Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 17

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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 so sorry. The young lady wanted to visit you before leaving…….”
“Of course. Come this way.”
After Yulia’s health had recovered sufficiently, Seres enrolled her in the Academy.
Though the girl was clever enough to have taught herself to read, she needed proper education.
Noble families usually hired private tutors, but the Drew Baron’s house couldn’t afford such luxuries.
Fortunately, the Capital had an Academy for educating young children—one run directly by the Imperial Palace itself, so the tuition wasn’t exorbitant.
Once Yulia entered the Academy, she made a habit of visiting this place whenever her classes ended.
“Miss Yulia, aren’t you hungry?”
“I’m starving.”
“Just a moment, please.”
She nodded.
Thanks to her, the small chair Mark had specially prepared for Yulia had become quite useful lately.
The girl settled into her seat and swung her legs, surveying the shop.
“Hey! You bird……!”
Chirp-chirp.
“…Look here, friend. That’s not your food, is it?”
“What’re you on about, you……!”
Chirp-chirp.
“…That’s nonsense, I… no, never mind. I ordered this anyway.”
“Ha-ha-ha. Really?”
“Ha-ha-ha!”
When Yulia appeared, the rough speech that usually filled the shop vanished.
Those who’d been about to lose their tempers found themselves tongue-tied, faced with her bright, eager gaze.
“Yulia?”
While the customers held their tongues and buried their noses in their stew bowls, someone broke the silence and stepped inside.
“Sister.”
Seres had guessed the reason for the shop’s sudden quiet before she’d even fully entered.
She let out a silent sigh at the sight of Yulia happily eating the cake Mark had given her.
“I told you not to come here.”
“Why?”
“It’s dangerous.”
“Why is it dangerous?”
“Look for yourself.”
Seres gestured toward the mercenaries who were eating.
“Do those people look kind to you?”
“Cough!”
All at once, embarrassed coughing erupted from various corners of the shop.
‘Hey! Hide your face! Your ugly mug’s gonna make the kid cry.’
‘You hide yours, you bastard!’
As the mercenaries buried their faces deeper into their stew bowls, Yulia nodded enthusiastically.
“Those uncles always smile at me.”
“…….”
“They’re nice.”
At the girl’s words, Seres’s head turned slowly.
The mercenaries, meeting Seres’s narrowed gaze, produced awkward smiles.
More than a few of them had been the ones making a scene on her first day here, throwing things around.
They must have felt embarrassed.
“Still, don’t come here anymore.”
“…….”
“I want an answer.”
“Okay.”
Watching the girl nod, Seres sighed quietly to herself.
‘She says the right things, but……’
She suspected Yulia would be back tomorrow.
For someone so small, she certainly had a stubborn streak.
“Sister, say ‘ah.'”
At the sight of Yulia holding out a bite of cake to her, Seres finally broke into a smile.
Yes, she was too cute not to indulge.
* * *
“Find it for me… please find it……. Sob.”
The Arcane Tower, where countless mages aspired to enter and many already dwelt.
In that place, in the topmost chamber, sat the office of the Tower Master himself.
A vast space flooded with sunlight through floor-to-ceiling windows. The room was immaculate save for one figure conspicuously disheveled within it.
“Whimper… my Ice-Attribute Mana Stone……. Find it for me.”
Hair the color of wine cascading to his waist swept across the floor as though polishing it.
His secretary, Luka, watching the man crawl about the floor whining without a single tear falling, throwing a tantrum over nothing, felt his mouth fall open.
“Master, perhaps we should consider wrapping up the floor inspection?”
“No! I’m not stopping until you find my Mana Stone!”
“The cleaning staff would surely be delighted.”
The man flailing about and making a scene was none other than Chaien, the master of this tower.
Chaien de Devrika.
Though he held the title of Imperial Prince of the Devrika Empire, he had devoted himself to magic in his youth and left the Imperial Palace to join the Arcane Tower.
By his early teens, he wielded mana with consummate skill, drawing the eyes of all upon him, earning the title “Guardian of Mana” bestowed only upon the greatest mages at merely twelve years old, and rising to the position of Tower Master itself two years ago upon turning twenty.
It was thanks to the Arcane Tower’s tradition of selecting its Master solely on merit, irrespective of age or experience.
“My Mana Stone…….”
Knock, knock.
Click.
“Here are the documents you requested.”
“Whimper.”
“You may leave them there.”
“Such cold… sob… my Mana Stone…….”
“Then I’ll take my leave.”
Even as the Tower Master whined on, others came and went from the chamber in steady succession.
Some brought documents, while others entered at regular intervals to clean or organize the space.
