Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 25

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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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“Ugh, why! I stayed up all night making this! I’m exhausted! I need sleep! I’m going to sleep! For the next twenty-four hours straight, all I’m doing is sleeping!”
“Want me to help you sleep forever?”
“Drawing a sword in the Magic Tower like some brute! Swords are forbidden here!”
“Stop your nonsense.”
“Listen, listen! People need to know what you’re really like! Everyone thinks you’re so righteous and kind! They need to see that you’re the type to curse and draw a sword at the drop of a hat!”
“Other people don’t infuriate me the way you do, you bastard!”
Knock, knock.
Just then, the door opened and a man stepped inside.
It was Luka, Cheiyan’s secretary.
“Cheiyan.”
“What is it?”
“We found them, sir.”
“Found who?”
“The owner of the Ice Mana Stone.”
Cheiyan shot to his feet.
The moment Luka finished speaking, Cheiyan sprang from his chair and closed the distance between them in seconds.
“You found them? Where? How? The Mana Stone? What about it? Come on, lead the way! Let’s go now!”
“…Hey, didn’t you just say you were going to sleep?”
“Let’s go, hurry!”
Cheiyan didn’t seem to hear Aserayan’s bewildered objection at all, bouncing on his heels and urging Luka forward.
“They’ve lost it, sir.”
“What?”
“The owner lost the Mana Stone, it seems.”
“…Could you say that again? I think I just completely misheard you.”
“They lost it, sir. The Mana Stone.”
……
Cheiyan, who had been brimming with excitement mere moments before, went rigid as if doused in ice water.
Luka, seeing him like that, went through the situation once more, this time with complete clarity.
“The owner lost the Mana Stone that day, when they left the Magic Shop.”
……
Cheiyan’s eyes began to tremble with disbelief, and soon they glistened with tears.
“My… my Blue Stone!”
* * *
“Sister.”
“What?”
Finding herself with a rare moment of free time, Seres headed downtown with Yulia. The child had insisted on wanting something, so she’d gone along.
Where the child led her was a bookstore.
Yulia picked out a thick-looking book and brought it to the counter.
It seemed every child these days owned a copy of it.
‘…A book like that is popular?’
『Magic Made Easy!』
Supposedly written by the Tower Master herself, but why on earth would anyone read such a thing?
‘Three Gold for a book like that.’
She felt the heat rise within her, but since the child wanted it, she simply bought it.
“Can’t you buy me just one more ice cream?”
“No, you can’t.”
Now that they were out anyway, they wandered through downtown here and there, and Yulia got to eat an ice cream.
The child’s eyes glittered prettily as she begged for another, claiming the ice cream was delicious.
“Why not?”
“Because Colin scares you too.”
As if the child’s sparkling eyes weren’t terrifying enough, Colin’s endless lectures were far more frightening.
The man prowled every corner of the house with his eyes peeled, searching for any hint of wasteful spending—if he caught wind of something like this, the thought alone was enough to make one’s blood run cold.
‘At least a week of lectures, no question.’
He would follow her around with a sorrowful expression, reminding her that one must be frugal to survive, before bursting into theatrical wails.
Tsk.
It seemed Yulia understood Colin’s terrifying nature well enough—she stopped asking for another ice cream.
“Oh? That’s Dave’s father.”
“Dave?”
Holding an ice cream in one hand and Seres’s hand in the other, Yulia stopped in her tracks as she spotted someone in the distance.
“My friend Dave. You’ve seen him before, haven’t you?”
“Mm.”
That little boy from back then?
Not long ago, I’d taken Yulia directly to the Academy myself.
Some boy had come up to greet her warmly, bowing with great courtesy, and then took Yulia’s hand and led her into the classroom.
Yulia had dropped his hand coldly, saying her older sister had arrived, and left him behind. She’d been so curt about it….
I was hurt that day.
“Dave hasn’t been coming lately.”
“Why? Did he quit the Academy?”
“His mother ran off with another man and took Dave with her.”
“…What?”
“I guess Dave’s mother liked some other man better than his father.”
“…….”
Watching Yulia nod her head as if to say such things happened, Seres found herself pausing to think where she should even begin to explain.
‘So rumors like this have reached the children’s ears?’
Seres was curious how Yulia had come across this story, but her attention was soon drawn to a scene that caught her eye, and she nodded in understanding.
