Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 146

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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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“So what’s the problem?”
[The medicine! The medicine you taught me how to make!]
“The medicine? What about it?”
Last I heard it was selling without any issues. Has something gone wrong with the sales?
[It’s selling too well!]
“What?”
[The orders coming in are so overwhelming we can’t keep up!]
…What in the world is happening now?
* * *
“…What time is it now?”
“One o’clock.”
“One in the morning?”
“No… one in the afternoon…….”
“Ah…….”
The Alchemy Workshop of the Elrsia Countess Family.
Five apothecaries with sunken eyes were slouched over their workstations, their hands never ceasing their motions even as they spoke. They moved with the mechanical rhythm of those pushing past exhaustion.
“How long until the next shift?”
“…Two hours.”
“Two hours…….”
At that answer, a long, synchronized sigh escaped everyone present as if they’d rehearsed it.
“Everyone keep going! Once we finish this order, there won’t be any more!”
From beside them, the family head Herion called out, still quietly helping prepare the medicine herself.
At her words, the five apothecaries seemed to find a second wind, their hands moving with renewed speed.
“I’ll make sure you all get the largest bonuses possible!”
The promise seemed to inject fresh energy into their work.
“A new Order Form has arrived.”
“……!”
But moments later, when Secretary Juno brought in the new order form, everyone’s jaws dropped.
“A new order? I thought we said no more!”
“They’re offering twenty times the original price.”
“…Twenty times?”
This had become the pattern lately. Most orders that came in were doing the same thing — when refused, they simply raised the price astronomically and pushed through.
“They also said the delivery timeline doesn’t matter. They’re willing to wait comfortably, and they’re offering an Advance Payment to secure it.”
There was no reason to refuse under such conditions.
“Even if they’re giving us generous timelines…….”
The real problem was that they simply didn’t have enough people to produce the medicine at all.
‘And this isn’t ordinary medicine, either.’
The Medicine to Eliminate Magi that Seres had taught them was only being produced by a select group of long-trusted, longtime employees of the Elrsia family — those few whom they’d deemed trustworthy enough to teach the formula.
At first there had been only five, but as orders increased, they’d expanded to ten.
Even working in shifts, they couldn’t keep pace with the orders.
“Could it be… is it those people again……?”
“Yes, upon investigation, it appears so.”
“Sigh.”
Herion let out a heavy breath.
“What is all this?”
“……! Seres!”
Just then, a familiar voice rang out. Herion, turning to look, broke into a bewildered smile as she spotted Seres standing in the doorway — and immediately rushed over.
“When did you arrive?”
“Just now.”
Seres surveyed the apothecaries moving about like ghosts, her brow creasing with concern. What in the world was going on here?
“What’s happened?”
“Well…….”
Unable to know where to begin, Herion hesitated. It was Secretary Juno who stepped in, her voice calm and measured.
“Recently we’ve been receiving a large number of orders for the Medicine to Eliminate Magi.”
“That’s good in itself, but if you can’t handle it, you should refuse.”
“The terms were difficult to refuse — they offer us over ten times the profit we’d make elsewhere.”
Ten times. That was substantial, though the Elrsia Countess Family hardly needed such inflated margins to justify the strain.
“Moreover, the party placing the orders is… difficult to turn away.”
At those words, Seres’s frown deepened. Were they being pressured by those in power? The Elrsia Countess Family, of all people?
“Who placed an order—the Imperial Court itself?”
“No, Your Grace.”
A soundless sigh escaped from Secretary Juno’s lips. Then came his next words.
“The Schweiz Duke House.”
“…Schweiz?”
Why would that name surface here?
* * *
“…….”
Gulp.
Though the Conference Hall held many people, the silence was so complete that not even breathing could be heard. Some of them flinched at the faint sound of their own swallowing.
Rustle.
The only sound breaking that suffocating quiet was the turning of pages.
“…….”
Not a single emotion crossed the face of the man reading those documents—the Schweiz Duke. His gaze remained cold and detached as he methodically reviewed each page.
Yet every so often, the slightest furrow would appear between his brows. Each time it did, the retainers gathered in the hall felt their stomachs drop.
They silently prayed that the report in question belonged to someone else—anyone else.
The Schweiz Duke’s Residence, long vacant in the Capital, had recently grown busy with comings and goings.
The news that the Duke, who had remained stationed in the Western Region all this time, had returned to the Capital brought his attendants to his door almost daily.
For years they had sent reports down from their posts in the west. Now, for the first time in ages, they had to present them face-to-face.
Thunk.
Having finished reviewing the last report, he let the documents fall onto the table with a sharp tap.
“This one needs revision.”
“Yes, sir.”
Documents lay stacked on either side of the table. When he pointed to one pile, his aide, standing quietly nearby, gathered those papers and returned them to the retainers.
Those who received their reports back swallowed hard. They knew a difficult road lay ahead.
‘What—what’s the problem?’
They had to find the flaw themselves. Whatever had displeased the Schweiz Duke. And then rewrite it and submit it anew, but…
Some passed on the first attempt. Others on the second. But if even the third submission failed to identify the true problem?
Shiver.
The retainers trembled without meaning to.
If they failed to find the right answer within several chances, they would find themselves alone with the Duke. And then came his instruction on that report—from beginning to end.
‘Yes… instruction….’
Those cold eyes would dissect each error with the precision of a tutor teaching a child, and cold sweat would pour down their entire bodies.
If only he would shout in anger instead. Then at least they could hope for forgiveness!
But he displayed not the slightest emotion—as though he harbored no further expectations of them whatsoever. And that drained them dry.
And then came the final words they would hear.
‘This venture does not suit you, it seems.’
The moment those words left his lips, the project left their hands. Someone else would take it over and begin anew.
So it was no wonder the eyes of the retainers who received their reports back with “revision needed” trembled as though the earth itself had shaken.
By any means necessary, they had to find all the problems within three attempts and submit a new report.
“These proceed as is.”
“Yes, sir.”
Unlike those marked for “revision,” the retainers whose reports lay in the other stack allowed themselves an inner sigh of relief. Though their numbers were painfully few.
Knock-knock.
A servant entered through the door, moving with extreme caution.
“What is the matter?” the aide asked, approaching the servant with a look that held a note of reproach.
Everyone knew well that the Schweiz Duke despised having his meetings interrupted by other matters.
“It’s just… a visitor has arrived, sir.”
“A visitor?”
The servant, fully aware of this, continued tensely, avoiding the gaze of the Duke, who did not even glance in his direction.
“Yes, they said they wish to see the Duke, and….”
“Who is it?”
The aide exhaled silently. The old butler, left behind to manage the Duke’s affairs in the Western Region, was sorely missed now.
No preliminary screening, and the report came directly like this.
“A lady named Seres, sir. I told her it wasn’t possible right now, but she said she would wait until the meeting ends—”
He jerked to his feet.
“……!”
The servant could not finish his words. The Schweiz Duke had suddenly risen from his chair.

He strode toward her with purpose.
“Your name is Seres?”
“Yes, yes!”
“Where is she now?”
“I… I’ve shown her to the Reception Room….”
Before the servant could finish his sentence, Schweiz Duke swept open the Conference Hall doors and departed. The servant’s face went blank—he’d never seen the Duke move with such urgency.
The same bewilderment seized everyone else. They exchanged glances, their eyes asking silently: what on earth was happening?

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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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