Yet none of them paid the Master any attention as he swept across the floor.
They all made a point of avoiding his gaze entirely, hurrying from the chamber with all speed.
Some among them even cast Noise-Blocking Magic upon themselves, unwilling to hear the Tower Master’s voice as they conducted their duties.
“We’re working on it diligently, so please be patient a moment longer.”
If I don’t give him something soon, he’ll keep this up all day.
Luka, the Tower Master’s secretary, sighed deeply and approached Chaien, who had now dissolved into open wailing, poking him sharply in the ribs with a sheaf of papers.
Luka had rolled him toward the wall so no one would trip over him lying in the way, but somehow Chaien’s cries echoed off every wall of the tower, setting everyone’s teeth on edge.
Whether from the shock of being prodded or the cool splash of water Luka had flung at him to quiet both Chaien’s maddened temperament and his own roiling exasperation, a rather composed voice now flowed forth.
“There will be news soon.”
“Soon? How soon?”
At the secretary’s words, Chaien lifted his head slightly from where he lay sprawled on the floor.
His eyes gleamed with hopeful anticipation.
“Very soon.”
“When exactly is this ‘very soon’?”
“Shortly.”
“When is ‘shortly’?”
…….
Deeming further conversation pointless, Luka hoisted the prone Chaien upright.
He brushed the dust from his back and quickly tidied the troublemaker’s disheveled hair.
“Lord Aseraian will be arriving soon.”
“When does my Mana Stone arrive?”
…….
Watching as Chaien had now begun to personify the Mana Stone itself, Luka pressed his lips firmly shut.
“Whimper.”
Undoing all of Luka’s careful efforts, Chaien flopped back onto the floor with a thud and sniffled pitifully.
“What’s wrong now?”
“He has arrived.”
A familiar voice sounded at that moment.
At the man’s entrance, Luka bowed respectfully in greeting.
Aseraian de Devrika.
The Crown Prince of the Devrika Empire and Chaien’s elder brother, who was also the Tower Master.
“My Mana Stone…….”
“A Mana Stone? Did that fool actually lose one?”
Aseraian cocked his head in puzzlement.
Whatever remarkable Mana Stone it was, surely if he’d lost it, he could simply buy another—why was he throwing such a tantrum over it?
“He saw a recorded image not long ago, and he’s been like this ever since.”
“A recorded image? What kind of image?”
“It’s a crystal ball recording that one of the new mages captured. Apparently, they stopped by a magic shop in the city and found an interesting Mana Stone, then brought it back recorded in an Image Crystal.”
“And?”
So why not just go buy it right now?
“Someone had brought the Mana Stone to the shop to sell it, but they left without actually selling it.”
Chaien, who happened to see that recording by chance, has been like this ever since. Not eating, not sleeping—just staring at that image crystal obsessively, day and night.
“Sigh, my Blue Stone…”
“This is insane, seriously. He’s throwing a fit over something that isn’t even his, and he’s given it a pet name on top of that?”
“It’s only been a day or two. We’ll have to bear with it.”
Aseraian, the Crown Prince, narrowed his eyes at his younger brother’s shameless tantrum over something that wasn’t his—whining for him to find it while even affixing it with a strange pet name.
It was true that this sort of behavior wasn’t new for him…
“It’s not a common Mana Stone?”
“No, it was a Mana Stone with Ice Attribute.”
“Ice Attribute, then.”
Now he understood roughly why Chaien was acting this way.
Ice-Attribute Mana Stones were nearly impossible to find anywhere in the Empire at present.
They said they used to circulate occasionally in the past, but at some point, such items became extraordinarily difficult to obtain.
“This is all because of that damned Frozen Man!”
Chaien, harboring the same thought, shot upright and vented his fury.
“How much longer is that human going to keep the Northern Region sealed off!”
“Who knows.”
“Ugh, Ice-Attribute materials only come from there!”
Curse that Grand Duke Persha!
Because the ruler of the Northern Region had kept the gates firmly shut for three hundred years, the Ice-Attribute materials that used to trickle onto the market occasionally were no longer circulating at all.
“Still, he’s doing his job properly.”
A smile tugged at the corner of Aseraian’s mouth.
“He’s certainly handling the Black Forest that appears over there. Unlike someone who’s just slacking off.”
Flinch.
Chaien, who had been pouring out his grievances, quietly began inching toward the corner—as though trying to escape from Aseraian’s gaze by any means necessary.
“You haven’t heard? The Black Forest has even been spawning on the Capital Outskirts?”
“I, I don’t think I’ve heard…”
“A report was filed last week at 10:30 in the morning.”

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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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