Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 140: Burying Past Threats

CH140 Burying Past Threats

***

Earl Drake Fury departed the Back Mountain Lodge shortly after the Oath of Allegiance was sealed.

In the aftermath, Alex officially assigned Udara a room in the lodge—a symbolic gesture, but one that clearly marked her as a member of his inner circle.

On the matter of accommodation...

Now that Alex had been formally declared Earl Drake’s heir, some within the household considered it unbecoming for him to continue living in the Back Mountain Lodge.

In fact, Earl Drake himself had suggested he move into the Ashen Castle proper.

But Alex had declined.

The Back Mountain Lodge was his private domain—his place of peace, control, and independence.

Why would he willingly give that up just to move into someone else’s dominion?

It wasn’t as if the Ashen Castle offered that much of an advantage.

Yes, its facilities were superior in both quality and variety, but not to such a degree that Alex needed them.

The lodge’s training facilities were perfectly adequate. They could serve his needs until he reached the level of Great Mage or Veteran rank Warrior.

By that time, if he hadn’t already cultivated enough influence within Ashen Castle to make it his own turf,

Then surely, he’d have the resources to upgrade the lodge’s infrastructure himself.

And if even that failed... Well, he always had his Sanctuary pocket dimension.

So no, the Ashen Castle held little appeal.

That didn’t mean he planned to shut himself off from the world like he did back at the Enclave.

On the contrary, he knew he would have to visit the castle nearly every day to carry out his new duties as heir, receive tactical and martial training under Jared.

He also had to mingle with the Earl’s officers, aides, and influential staff—slowly building his own power base within the castle’s hierarchy.

It would be like commuting to work, except this job came with far greater stakes.

With that decided, and Udara settled in, Alex returned to his room.

He stood still for a moment, took a breath, and then opened a portal.

Stepping through, he emerged into his Sanctuary.

It was time...

Time to face the woman who had sanctioned his assassination—and had driven her son to claim a throne that was never his to take.

Alex failed to notice anything visibly different in the pocket dimension when he arrived.

And he couldn’t be blamed.

The golden light released by the bonsai tree hadn’t caused any obvious structural or spatial changes.

Its effects were conceptual, not physical.

The space looked exactly the same.

The layout unchanged.

The world undisturbed.

[A/N: I intend to upload a visual layout of the Sanctuary when this Chapter is published. Please remind me if I haven’t.]

Unaware of what had occurred in his absence, Alex turned to the woman he came to confront.

Joselin Holt-Fury.

There were significantly more male Professionals—Mages, Warriors, and Warlocks—across the Arun Continent of the Pangea Plane, particularly within the Virellian Empire.

This disparity was no accident.

The Virellian Empire was a patriarchal society through and through. But more importantly, women were treated as a protected class.

It was ironic.

An empire steeped in near-constant war, where noble houses clashed ceaselessly over land, titles, and influence...

Yet, in such a brutal landscape, there existed an unspoken rule—women and children were almost never harmed in warfare.

At least, not physically.

This unwritten code bred a cultural consequence:

Most women never walked the path of cultivation, even when they had the potential to do so.

Unlike men, who often actively sought out methods to test their cultivation affinity, in order to grow their strength and gain the ability to protect themselves and their family, women typically stumbled upon theirs by accident or coincidence.

And even after discovery, most would still choose a mundane life over the path of a Professional.

The risks were simply too great.

Women in the Empire—particularly among the common folk—were far more content to lead quiet lives: Running a business, raising children. watching their families grow.

Even among the nobility, the pattern remained largely unchanged.

Though most female Professionals came from noble blood, their numbers were still a tiny fraction of the total Professional population.

Noble women had their own form of ambition, of course.

But it rarely led them to the battlefield.

They pursued mastery in management, business, and court politics—areas where physical strength held no sway, but where strategy, negotiation, and social acumen reigned supreme.

Thus, a common joke circulated across the Empire:

”You may look down on a male Professional... But never underestimate a female one.”

Because if a woman had still chosen the path of cultivation despite society’s indulgence—she was likely a true monster in the making.

A woman’s power in the Empire might be soft, but it could make even hardened cultivators bow their heads.

Joselin Holt-Fury was a perfect example.

She had no cultivation to speak of, not a hint of martial prowess, mana sensitivity nor Spiritual Force resonance.

And yet, she had rattled the Fury family to its very core.

Not with strength, but with strategy, manipulation, and politics.

With her grasp of power dynamics and bureaucracy, Joselin had exploited the cracks in House Fury’s walls—

Not by battering them, but by turning the structure against itself.

