Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 83

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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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“Sister, do we have to keep buying cake from that place? Wasn’t it expensive?”
“It is.”
Terribly so.
“There’s only one solution.”
“What solution?”
“Get rid of it.”
“What?”
“That cake—let’s just throw it away.”
Refined tastes like that have no place in our home.
[Woof! Woof!]
At those words, Kkamangi, who had been sprawled out peacefully, bolted upright and let out a sharp barking protest.
* * *
“All right, time’s up. Please collect the answer sheets starting from the back.”
Before the homeroom teacher Daniel had even finished speaking, Seres’s completed answer sheet was already being gathered up.
‘An exam…….’
How long had she even been enrolled before they sprang this on her?
Seres slumped forward onto her desk, deflated.
So that’s why they said expulsion would follow if she didn’t attend within a week?
‘I should have just taken the expulsion.’
Me, studying for an exam at my age? That’s absurd!
And they didn’t even bother telling me it was an exam day.
‘Not a soul mentioned it.’
She’d only realized ‘Oh, today’s the test’ after the exam papers were already in her hands.
‘Ugh, whatever.’
Still, I’ve got decent fundamentals, don’t I? I studied fairly well when I attended before.
‘True. Grace was always somewhere near the top—but still not as good as me, right? I was always first.’
‘…Shut up.’
This is all that Artia’s fault for dragging me back to life without permission.
You know I hold grudges. I’m going to resent you every time things get difficult!
“Seres.”
“……?”
Seres, who had been venting her frustration on Artia in her thoughts, lifted her head at the sound of her name.
Daniel, her homeroom teacher, was standing before her.
“How are you finding Academy life? No particular problems?”
“Well, nothing really…….”
Though if I had to say something… over the past week, not a single person has spoken to me, the classes are mind-numbingly boring……?
That fake who started picking fights on day one is slowly regaining his nerve, and his hostile stares are getting more intense by the day?
‘…There are quite a few problems, actually.’
Seres scratched her cheek.
“If anything difficult comes up, please come to me without hesitation. I’ll be happy to help.”
“…….”
Seres regarded Daniel with curiosity.
So he’s a newly appointed teacher—is that why he’s so earnest?
“You seem to work hard at teaching despite your young age.”
What are either of us doing here, really?
“Huh? Haha…….”
Daniel’s eyes widened for a moment before he broke into genuine laughter, so hard that he had to wipe away tears from beneath his large glasses.
“Seres, you’re quite an interesting person.”
“Am I?”
I’ve never heard that before.
“Anyway, whenever you’re having a hard time, feel free to come find me.”
“I will.”
With those words, the teacher smiled gently and left the classroom.
“Hey, did you guys hear?”
“Hear what?”
“A transfer student came…….”
The moment the teacher was gone, the classroom erupted into chatter.
Seres let the idle gossip of the other students wash over her as she slumped back onto her desk.
Tap-tap
“……?”
Then, in an instant, she felt something tap lightly against her foot. She looked down, bewildered.
“You……!”
[Chirp…….]
Whoosh!
It was Kkamangi!
Seres caught the creature at lightning speed before it could make a sound.
Up!
She sprang to her feet and bolted from the classroom in moments.
The other students exchanged puzzled glances as Seres suddenly dashed out, but she had no time for their confusion.
“What are you doing here?”
Minutes later, Seres made her way to the tree where she’d first discovered the creature—one of the few quiet corners within the Academy grounds.
It was the sort of place where few people ventured.
[Chirp?]
Watching Kkamangi tilt its head as if asking what the problem was, Seres pressed her fingers against her temples in frustration.
She’d been clear—stay home and behave.
‘Keep your head down until I return. Don’t let anyone see you.’
[Chirp!]
The creature had answered cheerfully, waving its stubby little arms in assurance—and yet here it was, somehow.
“And another thing…….”
Just now—what was that?
She’d felt no presence of Kkamangi until it appeared at her feet.
Not the slightest hint.
‘I didn’t sense it coming. At all.’
Seres watched Kkamangi flutter about her, her gaze sharp and searching.
[Chirp?]
The creature tilted its head again—what’s wrong?—before landing atop her hair.
She reached up and caught it, placing it gently in her palm.
Kkamangi tilted its head once more, curious.
