Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 101

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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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“Surely you’re joking. Aren’t you?”
She fixed them with a look that screamed—unless this was some elaborate jest, no sane person would dare utter such nonsense—and the other nobles had no choice but to falter.
But their shock was short-lived; displeasure bloomed swiftly across their faces.
“How dare you!”
“What gives a mere servant the right to interject here!”
Even if she had been brought by Grand Duke Persha himself, she was no high-ranking nobleman—the fact that she dared speak at an imperial conference was absolutely intolerable.
‘Oh, you’re all so impressive.’
As if I wanted to butt in, right?
“Your conduct is so tedious I couldn’t help myself.”
“What, what?”
“What did you just say!”
There it was—her true thoughts spilling out again.
Seres scratched her cheek and offered an awkward smile.
Enok was always nagging her to stop blurting out her honest feelings like that.
‘But what can I do about it now?’
The words were already out.
“I said your conduct is tedious, that’s all.”
“Insolent!”
“The audacity!”
“How dare a mere maid presume to speak!”
Why were they getting angrier when they’d asked what she said and she’d simply answered?
‘What do they want from me?’
Besides, I’m not actually her maid.
‘Just a debtor who owes her a little.’
…A little?
All right, quite a lot, actually.
A soft sound cut through the air.
“……?”
Those who had been glaring at Seres flinched as Grand Duke Kainel suddenly rose from his seat.
He’d been silent the whole time—why now?
“Sit.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Sit down.”
“…You mean me?”
Why would I sit there?
Kainel offered Seres the chair he’d just occupied.
Bewildered, Seres blinked several times in succession.
“Your Grace, what are you doing? Why would you have her sit in that position……?”
The other nobles voiced their confusion, their expressions dazed.
And his next words made their shock even deeper.
“She’s here today as my proxy at this conference.”
“Pardon?”
Dismissing the wide-eyed nobles, Kainel took Seres—who now wore an equally bewildered expression—by the hand and seated her himself.
“Want some water?”
He even found a Water Cup and offered it to her, as if he meant to serve her himself, and Seres exhaled a long, weary breath.
‘What’s gotten into him now?’
Watching his half-glazed eyes, Seres shook her head slightly.
“This—this is absurd!”
“How can a servant claim proxy authority!”
“Who said she’s a servant?”
“Pardon?”
“I’ve never introduced her as a maid.”
“But surely……”
Since she attends to things, wasn’t it only natural to assume……?
“From now on, if anyone has something to say to me, direct it to her. And remember: her words are my words.”
With that, Kainel stepped back. The gesture made his intent unmistakable—he would take no further part in the proceedings.
Not just the nobles, but the Emperor and the Crown Prince were unable to conceal their shock.
They’d suspected their relationship ran deeper than mere acquaintance, but to grant her proxy authority……?
“So then.”
A nobleman, his face twisted with visible displeasure, stared at Seres as though looking daggers at her.
“What exactly are you trying to say, you insignificant little thing?”
“…Insignificant little thing?”
From Kainel, who had stepped back, came a voice cold as winter frost.
“So you’ve been thinking of me as some insignificant little thing all this time, is that it?”
“What? No, no! I wasn’t speaking to the Grand Duke, I was—!”
“Did you suddenly develop short-term memory loss? You just said that every word directed at her is a word directed at me. Or is it that, like me, you find the phrase ‘insignificant little thing’ unbearable to hear?”
The temperature around Kainel plummeted sharply.
This wasn’t mere sensation—the air itself was growing cold. The Freezing Power was seeping outward in thin, visible wisps.
“Ugh…”
The nobleman’s face drained of all color as the bitter chill crashed down upon him.
His jaw trembled uncontrollably, as though every drop of blood in his body were freezing solid.
“Grand Duke Persha, that’s enough.”
Crown Prince Aseraian stepped forward to intervene, but Kainel’s gaze remained fixed on the nobleman who had insulted Seres, unwavering and immovable.
As everyone stood paralyzed, wondering how on earth to restrain this foul-tempered monster.
“Kainel.”
A soft voice reached through the silence.
Whoosh.
