Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 537

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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 307.
Beneath the Almond Tree (50)
“Thank you.”
Joshua rose to his feet. His legs trembled beneath him, and he swayed slightly.
“No. This cannot be.”
The others did not yet understand what he meant. Joshua forced strength into his legs and approached Cardi, grasping his shoulder—not so much holding as leaning upon him, though his grip was firm.
“Don’t go.”
“….”
A moment later, a weary smile crossed Cardi’s face.
“Joshua. If our positions were reversed, I know you would think exactly as I do now. I would be no different. What you’re thinking right now—you can do it because you are you, because you are Joshua von Arnim. I cannot. I must go and seek the words of the promise.”
“No. Not yet. Live a life different from mine, as you said you would, and only then depart. I want to see your life unfold differently from my own. I want to protect it.”
“You love me, don’t you?”
Their eyes met. Pain flickered in Cardi’s gaze.
“I cannot. I’m truly sorry.”
Cardi lowered Joshua’s hand and turned toward the Cave. He knelt before his dead Father and drew his dagger.
Tichiel cried out.
“Wait!”
Tears glistened in Tichiel’s eyes as she rushed before the Cave. When Cardi turned to look, she spoke.
“If living in the same world as Joshua is too difficult for you, then live in a different one. That would work, wouldn’t it?”
Cardi smiled bitterly.
“I don’t understand what you mean.”
“Use that barrier. I’ll ask the Professor to make it a realm where time does not flow. Sleep there for a very long time, then awaken in a world where we no longer exist—where Joshua no longer exists—and live there.”
“….”
When Cardi did not answer, Joshua drew near.
“In fifty years, I may no longer be here. In a hundred years, I certainly won’t be. You could return sooner if you wish. Come back in thirty years and mock me as I grow old. By then, it will be your world.”
Cardi laughed bitterly and extended his arm to show it.
“But in this state, I don’t think I’ll be able to mock you. Now that the only Puppet Master in this world is dead, there’s no one anywhere who can repair this.”
Then Boris, who had wiped and sheathed his sword, approached.
“There is.”
Everyone turned to look at Boris. Cardi’s eyes trembled.
“You said you’ve seen a Doppelgänger before.”
“Yes. And I know someone who can create one. They’re in the Land of Mortals.”
Joshua asked urgently.
“Is that truly so? Then could we go meet this person?”
Boris shook his head.
“That’s not possible. My journey to the Land of Mortals back then was guided by a special connection I cannot easily explain, and I cannot go there again. However, as long as such a person exists, I cannot promise that after a hundred years have passed, there will be no one to repair your arm.”
Cardi still hesitated, until his eyes met those of Maximian, who had remained apart and silent until now.
Maximian rose slowly. He approached with a drenched appearance, moving languidly. Standing before Cardi, he suddenly extended his hand.
“Won’t you accept a handshake?”
“….”
As Cardi reached for Maximian’s hand, Maximian snatched the dagger from Cardi’s grip and let it fall to the ground. Then he took hold of Cardi’s hand and shook it slowly as he spoke.
“If, someday, I have a son or grandson and can tell them this story.”
Cardi’s hand trembled suddenly. Maximian continued speaking as though nothing were amiss.
“I’ll tell them to become true friends with you—the one who saved me when I nearly died from a dog’s bite.”
Silence fell between them. Cardi lifted his eyes to meet Maximian’s gaze, and he held it for a very long time. Neither showed any particular expression. They had once been friends, and there was no ending. They had vanished before it could ever come. Everything they believed to be real had been only in memory. Even now, he sought to carry only that with him.
At last, Cardi nodded slowly and spoke.
“Then I’ll be sitting on the Staircase, looking down.”
Maximian flinched suddenly, his brow furrowing. A single phrase had brought the scene vividly back to his mind. That day’s landscape.
Joshua, standing a few paces away listening, felt the same. It was a moment that belonged to him and yet to himself as well—one he had not often recalled until now. But Cardi, after accepting that he was a copy, must have revisited it countless times. The days when he had been himself. The memories before the division.
“….”
Cardi was now regarding them with perfect composure. Or rather, it seemed as though he was not regarding them at all. It was as if he were no longer beside them. He had become so light, so free that he could go anywhere—not just in this world, but beyond.
“With my own strength, I must begin everything anew.”
Cardi released his hand first, then turned and walked into the Cave. He did not look back. Not even as he rounded the corner and disappeared from sight.
Tichiel approached the Cave’s entrance, extended her hand, and wove a seal. Everyone watched as the entrance slowly closed and vanished.
