Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 82

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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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“She’s a Demon Beast, I’m telling you.”
“Really? But she’s so cute. Are Demon Beasts supposed to be this cute?”
“No. Absolutely not.”
Seres shook her head firmly and let out a short sigh.
She’d planned to hand the creature over to Chaien if Kainel refused outright, but seeing the look on Yulia’s face, that option seemed to have slipped away entirely.
In such a short span of time, the girl had grown so attached—her eyes now brimmed with warmth.
“What’s your name, little one?”
“…Dependent.”
“That’s not a name.”
Pfft!
At Yulia’s words, the Black Dragon nodded vigorously. It even fluttered upward and settled on top of her head.
“Can I give you a name?”
“Do as you like.”
Watching Yulia beam with radiant joy, Seres herself couldn’t help but smile.
‘Well, I suppose that’s for the best?’
Either way, they’d be living together now—better she likes it than resents it.
Chirp! Chirp!
“Leave off.”
Just when Seres thought the creature was having a fine time with Yulia, it came fluttering back and began tugging at her hair.
She subdued it easily with two fingers, breathing a quiet sigh to herself.
‘But still…’
Are you really a dragon?
* * *
“The Elrsia Countess Family seems to have slipped entirely beyond our reach, Your Highness.”
“So it appears.”
In the Greenhouse, where pure white flowers bloomed in profusion,
Prince Alecks sat by a window flooded with sunlight, his gaze fixed out the pane as he replied with flat indifference.
“We’ve invested considerable effort into this matter. It’s quite a shame to see it come to nothing.”
“Indeed.”
The man watering flowers in the corner of the Greenhouse spared Alecks no more attention than the Prince did him.
He appeared to be in his early thirties.
Long black hair, lustrous as jet and falling past his waist, left a striking impression.
“Seres, was it?”
……
At last, Prince Alecks’s gaze shifted from the window to the man.
The man remained absorbed in watering his flowers.
“Remarkable, isn’t it? We couldn’t find something we searched for so long, yet she discovered it so easily.”
“You mean the Ring?”
“Yes. I’d understood that the family head’s Ring wasn’t the sort of thing just anyone could find.”
“And you’ve investigated her?”
“Nothing remarkable turned up. Just a woman unremarkably ordinary—nay, so utterly unremarkable she practically vanishes into the background. Nothing to note at all.”
“That differs greatly from what I’ve observed.”
“Indeed, it does.”
The man set down his watering can and plucked a pristine white flower, approaching Alecks with it.
“She’s lost her memory, they say.”
“…Her memory?”
For the first time, the indifferent Prince showed a reaction.
He’d never heard anything like that from Chaien. Did his brother not know either?
“It seems her temperament has changed considerably as a result.”
“Lost her memory, you say.”
Alecks turned his gaze back to the window, lost in thought.
He’d only met her a handful of times, and even then, only briefly.
Perhaps it was too early to judge conclusively, but one thing was certain: Seres was unlike anyone he’d encountered before.
‘Could it be because of the lost memory?’
Is that why she showed no fear?
His own brother—the Arcane Tower Master and a prince—was one thing, but how could he explain the composure she’d displayed before Persha, the Grand Duke himself?
Rather than intimidated, she’d seemed utterly at ease, as though she cared nothing for their titles or stations.
Whoosh.
……
Lost in thought, Alecks found his gaze drawn upward by a hand that grasped his chin.
The man who had drawn near smiled softly, his lips tracing an elegant arc.
“It seems the medicine has run out.”
Only when their eyes met did the man step back a pace.
He retrieved a small glass vial from a shelf along the wall.
Whoosh!
Black smoke billowed forth, swallowing the pristine white flower in his hand. In an instant, the unblemished bloom darkened to deepest black.
He brought the blackened flower to the mouth of the vial.
Slip.
Like melting ice, the darkened flower dissolved and was drawn into the bottle.
“Please, take this.”
Alecks stared silently at the black liquid within for a moment, then accepted the vial and tucked it carefully into his breast.
