Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 62

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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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Chapter 17. The Deal
“We just came in—? Ugh!”
“We were going to order two bowls of stew… Yikes! Two, two bowls, but then… something urgent came up!”
“Me too! I’ll come back next time!”
Two mercenaries who had just stepped through the shop door caught sight of someone and bolted, slipping back out onto the street as though fleeing for their lives.
“That makes thirty now.”
……
Listening to Jay’s quiet whisper, Seres fixed her gaze on one particular spot in the shop.
“No need to keep your voice down.”
“What?”
He hears every word anyway.
And yet there he sits, brazenly pretending to know nothing about it.
In the center of the shop, a man occupied a table, leisurely absorbed in a book as if he owned the place.
‘Is this a library?’
A library, not a restaurant!
‘Kainel, that bastard really is something.’
Should she just rip off those glasses he was wearing and smash them to pieces?
Kainel sat alone at his table with an ease that made Seres’s blood boil.
“Hey.”
……
At Seres’s call, Kainel looked up from his book and met her eyes.
“What exactly are you trying to pull?”
“Could you change your tone of voice?”
“What’s wrong with my tone?”
“Try using one consistently.”
Neither formal nor casual—she couldn’t settle on which.
“How about this?”
……
Seres didn’t hesitate to drop her own formality immediately.
Kainel set his glasses down on the table and swallowed back a laugh that threatened to escape.
“What exactly are you trying to pull?”
“Pay back what you owe.”
“That’s what I’m saying!”
Bang!
“Does your hand hurt?”
“Damn it……”
That wasn’t the point right now!
At Kainel’s seemingly unbothered gaze at his own hand after he’d slammed the table with all his might, an expletive nearly burst from her mouth.
“Do you really need to get paid sitting right here at this table?”
“Then sign the papers.”
……
Should she kill him?
Seres pressed her fingers into the back of her neck and exhaled a long breath.
She had lost count of how many times this conversation had repeated itself.
‘Was he always this exasperating?’
Why wouldn’t he listen to reason?
“I already told you I’d pay you back. I said I’d give you the money on schedule, every installment.”
“Fine, pay it back. I’ll just wait here until you’ve given me every last coin.”
Would she really kill him?
In her current state of mind, she felt as though pulling out the sword she’d left in the Subspace and swinging it around for a good while still wouldn’t satisfy her?
“This is business interference. I’m suing you for damages!”
“Go ahead. As much as you like.”
Damn wealthy people!
Curse the ones with money!
Seres stared at Kainel for a moment as he smiled, apparently unconcerned with any of it, then dragged her hand roughly across her face.
‘Damn bastard.’
Ever since that day he’d walked in carrying stacks of Debt Documents, things had been like this.
Even though she’d promised to repay the money and pay interest diligently, there he sat in the shop, driving her to the brink of madness.
Customers naturally fled the moment they noticed Kainel had planted himself there since morning, not even bothering to look back.
A few mercenaries with nerve insisted they needed stew to cure their hangovers and claimed seats to place their orders.
Tap.
‘……’
‘Th, that… *cough!*’
‘W, we’re leaving!’
Even closing the book he’d been reading, Kainel fixed them with such a cold gaze that they abandoned their stew half-finished and bolted from the shop.
“I’m saying repay the debt, not abstain from it. You’re scaring the customers away!”
How can I earn money to pay back the debt if you keep driving them off, you wretch!
And another thing!
“How in the world did you get hold of all those debt documents?”
Loan sharks aren’t fools. They don’t hand over something that generates massive interest every month to just anyone.
Yet every single loan shark handed their debt documents to that man?
How does that make sense?
“Nothing matters more than life.”
“…Life?”
…Was he saying he threatened them?
Seres threw him a look of utter disbelief.
You really must have nothing better to do these days.
“Well, some of them gave them up easily enough.”
Without even threatening, one place had been so grateful for him to take the documents that they’d thanked him, which struck Kainel as odd.
He had no way of knowing it was the same place Seres had stormed into months earlier, demanding why they’d beaten her staff member.
Clink.
“What, did that guy come back again?”
The shop door swung open and a figure stepped inside.
It was none other than the Arcane Tower Master Chaien, his fine brow deeply furrowed.
“Look, I’m telling you I’ll pay that debt for you.”
