Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 227

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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 227.
Choose the Dawn (39)
Could I endure this? The moment doubt crept in, my mind suddenly grew calm. Was it because I had abandoned everything?
Strange as it was… simultaneously, my injured body felt lighter, and my movements became fluid. A refreshing force seemed to flow through my entire being. Yet it was warm as well.
As if an unknown power had entered my body… like when Endymion had entered me and helped before!
The liquid flowing from my body scattered in all directions. Something scorching rushed toward me, but I endured it without difficulty. I surrendered everything to the blade’s movement that guided me forward.
From the Winterer striking down with its talons, a white and frigid aura radiated outward. With each swing, an icy wind froze against my cheeks.
It felt as though dawn was breaking… as if a sun colder and whiter than anything else had risen above my head.
I sought to survive. To endure the winter.
Yefnen fulfilled his role as the head of the Family by doing his utmost to save a single person.
Now I returned to my place after crossing countless deaths, and I sought to fulfill my role to save someone.
In the final moment, I could not even see. Before the ultimate enemy, I raised a blade that would annihilate all things. I brought it down.
A radiant light that erased everything!

‘Child who brings down winter. Consume my flesh and grow, and come to my world.’
‘The power of that world shall call to you.’
‘Bearing the key to power, cross the Boundary of Worlds and come to me.’
‘Winter shall soon begin.’

Crunch, crackle.
Ice fragments shattered beneath my feet. When my vision cleared, the first thing that caught my eye was that ice. It was not a particularly wide area. When I grasped it in my hand, it melted easily.
I remembered the vast winter that the Winterer had created on The Island. That power which had frozen an entire village was not wielded by my own will.
But now it was different. The winter scattered by the blade had stopped within the range I desired. It was not yet perfect to call it so, but I had succeeded in controlling the explosive power of the Winterer.
That was the power Tigris had given me.
The words of the Winter Blacksmith came to mind. He said that power to aid in my battle with the Winterer was growing within me.
Only today had I become able to predict and control movements whose origin I had not understood before. Until then, it was not my own power.
I recalled what Isolet had said at the Silverscull Tournament. Tigris does not always know what he is doing until reaching a certain level.
Because Nauplion deliberately concealed the fact that he had taught Tigris, when I performed the ritual of leaving hair in the blue stone bowl on The Island, I did not include this swordsmanship in my oath of taboo. Therefore, this was Nauplion’s final gift to me.
When he spoke as though he had never taught Tigris at all, did Nauplion anticipate this very result?
To me, useless—one who could not become an Islander and ultimately could not remain by his side… Nauplion gave something precious without a single word of explanation. As if he had known all along that the boy would eventually leave The Island. Knowing his own life was running short, he left me in this world as one leaves behind a child.
Suddenly, a smile I could not hide bloomed on my lips. Yes, Nauplion… Now I can save you.
What Yefnen showed me in these final weeks was a battle to save someone. I too fought to save one person. The final battle became not revenge after all, but a struggle for life.
In my hand was the Red Heart, torn from the monster’s body. I could only hope that everything was not too late.
The smile faded from my face, and suddenly my eyes grew wet. Though I have done nothing for my master until now, I have grown for a long time in his image. He was the one who led me here, into the future.
“Nauplion, if you do not wait for my return… I will never forgive you…”
Emera Lake, where the long nightmare had vanished, remained a black swamp, yet it seemed somehow different from before. As if a layer of malevolent presence had been lifted away.
When I reflected on the battle, walking into the sonic storm in that final moment was truly reckless.
But at that time, I had forgotten about mere survival. The obsession that had gripped me so tenaciously lay beyond my consciousness in that instant.
Yet the sudden change in my body that helped me endure the sonic waves remained incomprehensible. What was that strange force that came in an instant, granted me strength, and then vanished once the battle ended?
The moment the Winterer split the monster in two, it transformed into withered bones and tattered fragments. Only the heart I sought gleamed like a jewel amid the ruins. Its form was somewhat different from the monster I had slain on The Island.
Above all, the monster’s final moments left a lingering question in Boris’s chest. In that last instant, the creature had spoken to him—that winter would begin.
Winter beginning, when Boris believed he had ended it in this very moment? What could that possibly mean? To come to its own world—did that refer to a different realm, not this one? And to devour its own flesh—was that not another way of speaking of death?
These remained unanswered riddles, yet one truth stood certain.
The monster that had haunted Emera Lake and dwelt as a nightmare in Boris’s past had vanished, and would never appear again.
But what of the others?
Blado was awake, yet he did not perceive Boris beside him. The monster’s disappearance held no interest for him. He stared only at the corpse of his young daughter, then embraced the child and departed into the darkness. Boris did not try to stop him.
There was nothing left to say between them. He had already received the cruelest punishment imaginable.
When Boris turned to where Yurichi had fallen, he was somewhat startled to find no one there. Though the wound should have been fatal, had he managed to flee? Or had he sunk into the swamp?
It mattered not which was true. Soon after, Boris himself began to walk, dragging his injured leg.

