Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 125

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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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“I’m hungry, brother.”
“Would you like some water at least?”
“I want bread…….”
Ever since Mother had left them in Aunt’s care to earn money, they were driven outside almost daily.
Whenever Aunt and Uncle were in a foul mood or angry about something, the children had to hold their breath and stay out of sight. That way they’d be beaten less. But today, they’d been beaten and cast out all the same.
On days like this, they went without food from morning until night. Only when evening came and Aunt and Uncle’s anger had cooled could they slip quietly back home and try to sleep.
Thump.
“……?”
Two children who’d been touching the dirt beneath them, trying desperately to forget the cold and hunger, lifted their heads at the sight of feet stopping before them.
A man in a grey-hued robe stood looking down at them.
“Wow.”
“Pretty.”
Their mouths fell slack with childish wonder at the glimpse of a face hidden within the robe.
Pleased by their small exclamations, the man’s lips curved upward as he held something out to them.
Jingle.
“Take it.”
“What is this?”
“Travel money.”
“Sir?”
A money pouch. The children accepted it without thinking, their eyes widening as they stared at the man.
Unable to understand what he meant, the man knelt down to meet their gaze.
“Run as far away from here as you can, right now.”
“Why?”
The girl tilted her head, asking. The man reached up and gently stroked her hair.
“Because this place is about to become hell.”
At those words, both children’s eyes grew even wider than before.
“So leave, as far as you can.”
“Far away?”
“Yes, right now.”
The two children exchanged glances, then nodded vigorously. With this money, they could reach where Mother was!
With excited expressions, the children sprang to their feet and ran off in some direction.
“…….”
The man watched them go for a long moment, then rose and removed the robe he’d been wearing. His hair, a pale violet hue, and his face—as pale and unmarked by sunlight as if it had never known daylight—were revealed.
“Jutel.”
At Prince Alex’s call, a man appeared silently. Jutel, who gave a light nod to him, broke into a smirk.
“Are you really sending all the children away? I’ve lost count of how many now.”
“Crushing their souls won’t help the flowers bloom anyway.”
“Yes, yes.”
Jutel, under the weight of that piercing gaze, forced himself to suppress his laughter and held out what he’d been carrying.
A black gemstone the size of a man’s fist—the very stone capable of creating an S-Rank Black Forest.
“You have thirty minutes. You must leave this place within that time.”
“Understood.”
If he threw this gemstone and didn’t escape within thirty minutes, he too would be consumed by the Black Forest.
Prince Alex, who knew this fact better than anyone, had already prepared a Teleportation Magic Scroll.
“…Sigh.”
A long breath escaped Prince Alex’s lips as he clenched the black gemstone in his fist. But steeling himself at once, he tossed it into a sparsely populated alley.
Crack!
Seeing the black energy seeping out as the stone shattered, Prince Alex immediately tore open the Teleportation Magic Scroll and vanished from that spot along with Jutel.
Chapter 35. The S-Rank Black Forest
“Artia knew about you.”
“Yes.”
“She… deceived me about it.”
Could it be that Artia—of all people, my Alti—had kept a secret from me? And about my own disciple, no less?
“No, that’s not it!”
Ersi hurried to add more, sensing that Seres had gravely misunderstood.
“She learned about it after Master passed away.”
“How?”
“Because we’d met before.”
It was about twenty years after she’d left the Elrsia Countess Family and lived away from prying eyes.
Living without aging or dying, she had kept herself as inconspicuous as possible to avoid drawing unwanted attention. She waited for the name and face of “Enok” to fade from memory.
But then…….
‘Enok?’
‘Huh! N-no, it’s not!’
‘It’s not, huh? You just nearly jumped out of your skin.’
‘I’m serious, I didn’t get startled.’
‘So I’ll have to drag Kainel out here to get the truth, is that it?’
‘Gasp! It’s been so long, Artia!’
It was pure chance. How could she have known she would meet him in a small village far away from the Capital?
“So I told you everything. About myself.”
“…….”
“But then Artia gave me this key.”
The Black Key—she recognized it at once. She had heard directly from her teacher that he’d established the Sky organization to gather information.
And this Black Key was what proved one’s ownership of the place.
‘Why are you giving this to me?’
‘It seems right that you should have it.’
‘Why is that?’
‘Because I think he’ll want to see you.’
‘Who? Who are you talking about……?’
She had assumed “that man” whom Artia spoke of was Kainel. Only a handful of people knew the key existed.
But now, seeing this…….
“It was you. My teacher.”
Perhaps there was yet another secret known only to three people hidden within this key. The fact that her teacher had found this carefully concealed key and come to her in person proved it.
‘Alti.’
…What a creature you are.
Seres touched the key Artia had left behind with careful reverence. Just how far had this man prepared things for her sake?
He had said he would never give the key to anyone else, yet he had entrusted it to Enok—all for this. To reunite her with her disciple.
“What are all these things?”
Some time later, Seres pointed to the belongings piled in the corner of the room. It looked as though someone were moving.
“Ah…….”
Ersi scratched her cheek with an awkward smile.
“I’m running away.”
“Running away?”
The unexpected answer made Seres’s brow furrow slightly. Was someone threatening her?
“Because Kainel came to the Capital…….”
The only person who still knew her face exactly, even after all these long years.
Yet until now she had felt no concern. She had known that he remained utterly still in the Persha Duchy for all this time.
But not long ago, she heard he had appeared in the Capital. The moment she heard that news, Ersi had begun planning to leave the city at once.
If she stayed at the Temple in the Capital, the odds of running into Kainel were far too high.
“Unlike Artia, if Kainel saw me…….”
“…He’d draw his sword first.”
He would need to confirm whether she was a monster or not first.
There had been a time when she encountered a monster that extracted people’s memories and showed them illusions.
‘That was hard on Kainel back then.’
He couldn’t wield his blade properly.
‘Hey, you idiot! Why are you just standing there! I told you it was a monster!’
‘I knew it was a monster, but…….’
‘You knew and still just stood there!’
‘…….’
The look in Kainel’s eyes as he gazed at her in response to her reproach—pitiful, apologetic—was still vivid in her memory.
‘…Because even if I died, I could never pierce it with my blade.’
‘What nonsense are you spouting, you fool!’
For some reason, Artia seemed to understand Kainel’s words. Usually she would have scolded him more harshly, but that day she simply nodded and said nothing.
What illusion had those two seen? Her own dead parents appeared to her, but both of their parents were still very much alive.
In any case, from that day forward, whenever she spotted anything that looked like a monster capable of showing illusions, she drew her blade without mercy. Before it could show another vision.
The moment Kainel saw Enok’s face, he would likely recognize her as a monster with such power and draw his sword immediately.
“But…….”
Ersi carefully asked the question that had been nagging at her all this while.
“How is it that you’ve come back to life, Master?”
How had you returned? She had seen with her own eyes how Kainel had frozen her teacher’s corpse solid.
“Me?”
Seres smiled bitterly.
“It was Artia’s doing.”
“Ah….”
There was no long-winded explanation, but Ersi nodded at once. Artia had a gift for causing bewildering trouble, and somehow everything made perfect sense because of her.
“…….”
“…….”
Silence settled between them. Years had passed since Seres and Ersi—or rather, Grace and Enok—had seen each other again.
A flood of emotions washed over them.
—Screeeeeeeeeech!
“……!”
“…What is that?”
Then, moments later, a cacophonous crash shattered the silence between them. It was a sound she’d grown almost used to by now, yet it still grated—the unmistakable alarm of the Black Forest Alert System.

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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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