Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 75

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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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“……?”
Yulia, too, felt the odd sensation and lifted her head.
“Huh?”
And when the child’s eyes found the figure approaching her, they went wide.
* * *
“Another body’s been found?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t tell me it’s the same as last time…….”
“It appears to be a victim of a monster attack.”
“Sigh.”
Crown Prince Aseraian let out a long breath at his aide’s report.
They still hadn’t fully made sense of the body discovered not long ago, and now another victim of a monster attack had been found right in the middle of the Capital.
“Though there is something unusual about this one.”
“Unusual?”
“A Black Forest Alarm Device went off in a shop near where the body was discovered.”
“What? Only one location?”
“Yes.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
When the Black Forest manifests, it engulfs the entire region in darkness.
Yet the alarm sounded from only one shop? Had all the other alarms in nearby shops malfunctioned?
“There were no reports of the Black Forest actually appearing, correct?”
“None. The shop owner where the alarm went off thought the device had merely malfunctioned.”
“Hmm… I heard Chaien recently made new alarm devices and has been distributing them. Could it have been one of those?”
“Yes. It was a shop that had installed the new model with an expanded detection range.”
When he’d first heard that Chaien had begun work on expanding the Black Forest detection range of the alarms, surprise had mingled with puzzlement.
It was strange—the boy detested work, so why had he taken up a task no one asked him to do?
When he’d asked for a reason, he’d gotten little answer, so Aseraian had simply let it be.
Though the boy despised working, he was thorough about finishing whatever tasks were assigned to him.
He’d figured Chaien would handle it properly, so he’d left it alone.
“I need to speak with Chaien.”
As the situation developed, curiosity rose again in his mind.
Did that boy know something?
“Have they identified what kind of monster was responsible?”
“Not yet.”
“Again?”
“Yes.”
Aseraian clicked his tongue in frustration.
When a body bearing monster wounds was discovered, identifying what creature caused the damage was the investigation’s highest priority.
Yet each time, determining the monster’s identity proved this difficult…….
“What of Duke Persha?”
It seemed he would need the Duke’s assistance again this time.
“I’ve already sent word. However…….”
“However?”
“He says today won’t work. He has something urgent to attend to.”
“Something urgent? There’s no Imperial conference scheduled today, is there?”
Aseraian was genuinely curious what matter could be so pressing that even Duke Persha would consider it more important.
His aide’s expression grew awkward as he regarded the puzzled Crown Prince.
“He’s attending a school festival.”
“……Where?”
For a moment, Aseraian thought he’d mishear.
Duke Persha was going where today?
“A school festival, Your Highness.”
* * *
Footsteps echoed.
Everyone in the classroom fell silent, their expressions turning blank as a single figure walked casually through the door.
“Is that……Duke Persha Your Highness?”
“Why is he here……?”
Kainel—known throughout court for refusing all invitations and attendance at any function outside Imperial conferences—had just made an entrance that left everyone questioning their own eyes.
“Y-Your Highness the Duke!”
The same was true for Lucia, Count of Christine’s father.
What does it matter why Persha the Grand Duke is here!
He’d been watching for an opening all this time, but had never managed a proper word with him in the Imperial conference hall.
Count Lucia regarded this chance encounter as an act of fortune and hurried toward Persha.
The Northern Region is, quite literally, a land of gold.
Sealed away for so long, every single resource that emerges from there is treated as treasure.
If only he could build some rapport with him and secure exclusive rights to even one of those resources?
It would be a windfall beyond measure.
“What brings you here——!”
Whoosh.
But Count Lucia couldn’t finish his sentence. Persha passed him without so much as a glance.
And where he walked toward stood a small figure with a bewildered expression.
“Sir?”
Yulia’s eyes widened even further as she regarded him stopping before her.
“Did you come to see me?”
“Perhaps?”
“Aren’t you working at the restaurant today?”
“No, I’m not.”
…The restaurant? What was she talking about?
The Grand Duke works at a restaurant?
Those who’d been listening intently to the exchange between the two found themselves sinking deeper into confusion.
How could they possibly know each other?
The ease with which Yulia conversed with Persha the Grand Duke astonished the onlookers once more.
