Children of the Rune – Winterer - Chapter 93

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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 93.
Blood That Will Not Fade (6)

“Listen, Elder Brother. If you truly despise Kanta Kulgu’s signature golden scorpion dish, then at least let us grab something—anything—to quiet our stomachs. Please, won’t you?”
His muttering had escalated into an outright plea, and only then did Ryusno, who had been walking ahead, show signs of slowing his pace.
Yurichi’s face brightened with hope as he rushed forward to block Ryusno’s path, flashing him a winning smile.
“You’re in your twenties and still whining about food?”
Ryusno’s tone was as clipped as ever, but Yurichi knew he was speaking with the indulgence of an elder brother toward a younger sibling’s petulance. And Yurichi had perfected the art of exploiting such sentiment far better than Ryusno ever could.
“Ah, but you see, I skipped far more meals in my youth than I ever ate. Hunger is simply something I cannot endure. You were raised in comfort, Elder Brother—you wouldn’t understand such things, would you?”
“…Pointless talk.”
Though Ryusno’s father was a tailor, he had once earned such renown that he crafted ceremonial robes for Khan Commander Andreyev, who bore the epithet “Tyrant of Ron.” In those days, he had amassed considerable wealth.
Had Andreyev not met his violent end, and had everyone remotely connected to him not been driven from Ron in the aftermath, Ryusno too might have enjoyed a far longer and happier childhood.
Soon enough, Ryusno glanced around with a bewildered expression. Whenever he fell into thought, it was always thus—he had no awareness of where he was or what time it was.
Fortunately, his five senses worked diligently without any conscious command, so he had neither collided with anything, stumbled, nor taken a wrong turn.
It was said that he sometimes even engaged in ordinary conversation with people while in such a state, though there was no way to verify this—he himself retained no memory of it.
The two of them had stopped in the middle of an intersection. Even for someone with senses as developed as Ryusno’s, determining his location in such circumstances required the aid of his mind.
Rather than puzzle it out, he turned to look at Yurichi. Yurichi grinned and opened his mouth.
“Thirteen paces from the Kanta Kulgu restaurant… or rather, the Goose Market Intersection.”
Ryusno examined his own hands. It was so common for objects to find their way into his grasp without his knowing when he had picked them up that he no longer felt surprise.
This time, a single sheet of paper had somehow appeared, and he unfolded it absently.

Golden Scorpion—First Prize Winner at the Kanta Kulgu Competition, Chef Jeaner’s Signature Dish
Freshly caught golden scorpions simmered in coastal seawater—the finest cuisine
The fragrance of lemon juice and herbs is exquisite
Enough for four people to dine—a mere 10,000 pepe!
Two glasses of White Wine complimentary for all guests.

