Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 60

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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’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“I’m going to find three keys and take them with me.”
“What are those?”
She knew such things existed—the organization’s leader had excitedly rambled about the keys vividly enough that the memory remained sharp. But what they meant, that was beyond her knowledge.
She had no idea of their significance.
What happened when you found three keys? What changed?
“If you’re curious, go ask your leader.”
The three Black Keys held meaning far beyond mere symbolism—they were the mark of Sky’s founding members.
The information organization Sky maintained a separate location where it gathered intelligence.
Secret information scattered across the continent.
Countless secrets yet unknown to the world—all collected in one place.
Only the organization’s leader could open the door to that Information Vault.
And upon inheriting the organization, that leader made one binding vow.
A Magical Covenant.
A covenant to submit to the three Black Keys.
Breaking that covenant meant losing your life.
‘Did we really need to set up something like that? We never planned to keep it forever anyway.’
‘People are unpredictable. What if this organization we built betrays us first? We need to ensure we can use it properly, at least while we’re alive.’
‘I agree on that count.’
It was one of the rare moments when Artia and Kainel’s opinions aligned, so Grace had nodded in agreement as well.
Thus, Sky’s leader was bound by a Blood Oath to the covenant Artia had drafted, and anyone who refused to swear it could never become leader.
You couldn’t access the Information Vault without swearing the covenant—what kind of information organization leader couldn’t open their own vault?
‘I thought time might have rendered it obsolete by now.’
But seeing the shock on the leader’s face last time suggested the keys’ power remained effective.
Despite the centuries that had passed, they were apparently still using the vault through the oath’s binding force—which made sense, really.
When they had managed Sky, the vault had been brimming with extraordinary intelligence.
Information capable of pressuring even the imperial family overflowed from there.
And that wasn’t all—the secret scandals of each great house accumulated without end.
A vault holding such information would be difficult to abandon with the mere passage of time.
If anything, wouldn’t the quality and quantity of information have only grown more vast?
“Do you know where all the keys are located?”
“I do.”
Well. Not entirely.
How would I know where Artia’s key is?
‘Though I do know how to find them.’
In truth, unlike what she’d told Ben, she had no real intention of searching. It was more of a… leverage point, one might say.
‘But getting the key from Kai—that’s going to be impossible.’
She was almost curious what that man’s reaction would be if she asked for the key in this form. Would he draw his sword first?
“I’m saying this once more: you’re forbidden from speaking about this place.”
Originally Ben had only followed her as far as the cave entrance, but today he’d deliberately slipped inside—she couldn’t pretend not to notice.
If word got out about this place, she’d have her own headaches to deal with.
“Of course, whatever you say.”
Ben nodded more easily than expected.
After all, his task was to follow Seres and determine her identity, not to report her every move and breath.
Absolutely, certainly not because his cover had been blown and he feared her spreading the word to others. Not at all!
“You’re not going down?”
“I should go down.”
Ben, who had been lost in thought, snapped back to attention at Seres’s words and took a step forward.
“While you’re at it, bring that over here.”
“……?”
Ben’s eyes followed where Seres pointed, and his brow furrowed.
There, placed to the side, sat quite a large water bucket—one they’d prepared for the children.
“…Me, you mean?”
“Yeah. You.”
As Seres trudged down the mountain, Ben’s frown only deepened.
“Damn……”
Ben alternated his gaze between Seres and the water bucket before finally picking it up.
‘This isn’t right.’
The nagging sense that something about this situation had gone sideways wouldn’t leave him.
* * *
“What? What the hell did you just say to me?”
“What? Did I say something wrong, you bastard?”
“You crazy son of a bitch? Drop dead!”
Where your footsteps linger.
Perhaps it was because Seres had been absent for some time—a brawl had broken out for the first time in ages.
“Um, w-what do we do?”
“I’m not sure.”
Jay, a maid of the Drew Baron’s Household, couldn’t hide her bewilderment as the fight escalated.
Meanwhile, the staff member Mark simply heaved a long sigh at a situation he hadn’t encountered in far too long.
