Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 578

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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 30.
The Noble Daughter and the Detective (30)
“No.”
There was nothing else to say. I hadn’t come all this way to rescue this fool out of kindness—Juspian wasn’t the type to be moved by such pleasantries. He despised pretense in others and never bothered with it himself. As expected, Juspian shot back.
“Of course you wouldn’t know!”
Then he composed himself and continued.
“You’re naturally ignorant about everything. But shouldn’t you at least understand that something appearing to move when it shouldn’t is dangerous? Unless you want your head crushed, that is. What that thing is….”
An expert’s explanation followed, though I filtered it down to the essentials. It wasn’t a plank—it was definitely an iron plate. And if an iron plate struck your head, it would naturally shatter it. Then came a detailed explanation of how the iron plate came to be floating about, and I couldn’t help but interject.
“Setting that aside, it’s already evening. Couldn’t we return to the Villa and finish this conversation there?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Your friends have returned to the Villa.”
I frowned in exasperation.
“I’m sorry, but what does that have to do with anything?”
I had plenty to say. First, why had I ended up here when I’d merely opened the Dormitory door? Why were you here? Judging by meeting you here, this all seems like your doing—am I right? Is there any way to return to my comfortable room? What does it matter that my roommates have returned to the room? And damn it, where exactly is this place anyway?
Among all these questions, the identity of the metal watermelon ranked lowest. I simply didn’t care. It wasn’t moving anymore, and with Juspian beside me, whether it was a plank or a watermelon, there was nothing to fear. Juspian might enjoy hitting the back of my head, but he wasn’t the type to abandon someone who looked like they were dying.
“What do you mean it doesn’t matter? You ended up here because of a passage-altering spell on the Villa’s door. I’ve deactivated it now. To return, I’d have to reactivate it. But if someone else touches the door while that spell is active, things get very complicated, understand?”
Of course, the person who’d done such a thing was Juspian himself. Before I could point that out, I quickly asked instead.
“How does it get complicated? Do they get pulled here too?”
Juspian gave me a look of mild surprise that I’d understood so quickly.
“Naturally.”
I opened my eyes wide and raised my index finger.
“So what? Isn’t that a good thing? I’m stuck here alone with this watermelon and a lunatic—I mean, anyway, it would be much better to have at least one more person for a decent conversation, and among them there’s someone who could hit this watermelon better than me….”
“Quiet. Those fools have nothing to do with this. I have no intention of dragging uninvolved people into it. This place is dangerous.”
“So it’s fine for someone like me, who hasn’t learned swordsmanship or magic, to come here?”
“Are you bragging about being a lazy freeloader? Besides, I’m here! What are you worried about? Shut up and listen to what I’m saying!”
Juspian often gave such responses when too lazy to explain, but this time I sensed there was more to it. There seemed to be another reason why Juspian didn’t want to bring the others here.
Juspian continued.
“The reason I invited you here is to make you intuitively understand the future that awaits you. Look around. Do you like it? Quite impressive, isn’t it? How about I let you spend your summer vacation here?”
I made a show of looking around as Juspian instructed, though the answer was predetermined. But something genuinely caught my eye—a shadow beginning to obscure the reddish light of the horizon. At first it looked like a dark mass, but it was growing larger.
“…Of course, this isn’t a newly created space. I don’t have that much dedication, especially not for someone like you. As for where this is….”
As Juspian continued speaking, I glanced over my shoulder and eventually pointed with my finger.
“That doesn’t look like a storm cloud, does it?”
By the time Juspian turned to look, it had already filled the sky like a sparse net. Like a flock of migratory birds swarming the mudflats in strange patterns. I could tell there were an enormous number of them, but I couldn’t figure out how to count them. A thousand? Ten thousand?
Because even though they were moving, I couldn’t tell if they should be considered living creatures. Their sizes were wildly inconsistent to be considered the same group. The large ones resembled shattered warehouse roofs, while the small ones looked like swift flocks of crows. Regardless, what they all had in common was that they were metal fragments—charred, torn, and tattered as if from some explosion. If someone was controlling them with magic and sending them here, they were no ordinary mage.
Those things, which had been swirling and drawing all manner of shapes across the sky, began surging toward us the moment Juspian turned around. As if they had eyes and had just spotted us.
“Quite a lot came.”
Juspian muttered while shading his eyes to look up.
“You can leave those observations to me….”
I swallowed the words asking him to do something about it. Surely he had a plan? This was Juspian, after all.
