Time Healer Ceres

“Aaaahhh!”

“Move! Move!”

“You move!”

“N-No way am I coming in last!”

The runners at the front finally came into sight. They were charging ahead like their lives depended on it, sprinting with wild desperation.

They were students. Not a single knight was among them.

“Graaah! First place is mine!”

“Holy sh*t...”

“Haaah.”

As soon as those students crossed the finish line, they dropped on the spot. They had pushed themselves to the limit, and none of them could breathe properly.

The funny thing was that no one seemed interested in how the knights had done.

“Haa... haa... Who was it? Who came in last?”

“Roia.”

“Pfft!”

“Damn it... haaah...”

The students snickered as they looked at Roia, who had crossed the finish line last. Apparently, avoiding last place was the only thing any of them cared about.

“What about the Ellesia knights?”

[Hmph! Idiots! Those fools aren’t even worthy of being called that! How can they call themselves knights when they have less stamina than a bunch of children?!]

The gap between the children and the knights became obvious when the magic weight bags came off.

At first, they had been running neck and neck. But by the middle of the rocky mountain course, the knights had already fallen behind and could no longer keep pace with the students.

Of course, the fact that the knights were unfamiliar with the terrain while the children trained here every day undoubtedly played a part. Even so, losing this badly to middle division trainees showed there was a serious problem.

I’d already expected this.

Those knights barely trained and lacked real combat experience to begin with. Ceres never once thought the children would lose to them.

That was exactly why she’d proposed the bet.

It’s not like I’d start something if I didn’t know I could win.

[Here they come.]

Just as Jubellios said, figures finally appeared in the distance, staggering toward them as they gasped for breath.

Their appearance was completely different from when they’d started. Sometime along the way, every one of them had ditched their heavy armor. It might have looked impressive, but it was useless for running.

“Haaahh...”

They’re acting like they’re about to drop dead after one run.

And they’re still finishing long after the kids.

Ceres clicked her tongue at the pathetic sight.

“Hrk!”

“Haa... haaah...”

Like the students before them, the knights stumbled back across the finish line and collapsed on the spot, all sense of dignity forgotten.

“Phew...”

Knight Captain Tylo wasn’t much different. To his credit, he had finished ahead of the rest of the knights.

Still, while he hadn’t outright collapsed, he was leaning heavily against a nearby tree, struggling to steady his breathing.

“My, my.”

“—!”

Ceres strolled over and deliberately clicked her tongue as she looked at him.

“It seems every one of you failed the test.”

“—!”

Tylo raised his head from where he stood against the tree, his face twisted with frustration.

“This test was unfair.”

“How so?”

“You should’ve told us the course was this brutal beforehand. If we’d known, we never would’ve agreed to it!”

“Why does that matter?”

“How does that not matter...”

“What matters is that you lost to those kids.”

“That’s—”

“Enough.”

Flap!

Before Tylo could continue, Ceres cut him off and pulled a sheet of paper from her pocket. It was the contract he had signed.

“A promise is a promise.”

“Hah!”

When Tylo saw the contract, he scoffed.

“And what if I don’t keep it?”

What was she going to do with a piece of paper? If they refused, then they refused.

Of course, he had no intention of submitting another resignation letter. He still had his pride as a knight.

That said, he had absolutely no intention of honoring every demand written in that contract, either.

“You’ve got a point. It’s only a piece of paper.”

“...?”

He’d expected her to get angry. Instead, Ceres simply folded the contract and slipped it back into her pocket.

“Why don’t we continue this conversation somewhere else?”

With the gentlest smile she’d shown all day, Ceres pointed into the distance. There stood a massive tree.

Was she suggesting they talk over there? What for?

“Sure.”

Tylo snorted. Naturally, he assumed she was backing down. Without a second thought, he followed after her.

“May God watch over him.”

“He looks too young to die like this.”

“Poor guy.”

The knights could only stare in confusion, but the students gathered nearby looked at Tylo’s retreating back with open sympathy.

It didn’t take long to find out why.

“AAAAAAARGH...!”

A scream tore through the air.

“W-What was that?!”

“What was that sound?!”

“Urgh... AAAAAARGH!”

“I-Isn’t that the captain’s voice?!”

“—!”

The knights sprang to their feet and started toward the place where Ceres and Tylo had disappeared.

But before they could take more than a few steps—

“You really shouldn’t.”

“Yeah. Trust me, you don’t want to.”

“That’s where she likes to have her talks.”

“My sister’s a big believer in hands-on communication.”

“Mm-hm. She absolutely loves it.”

The students quickly blocked their path.

“If you’re set on joining him, be our guest.”

“She’ll probably appreciate your team spirit before she breaks you too.”

The children spoke from experience.

Once, they had all banded together and refused to train unless they were given a break. Ceres had dragged them to that very spot. Ever since then, none of them had even dreamed of asking for time off.

The worst part was that after getting beaten black and blue, they’d be fully recovered in less than ten minutes and sent straight back to training.

“Want a word of advice?”

“...Advice?”

The knights looked completely lost. Meanwhile, the students wore unusually serious expressions.

“Don’t ever pick a fight with her.”

“Yeah. Unless you want to end up like that.”

“AAAAAAARGH...!”

As if to prove their point, another agonized scream echoed through the air.

Gulp.

The knights swallowed in unison before quietly sitting back down.

.

.

.

Chapter 31: First Earnings

“So you didn’t kill them after all.”

“Where did that come from?”

Good grief, was he trying to turn her into a murderer? Ceres stared at Kainel like he’d lost his mind.

It had been a while since she’d seen him, and that was the first thing out of his mouth? What was he talking about?

“The knights of House Ellesia.”

“Ah.”

“They looked perfectly healthy.”

“How do you know that?”

So he’d heard about her little run-in with the knights. But from whom?

Clink.

In response to her question, Kainel pulled something from his pocket and dangled it in front of her. It was a black key. Its surface was so dark that no other color seemed to exist on it.

So he went there.

It wasn’t surprising that Kainel possessed one of Sky’s keys. What was surprising was that he’d actually bothered using it.

As far as she knew, he’d [N O V E L I G H T] never once gone looking for the guild all these years.

At least, judging by how the leader asked about the other two keys back then.

So, what suddenly made him visit?

“Aren’t you going to ask what this is?”

“Huh?”

“You’re not supposed to know what key this is.”

“......”

“Shouldn’t you be curious?”

...This j*rk was definitely doing this on purpose.

One look at that infuriating smirk told her everything she needed to know.

Ceres was well aware that Kainel had already concluded she was Grace. And she had never bothered confirming or denying it.

It created a rather odd situation. Both of them were convinced of the truth, yet neither had ever said it out loud.

“Why did you suddenly go there?”

“Just because. I saw someone following you around and got curious.”

Maybe he’d simply wondered whether the place he’d ignored for centuries was still running properly.

The casual answer made Ceres raise an eyebrow.

“So you had them investigate me?”

“Not exactly.”

“Then?”

“They volunteered everything before I even asked.”

...Well, that made sense. Even the leader would value his own life.

Since the key had come up, Ceres decided to ask something she’d been wondering about.

“Do you know where the last one is?”

The final black key that Arti had possessed. Considering Cheion knew absolutely nothing about it, Arti hadn’t left it at the Magic Tower.

“I don’t.”

“You don’t?”

“He never told me.”

“Hm.”

If even Kainel didn’t know, then there was no one who did.

Just where did Arti hide it? He wasn’t the type to simply throw something like that away.

Then again, he did say he had no intention of passing it down to future generations.

Maybe he’d done the same thing she had. Locked it away in a subspace and died before anyone could find it.

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