Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 129

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

Chapter 36. After the Black Forest Vanished
“What’s the damage assessment?”
“We’re still investigating. So far we’ve confirmed 126 deaths and 142 wounded.”
“126 dead.”
Crown Prince Aseraian couldn’t hide his surprise at the report.
One hundred twenty-six deaths. Certainly no small number. Yet the Black Forest that had manifested centered on the temple was nothing less than S-rank.
The S-rank Black Forest that occurred twenty years ago claimed over five thousand lives.
Yet this S-rank Black Forest had taken only 126 lives.
Of course, damage assessment was still ongoing, but the figure was strikingly different from what had occurred so long ago.
“The boss’s corpse hasn’t been found?”
“No. It hasn’t been discovered anywhere yet.”
About three hours after the S-rank Black Forest manifested, the black trees that had soared skyward like a barrier all vanished.
Considering it had taken well over two weeks to destroy the S-rank Black Forest from twenty years prior, this too defied understanding.
No one could explain how the Black Forest had been destroyed in such a short span of time.
The mercenaries who had entered the Black Forest were equally bewildered.
Their unified testimony was that, amid the endless onslaught of monsters and their frantic combat, the transformed wasteland had reverted to its original form at some point. And not long after, the black trees that had sealed off all sides like a barrier had vanished.
“What of Grand Duke Persha?”
As for who was most likely the key figure in destroying this Black Forest, Grand Duke Persha seemed the strongest candidate.
“He wasn’t seen at the scene. It appears he left rather abruptly…….”
Word had already reached him through the mercenaries present that Grand Duke Persha had swiftly dispatched monsters within the Black Forest and hurried off somewhere.
Many had witnessed him freezing monsters with the Freezing Power, shattering them instantly, and pressing forward.
But no one afterward knew his whereabouts. At some point he’d vanished, and even after the Black Forest was destroyed, there was no trace of him.
“I’ll need to hear from the commander of the knights directly.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
He would need more detailed accounts from the imperial knights deployed at the scene.
“Tell Grand Duke Persha I wish to meet with him.”
“Understood.”
As the aide acknowledged his command, Crown Prince Aseraian moved quickly to wrap up the situation.
* * *
“Healer, when will my sister wake up?”
“I’m not sure.”
Herion, the head of the Elrsia Countess Family, shook her head gently at the young Yulia’s question, offering a sympathetic smile.
“Don’t worry too much. She hasn’t sustained any serious injuries, so she should wake soon.”
“Okay…….”
Herion lightly stroked the child’s head as she nodded listlessly, then exhaled a quiet, silent sigh.
At news of the S-rank Black Forest’s emergence, most of the Elrsia Countess Family’s healers had been on standby, ready to begin treatment the moment patients arrived.
But someone had come looking for her in urgency—the Grand Duke Persha’s aide, requesting she come at once because Miss Seres was gravely ill.
At that word, Herion had hurriedly entrusted her post to others and, following the aide Del to the Drau Marquis Family residence, found Seres lying unconscious on the bed.
She’d examined her body hastily, but could find nothing seriously wrong. One might say only that exhaustion had accumulated deeply, leaving her thoroughly drained.
Yet seeing Seres still unconscious after more than three days, Herion couldn’t let her worry go.
While tending to other patients, she had visited this place frequently, but still there was not the slightest sign of Seres waking.
“I’ll come again tomorrow.”
“All right.”
After checking on Seres, Herion rose and stroked the dejected Yulia’s head once more.
Her gaze then drifted toward the window. There, with an expression set hard as stone, stood a figure who could not tear his eyes from Seres—Grand Duke Persha himself.
Watching only Seres with an intensity that spared no glance for anyone else.
Herion bowed silently to him, then turned her attention to Juberios, the Spirit King of flames, who sat at the head of Seres’s bed.
‘Please look after her.’
Reading the plea in her eyes, Juberios nodded emphatically—as if to say she need not worry.
