Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 165

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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 165.
The Call of the Sealed Land (11)
After a moment, he exhaled a short breath and spoke in a hardened voice.
“In recent years—no, since that incident—I’ve never felt anything like this. What you’re describing, on the Island we call ‘seeing with the third eye,’ yes? Those with such strong abilities are said to ‘possess the third eye.’ Currently, the only person on the Island who could be called that is Priestess Petra, but even she doesn’t perceive all futures.”
I hadn’t known there was a name for such an ability. Zero continued.
“And ordinary people aren’t completely blind to such things either. When misfortune closely tied to oneself looms ahead, anyone—even with the dimmest of eyes—can sense it. I’m rather dull to such things, so I’ve only felt it once, just before Ilios died, and never again… But now, what is all this?”
Zero began moving again, this time faster than Daphnen. A low murmur escaped from him as he led the way.
“Yet they say the third eye sees only misfortune…”
By the time they had nearly descended the Northern Slope, the two were running.
Familiar scenery blurred past them. In the distance, a figure came running toward them, then suddenly stopped. Soon that one figure became two, then three.
One of them rushed closer and shouted, breathless.
“Where have you been? Come to the Library at once!”
Zero’s answering shout startled Daphnen.
“What’s happened? What in the world has occurred?”
The man shook his head dismissively, as though he had no time to answer, and bolted down toward the village.
Words were unnecessary. Zero and Daphnen burst from the Northern Slope and raced up the slope leading eastward. As the Library drew near, both of them caught the scent at once.
Burning.
I watched Zero, who could hardly be called nimble in ordinary circumstances, run with incredible speed. I saw black smoke stretching through the green-tinged branches like an irredeemable sin.
The smoke did not dissipate; it only grew thicker. About a dozen people came into view. And then I saw the Library itself, wreathed in black smoke, which they surrounded and gazed up at helplessly.
“Ahhh…”
A strange exclamation—whether admiration or lamentation, I could not tell. The lower walls had already blackened, and flames licked their tongues from all sides.
Built of wood though it was, the tower of books that had been meticulously maintained for so long by one person’s devotion crumbled helplessly.
Within it, rare volumes that could not be found even across the Continent were turning to ash, one after another.
What fell from the walls the fire had torn through were only darkened leather bindings. The precious pages that should have been within them had become ash.
How many books were still burning in agony within that inferno?
To Zero, those books would sound like screaming children. The moment Daphnen realized this, he seized Zero’s arm.
On an island where even two-story buildings were rare, the only means of fighting fire that people possessed were buckets of water and sand. Not a single Priestess had arrived yet.
The fire was already beyond the reach of a few buckets of water, so the people could only wait anxiously for one of the Priesthood to arrive.
If Zero were to rush in to retrieve books in these circumstances, no one could guarantee his life.
“…”
The arm Daphnen gripped trembled violently. Daphnen brought his face close and shook his head firmly.
If only Isolet’s chant were here! Why weren’t any of the Priesthood coming?
Zero tried to wrench his arm free from Daphnen’s grasp, then seemed to change his mind and walked toward the Library with his arm still held. The gathered people stepped back several paces.
From about a dozen steps away, Daphnen did everything he could to restrain him with as much courtesy as possible. But Zero took a few more steps before stopping of his own accord. He too was struggling desperately to contain himself.
The flames continued to devour precious and irreplaceable books, one after another. The secrets of the Island that Zero had wished to convey to people were perishing along with them.
Daphnen resolved to say anything at all if it would only keep Zero from advancing further.
“Zero, when the Priestesses arrive, the fire will be extinguished quickly. So please, don’t do anything dangerous…”
But then, words that should never have been spoken came from someone’s mouth.
“There’s a child in there! I’m sure of it! There’s only one child who goes there to read books, isn’t there?”
Daphnen felt his mind go blank. Oizis! How could he have forgotten his promise to that boy?
Daphnen rushed toward the Library, having forgotten even the fact that he was trying to stop Zero. But this time, it was Zero who seized his arm.
He spoke in a voice that could not be ignored.
“Daphnen, is that true?”
“….”
Daphnen could not bring himself to speak, but his eyes had already confessed everything.
“Oizis is in there?”
“….”
“I see.”
Zero suddenly released Daphnen’s arm. Then he strode toward the Library, his voice booming like a command no one could disobey.
“Let no one follow me. Do you all hear? Let no one follow me!”
In barely seven strides, Zero vanished completely from Daphnen’s sight. All that remained visible was a heap of ash belching black smoke.
Those who had regained their senses gripped Daphnen’s limbs firmly to prevent him from following. Held fast, he could do nothing but cry out toward the Library.
“Come back! Zero! Please come back!”
At the same time, different words echoed in his mind. I abandoned Oizis to be alone and forgot about him! I made a promise with him but completely forgot it for half a day!
Suddenly tears welled up.
As tears darkened by soot streaked down his face, Daphnen thrashed and cried out weakly. Come back, please just come back, and let me go instead.