“Is there any problem with the plan?”
At Alecks’s question, the man’s smile brightened once more.
“Indeed. The reason we sought to control the Elrsia Countess Family was to prevent the Fire Spirit King from awakening.”
So he had driven a wedge between the former family head and his disciple, Creel.
To ensure the new head of the Elrsia house never obtained the ring—or more precisely, the Fire Spirit King.
The disciple plots to poison his master, and the master, sensing the betrayal, departs this world without revealing where the ring lies hidden. How exquisitely perfect the design!
Foolish Creel Elrsia had performed his role beautifully, and everything had unfolded so smoothly until now……
“We must accelerate the plan.”
Before the new head becomes adept at wielding the Fire Spirit King.
“How?”
“We must spread the corruption wider and farther. So that he may arrive sooner.”
……
Alecks’s expression grew distant once more.
His gaze returned to the window beyond, as though to say the man should manage such things himself.
“But tell me—have you found it?”
“The Black Egg?”
“Yes.”
Pleased that he remembered, the man’s eyes softened as they met Alecks’s.
“It’s not in the Arcane Tower. Even my older brother has never seen anything like it.”
“Hmm. If it’s not in the Elrsia house and not in the Arcane Tower either… then only one place remains.”
The man clicked his tongue regretfully. That final location was hardly a place to be trifled with.
“What is that egg, anyway?”
At Alecks’s question, the man laughed lightly.
“I myself do not know the details. Only that he desires to possess it.”
* * *
“Sister! Sister!”
……?
Seres, who had settled in for a long sleep on this rare day off, opened her eyes at the urgent call.
“Sister! Come quick!”
“What’s wrong?”
“Hurry, hurry!”
Seeing the child hop from foot to foot, Seres exchanged a puzzled glance before following Yulia without bothering to tame her disheveled hair.
The destination, following the child’s lead, was the kitchen.
“Look at this.”
“…What is that mass of cream?”
Why is the cream moving?
A tiny creature sprawled across the kitchen counter, covered head to toe in cream and munching contentedly on something.
“It’s Kamang.”
Kamang.
The name Yulia had given to the Black Dragon.
It was the day Seres realized her younger sister’s naming sense rivaled even Kainel’s.
“Is it eating the cake right now?”
“Yeah! That cake was supposed to be our snack today, but it’s eating the whole thing.”
Even as Seres and Yulia spoke, Kamang’s meal continued unabated.
Buried almost entirely in a cake larger than its own body, the creature devoured it with remarkable efficiency.
How does such a small body hold so much?
“Wasn’t it refusing to eat anything until yesterday?”
“Yeah, it didn’t want anything… but then it got interested when I brought out this cake to eat. I thought why not, so I gave it a small piece, and now look.”
She needed to feed it something, so she’d tried meat and vegetables and fruit, but it hadn’t so much as glanced at any of them—Seres had been at a loss herself. You’d really need experience raising one of these to know what works.
‘But then…….’
Eating cake?
She watched in disbelief as the black creature devoured the cake with fervent determination, tail and wings trembling with excitement, while Yulia hung from Seres’s arm and began to grumble.
“Not every cake, though. It won’t even look at the ones our chef makes.”
“You could’ve fooled me—it’s tearing into that one like its life depends on it.”
“That’s a fancy one you brought home yesterday as a gift.”
“Ah.”
Del, Kainel’s aide, would often call Seres over when she left work and load her up with all sorts of things.
‘I’ve brought far too much again this time, I’m afraid.’
‘Why do you always do that? She barely eats anything anyway.’
‘Precisely. Why do I keep doing this?’
Leaving Del to his peculiar smile, most of the cakes Seres brought home ended up being Yulia’s.
Though occasionally Antonian and Seres herself would have some.
“Well, it polished off the whole plate.”
Kamang finished every last crumb of cake and sprawled out on his back, completely satisfied.
[Boooo~ Pooooo~]
Apparently belly-full and content, the sprawled creature let out a stream of pleased cries—higher-pitched than usual, brimming with satisfaction.

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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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