“Why would you?”
“I’d like to ask you the same thing.”
Days earlier, after learning why Kainel had been planted in the shop, Chaien had made a proposal.
‘I’ll pay off all that debt for you.’
‘I don’t want that.’
‘What? Why not? You just need to receive the money!’
‘That’s up to the person receiving it.’
‘Fine, then I’ll give the money to Seres and she can pay it. Seres! Here’s the money, go ahead and pay it off.’
‘I don’t want that either.’
‘What? Why are you like this too!’
‘Because accepting money from you would be a debt as well. I don’t want to make this person into a debtor to someone else.’
‘You don’t have to pay it back!’
‘No. A Debt of the Heart is still a debt. This is my matter, so I’ll handle it myself.’
The firmness in Seres’s voice had been so resolute it almost broke his heart.
Remembering that moment, Chaien pouted his lip and changed tactics.
“Seres, think about it one more time. I’ll pay you the proper price for the Defensive Stone. That alone would cover all your debt.”
He was referring to the Defensive Stone he’d taken from the steward of Baron Drew’s household in exchange for placing a barrier on the shop when the Black Forest had manifested not long ago.
“I’m receiving it at fair price, so there’s nothing awkward about—”
“I’m counting it as the 5,000 gold you paid me for that temporary secretary position.”
“Th, that’s wages—”
“Are you going to keep playing dumb? You used your own money to make up the difference when the actual value wasn’t even 500 gold.”
“Luka, you traitor—!”
Chaien must have deliberately let that fact slip through his secretary, and he banged his head against the table in frustration.
Seres clicked her tongue at him for blaming an innocent person and brought him a cool glass of water.
“Why do you keep dragging up something that’s already settled?”
“Because that means you worked without getting paid!”
“So what. For people like us, that’s something you do for free.”
‘……’
People like us……
People like us……?
The light finally drained from Chaien’s face and his mouth went quiet.
The Arcane Tower Master, who had been caught between hope and despair, turned his attention back to his original target.
He didn’t want to sit and watch this frustrating spectacle unfold, so he decided to pick a fight instead.
“Why did you acquire all of Seres’s debt documents in the first place?”
Since when did we become close enough for you to take over my debt documents and block the loan shark interest?
“Are you bored? Want to play a prank? Wow, you’re completely destroying the Northern Grand Duke’s image!”
“Curious?”
“Yes!”
Seres let out a sigh at how he switched from needling sarcasm to instant obedience.
Why was the Arcane Tower’s master this innocent?
Chaien, this Kainel creature is just toying with you.
“Do I look like I’m going to teach you that?”
“…Wow.”
Sure enough, a twisted reply tumbled out.
Chaien’s jaw dropped.
Was this person always like this?
Kainel’s mocking smile was almost unbearably irritating to watch.
“I believe I mentioned before that this isn’t your business. It seems you don’t understand directions well.”
“Can’t I just take the money and be done with it?”
“No, you can’t.”
“Seriously!”
Chaien ruffled his hair in exasperation.
Whether it was Kainel or Seres, he couldn’t fathom why both of them had to be stubborn about useless things.
It was a simple matter—take his money and finish it cleanly—so why did they both insist on going in circles?
“Want some tea?”
“I don’t! I won’t drink it!”
“Suit yourself.”
“Wait, no! I’ll have some!”
Chaien’s sullen answer made it clear his mood was thoroughly tangled, but the moment Seres turned to leave without hesitation, his tail drooped immediately.
Kainel watched from the side, regarding Chaien with undisguised pity.
All this fuss over tea.
“Drink it.”
“Okay!”
But moments later, when Kainel saw the tea placed only in front of Chaien, his brow twitched.
“What about me?”
“You get nothing.”
“I don’t get any?”
“No. I don’t serve tea to pretty faces for free.”
“You’re giving it to him because he’s pretty?”
“Yes.”
As a smile bloomed across Chaien’s face, a cold smile settled on Kainel’s lips.
The kind that appeared when his mood soured.
His eyes narrowed as he watched Chaien sip the tea pointedly.
‘That keeps reminding me of someone.’
Ever since last time, he’d noticed—this Arcane Tower master did things almost identically to Artia. The same way of subtly getting under people’s skin.
Was it a common trait among Arcane Tower masters?

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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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