However, Juspian did not respond immediately. He merely opened his eyes wide and rubbed his left index finger through the air, as if about to turn a page in a book. Maximian grew increasingly anxious, finding it difficult to contain himself.
“Ah, yes. There really are quite a lot of them.”
Maximian adjusted his glasses and examined them more closely. The metal fragments that had been scattered across the entire sky transformed into a massive funnel shape directed at their location. Like a whirlwind sweeping across the plains. The smaller pieces rotated at the center, the larger ones at the periphery, spinning at a ferocious speed. And they were approaching. Swallowing everything in their path.
Soon sand began to get caught up in the vortex. The scale grew considerably larger. The wind was crushing and kneading the metal fragments and sand together. As it drew closer, it became difficult even to open my eyes. Simply enduring this much felt as though my skin would be torn away. Damn it, why is today like this? The quota for madness has been exceeded!
If I were caught in the wind and mixed with those sharp metal fragments, I could easily imagine what would become of Maximian’s future. Ah yes, was that what he said he was trying to teach me?
“I understand intuitively and vividly what will happen to me going forward, or rather what will happen after this person! I understand it all now! Since I understand, please stop!”
It was uncertain whether my voice even reached him through the wind. Yet Juspian’s response came through with eerie clarity.
“You don’t notice the wind has changed direction, you fool?”
Juspian lowered his posture slightly, then swept the finger he had been rubbing through the air in a grand gesture. As if turning a massive page in a book. And that is precisely what happened.
The page itself was not visible to the eye. Yet it unmistakably existed. Everything from ground to sky began to fold in a circular motion as if it were an illustration within a book. Whatever the next page might contain, the previous one was folding away and disappearing. The metal fragments that had formed the whirlwind crumbled like an avalanche, shrieking in agony.
Kyaaaaaaah!
The massive formation compressed and struggled desperately to endure. But the force of the invisible page pressing down was tremendous. The larger fragments were torn to shreds, the smaller ones colliding and grinding against each other. At the eerie roar of metal being pulverized, Maximian covered his ears. Yet as the noise diminished, it seemed as though voices were bleeding through into his consciousness.
I do not disappear.
No one can kill me.
I have never once died.
Then, the thrashing metal fragments tore through the formation and scattered in all directions.
Kyaaaah!
The sharp cry grew louder, drowning out the voice Maximian had heard. And the page folded shut.
On the next page, some metal fragments remained, fluttering about chaotically. But when Juspian opened and closed his hand once more, they seemed to be caught by something in the air and compressed together. Then, as he flicked his closed hand downward, they rained down like scattered seeds. Hundreds of clumps, compressed like large and small metal spheres, now lay quietly embedded in the sand like fruit grown from the earth. The plain returned to silence as it had been before.
“Phew….”
Maximian rubbed his cheeks and the nape of his neck several times. It was unbelievable. The roar and terror from moments before remained only in the cold sweat spread across my neck and forehead. Looking to the side, Juspian stood with his hand shading his eyes, gazing at the sky without a single bead of sweat on him. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he looked at Maximian with a puzzled expression.
“Why are you here?”
Just as Maximian was about to cry out in exasperation, Juspian also recalled it at that moment.
“Ah right, I brought you along.”
“What on earth are you talking about!”
“I forgot for a moment. You know how it is when I concentrate—sometimes I lose track of things.”
Was that so? Maximian had never witnessed Juspian behaving this way before. This was the first time. That meant the spell from moments ago had consumed considerable mental energy even for Juspian. There were matters that could make Juspian tense? I liked this place even less now. I would decline even a five-minute summer vacation.
Juspian continued speaking.
“Let me be clear—you must not tell anyone about what you saw here. Understood?”
“What? The metal fragments?”
“Not that! Well, you shouldn’t speak of that either! I mean my spell! It’s still incomplete, do you understand!”
In any case, it all came down to not speaking of any of it. Then Juspian, looking somewhat cool now that he had just finished such a feat, spoke again.
“But still, after seeing something like that, you really don’t want to learn magic?”
Maximian drew a deep breath filled with great admiration and exhaled before speaking.
“To accomplish something like that, I’d have to study desperately for the next fifty years or so, wouldn’t I? But by that time, I’d probably be dead anyway, so what’s the point….”
Juspian attempted to strike the back of Maximian’s head, but through years of experience, Maximian simply tilted fifteen degrees and naturally dodged the blow. Juspian missed, but as if he had expected as much, he cursed peacefully.
“You quick little bastard.”

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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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