Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 57

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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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Seres watched him intently, and cold reality spilled from her lips.
“You have no talent for the blade.”
“…I know.”
“You’re pathetic at it.”
“I said I know.”
“Seriously, you’re absolutely, completely terrible.”
“I said I know already!”
As if you needed to hammer the point home—he knew it perfectly well.
“So why do it?”
Why keep training in swordsmanship when you already know you lack the talent, even if it means subjecting yourself to this kind of punishment?
She genuinely wanted to know.
Antonian excelled in his general coursework. He had no talent for swordsmanship, no reason to torment himself over it—yet that frustrated fire in his eyes was something Seres found difficult to understand.
Antonian gnawed at his lip until Seres fixed him with a stern look and snapped that he’d draw blood if he kept it up. Only then did he speak.
“…Because I like it.”
“What?”
“Because I like it!”
……
“Even if I’m not good at it, if I like it, I can do it, can’t I?”
The boy, full of rage and sorrow, cried out with a trembling voice.
She’d heard this before. Countless times.
From professors to fellow swordsmanship students, everyone suggested he change departments. It was practically a daily refrain.
But he wouldn’t hear it.
“I’m going to become like him.”
“Like who?”
“The one who founded our family.”
“…You mean the Mercenary King?”
Seres regarded him with something like bewilderment.
Did he mean he’d become a mercenary later? Not a knight?
“Do you like cursing or something?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Nothing, really.”
Seres thought of the countless mercenaries who frequented the shop and exhaled a short sigh.
Antonian, mistaking his sister’s sigh for criticism of his naïveté, his voice grew quieter.
“Just because you don’t have talent doesn’t mean you can’t dream.”
“…Dream?”
He nodded firmly.
His earliest memory was his father’s voice as sleep crept over him, telling him stories of Drau Barony’s founder, the Mercenary King.
Tom—the legendary Mercenary King, the beginning of the Drau Family, the great one.
Every time he heard those stories, he’d cry out to his father that when he grew up, he’d become a mercenary just as magnificent as that man.
“You know, not everyone achieves their childhood dreams.”
Seres scratched her cheek. It was so unexpected.
She’d thought him a boy who was rational and coldly composed for his age, but it turned out he wasn’t.
She’d had no idea he harbored such an odd dream.
Could his character really flip like this all of a sudden?
“But I still like it.”
“The sword?”
He nodded again.
Despite being completely worn out, he gave that question a vigorous nod.
At the sight of Antonian like this, a faint smile finally tugged at the corners of Seres’s mouth.
Her gaze shifted to the B Group students sprawled about like younger siblings, panting heavily.
Noticing this, Antonian continued in a voice drained of energy.
“They all like the sword…”
That’s why they endure today as well.
Despite the contempt, despite the humiliation, they still came to the Training Ground today because they loved the blade.
Hmm.
Seres gazed steadily at the children’s eyes, brimming with anger, resentment, and sorrow—just like Antonian’s.
“Want to beat them?”
“Pardon?”
“Want to make those kids clean up after you? The ones who did this to you?”
“Well, that…”
Of course!
After all the abuse we’ve taken!
‘Come on, stop it. You can’t even handle a sword.’
‘You lot are best suited to crawling on the ground.’
‘What? Want another round? Pathetic weaklings playing at swordsmanship.’
The children rose one by one from where they sat, grinding their teeth.
The accumulated shame of all these months came flooding back.
If only they could land a single punch on those smug faces—that would be a dream come true.
More times than could be counted, they’d felt the urge to charge forward without thought, forget the sword, and bite their tormentors.
‘But…’
Why was she asking this question now?
Whatever their hearts desired, they were surprisingly clear-eyed about themselves.
And they knew it.
No amount of practice would let them beat those A Group bastards, who’d been trained systematically from childhood and still were—there was no way around that.
“You lot…”
Seres remained crouched as she studied the faces of those gathered around her.
The corners of her mouth lifted as she took them in.
There was some real fire in those kids’ eyes.
“Want to learn swordsmanship from me?”
* * *
“Where did all these brats go?”
“Who knows. Like they found honey or something—they bolted out of class the moment it ended.”
