Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 548

—————

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

—————

Episode 318.
Beneath the Almond Tree (61)
Riche remained silent, her gaze lowered. Maximian spoke after a long pause.
“Since you did it with your own hands, Kelce must have been satisfied.”
A breeze swept across the foundation stones, stirring the grass that had been pressed beneath them. Joshua stood gazing at the sight blankly for a while. Soon Riche approached and withdrew something from her pocket, extending it toward him.
“She gave this to me before she departed.”
Resting in Riche’s palm was a small ruby brooch. The ornament was simple and antiquated. The ruby’s hue matched Anarose’s hair precisely—a ruby from the Southern Island.
Joshua closed his hand around Riche’s, pressing the brooch into her grip as he spoke.
“Keep it safe for me.”
“Am I allowed to have this? Isn’t it a family heirloom?”
“No. She wasn’t my ancestor.”
“But it’s strange.”
Riche glanced back once before murmuring.
“Why did she give it to me and not to her?”
Aurelia, standing at a distance, had been watching the two intently, but when her eyes met Riche’s, she quickly turned away. Joshua laughed.
“It was probably because you mended her clothes for her.”
At that moment, Maximian approached and shrugged as he spoke.
“I couldn’t understand it. Why you suddenly offered to mend her clothes in such a situation, or why Anarose asked you to do it. What were you both trying to accomplish?”
Riche smiled faintly and replied.
“You don’t know?”
“Don’t know? Then what’s your theory?”
“Why do you think that coffin was there?”
Maximian’s expression grew even more bewildered. Joshua blinked and asked.
“Explain a bit more.”
“It’s the tomb of the person she loved. She lived there for centuries.”
Riche gazed down at the brooch she had been fingering. As it caught the sunset’s glow, the ruby gleamed with even more enchanting brilliance.
“Before that person, she always wanted to appear beautiful. She didn’t want to show herself worn and haggard. Even if she couldn’t manage it all this time because she was so exhausted, today she could return to her former self. You carry a part of that person within you, so I thought she wouldn’t want to meet you in tattered clothes.”
Maximian tilted his head in thought, but he didn’t seem to fully grasp it. Joshua smiled softly and spoke.
“I won’t claim I understand everything. But I’m glad you came with us.”
Riche slipped the brooch into her pocket and shrugged.
“Actually, I feel the same way. I was happy to mend her clothes. Honestly, I came because I thought this was the final moment of our three’s bungled journey, but I never expected to actually do something. I never expected such a reward.”
Joshua nodded, then suddenly looked at Riche and spoke.
“Yes. But is it really the final moment?”
Riche furrowed her brow and looked up at Joshua.
“What do you mean by that? Do you have more secrets hidden away? No, never mind. I don’t want to know. This time, even if someone is playing dead, I absolutely won’t swing around anything like a mop. Understand? Are you listening?”
Joshua simply smiled without answering.
Soon the five of them walked toward the beach where Beauty’s Pinnacle was anchored. Along the way, Maximian gritted his teeth, vowing not to play the violin for at least a hundred years, while Joshua told Riche about the time he and Maximian had come before. He wanted to speak of the sight of almond blossoms scattering, but Riche seemed more interested in the journey itself, so he never quite reached that part.
“So, what was the password to open that Stone Door anyway?”
Joshua laughed somewhat sheepishly as he replied.
“It wasn’t really a password at all. Any words would have sufficed. I think it was a kind of origin—like a chant. It reads the heart of whoever comes seeking. The words I spoke held no real meaning.”
But Riche was persistent.
“So what exactly did you say? You said something, didn’t you?”
“Well, I just… I imagined Icabon had come to find me and said it like that. Like a line from a play. You know I’m an actor.”
“Then do it now. Since you’re an actor, say it like a line.”
Joshua, having lost the argument, deliberately looked away as he spoke.
“My beloved lady. I have come to see you.”
….
When I glanced back a moment later, Riche was also deliberately looking elsewhere. Joshua simply smiled without calling out to her.
March at Nenyapeldo, nestled on the mountainside, was unmistakably spring. The cherry blossoms had already faded, and lilacs and pansies were beginning to bud.
In the Maze Garden beside Anaya Savante Hall stood a few almond trees. Joshua had developed a habit of sitting beneath them, lost in thought. At some point, whenever he disappeared, his friends would seek him out there first.
That morning, Joshua was writing a letter. He had deliberately brought out a small wooden desk. He who could dash off performance scripts in a single night was already on his third revision of the opening. He had even taken it outside because it wasn’t working in his room, and two crumpled pages were already stuffed in his pocket.
Lucian came running from a distance, clutching a rolled-up piece of paper. At some point, Lucian had realized that for matters Joshua might enjoy, consulting with him yielded better results than asking Boris or Maximian. As Lucian approached, Joshua quickly put away his letter. Lucian asked.
“Writing a letter? To whom?”
“…No, well, just.”
Lucian didn’t press the matter of the letter. His body was trembling with what he wanted to say.
“Look at this! Our match date has finally been decided!”
