Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 115
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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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“Errand boy.”
The moment Kainel spoke, a figure emerged from the shadows—Ben, a member of the Sky organization.
He appeared with a face full of displeasure, and regarded the smiling aide Del with an expression of disbelief. The killing intent that had emanated from him just moments before seemed like a lie.
“Every person I meet lately…”
Ben exhaled a long sigh.
Seres was like that, Kainel too. Why did everyone he’d encountered recently sense his presence so keenly?
At this rate, shouldn’t he just quit his job as an informant?
“What’s the matter?”
“You said to report anything that came up.”
Ben scratched his head irritably.
Not long ago he’d received word from the chief—a direct order to report any significant incidents involving Seres to Kainel first and foremost.
“Has something happened?”
“The princess came to the shop.”
“The princess?”
Kainel’s brow furrowed slightly. There shouldn’t be any particular reason for the princess Nailia and Seres to meet separately.
“They’re heading to the Imperial Palace now.”
“The Imperial Palace?”
* * *
“This way.”
Following Princess Nailia into the Imperial Palace, Seres proceeded directly to her quarters.
Her palace, situated not far from the emperor’s private residence, seemed to reflect Nailia’s character perfectly—or rather…
‘It’s so barren.’
No matter that winter was nearly upon them, how could there not be a single flower in sight?
Seres, who had once visited the greenhouse with Chaien before, let out a small exclamation at the sight of the austere, almost desolate chambers.
“This is what I need you to restore.”
After sitting briefly in the reception room she’d led her to, Princess Nailia summoned an attendant to retrieve something.
Upon seeing the object placed on the table moments later, Seres’s brow creased slightly.
“Is collecting junk your hobby?”
“I’m afraid I have no such hobby.”
The object the princess showed her was a bracelet—so corroded and weathered that its original color was entirely lost to sight.
Not a single jewel adorned it; it was a truly pitiful thing.
It looked like the sort of object no one would bother to pick up even if they found it lying in the street.
“You want me to restore this?”
“Yes.”
“Truly?”
“It was my mother’s keepsake.”
“Ah…”
Never mind what I just said. Looking at it again, it doesn’t quite seem like junk after all.
“I neglected it for so long and failed to maintain it properly, which is why it’s deteriorated to this state.”
The bracelet was admittedly rather worn to begin with, but it hadn’t been this bad.
Since she’d been away from the Academy anyway, she’d decided to try restoring it properly this time—scrubbing it with various treatments and polishes, but to no avail.
She’d even summoned those who worked with precious metals to inquire, but the tarnish remained stubbornly unchanged.
They all left shaking their heads, unable to identify what material it had been made from.
In the end, Princess Nailia had thought of Seres as her last resort.
“I understand.”
“You’re not going to ask anything else?”
Why was she so determined to have this restored?
Princess Nailia regarded Seres with interest, surprised at how readily she had agreed.
After all, the two of them weren’t close enough for Seres to simply accept a request like this from someone who’d come calling so suddenly.
“Is there anything else you need to tell me?”
The princess wanted to have her mother’s keepsake cleaned—wasn’t that explanation enough?
Seres ignored the peculiar gaze that Princess Nailia directed at her and drew a small glass vial from her possession.
It was a bottle she’d hastily filled with water, much like when she’d restored the letter before.
Drip.
Seres let a few drops of water fall, then gently caressed the bracelet.
The moment her touch made contact, the bracelet should have returned to its original form—
‘Huh?’
—but it didn’t change at all.
‘What?’
Seres had thought that reversing time by roughly ten years would clean the bracelet completely. But the darkened portion of the bracelet showed only the slightest change.
Another ten years.
‘Hm?’
Another ten years.
‘That’s strange.’
Again… and again…….
The result of repeatedly casting Time Reversal while dripping the liquid she’d disguised as Restoration Magic one drop at a time.
“You… you’re bleeding!”
Drip, drip.
“Ah, damn…….”
Her nose had started bleeding.
Only after reversing two hundred years did the bracelet finally recover its original form.
