Time Healer Ceres

Seeing the man sniffle as he wiped at his teary eyes, Ceres instinctively took a step back. She had never met anyone like him before, so she had no idea how to deal with someone like this.

“So you’re my parents’ frie...”

“Gino.”

“...Pardon?”

“Not ‘you.’ Call me Uncle Gino.”

“Um...”

“Uncle Gino.”

“.....”

“Uncle.”

“...Uncle.”

“Gino.”

“...Gino.”

“That’s right. I’m Uncle Gino. Goodness, our Ceres has an excellent memory. You remembered my name after hearing it only once.”

...Didn’t he keep repeating it until I finally said it?

Seriously... what’s with this man?

She had a strange feeling she was being pulled along at his pace.

Tap.

“—!”

Just as Ceres instinctively started to step back again, she froze when a gentle hand rested on her head.

“You’ve been through so much.”

Once again, Ceres was speechless. She couldn’t even ask what he meant.

The faint smile on his face made the sorrow in his eyes stand out all the more. She had never realized that someone’s smile could look so heartbreakingly sad.

“If you don’t mind, would you talk with me for a bit?”

Maybe it was because of the look on his face. Whatever the reason, Ceres found herself nodding without resistance. It was something she normally would never have done.

***

“My aunt?”

“Yeah, that woman. Goodness, our Ceres is too kind for her own good. You still call her your aunt?”

Duke Nora led her to a dessert café near the Academy. After ordering one of every cake on display, he kept nudging the plates toward her, urging her to eat.

I’ve been thinking this for a while now... Is it just me, or does this man keep treating me like a kid?

He brought her to a brightly decorated dessert café, and out of every drink on the menu, he specifically ordered her a glass of milk.

Not that cake is only for children.

Without bothering to refuse, Ceres picked up her fork and accepted the slice Duke Nora offered.

“So, how much did my aunt swindle out of you?”

After Duke Nora explained, the sweetness of the cake disappeared from her mouth.

“The amount isn’t what matters.”

“I think it matters.”

Her aunt had been bleeding him for money all along. After the divorce, she received no alimony. Once she landed in prison, she couldn’t even pay Ceres and her siblings a single cent of the court-ordered compensation.

Which means she’d already stashed away another source of money.

She’d been making sure she’d have a way to support herself after getting out of prison.

“...Ha.”

Unbelievable.

“It wasn’t just me.”

“...What?”

“There were two others.”

Duke Nora slid another slice of cake topped with a plump strawberry toward Ceres before continuing.

“She told me Julia was sick.”

When Ceres’s parents died in a sudden accident, the three heads of ducal families were all faced with the same dilemma. Every one of them wanted to bring their late friends’ children home, become their guardians, and raise them as their own.

But none of them could.

For generations, the three ducal houses had protected their respective regions, making enemies at every turn. The threats didn’t come only from outside. Even within their own ranks, countless people were waiting for a chance to exploit a weakness.

The moment they acknowledged the children publicly, those children would become targets. That much was inevitable, and it was exactly what gave them pause.

“Your parents wouldn’t have wanted that either.”

Very few people even knew they were close to Ceres’s parents. Respecting their friends’ wish for a quiet life, they had kept contact to a minimum. In public, they had gone so far as to act like the friendship they had shared in their youth no longer existed.

So, would stepping forward as the children’s guardians really be the right thing to do, knowing it would paint targets on the backs of children who were still so young?

“Then someone came to see us.”

“Could it be....”

“Yeah. That woman.”

It was Agne, Ceres’s aunt.

Having grown up watching the friendship between Ceres’s parents and the three heads, she knew all about their relationship. As soon as the accident claimed both their lives, she wasted no time taking advantage of it.

She started asking all three heads for money. Every time she claimed Julia was ill, they handed it over without hesitation.

“She was our friend’s little sister. I trusted her.”

None of them had any reason to suspect her. Ceres’s parents had always described Agne as a kind younger sister who doted on her nieces and nephew. Knowing she had become the children’s guardian gave them some peace of mind.

I should’ve sent someone to keep watch.

Someone to watch over the children. If he had, he would’ve uncovered Agne’s abuse much sooner.

