Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 207

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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 207.
Choose the Dawn (19)
Yet such beauty could not endure. As the two stood entranced, the torrent gradually lost its force, subsiding into silence, its radiance fading into shadow.
The sole magic of Ganapoli that Boris and Nayatrey had witnessed vanished once more. All that remained was the water pooled within the fountain basin and the droplets clinging to their skin.
“Let us go.”
This time Boris spoke first. They moved toward the mirror’s pedestal.
I gazed up at the metal needle piercing the sky, but without Epibiono, there was no one to intone the chant. And I could not recklessly invoke the chant myself—not after leaving a strand of my hair in that stone vessel.
Would mere thought truly suffice?
“There is a place I wish to go….”
The moment the words left my lips, liquid that gleamed like molten mirror flowed down from the needle’s apex, transforming in an instant into the shape of a mirror—the same shimmering surface I had seen in Clazyanya.
Nayatrey spoke abruptly.
“Then we must part ways now.”
Epibiono had told me before that such mirrors were scattered throughout Ganapoli.
Originally, these mirrors were the Mages’ means of swift travel to distant lands. Ordinarily one would pass from one mirror to another, but sometimes one could travel to places where no mirror existed. Such mirrors were called “wish mirrors.”
The wish mirror possessed the power to transport one directly to the place envisioned in one’s mind, and its use had once been strictly controlled. Of course, there were no guardians left to watch over it now.
“Where will you go?”
Nayatrey turned back with an expression that suggested the question was obvious.
“Anomarad.”
“Anomarad is vast. Where exactly are you going?”
“Where my sister is.”
So Nayatrey has a sister, I thought in that moment, and she raised one hand in farewell, stepping toward the mirror.
It was instantaneous. The silver-haired girl with her braided locks and the golden tiger cub vanished before my eyes.
Now it was my turn.
I considered where I wished to go, but no suitable place came to mind. I could not return to The Island, nor to my Homeland. And I had no desire to seek out the Lemme People whom Nauplion had introduced, using even this opportunity as an excuse to find them.
I could go anywhere, yet nowhere awaited my arrival. Truly, was there nowhere I must go?
Then I recalled what Epibiono had said—that when one’s destination is unknown, the mirror sometimes reveals where one must go. Did the mirror truly know?
I approached the mirror without envisioning any place. Where lay that destination my heart desired, yet my mind could not fathom?

