Time Healer Ceres

Side Story: Sooty

“When are you going to wake up?”

Yaaawn... I’m sleepy...

That voice again. The voice that always showed up right when I was about to fall asleep!

I stretched out my curled-up body and wriggled in annoyance.

So annoying! I’m trying to sleep here!

“Am I really going to have to wait thirty years?”

...Thirty years? I tilted my head at the strange words.

That’s not right, though. I need to sleep for at least three hundred years.

Otherwise, how am I supposed to get out of here?

“I want to see you already.”

I’m curious about you too! The one who keeps waking me up every time! I’m going to yank out all your hair!

The voice that kept interrupting my precious sleep was incredibly irritating. Couldn’t they just leave me alone?

Still, as soon as the noise outside died down, drowsiness crept over me once more.

Yaaawn... Back to sleep...

“Are you talking to the egg again?”

That was when a new voice appeared.

What’s this? That’s weird.

I could feel a pleasant energy. It was completely different from mine, yet somehow, it felt strangely familiar.

“Instead of talking to that black egg, why don’t you go see the Tower Master? He keeps complaining that all you do these days is slack off instead of researching.”

“Huh...? Grace, look! It moves when you talk.”

“You’ve been staring at that egg for so long you’re seeing things now.”

“No, really! I’m serious!”

“Sure you are. Now get out before I crack that egg open.”

“Waaah! Don’t crack the egg!”

I immediately rooted for the person who’d been bothering me this whole time.

That’s right! Don’t crack it! I’m perfectly happy sleeping in here, so why would you crack me open? I’ll bite you too!

“That’s Grace. Listen carefully. Once you wake up, she’s the one you have to follow no matter what.”

I have to follow that woman?

For some reason, the thought made me want to rebel. But oddly enough, it didn’t feel all that bad. Why was that?

“She may not look like it, but she gets lonely easily. She also has a bad habit of throwing herself into danger, so you’ll have to look after her.”

Look after her... A woman with a nice aura. Me, protecting her... Yaaawn, I’m sleepy...

“Today, Grace...”

“Did you hear? Grace...”

“Our Grace...”

It was always about that woman. Grace, Grace, Grace!

I clamped my front paws over my ears.

I’m going to sleep. Stop talking so much, human. Mmm...

.

Things were noisy all day today.

I was swishing my tail around when I heard another strange conversation.

“Are you really going to put it in there?”

“Yep!”

“Why?”

“I’m tired of staring at it every day.”

You’re going to bury me? Does that mean you won’t keep disturbing my sleep anymore? Great! I want to go into the ground!

I wagged my tail excitedly. After a few jolts and a soft click, the world finally went quiet.

Now I can finally sleep in peace... Yaaawn...

I think I slept soundly for quite a while after that.

Someone’s voice eventually pulled me out of my peaceful sleep.

“Hello.”

The voice sounded familiar, but not quite. I flapped my wings a few times as I thought hard.

Who was it? Who had come to see me?

“You still don’t show any signs of waking up. It’s already been thirty years.”

Huh? It was you? The chatterbox who used to bother me nonstop?

Your voice sounded a little different, so I didn’t recognize you at first!

But thirty years?

I felt like I’d only dozed off for a little while. But thirty years had already passed?

I was a little glad to hear that, but before long, drowsiness washed over me again. I couldn’t be bothered to think about anything else.

Mmm. I still want to sleep...

“Looks like I won’t be the one to meet you after all.”

Huh? Are you burying me again? Great!

“Are you waiting for her too, like I am? Maybe it was meant to be from the start. Even back when I first brought you out, you only ever reacted to her voice.”

Who? Grace? That woman with the pleasant aura?

“Don’t forget. She’s the one you have to protect.”

Protect...

Yaaawn.

Grace...

The chatterbox muttered something else in a voice that sounded heavier than before, but sleep had already overtaken me. I couldn’t make out the rest.

“Please... in my stead... make sure...”

.

It’s cramped...

I’m sick of being stuck in here.

I want out.

A lot of time had passed. I didn’t know exactly how much, but it had been a really, really long time.

I twisted my stiff body this way and that, swishing my tail and flexing my wings.

I want out! I’m done sleeping! Somebody let me out! I want to get out of here!

I struggled for what felt like ages, but I didn’t have the strength to break the egg.

I don’t know how long I stayed dejected like that before I suddenly felt a familiar presence.

“Digging holes happens to be my hobby.”

...That presence?

It’s her! Grace!

As soon as I realized it was Grace, energy flooded my body. I immediately slammed my head against whatever was trapping me inside.

Crack!

“...Crack?”

I have to get out! I need to get out! It’s Grace!

Tap... crack, tap, tap!

Craaack...!

