Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 127

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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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A piercing shriek tore through the air!
[Screech…….]
“……!”
Yet in that instant, the spider’s behavior turned strange. It faltered for a moment, then—instead of charging forward—it wheeled away, as though the couple didn’t exist at all.
They had no mind to comprehend what was happening. The pair could only watch the spider recede into the distance, their eyes trembling with desperate hope that no more monsters would come their way.
[Beep.]
“Eek!”
Then a strange sound from beneath their feet made them gasp and shrink back in terror.
Another monster? Their eyes widened in fright as they looked toward the source—only to go blank.
Munch, munch.
“…A rabbit?”
A single young rabbit, nibbling at grass. Only then did the couple realize that something had changed about their surroundings.
“F-flower field?”
They’d been standing on burning sand moments before. Now, in every direction around them, flowers bloomed abundantly. Lush green grass sprouted thick beneath their feet.
Fearing the Black Forest had somehow transformed, the two gasped and looked up—only to fall silent in shock.
Everywhere else remained a desert choked with sandstorm. Only their small corner had become a garden.
“What in the world…….”
[Grrr…….]
“Ah!”
Another monster approached. An enormous scorpion crept toward them, venom dripping from its fangs in fat drops.
The couple clapped their hands over their mouths to stifle the screams building in their throats. This was it. This was how they would die.
[Grr…….]
But the monster seemed blind to their presence and simply passed by.
[Beep.]
Beneath their feet, the young rabbit continued contentedly chewing grass.
“…Huh?”
Seres, who had been charging toward another monster threatening the couple after felling one giant beast, stopped short, her mouth falling open.
A small rabbit—Airien—had leapt from her pocket and reached the couple before she could.
And then something miraculous happened.
The moment Airien arrived at the couple’s location, a radius of roughly five meters around the creature transformed into a flower field.
More remarkable still: no monster could cross the threshold of that flower field.
And more than that…….
Pop.
[Screech?]
A single pristine white flower bloomed on the giant monster’s head with a peculiar sound.
Sensing the foreign sensation, the monster thrashed its head violently to shake the flower free. As petals scattered, the bloom withered rapidly.
[Beep beep beep!]
Stomp, stomp!
The rabbit, who had been grazing peacefully until that moment, saw this and stamped its feet in fury.
A dazzling burst of light!
[Screee……aaaaaaah!]
But the price of that simple rage was catastrophic. In a heartbeat, an enormous tree limb erupted from the sand, wrapped around the monster’s body, and began to constrict with devastating force. A horrifying shriek poured from the creature—but only briefly.
Splorch!
The monster’s body, unable to withstand the tree’s strength, burst apart, spraying thick emerald blood in all directions.
[Beep!]
Stomp, stomp!
The young rabbit, standing with arms crossed in a victor’s pose as if savoring its success, stamped its feet once more with forceful satisfaction.
“…What, what are you?”
Weren’t you the gardener? Why are you suddenly out here slaughtering monsters?
Seres let out a dazed, helpless laugh. A spirit killing monsters? And doing so with brutal efficiency, no less.
“Airien.”
[Beep?]
At Seres’s call, Airien bounced toward her—and in that moment, a horde of other monsters came rushing into view.
“From now on, stay close to me. When you see people, can you create a flower field like that to hide them?”
[Beep beep!]
Watching the young rabbit nod its head vigorously, Seres tightened her grip on her blade.
“Don’t come out from there. Just stay still.”
“……! Y-yes!”
Leaving those words with the couple, who sat dazed on the ground, Seres turned and ran toward the monsters bearing down upon them.
* * *
“What’s the rank?”
“S-rank.”
“What?!”
“S-rank?”
Those who heard the results from the Mana Detection Device drew sharp breaths. The moment they laid eyes on the Black Forest, ringed by Black Trees, something felt different from before.
An absence of sound.
Usually, standing before the space enclosed by Black Trees, you could hear the faint cries of monsters bleeding out from within.
But this Black Forest now was impossibly quiet. As though nothing existed inside at all. And yet that strange emptiness had been rated S-rank.
“Guild Master, this can’t be right!”
“That’s right! S-rank, you say?”
“This is just telling us all to march in together and die.”
“Ugh.”
Hearing that one section of the Temple Vicinity had become a Black Forest, countless mercenaries came running. But the Imperial administrative team already on-site had made their judgment, and the mercenaries could only hesitate.
