Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 64

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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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You don’t even know the regulars who come by every single day to eat, do you?
“When did you become such a gourmet?”
“Pardon?”
“So you’re saying you still haven’t eaten?”
“That’s correct.”
Seres clicked her tongue lightly.
When she’d seen Kainel for the first time in a while, she’d thought his face looked a bit gaunt, and it seemed that wasn’t mere imagination after all.
“I only ask that you make it possible for Kainel to eat properly. I don’t ask for anything else.”
…….
“Can’t even that be done?”
* * *
Knock, knock.
“Kainel, I’ve brought your meal.”
“I don’t need it.”
Kainel, who’d been unable to visit Seres’s shop today while reviewing the documents sent from the Imperial Palace, answered with unusual sharpness.
When he’d heard the matter was urgent, he’d found that all the documents were merely confirmations of already-concluded meeting results, which only deepened his irritation.
Did these people have no sense? Why did they keep asking about things like this?
“Still, you need to eat something.”
“I said that’s enough…….”
“Enough? How is it enough? Don’t you know you die if you don’t eat?”
……?
“I wouldn’t recommend it as a method of suicide.”
At the sudden sound of that familiar voice, Kainel’s head finally lifted from the documents.
‘Skip breakfast? I wouldn’t recommend it as a method of suicide.’
‘…Die from missing one meal?’
‘You die. How can anyone live without eating?’
‘Grace, isn’t that a bit too extreme……?’
‘Arti, you’ve never seen a corpse that starved to death? When a body decays like that, the brain rots first. That’s when people become stupid. Then the internal organs start rotting…….’
‘Ugh! You become stupid! You die! Eat something now! Kai, you idiot!’
Grace, who’d held such strange convictions and logic about food.
While she’d always brushed off everything else without concern, the moment Arti or he skipped a meal, she’d raise a fuss as if disaster had struck.
“Eat your food.”
“Why are you……?”
Seres—what was she doing here?
Kainel gazed at her with a slightly dazed expression as she set the plate on the table, the food cradled in her own hands.
“You said to pay back the debt, didn’t you?”
“The debt?”
“Look at this. Your mind’s already stopped working. You’ve forgotten what you said before.”
…….
“Just eat.”
Kainel’s gaze fell to the plate she’d set down.
A steaming omelette and clear soup, both made moments before.
A menu Grace used to make for him often when he was young.
As Kainel’s eyes shifted between Seres and the food for a moment, he slowly reached for the spoon. Then he lifted a spoonful of soup to his lips.
“Hah…….”
This is maddening.
Without thinking, Kainel let out a short laugh.
Yes, it was a taste far too familiar.
Kainel stared hard at Seres.
Am I losing my mind with longing, thinking foolish things?
Or are you really……?
“Calculate my daily wage carefully. Don’t forget.”
“No bell peppers.”
Whoosh!
“Hey.”
Don’t pick out the bell peppers.
* * *
“Why’s he acting like that?”
“He’s got no one to play with, so that’s what happens.”
When Crown Prince Aseraian visited the Arcane Tower, he cast a puzzled glance at Chaien, who seemed more downcast than usual.
“Someone to play with? Who?”
“The person who was my temporary secretary.”
“Why? They don’t want to play with you?”
“Apparently not.”
“So you’re sulking?”
“Perhaps.”
Chaien, sitting by the window in gloom as though he’d lost everything, bristled at the exchange between Aseraian and Luka.
“Am I a child? Getting upset because someone won’t play with me!”
“You seem pretty upset about it.”
“You really do.”
“Oh, forget it!”
Chaien abruptly turned away from them, unwilling to continue the conversation, and gazed back out the window.
Not long ago, he’d heard that Seres had taken a position working beside Grand Duke Persha—Kainel.
Despite his promise to repay the debt himself, she hadn’t even acknowledged it, and in the end, she’d gone to work with that man.
‘It’s strange.’
Strange, how Seres changed when she was with Kainel—that Grand Duke Persha. Her whole demeanor shifted.
With everyone else, she was always indifferent, carrying that fundamental coldness beneath the surface.
But around him, her baseline temperature seemed to rise by several degrees, somehow.
It was hard to say exactly what it was, but Seres in the presence of Grand Duke Persha was different from her usual self. She seemed less resolute, less sharp.
“…This is infuriating.”
Ever since then—ever since he’d seen the two of them together—something had been welling up from deep inside, rising in waves.
