The True Purpose of the Rune Stones
That was the reason. It was why Veronica had thrown herself so passionately into collecting rune stones and kept at it without stopping. No, it wasn’t just Veronica. The entire Bicorn tribe must have been the same. No matter how many they gathered, they could never discover the stones’ true purpose. After all, they were cursed to be unable to speak with other races. Without being able to consult outsiders, they would never have learned that other species could even see the stones.
I felt the last piece of the puzzle click into place. My scholar’s intuition screamed that this was the answer.
I pulled the rune stones out of the chamber—they flickered like broken incandescent bulbs—and arranged them on the table.
The rune stones and the message Odin left me share the same root.
A magical item that passed its knowledge on to any opponent who fulfilled the successor’s “conditions.” That was their real purpose.
I should check what the other stones contain first.
I rubbed the precious spot on the first stone—the one belonging to Spear Goddess and her jaw-dropping spear demonstration—and cut the video off. Simply severing the mana flow shut it down on its own. The blood-red glow faded, and the image froze.
I carefully set aside the divine-era rune stone that recorded the mythical-age spear art known as Geirtýr.
This feels like SSS-rank spear technique. I definitely need to watch it again later.
After tucking away my precious direct-cam footage of Spear Goddess, I picked up the next “lecture ticket.” I smoothly raised the rune’s mana and asked the stone:
“Tell me—do you bleed too?”
Germania People Are Herbivores.
Borscht Recipe That Brings Runaway Husbands Home!
There’s a Bird That Mimics Human Speech?!
A Milking Method That Pleases Both Parties and Causes No Pain!
To cut straight to the conclusion, the other four rune stones did bleed. I had poured mana into them with sky-high expectations, only to discover their contents were completely fucking useless.
Primitive ancient YouTube lineup, ladies and gentlemen. If I bought four pirated tapes from Cheonggyecheon, at least one of them should have been decent. Damn it.
Just so we’re clear, if you got excited by that last title—“A Milking Method”—I’m truly sorry. I felt my hopes surge for about ten seconds after reading it too. From the title alone I was already imagining attaching milking machines to Franc’s and Dana’s nipples—probably because I hadn’t had sex in days and was starving—but the actual video featured a creature that was zero percent arousing.
“Meeeh.”
“Meeeh my ass, you fucker…”
Whoosh!
I sliced the damn goat boy clean in half with a spear carrying the breath of the Golden Sun. Since the image was made of mana, it shattered on contact with magic. The rune stone itself remained intact and could be replayed, but why the hell would I waste time watching a hairy male bastard fondle an animal’s udders?
Flicker.
I extinguished the spear’s flame and clicked my tongue.
Four duds in a row. What the actual fuck.
The first stone had been a guaranteed SSS-rank because it was the opening draw. I never imagined not being able to watch the others would piss me off this much. If even one of them had contained something like a 360-year-old elf streamer’s sexy dance, I was planning to secretly pocket it for my wives. Instead I got hit with the isekai version of YouTube’s region lock and let out a long, frustrated sigh.
Forty minutes left until the teleportation circle’s fuse burns out.
Just like no one boards the subway with only ten minutes before their shift starts, I needed to get ready to leave. I rolled my eyes, then dashed out of the cave. Hildegard and the underlings waiting outside were sitting around yawning.
Hildegard seemed to have misunderstood, but explaining would take too long, so I let her keep thinking that. The youngest Bicorn, chosen as representative, wagged her tail and scampered off. That’s how the world works. The youngest male among older sisters always ends up doing the chores.
I gave a polite bow and returned to the stone chamber.
The last remaining rune stone was a stele that reached up to my waist.
As I walked through the cave I whipped my brain into gear. Even if the stones broke or shattered into pieces, they regenerated perfectly. Maybe crushing them like sugar cookies was part of the manufacturing process; perhaps they were distributed in fragmented form.
They could have increased the quantity by breaking them, so why insist on the stele shape?
As far as I knew, there were only two reasons to spend money on something useless.
One: because it looks cool.
Two: because it’s arousing.
We’ll skip number two. If some rock-fucker had erected the stele, I wouldn’t want to touch it anyway. This wasn’t Pygmalion—who the hell would fuck pure stone? By inductive reasoning, the answer was clearly number one.
Even then, “because it looks cool” splits into two categories: thinking it’s cool by yourself, or when other people also think it’s cool.
After running logical thinking at this crossroads, I concluded it was the latter. Why? If I erected a Gaogaigar statue in this world, men would risk their lives to protect it. But if I put up a Military Pengsoo statue, it would be ripped apart like a snowman and turned into penguin giblets within three hours.
The fact that such a large stele has been preserved until now means the people of this world acknowledged its value.
Therefore, whatever it contained was very likely something extremely important. The large rune stone had probably been erected by someone in power, unlike the smaller ones. After all, the big usually encompasses the small. Bigger is better—except for our wives’ breasts, of course.
Ah. I want to make Dana’s tits lactate.
