Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 105

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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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The splint on her right arm made it look thoroughly broken, and her left cheek was swollen so badly it was clear she’d taken a serious blow from something.
Bandages were even wrapped tightly around her left leg.
“I had a bit of an accident.”
“Whatever this accident was, it certainly did a number on you.”
“Well… I’m not exactly a small matter, but… hehe.”
…And yet she could still smile, looking like that?
“Call that one for me.”
“Pardon? Who?”
“Juberios.”
Whoosh!
[An accident, nothing! This was deliberate, every bit of it! Those cursed fools were making sport of you!]
Juberios, the Spirit King of Fire, materialized as if he’d been waiting, his voice booming toward Herion.
‘Well, it’s all fine.’
Why do you keep answering my summons? Aren’t you supposed to only respond when the contractor calls?
“They did apologize…”
[An apology while wearing a sneering smile? I’ve never seen such a mockery of an apology in all my days!]
There had been some discord in the Elrsia Countess Family recently. A clash of opinions had arisen between the House Lord Herion and the knights.
‘We must purchase these weapons and equipment, yes?’
‘Of course. These are items we buy every year.’
The problem lay with the next year’s procurement plan submitted by the Knight Commander of the Elrsia Countess Family.
Just as Herion was about to accept the justification of “items purchased every year,” one person stepped in to challenge it.
‘There is a problem with this plan.’
‘A problem?’
‘The black swords from the Alkaria Region that the Knight Order purchases annually cost 450 gold each. That’s equivalent to two months’ wages for a common soldier. Yet I question whether they’re worth that price. These swords are merely flashy on the surface. The motive to continue purchasing them is suspect.’
‘Motive? What motive?’
She was a new secretary that Herion had hired upon becoming House Lord.
A woman named Juno—someone she’d grown up with in the same neighborhood and attended the Academy with.
After graduating from the Academy’s economics department with excellent marks and returning home to rest, she’d readily agreed when Herion sought her out for help.
‘What would a number-crunching scholar know about swords!’
‘True, I know little. But I do know well that the swords the Knight Order currently uses have no practical value whatsoever—they’re expensive for nothing.’
The argument between the two continued, and in the end, Herion sided not with the Knight Commander but with the secretary.
Not merely because Juno was an old and trusted friend, but because even to Herion’s eye, the swords the Knight Order used seemed all shine and no substance.
‘If the House Lord has decided, we have no choice but to obey.’
‘Thank you, Commander.’
Though his expression was displeased, the Knight Commander accepted her decision, and Herion believed everything had been resolved smoothly.
But then.
Swish! Crack!
‘Ah!’
‘House Lord!’
‘Oh my, are you hurt? You should have been more careful.’
A few days later, two wooden swords came flying at Herion as she passed through the Training Grounds.
Struck by the swords, Herion fell to the ground, and now she was in this condition.
Her face was swollen, her arm fractured. Her ankle too had swollen, apparently twisted when she fell.
“Wooden swords? Did an apprentice make a mistake?”
[Would that it were so! This was the work of the official knights.]
“Why would the knights use wooden swords?”
[Hah! Do you know what excuse those vermin gave!]
‘Given the financial constraints of a house that cannot even properly supply one sword, we were practicing with wooden swords. We must conserve real steel, after all. We plan to conduct all future training with wooden swords, but we’re not yet accustomed to them, so there was an unfortunate mistake. We beg your understanding through the House Lord’s magnanimous grace.’
[That accursed Commander said something to that effect!]
“It was an accident. And he did apologize…”
[With that smirking face? Did it truly look like a sincere apology to you, blind as you are, House Lord!]
Under the crushing force of Juberios’s blazing fury, Herion leaned her upper body back as far as it would go and clamped her mouth shut.
“And what were you doing while she was getting hurt like this?”
[What was I doing! I was locked inside the Ring! You know this well—I cannot leave of my own will unless summoned!]
I know.
That’s why I could only watch helplessly from within the Ring as the previous House Lord was being poisoned, unable to emerge.
‘This is a problem too.’
Herion was a healer. Her skill in that art was considerable, but she possessed no instinct whatsoever for urgent situations.