“What exactly are you?”
[Chirp-chirp.]
“……Kkamangi?”
[Chirp!]
Ugh. This is frustrating.
Why can I understand what a monster is saying? How am I translating its speech?
-Eeeee-SHRIEK! Eeeee-SHRIEK!
The sound that came next was unmistakable.
The Black Forest Emergency Alarm. Seres’s expression froze.
That alarm ringing inside the Academy grounds could only mean one thing……!
[Chirp?]
Still clutching Kkamangi, Seres bolted toward the source without another moment’s hesitation.
* * *
-Eeeee-SHRIEK!
“What—what is that sound?”
“I know! I’ve heard about it! It’s the alarm—there’s a monster!”
In the Academy’s lower school building.
The children who had been sitting in their classroom preparing for the next lesson couldn’t hide their alarm at the piercing, alien wail.
“A monster?”
“What—what do we do?”
At one child’s cry, fear blossomed across the young faces around them.
A monster, just like that? The kind that devoured people?
“Let’s—let’s find a teacher!”
At the shout, the frightened children bolted from the classroom without hesitation.
“W-what should we do?”
“Christine?”
Yulia moved toward the door like the others, but then she noticed her seatmate.
Christine sat frozen, her face drained of all color, unmoving.
“We have to go too. We need to find an adult.”
“……We’re going to die.”
“Christine?”
“She… she’s dead too.”
Two years ago, when Christine had traveled with her family, she witnessed her maidservant fall to a Monster right before her eyes.
Fortunately, her parents and she survived, but she watched countless others die at the hands of Monsters that day.
Christine had barely managed to function for nearly a year afterward, tormented by nightmares every night.
“We’re… we’re all going to die.”
Now there was no knight to save her, no parents to protect her.
As terrible memories kept surfacing, Christine collapsed to the floor and crawled beneath the desk.
“Christine?”
Crash!
In that instant, something dark shot upward past the window.
Black trees. The Black Forest was beginning to consume the surroundings.
“Ugh… hngh…”
As darkness closed in, Christine’s terror only deepened.
The landscape grew dimmer and dimmer, and from all around the building came the frightened screams of children.
Yulia, too, couldn’t help but feel her courage draining away.
Yulia swallowed hard and moved closer to Christine, crouching beneath the desk alongside her.
“It’s… it’s all right.”
Yulia steadied her trembling voice as best she could, trying to calm Christine.
“People will come to help us.”
“Ugh…”
“It’s going to be fine.”
But Yulia’s own hands were shaking just as badly as she spoke.
* * *
“I hear you’ve transferred the distribution rights for Aethel to Oselth Elrsia.”
“And?”
“Well… that is…”
Count Alise, who had been about to speak with firm conviction, found his words catch in his throat the moment he met the cold silver gaze of Kainel, Grand Duke of Persha.
Yet buoyed by the encouraging looks from the other nobles, he gathered his voice once more and pressed on.
“It seems problematic for such an important mineral to be monopolized by any single party.”
Aethel—a mineral found only in the Persha principality.
Word had spread that this precious resource would be monopolized and distributed exclusively through a trading company under Oselth Elrsia, an elder of the Elrsia Countess Family.
Upon hearing this, the nobles had reached a consensus in the Imperial Council to formally lodge their protest with the Grand Duke, and they had entered the meeting chamber on that agreement.
“That’s true. Aethel is a mineral of utmost national importance, and…”
“So.”
“Your Grace?”
“So what exactly is your point?”
Yet the nobles, who had begun articulating their grievances with a certain boldness, one by one found themselves breaking into cold sweat.
Facing Kainel’s indifferent gaze—as if to say he’d laid out the stage and they were welcome to air their complaints—their words kept catching.
They almost wished he would show anger instead; at least then they might feel some relief.
“That is… in other words, it does seem somewhat improper for one party to monopolize such a mineral…”
“Count Alise, it sounds as though you’ve harbored quite a bit of resentment toward me for monopolizing that mineral all this time.”
“No, Your Grace! That wasn’t what I meant at all…!”
“What if I were to grant the Aethel Sales Monopoly Rights to you?”
“I… what?”
“…!”
The air in the council chamber shifted once again.
He would grant the Aethel Sales Monopoly Rights to Count Alise?

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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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