Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 593

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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 45.
The Velvet-Lined Invitation (6)
Examining the cliff face, I found there were decent handholds scattered about. Espin gazed down below, then opened and closed her hands while taking deep breaths.
During my time at Etoile, I had climbed rock faces like this a few times, but nearly four years had passed since then, so I felt a bit apprehensive—and this time there were no safety measures whatsoever.
But if I were truly facing the final trial, would I be hesitating like this?
Espin suddenly furrowed her brow. Last year, when someone had questioned whether Princess Charlotte was truly an Etoile member, Lorang standing beside me had bristled and countered that the princess had simply returned to her duties for the Grand Duchy’s sake rather than failing to achieve the final trial. At that moment, I had thought his words were so obvious that there was no need to interject, and I had simply listened without engaging.
Pressing my lips together once, I turned and lightly adhered to the cliff face. Then I began descending.
Since Pshiki was nearby, there were ways to use them to create steps in the cliff. But since Nenyaple might be taking an interest in Pshiki, I did not want to leave traces that could be tracked.
After all, with both Ispin Charles, the son of an Anomarad beekeeper, and Marceliet, a girl with an Orlanne accent, simultaneously driven out, my range of movement had become severely constrained.
By the time I had descended the entire cliff face and was thinking it was less difficult than expected, feeling quite satisfied as I hid along the riverbank, dozens of research students and academy students were in the process of moving supplies along the road connecting Nenyaple and Heimachi Village. During the break, a major cleaning and building repair was scheduled, so all research labs were being emptied.
Some said it was the first time in ten years, while others claimed nothing like this had happened within fifteen years. The reason no conclusion was reached was that those who had been at Nenyaple longer than that offered no opinions whatsoever.
It was not merely personal belongings or important research specimens.
Reagents whose expiration dates had carelessly passed, experimental results that had failed but whose causes remained incompletely analyzed, magical ink that had hardened solid but could supposedly be melted and reused, materials that had been hoarded when prices were favorable but forgotten and now seemed questionable in condition, research journals whose order had been scrambled and would require three days and nights just to organize, and stacks of old notes accumulated without any decision made on whether to discard them—all of these emerged endlessly, requiring two hand carts per person.
Of course, they all found it tedious and bothersome, but as they pulled everything out and cleaned, some found themselves refreshingly letting go of lingering attachments to ambiguous research, while others suddenly gained clarity and resolved to return to their homeland, making it difficult to say there were only negative effects.
Above all, the teaching assistants unexpectedly liberated from the professor’s research lab and the research students whose paper deadlines had suddenly been postponed indiscriminately blew kisses at both people and objects, giggling merrily, and even broke several expensive medicine bottles before dancing a waltz at the crossroads without a care.
“In any case, since repairs are being done after so long, things should improve once the break ends, don’t you think? I especially hope they do something about the basement of the research student dormitory. When the rainy season comes, the mold smell, the insects—it’s absolutely maddening.”
“Now that you mention it, the boiler was overdue for an explosion too.”
“Could it be that something exploded without us knowing and that’s why this is happening?”
“If that were the case, it would be the North Tower boiler. Remember how they hurried the North Tower students out earlier?”
A carriage arrived for the students who had finished unloading early. With the luggage, it departed carrying only four people, leaving twenty-two students behind. Since the sun was already setting, the carriage would come once more, and the rest would have to spend the night in Heimachi before heading down the next day. Everyone thought it was a good opportunity to have a drink and enjoy themselves at the inn. The two who had gone to scout the inn were returning from a distance.
But a strange shadow was following behind them. At first, I thought it must be one of the villagers. Until he drew near.
He was a man the students had never seen before. First, his height and build seemed to exceed the normal range of humanity. His hair was a dark ashen gray—the color of stone or iron. He wore a luxurious sapphire-tinted satin coat, and beneath the collar, a black dress shirt, vest, and watch chain were visible. His attire was different from the formal wear the nobility wore. It was the kind of atmosphere you might see at the salons popular among young people in Keltika. It was a refinement never before seen in the southern countryside.
The man standing before the students gazed at them with quiet eyes. The students found themselves looking at him without realizing it.
It was not merely because of his striking appearance and height. Though his features were like those of a somber sculpture, that was not the reason either. The man’s face was like a painting bathed in backlighting. It was the color of lead in a painting. It was like the twilight descending on an evening after rain had ceased.
The man opened his mouth. His voice was low and soft, yet utterly emotionless.
“Is it possible that here….”
A few with quick instincts stepped backward and retreated. Those who remained stared at the man’s mouth as if entranced.
“Is Maximian Lipkne present?”
3. Those Under Designation
The names Ispin Charles and Maximian Lipkne were not written on wanted posters like those for violent criminals posted at the village entrance. Nor were they circulating in the dark corners of taverns where mercenaries gathered, stamped with seals reading “dead or alive.”
