Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 11

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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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“W-what do you mean, what kind of relationship? A-ah… it’s nothing like that at all!”
Her response time really was pathetically slow.
After giving away every answer through her expression, who would believe any excuse that followed?
“That ring you’re wearing.”
“Gasp!”
…….
Now even she felt embarrassed for speaking.
Watching the director panic the moment she mentioned a mere ring, Seres found it absurd.
So you’re a very easy man to read, aren’t you?
The ring on his left hand.
It looked vaguely familiar, and the moment she gave it proper thought, she remembered exactly where she’d seen it before.
‘Aunt Agnes.’
It was identical in design to the ring she always wore on her left hand.
Of course, it would be laughable to suspect a connection based solely on matching ring designs.
But wasn’t it Agnes who introduced her to this place?
The director of the sanatorium she’d personally introduced wore the same ring as her?
‘Just as I suspected.’
Exactly as expected.
She’d simply dangled the bait carelessly, and he’d eagerly snatched it up without hesitation—so eagerly that even she, the one who’d cast the line, felt embarrassed.
“W-wait, it seems there’s been some misunderstanding…….”
“Your husband was already suspicious that your aunt was having an affair.”
“Eh?”
Of course it was a lie. She didn’t even know what the man’s face looked like.
“He’s apparently in close contact with an assassin, saying he’ll slit the throat of whoever you’re with the moment he finds them…….”
“A-an assassin?”
Yet Arnold eagerly bit down on the bait once again.
Watching him grow pale as a ghost, Seres found herself letting out a hollow laugh without quite meaning to.
How on earth had such a timid man managed to pull off something like this?
Bang!
“Yelp!”
The moment she brought her hand down hard on the table, Director Arnold flinched and nearly crumpled to the floor in terror.
“Now then…….”
Seres smiled at him again, her expression pleasant.
“Shall we have a proper conversation?”
Her lips curved upward, but her eyes held no warmth whatsoever. Meeting her gaze, Arnold could do nothing but swallow hard.
* * *
“Let’s go.”
…….
The child’s green eyes, now awake, seemed unusually translucent.
The child, who had been watching Seres in silence with bright, intelligent eyes, slowly rose from the bed.
“Are we going home?”
“Yes.”
‘You’ve been here since you were four, didn’t you say.’
Though nearly three years had passed since she’d last seen the child, they didn’t even ask who she was—they seemed to recognize their older sister.
“Why?”
“We can’t stay here any longer.”
“Why not?”
“It’s a bad place.”
“Why is it bad?”
“They’re not treating you properly.”
“Why?”
…….
…She almost wanted to smack the child.
Seres sighed quietly as the child stared at her with wide eyes, asking “why” over and over.
“Let’s go.”
When Seres extended her hand, the child’s already large eyes grew even wider.
After gazing for a moment at the child’s small hand that had grasped hers, Seres retrieved the Teleportation Magic Item.
‘I-I’m not the one who suggested feeding it!’
‘Then who?’
‘Agnes, Agnes—that woman! If I just keep the child sick and confined here, I can make a fortune……!’
‘So you poisoned a seven-year-old child? And you have the nerve to call yourself innocent?’
‘I-I was told it was only a medicine to weaken the body! I truly didn’t know it was such a lethal poison! I swear!’
‘When you go before the guards, stick to that story. Say you knew nothing.’
‘The guards? No, please! What will become of this place? I’m completely ruined!’
‘Whether you’re ruined or not is hardly my concern… actually, it is. I’ll make sure you’re destroyed as thoroughly as possible.’
‘No, no! I’ll refund every last coin of the treatment fees!’
‘That goes without saying. But you’re still trying to strike a bargain with me after all this?’
‘So Agnes orchestrated all of this, did she?’
Recalling the conversation she’d just had with the director, a dark smile played across Seres’s lips.
Just as she’d suspected, the director and Agnes were having an affair.
It was her aunt who had devised the entire scheme, and Arnold the director who had carried it out.
Agnes had insinuated herself into the Drau Marquis Residence under the pretense of pitying her nephews and niece, orphaned so young—but that was mere window dressing. In secret, she had been poisoning Yulia, the youngest of them.
‘Where did she get her hands on that deadly poison herb?’
