Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 217

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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 217.
Choose the Dawn (29)
The moment Lanji’s voice reached my ears, the hallucination shattered. I found myself staring across the table at Lanji, who sat with composed elegance in his chair. It was when a smile graced his lips that I understood.
He had grown taller, his cheekbones and jawline now defined, his throat prominent. The slender frame that once resembled a girl’s had begun to reveal the contours of a seventeen-year-old man—and with these physical transformations came changes far deeper within.
The boy who had shone like a lethal yet fragile blade, consumed by uncertainty, had become a resolute young man who chose his path and never wavered, never hesitated.
He had grown.
Then Lanji spoke.
“You’ve grown so much. It’s hard to believe you’re the same person from back then. I wondered several times how you were living, but I only heard news after the Silverskull incident ended. I was certain it was you immediately. Rather than deliberately seeking you out, I’ve been waiting for our paths to cross like this by chance.”
“What about you? I knew you weren’t the type to aim for a quiet life like me, so I was quite surprised earlier. But still…”
“I’ve been watching. Just as you’ve walked your path faithfully, so have I. I should start by telling you about leaving Count Belnoir’s house. Around the time winter began that year after you left, something scheduled came to pass. There’s no time for details now, so I’ll save that for next time, but I made it so he had no choice but to let me go. And then I met someone and went to Keltika with them.”
There was no pain of remembrance in Lanji’s expression. Like a wound that had scarred over and no longer ached.
“The school I entered with that person’s help fell through due to circumstances, and I couldn’t stay in Keltika either. Yien, whom I met at school, helped me, and that’s why I’m hiding here now.”
I realized that Lanji deliberately refrained from elaborating beyond what was necessary. But his last words struck my ears with an ominous resonance.
“Hiding?”
Contrary to the sinister implications of those words, Lanji smiled with ease.
“Yes. Much like how you spend time with that boy Lucian, I’m deceiving people’s eyes by being Yien’s companion. I mentioned it was two months, didn’t I? There might be another month or so ahead.”
“Wait, so you and Yien are…”
Suddenly, Lanji pushed himself up from the chair’s backrest and leaned forward across the table. With his elbows raised and his upper body thrust forward, he spoke in a voice that had grown quiet and sharp.
“You must have guessed what I’m pursuing.”
“That would be…”
Only one thing came to mind. The world Lanji had wanted to live in.
Lanji’s intense gaze fixed upon me like it would pierce through my very soul. Eyes that burned everything they touched.
Finally, the secret spilled from his lips.
“That’s right. I’m currently active as a member of the Secret Republican Organization. The person who helped me was also an executive there, and I entered school to recruit noble children who would gain political power in Keltika into the organization. The activities were successful, but in exchange, I’ve been pursued by the Royal Organization, which aims to annihilate republicans. Our organization is such a thorn in the King’s side that we can be summarily executed the moment we’re exposed. There’s even a bounty on my head. And Yien, after meeting me at school, came to share our ideals and has been helping me. In other words, Yien is my comrade.”
…
The nature of the peculiar bond that existed between Yien and Lanji was precisely that. It was astounding. Yien, who had seemed like a carefree child who loved to play and wanted for nothing, like Lucian, was a member of a secret republican organization? Lanji’s comrade?
“Somewhat unexpected, wasn’t it.”
Lanji relaxed his expression slightly, resting his elbows on the table with his fingers interlaced.
Watching him, I realized that Lanji had now mastered the art of freely controlling his emotions, the other’s reactions, the rhythm of conversation, and the flow of discourse.
The ‘flexibility’ that had felt unfamiliar to me until moments ago was precisely that—the result of Lanji’s talent for ‘sensing the flow of power’ growing unrestrained from the moment he broke free from his cage.
I spoke.
“I suspected as much, but it’s true after all. However, are you comfortable sharing such things with someone like me? As you know, I have no fondness for republicanism, and I’m currently employed as a servant in a merchant’s house that mingles with the nobility. You said you were hiding, yet you’re not worried I might expose you?”
Lanji smiled silently. It was not a smile of panic or confidence, but simply a gentle one.
Watching it, I felt as though Lanji were saying, just as he had on that night long ago, ‘I’m not the sort of person to broach such matters with someone who would do such a thing.’
Lanji spoke.
“It’s my choice, so whatever happens is my responsibility. I chose to speak. That’s because there’s something I want to obtain. When there’s something you want, you must wager something.”
“Something you want to obtain?”
“Yes. Do you remember? When the conspiracy left Belnoir’s hands, you trusted me and followed. At first I doubted, but you ultimately gave me your trust.”
The image of Lanji handing me the key to the secret gallery in Belnoir Castle appeared before my eyes. And the voice urging me to flee during the hunt… Everything he had prepared for my journey was absolutely essential.
It was because of Lanji’s wise choice that I exist as I am now.
As I found myself lost in nostalgic reverie, thinking back to that day, Lanji’s voice reached my ears.
“Just like then… could you entrust that life to me once more?”
A long silence followed.
