Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 39

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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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“Where in the world is she?”
What possessed her to go outside without a shred of caution?
What business could she possibly have venturing out into a situation like this?
Cheyeon dragged a hand roughly through his hair.
He needed to find her before things got worse.
Unless she’d already fallen victim to the Monsters…….
Uuuuoooom!
“Huh?”
“What is it?”
“The trees…….”
That was when it happened.
With a strange resonance in the air, the black trees that had darkened the sky and swallowed the surroundings in shadow began to recede, slowly at first, then faster.
What this phenomenon meant was unmistakable.
“…The Boss is dead?”
There was no way the Bacula could have been wiped out completely in such a short time.
Yet if the Black Forest was vanishing, there could be only one explanation: the Boss had fallen.
“Who on earth……?”
Heedless of the astonishment that rippled through the crowd, the world grew brighter by the second.
* * *
“Sister!”
Patter-patter-patter!
Julia rushed toward Ceres the moment she stepped into the shop, flinging her arms around her.
The girl’s eyes reddened in an instant as she embraced her, relief and worry mingling in that tight hold.
“Miss, are you injured at all?”
“Are you all right?”
The others crowded in, all eager to assure themselves of her safety.
What had she been doing out there?
Checking on the mercenaries in secret, perhaps?
Truly? But why on earth?
“I’m fine, really.”
Ceres brushed off their concern with a gentle hand, soothing the child for a moment.
Her violet eyes swept lightly across the shop’s interior.
There were no signs of attack, yet something strange had been set up.
“What’s this Defensive Magic drawn around the shop? Did you break the Defensive Stone I gave you?”
“Ah, a man named Cheyeon came by and left.”
“That fool? What was he doing here?”
It couldn’t have been just to grab a meal in the middle of all this.
“He asked so insistently for the Defensive Stone you’d given us that we let him have it. He cast Defensive Magic around the shop in exchange before he went.”
“The Defensive Stone?”
At Colin’s explanation, Ceres clicked her tongue in irritation.
Of all people, it had to land in that troublemaker’s hands. She had a nagging feeling she’d be dragged into something annoying again…….
“The Black Forest appears to have been destroyed.”
Everyone exhaled in relief as the clear sky reappeared overhead.
“Lucky they caught the Boss so quickly. With everything happening in the Capital, the response time has been remarkably fast.”
“I hope the damage elsewhere has been minimal.”
“Yes, let’s hope.”
Jay and Mark gazed anxiously out the window, their eyes betraying concern for the neighboring shops.
A Black Forest in the heart of the shopping district, of all places.
Had everyone really managed to evacuate safely?
And what about all these countless storefronts stretching as far as the eye could see?
Through the window, several of the buildings beyond bore signs of damage scattered throughout.
“Doesn’t the government compensate for damages caused by the Black Forest?”
“They do. Full compensation.”
Colin nodded at Jay’s question.
The government was providing one hundred percent compensation for all damages caused by the Black Forest.
“Really? They cover everything?”
That was the first she’d heard of it. Was it always that way?
Ceres’s eyes widened at their exchange.
Back when she’d lived as the head of the Eltsia Countess House, she’d only wandered through the Black Forest itself—the minor compensation details had never concerned her, so this was unfamiliar territory.
“Then you’ll handle this too, won’t you?”
“…What?”
Ceres gestured quietly toward one corner of the shop.
Fragments of broken chairs were still scattered across the floor.
“Let’s demand compensation for this as well.”
“…….”
…But Miss, you broke those chairs yourself. It wasn’t the monsters.
As Ceres dragged the chairs outside with the determination of one who would absolutely extract compensation, her companions had no choice but to offer awkward smiles.
“I shall see to it, Miss!”
Only Colin, the faithful steward of the Dreuwe Baron House, enthusiastically endorsed her plan, calling it an excellent idea.
Chapter 11. The Head of the Eltsia Countess House
“You’re saying you don’t know who killed the Bacula Boss?”
“Yes. We investigated immediately, but no one witnessed it.”
At the far end of Delasi 1st Avenue lay an enormous rat, its body large enough to cover several buildings.
It was none other than this expedition’s Boss from the Black Forest.
When the Black Forest vanishes, the monsters within it disappear as well—though those already dead remain where they fell.
