Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 180

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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 180.
The Call of the Sealed Land (26)

In his youth, Nauplion possessed an edge as sharp as his untempered spirit—untouched by the world’s wear, he was as unyielding as Ilios himself.
The moment his words ceased, he swiftly drew his blade and planted it firmly upon the ground. Yet Ilios made no move to stop him; instead, he laughed aloud and spoke.

“How amusing your notion is. If such a debt could be repaid that way, I would have demanded your life long ago. But this is a different matter entirely. Perhaps it would be better if you simply hated me as well. That way, our accounts would balance, and my heart would find peace. Besides, even if I returned to the village, madness would claim me within days—so dying here rather than descending seems no poor choice. But that blade of yours…”

Ilios’s voice cut off abruptly. His eyes widened, his body convulsed, and then, with a completely transformed demeanor, he cried out.

“That blade! Where did you obtain it?!”

Nauplion’s expression showed utter bewilderment. Upon closer inspection, his younger face bore finer features than his present self—he was nearly handsome, his gaze particularly piercing.

“This was naturally forged by my master. Is there some problem with it?”

Ilios fell silent and groaned in anguish. After a long pause, he spoke again.

“You truly mean… your master… that old man Oinopion forged it? If that is true… oh, this cannot be…”

Daphnen observed their exchange with wonder, realizing he had become an unexpected witness to an event that had occurred years before. His gaze naturally drifted toward the blade Nauplion had planted in the earth—it was drenched in blood, as though it had been submerged in a torrent rather than merely used to cut. Yet upon its surface, he recognized familiar inscriptions.
‘Has your blood also been prepared?’
Daphnen distinctly remembered that the blade Nauplion had borrowed to win at Silverskull bore the identical inscription. The words that had appeared when soaked in Marinov’s blood…
Ah, so it was true. The sword Nauplion had carried across the Continent and lent to Daphnen was the very blade worn smooth by his hand since his apprenticeship under Oinopion.
Then this younger Nauplion must be wielding the same weapon.
Yet the reason for Ilios’s shock remained unclear.
However, the reason for Ilios’s surprise could not yet be known.

“Does Oinopion, that old man, engrave such letters on every sword he makes…?”

“He has always been engraving something, but this particular inscription only appears on the swords given to the children. He said he does it to instill in the child who commits their first murder a sense of caution about killing. I also received this sword in my childhood. But perhaps…”

The blade was so keen that only a thin line appeared, and blood trickled forth moments after the cut.
Nauplion started in alarm and rose abruptly, grasping Ilios’s hand, but Ilios wrenched free with all his remaining strength and rubbed the blade’s surface against the flowing blood.
As Daphnen had anticipated, the identical inscription that adorned Nauplion’s blade faintly emerged upon the surface.
The blade Isolet now possessed had been inherited from Ilios, and Daphnen had already confirmed on the Continent that her sword bore the same characters as his own.
A faint sneer crossed Ilios’s lips.
What began as words spat out quietly soon transformed into a cry born of wounded pride that could bear no more.
The words that began as a low, bitter murmur eventually transformed into a shout from someone who could no longer bear their wounded pride.

「Yes, now I understand how thoroughly that old man mocked me. From beginning to end, he intended to toy with me until the day I died. That pittance of compassion…. Did he want to tell me that it created who I am now? Did he live his entire life so complacently because he believed there would come a day when he’d kneel before his own disciple and apologize? Why didn’t he say anything until the very end? Was it so he could watch me commit countless errors and finally resort to ultimate tyranny, only to be consumed by guilt and misery? He created this cursed situation in that manner, and then he even died and disappeared, leaving me unable to offer any recompense with my own hands! Filthy old man! That damned, wretched elder deserves to rot in hell!」

The cynical demeanor Ilios had displayed moments before was nowhere to be found as he trembled, unable to contain his fury.
In that voice, which had escalated into something akin to a curse, Daphnen detected a paradoxical emotion. Beneath the outpouring of rage and invective lay profound regret. This was a man whose pride left him no choice but to express himself in such a manner.
Just as Daphnen had sensed from Ilios’s past deeds, he was neither a wise man nor, far less, a perfect one.
What was happening to this man now—one who would unhesitatingly destroy even himself to preserve his pride?
And Nauplion at this moment was not a man who understood others as well as he did in later days.

「Why do you insult your master? Give me a reason. If you continue, I too cannot remain silent.」

In that instant, as Ilios raised his golden eyebrows and fixed his gaze upon Nauplion, his expression bore such a striking resemblance to Isolet that Daphnen couldn’t help but start.

