Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 164

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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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Chapter 164.
The Voice of the Sealed Land (10)
Zero spoke of the sword as a black abstraction. He was not referring to the Winterer that Daphnen possessed.
“Since I came of age, I have yearned for the history of Ganapoli throughout my life, yet I cannot escape the shackle of being born and raised in this land. But you are different. In their eyes, you are not the child of the Moon Queen.”
Zero gazed upward at the sky. Behind the cliff, he saw the round afterimage left by the hidden sun.
“The magic of Ganapoli was a power close to the sun. When we came to the Moon Queen’s land, it weakened. The ghosts carrying the memories of Ganapoli would never welcome such circumstances. Perhaps that is why they wish to speak with you instead of us, who grew up under the Moon Queen’s influence. The Moon Queen’s possessiveness even killed the greatest genius born with the sun’s essence in the end….”
Zero’s voice trembled more violently than ever before.
“I could not forgive it. Though I turned my back in a moment of misunderstanding, I still loved my friend desperately… I could not forgive the Regent who pushed him away, nor myself for being unable to do anything but watch.”
After a long while, Zero rose to his feet. He looked down at Daphnen, who remained silent.
“Let us return, Daphnen. Thank you for telling me such things. Whether you wish it or not, even if you refuse in the end, I cannot completely abandon my hopes for you. We, denied even by our ancestors, a withered branch severed from a great tradition on this island… I wish once more for the ‘Sun Civilization’ that protected that magical kingdom, Ganapoli, for thousands of years to be built.”
By merely existing, one gives hope to some and disappointment to others, and the burden thus placed cannot be carelessly cast aside—this happens everywhere.
When Daphnen fled the Continent, he desired no new relationships.
He came to the Island seeking only peace of mind, yet in doing so, he gave something to Nauplion, to Isolet, to Despoina, to Hector and Ekion, to Oizis, and to Zero.
Understanding Zero’s heart made it all the more painful. Zero’s attempt to find Ilios’s image in Daphnen was an action he could not help—for he too had been wounded.
Could he shake off the Island’s memories, studded with joy and pain, hope and anger, and all of it?