Though Seres couldn’t identify the material, she gazed at the bracelet gleaming silver and hastily pressed the handkerchief Nailia offered to her nose.
“Are you all right?”
“Yeb, I’b fine.”
Ah, her pronunciation had gotten strange now that she was holding her nose.
In any case, Seres was equally shocked. To think she’d nosebleed just restoring a single bracelet to its original state.
‘Hah.’
And now she could finally understand the reason why.
“This is…….”
“Yes. Just a silver bracelet.”
A plain silver bracelet without a single jewel set into it.
“Even so, Mother held it very dear. I don’t know the reason, though.”
Mother, who had passed away, had said she received it directly from Grandmother. A bracelet passed down through generations of the family.
Though the reason was unclear, it was something precious, handed down through time with instructions to keep it safe.
The reason she, a woman and not her brother Alex, had inherited it was simple enough.
It was a bracelet for women.
“Still, at least it can be restored.”
She had kept it because it was her mother’s keepsake, though honestly she’d forgotten about it entirely. Why would she frequently take out such a worn, shabby bracelet to look at it?
“You don’t seem to know what this is.”
“Know what?”
It’s just a bracelet, isn’t it?
“Hm.”
She might not know. This is quite a precious object, after all.
“Have you perhaps heard of Tamer Artifacts?”
“Tamer Artifacts? Of course I know what those are.”
Is there anyone who doesn’t? But why suddenly ask about that……?
“Don’t tell me… is this actually a Tamer Artifact?”
The calm voice of Nailia—usually so composed—rose noticeably for the first time.
‘Well, that’s understandable enough.’
Tamer Artifacts.
Among ancient artifacts, there are some that possess very special powers.
Those are called Tamer Artifacts. Whoever awakens the power dwelling within one becomes the master of that artifact.
‘How could I not know well?’
She had once become the master of such an artifact herself.
The Family Head’s Ring—a symbol of the Elrsia Countess Family.
That was precisely a Tamer Artifact.
The power dwelling within it was none other than Juberios, the Spirit King of Fire.
It wasn’t recorded exactly who first awakened that artifact. Only that it was someone from the Elrsia Countess Family.
When one becomes the master of a Tamer Artifact, one enters into a contract with the power dwelling within it.
The contract Juberios made was to become the strength of whichever Family Head possessed the ring.
Bound by that contract, he still guards the Family Head to this day.
Even then, Tamer Artifacts were not common and were greatly treasured, which is why the Family Head’s Ring received very special treatment.
It likely isn’t much different now.
So it was natural that Nailia would be so surprised.
Seres gazed anew at the bracelet lying on the table.
Tamer Artifacts showed little outward difference from ordinary artifacts.
But…….
‘I can sense it now.’
Perhaps because she had once possessed a Tamer Artifact for such a long time?
The moment Seres saw the bracelet in its true form, she knew immediately. This was a Tamer Artifact.
‘I feel something strange about it.’
It was hard to describe exactly, but there was a faint and peculiar warmth emanating from it, or so she might say.
Someone might laugh at the notion of warmth coming from a metal object, but she had no better way to explain it.
‘I felt something like this the first time I put on the Family Head’s Ring.’
Perhaps Herion, the current head of the Elrsia family, felt the same thing.
“So this is a Tamer Artifact…….”
Princess Nailia had heard about Tamer Artifacts frequently since childhood.
These legendary relics that could grant enormous power.
There were only a handful of Tamer Artifacts known to exist in the Empire—or indeed, across the entire continent.
The most powerful one known was the Spirit King of Fire, possessed by the Elrsia Countess Family.
“I wonder what’s inside this one…….”
“I couldn’t say.”
It could contain a Spirit King like Juberios, or it might hold ancient Magic. It could be either.
‘There’s a fair chance it contains something completely useless, too.’
Long ago, there was talk of some Tamer Artifact that had awakened with the power of never becoming intoxicated, no matter how much one drank.
‘Wait. That’s exactly the kind of artifact I could use.’
Was that artifact still being used somewhere in the world?
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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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