A moment later, he quietly picked up a pen and paper—to record the names of those who’d started the fight today.
“Have we all lost our minds?”
Whoosh!
As the brawl reached its peak, one of the mercenaries seized a chair.
“What are you doing? Throwing it?”
……!
But then a calm voice cut through the chaos.
At the sound of it, the tavern fell silent as though no commotion had ever been.
“Tha…….”
The mercenary holding the chair, still frozen mid-grip, slowly turned his eyes and caught sight of Seres standing across the way with her arms crossed, regarding him with a steady gaze. His mouth went slack.
His opponent from moments before was now sitting quietly as if nothing had happened, nose buried in a bowl of Stew.
‘That cowardly bastard!’
Cold sweat rolled down the mercenary’s forehead as he watched his craven companion pretend not to know him, choosing survival over solidarity.
“H-ha ha…… No, I just thought the chair was creaking a little, so I was, uh, trying to fix it.”
“Is that so?”
Seres turned her head and gestured to the maid.
“Go get the hammer, would you?”
“Right away!”
Jay rushed over with a toolbox and handed it to the mercenary.
“Here you are.”
Her face bloomed with a bright smile, and all the anxiety from moments before vanished as if it had never been.
Jay found it strange how her own mood could shift so completely. Just Seres’s appearance alone was enough to set her mind at ease.
“Nothing’s wrong, I hope?”
“No.”
There was, but it’s all settled now.
At Seres’s greeting, Mark too offered a faint smile.
This was the first time seeing her in a while, yet she hadn’t changed at all. That unflappable composure of hers, the way she could make those around her feel secure no matter the circumstance—there was nothing quite like it.
“But where have you been? Why the scarf?”
Early autumn had arrived, and the mornings and evenings had grown somewhat crisp, but it wasn’t yet cold enough to warrant a scarf.
So both Jay and Mark cast puzzled glances at the scarf wound around Seres’s neck.
“Are you catching a cold, miss?”
“No, it’s not that. I just forgot.”
She’d come straight from the Magic Training Ground and hadn’t bothered to fix her appearance.
No wonder she’d felt a bit warm—she’d been wearing the scarf the whole time.
‘She’s rather careless after all.’
‘Be quiet.’
Sensing her disciple Enoch was about to chide her again, Seres roughly unwound the scarf.
Clink.
The tavern door opened, and someone stepped inside.
A different sort of silence swept through the room—one altogether different from when Seres had arrived.
Recognizing that familiar weight in the air, Seres slowly turned her head and found Kainel standing there, his eyes fixed unwaveringly on her.
“I’m f-finished eating!”
“Me too!”
“Bill, please!”
“Keep the change!”
The mercenaries, as always, hurled their coin and bolted.
Wasn’t it about time they got used to this?
What is it with them every single time? Does he eat people alive?
Thud.
‘And you—didn’t I tell you to come either very early or very late?’
Why are you showing up at this odd hour again?
“Got any food?”
Seres spoke to Kainel, who stood staring blankly at her, in her usual manner.
“I didn’t come to eat.”
“If you didn’t come to eat at a restaurant, what else would you be here for?”
Kainel took a seat, observing Seres’s bewilderment.
“To collect a debt.”
“A debt?”
A debt? What debt?
Did this body’s original owner travel all the way to Persha Duchy and borrow money? What nonsense was this…?
Whish!
At Kainel’s light gesture, another person who had been waiting outside stepped carefully into the shop.
It was a familiar face—Kainel’s aide, Dell. Seeing Seres, he smiled gently and bowed with courtesy.
Slide.
He approached and set down a considerable stack of documents on the table where Kainel sat.
What is all that? Does he plan to conduct business here?
“Debt documents.”
“Debt documents? All of that? You… do you have debts too? How did that happen?”
What had she been doing all this time? Where did all that wealth go?
“They’re not mine. They’re yours.”
“…Mine?”
“Yes, yours.”
………
A sudden chill swept through Seres, and she reached for the document lying at the very top of the pile.

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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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