Irritation, and a hollowing out of energy all at once.
Why? Why was he so angry?
“Chaien.”
“What.”
What was he going to say now?
At the Crown Prince’s call, Chaien answered without turning his head, his voice sharp and childish.
“Aleks has come back.”
“What?”
But at these words, Chaien’s eyes widened with sudden interest, his petulance evaporating in an instant.
“Aleks is coming back? Really? He can come back now? How’s his health?”
“He seems much better.”
“Truly?”
Seeing the smile spread rapidly across Chaien’s face, Aseraian let out a quiet laugh as well.
‘How delighted he is.’
Aleks de Devrika.
The empire’s third prince and their half-brother.
Chaien had doted on him since childhood, cherishing him in a way he reserved for few others.
But the boy had been born with a fragile constitution, and had spent years away from the Capital recuperating.
Now the boy had sent word that he would be returning to the Capital at last.
“Aleks must have grown quite a bit, yes?”
“…Pardon?”
“Our Aleks, I mean.”
“What are you saying? Prince Aleks was already tall and well-built before he left the Capital.”
Luka clicked his tongue lightly in reproach.
Prince Aleks was nineteen years old this year.
With only a three-year age gap between him and Chaien, Luka couldn’t fathom why Chaien kept treating him like a little child.
Did he think the boy had stopped aging just because he’d been sickly?
But it seemed only Luka—and Aseraian—saw it that way.
“Luka, you fool. Our Aleks is still young.”
“Young.”
“Right?”
“Are both of you in your right minds?”
Luka shook his head slightly in disbelief.
Wasn’t it possible that Prince Aleks had stayed away all this time not because of his recovery, but because he couldn’t stand being around these two?
“So? When is he coming?”
“I’m not sure. He didn’t give an exact date, but it seemed like it would be soon.”
Whatever Luka thought, the two of them merely exchanged smiles of contentment.
* * *
“You said you’d be satisfied with just meals.”
“Ha, ha.”
“You said you only wanted to be fed.”
“Ha, ha, ha…….”
“Liar.”
“…My apologies.”
Kainel’s aide, Del, kept offering awkward smiles beneath Seres’s unwavering glare.
“Would you mind explaining why I have to follow all the way here?”
“Right, well. Ha, ha.”
After one last withering look at Del’s sheepish grin, Seres turned her displeasure toward Kainel, who was walking ahead of them.
‘What’s gotten into him lately?’
Since when did he ever enjoy going places with other people?
The destination Seres had been dragged to was none other than the Imperial Palace, where the Empire’s royal council convened.
She’d returned here because Kainel had insisted she accompany him.
‘Why me?’
‘You’ve got to repay the debt.’
‘…….’
‘A contract violation means you owe penalties—surely you read the fine print. I had it written in that you’re to accompany me wherever I wish.’
Rot. How was a penniless soul supposed to survive?
In the end, she’d had no choice but to follow Kainel to the Imperial Palace at the crack of dawn.
‘Looks like I’ll be waiting a good long while this time.’
The last time she’d come here with Chaien, he’d set off an alarm that ended the meeting early by accident, but there’d be no such luck today.
Seres, who knew well how these council sessions unfolded, let out a quiet sigh in her mind.
“Where are you going?”
“Me? The waiting room.”
As Seres turned to follow Del to where the secretaries and aides usually waited, as she had before, a voice stopped her in her tracks.
“What about your attendant duties?”
“…Attendant what?”
“Attendant.”
“…….”
Out of habit, Seres looked to Del, Kainel’s aide.
Del simply smiled sheepishly in return and quickly averted his gaze.
“You’ve got to repay the debt.”
“Is that the only thing you can say?”
“Come on.”
Seres’s eyes shifted back to Del.
She glared at him as he stood there waving goodbye cheerfully, then reluctantly followed Kainel into the council chamber.
‘That bastard, I swear.’
Attendant? At-ten-dant?
‘Seriously!’
Since when had she ever played that role?
Most of the nobles attending the council did bring along a servant or maid.
These were people accustomed to being waited on.
Not a single one of them would pour their own water.
“Do you normally… bring attendants like that?”
“Yeah. About three hundred of them. I left them all behind today since you’re here.”
‘Ugh, that bastard! Not even a little bit funny!’
At his glib response, Seres ground her teeth together in silent fury.

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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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