Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 84

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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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“If you grant me the sales rights to Ethel, I shall serve with utmost devotion……!”
“What are you saying, Alise? Do you truly believe your house capable of such a thing? Only a family of our standing could……!”
“How dare you! Are you unaware that our house’s distribution network is vastly superior!”
“Why do you all speak this way! The Grand Duke wishes to entrust Ethel to us, House Alise! Did you not hear what was just said!”
The argument had shifted without anyone noticing—now they were fighting over who would monopolize Ethel.
None of them seemed to realize the golden egg already had an owner, yet they seized upon it with blazing eyes and began their bickering in earnest.
“Heh heh…….”
“Sigh.”
The Devrika Emperor and Crown Prince Aseraian, both watching the spectacle of these nobles unfold, released short sighs in unison.
Kainel, the very person who had set the nobles at each other’s throats with a single remark, had already turned his attention elsewhere.
As if the matter had nothing whatsoever to do with him, he spared not a glance for the nobles’ chaos—and at this, the two men could only shake their heads ruefully.
What a threadbare alliance this was. They had anticipated as much, yet it crumbled with such ease.
Still, it only proved how valuable Ethel truly was as a mineral.
Tap-tap!
“Your Highness!”
The Conference Hall door swung open, and Crown Prince Aseraian’s aide rushed in with visible urgency.
The nobles’ attention snapped toward him at once.
The aide approached Aseraian directly and spoke in a low voice.
“A Black Forest has emerged, sir.”
“A Black Forest? Where?”
Had it appeared within the Capital again?
“At the location of the Imperial Academy.”
“The Academy?”
Aseraian’s expression hardened in an instant.
Of all places, it had to be where the Academy stood.
“The… the Academy?”
“Our son……!”
Several nobles’ faces drained of color—those with children attending the Academy.
Without waiting for anyone else to move first, they rose from their seats and rushed from the Conference Hall. They had to reach the Academy at once, even if it meant leading their private forces there.
“How many troops are stationed at the Academy?”
“Enough to contain a C-grade Black Forest with ease, but…….”
The Emperor’s gaze shifted to the aide, seeking the grade of the Black Forest that had appeared.
Black Forests were classified by the magical power emanating from the Demon Beasts within them, and measuring that power revealed the forest’s grade.
“It is A-grade.”
“A-grade?”
The faces of those remaining in the Conference Hall hardened once more.
A-grade Black Forests were so rare that they appeared only once every few years. None had ever manifested in the Capital before.
Yet an A-grade Black Forest now threatened the very place where children gathered!
“Deploy forces at once.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Aseraian stood from his seat the moment the Emperor’s command fell. Speed was essential if they were to minimize casualties.
“It won’t make any difference, though.”
But a voice stopped Aseraian in his tracks.
“What do you mean by that?”
Kainel Persha.
His words twisted Aseraian’s face into a grimace.
“It won’t matter? Are you saying we should simply abandon the children’s lives?”
For the first time, Aseraian—who normally remained composed no matter what arose in the Conference Hall—raised his voice in anger.
“Because by the time you arrive, it will already be over.”
“Pardon?”
Was he suggesting they would all be dead already?
Aseraian clenched his teeth and fixed Persha with a fierce glare.
Even an A-grade Black Forest could not reduce everything to ruin in such a brief span of time.
That was precisely why they had to go.
As long as even one person remained alive within that forest, it was their duty to do everything in their power to save them.
Kainel did not flinch from the hostility burning in Aseraian’s gaze.
It was a trifling matter, but… not without its appeal.
‘Agreed. Better a mind that works than these empty heads we’ve been dealing with. At least he has his wits about him—not like those who indulge in every luxury while dodging responsibility and obligation.’
Somewhere, Artia’s snickering laugh seemed to echo.
Kainel, a man for whom his friend existed only in memory, affirmed his silence with an uncharacteristic gesture of kindness and added a remark.
