Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 497

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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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Episode 267.
Beneath the Almond Tree (10)
Anna wanted to defend herself. But with so little information at her disposal, she couldn’t explain things properly. All she’d heard from Lanji was that Brian might be a Kingdom 8th Army spy who had infiltrated to uncover Rosa Alb’s secrets, and that he would be subject to investigation by the Exile Council. She’d also heard Lanji’s reasons for suspecting Brian, but it was merely circumstantial.
She didn’t possess Lanji’s strategic-level information—why he’d determined there had to be a spy near Giscar. She only knew that Lanji had spared her life, and that his reason was because Brian’s suspicions had become clear. Looking at it from that angle alone, one could argue that Brian being branded a spy was Anna’s fault. But Anna herself was not, in any case, a spy….
“Did you run away?”
“If I hadn’t run, I’d have rotted in the Exile Council’s dungeons for the rest of my life. No proper investigation, no trial. I never had a chance to prove my innocence. I wanted to defend myself, but the person who accused me was already gone far away with you. Who could I have appealed to? My teacher? He wouldn’t ignore a summons from the Exile Council. Even if they’d summoned him, he would go without hesitation.”
Anna recalled the journey to Keltika with Lanji. Back then, Lanji hadn’t told her for days what would happen if she went to the Exile Council. She remembered trembling with anxiety, imagining countless scenarios. At that time, she hadn’t known how terrifying a summons from the Exile Council was, but Brian apparently had. If she herself had known such things like Brian did, what would she have done? Could she have followed Lanji obediently?
Brian sat hunched over the table, his bony hands cradling his head. A sudden wave of sympathy for his suffering made her heart ache.
“I ran, but… I had nowhere to go. Where could I have gone? The Exile Council would be searching for me, so I couldn’t appear anywhere they’d expect. As you know, except for my family—which is as good as nothing to me—the Friends of the People was my only refuge. It was my homeland, my life. I knew nothing else. But then that place tried to hunt me down… I felt like a rabbit lost in a snowfield. I ran on frozen feet. With nowhere to go… trying not to be struck by arrows falling from I knew not where.”
Brian collapsed onto the table, burying his face. His shoulders trembled intermittently before stilling. Anna rose and brought a water pitcher and cup. As she poured the water, she asked.
“Have you eaten dinner?”
Brian laughed softly, his face still buried.
“What’s dinner? I eat well if I manage one meal a day.”
Anna went out and returned with two pieces of bread and a bowl of oatmeal. The bread was hard and the porridge was cold, but Brian ate it all without a word.
“Thank you so much.”
Only after he’d licked away every trace of porridge around the bowl and wiped his mouth clean did he manage to speak. Anna shook her head.
“Anna, could you do me one favor?”
Anna answered without thinking deeply.
“Tell me.”
“Let me meet that person.”
Anna’s hands, which had been gathering the dishes, froze. Brian had already lifted his head, his eyes fixed intently on hers.
“Anna. I can’t live like this. I can’t run on frozen feet forever. As you can see, I’m exhausted. If I’m caught like this, I won’t even get a chance for interrogation. Because I ran, it’ll probably be summary execution, won’t it? I didn’t want this, but you know it couldn’t be helped, right? I want to meet that person and speak my heart out. I want to tell him I’m not a spy, that I couldn’t possibly be, that he’s made a mistake, I want to tell him everything. I’ll answer every question he asks. Anna, please help me. This is the only way. The person who first suspected me needs to dispel that suspicion. No one else will do. Only then can I return to the Friends of the People. I have to. If I don’t go back, my life means nothing. That’s all I know. What you and I learned together, remember? Anna? We used to discuss it. How to help all the unfortunate people in the nation… You were always so clever… I always admired you. I never said it out of pride, but….”
Brian’s words grew increasingly incoherent, yet his desperation came through clearly. Anna felt her heart tighten with pity. But there was only one thing she could say.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know where that person is either.”
“You… you don’t know? Isn’t there any way to find out?”
“That is….”
Anna fell into thought before answering slowly.
“It might be possible, but I can’t promise anything.”
Brian nodded.
“Yes, if you could just try to find out, I’ll wait. Please, I’m begging you. I have no one else to rely on. You’re the reason I’m still alive. You seem to be the only bridge left between the Friends of the People and me.”
Anna nodded. Her tone had grown resolute.
“Come back next month. By then, I’ll have found a way.”
6. The Infinite Vineyard
In a field of a thousand grapevines
Ten thousand bunches of grapes ripen
A hundred thousand grapes mature
A million seeds grow ripe
And wherever those seeds fall
New trees sprout and grow
When a thousand fields are cultivated
Beneath a million grapevines
Ten million clusters of grapes hung heavy….
“If you just convince him that something is possible, he’ll do anything to make it happen.”
I was somewhere in the middle of the granite staircase, its surface worn smooth by time. My fingertips traced the weathered characters carved into the railing. Maximian sat perched on the opposite rail, one leg stretched out long, his gaze fixed on the laurel branches and leaves that hung overhead like a roof.
The laurel trees lining the staircase led upward to the Low House at the summit. Day insects circled the branches before flying toward the rooftop. Summer sunlight settled on both the leaves reaching toward the sky and those that had fallen.
