Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 68

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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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“…I’ll be happy spending money freely, I suppose.”
But I couldn’t very well tell young Yulia something like that as it was, could I?
“Does spending money freely make you happy?”
“Who knows. When you’re older, try living that way yourself and tell me all about it then.”
“Okay.”
“Now go to sleep.”
A small nod.
After patting the child gently as she squeezed her eyes shut, Seres turned to gaze out the window.
The moonlight seemed unusually bright tonight.
A short time later, confirming that the child had fallen asleep with even breaths and without fussing, Seres rose slowly from her seat and left the room.
She quietly opened another door nearby and found Antonien sleeping inside.
He seemed to have trained hard today, slumbering so deeply that someone could carry him away without his noticing.
‘Should I head out now?’
After confirming that both her siblings were asleep, Seres left the mansion. There was something she wanted to check during these sparse hours of human activity.
‘Here it is.’
A long rope hung down into the dark alley. It was meant to keep people away from the place where the corpse had been discovered.
After a brief survey of the surroundings, Seres ducked under the rope and stepped inside.
“A Demon Beast, then…….”
The corpse she’d seen this afternoon.
No matter how she tried to consider it from different angles, the conclusion remained the same: it had been killed by the Demon Beast Shakera.
Yet now that Seres had come to where the corpse was found, she could only feel more puzzled.
When a Demon Beast appears, it always leaves traces.
There should be at least some small scratches on the surrounding buildings.
“Strange.”
There was nothing.
Though she’d already heard the accounts, she truly could find no trace whatsoever.
Only dried blood scattered here and there on the ground testified to the fact that someone had lost their life in this place.
“What could it be?”
How exactly had they died? Where had the Demon Beast come from?
Why hadn’t the Warning Alarm sounded?
Why hadn’t anyone seen the Demon Beast? It was only natural that even a single small Demon Beast’s appearance would lay waste to the entire surrounding area.
Seres had come to this place to solve that mystery.
…….
After surveying the surroundings once more carefully, Seres placed her hand on the dried bloodstain.
Whoooosh.
From the moment Seres’s hand touched the ground, the flow of air began to shift rapidly.
The dried bloodstains vanished, and the other traces on the ground scattered in an instant.
Crack!
“……!”
Suddenly, something shot up densely all around Seres, encircling her!
As she recognized what it was, Seres’s eyes widened in shock.
“This is…….”
What rose high into the sky, blocking out the bright moonlight completely, was black trees.
“The Black Forest…….”
Standing in the space where not a single ray of light could enter, Seres could only stare blankly at the sight before her for a long while.
* * *
“I have something I want to ask you.”
At Seres’s abrupt words—she’d been lost in thought all day—Kainel lifted his gaze from the documents he’d been reviewing.
“Can a Black Forest form on a smaller scale, something like this room?”
“What?”
“Not engulfing a village or city, but this small—just large enough to trap a single person. Do Black Forests form that way these days?”
“These days? Are you some kind of ancient?”
“That’s not what matters right now.”
…….
…But I think it does matter.
Kainel swallowed his words with a brief sigh and set down the documents he was holding.
“Tell me more details. A small Black Forest?”
“The corpse that was discovered this time. If that’s the case, it would all make sense.”
“You mean the one killed by Shakera?”
“Right. If a small Black Forest appeared that could only trap one person, then a corpse like that could turn up.”
The Black Forest vanishes once all the Demon Beasts that appear are eliminated, or once the core at its center—its boss—dies.
And there was one more thing.
‘If everyone dies…….’
When not a single living creature besides Demon Beasts remains inside the Black Forest, that too causes it to vanish.
The Black Forest she’d seen yesterday had been so small it could barely contain one person.
‘If the person who was attacked by the Demon Beast had been trapped there…….’
And then the Black Forest disappeared after he died?
Everything would make sense.
The problem was, in all her years living as Seres, she’d never once seen a Black Forest take this particular form.
Could it be that in these three hundred years, Black Forests have started manifesting in different varieties?
“That’s an interesting thought.”
“So there’s never been a case like that?”
“Not as far as I know.”
“You were stuck vegetating in the Duchy for ages, weren’t you? So maybe you just don’t know?”
“Mind your language?”
“You were stuck vegetating in the Duchy for ages, weren’t you? So perhaps you simply don’t know?”