The poison that Yulia had ingested.
Seres knew it only too well.
It was the very poison the Imperial Palace had once favored for the clandestine elimination of those deemed adversaries—long ago, when Grace still lived.
Unlike other poisons, it didn’t act immediately. Instead, it rotted the body slowly, incrementally, making it impossible for any healer to identify the cause unless they knew exactly what to look for.
But when Grace was alive, the emperor had issued an edict banning the cultivation and distribution of that deadly poison herb entirely, and it had gradually vanished from circulation.
“Yulia, do you remember that bitter medicine you used to take?”
“Yes.”
“When did you start taking it?”
“The first day I came here.”
Was it being distributed again?
In any case, once the child collapsed from the poison—exactly as Agnes had planned—they’d locked Yulia away in the Sanatorium and wrung treatment fees from the family using every means at their disposal.
The director Arnold and her aunt split the proceeds between them.
‘In other words, every last coin borrowed against loan shark debt went straight into my aunt’s pocket.’
It mattered not to them whether her nephews and niece choked on the interest and died.
No wonder every lender they’d approached had charged such exorbitant rates.
‘She didn’t care about conditions as long as the money could be borrowed.’
After all, it wasn’t as if she’d be the one repaying it. All that mattered was extracting the funds.
Knowing everything now, Seres’s smile deepened.
“Sister, are you angry?”
“…No.”
Whoosh!
With one last glance into the child’s widened eyes, the two of them vanished from sight.
Chapter 4. Where Your Steps Come to Rest
“Ah! What are you doing!”
“I-I’m terribly sorry, ma’am.”
Agnes shrieked as the maid was brushing her hair.
When a clump of tangled locks was yanked free along with the comb, the maid hastily stepped back and lowered her head in apology.
Crack!
“Ah!”
“Give it here!”
“Y-yes, yes!”
Indifferent to the maid’s cries of pain, Agnes snatched the comb away with force.
“For heaven’s sake! Look what you’ve done to it!”
Of all things, Agnes treasured her hair above everything else.
She never spared expense on fine oils, which she applied liberally, and took pride in her luxuriant locks.
And the effort paid off—her rich chestnut hair had a particularly lustrous sheen.
Knock, knock.
Moments later, as a knock sounded and someone entered, Agnes’s eyes widened.
“My goodness—Seres?”
Her visit was entirely unexpected.
Had Seres ever appeared before her unbidden, without being summoned, even once before today?
“What brings you here?”
“Shall we have tea together?”
“Tea?”
Now that she mentioned it, Seres was holding a tea set.
And it was equally surprising that she’d brought it herself, without a maid in attendance.
“My throat was parched anyway. Lucky timing.”
Agnes readily offered Seres a seat and ushered all the servants out of the room.
It was obvious at a glance that she had something to say.
She’d asked for time to think, and now she’d finally decided on the disposal of that cursed stew shop?
‘Faster than I expected.’
She’d always dragged things out and eluded her with vague excuses, so she hadn’t thought it would be this quick.
Her plan had been to press the matter again if a decision wasn’t made by week’s end.
Yet here Agnes was, seeking her out on her own after just three days.
“Well then. Have you given it some thought? The shop really should be sold immediately, shouldn’t it? Shall I look into finding you a buyer? In fact, someone just mentioned wanting to purchase a shop not long ago.”
Agnes settled into her seat and broached the subject as though in passing.
Speaking as if the sale of the shop were already decided, Agnes was met not with words but with a cup of tea offered by Seres.
“Please.”
“Thank you.”
From the pale reddish infusion wafted a fragrance so lovely it nearly sang.
Agnes brought the cup to her lips at once, drawn in by the aroma’s sweetness.
“Oh my.”
Her eyes widened in an instant. The flavor matched the bouquet perfectly.
“What tea is this? It’s absolutely wonderful.”
“I’m glad it suits your taste.”
Agnes’s cup emptied quickly, as if her thirst had been genuine, and Seres refilled it at once.
“It was my first attempt, so I was rather nervous about it. I wasn’t sure if Aunt would care for it.”
“How thoughtful you are. Thank you, Seres. Do have some yourself.”
“There’s no need. It’s not as though I don’t know what’s in it. Why would I drink 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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