Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 171

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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 171.
The Call of the Sealed Land (17)

It had rained for four days straight.
Daphnen returned from Scoli drenched in rain, and though he considered changing clothes, he changed his mind and ventured back outside instead.
There was no way to bathe indoors anyway, and since he was already soaked, he decided to go to the river and get thoroughly wet.
A tributary that resembled a stream more than a true river wound along the forest’s edge beyond the village.
It was the only waterway that practically served the islanders’ daily needs, so they called it simply “the River” without bothering to give it any other name.
Upon reaching the riverbank, I shed my clothes and left them on the shore, then waded into the water in my short trousers.
Though not a downpour, four days of steady rain had swollen the water considerably. Where it once reached only to my knees, now my thighs were completely submerged.
Standing there, I lifted my face to the rain. It felt strangely warm.
Soon after, I lowered myself into the water and slowly began swimming toward deeper currents.
Beyond the point where the water exceeded my height even in the driest season lay a small rocky outcrop rising from the river’s center.
It was an ideal fishing spot, so on clear days the children fought fiercely over it, but now it was naturally deserted.
I had learned to swim after arriving on the Island. Since no islander could afford not to swim, I had made considerable effort to learn quickly—a memory that remained vivid.
Back then, having chosen the Island, I was straining with all my might to adapt somehow.
I swam slowly downstream. By now my swimming skill surpassed that of most children on the Island. I had certainly improved beyond the child who first taught me the basics.
Not that the child had possessed any remarkable skill to begin with.
At that time, there was only one child who could care enough to teach me anything—and for a long time afterward, only Oizis.
Lifting my head above the water where my feet no longer touched bottom, I watched the rain, now slightly lighter, strike the surface without monotony.
I shook my head and dove back under, deeper still.
The river bottom carried the detritus of life mixed with sediment, flowing endlessly like fragments of memory sunken beneath consciousness—never truly disappearing, only drifting. I too was part of that current.
The river’s flow kept pushing me forward, insisting this was the easier direction, commanding me to drift this way.
I did not wish to.
I changed direction and swam against the current. My breath grew short, but I held it and pushed on, swimming opposite to those drifting fragments.
As far as I could manage, until I could hold my breath no longer, I flipped my body and rose toward the lightless surface.
“Hah…”
A grey river flowed beneath a grey sky. Somehow I had drifted back near the shore where I first entered, just before the rocky outcrop.
I climbed onto the slick rock and sat there, tilting my head back to face the rain.
Plink.
A strange sound suddenly pierced my ear. Again—plink.
I wiped the water from my eyelashes and looked toward the riverbank. A young boy was throwing pebbles at me.
He was not trying to hit me directly, merely calling out. The rain made his face difficult to discern.
“Daphnen!”
But the voice was familiar. In that moment, the rain began to ease.
The tall boy, soaked like myself, was none other than Hector. Now I could see his face clearly.
Strangely, he seemed delighted to see me. I hesitated whether to respond.
“You’ve claimed a fine spot.”
This time Hector threw not a stone but something else, aiming it into my hands.
I reflexively reached out and caught it—a polished apple, gleaming in the rain.
When Daphnen held the apple in his hand without responding, Hector waded several steps into the water and smiled broadly.
“There’s no poison in it, so don’t worry.”
“Is there something you wanted to tell me?”
Though Daphnen’s voice was unkind, Hector paid no mind and shrugged his shoulders before pulling out another apple and taking a bite. After chewing and swallowing with a crisp sound, he spoke.
“I know you don’t welcome me, but watching you since earlier, I simply felt like striking up a conversation. Don’t take it too badly. I have no grievance with your dislike of me. Still, I think there’s much we could discuss together.”
Daphnen gained the impression that Hector genuinely had something he wished to discuss.
At the same time, he recalled his suspicion that either Ekion or Hector himself might be behind the Library incident.
Speaking with Hector now held no disadvantage for Daphnen. Perhaps he might slip up in his words, or fall into leading questions.
Daphnen signaled his willingness to converse by biting into an apple himself.
Hector nodded and sat down on the riverbank. The distance between them was about a dozen paces, but the rain had grown lighter, so conversation posed no great difficulty.
On a rainy day like this, there was no one to overhear their talk at the riverbank.
“At Silverskull, you see. Both you and I seemed intent on settling things, yet it fell through spectacularly. To be honest, even if I had fought you then, I would have had little chance of winning.”
Hector continued with a surprisingly lighthearted tone.
“Whether it was your own ability, your sword, or power from somewhere else—in any case, it was certain that you surpassed my skill. That marquis’s son was never a match for you from the start.”
“Does that mean if I asked to fight again, you would refuse now?”
“Hmm, well. I’ll think about it seriously when you actually make such a request.”