By the time he reached the Jineman Estate again, the morning star had risen in the sky, glimmering with pale light.
As Boris gazed up at the manor shrouded in bluish darkness, a sense of regret stirred in his heart. Once he left this place, he had resolved never to return. It would crumble slowly, carrying with it all the nightmares and memories alike.
The manor engulfed in torchlight on the day of departure, and the final banquet served beneath four candles upon his return—these he would never forget.
Boris wondered what had become of the Silent Steward, then shook his head.
He returned to the manor and climbed to this floor. The fallen leaves brushing against his feet were remnants left by autumns past over many years, yet Boris sensed that a new autumn was approaching.
Before opening the Banquet Hall doors, Boris had already guessed the room would be empty. Yet when he entered, a feast still lay spread across the long table.
No—it was different. The banquet was not the same cold meal from before. Steam still rose from it, as though it had only just been prepared.
Was it magic? Or had the Silent Steward arranged it anew?
A moment later, Boris smiled. Regardless of which it was, the feast had been prepared for him—the master of this crumbling estate.
The child born here, who once trembled at phantoms, had become a seventeen-year-old boy who no longer shook with fear. The manor would become dust, and the boy would become a man.
Boris took his seat. As he sat, he noticed that the knife and fork he had placed on his plate to signal the end of his meal had returned to their proper positions. He laid his napkin across his lap and, before beginning to eat, spoke toward the empty air.
“Thank you.”
Dawn broke.
Sunlight filtered through the cracks in the crumbled walls, glowing red-hot like heated iron. In that light, dust swirled like sparks, spinning endlessly.
As Boris left the Banquet Hall and looked toward Father’s Study, he noticed the partially open door was now completely shut. He approached and pushed, only to find it locked from within.
The room he and Yefnen had shared still had wooden planks nailed across its entrance. He stared at them for a moment, then reached out and tore them away with all his strength.
When Boris opened the door and stepped inside, the sight before him caused his hand to rise involuntarily to his eyes.
It was exactly as it had been five years ago—the day when Yefnen and he had hastily donned armor and retrieved the family treasures they had hidden. It seemed as though no one had entered since that day.
Scattered clothing, open drawers, everything matched the image in his memory. Only dust lay thick upon every object.
It appeared that Blado had ordered these two rooms boarded up immediately after taking control of the estate. He did not know why.
Yet because of that command, time seemed to have stopped since that day, or conversely, as though an eternity had passed—contradictory sensations crossed through him.
When he saw the clothes Yefnen had cast aside that night, an indescribable emotion welled up and his throat tightened. Boris stood holding those garments for a long time, lost in thought.
Eventually, Boris entered his own room through the adjoining door. He pulled back the sheets from the dust-covered bed, searched the wardrobe, and laid fresh linens. Then he placed Yefnen’s clothes at the head of the bed.
After removing his cloak and boots for the first time in ages, Boris lay down on that bed and fell asleep.

Was it a voice from a dream?
I was running through the Meadow alone. Without the traveler’s pack I always carried, without my cloak—my body felt light and unburdened. Overgrown grass kept pricking my face, but I felt no pain. It was so comfortable, so joyful.
Behind me, I heard someone calling. I turned around. And with a broad smile, I spoke.
“You came?”
“Yes. Did you wait long?”
“So very long. I missed you so much I thought I’d die. You have to leave soon, don’t you? Before you go, won’t you play with me a little?”
“Shall we?”
Together, we ran through the Meadow. As we ran, a transparent emerald-hued lake appeared. After running far and growing warm, we collapsed at the Lakeside and washed our faces and hands. We removed our shoes and dipped our feet in the water.
Sitting side by side, splashing our bare feet, we soon smiled softly and gazed at each other.
“It’s been so long since we played together like this. Elder Brother, didn’t you miss me much all this time?”
“Of course I did. But now that we’ve met like this, that’s enough. I left you alone and worried so much. Now I’m so happy to see you’ve grown strong enough to manage everything on your own.”
“Yes. But I always wished you’d stay by my side. Oh, Elder Brother! I found Mother’s keepsake again. It’s worth more than ten times what we sold it for. But it was so precious that I had to buy it back.”

“That’s wonderful! Will you keep it safe for me?”
“Of course. I’ll never lose it again.”

I watched as leaves fell into the lake and drifted away. They grew distant.
One leaf, two leaves….

“Boris, I think I have to go now.”
“Already?”
Reddish-brown hair swayed gently in the lake’s breeze. In those clear sky-blue eyes that I had always loved, I saw my own reflection.
Elder Brother was smiling. With the smile I loved most in the world, he said he truly had to go now.
I trembled slightly, knowing full well that this was not what I wanted, and said, “Yes, Elder Brother. Farewell.”
“Why? Our little one looks like he might cry.”
Though I had grown as tall as Elder Brother once was, he still called me “our little one.” I pressed my lips firmly shut and endured, endured a moment longer, and finally cried out softly.

“Why didn’t you stay by my side? Why? Even now… whenever I feel your absence, I think this is all a nightmare and I wish I could wake up quickly…”
When Elder Brother reached out and stroked my cheek, I realized it was already wet with tears.
“You’ve already awakened from the nightmare. You managed it with your own strength. I know it now. You no longer need me. Just as I let you go, you too will learn to let me go. My little brother has become Warrior Boris now.”
Elder Brother embraced me one last time, pulling me close. Everything was nothing… I knew there was nothing, yet I felt the warmth, and tears streamed down.
When I opened my eyes again, the world held only a beautiful lake, fine weather, tall weeds, and myself.
I rose alone at the Lakeside. With my traveler’s pack, my black cloak draped over my shoulders, and my boots on my feet, I began walking toward where the sun rises.

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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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