“A messenger.”
As soon as Kainel spoke, someone stepped out of hiding. It was Ben, one of the Sky guild’s agents. A scowl was plastered on his face.
Ben shot Del a disbelieving look. The aide was standing there with a pleasant smile, as though he hadn’t been glaring at him with murderous intent just moments ago.
“Why is everyone I meet like this?”
Ben let out a long sigh.
First Ceres, then Kainel, and now the aide. Why was everyone he met lately so quick to notice him? At this rate, maybe it was time to retire as an informant.
“What is it?”
“You told me to report anything unusual.”
Ben scratched the back of his head irritably.
Not long ago, he’d received direct orders from the guild’s leader. If anything out of the ordinary happened around Ceres, Kainel was to hear about it first.
“Did something happen?”
“The princess came to the shop.”
“The princess?”
Kainel’s brows furrowed. Princess Nailia and Ceres had no reason to meet privately, did they?
“They’re heading to the Imperial Palace together right now.”
“The Imperial Palace?”
***
“This way.”
Following Princess Nailia, Ceres entered the Imperial Palace and was led straight to the princess’s residence.
Her palace stood not far from the Emperor’s main residence. Much like its owner, it was...
...depressingly bare.
Winter might be just around the corner, but not a single flower?
Having visited the greenhouse with Cheion before, Ceres found the view even more striking. The palace grounds were so immaculate they felt almost lifeless.
“This is what I’d like you to restore.”
After leading her into the reception room and having her seated, Nailia instructed a maid to bring something over. When the object was placed on the table, Ceres frowned.
“Is collecting junk a hobby of yours?”
“Sadly, no.”
The item Nailia showed her was an old bracelet so rusted that its original color had long since disappeared.
There wasn’t a single gemstone set into it. It looked pitiful enough that even if it were tossed onto the side of the road, no one would bother picking it up.
“You want me to restore this?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“It belonged to my late mother.”
“Ah...”
I take that back. It’s not trash after all.
“I forgot about it for a while and neglected its upkeep. By the time I found it again, it had ended up like this.”
To be fair, the bracelet had always been old. Still, it never looked this worn.
Since Nailia wasn’t attending the Academy for the time being, she had decided to use the opportunity to restore it properly. She tried cleaning it herself and even used various treatments and solutions, but nothing made a difference.
She also consulted craftsmen who specialized in jewelry and precious metals, yet none of them could do anything about it. No matter what methods they tried, the corrosion remained.
In the end, every one of them left shaking their heads, unable to even identify what material the bracelet was made from.
And so, the last person Nailia could think of was Ceres.
“Understood.”
“Are you not going to ask anything else?”
Why she wanted the bracelet restored so badly, for one thing.
Princess Nailia looked at Ceres with curiosity. The girl had agreed far more readily than expected.
As Ceres herself had pointed out, they weren’t close enough for Nailia to suddenly show up and ask a favor of her.
“Do I need to?”
If someone wanted to restore a keepsake left behind by their mother, what more was there to ask?
Ignoring Nailia’s curious stare, Ceres pulled a small glass bottle from her pocket. Just like when she’d restored the letter before, it was simply a bottle of water.
Drip.
Ceres let a few drops fall onto the bracelet, then lightly brushed her fingers across its surface. The moment she touched it, the bracelet should’ve [N O V E L I G H T] returned to its original state.
Huh?
...Except it didn’t.
What?
She’d figured turning back ten years or so would be enough to clean it up. Instead, only a tiny patch of the blackened metal showed the slightest change.
She turned back another ten years.
Huh?
Another ten.
Well, that’s odd.
Another. Then another. Again and again...
As she kept turning back time, adding another drop of “restoration potion” each time...
“Y-You’re bleeding!”
Drip.
“Ah, damn...”
Her nose had started bleeding.
Only after rewinding two hundred years did the bracelet finally return to its original form.
Pressing the towel Nailia hurriedly handed her against her nose, Ceres stared at the bracelet, now gleaming with a silver sheen.
“Are you alright?”
“Mmhm.”
Ugh. Pinching her nose shut made her sound ridiculous.
Either way, Ceres was just as shocked. Who would’ve thought restoring one bracelet would leave her with a nosebleed?
Hah...
And now she knew exactly why.
“This...”
“Yes. It’s just a silver bracelet.”
A silver bracelet without so much as a gemstone set into it.
“Still, my mother treasured it dearly. I never knew why.”
Her late mother had received it from her grandmother. The bracelet had remained in the family for generations.
No one seemed to know what made it special. The only thing that had survived was the instruction to cherish it.
As for why it ended up with Nailia rather than her older brother Alex, the reason was simple. It was a woman’s bracelet.
“But it looks much better now.”
She had kept it because it was one of her mother’s belongings. But if she were honest, she’d almost forgotten it existed.
It wasn’t as though an old, worn bracelet was something she’d take out and admire on a regular basis.
“You don’t know what this is, do you?”
“What?”
Isn’t it just a bracelet?
“Hmm.”
Well, that wasn’t surprising. It wasn’t exactly a common item.
“Have you ever heard of a Tamer Relic?”
“A Tamer Relic? Of course I have.”
Who haven’t?
But why bring that up now?
“...Wait.”
For the first time, Nailia’s calm composure cracked. Her voice rose.
“Are you saying this is a Tamer Relic?!”
Yeah, figures.
Tamer Relics.
Among ancient relics, some possessed extraordinary powers. Those relics were known as Tamer Relics. Whoever awakened the power sealed within became the relic’s master.
How do I know that?
Because she’d once been its master.
The ring passed down to the head of House Ellesia, the very symbol of the family. That ring was a Tamer Relic.
The power sealed within it was Jubelios, the King of Fire Spirits. No one knew who had first awakened the relic. The only thing known for certain was that the person had belonged to House Ellesia.
Once someone became the master of a Tamer Relic, they formed a contract with the power dwelling inside it.
Jubelios’s contract was to lend his strength to whoever inherited the ring. Bound by that contract, he was still protecting the head of the family even now.
Tamer Relics were incredibly rare even in Ceres’s time, which was why the family head’s ring had always been treated as something special.
It was probably no different now. No wonder Princess Nailia was so shocked.
Ceres’s gaze drifted back to the bracelet on the table. On the surface, a Tamer Relic looked no different from an ordinary relic. But...
I can tell right away.
Maybe it was because she’d owned one for so many years. The moment the bracelet returned to its original form, Ceres recognized it.
There’s a strange aura from it.
It was difficult to explain. The closest thing she could compare it to was a faint warmth, subtle but unmistakable.
People would laugh if she claimed a piece of metal was warm, but she couldn’t think of any better way to describe it.
The family head’s ring felt the same when I first put it on.
Perhaps Herion, the current head of House Ellesia, could feel it too.
“A Tamer Relic...”
Princess Nailia had grown up hearing stories about them as well.
Relics capable of granting immense power. Even now, there were only a handful of known Tamer Relics in the Empire... no, on the entire continent.
Among them, the most famous one was the King of Fire Spirits possessed by House Ellesia.
“So what’s inside it?”
“No idea.”
It could contain a Spirit King like Jubelios or some form of ancient magic.
There’s also a good chance it’s completely useless.
Long ago, there was supposedly a Tamer Relic whose ability prevented its owner from getting drunk, no matter how much alcohol they consumed.
...Wait. That’s actually the kind of relic I need!
She wondered if someone out there was still making good use of it.
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