[Buuu!]

Sunlight! I’m finally out!

Before I was buried underground, I never cared much for sunlight. If anything, it annoyed me because that chatterbox kept dragging me into bright places, babbling about photosynthesis.

But maybe because it had been so long, or maybe because I wasn’t sleepy anymore, the warm, sparkling sunlight felt wonderful.

[Buuu?]

Where’s Grace? Where did she go?

I looked around frantically until someone suddenly caught my eye.

“What’s that?”

[Buuu!]

There she is!

Flap flap!

This is where I belong from now on!

I flew straight toward her.

I settled comfortably on top of her head and purred, but the human beside her suddenly started saying strange things.

“Have you ever seen a dragon this small?”

“No.”

A dragon? Me?

I’m not a dragon, though.

Huh? Huh...?

For some reason, Grace suddenly grabbed me and lifted me off her head. Upset, I puffed out my cheeks and protested.

[Bbu!]

Why? I was sitting there very quietly! That’s my spot! The chatterbox said so!

While I was throwing a tantrum, Grace asked,

“What are you exactly?”

Me? I am...

“Don’t forget. She’s the one you have to protect. In my place... please...”

The chatterbox’s last request.

And you, the one he wanted me to protect. The one with that warm, comforting aura.

Okay! I promise!

I’ll protect her for you!

[Bbuuu!]

So let’s be together from now on.

.

.

.

Chapter 34: Priest Ersi

“Say aaah.”

Bite.

“Drink this too.”

Gulp.

“Your hand.”

She obediently held it out.

“...Your Excellency, I think that’s enough.”

The aide Del let out a quiet sigh and quickly excused himself. At this point, it seemed he’d have to bring back some cold water to snap her out of it.

After Del left, Kainel looked down at Ceres’s hand resting in his and spoke again.

“What are you thinking about so deeply?”

This was the first time he’d ever seen Ceres this out of it. She was eating whatever he handed her and offering him her hand without hesitation.

Seeing her like this, he immediately knew something must’ve happened.

“Did something happen at the temple?”

Maybe he should’ve gone with her after all, even if he had to force his way in.

He’d already heard that she had become the owner of the Tamer’s relic. The Imperial Family was doing everything it could to keep the news from spreading, but that hardly mattered to Kainel. He had been making use of the Sky intelligence network for quite some time now.

“Kai.”

“Tell me. Did someone give you a hard time?”

Ceres continued to stare at him with slightly dazed eyes. Meanwhile, he smiled like he were ready to drag the culprit over that very instant.

“Enoch.”

“...Who?”

“Enoch.”

“.....”

Kainel unconsciously sucked in a sharp breath.

It was the first time.

The first time Ceres had acknowledged, of her own accord, that she was Grace.

Enoch.

The name of Grace’s beloved disciple, a name only Grace herself could know, had just come from Ceres’s lips.

“...Why are you suddenly asking about him?”

Kainel suppressed the rush of nostalgia threatening to overwhelm him before asking again.

“When was the last time you saw him?”

“At the funeral.”

“Ah...”

There was no need to ask whose funeral he meant. It must’ve been hers.

“That was the last time?”

“I never left the Grand Duchy after that.”

Ceres shot him an incredulous look.

Are you serious?

How could a person neglect a friend’s family for so long? If he’d stopped by every once in a while and looked after them, House Ellesia wouldn’t have ended up in such a mess!

“You told me to leave them alone.”

“What?”

“You said not to interfere.”

“Don’t touch the children.”

“Don’t take your anger over my death out on them.”

“Don’t hit them, don’t kill them. Just leave them alone.”

...She had said that. She’d even grabbed Kainel by the collar when he’d come to see her for the last time before she died.

Still, leaving them alone for three hundred years? What the hell was wrong with him?

Then again, what did I expect?

She was the one at fault for forgetting, even for a second, what kind of person Kainel was. The man had never understood the meaning of moderation.

“I did hear something about Enoch afterward.”

“What?”

“That he never became the head of the family.”

“He didn’t become the head?”

What was that supposed to mean? She had personally passed the patriarch’s ring down to Enoch. Was he saying someone else had taken the position?

“I heard he left the family shortly after Grace died. He handed the position over to someone else before he left.”

“.....”

Why?

Ceres couldn’t make sense of it. She knew better than anyone that Enoch had never wanted to become head of the family. Every time she’d offered him the position, he’d vehemently refused and shaken his head.

But to actually abandon the title and leave?

“Haaah.”

Look at that punk. The moment his master died, he went and ignored her final wishes.

Ceres laughed in disbelief and rose from her seat.

“Where are you going?”

“The training grounds.”

“The training grounds? All of a sudden?”

“To see that punk.”

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