Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 51

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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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“B-but where on earth did you find that ring?”
Creel, unable to hide his own bewilderment, seemed to decide this wouldn’t do and hurried to ask the question.
“I found it.”
“What?”
“I found it, I said.”
At Seres’s flat reply, Chaien, the Arcane Tower Master standing quietly behind them, let out a short sigh.
‘What is it about that girl’s path that causes so many important things to fall right into her lap? Like some beggar’s desperate prayer answered.’
“A-anyway, thank you for finding the ring. Hand it over. It’s rightfully mine.”
If only things would go smoothly from here, that would be all that mattered.
His master was already dead, and the forged document naming him as Successor had been accepted as authentic. Now that the ring had returned, there was nothing left that could go wrong.
“Do you know something?”
Seres continued speaking slowly as she watched Creel stride toward her.
“Even if it falls away, the Fire Spirit King sealed within this ring shares everything his chosen master experiences.”
“What do you mean—”
“The previous Patriarch’s entire life, everything he endured—this creature witnessed and heard it all.”
“Wh-what?!”
At Seres’s words, Creel’s eyes began to tremble as though the earth itself had shaken.
Never taking her gaze from him, Seres opened her mouth once more, quietly.
“Jubelios.”
[Why are you calling me? I told you to keep quiet.]
‘Act your age, would you.’
Seres pressed down on the head of the sulking red bird as it grumbled and pouted.
“There’s only one thing you need to say right now.”
[And what’s that?]
“What you saw. What you heard.”
The Fire Spirit King Jubelios turned his gaze toward Patriarch Creel.
Was it a trick of the light?
The way flames seemed to dance in Jubelios’s eyes as he looked at him?
[That one. He’s the one who killed Ezly.]
At the declaration Jubelios let fall, the conference hall fell silent as though someone had dumped ice water over it.
Everyone’s expressions betrayed the same doubt—surely they hadn’t heard what they thought they’d heard.
“That’s an outrageous claim!”
“What did you just say!”
“Who would kill the previous Patriarch?”
But within moments, voices began to erupt, no one waiting to speak first.
“It’s a lie!”
[A lie? You dare suggest I have spoken falsely!]
Whoooosh!
“Ngh—urrrgghhh!”
As scorching heat surged forward, Creel could barely draw breath. Collapsed onto the floor, he could only tremble with terror.
[You knew Ezly was aware you were poisoning his food, you fool. Of course by then it was already too late.]
It was Creel who had meticulously isolated the previous Patriarch Ezly from all other contact after his collapse.
Under the pretense that he needed rest, all contact with the Patriarch fell solely to Creel, his most trusted disciple.
Ezly, whose mobility was already compromised, could not communicate any news to anyone else. He was imprisoned in all but name.
[Had I not been sealed away, you would already be ash in my grasp.]
That moment when the poison first entered his system!
Sensing that his body’s condition had shifted, the previous Patriarch Ezly took his seal ring to a secret place and locked it away there.
It was a place known only to the Patriarch.
It was there that Seres had found the ring.
‘The fountain.’
Not the grand fountain in the center of the Elrusia Family Estate, but the shabby little one tucked in a corner behind the building.
‘Of course, knowing the location doesn’t mean one can simply retrieve it.’
Only a Patriarch acknowledged by Jubelios, and a person acknowledged by that Patriarch, could draw forth the ring.
No matter how thoroughly someone without such qualification searched that fountain, they could never find it.
‘How did I manage to take it out, then?’
[Agh! Y-you? Grace? How are you still alive? What is this form? Have you stolen another person’s body? I knew you were wicked, but I always thought you understood the value of a human life—]
‘Quiet.’
I’d had a feeling, and my suspicion was right—he recognized me instantly.
‘What was that again?’
Spirits possess the eye of truth, they say—they see through to the essence of things.
In any case, once Jubelios realized she was Grace, he revealed himself and was able to retrieve the Ring he’d hidden away.
And…….
“I… I…….”
