Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 505

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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 275.
Beneath the Almond Tree (18)
Cool air brushed against my flushed cheeks. Had the door been open? As my eyes finally focused, I saw Yien standing there, rigid and still. He was looking at something. Behind me? The moment I turned, a dozen men appeared—soldiers. What was happening? I couldn’t comprehend anything. My mind refused to function properly. I barely recognized one face. Major Jenas. He opened his mouth.
“All that effort tracking you from Keltika has borne such splendid fruit, Miss. How generous of you to deliver such a harvest.”
His voice dripped with mockery. As Major Jenas gestured to his subordinates, the soldiers dispersed and encircled the three of us.
“In the name of His Majesty the King, sovereign and revered, I hereby place you all under arrest. Don’t you think the torture chamber would be a fitting reunion place for lovers?”
Just before the soldiers seized my arms, Lanji exchanged a glance with Yien. Yien showed no reaction, yet he understood Lanji’s signal. He had to act as they had rehearsed countless times before—prepared for this moment that they had always hoped would never come.
Yien spun sharply toward the soldiers.
“You dare arrest me? Do you know who I am? Who exactly are you? What business brings you here to cause such insolent commotion? Explain yourselves at once.”
“We are well aware that you are Miss Ienna da Amaranth, the young lady of the Amaranth Count Family. We are the Kingdom 8th Army’s Keltika Central District Guard, and I am Major Howell Jenas.”
Jenas saluted formally. Though he remained composed, the other soldiers, now learning who Ienna truly was, hesitated to approach. Ienna folded her arms and glared at Jenas. This was the moment she needed to summon a tone she never used even with her servants.
“What business brings you all the way from Keltika? The Kingdom 8th Army? Weren’t you the ones supposed to be hunting down those Republican Faction dogs?”
At Ienna’s words, Jenas’s brow furrowed for a moment. But he soon replied.
“You speak truly. The individuals accompanying you are members of the Friends of the People organization. Please cooperate for now. Once we depart, everything will be clarified.”
Jenas could not bring himself to suggest that Ienna herself was also part of the Friends of the People. Offending a noble’s sensibilities was instinctively uncomfortable. Moreover, his opponent was a young lady who could have his head removed without evidence if he made a wrong move. Once they brought her in for interrogation, everything would come to light anyway.
Ienna understood this fact well.
“Preposterous! Lanji is my school friend, and Silviet is the daughter of the Marquis d’Argenson—how could such a thing be true? How do you conduct your investigations so carelessly? I will certainly report this rudeness to my father! You would take my friends away before my eyes? I shall take you to the Castle myself. My father, a man of perfect integrity, will clarify everything!”
By the time she finished speaking, Ienna had already made it clear she would not be going with them. Jenas understood this, but there was nothing he could do.
“Then I shall take only these two, whose evidence is certain. Please cooperate with our investigation at a later time, Miss.”
Silviet trembled violently. What lay ahead seemed like an unreal abyss. As soldiers’ hands gripped my arms and I descended the staircase, the haze lifted and the fragments of what had befallen me slowly assembled. Even as this happened, the subtle fragrance I had inhaled so deeply moments before lingered at the tip of my nose—a scent I could never have detected through mere observation over all these years.
Dawn broke.
I had no memory of how I returned to the Castle. The moment I sat on my bed in my chamber, I collapsed forward, catching myself with one hand. My entire body trembled from the pounding of my heart, threatening to burst from my throat.
I had to think clearly. I had to move quickly. Before they could act, I had to seal every place where information might leak, and contact Keltika as well. I could not waste the time Lanji had bought for me.
Yet tears poured forth.
I could not remember the last time I had cried. Was this uncontrollable weeping the first since the day Nanny died? In my dazed mind, past events swirled. Everything about Lanji, and things unrelated to him—all of it spilled out. In the safety of the Castle, in a place protected by beloved parents, surrounded by countless people to ward off intruders, I was alone. For the first time in years, my heart felt utterly empty.
When Lanji’s final expression came to mind, my lips trembled. Before my friend, my shame was laid bare, yet he never lost his judgment. Silviet, whose fate changed with a single word from Lanji, would never speak of Lanzumi to the Kingdom 8th Army. She would never denounce me. It was Silviet, not us, whom Jenas had been pursuing. For reasons unknown, perhaps she had been suspected while searching for Lanji. In such circumstances, Lanji’s kiss with Silviet became undeniable evidence…
My hands clenched into fists. Recalling that scene, I could not calm myself.
“Miss Amaranth.”
Only after a brief moment did I recognize the voice of someone I knew. I quickly crouched down, then exhaled a sigh.
“Torzhov.”
“I apologize for entering such a place. The situation is quite urgent.”
The figure appearing beyond the window was a Nightwalker I had employed as a servant in the Castle. He was a man approaching forty with an ordinarily gentle demeanor, but not now. Seeing my tear-stained face, his expression darkened further.
I rose from the bed.
“You’ve come at the right moment. I needed you.”
I tried to speak calmly, but it did not work. My voice trembled and wavered. Torzhov lowered his head.
“It was our oversight. We had heard that the Kingdom 8th Army stationed in Keltika had moved into the area. But we did not know they were pursuing that woman. I have no excuse.”
