Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 12

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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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“What are you talking about?”
Agne’s hand, which had been lifting the teacup to her lips, slowly fell back to the table.
Watching Seres wear that peculiar smile, she felt a chill creep down her spine.
“I’ve acquired something rather fascinating.”
As if to confirm Agne’s unease, Seres set something down on the table.
“I filled it to the brim.”
Agne’s eyes snapped wide open the moment she looked down, her gaze sharp with suspicion.
A small hexagonal glass vial!
“That’s… that can’t be…!”
The Medicine Bottle she’d given to Arnold—the one she’d told him to feed to Yulia bit by bit!
If she’d poured it into this tea…!
Heave!
Agne gagged immediately. She retched violently, desperate to expel everything she’d swallowed, her body convulsing for a long moment.
“You… you!”
Her face drained of color, Agne looked up, her eyes blazing with fury as she glared at Seres.
‘How dare you.’
How dare she feed that to her? And of all people—Seres, that foolish creature!
“Hmm, that’s strange.”
But Seres’s expression remained unmoved, even as she met Agne’s wrathful gaze.
“Why are you vomiting?”
“What?”
“What do you think you just drank?”
“This bottle is poison…!”
……
Watching her aunt hesitate, Seres clicked her tongue lightly.
Whether it was that director or this woman, both had a gift for digging their own graves.
“I only showed you this bottle. How do you know what’s inside it well enough to panic like that?”
She had not breathed a single word claiming it was poison.
“That…!”
Only then did Agne realize her mistake, her eyes darting back and forth frantically.
She tried to sputter out some excuse, but Seres spoke first.
“Arnold has already confessed everything.”
“What?”
“He testified that it was you—your aunt—who ordered him to give this poison to Yulia.”
“That’s a lie! Don’t you dare spread such filth!”
Was she supposed to believe that? That Arnold had told them everything?
‘Impossible.’
By instinct, Agne touched the Ring that sat snugly on her left hand.
They had made plans to tie up all the loose ends and leave together once everything was finished.
And now he’d betrayed her? It was absolutely impossible!
“You must know as well, Aunt. This medicine….”
Seres picked up the Medicine Bottle resting on the table and shook it gently.
“In small doses, it destroys the body slowly. But in large quantities all at once….”
She trailed off, making a light slashing motion across her throat, and Agne’s face turned even more ashen.
“I poured the rest of it into your tea.”
Heave!
Agne began retching again at those words. As if her previous vomiting were not enough, she shoved her fingers into her mouth, forcing out the contents by sheer will.
“How does it feel? To have swallowed poison?”
Heave!
“Do you understand Yulia’s heart a little better now?”
Seres rose from her seat and gently patted her aunt’s back as she continued to retch.
She stroked her hair softly, as if to soothe her.
But that tender touch only sent a chill racing across Agne’s skin.
Agne shuddered violently and quickly stepped back from Seres.
“You can stop vomiting now. I didn’t actually put it in.”
“…What?”
Didn’t put it in? There’s no poison in the tea?
Agne’s mouth fell open as if struck by an even greater shock.
“Am I insane? Become a murderer for someone like you?”
“You, you…!”
“Why soil my hands when the law can settle this cleanly?”
“I, I didn’t do anything!”
Only then did Agne snap back to her senses, scrambling to salvage the situation.
“Whatever the headmaster said is a lie, all of it!”
“Yes, yes. Do make sure you insist on that when we reach Court.”
Seres answered flatly, then reached down and picked up something she had quietly placed beneath the seat where she’d been sitting. It was a transparent sphere, slightly larger than an adult’s fist.
“…What is that?”
“A Video Recording Sphere, ma’am.”
“What? That crudely-looking thing is a recording sphere?”
…Crudely-looking?
Seres scratched her cheek, feeling a touch embarrassed.
So modern recording spheres don’t look like this anymore, it seems.
She’d pulled this one out of the Subspace, not realizing it would look so ancient. Things must have advanced tremendously while she was away.
