Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 73

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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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“Ah, ate well today.”
“I’ll come back tomorrow.”
“Let’s go.”
The sun was already sinking low in the sky.
One by one, the mercenaries rose from their seats and headed for the door.
“Check, please.”
Skal, the leader of the Black Mercenary Guild, also stood and called for the bill.
“Reserve this date again next month for our group meal.”
“Ugh! Here again?”
“Sub-leader, do something about it!”
“…You lot just keep quiet.”
Despite their grumbling, the mercenaries’ mouths curved upward when they heard they’d be gathering here again next month. The sub-leader, Lott, let out a long sigh at the sight of them.
They’re doing that on purpose, aren’t they?
“This is on the house.”
Seres handed a fairly large pot into the guild leader’s hands, brimming with stew.
She’d given him some before, and he’d seemed quite fond of it.
“Book us the month after next too!”
“Thank you, sir.”
A bright smile settled on Seres’s lips for the first time in a while, and she silently wished that Skal would remain the leader of the Black Mercenary Company for a very long time.
“You two worked hard today. Go on home.”
“Yes.”
“Please come in early tomorrow as well.”
Once the customers had left and the basic cleanup was finished, Seres sent the maid Jay and the employee Mark home first.
“Yulia, is it good?”
“Yep!”
“We’ll eat at home.”
“But I’m hungry.”
“That’s why I told you to go home first.”
“I’m going with you.”
In one corner of the restaurant, Yulia was finishing a late meal.
After all the customers had left, she’d quickly made food for the hungry child.
“Would you like some too, sir?”
“No.”
Kainel, seated across from Yulia, simply watched the child holding out a spoon.
“Aren’t you staying because you’re hungry too, sir?”
“That’s not it.”
“Oh, so you’re not.”
Yulia seemed genuinely hungry, moving her spoon busily once more.
“But…”
Kainel, who had been silently watching her, suddenly turned his gaze to a corner of the establishment.
“Someone you know?”
Before Seres could even answer, Kainel was already emanating a subtle killing intent, as if he might strike at any moment.
“Yes. Someone I know.”
Seres quickly stopped him.
She’d already guessed who it was that Kainel was looking at.
“Damn it… Why does everyone I run into lately have to be like this?”
With that, a figure emerged from the darkness, grumbling—none other than Ben, a member of the Sky Organization.
‘Have I really got to retire already?’
Why does everyone manage to sense my presence so easily?
“What’s the matter?”
Seres asked immediately. Ben shouldn’t have been here at this hour.
Hadn’t she asked him to keep an eye on the children in her place?
“There’s been a problem. One of the children got hurt…”
“Hurt? How bad?”
“It’s not severe, but it looks like a bone might be fractured…”
Bang!
Seres dashed out of the restaurant at once. Ben quickly followed in her wake.
“Kainel! Look after Yulia for me!”
As Seres rushed out, she left that request behind before vanishing in an instant.
“Wow, our big sister runs so fast. Right?”
“…….”
Kainel, still seated at the table, nodded slowly at Yulia’s words.
His gaze fixed on the spot where Seres had vanished.
Kai.
A pet name he hadn’t heard in far too long.
“Mister.”
Yulia’s voice reached him again in that moment.
The child, having finished her meal, was staring at him with round eyes.
“What are you good at, mister?”
“…Me?”
“Yes!”
“…….”
* * *
“Ugh…….”
“Hold still. Your bones are completely shattered.”
“Sh-shattered?”
Several children huddled together in front of a stone outcropping in the Training Grounds.
Among them lay a single child, prostrate on the ground and unable to move.
“That’s right. Or do you not know what shattered means? Your bones are broken into fragments—tiny little pieces.”
“Ow-ohhh, stop, stop! I understand already!”
Hearing such things only makes it hurt more!
The injured child covered their ears, writhing in pain at Seres’s helpful explanation.
“How did this even happen?”
“Well… I was trying to climb up there…….”
At Seres’s question, Antonian spoke in a voice that trembled slightly.
He too seemed deeply shaken, his face drained of color.
