Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 121

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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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Side Story. Black Egg
“When are you ever going to wake up?”
Yaaawn… so sleepy….
That same voice again.
Every time I’m about to drift off, there it is!
I stretched out my curled body and shook myself irritably.
Ugh! I need to sleep!
“Do I really have to wait thirty years?”
…Thirty years?
Confused by words I didn’t understand, my head tilted sideways.
‘That’s not right. I need at least three hundred years of solid sleep.’
That’s how I get out of here, isn’t it?
“I really can’t wait to see you.”
And I’m dying to know who you are, constantly waking me up! I’ll pluck every hair off your head!
That voice kept waking me when I needed to sleep—it was incredibly annoying.
I’d have to be unbearably troublesome to drive them away.
But once the outside grew quiet again, drowsiness rolled back in.
‘Yaaaaaawn….’
Back to sleep again….
“Are you talking to the egg again?”
That’s when it happened.
A new voice.
‘What’s this? Strange.’
Good energy—I could feel it. The complete opposite of that first one, and yet somehow the same underneath.
“Instead of wasting time chatting with Black Egg, maybe you should go find the Arcane Tower’s Master. He said you just keep slacking off instead of doing your research.”
“Huh? Seres, look at this! Every time you talk, this thing squirms.”
“Your eyes are playing tricks on you from staring at the egg so much.”
“No, really… it actually does….”
“Stop with the excuses. Get out of here before I crack the egg open myself.”
“No! Don’t crack the egg!”
I cheered eagerly for the one who’d been bothering me all this time.
Yeah! Don’t crack it!
I’m just trying to sleep quietly, so why would you crack it? I’ll bite you in half too!
“That’s Seres. Listen well—when you wake up, you have to obey and follow her, no matter what.”
‘I have to follow that woman?’
Part of me bristled at the thought, but strangely, I didn’t mind.
Why is that?
“She might not look it, but she gets lonely easily, and she throws herself recklessly into dangerous situations. You have to protect her.”
Protect her, they say….
That woman with the good energy.
Me protecting that woman… yaaawn, so sleepy….
“Today Seres….”
“Did you hear? About Seres….”
“Our Seres….”
It was always about that woman.
Seres, Seres, Seres!
I just covered my ears with my front paws.
‘I’m going to sleep now.’
Stop talking, human. Mm-yawn….
Today everything was noisy all day long.
I was wagging my tail and playing around when I heard something strange.
“You’re going to put it in there?”
“Yeah!”
“Why would you put it there?”
“Because staring at it every day has been so hard.”
Bury me? So you won’t bother my sleep anymore?
Perfect! I want to go in the ground!
I wagged my tail gleefully.
After a few final trembles and a soft click, the world fell silent.
Can I finally sleep properly now?
Haaah…….
I slept deeply for what felt like a good long while.
Someone’s voice pulled my drowsy mind back to wakefulness.
“Hello there.”
The voice was familiar yet strange—I fluttered my wings several times, uncertain.
Who was this? What were they doing here?
“You still haven’t woken up. Thirty years have passed, you know.”
Wait—was that you?
That chatterbox who was always bothering me with endless prattle.
Your voice sounds a bit different than before—I didn’t recognize you right away!
‘But… thirty years?’
I thought I’d only slept a moment. Has really thirty years gone by?
A vague flutter of gladness stirred in me, but drowsiness crept back so quickly that everything felt tedious again.
Hnnngh… I need more sleep…….
“I suppose it won’t be me who gets to see you awake.”
What? You’re burying me again? Good!
“Are you waiting for her like I am? Perhaps it was always meant to be this way. Even when we first brought you, you only responded to her voice—no one else’s.”
Who? Seres?
That woman with the good energy?
“Remember this—she is the one you must protect.”
Protect… Haaah. Seres…….
The chatterbox muttered something in a tone heavier than before, but the drowsiness already pulling at my ears made it hard to hear.
“In my stead… please…….”
This is suffocating…….
‘I hate it here.’
I want out.
A very long time has passed.
I don’t know exactly how long, but it’s been forever.
I twisted my sluggish body this way and that, swishing my tail and fluttering my wings.
I want to get out of here! I’m done sleeping!
Someone let me out. I want to leave!
I thrashed around for a while, but I was too weak to break the shell.
I was growing quite despondent when I felt a familiar presence.
“I happen to enjoy digging in dirt.”
…This presence?
‘It’s that woman! Seres!’
The moment I recognized her, strength flooded back into my body.
I hurled myself headfirst at the thing trapping me.
Crack!
“…Crack?”
I’m getting out! I have to get out! It’s Seres!