She had redirected the family’s own rebellious elements inward, weaponised discontent, and twisted the family’s strength into a tool of division.

Alex stood over her unconscious form, silent.

There she was—a simple, weak woman by all physical accounts.

And yet, she had nearly shattered a house steeped in iron and war.

He recognised the irony clearly:

This kind of enemy... was the most dangerous of all.

He moved a chair from the corner of the resting area and placed her onto it.

For a moment, he considered tying her up, but then he paused.

He decided it wasn’t necessary.

Alex woke her.

Joselin stirred groggily, eyes fluttering open. For a moment, confusion clouded her face.

”Where... am I?” she asked, a tremble of fear in her voice.

But then her gaze landed on Alex. The fear vanished, replaced with scorn.

”What are you doing? Release me this instant, you lowborn!”

Alex’s gaze turned frosty.

”You don’t seem to understand your situation,” he said coldly. ”You’re in no position to make demands. Your life now depends entirely on my mood.”

His eyes were like sharpened ice, and they made her shiver.

”W-What do you want?” she stammered. ”If you harm me, the Holt family will not let you off—!”

Alex interrupted, tone still detached.

”What do you have to do with me? As far as anyone is concerned, you ran away from home after your son’s death.

”Your maids testified that they heard you packing your belongings the moment you returned to Ashen Castle.

”So, you see... no one is looking for you. And even if they are, they aren’t expecting to find you in danger.”

Joselin’s expression crumbled.

Despair flooded her eyes.

Alex gave a small nod, as if satisfied by her reaction.

”I don’t care about you,” he said plainly. ”The one I want is the person you were communicating with—On the other side of your hidden Rune Phone.”

Her face turned ashen.

”You... found the phone...” she whispered, her voice cracking under the weight of horror. ”No... No... No...”

She clutched her head, trembling violently.

Then she screamed.

”Kill me! Just kill me already!”

Alex frowned.

Her reaction was far more extreme than he had anticipated.

He tried another approach. ”Just tell me who they are. The Fury family can protect you.”

Her laugh was bitter. Hysterical.

”The Fury family? Do you think I would have listened to them if a mere Fury family could protect me from him— from them?!”

She stared at him with wild eyes. ”Not even the Machholts can help me!”

”Kill me! Kill me!!”

Suddenly, she sprang up—

And bolted toward Alex’s modular Rune table.

Before he could speak, she grabbed the Rune Pen...

And stabbed it straight into her neck.

Blood spurted.

She collapsed to the floor, dead before she hit it.

Alex froze.

He had expected her to try to escape.

He hadn’t expected... that.

’She feared whoever was on the other end of that call this much? Then it’s likely she didn’t join them willingly. She must have been forced...’

He sighed and crouched beside the corpse.

Gently, he closed her eyes.

Then, he pulled the bloodied Rune Pen from her throat.

It was ruined—he’d have to get another one.

”You’re a bother even in death,” he muttered with a shake of his head.

An idea came to him.

”Since you loved and spoiled your son so much, I might as well bury the two of you together.”

Alex stood up and began casting several spells.

A few were miscellaneous clean-up spells to remove the blood from the floor and the body.

Then came a series of layered detection spells.

He made absolutely sure there were no artefacts or enchantments on her corpse that could be used to track her.

Only then did he return to the outside world.

Quietly, he snuck out of the Back Mountain Lodge and made his way to the Ashen Castle under cover of darkness.

He moved carefully, ensuring that as few people as possible noticed his return.

His destination: the Castle’s morgue.

As expected, Kurt’s body had already been taken care of and was laid inside a lavish coffin.

Alex didn’t hesitate.

He placed Joselin’s corpse inside.

It was surprisingly easy.

As the Earl’s son, Kurt’s coffin was grand and spacious—

It easily fit the mother-son pair.

Joselin’s body added little weight, and with the coffin’s extraordinary weight from the reinforced material and Kurt’s remains, no one would notice the difference.

After carefully erasing his tracks, Alex returned to the lodge.

His mind, however, was far from calm.

’Joselin said not even the Machholts could help in the face of this secret organisation...’

’That means the person she called—or the group they belong to—is far more dangerous than I initially thought.’

He sighed.

’Looks like I’m not going to have a peaceful life anytime soon.’

**

Author’s Ramblings

1: The Initial Chapter Title was: Burying the Threats of the Past, and Looking towards those of the Future.

Fortunately I had a bout of clarity just before posting, and changed it.

2: The following are character models to help visualise some of the book’s characters.

-Alex Fury

-Earl Drake Fury

-Megan Fury

-Zora Frost-Pendragon

-Udara

-Asta

I’ll add more character models as I find them.