“Why climb that cliff when there’s a perfectly good path?”
“You said I’d soon be climbing it too…….”
“I said soon, not now. You kids have no fear at all.”
Who just decides to scramble up a steep cliff like that on a whim?
Seres clicked her tongue lightly.
‘They wanted to test their new strength, I suppose.’
They’d know it themselves by now—how much their physical abilities had changed.
Probably they’d wagered on who could climb that cliff first… but you lot still have a long way to go.
“Ugh… nngh……!”
The torn wound was healing rapidly as it usually did.
But reversing shattered and displaced bones to their original shape was impossible, even in a magical Training Grounds like this.
Seres excused herself to find medicinal herbs, then stepped into a corner where the children couldn’t see and opened a Sub-space. From within, she withdrew several varieties of herbs.
‘Really, I don’t strictly need the herbs.’
But she needed some pretext regardless.
Seres crushed the medicinal herbs and spread them evenly over the injured child’s leg. At the same time, she quietly applied her ability to the leg alone.
Time Reversal.
Back to the moment just before the injury.
“Huh… wh, wh… what?”
The child’s expression went blank in an instant. The pain had vanished rapidly.
“Get up.”
“What?”
“I said get up.”
“But I just broke my leg, miss.”
“You’re fine now. We both know it—quit whining.”
The child’s expression grew uncertain at Seres’s words.
They already knew well that this place was strange, that wounds healed quickly here, but this injury wasn’t supposed to mend easily at all.
“What are you doing? Treatment’s finished. Get up.”
“Oh, yes!”
The pain had disappeared entirely from the leg, but……
The doubtful child finally pushed their body upright at Seres’s firm command.
“Huh?!”
The leg moved without a trace of injury, as though nothing had ever happened, and the child’s eyes went wide.
The other children felt the same shock.
“What? You can walk right away?”
“Really? You’re actually better?”
“Wow!”
“Ma’am, what kind of medicinal herb was that? A herb that can heal a broken leg instantly!”
The children marveled endlessly, convinced they’d just witnessed the extraordinary potency of the medicinal herbs Seres had used.
‘No such herb exists in this world.’
But she couldn’t tell them the truth.
She quickly changed the subject.
“So, what were you doing while all this was happening?”
Once the situation had been somewhat put in order, Seres called Ben over and demanded a detailed account of what had occurred.
She’d specifically asked him to watch over the children carefully.
“Well, it was just a break time…….”
Ben ran a rough hand through his hair.
He remembered exactly what Seres had asked of him, so he had no real excuse for what had happened.
Even if it had been a rest period, the fact remained that he’d neglected his supervision.
As always, he’d put them through back-and-forth drills and then given them a brief rest, during which he’d taken a short break himself.
Who could have predicted that in that brief window the children would wager over cliff climbing, or that things would escalate to this?
“I see.”
Having heard the gist of it, Seres nodded and looked over at the children huddled together to one side.
“Now I understand perfectly.”
“Yes?”
“You lot didn’t need rest time after all.”
“Y-yes……? Yes?”
“From now on, let’s do away with breaks altogether.”
“No! Wait, what?”
Seres stretched out her arm toward the frightened children, pointing to the mountains in the distance.
“What are you doing? Run. You know what happens to last place.”
“Nooooo!”
Without hesitation, the children bolted forward.
Burning with resolve to make sure the one who’d goaded them into that cliff-climbing wager came in dead last!
* * *
‘Lost more time than I thought.’
Seres quickened her pace after checking the hour.
After watching over the children’s training for the first time in a while and leaving them in Ben’s care, she’d headed straight back to the shop.
Yulia was still waiting there.
‘Well, Kainel’s with her anyway.’
Not that she was worried. That boy at least didn’t hit children.
Ding.
“Yulia…….”
Crack!
“Over there too, sir! Over there!”
Snap!
“Wow! This way now!”
Crack!
“…….”
What… is this winter kingdom?
Stepping into the shop, Seres found herself speechless at the sight of ice covering various spots throughout the interior.

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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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