence, glancing at Boris, but ultimately continued.
“You don’t know how to treat him either—I know that much. Stop forcing yourself to play the good elder brother. You are not his brother. You didn’t create him. Just because he resembles you doesn’t mean you’re responsible for his life. Especially when you don’t even want to be, when you actually want to run away—why come to me and dredge up his story, torturing yourself? Does bashing your head against the wall make you feel refreshed?”
Joshua tried to smile, but his expression was a wreck.
“No. No. It’s not like that. Forget it. I’ll just say this much. You asked if I was plotting something mad, right? Yes. I think I actually need to do something mad.”
“You….”
Joshua spoke quickly before Maximian could say more.
“I’m going to Sunset Island.”
Maximian’s eyebrows tensed.
“You haven’t forgotten the promise you made there, have you? You couldn’t have forgotten—so tell me. If you break that promise and go anyway, what will that Mage do to you?”
“I know. I know it all.”
“Then how can you possibly go!”
“But I have to. There’s no other way.”
“Way? What way? What are you doing? Are you trying to save someone? Trade your own life for theirs?”
Joshua clamped his mouth shut, trying to suppress it, to speak quietly. But it was useless. The words came pouring out.
“Yes, that’s right. I cannot lose Kelce.”
Maximian went momentarily blank. But his eyes widened in an instant, and he cried out.
“What are you talking about? What happened to Kelce?”
“He saved my life.”
Joshua gazed down at his own two hands and exposed wrists. Suddenly, the scars he had seen on Cardi’s arms overlapped in his mind. He was seized by the feeling that he too would have become like that. If Kelsni had not saved him.
“During that incident two years ago, my body—which should have died—was saved by Kelce and the People of Promise over the course of six months. In the process, Kelce, unable to distinguish between my consciousness and his own, became trapped within me. He’s gradually losing himself, and eventually he will cease to exist.”
Maximian’s expression showed he could not easily accept this sudden revelation. Yet Joshua, who had been wrestling with these words all day, suddenly rose to his feet.
“So I’m going to Sunset Island to meet that person. I’ll ask them to teach me how to create a Wish Mirror. Before it’s too late, before he loses consciousness within me, I have to send Kelce away. To the Land of Promise where they wanted to go.”
Maximian rose as well, his expression equally troubled.
“I understand what you mean. But there’s no guarantee that going there will solve anything. Don’t you see? We don’t know if that person even has a method, or whether they’d help even if they did. And even if everything succeeds by some miracle, can Kelce actually leave you?”
“I don’t know. But anyone can go wherever they wish if they simply make a prayer before the mirror, can’t they? Isn’t that right?”
“You’re making your own judgment without any real basis? After all, Kelce himself has never actually seen that mirror, has he? How do you know the Wish Mirror is anything more than legend?”
It was then that Boris, who had been silent for a long time, spoke.
“No. It exists.”
Maximian turned to look at him.
“What does?”
“The Wish Mirror.”
Both of them fell silent, staring down at Boris.
“Who exactly are you? Are you from Ganapoli or something? How do you know all these things?”
“I went to the Old Ganapoli Lands.”
He spoke matter-of-factly, yet it was far from an ordinary tale. The Old Ganapoli Lands referred to what was now the Land of Mortals. That barren wasteland, occupying the heart of the Continent, was a place neither human nor spirit could enter. Only a handful of treasure hunters lived in the borderlands. It was a place where mad spirits roamed freely, seizing every living creature and spirit they encountered and transforming them into creatures like themselves. That a boy of Boris’s age, comparable to themselves, had ventured into such a place seemed impossible to believe. Had it not been for the demeanor Boris normally displayed, they would have dismissed it as a lie.
“So you saw the Wish Mirror?”
“I used it.”
“You used it? You actually used it? So where did you go?”
“My homeland.”
“Your homeland? You mean Trabaches?”
Maximian and Joshua exchanged glances. A doubt had crept in—was this something entirely different from what they had imagined?
“You encountered something so extraordinary, and the only place you went was your homeland?”
A bitter smile appeared at the corner of Boris’s mouth.
“I didn’t choose it. The mirror chose for me. The place I truly wished to go. Later, I came to understand that the mirror’s choice was truly right. It saw through my heart.”
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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