What was remarkable was that in response to those few brief words, the chill that had been filling the hall vanished as though it had never existed.
“Go fetch another cup of water.”
At those words, everyone in the hall shot Seres a look that screamed: have you lost your mind?
Was she really ordering someone around right now?
‘Why? He said he’d attend to me.’
I didn’t tell him to do anything.
‘I’m not—absolutely not—taking this moment to settle scores for all those times I had to serve him growing up.’
He simply insisted on doing it himself. Besides, even when he was young, he was always impeccable at whatever task was assigned to him.
Click.
Every eye in the room trembled as though the ground itself had quaked—watching Kainel actually fetch the water and set it down meekly before Seres.
“You said I should do it. So stop interfering, would you?”
Seres spoke in a low murmur as he drew near.
“I was concerned you might beat that man senseless.”
“Me?”
“You have a history. Beating people in conference halls.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. And I only beat people—I don’t kill them, unlike some others.”
“I don’t kill just anyone either. Only those who deserve it.”
“Then what was that murderous intent just now?”
“That man deserved it, apparently.”
“Hey, you absolute madman. Show some restraint, would you?”
The expressions of those gathered in the hall grew even more bewildered.
‘We can hear everything.’
‘We can hear it all!’
In a hall so silent you could hear a pin drop, there wasn’t a soul present whose ears were so poor they couldn’t catch every word the two of them spoke, no matter how softly.
‘What is this?’
‘That easy, familiar conversation between them?’
While everyone else stood slack-jawed, Seres swept her gaze across the assembled nobles.
Then she turned to fix an unwavering stare on the one who had so vehemently insisted it was serial murder.
“The work of a human? Truly?”
“That is to say—!”
In a flash, Seres’s hand shot toward the nobleman.
“Gasp!”
Her fingers moved in a swift, demonstrative arc.
“Here, the heart torn clean away in a single stroke, and here on the left side of the head, the scalp ripped off at once—and you believe this to be the work of a human being? Truly?”
“I, I—!”
Tap.
“Eek!”
Seres lightly struck the nobleman’s ribs with her palm.
“The right side of the torso—not only torn away, but gnawed at as though something had devoured it. You claim this, too, is human handiwork?”
“That is—”
“Well, the world is full of madmen, it’s true. If there exists a human so deranged as to rip open a corpse and consume its entrails, that would indeed be a terrible thing.”
The nobleman swallowed hard, his throat dry, and said nothing more.
Well, no wonder she’s the deputy of Grand Duke Persha—look at that gaze.
The moment her eyes and touch met his body, he felt like a corpse.
“Have you ever properly examined a body mauled by monsters?”
“Of—of course I have!”
“And yet you persist with this absurd claim that it’s the work of a human? Remarkable.”
The nobleman’s face flushed crimson.
The other aristocrats who shared his opinion reacted much the same way.
Mysterious corpses were appearing throughout the Empire.
Rumors had spread that monsters appeared without warning to kill people, and the populace had reached a fever pitch of anxiety.
Some were even buying and selling counterfeit holy relics, claiming it was all the work of evil spirits—a thriving black market had emerged.
The number of visitors to the temples had doubled, needless to say.
The best way to dispel this formless dread was to offer something concrete to replace it—a tangible enemy.
If they announced this was a serial murder case and simply arrested and executed some criminal, much of the panic would surely subside.
But…
“This is clearly the work of monsters, by any measure.”
The Grand Duke’s deputy showed no inclination to compromise.
In fact, she had grown even sharper than before.
Her eyes blazed with such contempt—as if to say ‘Stop spouting nonsense’—that the nobles’ faces reddened further.
“Wasn’t it said that the Alert System for the Black Forest sounded when the last corpse was discovered?”
“The system could have malfunctioned, couldn’t it?”
“That’s right. No one has actually seen the Black Forest appear.”
“If it’s a small Black Forest, it’s entirely possible.”
“What do you mean by—”
“A small Black Forest?”
The nobles made no effort to conceal their displeasure.
Some even let out bitter laughs.
It was nonsense, after all.
Here she was, looking down on them with such disdain—and now spouting something even more absurd than the serial murder theory.

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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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