Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 124

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

“Is it really you, Seres?”
His voice trembled slightly. His head kept shaking as if the whole thing were absurd, but his instincts screamed the truth — this was his master.
“…….”
Seres’s eyes crinkled at the corners. Watching her former student gaze up at her with eyes so innocently wide, blinking steadily, she felt laughter threatening to bubble up unbidden. She had missed this boy more than she’d admit.
“What? Want another hit to convince yourself?”
“No!”
Ersi shook his head urgently.
“But, um…….”
“What now?”
“Why did you hit me?”
And why did he still have to stand here like this? Even if he accepted that this woman was really his master — why had he been struck? For what offense?
“Why were you hit, you ask?”
Seres’s mouth curved upward again. At that smile, Ersi’s face drained of all color. He knew that smile far too well — it was the exact expression she wore right before she thrashed someone senseless.
“The Elrsia Countess Family.”
He flinched.
The moment Seres spoke that single word — Elrsia — Ersi’s whole body jerked involuntarily.
Without breaking eye contact, Seres pointed to the green medicine bottle resting on the table.
“The lost formula for medicinal preparation.”
Ersi’s gaze slowly lowered.
“The Knight Order falling into ruin.”
And at those final words, cold sweat began to bead on his forehead.
“All of it crumbling like this, and you did nothing? Living comfortably all the while?”
Leaving the junior members in such a deplorable state and then sleeping peacefully? What, you could actually sleep?
“And what’s more — you threw away the Head of House position I left you and ran off? Did my words amuse you? Did you think that once your master was gone, you could do whatever you pleased?”
Seeing the glacial shift in Seres’s eyes, Ersi straightened his posture sharply, stretching his arms higher above his head in a gesture of contrition.
Seres clicked her tongue lightly at the sight and repeated the question from before.
“How is this possible?”
Never mind me — how on earth has this man lived for more than three hundred years? Not by taking someone else’s body like I did, but like that, in his own form.
“Well…….”
Ersi’s eyes darted nervously, gauging her mood, before he offered an awkward smile.
“I have an Immortal Body.”
“……What body?”
Seres’s fingers scratched at her ear. Had she just heard something strange?
“Immortal…….”
“…….”
But hearing the word clearly this time, Seres simply stared at Ersi without speaking, her silence stretching on.
“So what you’re saying is… you…….”
“Yes.”
“Don’t die?”
“Yes.”
“…….”
What kind of ridiculous nonsense was this? So this man aged neither and died neither, just like Kainel?
“Even when you were under me, you had such a body?”
“I’d already lived five hundred years even then.”
“…Five hundred years.”
Five hundred… three hundred…. Just how old are you? Seres found herself momentarily at a loss, her mouth hanging open uselessly.
‘What even…….’
Do I need to start using polite speech with you now, then?
“So let me ask again — you don’t die?”
“No, I don’t.”
Seres asked the same question once more, exhaling a long breath.
“But here’s the thing.”
Lost in thought for a moment, her head still spinning slightly, Seres spoke as if musing aloud.
“When you were under my roof, didn’t you constantly whine about not wanting to die, refusing point-blank to set foot in the Black Forest? And this was when you were deputy commander of the Knight Order, no less.”
So while everything else was burning, I kept going into that forest instead, didn’t I? I couldn’t very well drag someone by force when they kept bleating about their fear of death.
“Well… haha, even though I don’t die, I still feel pain. I absolutely hate pain.”
“And I remember you saying countless times that you couldn’t manage all-nighters because they were too taxing, then dumping all your work on me and disappearing.”
“Even without death, exhaustion piles up. Fatigue is terrible for the complexion.”
“……The complexion?”
“Yes, I understand.”
You follow?
“…….”
A low hum echoed through the air.
Something shifted with a soft rustling sound.
Seres watched Ersi’s cheerful smile fade as she quietly opened a spatial pocket. From it, she drew her own sword.
“W-why the sword all of a sudden?”
“Why do you think? I pulled it out to use it.”
What a foolish question—as if the person drawing a blade needed to justify it.
“Please, Master, have mercy!”
Ersi scrambled backward, putting as much distance as possible between himself and Seres. That pitch-black blade, dark as the depths of night—that demon’s sword—he never thought he’d lay eyes on it again!
“Master! I was wrong!”
“No. I think you don’t quite understand what you did wrong.”
“That’s not true! Maaaster!”
Master, master—please, save me!
