Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 100

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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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On the surface, a considerate older brother—but someone you’d never want to get close to.
The second older brother, always busy with his Magic studies.
‘So… *cough cough!* Should I just grab that bastard and make him kneel?’
‘What a stupid idea! He’d hate me even more! Stupid brother!’
‘Then what do you want me to do?’
‘I don’t know! Wahhh!’
In the end, it was always to her third brother, Alrax, that she’d run crying with her complaints.
“I won’t cry over things like this anymore.”
Why Prince Alrax had burned Tonio’s letter.
She thought she understood the reason.
‘Because he couldn’t bear for me to lose both a loved one and a cherished friend at the same time.’
He must have thought she couldn’t endure such a wound.
Better to lose one than two—wasn’t that his reasoning?
Even if the relationship built between them was nothing but a terrible lie.
‘Of course……’
It hurt.
How could it not hurt, throwing away everyone she’d treasured, abandoning every memory of those she’d cherished so deeply?
“But I can’t whine to him anymore, can I?”
The cold composure that had settled on Princess Nailia’s face softened imperceptibly.
She had hated him for so long.
How much had she resented him for refusing to explain why he burned the letter, no matter how many times she’d pressed him—resented him for leaving for recovery without ever giving her a proper answer?
But now……
“He’s an idiot.”
It had all been for her.
So she wouldn’t be hurt.
So he wouldn’t inflict on her the pain of losing a lover and a friend at once.
It had always been that way since childhood. Anything that might wound her, he would hide and resolve quietly, alone.
By the time Nailia learned the truth, everything was long since finished.
She’d thrown quite the tantrum over it too……
“You never change, do you?”
A small laugh escaped her.
……
Prince Alrax, who had been watching her in silence for a moment, rose from his seat as if he had no intention of remaining.
Soft pat.
……
Princess Nailia’s eyes widened. At the sight of him passing by without a word, gently patting her shoulder.
As Alrax receded into the distance, Princess Nailia’s face slowly crumbled.
His touch had barely held back something inside her, and the moment he brushed against it, tears came pouring down.
“Ugh… *sob*……”
Her crying grew louder.
‘Wahhh! Brother!’
Like a seven-year-old child seeking her brother long ago, weeping without restraint.
* * *
Tick, tick.
“What do I do?”
Tick… tick, tick-tick.
The one pacing the darkened room, constantly gnawing at her nails, was Aria.
She had fled the Academy before classes even ended and returned home, still in her torn clothes without bothering to change.
Knock, knock.
Shortly after, the knock was followed by the door opening, and a woman in her late forties stepped inside.
Aria’s mother.
“Aria.”
Aria faltered mid-step, her eyes flashing sharp and hostile toward her.
“Leave.”
“What’s wrong? Why are your clothes like that?”
“Get out!”
She had come to check on Aria, who had been locked in her room all day since returning home, but left without getting any answers.
When she was in such a sharp state, it was better to just leave her alone. Otherwise, she might resort to self-harm right in front of her parents out of sheer spite.
Bang! Crash!
Aria hurled the vase from the table toward the door, unable to contain her fury as her entire frame trembled with rage.
Tick… tick-tick!
But it lasted only a moment before she returned to gnawing at her fingernails.
“First…”
She would have to claim that everything transmitted through the Communication Orb had been fabricated.
That Seres had orchestrated it all.
There was no other way.
“But the letter?”
Should she claim that was forged too?
Would the others believe it? Would Princess Nailia believe it?
“Argh!”
At last, a shriek of exasperation tore from Aria’s throat.
“This is all Seres’s fault!”
If she’d just quietly died in the basement, none of this would be happening! I wouldn’t be suffering like this!
“Wretched woman.”
To put her friend in such a predicament! And she calls herself a friend?
After everything I’ve done for her!
Crash!
Another piece of furniture flew through the air, shattering the mirror that hung on the wall.
