Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 9

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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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At that moment, a fissure appeared in the empty space, and a dark portal opened up.
“Oh, it’s opening?”
A Subspace that Artia, her old friend and former Master of the Magic Tower, had created for her.
‘No Mana required at all.’
‘No Mana?’
‘Right! You can open it whenever and wherever you want. Now you can just keep Medicinal Materials here. You don’t have to pack them separately when you go out for house calls.’
‘I see.’
‘Do you like it?’
‘Yes.’
‘I’m far more useful than that Kainel fellow, aren’t I?’
‘Yes.’
‘Hehe!’
Since it was such a delightful gift, she’d simply given the answer Artia wanted to hear.
Most of all, because there was no limit to storage capacity, it was perfectly suited for Grace. She could store countless medicinal herbs with ease.
It was even more useful because Preservation Magic was already woven into it.
“It’s connected to the soul, or so she said.”
That’s what Artia had told her when she first received this space.
She’d said that because the space was connected to her soul, she wouldn’t need an incantation—she could open it with just a thought.
That must have been true, because even though her body had changed, it was still connected to her.
“There should still be a few of these left.”
Ceres thrust her hand directly into the dark space without hesitation.
A moment later, a single sheet of rolled paper tied with string emerged.
This too was made by Artia—a Teleportation Magic Item that would transport anyone who tore the paper to wherever they wished to go.
‘It is precious, I suppose.’
Back then, the amount of Mana required for teleportation over distance was staggering, though she couldn’t say what it was like now.
Kainel had also desperately coveted this Teleportation Magic Item.
‘Sell it to me. I’ll pay any price.’
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because then you’d visit Grace more often. I wouldn’t want to see that, not even if I died trying to avoid it.’
‘Want to die over it? I could arrange that. Let me help you experience it firsthand.’
‘Try it then, you frozen block!’
‘You two! Kainel, put that sword away this instant! Artia, if you cast one more spell in here, you’re both banned for half a year, got it?’
‘Ugh! Half a year is too harsh, Grace!’
‘Enough! Both of you, out! Don’t cause trouble for the patients!’
“Strange how they always fight the moment they meet.”
One was too cold, the other too spirited—maybe that’s why?
They say opposites attract, but these two didn’t seem to follow that rule.
In any case, as a result, Kainel had never once gotten to use the Teleportation Magic Item.
“Gur Village… Gur Village…….”
Ceres checked the village’s coordinates several times over, then tore the paper at once.
Whoosh!
Bright light poured forth, and in an instant, her figure vanished from that place.
* * *
“Aeri, did you finish serving the meals?”
“Yes, I just finished.”
A woman in her mid-thirties approached Aeri, who was descending the stairs—a woman in her early twenties—and spoke to her.
“Everyone’s so pleased to have meat dishes again. We’ve had mostly vegetarian meals for so long.”
“That’s right.”
“But that meat, wasn’t it the same as before? The lowest grade quality that’s hard to sell on the——”
“Aeri, watch your words.”
“Oh! Yes!”
At Julie’s warning, Aeri hastily covered her mouth with her hand.
“Our sanatorium has always used only the finest ingredients. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
Arnold Sanatorium, situated at the edge of Gur Village.
A pristine white building, elegantly constructed, housed quite a number of residents undergoing care.
Arnold Sanatorium advertised that everything—from food ingredients to Medicinal Materials—was provided at the highest quality.
Of course, the reality was quite different.
Using expired ingredients was standard practice, and they had never once prescribed the premium medicinal materials listed on the invoices to the patients.
A sanatorium that gleamed on the surface alone.
Yet it could operate without incident because most of those who stayed here were elderly people with limited mobility and significantly diminished cognitive abilities.
There was another trait the patients shared that made running the sanatorium remarkably easy.
Namely, they had no family members who came to visit.
No one objected to the recommendation that visitors refrain from calling for the patient’s peace of mind.
Rather, the guardians were all quite pleased to blame their own guilt at not visiting on the sanatorium’s policies.
“What about the girl in the end room?”
“I’ve already given her something.”
“You confirmed she ate it?”
“Well…….”
“Aeri!”
For the first time, a sharp tone burst from Julie’s lips.
“Oh, no. I was genuinely busy. I handled almost all the meals by myself today, I’m telling you.”
Aeri whined with grievance, but Julie’s fierce gaze did not fade easily.
Among the numerous patients, there was one being who drew particular attention from the staff—a seven-year-old girl named Yulia.
The problem, however, was that the attention they paid her was not the same as caring for her properly.
“Tsk. Come along.”
“Yes.”
It seemed Julie intended to check in person whether the girl had finished her meal, and Aeri followed behind her with nervous steps.
“Actually, Julie—”
As Aeri followed quietly, she simply could not understand the situation.
Eventually, she ventured to ask a question that had always puzzled her.
“Why do you always have to watch the girl eat everything? You don’t do that with the other patients.”
Of course, it was their job to check on whether patients were eating well and to care for them.
But when had they ever actually done such a thing?
‘But why does that little one get this treatment?’
They didn’t just check whether she’d finished her meals; they also thoroughly blocked any contact from her family.
The girl’s letters were not sent to her family at all—they simply kept them hidden away.
‘Why on earth?’
They didn’t go to such lengths for the other patients.
They did check the letters of other patients, worried they might write something unfavorable about the sanatorium.
But they never went so far as to completely sever Yulia’s connections with her family the way they did.
“You just do what you’re told.”
“Yes.”
Under Julie’s sharp gaze, Aeri dared not ask further questions and quietly continued following behind her.
Anyway, what did it matter to her if the child was isolated or grew distant from her family? She was paid to do her work, nothing more.
Click.
“Yulia, did you finish your meal——!”
Moments later, as Julie and Aeri entered the room situated at the far corner of the building, they could not finish their words.
“Who… who are you?”
…….
A strange woman standing beside the sleeping child slowly turned her head to look at the two of them.
In her hand was a soup bowl that the girl had left half-finished.
“What are you doing right now?”
Realizing what was happening, Julie approached the woman hurriedly, unable to hide her shock.
“Ah, ah!”
But when Julie reached out to snatch the bowl, the woman simply stepped back with a light, easy movement, leaving Julie’s hand grasping at air.
As she stumbled forward, nearly falling, the woman caught her lightly.
The woman’s violet eyes gleamed with an icy cold as they met at close range.
“Is this the food made from premium ingredients and the finest medicinal materials?”
“That——!”
At the woman’s words, Julie and Aeri’s faces darkened with panic.
The food in the bowl was so shoddy that the word “premium” rang hollow.
It seemed the woman was not truly waiting for an answer, as her gaze shifted back to the bowl.
“Interesting.”
…Yet her face showed no amusement at all.
Why did the way she lifted one corner of her mouth send such a chill down their spines?
Julie and Aeri both swallowed hard without meaning to.
“By the way, who are you?”
It was only after a long moment that Julie finally regained her senses, asking the same question as before.
She certainly didn’t work here……. Could this child be someone she knew?
Family, perhaps?
‘Impossible.’
The director had been adamant about it.
Yulia, no one will ever come looking for that child.
So just manage her well.
He’d proclaimed with such confidence that nothing could go wrong, short of heaven and earth turning upside down.
“…….”
As if to mock Julie’s anxious fretting, the woman who’d been asked the question offered no response for a long time. She simply stared at the child sleeping before her as though transfixed, unblinking.
“…sister.”
“Yes?”
After a long pause, at the woman’s softly uttered words, both their eyes began to tremble as though they’d lost all sense of direction.
“I’m her older sister.”

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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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