Few mercenaries had ever encountered an A-rank Black Forest. An S-rank was a space that even those with long careers had never faced before.
The fear of stepping into the unknown was not something to dismiss lightly.
Watching the mercenaries already frozen solid at the mere word “S-rank,” none of the guild masters could bring themselves to rush out orders to enter.
An S-rank Black Forest that had occurred twenty years prior. Back then he wasn’t yet a mercenary, and too young to experience it firsthand, but he’d heard the stories. They said enormous sacrifices had been made.
Those who ventured inside and returned alive were almost none. And now that S-rank Black Forest, spoken of only in tales, had manifested before their eyes.
“……”
“…….”
A silence so heavy it seemed to suffocate hung over everything. No one dared open their mouth. The S-rank Black Forest, the oppressive quiet, seemed to be consuming the very air around them.
“Wow, the trunk thickness is no joke. Definitely different from usual, right?”
“That’s the majesty of an S-rank for you.”
“Majesty? Cut the dramatics. What’s different? It’s the same annoying death-trap it always is. Stop overacting.”
“You guys, could you please shut up? This is embarrassing.”
Then, passing by the countless mercenaries, figures advanced toward the Black Forest.
Walking with weapons slung casually across his shoulders as if out for a stroll, leading the way at the very front, was none other than Skal, Guild Master of the Black Guild.
And those exchanging low chuckles were his Sub-Guild Master Lot and his subordinates.
“Hmm.”
Skal, who had stopped at the entrance of the Black Forest, turned to face Sub-Guild Master Lot with a wry grin.
“I’m going in.”
“Understood.”
To Skal’s terse farewell, Lot offered an equally blunt reply.
“…Aren’t you going to try to stop me?”
“You wouldn’t listen even if I did.”
“Still, shouldn’t you at least make a show of trying? How can someone be so heartless?”
“Enough. My mouth only gets sore from talking.”
Lot responded coldly to Skal, who grumbled as if genuinely disappointed.
“I won’t be going in.”
“Coward. Usually in situations like this, the proper form is to say something like, ‘I shall stand with you to the end’ or some such nonsense, isn’t it?”
“I intend to live a long time.”
“Fine, you dog. Go on living alone till they nail you to a wall.”
“If you die, Guild Master, someone needs to survive to maintain the guild.”
“Yeah, yeah. You’re quite the overachiever.”
Skal tapped Lot’s shoulder lightly and turned his gaze toward the other Black Guild mercenaries.
“Anyone who wants to sit this out, drop back. You know we’re walking into death, right?”
At Skal’s words, the mercenaries burst into laughter.
“When have we ever gone in not expecting to die?”
“Nothing new about it.”
“Still, we’ll probably outlive you, Guild Master. Don’t worry. When things get desperate, we’ll toss you and bolt first.”
“…Madmen.”
Lot muttered a curse under his breath at his subordinates. Was it because the guild master was like this? For some reason, all the men under his command seemed to be cut from the same cloth of lunacy.
“Right. You all live longer than I do.”
Meanwhile, Skal chuckled and stepped forward. The smile faded slowly from his lips as he gazed into the Black Forest.
This was his first S-rank too. But he couldn’t simply stand here and watch, could he?
To enter the Black Forest and wait for it to vanish without going in was the same as wishing for everyone inside to die.
‘That’s not my style.’
It didn’t sit right with him.
Crack!
“……?”
The moment he lifted his foot toward the entrance of the Black Forest, a hand shot out and seized his arm.
“The imperial council alone is already overwhelming.”
It was Lot, the vice guild master.
“You’re not planning to dump all those wretched guild members on me too, are you?”
“…….”
True to form for someone so difficult, he had a charming way of saying come back alive.
Skal let out a soft laugh and tapped the top of his head lightly.
But he couldn’t promise he’d definitely return. At least he’d never lied to this man before.
“…When you come back, we’ll have a team dinner. At the Stew place.”
“Sounds good.”
Watching Skal’s smile deepen, Lot finally stepped back.
“Come on. Why always the Stew place?”
“Even the vice guild master’s going to say that?”
“Can’t we eat something different for once?”
The other mercenaries chimed in with soft laughs, each adding their own complaint.
They all chanted like a refrain—team dinner, team dinner, free Stew!—as they headed toward the Black Forest.

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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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