Had the Grand Duke truly come all this way just to see this child?
“Yulia.”
“Oh! Sister!”
At that moment another figure entered the classroom—Seres.
“Sis… huh?”
Yulia, who’d been about to run toward Seres at the familiar voice, stopped in her tracks.
Yulia blinked repeatedly. This was not the Seres she knew—the one who never seemed to care about clothes or adornment.
In her neat, new dress instead of the faded, threadbare rags she usually wore, she looked like an entirely different person.
“Sister, you look so beautiful!”
“Really?”
Well, that’s a relief then.
‘I suppose so.’
This face of mine isn’t so bad to look at, after all.
She’d originally planned to simply show up clean and presentable.
She’d never been one to fuss over her appearance—as far as she was concerned, cleanliness was all that mattered anywhere. But now……
‘A gift for you, Miss Seres.’
‘What is this?’
‘You mentioned attending your sister’s school festival, didn’t you? Wear this then.’
‘…Who sent this? The, the Grand Duke?’
‘Yes. Do wear it beautifully.’
‘Could I just return it and have you cover the debt instead?’
‘Ha, do you think that’s likely?’
‘Ha… no, I suppose not.’
She’d received a gift.
From whom? From his secretary, Del.
Several large boxes sent by Persha had been handed over to her—and she’d found it utterly ridiculous.
‘I’ve seen every trick in the book, but this one takes the cake.’
Sending clothes as a gift, no less.
Did that man even know how to give presents? Well, weapons, perhaps.
In any case, she couldn’t just let clothes Persha had sent rot away, so she’d decided to wear them.
Jay, once she found out, made such a fuss about coordinating the outfit properly from morning on.
‘This is a one-time affair, nothing more.’
She’d nodded off several times during the grooming, and only when the school festival was about to begin did she finally escape Jay’s ministrations.
“Isn’t that dress the new product just released from the Eluah Shop?”
“It does seem that way.”
“It’s such a difficult place to order from. How did she…….”
The crowd’s gaze naturally shifted from Persha to Seres.
‘A nameless house, they said. And yet there was something about her…’
It wasn’t merely the dress. The way she carried herself, the very atmosphere she commanded, drew everyone’s eyes like a magnet.
Even standing still, one’s gaze kept drifting back to her. Could she truly be the daughter of some obscure, unremarkable family?
“Sister, he’s here too!”
“…Yes.”
Only then did Seres turn her attention to Persha at Yulia’s words.
When she’d stepped into the classroom moments earlier, she’d had to suppress a surge of bewilderment.
‘What on earth is he doing here?’
There was an odd tension that seemed to emanate from the hallway.
Unlike the other classes, Yulia’s classroom was unusually quiet, which suggested something was amiss—though she hadn’t expected it to be Persha’s arrival that caused it.
“What brings you here?”
“I was bored.”
“You came here because you were bored?”
Seres fixed him with a look of utter exasperation.
“You’re becoming more like Chaien by the day, aren’t you?”
“Chaien?”
There’s work piling up to the heavens, and here you are wandering about claiming boredom—it’s exactly like him. Or do you not see all those documents stacked on your desk?
Those reports speak for themselves, don’t they?
“…….”
Persha watched Seres’s light click of disapproval in silence.
“Don’t sell that dress.”
“Once given, it’s done.”
So petty of him—first a gift, then meddling in what she does with it?
“It suits you well.”
“…….”
At his casual remark, Seres studied him in silence for a moment.
A soft rustle.
Then her hand rose gently to his forehead.
“You don’t have a fever.”
At once, sharp intakes of breath echoed throughout the room.
To lay hands upon the Grand Duke himself—how daring.
Wasn’t it well known that Persha, the Grand Duke, despised physical contact with others?
“…….”
Yet contrary to everyone’s expectations, Persha made no objection—merely allowing Seres to examine his face carefully, as if checking whether he were unwell.
“Which house did those young ladies say they were from?”
“The Drow Marquis Family, as I understand it.”
“The Drow Marquis Family?”
“Yes, you know—the one founded by Tom Drow, the Mercenary King.”
“Ah…….”
The other students turned their interest toward Seres’s family.
Lucia, the Count, was no exception.

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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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