Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 32

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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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“No… not quite.”
It felt awkward. Terribly so.
Having to use formal speech with Kainel of all people made her tongue feel stiff and strange.
Seres turned away with a silent click of her tongue, heading back to fetch the stew.
“Let me do it.”
“Never mind.”
After ladling the stew into a bowl, Seres picked it up herself and left the kitchen once more.
Jay reached out to take it from her, but Seres shook her head lightly.
Would there ever be another chance like this? To see him this close again?
‘Probably not.’
She didn’t know why he’d wandered in today, but while she had the chance, she wanted to look at him one more time, as near as possible.
Tap.
“Enjoy your meal…”
As she set the bowl of stew before Kainel, he stared intently at the food.
Why? What was he looking for? What was wrong?
‘Oh.’
Surely not….
“Don’t leave the bell peppers.”
‘Hey, what are you picking out?’
‘Bell peppers.’
‘…I chopped them fine as sand. You can actually see them?’
‘Yes.’
‘Just eat it.’
‘I don’t want to. I won’t eat it.’
‘Starting tomorrow, I’m making you nothing but bell pepper dishes!’
‘Grace? You’re not… you’re not making me eat it too, are you?’
‘Of course you are, Artia, you fool. Why would Grace make it just for you and leave me out?’
‘Damn it! Who’s fault is this anyway! Why are you looking so pleased with yourself, you idiot!’
Kainel had despised bell peppers since childhood.
She’d tried everything to get him to eat them, but nothing had worked.
“…….”
As Kainel reached for his spoon, his gaze shifted back toward Seres.
“…Bell peppers?”
“Oh, you… like them? That’s a relief then.”
Seres clicked her tongue silently to herself.
He used to pick them out immediately, but he didn’t this time. Had his palate changed?
Realizing she’d spoken without thinking, recalling the old days, she offered an awkward smile.
“…….”
Kainel watched her for a moment in silence, then resumed moving his spoon without answering.
But there—he was deliberately pushing aside every visible scrap of bell pepper, as if to make a point of it.
‘You little bastard.’
You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you? Making a show of it!
Your temper’s only gotten worse with time!
‘Sigh.’
Three hundred years. What did you do all that time? Couldn’t even change your taste in food.
Fighting back the urge to pick up a spoon and feed him herself, Seres released a silent breath.
Ding.
“Hm? What’s this—why’s the place so quiet today?”
Someone had entered through the door: Chaeyen, the Master of the Magic Tower.
Seeing the shop unusually empty, he tilted his head curiously.
“At least today I don’t have to wait in line. That’s nice.”
“…Is that really something to say in front of the actual owner?”
“Oh, don’t take it that way.”
Looking genuinely pleased, Chaeyen’s lips curved up despite her reproach.
“You’ll run this place into the ground at this rate.”
“As if the Magic Tower isn’t doing that already?”
She questioned whether the Master of the Magic Tower could just vanish from his post every other day without consequences.
She’d grown accustomed to Chaeyen dropping by constantly, but she still couldn’t fathom why he came every single day.
He didn’t even seem particularly fond of stew like other customers did. So why do you keep coming back?
“Don’t worry, don’t worry. The Magic Tower runs just fine without me.”
“…….”
…Was that really something to say with such satisfaction?
‘I suppose.’
For someone who claimed the title of Tower Master, precious few people seemed to recognize him.
Never mind that he’d put his own face in books—he wasn’t particularly famous at all. Which only proved he almost never ventured outside these walls, didn’t it?
‘Though Yulia seems to like him well enough.’
A Tower Master popular only with the children.
“Would you like some stew?”
“Yes!”
Seres, who had been regarding Chaeyen with a look of mild sympathy, turned back toward the kitchen.
“Huh?”
Chaeyen had been watching Seres disappear with an unbroken smile when he absently turned his head—and only then caught sight of Kainel.
His eyes widened by degrees, and in the next moment he sprang from his seat.
“The Frozen Man!”
At his cry, not only Kainel—who had been eating stew—but Seres, just stepping into the kitchen, turned to face him.
“Sigh.”
A sigh escaped unbidden from Seres’ lips as she gave a light shake of her head.
Did the Magic Tower have some sort of genealogy that designated honorifics?
‘Shut it, Frozen Man.’
That lunatic Artia had called Kainel the same thing ages ago—how was it that the Tower Master kept cycling through the same epithet?