By the time Crown Prince Aseraian arrived with his forces, everything was already over.
The swiftness of the resolution puzzled him at first, but he soon reasoned it was possible.
He had once heard that mercenaries frequented Delasi 1st Avenue more than other places.
“Your Highness, look at that.”
“…That?”
A wooden stick?
Driven straight through the center of the Boss’s skull was nothing more than an ordinary wooden stick, the kind seen anywhere.
There were no other marks of attack whatsoever.
In short, someone had eliminated the Boss with a single strike to its vital point—and with nothing but that commonplace wooden stick, no sword.
To possess such skill, there should have been at least a Mercenary Guild master here to explain it.
“But there wasn’t?”
Among the mercenaries who had been in the Black Forest at the time, none possessed such ability. There were only ordinary, common soldiers.
Then who on earth did it?
“Your Highness.”
“Hmm?”
At his adjutant’s soft call, the crown prince lifted his head from his thoughts.
In his eyes appeared the figure of a familiar person.
Could one feel such a chill merely from another’s presence?
‘So the talk of direct contact freezing one solid wasn’t mere rumor, then.’
The one calmly examining the Bacula Boss’s corpse was none other than Kairel, Grand Duke of Persha.
“…….”
Kairel could not tear his gaze from the wooden stick embedded in the center of the Boss’s head.
“Lord Kairel?”
After some time passed with no movement from him, his aide Del called out carefully.
Was there something unusual about it?
“Why…….”
“Sir?”
Del could not hide his bewilderment. He had read the confusion in Kairel’s eyes.
This was the first time he had ever seen such an expression.
What exactly had he witnessed?
“…You truly don’t know who did this?”
After a long pause, Kairel’s question made Aseraian’s adjutant start. Kairel’s gaze was directed precisely at him.
“No. No one saw who defeated the Boss.”
The adjutant spoke calmly, trying to keep his composure as much as possible.
Why would the Grand Duke care who killed the Black Forest’s Boss?
‘Of all people, why him?’
If this was the Grand Duke of Persha, where the Black Forest appeared without warning or schedule, surely he had seen such a Boss eliminated many times before. There was nothing remarkable about it.
“…….”
Kairel turned away as though he had no further questions.
His aide Del hastily followed as he left without hesitation.
“Is something wrong?”
“I couldn’t say. Nothing particularly stands out…….”
Wondering if they had missed something, Aseraian and his adjutant examined the Bacula Boss’s corpse thoroughly.
Yet the only unusual thing remained that single, crude wooden stick driven through the center of its skull.
“They didn’t take the Mana Stone either.”
At the adjutant’s words, Aseraian’s gaze shifted to the place where the monster’s heart lay.
It was pristine, unmarred by a single wound.
Normally, when a monster died, a Mana Stone could be harvested from its body, usually found near the heart. But in a dead monster, that area was always torn to shreds.
“What should we do?”
By convention, whoever slew the monster claimed the Mana Stone that emerged from it. That was an unspoken rule.
But now there was no way to know who had killed the Boss.
“Extract it anyway.”
“Yes, sir.”
They couldn’t just leave it behind and walk away.
The Mana Stone from the Bacula Boss was far too valuable to abandon.
Moments later, the knight’s blade split open the heart, and a Mana Stone with a deep crimson glow was drawn out.
Those gathered around fixed their eyes on the stone—larger than a man’s fist.
“Continue investigating what happened here.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What of Cheyeon?”
Having wrapped up the situation, Aseraian asked about Cheyeon, who had arrived here first.
Truth be told, at first he’d wondered if this might all be Cheyeon’s doing.
With Cheyeon’s strength, he could have swept through the Black Forest in a matter of hours. But the Boss’s body bore no trace of magic whatsoever.
“He appears to have gone to his usual place, sir.”
At the adjutant’s matter-of-fact response, a short sigh escaped Aseraian’s lips.
“The stew shop?”
* * *
“Hey!”
“…Hey?”
Since when did we talk to each other like that?
The moment Ceres stepped into the shop, she saw Cheyeon approaching with blazing eyes, and she couldn’t help but look exasperated.
Why was I getting shouted at right now?
What was his problem?
“Where on earth have you been? Do you have any idea how hard I’ve been looking for you?”

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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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