Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 33

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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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Flyers had been distributed throughout the neighborhood and help requested, yet strangely, no information had come back at all.
“Is it really possible there were no witnesses?”
“That’s what I’m saying. Hell, whether he sank into the earth or rose into the sky……”
And since there was even less information about the man supposedly living with them, the investigation had stalled completely.
“You don’t think he’s already dead……”
“Hold on! Don’t jump to conclusions yet.”
“My apologies.”
The other officers reprimanded the young soldier for his rash words. Their gazes, which had been fixed on him, shifted back toward Nox, who had already moved far away.
His shuffling gait, supported by a neighbor’s arm, looked unusually pitiful today.
“Go on inside now.”
“Yes… Thank you so much for today.”
“We’ll find her. Don’t worry too much.”
“Yes, that would be best.”
Nox turned back with a bitter smile to the neighbor’s words of comfort.
But as he turned, a different smile flickered across his face before vanishing quickly.
Click.
“……!”
Bang!
“Nox? What’s wrong?”
The neighbor, who had been watching him enter the house, was startled when Nox suddenly slammed the door shut and stumbled backward in alarm.
His face had gone deathly pale, as if he’d witnessed something he shouldn’t have.
“Ah, no, it’s nothing. I just suddenly felt ill……. I need some air. Please go inside first.”
“Tsk, you must be tired too. Get inside.”
“Yes.”
Nox nodded awkwardly and didn’t move from that spot until the neighbor had completely disappeared from sight.
“Ha… ha……. What… what is this?”
Moments later, left alone, Nox finally released the breath he’d been holding and slowly turned back toward the house.
His eyes, fixed on the firmly closed wooden door, trembled ceaselessly as if struck by an earthquake.
“…I must have misread it.”
Yes. It was definitely a mistake.
Recently, always watching the eyes of those around him, constantly performing—his nerves had grown frayed, that was all.
After confirming once more that there was no one around, Nox reached for the doorknob with a trembling hand.
Click.
Creak.
“I’m… insane…!”
Upon stepping inside, he quickly locked the door behind him, terrified of being seen.
The first thing he felt was the thick, coppery stench of blood washing over him.
“How… how is this possible…!”
The entire house was a sea of blood.
It was a sight far too familiar.
Pools of blood gathering on the floor.
Splattered stains on the walls.
Even the scratches left by desperate fingers clawing at the door!
Weren’t all of these the result of his own deeds?
“But I cleaned it!”
Surely he had wiped it clean with every ounce of strength!
He’d drenched everything in chemicals until all traces had vanished!
“So why…!”
Was this a dream?
Yes. This had to be a dream!
Nox approached and reached toward the blood pooling on the floor with a trembling hand.
“Aaah!”
It was real blood! Not a phantom, not a dream!
Staring at his hand, smeared with the sticky warmth, Nox sank to the floor.
“This… this can’t be.”
What was this? What on earth was this!
Jolt.
Despair was brief. Nox scrambled to his feet.
He didn’t know what situation he was in, but there was only one thing he needed to do now.
Erasing the traces!
He started wiping away the blood like a madman.
Wiping, wiping again. Pouring out every last chemical he could find!
He lost track of time, scrubbing and scrubbing the blood away.
“Mm…….”
Nox lay crumpled in one corner, asleep.
In his hand, a rag worn completely threadbare from a night of scrubbing remained limp.
After what must have been a long sleep, he felt the morning light seeping through the window and stirred his body awake.
“What time is it……?”
Thud.
“…….”
The rag in Nox’s hand fell to the floor without strength. His vacant eyes snapped wide open in an instant.
“U, u… AAAAAHHHHH!”
A shrill, anguished scream tore from his throat.
“Why, why……!”
Hadn’t he cleaned everything last night?
Wiping, wiping again and again! His hands had been rubbed raw!
But why…….
Collapse.
“…….”
Staring at the pooled blood gathered throughout the house as though it were all a lie, Nox simply sank to the floor.
* * *
“Seres, where did you go out so early this morning?”
“For a walk.”
“A walk?”