The group searching for them was small, but being designated by them would amount to being hunted by the most meticulous organization on the continent. The reason they did not issue public wanted notices was that they trusted their own abilities over the eyes of the world.
Symbolion began fifty years ago at a conference held for the purpose of academic exchange. The very name meant simply “conference,” making the founding goal abundantly clear.
For decades afterward, it continued in that manner—functioning merely as a venue for academic and social exchange. Occasionally it organized flea markets, group purchases, and tour arrangements. However, several years ago, when a problem arose that required the mages of various nations to respond jointly, the representativeness of Symbolion, which had been the only organization spanning the entire continent, suddenly skyrocketed.
Now the elders of each nation’s magical organizations held important positions within Symbolion, and a communication network for sharing important proposals had been established, effectively making it the highest-ranking institution.
But because of its origins, mages felt almost no sense of belonging to Symbolion, which had a somewhat complex system. Rather, their sense of belonging to their own schools was far stronger. Therefore, to the great fortune of Ispin Charles and Maximian Lipkne, not all mages paid close attention to Symbolion’s so-called “designation.”
But as is the fate of large organizations, where there are indifferent people, there are also passionate ones, so it took less than five days for the information to reach those who absolutely needed to know.
“What? What did you just say? Designation?”
Gustave Fontnel, who was on duty at Division 2 of Etoile in Orlie, the Scout Division, bolted from his chair and knocked over an extinguished lamp that had been on the table. It was a rare mistake for someone from Etoile, where careful movement control was practiced for so long. He stared at the shattered lamp in dismay before looking again at Marie Louis standing across from him.
“Where did you hear this from?”
Marie Louis’s face was also taut with tension.
“He’s my elder brother, who belongs to the Evening Round Table of the Royal School.”
“Marie Daniel Tilande? Wasn’t he an associate professor at the Royal School?”
“Yes. The news has been shared among all the Evening Round Table members since last night, but what they don’t know is that the problematic Ispin Charles is actually our Princess Charlotte.”
Gustave Fontnel looked down at the broken lamp once more, then rubbed his forehead with the heel of his hand.
“Ah, this is quite the mess…”
Only a handful of the Princess Charlotte’s most trusted confidants and ten members of the Scout Division of Etoile knew that Princess Charlotte possessed the false identity of Ispin Charles. The Scout Division, whose primary objective was to protect the Princess, existed in name only—it had been operating independently for four years now.
No one knew better than they where the Princess was or what she was doing. Or rather, no one should have known. Yet how had it come to this?
Back when Princess Charlotte had been planning her visit to Nenyaple under her false identity, Etoile had been assigned a special training and education mission to reorganize the Grand Duchy’s military. It was a direct order from the Grand Duke himself and a critical task that would take half a year, so all of Etoile should have been devoting their full efforts to it.
For such a mission, Etoile’s numbers were now far too few to proceed without the Scout Division—which included Laurent Castille, whose skills ranked among the top three in Etoile and who was certain to become a Brillante in the future, and Yan Crupard, whose seasoned judgment in assessing situations was rarely matched by others. They had only seventy-eight members in total.
Until that point, Princess Charlotte had been living safely in Orlie, so the Scout Division had nothing particularly urgent to do. In fact, Charlotte herself had taken the initiative to send half of the Scout Division to what was called the “Keep”—their sole overseas garrison—to conduct training there. Though not yet a Grand Duchess, she was showing her active support for her father’s plans as the sole heir.
But a month after the mission began, it became clear that this would take not half a year, but a full year or more.
The state of the Grand Duchy’s military was dire. The key positions in the military had been divided up arbitrarily among various collateral descendants of the nobility, and the laziness with which they had lived their lives was reflected directly in the military’s condition.
The noble-born officers even fiercely resisted Etoile’s attempts to reform the military. Despite knowing full well that it was the Grand Duke’s order, they constantly obstructed progress—inventory ledgers disappeared at random, assembly points were falsified, training was disrupted by drunkenness, and provocative language sparked endless duels.
Then came an incident where two Etoile members who attempted to punish those who had embezzled military supplies were imprisoned for four days and nearly beaten to death. That incident caused Captain Allemand, renowned for his composure, to finally lose his cool and go to Marquis Gestier, the commanding officer, bowing repeatedly in apology before order was barely restored.
Yet still, most of the soldiers and officers alike believed these inhuman madmen were trying to meddle in their affairs over something that could be handled with minimal effort.
In the meantime, Charlotte had departed on a casual trip to find someone in Nenyaple, and it was only days after she had left that the Scout Division learned that not a single Etoile member had accompanied her.
Count Schnibaldt, who had encouraged the Princess to go alone, had already returned to Keltika, so Marie Louis bore the blame of the bewildered division members alone.
A discussion then arose about whether someone should follow her belatedly, but the current schedule made it difficult to spare even one person—exactly as Charlotte had assessed. At that time, only four Etoile members remained in Orlie.

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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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