The Legendary Rune Knight Returns

Chapter 4

“Such a shame. The coward couldn’t even kill himself properly.”

As Bruk spoke confidently, the man called Goran next to him shook his head.

“Nah. Someone saw that son of a bitch sneak a bunch of sleeping pills from the city’s healer yesterday. He must’ve heard the rumors that you could die a painless death by swallowing a bunch at the same time.”

“He must’ve not taken the pills then.”

Bruk agreed with the other man Antony.

“I think so, too.”

“Damn it. Want to make a bet, then? I bet ten meal tickets that he died.”

“Then I bet that he didn’t.”

“Same.”

“Let’s do five each.”

Looking at each other, they grinned. The other fighters in the training ground glanced in their direction distastefully. No matter how they thought about it, Bruk’s wickedness had gone too far. It was unbelievable how he could bet on others’ lives so easily. Even so, there was no one who dared to openly defy him.

It was not just his behavior that kept some of them quiet. Bruk had better skills and was from a family of much higher status than them. But such fighters were usually indifferent to the business of others. They were the type to not move until Bruk’s party tried to murder someone in the training grounds. The rest of the fighters were weak and clumsily avoided Kaelen out of fear of being targeted. Some were even thankful for Kaelen being there.

It was then that the door opened, which quickly caught Bruk’s attention. A handsome man entered the training ground. His neat figure and calm expression exuded indifference. Though now was not the time for such empty thoughts.

‘Isn’t that Kaelen?’

He almost didn’t recognize him if it weren’t for his unique, faded grey hair.

“What?”

“That’s Kaelen, right?”

Other fighters also chatted among themselves. It seemed that Bruk was not the only one bewildered by his sudden change.

Kaelen looked around the training ground and leisurely made eye contact with Bruk. For a short while, their gazes were locked onto each other. Bruk thought that Kaelen’s expression would be full of dread as usual, but it wasn’t. He didn’t know what happened last night, but human nature did not change so easily.

‘Hurry and lower your eyes already.’

He had it seen dozens of times. The self-conscious demeanor that was unfitting of someone from the distinguished Lyra fighting rings. But it was natural for Kaelen, the disgrace abandoned by his peers and the Low Quarter’s worst fighter.

However today’s Kaelen was different from usual. He ignored Bruk and his typical high-strung appearance was strangely relaxed. He had never seen Kaelen walk with his back so straight.

Kaelen went to his spot, sat down, and took out a textbook from his desk. He started reading each page in fascination as if he was lost in his own world.

“Hah.”

Bruk unwittingly exclaimed, dumbfounded. His reaction was rather dry. Meanwhile Goran and Antony’s faces were already distorted. They made eye contact with Kaelen and had the same reaction. Goran became impatient and wanted to speak up, but Bruk called Kaelen’s name first.

“Kaelen Thorne.”

Kaelen turned his head and looked at Bruk with indifference. Even his uselessly glossy face today was unpleasant. He continued boldly.

“Look. Didn’t I tell you? The bastard’s a coward who’s too afraid to even die.”

Goran and Antony, who had frozen at Bruk’s words, quickly remembered their roles. Their faces filled with ridicule and contempt.

“Yeah yeah, you win.”

“God this sucks. Here, your meal tickets.”

Among them, Goran felt the worst. Not just from Kaelen’s attitude, but also because he just blew 10 meal tickets. He calmed himself, approached Kaelen and sneered.

“What’s wrong? Did you eat something wrong yesterday?”

He spoke in a gentle tone that seemed to be filled with friendly concern, but his expression was murderous.

But Kaelen did not respond and just kept reading his textbook. Goran’s face hardened. Infuriated, he walked over as fast as he could and took away Kaelen’s book. Only then did he look up at him.

“What’s your problem?”

“‘What’s your problem?’ Hah.”

Goran was about to spew a string of curses. However, the moment he received Kaelen’s attention, he stopped without even realizing it.

‘W-what happened?’

When did the guy who was just sitting in his seat stand up? He felt like he had seen a ghost. Whereas Kaelen simply stared at the dumbfounded Goran.

‘What the hell is up with this guy?’

As he scrutinized these guys in more detail, Kaelen’s memories clearly surfaced - from the moment he had entered the Low Quarter to the end of his life.

In the beginning, his life was decent. Everyone smiled and treated Kaelen well, and he was happy. He felt as if he had finally found a place to belong.

That was until they had discovered the truth. He had a hopeless rune sensitivity and could not even carve 1-star runes properly. Even worse, he was a totally abandoned orphan from the streets.

“Trash.”

“A bastard like you doesn’t even deserve to be called a fighter.”

“I’m begging you, so just hurry up and die.”

In Kaelen’s memory, Bruk’s horde were devils. Even Roric’s impregnable mental strength could not prevent Kaelen’s body from trembling so weakly. He could guess how much he had suffered until now. He had had a hard and painful life. Above all, it was due to the fact that he had no one to rely on.

“…”

Kaelen accepted his memories completely. And at the same time, he made a judgment. Kaelen did not intend to retaliate against Bruk and his party. This was because the level difference was too great. It is like an adult getting involved in a playground dispute.

But it was not the same. Bruk’s party’s atrocious acts were as vicious as any other corrupt city official.

“I can’t.”

“W-what?”

Goran was a little scared from the sudden change in Kaelen’s attitude and how he vanished and reappeared like a ghost. But mainly it was his eyes.

His eyes were like bottomless pits. Just by looking into them, he felt as if he was being sucked into his soul.

Roric recalled his memories when he was a Rune Knight. By the time he was hailed as the Great Rune Knight, he had garnered another name, the Great Teacher. He raised, led, and supported many of his disciples.

However, he did not consider himself a good man. Because Roric never forgave those who pointed a blade at him. Nevertheless, thanks to him nurturing a spirit of deep discipline, unnecessary disputes tended to be avoided as much as possible.

But now it was different. 500 years.

He had been sealed in the abyss for a long time. Regardless of how much Roric kept his reason intact, it was difficult to stay alone in a space where there was nothing. He had been on the brink of madness hundreds of times, and had several occasions where his consciousness had nearly been consumed.

But Roric had succeeded in maintaining his self-awareness.

How? There was only one way. He expelled his violent emotions endlessly. He constantly recalled the beings who had sealed himself away. His outrage neared bloodthirst. For months, he would mutter words of hatred and curses so profane that they were difficult to say aloud.

Clear mirror, still water was essential to increase the rank of one’s rune magic, but Roric at that time had no choice. Had he maintained only such static emotions, his consciousness would have been consumed by the abyss ages ago.

Phwack!

“… Kgh!”

Goran was unable to make a sound. All of a sudden, he felt severe pain in his abdomen and could not even breathe properly. He felt like he had been impaled by a spear. His eyes rolled back, and he lost consciousness, his body slamming against the ground with an audible thud.

“W-what was that?”

“What’s going on?”

Goran had fallen down in an instant. At least it appeared that way to the fighters in the training ground. No one saw what really happened.

‘…’

It was Kaelen. His actions were surprisingly simple. After activating rune essence all over his body to drastically improve his physical ability, he brought his fist into Goran’s stomach. And with a faster move than the previous, he recovered it.

However, this series of processes was unorthodoxly fast. At least to an extent the other fighters would never realize.