No one knocked at the door. In a world belonging only to the two of us, nothing stirred—time itself seemed to slow, creating an illusion of suspension.
Compared to the skeptical gaze I possessed, how brilliantly those eyes burned with conviction.
They were eyes that compelled one to listen earnestly to whatever Lanji spoke, even pushing one to nod in agreement.
Such eyes—which rushed forward without doubt along a chosen path and feared not to draw others into that journey—were utterly impossible to counterfeit. I could never look at someone with such eyes and ask them to follow me, no matter how right I believed myself to be.
And yet, to entrust one’s very life, promising to lead it toward something of value… that certainty moved me to admiration.
And yet…
I knew that Lucian’s clear eyes had moved me remarkably over these past months. When I had been with Lanji and gazed upon him, I had marveled, felt affection—yet I also remembered that I could not draw close, as though we were mirror images.
When we met again, I would call him by name, as I had promised. Our relationship had changed.
Lanji had anticipated it even then, and for me, it had come as a kind of premonition of the future. The two boys shared something subtly similar in their essence. Yet when we met again someday, I sensed we would no longer resemble each other—as though born of fundamentally different races.
The point where our two worlds had intersected had long since passed.
Sometimes I found it frustrating—this inability to deeply consent to and follow a conviction I harbored, nor could I even pretend to accept it with half-hearted artifice.
The ideal Lanji sought to achieve must surely be sublime enough for that thoughtful and strong boy to devote himself entirely. Yet I could not follow. I could not even pretend to follow. Not because I despised or denied that purpose, but because such a life could not harmonize with my fundamental nature.
In the end, it was Lanji who spoke first.
“I think I know your answer.”
I did not respond, letting my gaze fall. Lanji continued in a calm voice.
“It must have been unexpected. I understand. But the moment I saw you, I suddenly could not restrain myself… and I broached this premature topic. I don’t mean to say I regret it. Because I’ve just realized—no matter when I asked you in the future, your answer would have been the same.”
I answered briefly.
“I’m sorry.”
“No. This was never a matter of your faith in republicanism. You and I feel life differently, and I respect your way of finding happiness. After all, what we will create is a world for such people to live in. Not everyone must become a warrior. And what I said just now, perhaps…”
Lanji’s left hand pressed against his forehead, then slowly swept through his hair. A faint smile emerged.
“I think that at this moment, your existence isn’t necessarily essential to me. If that were true, I shouldn’t have broached such words from the start. And yet, to ask a question whose answer I could already foresee… perhaps it’s because I too harbor nostalgia for the time we spent together. Without realizing it, this time I thought I wanted to walk the path together with you.”
It was an honesty difficult to imagine from his former self.
Perhaps back then, Lanji had carefully guarded his heart to protect me and my brother, and now, walking the path he desired, he had learned somewhat how to release his emotions.
“But I am one who prepares for revolution.”
The voice that had been gentle until moments before shifted distinctly with that single word—’revolution.’ Lanji’s eyes rekindled with fervor befitting their color.
“My feelings for you are separate from me as a republican. No matter how much I as a natural being wish to maintain fellowship with you, if it cannot coexist with me as a republican, then it is impossible. If we part like this, the next time we meet, we will inevitably face each other as enemies. For that moment…”
I felt Lanji steel himself once more to speak what would come next.
Just before, though Lanji had been in hiding, he had welcomed me so warmly that he risked danger and stepped before countless people. Yet I also knew that Lanji was someone capable of tearing his own heart to shreds if it meant taking one step forward toward his goal.
“When we meet again, I think it would be better if we were strangers.”
“…”
Would it end like this?
Once we had shared a bond stronger than friendship, discovered and admired the strength hidden in each other’s hearts, wished to help—yet now a single phrase stood between us, negating even our earliest memories.
I lowered my gaze, then slowly nodded. I understood Lanji’s heart in speaking such words.
As long as one is human, how could there be no lingering attachment? Yet he would not make a choice that would harm both himself and me simultaneously through that attachment.
“At least, I can trust that you won’t speak of what we discussed here to anyone else—relying on the promise we made long ago?”
It was not a question seeking an answer. Yet I remembered that when Lanji helped me escape from Count Belnoir’s grasp, I had said, “I won’t forget, and I’ll repay this debt without fail.”
Had Lanji invoked that promise, I would have unhesitatingly kept my word and aided him, no matter how contrary such a choice was to my own life.
Yet Lanji did not speak such words. Though regret gnawed at him, he asked Boris for the truth of his heart, and in accordance with the outcome he had anticipated, he made a painful decision for himself as well.
The conversation had reached its end. Boris hesitated for a moment before asking.
“How is Lanzumi faring?”
“Fortunately, she still lives. Grateful people are watching over her.”
With those words, Lanji rose from his chair. And he asked Boris for one final handshake.
It was also the first handshake they had ever shared. Hands hardened by years of wielding a blade, and hands that seemed delicate yet possessed an unyielding framework, clasped each other for the very first time.
Yet as Lanji released his grip and departed the private chamber, he did not look back.

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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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