A man stood surrounded by people, receiving their sympathy.
She could make out words like infidelity and running away scattered through their conversation.
Given how dark his expression looked, it seemed Yulia was right—a woman had indeed fled.
‘But would a woman who ran away on account of another man take her child with her?’
Usually they’d run off alone, wouldn’t they?
Perhaps Dave’s mother truly did love her son deeply despite everything.
“Dave said you were pretty.”
“That little one has good taste.”
Tch.
Yulia, who had pouted, reached out toward the book Seres was holding.
“I’ll carry it.”
Now that she’d finished her ice cream, she seemed interested in the book at last.
Once Seres placed the book in the child’s hands, she opened it to the very first page as she walked.
“It’s dangerous. Read it at home. Don’t read while walking.”
“Okay.”
Even so, she made no move to close the book.
Seres sighed and glanced at the open pages.
A portrait was drawn on the front page.
A handsome man with long, straight black hair, neatly maintained, smiled brightly.
‘So that must be the current Master of the Magic Tower.’
Seres shook her head slightly. It wasn’t common to put one’s own face in a book like this.
‘He seems to have quite a strong sense of self-regard….’
“He’s handsome, isn’t he?”
“Huh?”
Where was this coming from?
At this sudden comment, Seres’s eyebrows shot up.
“This person—I heard he’s incredibly skilled at Magic. He’s even the one who created the Black Forest Alarm Device that was just distributed. Isn’t that cool?”
“…That strange screech-making thing?”
“Yeah, that one.”
A few days earlier, alarm items had been delivered to several homes as a trial.
The person who explained how to use it activated it as a demonstration.
Shriek-shriek-shriek-SCREEEECH!
She’d almost smashed it to pieces on instinct.
If the person who delivered the alarm item hadn’t been watching, she probably would have destroyed it.
‘What on earth was he thinking?’
Why would an alarm sound like that?
She seriously questioned the mental state of whoever had created it.
‘Ah, what a waste. Three Gold.’
She’d spent three Gold to buy a book written by such a person.
Perhaps influenced by Colin, Seres was becoming genuinely bothered by the waste of money.
“Are you heading to the Stew Shop again?”
“Yes. I need to prepare for tomorrow’s business. So listen well to what Antonian tells you.”
Tch.
“What’s with all the tch-ing?”
“You never do anything but make me study. You never play with me.”
She was doing well enough.
“If I just draw pictures on the Problem Sheet like last time, I get in trouble.”
“…….”
“Answer me.”
“Okay.”
The girl was clever, but her concentration was hopeless.
Antonian had complained to Seres more than once about how Yulia refused to study at all when she didn’t feel like it.
When Seres checked the Problem Sheet Yulia had completed, it was filled with animal drawings and flower doodles instead of answers.
‘Yulia.’
‘Yeah.’
‘How much did this Problem Sheet cost again?’
‘One Gold and Twenty Silver.’
‘Right. Colin bought it for you even though he was upset about it, didn’t he?’
‘Yeah.’
‘So if you draw pictures instead of studying on a Problem Sheet that expensive, is that okay or not okay?’
‘It’s not okay.’
‘…Do you want to try again, or do you want to stand with your hand up for an hour?’
‘…I want to try again.’
Yet when Yulia solved every single problem correctly in less than ten minutes, Seres found herself genuinely torn between praising her and scolding her.
In any case, after dropping Yulia off at home, Seres headed straight to the shop.
Though business hours had already ended, there was plenty of preparation to be done.
She had to prep the ingredients and make the broth in advance.
Jay had offered to help, but Seres couldn’t keep the girl tied to the shop when she had duties as a servant of the Drew Baron House.
‘It’s not simple cooking.’
It was almost amazing that Mark had been managing all of this alone.
Acknowledging that Mark was truly capable, Seres headed toward the shop as darkness began to fall.
“…….”
But when she arrived at the shop’s entrance, she couldn’t step inside right away.
Some dark lump was blocking the doorway.
‘…A beggar?’
Anyone would have thought the same thing.
His clothes looked as though he’d been rolling around in the dirt, and his hair was caked with twigs and strange weeds.
The man sat with his face buried in his knees, looking exhausted.
Thud. Whoosh.
Seres pushed him with her foot.

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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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