Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 67

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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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Kainel slowly pushed himself to his feet.
Seres rubbed her freed left arm, massaging the stiffness away.
Ugh, my arm’s pins and needles.
“What time is it?”
“Around three o’clock. The Palace contacted us again a few moments ago regarding a corpse discovered in the Capital. They wanted to know—” Del paused mid-report, bewildered by Kainel’s sudden, purposeful stride toward the door. “Where are you going?”
The adjutant watched in confusion as Kainel strode away without bothering to answer properly.
Where is he going now?
“Seems he’s embarrassed about something,” Seres observed.
“Pardon?”
Embarrassed?
Kainel?
“It’s like spring has come to the Persha Duchy or something equally absurd,” Seres continued dryly.
“It’s the truth, though.”
As Del turned back, Seres was already on her feet, brushing dust from her clothes with brisk, efficient motions.
“But what was that you said just now? A corpse?”
“Ah yes, this morning a body was discovered near Delasi 1st Avenue—”
“Wait, Delasi 1st Avenue?”
This morning?
Surely not…
“Was it a man?”
“The identity hasn’t been confirmed yet, but yes, it appears to be male.”
……
Seres recalled the man who had visited her shop late last night.
She’d joked to herself that he wouldn’t die the moment he left her shop, but surely he hadn’t actually…?
‘His cough was severe, it’s true, but…’
He hadn’t seemed on the verge of death at that moment.
“Is something the matter?” Del asked.
“Mm… I was just wondering if perhaps I knew this person.”
“You did?”
Seres irritably swept her hair back from her forehead.
This unsettling feeling wouldn’t leave her alone.
“Could I see the body?”
“See the body?”
* * *
“This way, if you please.”
Led by a guard, Seres made her way toward where the corpse lay. As she walked, she cast a sidelong glance.
“Why are you here?”
Kainel had fallen into step beside her.
Del had prepared everything for her to view the body and alerted the guards, but Kainel was already standing right there, as if he’d been waiting.
“The case originally came to me,” he said flatly.
I didn’t follow you—you followed me.
He said this with emphasis and moved ahead down the corridor.
Del followed quietly behind him, silently amused by the exchange.
‘When the Palace first asked him to examine a single corpse, he wouldn’t even pretend to listen. Yet the moment I mentioned that you wanted to come here, he suddenly asked to come along. Why is that?’
‘And I suspect he knows exactly why,’ Del thought privately.
This observation, like so many others, Del kept tucked away quietly in his heart.
“Here we are.”
They entered the chamber the guard had indicated.
A corpse lay on a table, its body torn as if by something sharp and cruel.
Del quickly studied Seres’s expression.
The condition of the remains was far worse than he’d anticipated, and he worried she might suffer a shock upon seeing them. It was unthinkable.
He had initially objected to her request to view the corpse at all—the sight was no fit thing for a young lady of her station.
But when she mentioned it might be someone she knew, he had no choice but to accompany her.
And yet…
“Mmm, death came quickly,” she murmured.
‘Where is this composure coming from?’
Rather than recoil, she stepped closer to the body and examined the wounds with careful, clinical attention. Del’s mouth fell open.
‘I’d always known she was no ordinary person, but…’
Watching her move so easily in Kainel’s presence, so unlike anyone he’d ever encountered, Del quietly confirmed what he’d long suspected: this woman was far from ordinary.
Even so, it was remarkable how calmly one could regard such a ghastly corpse.
Del lowered his head slightly, then addressed the guard standing beside him.
“Has the body been identified?”
“Yes. A man in his early forties named Zento. Apparently he was known as a local thug.”
“A thug?”
“Yes. He had a reputation for getting drunk and causing trouble. On that day too, someone saw him heading home thoroughly intoxicated.”
“I see.”
The more he heard, the less sense it made.
Nothing unusual had occurred—this man had simply been living his ordinary life when he suddenly fell victim to a monster. That was the only explanation being offered.