You might say she lacked even the basic reflex to summon Juberios in a moment of crisis.
I should just have her practice or something.
“So why did you want to see me? What do you need help with?”
Seres pulled the still-blazing Juberios away from Herion and let out a short breath.
When she’d visited before, she’d been exasperated by the knights, but not to this degree.
They’d actually swung their blades at the House Lord they were supposed to protect and serve?
“Well… hehe…….”
…Why are you laughing? That’s an unsettling smile.
Seres’s brow furrowed as she watched Herion shuffle awkwardly toward the desk with that sheepish grin and pick something up.
A strange unease washed over her all at once.
“Since I’m in this condition, I’d be grateful if you could help only until my body fully recovers.”
Seres took the documents Herion offered, her expression one of disbelief.
“…You’re asking me to serve as Acting House Lord?”
“Yes!”
“Do you honestly think this makes sense?”
How could the position of Acting House Lord be handed over to someone with no connection to the family?
Did she really think the others would accept this? An outsider as Acting House Lord?
[I commanded it. Who else would do it but you?]
“You did?”
[Don’t worry about the others. As you know, the authority to appoint a temporary House Lord rests with me as well, does it not?]
Seres fixed the Spirit King of Fire, Juberios, with a cold, dead stare as he puffed out his chest proudly.
“…So what you’re saying is, you ordered this?”
[Yes. Herion approved of it as well.]
“Juberios.”
[Speak. Do you have further questions?]
“Isn’t it about time you molted?”
[…Molted?]
Juberios flinched and immediately flew away from Seres.
[No, wait! That’s not right!]
What do you mean, not right?
Come here so I can pluck every last feather from you!
* * *
“Acting House Lord?”
“Yes. Apparently an Acting House Lord has been appointed.”
“Who came? Was it someone chosen by the Council of Elders?”
“It doesn’t seem to be. It appears the House Lord brought someone she knew personally.”
“The House Lord did?”
Tailo, Knight Commander of the Elrsia Count House, let out an incredulous laugh at his vice commander’s report.
First a secretary, and now an Acting House Lord—someone with a personal connection to her? Was she collecting them?
“Not chosen by the Council of Elders, and yet she expects the others to accept such a person?”
“Well…….”
“What? Is there more you need to tell me?”
“The Spirit King of Fire approved it, apparently…….”
“What?”
Tailo, who had been about to formulate a plan to contact the Council members he knew well and remove this new Acting House Lord, hesitated at those words.
“Why would the Spirit King of Fire approve of such a person?”
The Spirit King of Fire’s disagreeable temperament was already common knowledge.
He’d caused quite a scene at the Imperial Conference Hall before, so for such a difficult being to approve the Acting House Lord position so easily?
“Are you sure you heard that correctly?”
“I’ll look into it more carefully.”
“Tch.”
Since Herion became the new House Lord, everything had grated on Tailo.
From the start, the knights of a house that dealt in Healing Arts rather than swordcraft had little of consequence to do.
No one expected them to make a name for the family through the blade.
‘A knight order in name only.’
They just needed to prove that the Elrsia family possessed what any proper Count House naturally ought to have.
Everyone knew this reality, and Tailo found the situation far from disagreeable.
Even if other knights mocked him, the title “Knight of a Count House” was hardly a bad one to carry.
‘That’s right. It wasn’t so bad at all.’
The income flowing in was quite decent too.
House Lords ignorant of swords or knighthood paid the knight order no mind whatsoever.
Not just the House Lord, but most of the family had been the same way.
Naturally, as Knight Commander, his opinions set the Knight Order’s policy, and he had never encountered any dissenting voice.
‘But then….’
Once Herion became House Lord, that framework began to crack.
Those who had long skimmed small amounts from the family coffers alongside him were being dismissed one by one, and then a strange Secretary came in and cut off all the funding channels entirely.
What’s more, she was scrutinizing even the Knight Order’s supply procurement—something that was never to be questioned!
He and the others had diverted considerable sums from the Knight Order’s material budgets over the years, and now even that door had been sealed shut.
How could he possibly regard the new House Lord with favor?

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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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