“All of them?”
“Yeah.”
The A Group students who entered the Training Ground as usual were puzzled when they didn’t see the B Group kids who should have been there.
“Finally gave up? Took them long enough to figure out their place.”
Airen, son of Count Belgial, chuckled to himself.
His friends beside him smirked in mockery.
“I mean, why put on such an act if this is how it ends? It’s hilarious that it took them six months to realize how powerless they are.”
“Still, thanks to Airen we at least got separate lessons.”
Airen Belgial was the one who’d petitioned to divide the Swordsmanship class by skill level.
Of course, his father, Count Belgial, had put in a word too—he hated the idea of his son studying alongside kids with no talent and no family standing.
General classes were one thing, but watching those nobodies actually pick up swords and strut around was laughable.
He’d reminded them every day of their place, and at last they’d finally understood.
“Boring. Let’s go.”
“Yeah.”
With nothing left to do in the Training Ground, Airen and the other A Group students left without a backward glance.
* * *
“Um, excuse me… miss?”
“What?”
“You really want us to climb that?”
“Yep.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, really.”
“Us?”
“Yeah, you guys.”
“……”
Antonian and his friends stood speechless, overwhelmed by the sheer enormousness of Stone Mountain looming before them.
When Seres had first asked if they wanted to learn swordsmanship, none of them had hidden their confusion. They’d never heard that Antonian’s sister knew anything about Swordsmanship.
Antonian himself had been the most shocked of all.
‘What is she talking about? How can my sister teach swordsmanship?’
‘Just try it once. You won’t regret it.’
…When did my sister pick up con artist skills?
Watching Seres speak with that suspicious smile, coaxing them forward with her words like she was luring in prey, Antonian and the others had actually flinched and stepped back from her.
‘What’s the harm? We’ve got nothing to lose.’
But at what came next, they’d all nodded along.
Right—given how things stood now, could anything be worse than this?
And yet…
“Where exactly are we?”
Seres laughed softly at the doubt in his voice.
“A training ground.”
More precisely, it was the training ground that Grace Elrcia herself favored.
“Why would something like this be inside a cave?”
“Beats me. Why would it be?”
“Don’t play word games with me!”
Antonian scowled and stamped his feet in frustration.
When he’d first followed Seres into the mountains, he’d assumed they were heading up for physical conditioning.
He and the others knew well enough that their base fitness lagged far behind the A Group, so they’d followed without complaint.
But the place she’d led them to was a cave buried deep in the mountainside.
Before anyone could even question why they were in a cave, their eyes went wide as lanterns.
The moment they passed through an iron gate standing in the cave’s depths, they emerged into a space that defied all expectation.
“Stone Mountain… That’s really Stone Mountain, isn’t it? Why would something like that be inside a cave?”
“I have no idea! What about that waterfall? And that river? And on top of everything else, that snow-covered peak in the wrong season… Ahhh!”
“Impossible—that’s real snow! Snow in this season? Am I losing my mind?”
The way they pinched each other’s cheeks and stepped on each other’s feet suggested they were checking whether they were dreaming.
It was unclear why they chose to use their neighbors as test subjects instead of themselves, but regardless.
Yet even in the midst of all this chaos, Antonian’s questions alone were directed at Seres.
“Sister, what is this place really? How do you even know about something like this?”
“Found it while taking a walk. Just a casual stroll. Takes less than twenty minutes from home.”
“You expect me to believe that…!”
Among the trembling children, Seres watched Antonian—the only one who’d managed to keep his wits about him—with a pleased smile.
He was actually raising his voice at his sister, at someone like her. The boy was really stepping out of line now.
She was itching to establish the proper hierarchy, but decided to put that aside for the moment.
“Don’t worry. You won’t die.”
“Stop joking! That’s not what I’m concerned about right now!”
“I’m not joking.”
No matter how badly you’re injured here, you won’t become crippled or die.
Because….
‘This is a Magical Space.’
A Magical Space that our Artia created for us.
Stone Mountain over there, the snow-covered peak where snow is falling—they’re all training grounds constructed through Magic.
And the most important part.
‘Training effects are maximized here.’

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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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