“…….”
The grip in Seres’s hand—the one holding the blade—loosened slightly. One word, flowing so naturally from her lips now, had done it.
Master…….
‘Sigh.’
I’ve always been weak to this.
Seres clicked her tongue softly and posed another question.
“So, why did you abandon the Head of House position? You left immediately after I died, didn’t you?”
“That was…….”
But she didn’t lower the blade in her hand completely.
Ersi continued cautiously, watching for Seres’s reaction as she held that sword steady in one hand.
“I was afraid the Fire Spirit King would discover my true nature.”
“Your true nature?”
“The fact that I have an Immortal Body and sustain myself on human blood.”
“Wait, hold on.”
Did my hearing fail me just now? I’m certain I heard something strange. What did you just say?
“What do you sustain yourself on?”
Blood? Did I mishear that?
“Please, don’t misunderstand!”
Watching Seres grip the sword tighter, Ersi rushed to clarify.
“I don’t recklessly drain and consume human blood directly!”
“Then what?”
Answer me straight. I haven’t seen my disciple in ages—it wouldn’t take much to send him to the other side.
“Just a very small amount, truly minuscule quantities of blood as compensation!”
“That’s the same thing, you fool! You’re still consuming blood. What, do you fangs in your neck and just drink it down like those vampires from old books?!”
Are you one of those bloodsuckers from ancient texts?
“No!”
Even as Ersi’s face went deathly pale, his voice rose in clear offense at the accusation.
“It’s through skin contact.”
“…Skin contact?”
“Yes. I can absorb blood just by holding someone’s hand—why would I bore fangs into their neck? I would never do anything so unsanitary!”
That’s why he had joined the Elrsia Countess Family, which practiced Healing Arts. As a healer examining patients’ bodies, he could absorb their blood naturally.
“You bastard.”
Seres’s anger deepened.
“So you were feeding on your patients’ blood this whole time!”
Not on healthy people either, but on the sick and vulnerable!
“I-I’m telling you it was just a tiny amount! Only quantities that caused the patients absolutely no harm—truly!”
Ersi’s voice cracked with what seemed like genuine grievance.
“I even deliberately consumed spoiled blood in their stead…….”
Do you know how revolting and foul that tastes? Yet countless times, when patients suffered wounds with tainted blood circulating through their bodies, I deliberately drained and absorbed that corruption instead. It hastened their recovery significantly.
“It’s actually healthy for people to lose a small amount of blood periodically. It aids circulation, it’s a form of…….”
“Stop talking.”
“Yes, sir.”
Ersi, who had been muttering excuses, fell silent at Seres’s single command.
“Sigh.”
Seres exhaled sharply and pressed her fingertips hard against her brow. All those long years she’d kept this creature at her side, and she’d never once noticed. There wasn’t a single sign, nothing to distinguish him from an ordinary human at first glance.
“A vampire, then.”
“That’s not it!”
“Be quiet.”
“Yes, sir.”
After silencing his protest, Seres touched the sword lying slack at her feet and gathered her thoughts.
“So you gave up the position of Head of House?”
“If I entered into a Contract with Juberios, it would be revealed that I continue to live even after stepping down from the Head of House position later. From the beginning, it was best not to make the Contract at all.”
Enok understood well enough that once a Contract was forged, everything would be shared with Juberios until death.
“The key, then? Why do you have Artia’s Black Key?”
“Ah…….”
Ersi crossed the room to a wardrobe tucked in the corner and retrieved a small wooden box from its depths.
Click.
When he opened the wooden box, a familiar object came into view—Artia’s Black Key.
“Why are you holding that?”
Why would Ersi, neither the next Head of the Arcane Tower nor his own disciple, possess Artia’s key?
“Well…….”
A silent sigh escaped Ersi’s lips.
“She found out.”
“Found out? Found out what?”
“That I possess an Immortal Body.”
“What?”
* * *
“Brother, when is Mother coming?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can’t we go to Mother? Brother, you know where Mother is.”
“It’s very far from here. We don’t have money for a carriage. We can’t walk there.”
A girl who appeared to be about nine years old and a boy a year or two older sat huddled on the ground.
“It’s cold……. When do we go back to our house?”
“When Aunt and Uncle are no longer angry.”
“Whimper, it’s so cold.”
Two children dressed in threadbare clothes ill-suited to the beginning of winter clung together, as if each other’s body heat were their only salvation.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————