As Maximian’s gaze passed through the laurels and reached the roof, I responded.
“Juspian must have given you the same confidence—that he could teach you.”
Maximian’s eyes, which had drifted from the roof toward the sky, skipped over everything in between and returned to me. The moment our eyes met, I quickly stood and giggled before dashing down several steps. Rather than chase after me, Maximian called out mockingly.
“Next time I should ask him to make you stop doing crazy things.”
“Sure. Once you succeed first.”
Then came the sound of footsteps on the dirt path. When Tichiel appeared at the top of the staircase in her white skirt and black shoes, Maximian turned his head and gave a false cough. Tichiel, as if she hadn’t heard anything, descended the stairs lightly.
“Did you talk well with the Dean?”
I crept back to my original spot and asked. Tichiel, standing between us, nodded, then sat down on the staircase herself. As always, she forgot the fact that something would definitely stain her white skirt.
“She said that if I can obtain the key to the Vineyard, I’m welcome to examine the materials there.”
“So that means it’s time to go meet that vineyard keeper professor?”
As Maximian said this and turned back, his eyes caught sight of the glasses Tichiel was wearing. They had black frames and sharp angles.
“What’s that thing for?”
Tichiel removed the glasses.
“These? Well, I thought I’d try to have a better conversation with the Dean, so I put them on. They might have helped.”
“What possible connection could there be between glasses and the Dean?”
Tichiel tilted her head as if confused by the question.
“When you’re asking for a difficult favor, you need to make a good impression.”
“That’s exactly what I’m asking—what in the world do glasses have to do with making a good impression?”
“Father said that when someone wears glasses, they look sincere.”
The one wearing glasses himself, yet looking utterly insincere, had an expression of utter bewilderment. Tichiel continued.
“So why do you think I agreed to be your teacher in the first place?”
This was the first I’d heard of it. Maximian replied with a note of complaint.
“Wasn’t it because your father told you to?”
“Even if Father told me to, I still have to think about it myself.”
Sometimes she seemed thoughtless, but moments like this proved otherwise. As Maximian and I exchanged glances wondering what answer could possibly come next, Tichiel continued seriously, even nodding her head.
“When I saw you wearing glasses, you looked like you’d study hard.”
….
I cut in, barely suppressing my laughter.
“Then you must be regretting it by now?”
“Regretting what?”
Tichiel rolled her eyes in confusion. I struggled to find an answer.
“Well, if you thought Maximian was a sincere student, then there’s nothing to say… except that’s clearly not the case.”
“Does anything in this world go well overnight?”
I looked at Maximian with pitying eyes. He pressed his temples and let out a groan.
Ughhhh….
“Is something wrong?”
At Tichiel’s question, Joshua looked up at the sky before answering.
“Well, I’ve contracted a disease that can only be cured by death. But there are no symptoms and it won’t shorten my lifespan, so don’t worry.”
Tichiel examined Maximian with curious eyes.
“That’s quite a convenient disease, isn’t it? If anyone had to catch something, everyone would want one like that.”
Tichiel’s decision to accompany them seemed to have been made suddenly on the morning of departure. At least, that’s how it appeared that day.
While servants loaded luggage onto the carriage early that morning, Joshua, heading downstairs, paused on the landing and tilted his head. Tichiel sat primly on the long bench placed in front of the entrance. She wore a white dress, a wide-brimmed hat, and at her feet rested a brown trunk tied with rope.
“Where are you going?”
When Joshua asked, Tichiel smiled brightly.
“Maximian is going, so I have to go with him.”
“…Maximian was thrilled at the prospect of being free from you.”
Tichiel’s face flushed slightly.
“Studies are always difficult, but if you quit halfway through, nothing comes of it.”
Joshua, who had never experienced such a thing firsthand, nodded politely and spoke.
“Well… I suppose that’s true?”
Even when Juspian appeared at the Miyu Rose Atelier the day before departure and dragged Maximian away, he hadn’t breathed a word about this matter. So when Maximian encountered Tichiel in front of the carriage and grasped the situation, he screamed and clutched his head. Tichiel asked the same question as before, and that’s when Joshua replied, “Yeah, it’s a very serious disease,” which set everything in motion. Maximian had to drink the so-called “symptom-detecting medicine” that Tichiel had hastily prepared, even delaying the carriage’s departure time, and he retched until around noon. As a result, Joshua had no choice but to develop an equally careful answer as before.
Joshua didn’t discover until arriving at Nenyaple that Tichiel’s reason for following them wasn’t solely about Maximian’s studies. In the meantime, Maximian had taken the leisurely journey he had once advocated for—two spacious carriages with three or four servants in tow—but he hadn’t enjoyed it at all. Unlike Jade Ring Castle, where there were plenty of places to hide, there was nowhere to escape during a carriage journey.
“But why do I need permission from that professor rather than the headmaster to enter the vineyard?”
Children of Rune – Winterer
Author: Jeon Min-hee
Publisher: 14 Months Publishing
The copyright to this book belongs to the author and 14 Months Publishing.
To reuse all or part of the contents of this book, written consent from both parties is required.

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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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