“…….”
Was Kainel thinking the same thing? He fixed Chaeyen with a gaze that was oddly ambiguous.
“Excuse me!”
Chaeyen closed the distance to Kainel in an instant, his eyes beginning to gleam.
There was something he’d been dying to ask him since the moment they met!
“By any chance, have you seen our little Blue Stone?”
“…Little Blue Stone?”
Despite the look in Kainel’s eyes—as though Chaeyen were spouting absolute nonsense—the Tower Master’s questions pressed on.
That Kai had kept his tastes intact, but apparently mastered the art of cursing through expression alone……
Seres, delighted by her old friend’s growth, had begun clapping to herself inwardly when she froze entirely.
“No matter how I think about it, that thing seems to be from the Northern Region where you live. It looks like this……”
An Image Recording Stone was already in his hand.
The moment he was about to play it.
Crack!
“Aaaaagh!”
A hand flashed out, snatching the Image Recording Stone and hurling it to the floor.
“What are you doing!”
It was Seres.
Bang! Thud, thud!
Not content with throwing it, she stomped on it again and again, crushing it to pieces, while Chaeyen shrieked and wailed—”Kyaaaaaah!”—at the top of his lungs.
“Oh, sorry. My foot slipped.”
“…Could you at least make an excuse that sounds sincere?”
Staring at the Image Recording Stone in fragments, Chaeyen let out a hollow, bewildered laugh.
“Why would you suddenly—! Why are you doing this! Ugh……”
‘Why? To prevent a catastrophe, that’s why.’
Seres exhaled sharply, her foot still planted on the shattered remains of the stone.
She’d realized that the footage Chaeyen had been about to show Kainel was precisely the Magical Stone recording she’d been planning to sell at the shop—which left her no choice but to destroy it.
‘Why the hell did he suddenly pull that out?’
If Kainel had seen it…
‘God.’
The thought alone made her dizzy.
“I’ll compensate you.”
“Compensate?”
“Yeah. But you’re not seriously expecting full retail value, are you? It’s used goods. You’re not that shameless, are you?”
…She was going to hear it from Colin again.
Surely it wasn’t terribly expensive?
As Seres’ brow furrowed with vague unease, Chaeyen—his false tears suddenly dried—opened his mouth with a glimmer in his eyes.
“Forget the money.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
“No, wait! That doesn’t mean I don’t want compensation!”
The moment Seres turned to leave at his dismissal of money, Chaeyen quickly grabbed her arm.
“What then?”
At Seres’s question, tinged with disappointment, Chaeyen flashed a sly smile.
“Just do me one favor later.”
“No thanks. I’ll take the money instead.”
“Why not!”
“Because you’ll probably ask for something weird.”
“I won’t, I promise.”
“I can just find you an identical used one.”
“That won’t have my blue stone in it!”
That damned blue stone.
If it were up to him, he’d march straight into the Subspace right now, grab the blue stone—no, the Magical Stone—and hurl it at her.
“Do as you like.”
“For real? You promised.”
A promise, my foot.
If she asked for anything truly outlandish, he’d simply fix it later by rewinding time.
Seres carefully gathered up the fragments of the shattered Image Recording Stone.
‘Better to erase the recording.’
She hadn’t expected he’d try to show that footage to Kainel.
Her eyes drifted sideways, stealing a glance.
“…Tsk.”
She’d suspected as much.
Even as the two of them chattered loudly beside him, Kainel simply ate his stew in silence—a sight that made Seres shake her head faintly.
* * *
“Have you… still not found my son and wife?”
“We’re expanding our search area, but there’s so little to go on, I’m afraid. My apologies.”
“Dave… My Dave…”
“Please, give us just a little more time. We will find them.”
Nox, Dave’s father, had come to the Guard Corps office again at dawn, and now sat collapsed on the floor, weeping silently.
“If something happens to my wife and boy in the meantime…”
The thought alone made his voice tremble, and those around him watched with pity.
“We’ll find them. Please, don’t worry yourself.”
“Yes. Please, I’m begging you.”
After a long time spent in tears, Nox was helped to his feet by another officer and departed the station.
By now, everyone knew him—a man who came here several times a day.
His wife and son had fled and were exposed to violence, even their lives under threat; all sympathized with him.
The Guard Corps had rolled up their sleeves and searched, but despite their earnest efforts, they had found nothing.

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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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