As water streamed ceaselessly down his cheeks and he wiped it away, it struck him as amusing—as though he were wiping away tears.
Hector had recently grown his hair a bit longer and tied it back; as he spoke, he habitually twisted his ponytail to wring out the water.
“And then there’s the next matter. On my way back from the Continent, I encountered some people searching for you.”
“People searching for me?”
It was entirely unexpected. Certainly there were people on the Continent seeking him. But how had Hector come to meet them?
“Your surprise is understandable. I was shocked too. Ah, you’d like to know how I happened to meet them, wouldn’t you? Strange as it is, they had been pursuing me from early on. Absurdly, they mistook me for you.”
Daphnen and Hector bore no resemblance whatsoever. For a moment, suspecting it might be a lie, Daphnen shot Hector a look, but then heard his next words.
“Of course, they didn’t mistake me for you by looking at my face. What they were searching for was a foreign boy of our age who had landed in the Elbe Island region. It seemed they had cast a surveillance net across all of Elbe Island. The natives of Elbe Island quickly recognize outsiders, you see.”
Daphnen furrowed his brow in consternation.
He had not known that those pursuing him had been so persistent. He felt somewhat foolish for having gone to the Continent and returned without knowing of it.
“Of the three ships that departed to join the Silverscull Expedition, mine landed second. I heard that the children on the first ship faced identical pursuit. They were seized the moment they landed on Elbe Island, but apparently they barely escaped with the help of some savage.”
Hector raised his eyebrows as he continued.
“Then my group was caught, though we were already returning after participating in Silverscull. How relentless they were—they even knew that I had gone into Anomarad and returned.”
Daphnen realized that had he gone to the Continent with them as part of the Silverscull Expedition, he would undoubtedly have been captured.
The delay in his departure date caused by Ekion’s conspiracy had inadvertently become a stratagem to deceive his pursuers.
While they had rushed to Anomarad to capture the expedition that landed first, he and Isolet had passed through Lemme.
“…Continue your story.”
“I was anxious about whether they knew of our island’s existence, but fortunately it seemed they did not. After capturing us, they examined each of our faces one by one and realized you were not among us. Then they asked if any of us knew a boy named Boris Jineman.”
Hector rubbed his hands together and gave a bitter smile.
“Long ago, when I angered you, you spoke that name. That’s how I knew they were searching for you. Fortunately, none of the others knew that name, so only I needed to act.”
Only then did Daphnen find the question he needed to ask.
“Could it have been a group with a woman carrying an axe and a large, dark-skinned man?”
“No, it wasn’t. Both were men, and both were thin and lanky. Their personalities seemed opposite, though. Wait—so you did encounter someone?”
He recalled when Marinov was captured and had tried to buy time. She had been waiting for her companions. And those companions had been pursuing Hector’s group.
“If you had encountered those men, even you would have struggled to escape alive. They were truly swift and terrifying. I suspect they must be professional assassins from the Continent, yes? I found myself curious about how you came to be pursued by such individuals.”
Though the reasoning was somewhat peculiar, Hector regarded Daphnen with an expression of admiration before continuing.
“I was fortunate they weren’t murderers enough to slaughter all of us, but I confess I found it bewildering. I’m unfamiliar with the standards of Continental people. But how did you manage to escape? They must have recognized you.”
Daphnen considered explaining, but instead simply said this:
“I received some assistance from people I knew in the past.”
“Well, you did live on the Continent before.”
Though somewhat uncomfortable, there was something that needed to be said. Daphnen hesitated before abruptly speaking.
“You’ve effectively hidden me.”
“Don’t thank me yet. There are still two more times remaining.”
Had Hector so desired, he could have found countless ways to help the pursuers catch up with Daphnen.
Yet Hector remembered his promise to aid Daphnen three times, and he had honored the first.
The two of them finished their apples. Daphnen pondered how to broach the subject, then recalled that the incident where Ekion’s scheme had caused him to fall from the Cliff bore similarities to this situation.
After Nauplion had negotiated privately with Priest Peloros, that matter had been buried, but Daphnen had learned the full details of the incident from Nauplion.
“Your younger brother has hated me from last spring until now, and surely that hatred persists. Would it be unreasonable to suspect that he is connected to this incident?”
In the end, he spoke with characteristic directness. Yet Hector responded with an unexpected sneer.
“It would not be unreasonable.”
“Do you know what incident I’m referring to?”
“Of course—the Library fire. The matter of Oizis dying.”
It was difficult to readily discern Hector’s intent in speaking so readily. Yet now that the matter had been broached, Daphnen resolved to push forward to the end.
“It’s convenient that you answer so easily. Then can you also confirm whether such suspicions are grounded in fact?”
“Ah, well, certain facts do exist, certainly. Though I’m uncertain how much you’ve already deduced.”

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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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