Oizis tried to endure by covering his mouth, but eventually he retched violently, expelling what he had eaten at lunch.
Even in his dazed state, he thought of it. To soil the Library’s floor like this. He felt sorry toward Zero, but he could not forgive himself more.
Yet the practical problem still lay outside.
The Library’s door was locked while Zero was away, but Oizis, who had grown close to Zero, knew where the spare key was hidden.
Of course, under normal circumstances, he would never have revealed the key’s hiding place before others.
But the situation was so urgent that after circling the Library several times, he finally pulled the key from the crack of the broken foundation stone at the Library’s entrance, right before the pursuing boys’ eyes.
And he succeeded in unlocking the door and slipping inside just before their hands could grab him.
Oizis, who ordinarily did not even run lightly, had sprinted at the greatest speed he had ever achieved in his life, so his exhaustion upon stopping was inevitable.
His knees buckled and he barely caught himself from collapsing, but dry heaves continued to surge from deep in his throat. Though nothing more remained to come, sticky saliva and gastric fluid kept pooling in his mouth.
He wanted to believe he was safe. Yet he knew better than anyone that he was not.
“Come out! Can’t you come out?”
“Surely you don’t think hiding in there will let you escape our grasp?”
“If you don’t come out right now, we’ll smash the door down!”
In that moment, Oizis let out a cry close to a scream.
“No… I can’t!”
The Library was the most precious place to Oizis. He was not one to tolerate even a single scratch on its door.
But did he have the strength to stop them?
“No? Then jump out of that Library or garbage heap right now!”
“You cowardly bastard, chased like a squirrel and scurrying into a rat hole!”
“If you don’t come out by the time we count to three, it’s over!”
Pikus kicked at the door as if to threaten. The Oizis they knew was a boy who, at this level, would conjure only the worst scenarios in his mind and eventually surrender.
Moreover, they were angry. Pikus especially, having been headbutted by Oizis.
He intended to trample the boy until his anger subsided, regardless of whether Oizis capitulated or begged forgiveness.
When they paused their kicking for a moment, a soft voice flowed from inside the door.
“This isn’t a trash bin or a rat hole.”
“What… did you say?”
The boys, who didn’t remember everything they’d shouted in their excitement, didn’t understand what Oizis was saying at first.
“I don’t care that you insult me. But this place holds all the memories of our Island. Everything about your parents and their parents before them. How can you curse a place like this so carelessly?”
Oizis’s voice, which had trembled at first, gradually grew calm. So much so that the excited boys became bewildered instead.
“Beat me instead. Rather than let such words leave your mouths.”
Oizis gazed up at the ladder leading to the upper chamber. Hundreds, thousands of books sleeping there, waiting for the touch of human hands….
Yet those who came were only small, inadequate, foolish children like myself.
What use was it for a weak coward without even the strength to resist such children to have read all those books?
Another fit of coughing seized me. But I had already made my decision. Even if I were beaten to death by these children, I would not hide here and endure such insults.
I could not let the dignity of the Library be diminished because of my own worthless self, despised by these children.
In this moment, I imagined the books as sacred beings, like the Moon Queen herself. Without realizing it, I was consumed by such thoughts. I was a worshipper, a priest. Therefore, I had a duty to fulfill.
“I’m leaving. Wait here.”
The door creaked and swung open. Oizis walked out without hesitation, closed the door behind me, and locked it again with the key.
Then I tried to slip the key through the narrow gap in the door. It was an expression of my resolve never to return, no matter how my heart might waver.
But at that very moment, the cunning Gale thought of something far more amusing than simply beating the defenseless Oizis.
He suddenly grabbed Oizis’s arm and twisted it, then turned to the other boys and shouted.
“Hey, won’t you come in?”
Everything happened in an instant. The boys snatched up the key Oizis had dropped and burst through the door into the Library. In their rush, the candlestick on the table toppled over, and an extinguished candle rolled across the floor.
As Oizis was shoved by the boys and stumbled against a chair, the others irritably kicked at the scattered objects all around.
“Why is it so dark?”
“It’s a mess.”
“How do you open this window?”
They had never set foot in the Library in their entire lives. Therefore, they knew nothing of its layout.
The Library possessed a mechanism that even Daphnen had once seen and marveled at, allowing the windows to open and close at once.
It was also evidence that the Ilios Priest had designed this Library. The mechanism for opening and closing the door that Daphnen had seen at Isolet’s House last winter operated on the same principle.
“You call this a Library? Where are the books?”
“Here’s one.”
One boy grabbed the corner of the book spread open on the table and lifted it, then spun it around as if swinging a mouse’s tail. The binding, weakened by age, tore with a sharp sound.
“Stop!”
It was the book Zero had been reading before leaving. Oizis desperately tried to stop them but was quickly blocked by the other boys.
Pikus spat out his words with contempt.
“Come here. You’re mine.”
What followed was a blur of moments I couldn’t quite remember clearly. While Oizis was beaten by Pikus, the other boys turned the already disordered Library nearly upside down.
They weren’t particularly worried about Zero returning to see this state. In such cases, the method of escape was simple: blame everything on Oizis.
Zero would know better than anyone that Oizis would never do such a thing, but if the boys pressured him, Oizis would testify falsely without hesitation. That would be enough.
The price of having so easily capitulated and done the boys’ bidding with his words had come due in this manner.
If that seemed unfair, one could simply say that Oizis had been hiding in the Library mocking them, and in their anger, they’d gone in and fought, which is how it came to this.
Moreover, this time they had solid backing. The one who had ordered them today to torment Oizis and provoke Daphnen was none other than Ekion.
They also knew well that his father, Priest Peloros, had given something close to tacit approval. The two of them were certainly plotting something against Daphnen.
The boys dutifully completed their tasks, which both eased my accumulated frustration and provided them with an entertaining spectacle—truly a win for all.
“Hey, there’s a ladder here. The books must be up there somewhere…”
Gale chuckled wickedly upon hearing this.
“So the little ground squirrel has found his stairway to heaven.”
Likos glanced at Oizis upon hearing this remark. Oizis lay half-conscious beneath Pikus’s feet.
Seeing his pathetic state, I felt an sudden urge to grab a few books and scatter them across his face.
“Let’s go up.”

We had walked perhaps twenty paces from the Forgotten Cemetery when Zero suddenly stiffened, stopped in his tracks, and gazed upward at the sky.
“The weather is indeed far too bright, isn’t it?”
“Pardon?”
The sun was beginning to set, making the weather cool rather than bright. Daphnen looked up at the sky as well, then followed as Zero resumed walking.
It seemed like a meaningless remark, yet those words embedded themselves in my chest like embers of unease, smoldering there. Daphnen found this strange and quickened his pace.
Just as Daphnen kept overtaking Zero only to stop repeatedly, Zero halted once more. He cupped his cheeks with both hands.
“Something feels off.”
Then it occurred to Daphnen—just as premonitions sometimes came before major events, there was no reason such a sensation couldn’t exist in others as well.
“Do you perhaps have a feeling that something bad is about to happen…?”
Zero regarded Daphnen with an uncertain expression.
“Are you sensing something strange too?”
“It’s just that I…used to get this feeling before something would happen, like I could sense it coming. I thought perhaps you were experiencing something similar.”
Zero gazed at Daphnen for a long moment. His motionless figure resembled a crimson stone statue silhouetted against the sunlight.

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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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