「If you cannot remain silent, then strike me down! There is surely a difference between letting me die of my own accord and striking me directly. It would be better to hasten my death before I perish on my own. That way, my heart might find peace before the end.」

「I do not understand what you are saying. Why are you like this? What did your master fail to tell you? That sword of yours, Priest…. Did your master forge it for you?」

Without answering, Ilios spat a curse and rose from his seat. His body had deteriorated so severely that he could barely stand even with the sword as support, yet he managed to walk nonetheless.
He walked into the mist and disappeared from view. A short time later, he reappeared with a handful of shattered red stone fragments in his hands.
Returning before Nauplion, Ilios sat down, breathing heavily. As he applied magical power to his fingertips and traced lines upon the stone, marks appeared as if carved by a chisel.
Having drawn three concentric circles in this manner, he inscribed five runes around the perimeter and placed the red stone fragments in the center. It was an exceedingly simple magical circle.
Without chanting any incantation, a red radiance rose from the circle like a pillar.
By this point, Ilios was exhausted as if he were about to draw his final breath. Soon the light spread in a fan shape, obscuring both figures from view.
How much time had passed?
When Daphnen saw the two of them again, Ilios lay flat upon the ground.
Nauplion stood bewildered, his expression one of disbelief. Yet soon he spoke in a trembling voice.

「I believe I understand now. Priest, you must have been inwardly angered when you unconsciously saved me instead of Antemoesa. Regardless of the reason, you saved someone as discourteous as myself rather than a disciple who had been at your side for so long. I could harbor resentment…. but I will not. I am satisfied with this reprieve of life you have granted me. I believe there is surely something of great importance I can accomplish with it.」

In his final moments, Ilios poured all his remaining strength into speaking without hesitation. His voice, low yet distinct, continued in broken intervals.

「It is not as though I have been fully restored to life anyway…. A decade or so would be quite a success at best. But do not think I did this because I forgave you. The burden that Oinopion carelessly imposed upon me continues to weigh upon me unjustly even at this late hour…. Ah…. but I am a man who cannot live in debt. No, I should say I am now a man who cannot die in debt. That old fool has brought me to this state…. After death, I must surely go and settle accounts with him…. I need nothing else, but I ask one thing of you. Dispose of my corpse cleanly. Make it so no one can find it. The thought of anyone seeing me in death…. no matter how many times I consider it, I simply cannot bear it.」

In that moment, Nauplion could not endure the surge of emotion and cried out.

「Why are you so stubborn, Priest! You would leave not even a grave for Isolet to mourn, and you would remain alone? You know better than anyone how that child will survive in a world without you, yet how can you do this! You left that child behind, came to this place, and threw away your own life…. What was truly important in your life? What does the Regent matter? What is truth, and what is justice? If Isolet could be happy, that alone would be enough—nothing else would be necessary. Why could you not remain at that child’s side? Surely someone like me is sufficient to die!」

Ilios answered no more. Only Nauplion’s voice echoed in the air, piercing Daphnen’s heart with pain.

「I do not know what the Island will become without the Priest. Will the people even accept someone other than the Priest as the Priest of the Sword? I swore an oath to myself, yet in the end, I could not die in the Priest’s stead. Once something is broken, it remains broken forever…. I do not fear the life I must live as one unforgiven, nor do I fear the death that will come again in a mere decade. Such things are nothing to one without hope. But now I must descend alone…. I must return…. and tell Isolet that the Priest will not be coming back…. If only I could remain here and the Priest could return to the village instead…. that would be better…. I do not wish to see Isolet’s tears…. Truly, more than anything else in this world, I do not wish to see them!」

Isolet’s tears….
Daphnen’s heart was no different. I cannot imagine how Isolet, now a girl without tears, had felt when she first heard of her father’s death, but if she were to cry now, I would not be able to bear it either.
The forest blurred.
Daphnen saw the outline of new leaves appearing over the images of the two figures. In that moment, my senses suddenly sharpened.
Since the place where those two had been was also a forest, I had failed to quickly notice that the landscape differed from the forest I had been walking through.
Gripped by the terror that I might not be able to return, Daphnen stumbled backward, retreating. Praying that my surroundings would revert to the original forest, I spun around urgently and rushed toward the entrance.
Yet fear and anguish clawed at my chest.
Nauplion had fought alongside the monster that Ilios Priest had slain, and in doing so, he had sustained the same wound of madness as Yefnen.
The mysterious ritual performed by the Ilios Priest had extended his life, and that was roughly ten years, was it not?
Based on Isolet’s age at that time, the reprieve was not much longer.

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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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