“There are plenty of people who bring me information from the outside.”
…….
So what she’d witnessed yesterday wasn’t something that normally happened, then.
‘So what was it?’
What was that thing she’d seen?
How did something like that even come to exist? A mutation?
Shouldn’t she tell the others about this? Or so she thought.
‘But if I told them?’
Would they even believe her?
‘I wouldn’t believe me either.’
If some young noblewoman suddenly showed up spouting nonsense like that.
“The problem’s me. It’s all me.”
This blasted curiosity of hers was the problem.
Why couldn’t she have just lived with the mystery? Why did she have to go out there yesterday and verify it herself?
“Ignorance really is bliss.”
Seres shot upright.
She rose quickly from her perch by the window where she’d been lounging.
“I’m clocking out.”
“Clocking out?”
“Yeah.”
She waved at Kainel and headed straight for the door.
“I’ve got dinner all prepared, so don’t forget to eat.”
“What’s this about?”
“There’s somewhere I need to go.”
“Where?”
“To see Chaien.”
…Chaien?”
Kainel’s brow furrowed slightly.
He removed the glasses he’d been wearing, his gaze turning distinctly disapproving.
“It’s not quitting time yet.”
“I said I’ve already made dinner.”
“It’s not quitting time.”
“So what.”
There was nothing left to do here anyway.
Hadn’t he noticed her just loitering by the window this whole time? Was there any reason to waste time here?
Let’s try to live a bit more efficiently, yeah?
But Kainel was unmoved.
“Don’t go.”
“What?”
“Stay here.”
“Stay for what. I told you there’s nothing to do.”
“Staying by my side is your job.”
“…Hey.”
Watching Kainel pick up the documents again as if he had no interest in further conversation, Seres could only let her expression fall into one of exasperation.
* * *
“Who is it?”
“Seres wishes to see you——”
Snap!
Chaien sprang from his seat so quickly he didn’t even wait for his secretary to finish, bolting toward the door.
“Wait, allow me to show her in——”
Luka, his secretary, hurried to finish speaking, but Chaien was already opening the door faster than the words could follow.
Creak!
“…Seres.”
It was Seres. She was truly standing before the door.
She lifted her hand lightly as she noticed Chaien.
Had it been two weeks since they last saw each other?
“It’s been a while.”
He nodded.
“Are you busy?”
He shook his head.
Watching Chaien answer with only a silent gesture, Seres tilted her head with a puzzled expression.
‘Did he forget how to speak while we were apart?’
“May I come in?”
“Yeah……”
Only then did Chaien offer a small reply.
“It’s been a while.”
Seres let out a soft laugh at his belated greeting.
Why was he greeting her with such wistful tenderness? Anyone watching would think they were family reuniting after a long separation.
“Do you have a visitor?”
Just then, an unfamiliar voice came from behind Chaien.
Seres’s eyes widened slightly as she turned toward the sound.
“Huh?”
The other person’s eyes grew wide as well, mouth falling open in surprise.
“It was you, wasn’t it? That time, at the restaurant.”
The man who now approached with a bright smile was the very customer who had come to the establishment just before midnight not long ago.
“What? You two know each other?”
“Yes.”
Chaien was equally taken aback.
“How?”
“When I arrived at the Capital, I was so hungry that I couldn’t go straight to the Imperial Palace. So I stopped at a nearby restaurant……”
“No.”
“Yes, it was her establishment. The hour was late, so I couldn’t eat, but instead I was treated to a truly precious tea. I was truly grateful for that.”
Chaien looked between the two of them with a gleam of fascination in his eyes. Then, as if remembering something, he quickly introduced the man to Seres.
“This is my brother, Allex.”
“Your brother?”
A brother would mean… a prince?
Seres’s eyes grew even wider than before.
‘And here I was worried about him wandering the streets looking half-dead.’
Seres threw him a look of utter disbelief.
‘That was meddlesome of me.’
Worrying about that man back then.
If she had told him to visit the Elrusia Count House that day, it would have been utterly mortifying. As a prince, he would have already met every capable healer there was.
“And this is my friend Seres.”
“You two are friends?”
Prince Allex, too, was full of amazed exclamations at such an unlikely coincidence.
“I’m Allex. I’m pleased to meet you again.”
“I’m pleased to meet you too. It’s good to see you alive and well.”

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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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