Seres took a step toward Creel, who remained crouched on the floor, trembling violently, and pressed something into his hands.
“Take it.”
“No, I can’t… I…….”
“Take it.”
What she offered him was a letter.
The letter that had been lying beside the Ring.
It was a handwritten letter left by the previous Patriarch, Ezly, for his disciple Creel.
“…….”
Creel, unable to mask the turbulence in his eyes, accepted the letter with trembling hands.
As he slowly unfolded the carefully creased pages and began reading, his eyes grew increasingly unsteady, until at last his mouth fell open in shock.
“It… it can’t be.”
His shaking hands continued to grip the letter, reading it again and again, before he finally cried out as if in desperation.
“It’s a lie… it’s all a lie!”
“Don’t turn away from it. This is the truth.”
“No! They told me clearly that I wasn’t the Successor…….”
They? What was he talking about?
Seres, who had already read the letter and knew its contents, regarded Creel with even deeper contempt.
The letter contained the kinds of admonitions a teacher leaves for his student—affectionate reminders to take good care of the family.
Yes. The previous Patriarch Ezly had never intended to pass the position of Patriarch to anyone else.
‘Creel, that fool jumped to conclusions and misunderstood everything on his own.’
And the letter contained this, too.
Herion—that child has exceptional abilities. Once you take the position of Patriarch, keep her at your side and seek her counsel.
She will be of great help to you.
The previous Patriarch had taught Herion and shown her his attention because he judged she would be invaluable to his cherished disciple Creel.
But Creel had misread his teacher’s intentions.
“This makes no sense…… So why would he hide the Ring……!”
“Why do you think?”
The teacher was still human, after all.
If a beloved disciple tried to kill you, wouldn’t you feel betrayed?
He may have intended to hand over the position of Patriarch, but once he discovered his disciple’s treachery, he was offended—so he never revealed the location of the Ring.
‘My disciple did that.’
If Enok had done such a thing, I would have shattered every bone in his body before dying myself.
“It’s a lie… a lie……. A lie…….”
Turning her attention completely away from Creel, who could only murmur the same words in a daze, Seres fixed her gaze on Herion, who was watching the entire situation unfold with astonished eyes.
“Jubelios.”
[Why do you call?]
“You decide.”
[Decide what?]
“The master of the Ring.”
When the previous Patriarch died suddenly without designating a successor.
When the position of Patriarch fell vacant.
The Elrusia Family had a method for such circumstances.
It was the choice of Jubelios, the Fire Spirit King.
No matter how much the elders recommended others or elevated them to the position of Patriarch, if Jubelios was displeased, they could only ever be a half-hearted Patriarch.
Because they would be unable to wield the power of the Ring at all.
[Why ask the obvious? My choice is Gra——!]
“Shut your beak, you feathered pest.”
Say one more word, and I’ll pluck out all those red feathers like I did ages ago.
[…….]
At Seres’s murderous gaze, Jubelios’s pupils rolled to the side in fear.
And reflected in those eyes was another figure.
Now that she understood the situation—that her teacher had met his death at another’s hand—Herion stood sobbing quietly.
[Let it be that child.]
The child whom the previous Patriarch Ezly had cherished so dearly.
Jubelios knew this better than anyone.
If not for Creel, his favored disciple, Ezly would surely have passed the position of Patriarch to Herion.
[You do it, Patriarch.]
“Yes? I—?”
Seres nodded as well, watching her—eyes still brimming with tears—widen in bewilderment.
She’d brought Herion here precisely because she’d foreseen this outcome.
Temperamental though he was, the Fire Spirit King Jubelios understood and obeyed the Patriarch she’d chosen better than anyone else.
“This can’t be… It’s a lie… a lie….”
Even as she spoke, Creel continued to murmur the same words over and over, hollow-eyed and dazed.
* * *
“Has Kainel eaten nothing again today?”
“No, nothing at all has been touched, I’m afraid.”
The maidservant who carried out the food held plates that showed not the slightest sign of disturbance.

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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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