Tok-tok… crack, crack, tok-tok!
Craaaack……!!
[Screeeee!]
Sunlight! I’m finally out!
Before being buried underground, this bright light hadn’t moved me much.
That chatterbox was always dragging me to sunny places, going on about photosynthesis, and I found it more annoying than pleasant.
But after so long, or perhaps because I wasn’t drowsy anymore, this gleaming sunlight filled me with joy.
[Screee?]
Where is Seres? Where is she?
As I looked around, someone came into view.
“What is that?”
[Screee!]
There she is!
Flap-flap! This is my place from now on!
I flew straight to her.
I settled on top of her head and began to purr, but the human standing beside her started making strange sounds.
“Have you ever seen a dragon this small?”
“Never.”
A dragon? Me?
‘That’s not what I am at all.’
Wait, wait… what?
For reasons I couldn’t fathom, Seres suddenly grabbed me and pulled me down from her head.
Displeased, I puffed out my cheeks in protest.
Puff!
Why? I was sitting quietly on your head, and you’re dragging me down!
This is my place! That’s what he said!
As I vented my irritation, Seres asked me a question.
“What exactly are you?”
Me?
I am…….
‘Don’t forget. The one you have to protect is her. In my place, you must…….’
That annoying creature’s request to me.
The one his request was meant for, and you with your good spirit.
‘Right! I promise!’
I’ll protect this girl in your stead!
Chirp!
So I’m counting on your help from now on.
Chapter 34. The Holy Priest Enok
“Here.”
She took it.
“Have this too.”
Down it went.
“Your hand.”
She placed it in his.
“…Kainel, perhaps that’s enough.”
Vice-captain Del let out a short sigh and hurried toward the door. It seemed he needed to get some cold water and snap the man back to his senses.
After Del had gone, Kainel looked at Seres’s hand resting gently in his own and spoke again.
“What are you thinking about so hard?”
This was the first time he’d seen Seres so completely vacant. The way she ate whatever was offered and let him take her hand without hesitation told him something had happened.
“Did something occur at the Holy Temple?”
Perhaps he should have forced his way along after all. He’d already heard the news that she’d become the owner of the Tamer Artifact.
Though the imperial palace was working hard to contain the information, it was of little use to Kainel, who had been freely utilizing the Sky Information Organization for some time now.
“Kai.”
“Tell me. Did some bastard do something foolish?”
He curled his lips with the obvious intent to seize whoever it was, while Seres continued to regard him with that slightly dazed gaze.
“It’s about Enok.”
“…Who?”
“Enok.”
…….
Kainel drew in a sharp breath without meaning to. Because it was the first time. The first time he’d heard Seres acknowledge that she was Seres, acknowledge that she was herself—that she was Grace.
Enok. The name of Grace’s beloved disciple, known only to Grace. Seres had just spoken it aloud.
“…Why him, all of a sudden?”
Kainel spoke again, struggling to suppress the sudden, tender ache rising within him.
“When was the last time you saw him?”
“At the funeral.”
“Ah…….”
He didn’t ask whose funeral it had been. It would have been his own.
“That was the last time you saw him?”
“He hasn’t left the Duchy since then.”
Seres looked at him with an expression of disbelief.
‘That fool.’
How could you abandon your friend’s family for so long, human?
If you’d gone once in a while to look after them, the Elrsia Countess Family wouldn’t have fallen into such disarray!
“He told me to leave it alone.”
“What?”
“Not to interfere.”
‘Don’t touch the children.’
‘Don’t take your anger over my death out on our children.’
‘Don’t strike him. Don’t kill him. Just leave him be.’
…I did say that, didn’t I. Right before I died, grabbing Kainel by the collar when he came to find me one last time.
But does leaving someone alone for three hundred years make any sense, you bastard.
‘That’s right. What crime could you have committed.’
I’m the criminal for forgetting, even briefly, what you’re like. You’ve never known moderation in anything.
“I did hear something about Enok later.”
“What is it?”
“That he never became Family Head.”
“He never became Family Head?”
What was this now? She was certain that Enok himself had inherited the Family Head’s ring—so someone else had taken the position instead?
“From what I gathered, he left the family right after Grace died. He passed the position on to someone else.”
…….
Why? Seres’s mind churned with confusion.
She already knew he had no ambition for the position—every time she’d offered to hand it over to him, he’d recoiled in horror and shaken his head.
But to actually abandon the position and leave?
“Ha.”
Look at this one. The moment my master dies, he goes against my word right away. Seres rose from her seat with an incredulous laugh.
“Where are you going?”
“To the Training Ground.”
“The Training Ground? All of a sudden?”
“To meet a young bird.”

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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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