“No. It is my fault. I should have been the first to suspect Silviet.”
There was no point in assigning blame now. Could I have imagined it? That Silviet, who came and went so cunningly from my dormitory room, harbored such secrets.
Lanji, too, revealed a side of himself I did not know. With his usual fastidiousness, I had thought him incapable of compromise or deception. Yet he deceived me to protect Silviet. To protect his sister and my friend. I had never heard such bitter sarcasm from his lips. All the while, he must have been calculating the moment the Kingdom 8th Army would arrive.
For years we had spent time together, and I had come to like him as a friend and companion without equal. Yet the Lanji I recalled tonight was different. Every time I thought of what had transpired, a burning pain seared through my chest. It was frustrating, infuriating, and simultaneously made my heart race. It was an emotion I had never felt before.
“Rosencrantz has been taken to the military encampment of the Tia Rebellion Suppression Forces stationed temporarily near Amochia. I’ve just confirmed it and am on my way back.”
Amochia was a small city not far away. Yenie pressed urgently.
“How do we get there? Is there any possibility of rescuing him?”
Torzhov did not answer immediately. Yenie’s cheeks began to tremble again.
“I will continue to investigate, but… in reality, it is difficult. Since it is a special contingent of the suppression forces, there are nearly a thousand soldiers. Even if we organize a separate unit to transport him to Keltika or another major city, a considerable number will be requisitioned.”
“We need to find a way during the transport…”
“Emergency communications continue to come through Nightwalk. For now, please wait. And…”
Torzhov hesitated slightly before continuing.
“There is now a possibility of information leakage, so I will leave this place. I will contact Keltika myself. Thank you for your care during this time. If you wait, another Nightwalker will contact you. Please keep in mind that Amaranth’s identity could also be exposed and act accordingly.”
“Do you think… information will leak from Langie?”
Yenie’s already flushed face grew even redder.
“I do not wish to entertain such thoughts either. Rosencrantz was a strong person whom even I, who have been with the organization for a long time, could rarely meet. However, there have been few who, once captured, have remained silent without breaking. The interrogators of the Kingdom 8th Army are said to be capable of resurrecting the dead.”
Yenie spun around abruptly. Torzhov bowed deeply in farewell and disappeared out the window as he had come. Left alone, Yenie bit her lip and trembled uncontrollably. She was suffocating from unbearable imaginings.
In a castle surrounded by jade-colored forest, there was a young boy sleeping. It was a long sleep. People wondered whether he would awaken, or whether he would not.
Some said he would never awaken. Could he be alive without awakening? That is what they said, but no one knew how long it would last. Yet if one had awakened, might not the other someday awaken as well? When a maid asked, the head maid shook her head. Though the two looked alike, they were in fact entirely different. One of them is not even human. Then would he simply remain as he is and eventually die?
A bird chirped. Morning had come. Those who had slept awoke, heated cauldrons, drew water, and took up rakes to go out to the courtyard. It was the moment when the castle, which had been deathly silent, awakened.
As in old tales, the young boy who had been sleeping a long sleep opened his eyes.
Act 16. Long
1. Pieces Coming Together
One piece is in the flour
One piece is in the sugar jar
One piece is in the raisins
Gather them all and fit them together, and the gingerbread man runs away.
One piece is in the firewood
One piece is in the oven fire
One piece is in the chimney ash
Gather them all and fit them together, and the ash-covered one runs away.
One piece is in the pillowcase
One piece is in the petticoat
One piece is in the wool socks
Gather them all and fit them together, and the little fairy runs away.
As the rain that had fallen all day on the Southern Island began to cease, the street was already dark. As the lamplighter passed, lighting the streetlamps one by one, the ground gleamed with metallic light.
It was a light that would not last two hours. Once those they served—in other words, those who had filled the sloping hillside with the white roofs of villas—entered their own homes, the lights would gradually diminish and then extinguish one by one. The truly dark night was left to a single white lantern lit by nature. By that time, it became nearly impossible to find a house one had never visited before on this street.
As if aware of this, there was a man walking with quick steps.
A dark coat, a bowler hat covering half his face, tightly pressed lips beneath it—his otherwise solemn appearance was marred by the coat hem that was drenched and still dripping water. When it clung to his legs so much that he could barely take a step, he would stop to remove it and walk again. His shoes were soaked through, squelching with each step.
To the left and right of his path, crooked alleys appeared endlessly. Small houses clustered densely everywhere. In such a place, one had to rely on the setting sun to the west, a peculiarly bent tree, the red doorpost of some house, or a barking dog to find one’s way. Of course, asking someone from the neighborhood would be fastest, but the dreary weather had emptied the streets of people.
At last the man found an alley and entered it. It was just an ordinary corner, no different from the dozen or so alleys he had passed before, difficult to distinguish by any particular feature. After passing through a stone-walled path so narrow that two people could barely walk side by side, a house with an unusually protruding eave appeared. Across from the stepping stone, several wooden barrels with their bottoms rotted out lay scattered about.
The man knocked on the door.
Children of Rune – Winterer
Author: Jeon Min-hee
Published by: 14 Months Publishing
The copyright to this book is held by 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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