Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 221

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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 221.
Choose the Dawn (33)
“Please, madam!”
“Don’t do this, madam!”
I heard several maids pleading, and moments later, the sound of something shattering and breaking echoed through the halls. Boris, sensing something ominous, asked abruptly.
“What has happened in this house? Is there trouble with my uncle?”
I never imagined the day would come when I would call Blado “uncle” again. The Gatekeeper hesitated, then looked at Boris’s face once more before allowing him inside.
When Boris entered the spacious Reception Room, he was startled by the unexpected sight before him.
The manor appeared outwardly impressive and orderly, yet its interior was desolate beyond measure. Objects that once adorned the Reception Room lay scattered and broken throughout.
Chairs lay overturned with their cushions torn, portraits had fallen with their frames askew. A long-necked vase lay broken, its flowers already withered. A carpet, trampled and crumpled and torn, remained untouched by anyone.
“Who are you? Have you brought news?”
A young woman, who had been crouching in a corner of the Reception Room like a child, suddenly lifted her head and stared at Boris.
Looking down at the woman, Boris found himself unable to respond immediately. She was trembling like a madwoman, her clothing pitifully disheveled and her hair tangled.
The maids tried to help her to her feet, but she stubbornly crawled toward Boris instead, pulling at the shawl draped across her shoulders and shrinking inward as she thrust her tear-stained face before his eyes.
“Tell me! Where is she? Where is that child? Has she returned to Father’s care? She has, hasn’t she? That child is unharmed, isn’t she?”
“Who are you… speaking of?”
Boris guessed that this woman was his aunt, but he did not mention it. It seemed unlikely she would comprehend such a statement.
The woman continued to shrink into her shawl while her contorted face continued to cry out.
“Bring that child to me! Bring our baby to me! Our baby is crying! I’m going mad from the sound of her weeping!”
“….”
Boris suddenly extended both hands and grasped the woman’s wrists. She flinched in surprise and tried to pull away, but could not.
“Is the child you speak of the baby of my aunt and uncle?”
The words “aunt” and “uncle” seemed to deliver some shock to her.
The woman, whose eyes had been wide as if in thought, suddenly wrenched her hands free from Boris with all her strength and fell backward. Then, trembling violently, she called out to the maids.
“Luchika! Boronya! Take me away… I… I….”
Boris walked steadily toward the maid. The maid, having heard what Boris said moments before and thus understanding who he was, spoke in confusion.
“She… Milana is somewhat… unwell.”
“What has become of the child?”
“The young lady… has disappeared. She vanished on her birthday not long ago… The master went out to search for her. The story is that the Silent Steward took her away….”
“The Silent Steward?”
“Yes, the Silent Steward Tulk….”
In that moment, Boris felt as though he had been struck on the back of his head, and he repeated the name.
“The Silent Steward Tulk?”
That name—he had forgotten it for so long. Tulk, the Silent Steward, was he not the trusted retainer of the Jineman Family… of Father Yulken? I had believed he died alongside Father, so why was he here?
“Has this person called the Silent Steward Tulk always been in this house?”
“All I know is that the master brought him here.”
Boris turned his head and looked around. He needed someone who could provide a proper explanation. Then, from deeper within the manor, an elderly servant who appeared to be in his seventies emerged and stopped upon seeing a stranger.
The maid quickly ran to the old man and whispered to him.
“Head Servant, this… is the master’s nephew, he says….”
The Head Servant’s complexion turned pale. He stared at Boris intently for a long moment before speaking.
“Then… the late Yulken Jineman’s?”
As Boris crossed the reception room to speak with the Head Servant, Milana Jineman, the mistress of this house, dragged herself aside like a vagrant, trembling. She still feared, yet something in his words compelled her to remain rather than flee.
Boris approached the Head Servant and opened his mouth.
“That’s correct. Yulken Jineman is my father. Do you remember me?”
The Head Servant’s eyes widened.
“Oh my… is it truly possible? He was alive all along? What a blessing… I was at Jineman Manor long before Miss Yenichka passed away. I was a soldier then. But after the two brothers severed their ties, I came to serve Master Blado. When the Khan Commander gathered all the soldiers from Ron, I was too old and became a servant instead. Don’t you remember me, young master? I used to carry you on horseback quite often…”
Boris did not remember this Head Servant. Yet suddenly, it struck him—he had not even been born when Aunt Yenichka died. If that were the case, then this man was now mistaking him for…
“I… am not Yefnen Jineman.”
“Pardon? Then…”
“My elder brother Yefnen died long ago. I am his younger brother.”
“Ah…”
The old man was so aged that he could not recall Yefnen’s exact age or appearance. He had simply not forgotten that child because there had been only one child at Jineman Manor in those days.
Yet moments later, tears welled in the old man’s eyes as he gazed at Boris.
“That kind young master… to think he has passed away…”
Boris found himself at a loss for words. Watching a complete stranger grieve for his brother’s death stirred something deep within him. He steadied himself and asked the old man, “What became of the child?”
“Do you remember Tulk, the Silent Steward?”
“He was here?”
“Yes… The moment I saw that man arrive here, I suspected that Master Yulken was no longer alive. But it was truly unexpected. As you know, was he not Master Yulken’s most trusted servant? I came to Master Blado before that man ever arrived at Jineman Manor, but… he was not the sort to betray so easily, so I simply could not believe that he had changed his allegiance.”
Boris felt the same way. The old man continued.
“For several years, Tulk served Master Blado faithfully. Only now do I understand that it was a long preparation for… the most fatal revenge against Master Blado. That man was truly… terrifying.”
“Then…”
The situation began to take shape in Boris’s mind. He too remembered. From childhood glimpses, Tulk in his memory was a sinister figure whose thoughts could never be read.
“That man abducted Miss Yenichka. It was her birthday that day. There were so many guests come to see Miss Yenichka that we thought she was simply playing with another guest when she disappeared for a time. But when the party ended, we discovered that no one had seen Miss Yenichka for hours. Not the mistress, not the master, not the nanny, not the servants…”
Deep lines etched themselves across the old man’s brow.
“After the household fell into chaos, a letter was found in Tulk’s room. Upon reading it, Master Blado became like a madman and left the manor, vowing to bring Miss Yenichka back.”
The child’s name was Yenichka?
Boris did not know the details of Uncle Blado and Aunt Yenichka’s affairs, so he found this surprising. To name his daughter after his aunt, who had died so miserably…
“May I see that letter?”
“The master took it with him, but it said something like this: ‘The life of a small child shall repay the blood of the dead.’ There was no mention of where he was going, but the master seemed to know where he must go.”
And Boris too thought he understood. Where Tulk had taken the child. And how Blado could have known.
There was only one place—the final destination known only to those entangled in this fate. Could there be a better place than that to repay the blood of Yulken Jineman?
Moreover, it was now the very place Boris himself intended to go… As if a nightmare that had been silent for years was now calling to him in countless voices.
The murmuring voice of his aunt beside him gradually transformed into a shriek. Words that he could not at first understand clearly now became distinct as her voice rose.
“The price of blood must be paid! I knew this day would come… The mill of heaven grinds slowly, but it misses not a single grain! Did you think it was over? But the dead do not forget! Your sin took Yenichka! Your sin!”
Boris’s face hardened as he watched his aunt rave in a sound that was neither weeping nor laughter. Then he looked at the Head Servant.
Years upon years of accumulated hatred toward Blado… Could anyone harbor more than this?
“When I came here originally, I intended to ask my uncle why he had been forced to commit all those terrible deeds. Because of his frightening stubbornness, my father and elder brother Yefnen ultimately lost their lives, and I, left alone, have endured countless hardships over these years. Servants and soldiers who had done nothing but serve House Jineman lost their lives without number.”
A cold gray spread across Boris’s eyes—as if he already stood at that place, at the Misty Lake.
“When one commits an act that produces such consequences, I believed there must have been grave reasons that made it necessary. I thought I needed to hear those reasons before my heart could be settled. But now I can ask no longer. If my uncle should return here, please tell him this:”
“When someone commits an act that produces such a result, I believed there must have been a grave reason why it was necessary… I thought I needed to hear that reason in order to make up my mind. But now I can no longer ask. If Uncle returns here later, please tell him this.”
“What did you say…?”
“Your sins shall be reaped not by the hand of man, but by the hand of fate, and when at last the poisoned chalice returns, you shall neither escape nor find forgiveness, he says.”
Boris turned away.
The elderly Head Servant, the maids, and the half-delirious Aunt stared blankly as the boy’s black cloak vanished beyond the doorway.

