Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 610

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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 62.
The Velvet Invitation (23)
At that same moment, Espin’s blade tore through the sofa cover. The man freed from beneath it gasped and cried out.
“I-I’m not working with that woman! I just met her today!”
“Wrapped up in a carpet, and suddenly you’ve developed manners. Is this the principle of how maggots appear on pickled herring?”
It was a comment about how his speech had shifted to formal politeness, but Espin nearly burst into laughter and barely managed to suppress it. The man continued speaking.
“I was just, well, trying to sleep downstairs, but that woman suddenly came in last night and went up to the second floor on her own, but since it’s not my house either, I couldn’t tell her to leave….”
The man had witnessed what happened at the staircase moments before, his eyes nearly bulging from his head as he tried to flee before being caught, so his demeanor was quite different from before.
While rambling incoherently, he earnestly explained that he had given an advance payment to Jeremy de Pleasance and asked him to handle a small matter, but since Jeremy de Pleasance suddenly disappeared, he had simply come to take something of value that could be turned into money. Of course, he also did not forget to sincerely reflect on his own reckless judgment, illegal actions, and reckless escape attempt—in short, everything.
As Maximian listened with moderate attention, something felt suspicious at the part about “receiving an advance and agreeing to resolve it.” So Jeremy de Pleasance had also done work similar to detective work?
Meanwhile, the woman beside him showed no reaction whatsoever, and aside from the part where her mouth was sealed shut, she seemed far too composed, which was suspicious.
“…So if you would spare my life and let me go, I swear I’ll never show my face here again.”
“Noted. What’s your opinion?”
Maximian turned his gaze toward the woman bound with a cravat. The woman could not respond, of course, but now her lips moved as if she wanted to say something. However, since the other party was a Mage, he could not carelessly allow her to open her mouth. Maximian spoke again.
“Now, you are not working with this man. If that’s correct, blink your eyes three times. If it’s wrong, do a shoulder shimmy.”
The woman glared at Maximian with fierce eyes, but soon closed and opened her eyes three times. Maximian continued.
“Good. Next. You wanted Jeremy de Pleasance’s help, or you wanted to kill him. Help, right shoulder shimmy. Kill him, left shoulder shimmy.”
Forced into a situation where she had to do a shoulder shimmy, the woman appeared quite irritated, but she made an effort nonetheless. She moved both shoulders. Maximian raised his eyebrows as if puzzled.
“Ah, is that so? How peculiar. You wanted his help, but if he refused, you planned to kill him? Was his death supposed to be helpful to you?
Blast, I phrased the question wrong. I ended up asking a question that only calls for shoulder shimmies. I might as well be playing the violin.”
Throughout all this, Maximian did not laugh once, but Espin finally burst into the laughter she had been holding back. Hearing the sound, Maximian glanced back and spoke.
“Are you laughing now?”
Espin stopped laughing, but she realized that her anger from moments before had already faded. It was a remarkably subtle form of assistance.
Among those who knew Espin’s nature, most had either avoided her when she was seized by intense emotions, or rarely attempted direct confrontation. No one had ever tried to deflect her feelings like this, and no one had ever succeeded in doing so.
“Now then, let’s clarify this. You knew Jeremy de Pleasance wasn’t here when you entered, didn’t you?”
Saying this, Maximian picked up jam and a knife from the table beside the sofa. He crouched in front of the woman, opened the jar, inserted the knife, scooped out a generous portion of jam, and drew a simple picture on the floor.
O, and X.
The woman moved her jaw and chose O.
“So you were planning to wait for Jeremy de Pleasance to return.”
X.
“Then you were thinking of stealing something valuable—his belongings, documents, anything—and escaping.”
X.
“You were thinking of leaving some kind of message for Jeremy de Pleasance. A warning, perhaps.”
X.
Maximian felt irritation rising and spoke.
“None of that? Then did you know that Jeremy de Pleasance’s grandson or whoever would show up today, and you waited here to cast a spell on him and tell him to get his head on straight because his grandfather has gone missing?”
O.
“What?”
Maximian’s expression showed confusion, but he soon shook his head.
“That doesn’t make sense. I didn’t even know I’d arrive here today, so how could you have known?”
Espin spoke from beside me.
“Even if you didn’t know it was today, you could have come in early and waited.”
“But you said the herring preserves came in last night? Did the herring lie?”
When I glanced at The Tall Man, he cried out in panic.
“No, no! It’s true! Really! Why would I lie when I’m not even part of this!”
Espin slowly approached and drew her sword again. Then she tilted her head at an angle toward The Woman and spoke.