This early in the morning?
Jay tilted her head in confusion.
Seres had left the Estate before her, but had only just now come through the Shop door.
“I thought you’d gone to the Shop first.”
“I meant to, but the weather needed to be nicer. On a day like this, being outside…….”
“S, Seres! Your nose, you’re bleeding!”
“…ah, damn it.”
Why was her body in such a state?
A nosebleed from using just a bit of strength? This pathetic body was infuriating.
“Here’s a Handkerchief! What do I do, what do I do!”
“It’s fine. It’s nothing.”
Reassuring the flustered Jay, Seres roughly wiped the blood away with the Handkerchief.
It had been a while since a nosebleed.
Ding.
“Huh?”
At the sound of the Shop door opening, Jay turned and her eyes widened. She recognized the face of the customer entering immediately.
Though she’d only seen him once, his striking appearance had been memorable enough to stay with her.
“Oh, I’m sorry. We’re not open for Business Hours yet.”
Jay quickly spoke up, trying to block the customer from entering.
Seres turned her head as well, her eyes widening slightly.
“Never mind, Jay.”
“Yes?”
“Go finish organizing the kitchen in back.”
“Ah, yes.”
Jay, who didn’t stay at the Shop every day, wouldn’t know—but this man had been showing his face here rather frequently of late.
‘Do you have nothing else to do?’
Was it really acceptable for a Duke to drop by like this whenever he pleased?
Why did he keep coming so often?
What was the reason? Of all people, the one person she’d been desperate to never see again!
‘I thought that day would be the last.’
Who could have known he’d show up almost daily like this?
And why did he have to come so early in the morning today?
“You’re here early.”
“You told me to come.”
‘Either come early in the morning or late in the evening so it doesn’t inconvenience others.’
‘Surely… it’s not because of what I said?’
The mercenaries scattered at the mere sight of him, so she’d been forced to set a specific time for his visits.
Seres shook her head slightly.
There’s no middle ground with him, that’s for sure.
“Please, sit over here.”
Seres gestured toward a seat, addressing Kaine, who stood vacant in the doorway.
“…….”
Kaine was watching Seres, still holding one hand to her nose.
“You’d do better staying still and keeping quiet.”
At his offhand remark, Seres found herself laughing despite herself.
‘Please, just stay calm for a moment, Grace.’
‘Right! The blood won’t stop!’
‘It’s fine. A little nosebleed won’t kill me.’
‘It will. You’re losing blood—of course it will!’
‘Grace, are you… are you dying? No! Don’t die!’
‘…Kaine, you’re scaring the child. Don’t frighten him.’
She remembered those two panicking every time her nose bled.
‘…I’m laughing again.’
Kaine’s eyes narrowed slightly.
This woman, who now and then smiled at him with that inexplicable expression—it irritated him greatly.
‘No.’
What irritated him was the fact that something irritated him at all.
What did it matter to him whether she laughed or not?
“Will you feed me?”
“…….”
That speech pattern irritated him too.
Neither formal nor casual, that strange tone she used whenever she looked at him.
“The Stew isn’t ready yet.”
“I’ll wait.”
Kaine settled into his seat with the air of a man perfectly content to wait as long as necessary, and closed his eyes.
As he listened to Seres disappear into the kitchen, his mind drifted into deeper thought.
‘A recipe passed down through generations.’
On the day he’d first visited this shop, Kaine had naturally asked a question that occurred to him.
Where had she learned this Stew recipe?
‘It’s a recipe my family has been passing down for generations…’
For reasons he couldn’t explain, this was definitely the same Stew that Grace used to make.
‘Grace used to share the recipe with others from time to time.’
Yet the fact that it had maintained exactly the same taste even now, three hundred years later, was genuinely remarkable.
However much one possessed a recipe, how could the flavor be preserved with such perfection?
With all those long years having passed—was such a thing even possible?
Clink.
“……?”
Kaine, lost in thought, opened his eyes at the sound of something being set down.
An omelet sat before him, steam rising gently from its surface.
“Eat this while the Stew finishes.”

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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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