Yurichi glanced across at him and began to giggle. The flyer had already been folded twice by Ryusno in what appeared to be an unconscious gesture, creating neat seam allowances.
Ryusno muttered absently.
“Where exactly did you say the first prize was awarded?”
“How should I know, Elder Brother?”
“Hmm, so you’re saying you want to go there?”
Yurichi stifled his snickering and replied.
“Don’t worry, Elder Brother. For someone like you, not just scorpion but goose would be waiting obediently as well.”
Among outsiders who heard that goose and scorpion were the most famous foods in Kantapars, the outer city of Sansruria, few would choose scorpion except for rare ones like Yurichi.
Ryusno gazed up at the sky and murmured.
“Meat is bad for the body.”
Yet a few minutes later, the two of them sat at a corner table in the restaurant “Kanta Kulgu,” clutching the flyer with its creased seams.
After a brief debate, they ordered a small golden scorpion dish and a plate of salad—not goose. Remarkably, the restaurant even had a menu item called “Grand Backyard Salad,” as if it had been specially created recently for someone like Ryusno.
Yurichi, puzzled, casually inquired, and the server answered with an obvious expression.
“It’s a menu for vegetarians.”
Yurichi, who had always believed that Ryusno was the only “something-wrong human who liked only vegetables and fruits” across the entire Continent, had to completely revise his opinion upon seeing Ryusno’s pleased smile.
So the secret of his birth has finally been revealed. No wonder he didn’t seem like someone from Trabaches. Ryusno must be from here—or rather, he must have several ancestors from this place.
Sansruria, a country veiled in mystery due to limited exchange with foreign lands, was filled with cuisine that could be called “exotic fare” in the eyes of ordinary people, if not haute cuisine.
The people of Sansruria cooked everything—ingredients that people from other nations would never dare consume—and their daily foods numbered in the hundreds depending on preference.
With such dietary practices came an abundance of restaurants. Customs like distributing advertising flyers or the existence of vegetarian menus, which could not be found in other regions of the Continent, were commonplace here.
The territory, consisting of the Duckfeather Mountains that subtly blocked the Land of Mortals, the crescent plains beneath them, and the Sansru Peninsula jutting eastward into the sea, was small but fertile.
Because the Land of Mortals naturally obstructed exchange with other nations, Sansruria had developed in isolation like a remote island for hundreds of years.
Through this process, customs and culture had changed dramatically. They were not unaware that other nations existed beyond the desert, but such knowledge remained merely conceptual.
Foreigners too held only the perception of Sansruria as “a peculiar nation with a strange religion, ruled by a priestess queen.”
No one could easily judge whether opening the gates anew would truly benefit Sansruria and other nations. For the people of Sansruria especially, it was likely to be a hardship.
There was but one exception: the relationship with Lemme, where trade routes had recently opened and even long-term military cooperation was being discussed.
As a result, Kantapars became the first trading city opened to foreigners. Thanks to this, Ryusno and Yurichi had entered Sansruria without much difficulty.
Of course, if they attempted to leave Kantapars and venture into other regions, problems would arise from that point onward.
“Elder Brother, shall we state our conclusion first?”
Yurichi, waiting for the food to arrive, tapped a wooden cup with his fingertips, then leaned back and stretched.
“Do you think that little brat who chased us here like hunting dogs came to this place, or didn’t come?”
The two possessed a full-length portrait of Boris Jineman given by the Khan Elector. It was a copy of the family portrait that Vlado had torn from Jineman Estate.
Since the portrait depicted Boris at around ten years old, it was a charming face that deserved to be called a little boy.
Daphnen, currently on Moon Island, resembled the portrait only in facial contours, but differed entirely in overall impression and maturity.
Naturally, they were unaware of this fact. Though they knew he had aged somewhat, a difference of two or three years between children seemed insignificant to adults.
Only Yurichi, who had adopted sons, had once vaguely mentioned the possibility that the child might have matured suddenly.
“The possibility is slim, but we should investigate further.”
“Slim? I’d say it’s nonexistent. I’d sooner bet that the brat went out on a fishing boat and drowned in the sea. No one entering Sansruria can avoid passing through Kantapars harbor here. Even we couldn’t! Besides, you know well what happens when a foreigner leaves here and tries to go elsewhere.”
“There isn’t a complete absence of methods.”
“Well, of course—if we captured one of those good-natured, simple-minded Sansrurians and brought them along. But you know as well as I do how difficult that would be. To themselves, this nation is ‘a country without laws,’ but to foreigners, it’s ‘lawless chaos.'”
“A country without laws” and “lawless chaos” seemed similar at first glance, but their true meanings were worlds apart.
It was true that Sansruria had no law explicitly forbidding foreigners from traveling through its lands. How could it, when the nation lacked even a proper legal code?
Instead, there existed a constraint far more powerful than any law: the people themselves, who rejected all outsiders.
In a lawless land such as this, the terror became apparent when one realized that officials would never investigate even if the people stoned a foreigner to death each day.
The administrators, who simultaneously held priestly rank, had earned a reputation for their grotesque interpretation of customary law—remaining indifferent to the same issue nine times, then casually pronouncing a death sentence on the tenth.
“A creature like you fears a lawless realm?”
Ryusno spoke, and Yurichi answered with a mischievous smile.
“Lawbreakers don’t frighten me—it’s the troublesome busybodies that make me sick. Besides, I’m starving to death. Why is the food taking so long?”
The oversized Backyard Salad had already arrived. Yurichi glanced about, hoping to gather information about what he would soon eat, but he noticed no one dining on scorpion dishes that evening.
Scorpion was quite an expensive dish even for the people of Sansruria. Yet with the generous travel funds they had received from Khan Commander, the price was hardly a concern.
Instead of scorpion, something else caught his eye. Yurichi stretched out his arm and tapped the table before him, drawing Ryusno’s attention.
“Elder Brother, look over there.”
Ryusno, who had been chewing a piece of lettuce, turned his head. A man was entering the Dining Hall.
It was not only the two of them who stared at him. Every eye in the Dining Hall was fixed upon the entrance.
One man had entered, yet dozens waited prostrate outside the door. Moreover, all those prostrate wore the white garments that only Sansru Priests could don.
A priest who appeared to be their representative stepped forward, bowing deeply and saying something, but the two men, unaccustomed to the Sansruria people’s altered common tongue—particularly the priests’ convoluted manner of speech—could not understand.
They could only discern that they were addressing him as “Your Eminence.”
“Your Eminence” turned and replied.
“His Majesty need not worry. I shall attend to my own affairs.”
His tone was as innocent as a child’s, and above all, his common tongue was perfectly clear. The man sat at an empty table and called loudly for a server, ordering the same golden scorpion dish that Yurichi had chosen.
Twenty-three Sansru Priests remained prostrate outside the Dining Hall door.
Yurichi kept stealing glances at him. There was much about this man that proved intriguing.
First, no matter how one looked at him, his appearance seemed utterly at odds with the title “Your Eminence.” Despite his imposing stature and commanding presence, his eyes held a clarity mixed equally with ignorance and benevolence—a curious contradiction.
The man rested his elbows on the table, cupping his chin in his hands, his face alight with eager anticipation for the meal to arrive.
After a moment, Ryusno turned his head and spoke.
“A Warrior.”
Yurichi understood those words with three times the weight they would have carried from anyone else.
Ryusno, who at first glance appeared to be a scholarly man hunched over books, possessed the most formidable combat prowess among the Four Wings. Having walked alongside him for years, Yurichi knew well the terror that Ryusno embodied.
“…Indeed. Without question.”
This was no “Your Eminence.” He was a savage Warrior who roamed mountains and fields. His appearance and attire meant nothing. It was an animal instinct that only Warriors could recognize in one another, and it spoke with absolute clarity.

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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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