However, there was no one he could trust. The betrayal of the very subordinate he had trusted most had completely crippled his intelligence network. It took four years to rebuild it.

And somehow, the same thing happened to all three houses.

It wasn’t only House Nora. The other two ducal houses had suffered the same blow.

Naturally, they suspected there was more to it. There was no way all three intelligence networks could collapse at the same time by coincidence.

But the traitor took his own life.

To this day, the one behind it all remained unknown. After that betrayal, they had no choice but to approach everything with greater caution, leaving them unable to keep an eye on the children.

As if that weren’t enough, monsters constantly emerged in the territories they defended at the edges of the continent, demanding their full attention. Black Forests also kept appearing more often than before, and the monsters roaming the frontier had grown increasingly restless.

Whenever a Black Forest appeared, the monsters seemed drawn to it. They became frenzied and threw themselves at human settlements without end.

They couldn’t afford to lower their guard for even a moment. Inevitably, the children living safely in the capital were pushed further and further down their list of priorities.

In the end, the only way the three of them could ease their guilt was by sending Agne the large sums she demanded. They convinced themselves everything was fine through the updates she brought about Ceres and her siblings.

To think I put my faith in a few photographs.

Looking at those pictures of the children smiling brightly, they truly believed Julia was getting better. They thought all three children were living comfortably on the money they sent... they were fools.

Then, one day, Agne’s updates stopped coming altogether. The letters that had arrived without fail two or three times a week suddenly ceased. Only then did they discover the truth.

“We were fooled by that woman all along.”

When the three heads learned that Agne was imprisoned, they were left speechless.

She had lied to them and taken their money. They could’ve overlooked that. After all, she was their late friend’s younger sister. For his sake, they could’ve forgiven that much.

“But she hurt you children.”

Poisoning Julia, then using her illness to drive Ceres [N O V E L I G H T] into borrowing money from loan sharks... that was something they could never forgive.

In the end, Ceres...

The memory of hearing that news for the first time washed over Duke Nora once again. He sighed heavily.

“Ceres.”

Duke Nora quietly watched Ceres. The girl clicked her tongue, clearly frustrated by everything she had just heard.

“I’m sorry.”

“...Huh?”

Ceres blinked in surprise. Agne was the one who had wronged them, so why was he apologizing?

“I made the wrong choice.”

All he could think about was keeping the children hidden from those who had their eyes on the ducal houses. He was so focused on protecting them that he ended up lowering his guard where it mattered most.

“I’m sorry for trusting that woman so easily.”

“......”

Meeting his gaze, Ceres let out a quiet sigh. Once again, she could see that deep, lingering sorrow in his eyes.

“You... no, Uncle Gino. You’re not the one who should be apologizing.”

When she addressed him as “you,” Duke Nora’s shoulders visibly drooped, so she hurriedly corrected herself.

“You really don’t have anything to apologize for.”

She meant every word. If anything, what amazed her was everything he had done. He had willingly given away that much money simply because they were his friend’s children.

“Thank you.”

She bowed her head politely.

...Sigh.

A sudden ache settled in her chest.

If the real Ceres had known all this sooner, would she still have chosen to end her life?

The image of the girl desperately reaching out for help surfaced in her mind once more. If only she’d known... perhaps this man would’ve been there to take her hand.

Agne... that woman really is something.

How am I ever supposed to repay this?

“I didn’t kill her.”

“...What?”

At his voice, Ceres looked up. Duke Nora smiled to himself before taking a slow sip of his drink.

“I’m talking about that woman. I didn’t kill her.”

He paused briefly.

“At least, not yet.”

“......”

...Not yet? Does that mean he might?

“Um, Uncle?”

“Yes?”

“What do you do for a living?”

Come to think of it, she still had no idea who he was. Anyone who could hand over that much money without hesitation couldn’t possibly be an ordinary person.

“Me?”

Still smiling, Duke Nora lifted his fork and mimed digging into the ground.

“I farm in the south...”

“Oh.”

So he’s a farmer. His farm must be enormous. How else could he hand over that much money casually?

“I’m the head of House Nora.”

“...I’m sorry?”

...The head of where?

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