“It’s likely already been destroyed.”
Kainel rose slowly from his seat.
It seemed today’s meeting would not be able to continue.
“What do you mean by that……?”
Already been destroyed?
As Aseraian cast a bewildered gaze, and the eyes of others followed, Kainel simply slipped quietly from the Conference Hall without a word.
* * *
[Grrrrr……]
“What in the world is that?”
“I… I don’t know.”
The Academy security guards stood slack-jawed as the Demon Beast approached them.
Giants.
Giants easily exceeding five meters in height were advancing in a cluster.
Their overall appearance resembled humans, but the single eye occupying half their face possessed a deeply unnatural quality.
The sharp teeth jutting long from their mouths sent chills through all who witnessed them.
The moment their eyes met those blood-red orbs, the soldiers found their minds emptied of all thought. A single overwhelming urge flooded through them—to flee this place at once.
“What on earth…….”
The security captain, who had prided himself on frequent encounters with the Black Forest, found his mind in chaos as the giants approached.
It was a Demon Beast unlike any he had ever seen. He knew neither its weaknesses nor how to properly counter it.
In plain terms, they would simply have to collide with it head-on…….
Boom! Boom-boom!
The earth trembled. The very ground shuddered with each approaching step of the giants, and the soldiers’ morale plummeted into the abyss.
[Grrrrr……]
“Ah… Ahhhhhhh!”
Several soldiers who locked eyes with the giant’s crimson gaze finally let out screams and bolted in panic.
“C-Captain…….”
“…Prepare for combat.”
Mathew, captain of the Academy security, was trembling no less.
But he could not flee as they were doing.
The moment his men turned tail, the children inside the building would be done for.
Shing!
Captain Mathew drew his sword. He was the first to charge forward.
With his subordinates already paralyzed by fear, barely able to move a single step forward, it was impossible to expect them to strike first.
[Kraaaaaaagh!]
Boom! Crash! Crash!
“……!”
But the moment the foremost giant revealed its hostility and charged, he faltered without thinking.
The pressure emanating from the giant at close range was overwhelming.
“Ugh…….”
Gritting his teeth, Mathew still swung his blade. To inflict even the smallest wound!
But the giant’s fist was faster.
A massive hand came crashing down upon Mathew.
Was he going to die like this?
Mathew watched dumbly as the giant’s fist descended upon him. Terror had locked his body in place.
Flinch!
[Grrr……?]
And yet the giant’s blow stopped mid-strike.
The giant felt something wrong with its own body and turned its head sharply backward.
And in that instant!
Shriiiik!
The giant’s body split cleanly in two—bisected with perfect symmetry.
Boom…….
The precisely halved corpse crashed down with tremendous force.
Even in death, the giant never knew what had struck it.
“Good grief, these creatures just keep popping up.”
A quiet voice came from somewhere.
Mathew’s frozen gaze snapped toward the source of the sound.
A single figure standing behind the fallen giant.
The darkness made it difficult to see clearly, but the figure appeared to be an Academy student.
‘A student?’ he breathed.
Mathew wondered if the darkness had clouded his judgment.
Yet the garment glimpsed in the gloom was unmistakably… Academy uniform?
And in the student’s hand lay a Dark-colored Sword of peculiar make—the kind that whispered what the giant had just suffered.
“An A-rank Demon Beast, here in the Capital itself.”
It was Seres who stood over the fallen giant, tongue clicking in displeasure.
The moment she confirmed the Black Forest’s emergence, Seres moved to find Antonian and Yulia.
Logically, she should be heading for the boss—that was the fastest way to achieve Destruction of the Black Forest.
Yet her feet carried her not toward the boss, but toward the building where her siblings were.
How could she hunt the boss without confirming their safety first?
If something happened to them while she was away, who would bear the responsibility?
She made for the classroom where Yulia—the youngest, the most fragile—was waiting.
But as she ran, she found soldiers under attack, and she could not simply pass them by.

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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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