“A message from Jonggenal.”
Many years had passed since Ryusno Den, the Khan Commander’s first wing, had last laid eyes upon the Commander.
It had been three years since receiving the order to find the boy who possessed the Winterer. For the first time in such a mission, he had failed repeatedly.
There had been moments when he nearly grasped success. Yet without actually obtaining it, “nearly” meant nothing. He had always lived by this principle.
Recently, Ryusno had made a new discovery: even he possessed something called impatience. After waiting so long and retracing his steps multiple times to investigate, the thread he finally grasped led him back to where he had begun—a place hardly different from the starting point.
It was none other than Gwarre Castle in Trabaches.
Yurichi Fredan, the Khan Commander’s fourth wing, had reunited with him after a long separation. The two men, their pride wounded by losing Boris’s trail so many times, had parted ways and conducted their investigations separately, unable even to bear the sight of each other’s faces for a time.
Yet the result of mobilizing their entire continental intelligence network was absurdly a reunion.
“You too, Elder Brother?”
“You as well.”
Considering that Boris had entered the Land of Mortals and reached Gwallero through a wish mirror, both men had conducted remarkable investigations regardless.
Both confirmed that the people of Gwarre Castle remembered a boy named Boris. And they had finally even located Bunin’s Smithy.
By approaching under the guise of an old friend, they obtained information that Boris had been employed by Demerin Kaltz, the target, and had departed for Anomarad. Just as they were about to take action, entirely unexpected information arrived from Jonggenal, the Khan Commander’s sorcerer.

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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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