Joshua took the paper and unfolded it. Seeing “Cream Tea Villa versus Acorn Villa Showdown! An unmissable battle!” written at the top, he burst into laughter.
“Hey, who wrote this? Just looking at it makes the back of my head itch.”
“I didn’t write it! Anyway, the fact that this paper arrived means the professors have given their approval. The date’s been set too. Five days from now, on Renoa’s day. Professor Hoiock will oversee it directly. You know him, right? The Elementary Magic Studies professor.”
Joshua admitted honestly.
“I don’t. I’ve never seen him.”
“That’s why you should come to class! That professor is really fun. So, the match content is this: first, it’s about who finds a hidden object first, and the professor will hide it himself. I think Maximian will be really good at it! And the second one is something I think you’d be good at. It’s….”
Joshua listened with a smile as the excited Lucian explained. Then, hearing the argument that they needed to practice, he suggested meeting with Tichiel this afternoon to ask for her help. Somehow, Tichiel had become the unofficial Villa War manager for Acorn Villa. Since Acorn Villa had only three members, Joshua was planning to participate as a guest competitor.
As the conversation ended, a breeze blew and scattered a few remaining magnolia petals. Lucian suddenly looked up at the almond tree branches above his head and asked.
“By the way, when does this tree bloom? Only leaves have come out. Is it a tree that doesn’t flower?”
Joshua looked up at the branches above as well and smiled gently.
“It bloomed and fell before we even enrolled.”
Lucian blinked in confusion.
“But that was when it was still snowing and all?”
“That’s how it is.”
“It’s a really impatient tree.”
Joshua nodded.
“Yes. But it blooms with very beautiful flowers.”
【Children of Rune Demonic, Final Episode】
Epilogue : Knotted
Whether influenced by Lucian’s advice or not, Joshua showed up to class that day. It seemed the paper Lucian had brought had already made the rounds through the lecture hall. Applause and whistles erupted from various corners.
“Take responsibility for first-year pride!”
“If Lucian Kaltz brings a hundred more pies, what’s the big deal.”
“You even have a young sorceress as manager?”
“Go break some bones one more time!”
At those final words, Joshua muttered in bewilderment.
“Is this kind of reputation really acceptable…?”
Maximian paid no mind to what his classmates said and lay sprawled across his desk, sleeping. When Joshua approached and shook him, he groaned.
“Did you forget that if you wake me up, you have to pay the price…?”
First period was Elementary Magic Theory, taught by the problematic Professor Hoiock. The moment class began, Joshua felt subtly flustered. He had resolved not to study magic anyway, so he had deliberately avoided related materials. When he opened the textbook, everything was completely unfamiliar, and it wasn’t the kind of subject where understanding today’s lesson would help him grasp previous content.
Seeing Joshua struggling to follow a class for the first time in his life, Maximian offered a comment.
“How delightful.”
“Is that what a friend should say?”
Fortunately for Joshua, whose anger was beginning to kindle, the professor stopped the lesson midway and stepped out of the lecture hall. But he soon returned and spoke.
“Listen up, do you all know how financially strapped our school is?”
Since Professor Hoiock was famous for his amusing manner of speaking, the students looked at him with expectant eyes, wondering what joke this was. One student spoke up with a complaint.
“Well, from our perspective, we don’t know what the school does with all that money it collects. Just look at how worn these desks are.”
“Magic costs a lot of money. Just understand that. Anyway, our school is always short on funds. We absolutely must rent out even a single empty room.”
“An empty room?”
The lecture hall door opened, and a young boy entered. Professor Hoiock gestured to the boy and had him stand in the center of the platform.
“A transfer student.”
One student’s eyes widened in shock.
“What? Our school doesn’t accept transfer students! That’s what I thought!”
“Quiet, you fool. Use your insight. There’s a difference between not accepting transfer students, gathering everyone at the start of the regular semester, and then reluctantly accepting a transfer student for any remaining spots, and saying transfers are possible from the beginning, so you lot come whenever you please and create empty lecture halls at the start of the semester. Which approach is more desirable?”
“So the conclusion is that it’s special treatment?”
“Tch, that makes no sense.”
“What’s wrong with this school?”
At that moment, Lucian was busily jabbing Boris with his elbow beside him.
“We’ve seen that guy before, right? I remember that hair color.”
The lecture hall grew noisy. Using the pause in the lesson, Joshua quickly memorized the material and finally took a breath, lifting his head. In that instant, his eyes met those of the transfer student, who seemed to have been looking at him.
They were certainly meeting for the first time. Yet it felt as though he had known this person long ago. It was as if someone’s hand from an invisible place had once twisted their two lives together.
The gaze soon fell away. The boy gave a light nod and spoke.
“I’m Langier Rosencrantz.”

Children of Rune – Winterer
Author: Jeon Min-hee
Publisher: 14 Months Publishing
The rights to this book belong to the author and 14 Months Publishing.
To reuse all or part of this book’s contents, 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

—————