The father who appeared in my dream would probably scold me, but since it was only a dream, it should be fine, right? If pregnancy was still too early, maybe there was a potion like in those erotic novels that could induce lactation just by drinking it. Then again, if it existed it would probably be as niche as a male anal masturbation dildo. My affection for this other world was dropping again.
“Hail Jujidra.”
Having been separated from my wives for three whole days, I returned to the stone chamber while still enslaved by Jujiconda.
Whirl!
I channeled the rune’s mana and touched the stele I had saved for last. The waist-high monument was inscribed with over a dozen runic characters. Because of the abstract nature of the script, I could only make out fragmentary phrases.
My brain’s Papago can even solve complex codes, yet it has two fatal flaws.
The other flaw was that whenever Franc or Dana called me “oppa,” it always sounded like plain “brother.” If it had provided full audio service up to “oppa,” I would have given it five stars.
Flash—!
The stele absorbed the mana and began playing the recording. After clearing three meters of space in front of me with a moonwalk, a human figure materialized like a beam projector.
It was an old man sitting on a sofa. His gaunt body looked as if every drop of vitality had been sucked out of it. My machismo-honed hawk eyes instantly noticed that his once-bulging muscles had deflated like balloons.
Open, Beck Eye!
Gleam!
The power of Earth’s hero dwelled in my eyes. The macho side examined his muscles while the scholar side estimated the historical period.
The sofa’s stitching is a place-knot. The bracelet is a divine-era artifact but heavily worn. A family heirloom?
His clothes were Romanian in style, but since it was an era when the nobility promoted frugal fashion, clothing alone couldn’t reveal his status. If this had been a ruin there would have been more clues, but guessing origin from clothes alone was stupid anyway. Veronica herself was a Germania god-race yet wore Romanian dresses.
One thing was certain, however: this old man was from the golden age of ancient civilization.
……Erase it all.
Erase the past transgressions. If you too are one who has offered your neck to the final satisfaction, then you have the duty to deceive the scale weight that contains your blood and flesh.
Go and destroy. Return to the land where the transgression you committed first began. To the continent where the gods first fell asleep──
The old man, who somehow didn’t feel like a mere recording, vanished while leaving a nasty aftertaste. The entire playback lasted less than thirty seconds. I stared with wide eyes.
That was it? A stele dozens of times larger than the others, and this was all it had to say? Never mind the shitty feeling of a video letter—there was almost no substance. As if that was all that needed to be said. Or rather, as if he couldn’t say more.
The instructor looked like a zombie and the content was sloppy. I wanted a refund.
While I was still examining the stele, Veronica walked in. She must have transformed on the way; she was in her god-race form, one eye closed, looking exhausted.
“Why aren’t you transformed? Mana shortage?”
“That somehow sounds like it’s my fault, so please stop phrasing it that way……”
Veronica smiled and touched her horn. She had arrived much faster than I expected. As if she had anticipated my thoughts, she explained.
Veronica took a bag out of a box. It was large enough to carry every rune stone in the chamber. As she handed it to me she smiled again.
“I’m not stealing them. Didn’t you collect these with blood and sweat? Even if I took this many I’d have nowhere to use them. I asked you to bring the bag so you could take them.”
Veronica tilted her head. I showed her the image of Spear Goddess that appeared when I rubbed the “juji” rune stone. Stating the conclusion first and then adding explanation was the key to a memorable presentation.
—Can you hear me clearly? From now on, to you who have acquired this rune stone, I shall teach my spear technique, Geirtýr.
When Spear Goddess took her stance, Veronica flinched. She had sensed the danger.
Still, as expected of a veteran mage, Veronica seemed to have seen through the figure’s true nature. She looked at me, puzzled.
“To get straight to the point, rune stones are recording mediums.”
I laid out only the facts and kept the explanation short. There wasn’t much time left before the magic circle activated. If I was late it would be like missing a flight; I’d be stuck here eating, sleeping, and shitting until dawn tomorrow.
Veronica let out a low groan. She seemed to be reflecting on her research results with a complicated expression, so I waited until she calmed down before asking my question.
“Veronica. You were collecting rune stones because of the prophecy, weren’t you?”
“I didn’t ask for the details. Honestly, there turned out to be more work than I expected and time is tight. So here’s what I’m saying—if you were planning to come with me, bring the rune stones here too.”
Tap tap.
I tapped the stones. Going back and forth to schedule everything would be a hassle.
“Bring any luggage you need from here as well. Who knows? If other people manage to fulfill the stones’ conditions, something new might be revealed.”
Muttering to herself, Veronica picked up one of the stones. She tried channeling mana into it the way I had demonstrated, but the stone gave no reaction no matter what kind she used.
I knew the feeling of hard work turning out to be pointless all too well, so I had a comforting line prepared. Before I could speak, however, Veronica smiled brightly.
“……You’re too kind.”
I closed my half-open mouth and answered. From the first time we met I had vaguely sensed it, but this woman might have a stronger mentality than I had given her credit for.