As glass shards cascaded down in a glittering cascade, her breathing remained sharp and ragged, her fury far from spent.
“Is the performance over now?”
“…!”
Aria’s head snapped around at the unfamiliar voice drifting from the window.
“How… how did you…?”
Her eyes widened as she recognized the figure standing at the window—someone entirely unexpected.
Soft.
With a light movement, Alrax descended from the window, his characteristic gentle smile fixed in place as he approached Aria.
“Your Highness—what are you doing here?”
“Since the play has ended, the stage must be cleared.”
“I… I beg your pardon?”
Alrax stepped closer to the bewildered Aria, and clicking his tongue softly, he observed her disheveled state.
“She seemed to like you quite well, so I left you be as a plaything.
Though you were a troublesome toy meddling from the shadows, Nailia appeared to treasure you somewhat, so I thought I’d observe a little longer.”
“But in the end, Nailia discarded you first.”
“What do you…?”
“Do you know what becomes of abandoned toys?”
With a thin smile, Alrax stepped back and climbed onto the windowsill once more. Then he tossed something small onto the floor.
A tiny stone with a faint black sheen.
“Disposal. That is the fate of toys that have been abandoned.”
Snap.
“…!”
His figure vanished from the window, and the room’s appearance transformed in an instant.
The space was suddenly consumed by black trees.
“Kyaaaaa!”
—Screeeeeech!
Aria’s shriek erupted in unison with the blaring alarm.
“What’s… what is this?”
“What’s happening?”
“The Black Forest?!”
Those in the house came rushing outside at the sound of the alarm.
Yet the yard beyond remained eerily silent, leaving them all with puzzled expressions.
None of them turned their gaze toward Aria’s room.
Chapter 28. The Death of Aria
“Does this make any sense?”
“A corpse mauled by a monster found inside a house?”
“Goodness, what in the world is happening…?”
Standing behind Kainel, Seres listened to the murmured conversations around her, her expression heavier than usual.
She already knew who the “corpse” they spoke of was.
Aria.
Word had reached them that the girl who had disappeared from the Academy had been killed by a monster—and in her own home, no less.
As expected, no one had witnessed what happened to her at the hands of a Monster.
Had Aria’s mother not checked her daughter’s room late that night, her death would have been discovered much later.
‘The alarm sounded, didn’t it?’
She suspected that this time, too, a Black Forest had manifested—the kind that could only trap one person, like the one she’d witnessed before.
‘But why of all places, in Aria’s home?’
And it had occurred in her bedroom, no less. How was she supposed to make sense of that?
‘A mere coincidence?’
Yet something about it left her deeply uneasy—far too much to simply dismiss it that way.
“I’m inclined to believe this qualifies as a Serial Murder case.”
“I share that view. It seems the perpetrator deliberately staged it to appear as though a Monster had done it.”
“Exactly. There’s no other way such a thing could have occurred.”
…How did that make any sense? How on earth could someone stage a body to look like it had been killed by a Monster?
Seres watched the conference room descend into absurdity and felt her patience wear thin.
‘They’re making it so obvious none of them have ever actually fought a Monster.’
A few of the mercenary guild masters seated in the hall looked equally uncomfortable.
Yet not a single one dared to interject. They were probably watching the nobles’ expressions carefully.
Rot, the vice-commander attending today’s imperial conference in place of Skal, the head of the Black Guild, merely wore a mask-like smile.
He showed no interest whatsoever, as if he wouldn’t spare a moment’s thought on joining such a foolish conversation.
“This incident does indeed appear to be a murder case….”
“You truly believe that?”
Unable to hold back any longer, Seres interjected sharply.
How long were they going to keep prattling on about Serial Murder?
“Seriously? You’re not joking?”
The nobleman who had just spoken found himself on the receiving end of Seres’s stare, unable to hide his shock. Her face was utterly transparent—contempt and irritation written plainly across it.

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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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