“Just now, you aimed for my life. Therefore, I should blow your head off immediately, but I’m keeping you alive because I need to find out whose orders you’re following. Expendable things like you are endless, so whether one more exists or not makes little difference to me.
But if you don’t open your mouth, I’ll slit your throat and be done with it. That’s clearly my right.”
After all, anyone who threatens the heir to the Grand Duchy can be summarily executed. I didn’t know this fact, but my suspicion that Espin wasn’t from an ordinary family only grew stronger. Only the ruling class could speak such words.
“Open your mouth.”
The Woman hesitated before opening it slightly, and Espin inserted the sword tip into her mouth, then withdrew it by wrapping her belt around it. It was a perilous maneuver, but she executed it smoothly, without leaving a single wound at the corners of her lips.
Finally freed from her restraint, The Woman looked up at Espin, trembling slightly with tension. Espin pushed the belt aside and wiped the sword tip on the carpet that had been rolled up with the herring preserves, making The Tall Man unnecessarily anxious as she spoke.
“From now on, you’ll answer with words, but instead, keep your eyes on my sword tip. I can engrave an epitaph on your face with this.”
It didn’t sound like a joke. The clean sword tip pointed at the space between The Woman’s eyebrows, just below her forehead. She stared intently at the blade, then shifted her gaze to me, then back to Espin, and spoke.
“It hurts quite a bit.”
Her jaw was already considerably swollen. Espin asked calmly.
“Why do you think it only hurts?”
“You held back from shattering it because you need me to talk.”
The Woman moved her jaw slightly and spoke.
“To preserve my jaw, I’d better make myself useful. I am Deborah. If I may speak of the most important matter first….”
Then she smiled in a strangely twisted way.
“You will all die soon. Including me.”
4. The Guests of Pleasance
I nodded slowly.
“Is that so? Is the roof of this house about to collapse? Or did you lean a lamp at an angle on the bedside table upstairs?”
“There are many methods besides that. That person puts great care into killing, so you’ll certainly die in a way you never anticipated. Just as Jeremy de Pleasance ended up the same way while trying to help someone that person ordered killed.”
I glanced at Espin. She kept her sword trained on Deborah without turning around, but she still didn’t seem to take Deborah’s words seriously. However, I remembered the background on Pleasance that the Nenyaple Professors had put in my bag.
Maximilien de Pleasance has Jeremy de Pleasance as his grandfather. He is originally an Orlanne nobleman, but having lived in Keltika for a long time, he is called “Lord” despite having no title in Anomarad. He lives alone with a single servant, and when he occasionally leaves the house, he sends the servant back to his homeland.
Besides his house, he has no other significant assets, but he has a decent income from other work. He is a refined, neat gentleman of refined taste, and he often willingly helps those in difficulty….
Rather than expressing my suspicion openly, I replied with a slight smirk.
“I must lack creativity because I can’t think of a better way to kill three people simultaneously. Or does the herring preserves count too? Hey, are you dying or not? Make your position clear quickly.”
The Tall Man, who had somehow become the herring preserves, was startled by what Deborah said, and when I pressed him, he became even more flustered.
“W-why me? I don’t want to die….”
“Is that so? Then it’s three to one. We’re rejecting the death theory. If you want to die, then you alone can die, and anyway—is it a proven fact that Grandfather has passed away? Did you see it yourself?”
Deborah made a somewhat absurd expression before speaking.
“I didn’t see it, but he can’t possibly be alive. If he were alive, he’d be the greatest escape artist I know of.”
I shrugged.
“Well, he’s our Grandfather, so of course. You couldn’t even kill me, his grandson. How dare you claim to kill anyone with such skill?”
I said I didn’t care about the ancestors of a borrowed name, yet somehow “our Grandfather” had naturally slipped out. Deborah smiled bitterly and spoke.
“Listen. I was mistaken. I didn’t come here to kill you.”
“What are you talking about? Do you just hurl magic at strangers without warning?”
“That is….”
Deborah’s gaze shifted toward Espin, her eyes gleaming with a peculiar light—a turbulent mixture of fear and admiration, jealousy and anticipation.
“I wanted to know if you were the sort worth surviving.”
Espin regarded her with an expressionless face before speaking.
“I despise such tests.”
“The incantation I used wasn’t meant to kill. Had things gone as intended, I would have bound you as I am bound and conversed with you—but matters unfolded differently. Since we’ve arrived at this point, I’ll speak plainly. If you lacked the strength to endure, I would have simply killed you and departed. It would have been the more merciful course. I’m speaking now only because I’ve recognized you possess the power to restrain me, though the difference between dying ignorant and dying informed may be negligible. But I was genuinely startled just now. What was that? It wasn’t magic.”

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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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