While the two men spoke, Seres methodically examined the corpse as well.
‘That’s not him.’
Though only half the face remained, it was not the man she had seen yesterday.
The build too differed markedly from yesterday’s man.
Was that a relief?
Click.
“…?”
A new figure had entered the room.
Del’s eyes widened for a moment before he quickly composed himself.
He bowed respectfully and stepped back—the newcomer was none other than Crown Prince Aseraian.
“So you’ve come as well, Duke.”
Upon noticing Kainel, Aseraian offered a warm smile and greeted him.
Kainel merely nodded in response and turned his attention back to the corpse without further comment.
Aseraian did the same.
A mysterious corpse discovered in the heart of the Capital.
Everyone was struggling to conceal their shock at the consensus that it bore the marks of a monster attack.
A monster attack in the Capital itself—when the Black Forest hadn’t even emerged—was simply beyond belief.
“Has the type of monster still not been determined?”
“No, sir. All the Mercenary Corps captains in the Capital came to examine it, but not one could give a definitive answer.”
“This is serious.”
The first priority was to identify which monster had done this. Only then could they begin to piece together what had actually happened.
Yet the very captains who had dealt with countless monsters over the years could not provide an answer…
“Shakera.”
“Shakera.”
It was then that two quiet voices spoke up.
“Shakera?”
Aseraian’s gaze shifted toward the source of the voices.
The two examining the corpse—Seres and Kainel.
“The wound where flesh has been torn away is unusually deep. Teeth this thick and long are hardly common.”
“You could tell just from looking at the wound pattern. I don’t see how they missed it. That distinctive fishy stench mixed with the sticky saliva should’ve been enough.”
“Even so, you never know… yes, that’s right. There’s a tiny puncture on the abdomen. Tentacle marks. The entire wound area is charred black—that means it attacks while releasing heat simultaneously.”
“A monster like this…”
“Could only be Shakera.”
Everyone simply stared at the two conversing so effortlessly.
‘What is that familiarity?’
The way they exchanged words so naturally—as if they had witnessed such scenes countless times—left all the others speechless.
Kainel Persha, one could understand.
Three hundred years—an unimaginable span of time—spent protecting Persha Duchy and encountering countless monsters.
He surely possessed more knowledge of monsters than anyone else on the continent today.
‘But…’
What about that lady?
How could she identify what even the guild masters who had faced numerous monsters could not?
From nothing but torn wounds?
‘And that familiarity between them—what is that?’
How did she even know the Duke of Persha?
Until recently she had served as Chaien’s temporary secretary; seeing her attending to Duke Persha at the recent Imperial Palace meeting had left him bewildered.
‘Was that why Chaien seemed displeased?’
The more one observed her, the more enigmatic she appeared—that much had been clear even then.
“Shakera isn’t a monster one typically sees… How did this happen?”
“We’ll have to investigate that now.”
…And another thing that had puzzled him since earlier—was she really speaking so informally with the Duke of Persha?
To someone whom even the Emperor himself finds it difficult to speak casually to?
Had there ever been anyone who spoke so freely with the Grand Duke Persha before?
“Look here for a moment.”
“Mm.”
Even as Aseraian continued to stare in wonder, Seres and Kainel had already forgotten the very existence of those around them, their attention fixed entirely upon examining the corpse.
* * *
“And so the reluctant prince and she were married, and lived happily ever after.”
“Siiigh… sister.”
“What? Want me to read another one?”
Perhaps because she’d been too busy to see Yulia’s face for so long, the girl’s requests tonight had been endless.
Seres settled the child into bed—the one who’d arrived late at night carrying five picture books—and read through them with practiced ease.
She’d grown quite skilled at this. Artia had whined endlessly for bedtime stories since childhood, after all.
“Does marrying a prince make you happy?”
“Well…”
…as if. The moment you marry, everything just falls apart.
‘Every day you walk on thin ice.’
Though, if a woman enjoys that sort of dangerous political game, perhaps she could find happiness in it.

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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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