“Bring me beer, beer!”
“When on earth is the stew coming out, miss? It’s been half an hour since we ordered!”
“It’ll be right out, just a moment!”
Sound came first. The clamor of several people chattering boisterously seeped into my ears before gradually swelling. Then I opened my eyes.
Before me lay a bustling inn’s dining hall. Evening service was in full swing. Patrons sat clustered around tables, tilting their cups, while a couple of waiters hurried about carrying plates. No matter how quickly they moved, complaints from impatient guests erupted from every corner.
From beyond the wide-open door came the sound of horses neighing. On the landing of the stairs leading upstairs, people speaking loudly about trivial matters created innocent commotion.
In the midst of it all, Boris occupied a corner table alone. Naturally, there was no one with him.
I rubbed my eyes several times. I was quite startled to have arrived at such a specific place.
Moreover, I couldn’t remember where this was. I wasn’t even certain if I’d been here before. It felt vaguely familiar, yet I’d visited more than one or two inns and taverns during my travels.
The weather was still summer, and I heard no Lemme dialect.
“Well, what will you order? My, where are you from, sir, to be covered in so much dust?”
I startled when I realized the cheerful voice of the waitress was directed at me. Now that I thought about it, I’d forgotten to pull my hood down. Having done so, she must have seen my face clearly.
It was too late to put the hood on now. I decided I should order something to send her away, and looked up at the waitress. And I was startled again. I was certain I’d seen her face somewhere before, yet I couldn’t remember.
“Um, I…”
But the waitress seemed to feel something similar. As she stared intently at my face, I hurriedly lowered my head and spoke.
“B-beer, please.”
After taking my order, the waitress set aside her curiosity and turned away. Beyond her retreating figure, I could see the door leading to the kitchen. Beside it, a small door that was strangely familiar caught my eye.
Just then, that door opened. A child of about ten years old emerged from that room—which seemed far too small for guests—and entered the kitchen.
“Tonya?”
The name tumbled from my lips without thinking. The waitress spun around and looked at me with astonished eyes.
“Oh, so you mean… that child who was going to work at Bunin’s blacksmith shop back then?”
Tonya didn’t seem to remember my name. I couldn’t help but laugh. I’d never realized I would still remember the name “Tonya” all this time.
We both nodded toward each other. Tonya exclaimed first.
“You’ve grown so much! I really thought you weren’t coming back! You’ve gotten taller… You’ve become quite the adult, haven’t you?”
Unable to think of something like “You’ve become even more beautiful, miss,” I could only offer a smile. Four years had passed, yet being suddenly transported back to a place that felt so distant was strangely moving.
This was Tonya’s inn, where she had first shown me kindness when I was wandering the Wasteland. After I met Count Belnoir and decided to follow him, I came back once more to ask her to pass along a message to Bunin.
“Wait just a moment. Let me take that order over there and come right back. Oh, and have you had dinner?”
Hearing the same question as before, I found myself smiling. In truth, we couldn’t really call ourselves close acquaintances. Yet Tonya seemed delighted. As she wove through the other patrons, she turned back and gestured insistently, “Don’t leave, wait for me.”
Left alone, I dropped my smile and tilted my head. Why had I come to this place of all places?
What had the mirror in Ganapoli—which sent me to Trabaches, a place that had grown hazy in my memory and might even be dangerous—read in my heart?
In any case, it felt as though time hadn’t passed at all.
After a long while, Tonya returned with a wide tray in her hands.
The tray was laden with two glasses of beer, roasted chicken legs, steamed eggs, soup, rye bread, and more. After setting the food on the table, Tonya pulled over a chair and sat across from me, then asked.
“You said back then that you were going to follow some foreign nobleman. Did you come from his household?”
I hadn’t mentioned becoming Count Belnoir’s adopted son back then, so there was no need to bring it up now. I nodded in affirmation.
Though we weren’t close, she treated me warmly, just as before. Perhaps in Tonya’s eyes, even though I’d grown so much, the feeling of that child wandering homeless long ago still remained.
Even though they weren’t particularly close, the way he treated her warmly remained the same as before. Perhaps even though Tonya could see that Boris had grown so much, the feeling of that child who had wandered aimlessly with nowhere to go long ago still lingered in her.
Still, one’s homeland is truly one’s homeland… With that thought, I began ladling soup and found myself becoming somewhat sentimental.
“But how did you come back here? Do you have business to attend to?”
There was no business to attend to. I wondered what I should do from here on. Could I find suitable work in a place like this?
As he pondered this, Boris suddenly realized that his twelve-year-old self and his present self harbored identical thoughts.
Right here in this very Inn, Boris had wandered aimlessly, searching for work. Then he met Count Belnoir, wrestled with doubt, and abandoned his job at the Blacksmith’s Shop.
One path chosen at a crossroads… Had he traveled that road far enough that the mirror now summoned him back to the origin to make a different choice?
Boris burst into laughter mid-spoonful of soup. Tonya smiled along with him and asked.
“Why are you laughing? Did something amusing occur to you?”
The Mirror of Ganapoli was truly a wondrous artifact. Now Boris understood why he had come here. And he finally grasped the mirror’s power—how it perceived the desires one harbored even without knowing them oneself.
“Heh heh… No, actually, Tonya. That man who was working at the Blacksmith’s Shop back then—is he still doing that work?”
“You mean Bunin? Of course. It’s his livelihood.”
“That’s good to hear. Could you show me the way to the Blacksmith’s Shop later?”
“Sure. But do you have business at the shop?”
In life, it is not easy to return to a crossroads one has already passed, having chosen one path.
Yet the mirror had sent him back there. The chapter that began on the path he chose then had now concluded. What awaited at the end of the road he could not take?
“It’s a bit late, but… I wanted to ask if he would hire me again.”
Autumn arrived where summer had burned itself away.
In that span, Boris had grown one year older. Since no one knew his birthday, it passed as quietly as any other day—which suited him fine.
Four months had elapsed since Boris began working at Andrea Bunin’s Blacksmith’s Shop.
The work had only recently become somewhat familiar. Though Boris surpassed his peers in strength and stamina, maintaining focus while battling the midsummer heat compounded by the forge’s inferno proved difficult. The slightest lapse in concentration risked injury.
Bunin taught Boris with considerable harshness. Whether the tasks were difficult or simple, he assigned them without discrimination, demanding that Boris complete each one no matter how many hours it took.
Yet after the work ended, rewarding rest arrived. When evening came, he would go with Bunin to the nearby stream, wash the day’s sweat-soaked clothes, and bathe.
If the mood struck, they would splash about in the water. Though the fare was humble, having labored diligently meant a satisfying evening meal, after which they would enjoy the breeze and gaze at the starlit night.
Once every few days, he would visit Tonya’s Inn to drink beer and cool himself. Whenever Tonya was managing the kitchen herself, special dishes invariably appeared.
As summer waned, Boris grew fond of sparring with Bunin using staffs.
Since this was Trabaches, he maintained regular sword practice in case anyone sought him out. But sparring with a partner was undeniably more engaging.
Though Bunin was more than three times Boris’s age, in staff combat Boris was the superior. At first, Boris had been cautious, fearing he might injure the older man. But lately, Bunin had improved enough that carelessness could earn him a solid blow.
“Truth is, when I was young, I even participated in a war that broke out in the Anomarad region. I was just a common soldier, but… I followed along for several years, so I picked up some techniques. Developed an eye for things too. Maybe that’s why your skill doesn’t seem ordinary to me.”

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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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