“I’ve sealed it for now. Tonight or tomorrow, I’ll ask Professor Leomentiis to create a permanent barrier. And even if the Professor refuses, Father will certainly do it.”
Tichiel spoke with absolute certainty, but moments later she covered her face and wept quietly. The wind brushed across the wet grass of the Plain where the Cave had been.
12. Never to be repeated
A single moment of brilliance
The finest hour of a life
I folded it away, seeking to preserve it
But when I opened the bookmark
The light had dimmed, the sap had dried
Only brittle shadows and the scent of old paper remained
The sun pierced my brow
Dizzy, I could not open my eyes
I did not understand what was being said
But like a luminous willow
You smiled and leaned against me
Swelling like wind, like a river
That I remember that day
Feels like a lie I tell myself
I whisper that I have not forgotten
But the Sea in my memory
Slips away like sand, flowing through
Not a single drop remains.
On the return journey, they could not use the magic circle, so they had no choice but to walk the entire way. Everyone quickened their pace to return by evening. It was when they had descended to where the recently dried River Bed lay that someone called to them from above.
“Hail there.”
At first, they could not tell where the voice came from. But Joshua suddenly tensed. It was only a single phrase, yet it was a voice he could never forget.
“You all look as though you’ve been through quite an ordeal. Did you hunt some beast?”
Maximian’s head snapped up. A shadow moved beyond the flat rock that hung above them. That hat—he had seen it before. A wide-brimmed sombrero, with a shadow cast beneath it that obscured the face.
“Everyone, fall back!”
Nearly simultaneous with Maximian’s cry, the Assassin leaped down from the Rocky Outcrop. His cloak billowed as he descended. In an instant, the group encircled him in a semicircle. Tichiel’s eyes widened as she spoke.
“Who is this person?”
Maximian shoved Joshua behind him. Seeing this, Tichiel also prepared to cast magic. Joshua glared at the Assassin. It was incomprehensible. The man who had sunk into the middle of the Sea in chains, whom they had searched for endlessly without finding—how could he appear here, perfectly intact?
“How… did you survive?”
“I’d be disappointed if you believed I could be defeated so easily.”
His voice was cheerful. The tone suggested someone who had not come to kill at all, yet experience had taught me otherwise. His demeanor was irrelevant. This was a man who could prepare breakfast, kill someone, and return to preparing breakfast without a second thought.
Maximian shot back.
“Easily?”
“Well… wasn’t it easy? In any case, this profession requires one to be as skilled at preserving oneself as at taking lives.”
Then Tichiel recognized the Assassin’s right hand and cried out. Boris’s brow furrowed as well. The Tall Man noticed their expressions and slowly crossed his arms. The imbalance made the gesture appear grotesque.
Beneath his hat, his mouth twisted into a grin.
“No need to be tense. I didn’t come here to settle business with you.”
“…You didn’t?”
“Forgotten? I’m a Salaryman.”
Everyone blinked, uncertain of his meaning. Joshua seemed to grasp something and spoke.
“Your employer is dead, then?”
“Bingo.”
Maximian’s eyes still held disbelief.
“Then why the hell did you show up here?”
“To collect my overdue wages.”
With that, he pointed toward the Mountain.
“But it seems even the second employer can’t afford to pay. Since someone came down from up there, I’m asking—did that person leave behind anything of value?”
“…”
Gradually, I began to sense that his words were no jest. Though I had seen him many times, I had never witnessed him attempt to deceive his prey with words. He was always brazenly, disarmingly honest about his intentions.
Maximian finally answered.
“There was nothing like that.”
“That’s unfortunate. To think I’d be cheated of my wages—it’s shameful. All those bastards who stole my money and died can go straight to hell.”
With that, he truly turned to leave. Joshua suddenly called out to him as he vanished upstream along the River Bed, in the opposite direction from where they were headed.
“Are you really leaving?”
Maximian grabbed Joshua’s arm and tried to clamp his mouth shut. Whatever this madman was about to say, allowing him to speak now would certainly bring no good.
The Tall Man turned back.
“What business would there be?”
“Mere personal curiosity. We once discussed art together, did we not?”
“We did.”
Joshua wrenched free from Maximian’s grip and stepped forward.
“You pursued artistic perfection so relentlessly in trying to kill me, even to the point of burying me alive in the Sea—yet now you stand before me and simply leave? I find that difficult to understand.”
Maximian finally shouted.
“You lunatic! How can such words come from your mouth now?”
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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