Herion left Juberios at Seres’s side whenever she stepped away. She needed a presence who could alert her immediately if anything went wrong with Seres’s condition.
“Uncle.”
After Herion had gone, Yulia, still in the room holding Seres’s hand tightly, turned to look at Kainel.
“Aren’t you hungry?”
No one knew better than Yulia how he had remained motionless in the room for days.
There had been more than one occasion when she’d sneaked here at night out of worry for her sister, only to find him just as she’d seen him during the day—never taking his eyes off her sister.
“Will you come eat with me?”
“No.”
At Kainel’s curt refusal, Yulia’s eyes narrowed. The child placed her hands on her hips and rebuked him reproachfully.
“They say you’ll become stupid if you don’t eat.”
“…….”
‘Kai, you don’t want to turn into a fool, do you? Come eat.’
At words so familiar, Kainel’s gaze finally shifted toward Yulia.
Grrrrowl.
As if on cue, a sound erupted from the child’s stomach, and Kainel—who had been frozen like a statue—stirred to life.
When the loud noise came from her belly, Yulia, clutching her stomach, caught sight of Kainel approaching and broke into a broad grin—a little embarrassed, perhaps.
Ever since her sister had collapsed, no one had been eating properly. Not her brother Antonian, not Uncle Kainel either—they’d barely touched food.
She was worried about her sister too, of course, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t hungry…….
Watching the atmosphere in the house grow heavier and more oppressive by the hour, forcing herself to choke down food in solitude felt somehow wrong.
It made it look as though she alone didn’t care about her sister. So the meals set before her went half-eaten, as if in solidarity.
“You mustn’t become a fool.”
At Kainel’s words, Yulia’s eyes widened. The child nodded vigorously, then seized his hand and pulled him forward.
“Then let’s go eat together.”
“…….”
Led by that small, insistent pull, Kainel stepped from the room—but not before casting one final glance at Juberios, the fire Spirit King, as if to say: watch over Seres.
[What, with me here? What is everyone so worried about!]
Herion was the same way, and now this fellow too—why all the fuss? Juberios clicked his tongue lightly as he watched Kainel leave.
His gaze drifted back to Seres, who lay as though dead, lost in sleep. There had been times like this before, back when she lived as Grace.
After she wielded that special power of hers, she would collapse as if lifeless and remain unconscious for days. Then, as if nothing had ever happened, she would rise and be perfectly fine.
[That one should know it well enough.]
Herion might be ignorant of the fact, but Kainel—that fool had watched Grace fall into that state just as often as anyone.
[Whoo…….]
[Cheep…….]
In that moment, small cries reached his ears.
At Seres’s bedside, two creatures were already perched and whimpering: Kkamangi and Airien.
[Whoo……?]
[Cheep……?]
[…….]
[…….]
The two beasts, crouched on either side of the pillow, looked at each other as they sniffled.
[Pff!]
[Chirp!]
Kkamangi and Airien, after glaring at one another for a moment, simultaneously let out sharp cries.
Kkamangi fluttered upward and seized a strand of Seres’s hair in its mouth, tugging at it—as if to say it belonged to him.
Thwack!
The young rabbit sprang up and lashed out with its hind legs, striking Kkamangi across the face—as if to say: don’t you dare touch me with that filthy mouth.
[Whuuuh!]
[Squeeeak!]
Kkamangi snapped its jaws open, readying an attack on Airien, while the rabbit bounded upward to deliver another kick.
[What do you think you’re doing!]
Juberios burst in between them, scolding sharply.
[You little pests, making such a racket!]
With flames seeming to dance about Juberios’s aura, Kkamangi and Airien withdrew from each other.
[Whoo…….]
[Cheep…….]
As if he weren’t small himself.
Looking at Juberios—whose body was no larger than their own—Kkamangi and Airien cast him sullen, resentful glares.
[You, you cheeky little brats! Even when I was as young and ignorant as you, I knew enough to respect my elders! These days……! Tsk, tsk!]
[Hmm…….]
[Chirp…….]
Old fossil, old fossil……. Both creatures simultaneously blocked their ears and quickly burrowed beneath Seres’s pillow, as if refusing to hear another word of his nagging.

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