Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage-Chapter 136: Joselin’s Secret

CH136 Joselin’s Secret

***

Alex regained consciousness a few hours later.

His body still ached, but between his natural regeneration, the passive effects of his True Name, and the healing from the Everspring Rune, he had mostly recovered from the worst of it.

He immediately sensed a familiar presence nearby.

Sliding off the bed, he saw Fen curled up fast asleep, just like always.

The cub had been pushing itself hard to cultivate, clearly trying to grow stronger quickly—to share in its Alpha’s burdens.

Alex made his way into the lodge’s training room, where Udara was already waiting. ƒгeewёbnovel.com

"How was it?" he asked.

"You were right," Udara replied. "She tried to flee the moment she confirmed her son’s death."

She gestured to the side, revealing a bound and gagged Joselin, unconscious.

Alex walked up to her and began muttering under his breath—

Pretending to chant a spell.

A portal shimmered into existence beside Joselin and silently sucked her in.

Udara’s eyes widened.

Teleportation was rare enough... but a spell of that level, cast so effortlessly?

At the early Intermediate rank?

Unheard of.

She had no idea that Alex hadn’t cast a spell at all.

He had simply authorised the OmniRune Core to trigger its teleportation function.

"She’s now somewhere no one can find or trace her," Alex said flatly, intentionally reinforcing the misunderstanding.

Udara nodded slowly.

"She pulled this out from a hidden compartment," she said, handing over a phone and a tightly rolled communication scroll.

Alex raised a brow.

The scroll was one of the world secure types of communication—lagged, but nearly untraceable.

It had long been the gold standard for covert communication in Pangea... At least, until Alex introduced Rune Phones.

"This scroll was used to contact the Holt family," Udara added. "But strangely... the phone was hidden even better than the scroll."

Alex’s ruby-red eyes gleamed.

If the scroll was her method for communicating with the Holts, then... why was the phone hidden even more securely?

He accepted the phone and activated the OmniRune Core.

A silent connection linked to the device.

Back in his previous life, Alex had worked for over a decade at a tech firm with military defence contracts.

The company’s products had been sold not only to their government’s Department of Defence, but also to allied—and occasionally rival—nations.

Such tech always had secret backdoors, built at the request of the government, to allow quiet surveillance of who was using it, how, and where.

So naturally, when Alex designed his Rune Phones for Pangea, he included backdoors—accessible only through the OmniRune Core.

Not just in Rune Phones.

Even his RuneNet and Rune Tattoos had embedded failsafes.

A network of control protocols, meant to prevent his own creations from ever being turned against him.

Call it occupational paranoia.

In particular, every Rune Phone carried a hidden bypass protocol, letting him override any passcode, security rune, or biometric lock.

The locks were solid enough to keep out thieves,

But against Alex?

Pointless.

In seconds, OmniRune cracked it.

The call logs revealed something peculiar.

The phone had only ever been used to make calls to a single number, and that number alone.

All Rune Phones were linked through a single, central Rune Server—a unified network system to which OmniRune had unrestricted access.

Because of that, Alex had no trouble tracing the mysterious number.

Not only could he identify the owner of the number, but he could also track all locations where it had been used.

According to the metadata, the phone had been purchased through a proxy.

It was only used once by the buyer before it passed to someone else.

Clearly, a deliberate attempt to hide the true identity of the user.

But that didn’t make sense. Why would the Holts go through the trouble of concealing the purchase?

No one, after all, knew that Rune Phones could be tracked or traced.

That particular secret was something Alex had no intention of sharing—

Not even with Zora.

If the Holts weren’t trying to cover their tracks, then the only logical conclusion was that Joselin had been working with someone else—

Someone who operated in the shadows and couldn’t afford exposure.

That theory gained more weight when Alex reviewed the activity log.

There had been a sharp spike in calls between Joselin and the mystery number—all in the days leading up to the assassination attempt on his life.

The spike peaked on the day of the attempt itself.

’So, this unknown individual was the one who arranged the assassination,’ Alex thought.

’Joselin couldn’t have pulled it off under Father’s nose. Not when he knew I was returning. Not when her motives were so obvious. If I were him, I’d have placed her under surveillance...’

’That means someone else—someone not connected to the Holts—must’ve helped her carry out the plan.’

Even more damning, the call logs showed at least one contact per day between Joselin and the number ever since Alex arrived in Ashes City.

There had been another spike yesterday and earlier today—Likely in preparation for his duel with Kurt.

’That would explain how Kurt got hold of that rare mental defence artefact,’ Alex noted.

In contrast, the communication scroll Joselin had hidden told a different story.

Alex ran a mana trace on it.

From the faint residual energy, it was clear she hadn’t used it in quite some time.

’If she wasn’t using the scroll, then she wasn’t talking to the Holts—at least not about anything important or secret.’

His crimson eyes narrowed.

’That confirms it... it wasn’t the Holt family Joselin was working with. It was a third party.’

Alex pulled up the last known call locations.

Most of the connections were clustered around the northwestern region of the Empire.

They all fell within the broader territory of the Fury Family’s lands...

But interestingly, none were within Earl Drake’s fief itself.

That small detail left Alex momentarily unsure of what to make of it all.

He put the phone aside for now and turned back to Udara.

"You’ve done well. Thank you."

"I’m only doing my duty," Udara replied.

’Duty, huh...’ Alex mused inwardly.

He was about to say more, when he suddenly paused.

Both he and Udara turned toward the front entrance.

Without a sound, Udara vanished on the spot.

Alex walked to the door and opened it.

His eyes flickered with surprise when he saw who was standing there.

"What’s with that look? Can’t I come visit you?" the visitor asked with a smirk.

"No... It’s just... I can’t remember the last time you actually came here," Alex said, stepping aside.

The two walked into the lodge’s living room and took their seats.

Alex leaned back slightly, gaze steady.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit, Father?"

**

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