When Priestess Despoina, Morpheus, and Thesmopolos arrived, the crowd gathered around the Library had swelled to five times its original size.
Despoina had come prepared with a powerful incantation after hearing the gravity of the situation.
As the other two priests lent her their strength, the incantation was chanted over the course of ten minutes, and when a massive torrent of water poured down upon the Library, the fire finally ceased.
But what remained was devastating.
Even the priests could not easily find words as they gazed upon the Library, more than half of which had turned to ash.
The remaining structure stood precariously, its collapse imminent at any moment. In such circumstances, no one stepped forward readily to confirm whether Zero and Oizis were alive or dead.
Despoina approached Daphnen.
Standing as he was facing the direction the wind blew from, Daphnen’s face was caked with black dust beyond recognition. Though he no longer shed tears, the traces where they had flowed remained vivid.
Before Despoina could speak, Daphnen spoke first.
“Please allow me to go in.”
Despoina shook her head without a word. But freed from the people’s grasp, Daphnen spoke again with unmistakable resolve.
“Though wrongs may be forgiven, did not the Moon Queen herself say that what is done cannot be undone? I will go in. I must.”
Daphnen walked past Despoina. Morpheus, exchanging a glance with Despoina, approached and handed over the divining staff he held in his hand.
Daphnen bowed his head and then moved toward the blackened entrance of the Library.
The thick door with its iron frame had turned pitch black and was wedged in the wall’s crevice. Daphnen drew his sword.
It was a blade borrowed from Nauplion, not the Winterer, but the door crumbled in mere moments without even a few swings. As the door collapsed, black dust enveloped his entire body.
He stepped inside.
The ceiling of the lower chamber had nearly collapsed, revealing the upper floor clearly. When he tilted his head back, the wall where books had been stacked stood precariously, barely holding itself up through the gaps burned into it. The spire’s ceiling was completely open, revealing a fragment of clouded sky.
The interior was dark, but the divining staff, as if knowing what he sought, shone with brilliant light. Normally, it took time to align one’s will with the staff, but now it was instantaneous.
As he moved toward where the staff’s light grew stronger, charred piles of books appeared. But the two were not there.
He raised the staff high into the air. The light intensified again. Turning to the side, he saw part of a ladder, blackened by soot, still connecting the upper and lower chambers. But no one could guarantee its safety.
Yet Daphnen had to climb.
He approached and touched the ladder; it looked far more dangerous than he expected. As he stepped onto the first rung, it creaked slightly, and as he climbed the second and third rungs, dust crumbled down in showers. But he continued climbing the ladder.
The acrid stench of scorched blankets and cushions assailed my nostrils. The ladder’s end barely clung to one corner of the upper loft, which had lost more than half its floor.
Miraculously reaching the upper loft, Daphnen discovered a towering heap of blankets piled in one corner and approached it.
He grabbed a cushion, but its corner crumbled and fell away. As he continued to sift through the blankets and cushions, he finally found two people.
At first, he thought it was one person. But it was unmistakably two.
Zero, draped in a blackened blanket, held Oizis tightly in his embrace.
When Daphnen placed his hand on Zero’s shoulder, the body surprisingly moved.
“Someone… has come.”
The walls on all sides had largely collapsed and ruptured, which seemed to have prevented suffocation.
But looking at Oizis cradled in Zero’s arms, his entire body was in terrible condition—not just burns and dust, but everything was ruined. His face was covered in bruises from being struck.
Daphnen was bewildered. How could someone trapped in fire sustain such wounds? Moreover, how could they lose so much blood?
“You’re alive. Thank goodness.”
“Ah, Daphnen.”
The two fell silent for a moment. Daphnen wanted to ask if Oizis was alive, but he couldn’t bring himself to speak. Then Zero said:
“We’re both too weak to move properly. I don’t know how we’re supposed to get down.”
Daphnen turned to look back. The unstable ladder he had climbed was useless for the two of them.
Even if Oizis were alive, he wouldn’t be able to walk on his own. If they tried to carry him on their back and descended with the weight of two people, the ladder would surely collapse.
He couldn’t ask injured people to jump down. It was quite a height even for a healthy person to jump from.
“I’ll go down and tell them to break through this wall.”
“That won’t work. We’re currently leaning against the load-bearing wall of the entire Library. That’s why this part still remains. If you break through that side, the remaining walls might all collapse at once. The structure of this place is rather… unusual. Well, it was designed by an unusual person, so what can you expect.”
Zero let out a quiet laugh. There was no sign of exhaustion in his voice, but the laughter itself made Daphnen tense. What if… something had gone wrong….
“So you go back and ask Priestess Despoina to use her magic. It will be difficult with so many obstacles around, but she should be able to lower us down there using levitation.”

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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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