“Well, it’s old, but it records quite clearly. It captured your aunt confessing and spilling everything on her own very well indeed.”
“…!”
Agne’s expression twisted completely.
“How dare you!”
Past shock now, fury was finally boiling to the surface.
Thud.
Seres, who had been watching Agne calmly for a moment, took a step closer.
With both hands on Agne’s shoulders, Seres leaned her face in close, and one corner of her mouth curled upward in a smile.
“Exactly. How dare you, indeed.”
“You…!”
“How dare something like you lay a hand on a child?”
“…!”
Seres’s eyes, meeting hers at close range, were colder and sharper than ever before.
The moment Agne felt goosebumps rise across her skin, Seres leaned even closer and whispered low against her ear.
“Get out.”
“…What?”
“Leave this house this instant.”
“Ahhhhh!”
In that moment, Agne let out a shriek as a terrible pain shot through the shoulder Seres was touching.
Only then did Seres step back with a bright smile, as though nothing had happened.
“I’m giving you one hour. Leave within that time. No matter how good-natured I am, I cannot stay under the same roof as someone who tried to murder my sister, can I?”
“Ugh… uhhh…”
Rage and terror mingled in Agne’s expression as she glared at Seres, but in the end she found no words left to speak.
“Oh, and there’s no point looking for Arnold. He’s already been handed over to the security forces and is under investigation.”
“What, what?”
“Your aunt would do well to turn herself in before I report her. That way, at least she might make an emotional appeal in Court.”
“…!”
Seres swung the Video Recording Sphere and grinned wickedly.
Agne’s lips trembled.
“One hour.”
Having delivered her final warning, Seres turned and walked away from the room without another glance.
“This… this is unbearable! Ahhhhh!”
Unable to contain her rage, Agne began hurling every object within reach.
‘What do I do now?’
Where do I even start to fix this?
Has Arnold really confessed to everything? That she was his accomplice too?
“M, ma’am?”
“What…! Ah, ahhh!”
“Oh my!”
Moments later, the housemaids came rushing into the room, drawn by the commotion.
But something seemed wrong with the way they looked at Agne. The maids, seized by shock, couldn’t even form proper words.
“Hah… hah…?”
Unable to suppress her fury, Agne panted heavily, her brow furrowing deeper at the sight of the maids’ stunned faces.
“Ma’am, your hair…!”
…Her hair?
“It’s turned completely white…”
…What?
Watching the maidservants stumble over their words, Agne clicked her tongue in annoyance.
What on earth are they babbling about?
“What’s wrong with my hair…?”
Agne stepped toward the mirror, her eyes widening inch by inch.
She rubbed her eyes repeatedly, wondering if she’d misread the reflection. But the figure in the glass remained unchanged.
What… is that?
Surely not me?
“Eeee—kyaaaaaaaaaah!”
A shriek tore from her throat—more anguished than any sound she’d made before. Her hair in the mirror had turned a ghastly white.
The rich, lustrous brown she’d always worn had vanished, replaced by thin, brittle strands that seemed to hold no strength whatsoever.
“H-how could this…!”
Agne couldn’t form a coherent sentence. How her hair had suddenly come to this—she couldn’t comprehend it.
Faced with her own white-crowned reflection, Agne lost all grip on herself.
“M-madam, please compose yourself…!”
“Aaaaaaaaaah!”
Her screams continued to reverberate through the Dreux Marquis Estate.
* * *
One month later.
“Damn. Should’ve taken the Settlement Payment instead.”
Seres pushed back her disheveled hair with irritation.
Most of the money she’d brought to Agne and Arnold as medical expenses had been returned to her.
The problem was that even with those funds, she hadn’t managed to repay the principal—let alone the interest that had accumulated.
“God, this is infuriating.”
They’d offered her a Settlement Payment and begged for mercy, but she’d refused.
‘Would you make a deal with people trying to kill your child? I can’t stomach it. My blood’s boiling.’
‘Aaaaaaah! Seres Dreux, you monster! I will never—!’
‘What?’

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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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