Time Healer Ceres

Hmm.

While waiting for Duke Schweiss in the reception room, Ceres scratched her cheek under the sharp gaze of the maid standing by the entrance.

Am I being watched right now?

The maid continued to steal glances at her, making no attempt to hide her fierce expression. Seeing that, Ceres chuckled.

The maid was probably unhappy that Ceres had forced her way in and insisted on waiting for the duke. It was understandable. After all, she could be reprimanded for allowing a guest into the mansion without permission.

It’s not like I’m a noble lady from a prestigious family.

The fact that she had become the owner of the Tamer relic hadn’t spread widely yet. To those who knew nothing about it, she was just the daughter of an obscure noble house. It was only natural that someone like her sitting around and waiting to meet an Imperial Duke would look suspicious.

Do I really seem suspicious enough to deserve this?

Bang!

At that moment, the reception room door burst open, and someone entered. It was Duke Schweiss. The maid standing near the door immediately bowed at his appearance.

Confusion filled the maid’s eyes. She’d expected the servant who had gone to report to the Duke in the meeting room to return. She thought she’d hear an order to send the guest away immediately.

But the Duke himself had come? How was she supposed to make sense of this?

“Ceres.”

The sight that followed left the maid speechless. Duke Schweiss walked toward the unfamiliar guest and gently placed his hand on her shoulder.

The gesture itself looked somewhat stiff and unfamiliar, but that was enough to shock the maid. It was the first time she’d ever seen Duke Schweiss show such a close and friendly attitude toward someone. Even if she told her colleagues about this later, they would think she had imagined it.

“Have you been waiting long?”

“No.”

“Did they not prepare any tea?”

Duke Schweiss frowned when he noticed that there was nothing on the table. Although a guest had arrived, they didn’t even prepare refreshments?

The maid standing nearby turned pale at his reaction. Ceres noticed this and spoke up.

“I told them I didn’t need anything.”

“If you don’t want tea, I will have them prepare something else.”

Ceres stopped him again as he gestured for someone to come over.

“No, it’s fine.”

Only then did Duke Schweiss nod and take his seat.

“......”

However, after sitting down, he didn’t say anything else. He simply drank the tea the maid hurriedly brought over in silence. He could’ve easily asked why Ceres had come to see him, but he acted like her visit wasn’t strange at all.

Ceres watched him with mild curiosity before speaking first.

“There’s something I wanted to ask you.”

“Go ahead.”

Seeing him nod as if telling her to ask whatever she wanted, Ceres brought up what she’d heard earlier from House Ellesia.

“I heard you ordered medicine from House Ellesia.”

“I did.”

“And you paid more than twenty times its original price.”

“Because it seemed worth that much.”

“What are you planning to do with all of it?”

“Monsters have been appearing frequently in the western regions as well.”

I know. I know that. But who would buy a huge amount of medicine while paying that much money?

And so suddenly, too? Not to mention paying a large advance upfront?

“I heard that all the families who recently placed orders are connected to this place.”

It wasn’t only House Schweiss. Recently, several other families also ordered enormous quantities of medicine out of nowhere. They weren’t offering twenty times the price like House Schweiss, but they were still willing to pay at least ten times more than the usual amount.

All of those families are his vassal houses.

That was something Secretary Juno had told her.

“They must have realized the value of the medicine as well.”

“......”

...Did he {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} just avoid my gaze? Or am I imagining things?

Ceres narrowed her eyes. She couldn’t help but feel suspicious.

“Did you know about the medicine?”

That I was the one who made it.

It was a suspicion she had held ever since she first heard that Duke Schweiss had purchased the medicine at an outrageous price.

Why did he buy so much of it at a high price, even providing the advance payment beforehand? Could it have something to do with her? Could it be that he knew half of the profits from the sales would go to her and was trying to help her? Since she had refused his direct assistance, was he trying to support her in another way?

“I only bought it because the medicine was worth the price.”

Duke Schweiss repeated the same words he’d said earlier. However...

...Why do you keep avoiding my eyes?

Despite his calm expression, he subtly avoided her gaze. Ceres stared at him in disbelief.

A moment later, a chuckle escaped her lips.

Here I thought he would be different.

He’s no different from Uncle Gino or Aunt Rose.

He’s just as soft-hearted as they are.

That thought would’ve made his vassals faint if they heard it.

Ceres smiled.

“He’s my friend.”

“Your friend?”

“Grand Duke Persia. So please don’t worry too much.”

At her unexpected answer, Duke Schweiss’s eyes widened slightly. However, he soon returned to his usual emotionless expression and shook his head.

“He doesn’t seem like a very good friend.”

He didn’t know what had happened between them, but the fact that Ceres and Grand Duke Persia were close didn’t sit well with him.

He wasn’t someone who judged people solely by rumors, but there were hardly any favorable stories about Grand Duke Persia.

He was cruel and merciless. A man who seemed to lack even the most basic human emotions. Above all, Duke Schweiss didn’t think it was a good idea for Ceres to remain close to someone who’d spent so many years living in isolation.

“I heard he’s cruel.”

“Only to his enemies.”

“I also heard he doesn’t easily let people get close to him.”

“He’s not like that with those he cares about.”

“I heard that he can’t sleep properly for a long time which made him extremely—”

“He sleeps very well when he is beside me.”

“......”

...He sleeps beside you?

That man...

...Why is he sleeping beside you?

Duke Schweiss’s gaze sharpened.

Whoosh!

“......?”

When a sudden gust of wind swept through the room, Ceres looked at Duke Schweiss with wide eyes. Under her startled gaze, he quickly suppressed his aura, but he couldn’t completely hide the killing intent that remained.

“Please don’t worry. Kai... no, Grand Duke Persia really isn’t a bad person.”

Mistaking that killing intent as concern for her, Ceres hurriedly added.

“There’s absolutely nothing for you to worry about, Your Grace.”

If anything, I would be the one beating him up.

The thought of him being able to hurt her? She couldn’t even imagine it.

“......”

“......?”

There was something unusual about Duke Schweiss’s expression.

After spending so much time with Kainel, Ceres became exceptionally good at reading people’s expressions. She immediately understood what his face meant.

Why does he look upset?

That was definitely the expression of someone who was sulking.

“It isn’t right to treat people differently.”

“Huh?”

Treat people differently? What was he talking about?

Even under Ceres’s confused gaze, Duke Schweiss didn’t explain himself. He only muttered to himself.

“You don’t call those two that way, though...”

Hmm.

Ceres’s eyes naturally drifted toward Duke Schweiss’s neck. The necklace hanging there was shaped like an eagle, but it was badly dented and one of its wings was broken.

The symbol of House Schweiss was the black eagle. That was why it only made the sight more strange. Ceres never saw the head of a noble house continue wearing their family emblem after it was so badly damaged.

“......”

Noticing her gaze, Duke Schweiss gently ran his fingers over the necklace around his neck.

“My younger brother left this behind.”

“Ah...”

At those words, Ceres remembered what Butler Colin had told her not long ago.

He died...

And he was kidnapped before that.

“This was what he had on him when the incident happened.”

Was it just her imagination, or did Duke Schweiss’s hand tighten slightly around the necklace?

“They found it clutched in his hand.”

“Ren... Ren has come back?”

“That’s...”

The younger brother who was kidnapped a month ago had returned. After hearing the butler’s words and seeing his stiff expression, he immediately rushed over.

By the time he arrived, his father and mother were already there. In front of them lay a small body.

“Ren...”

The body belonged to his younger brother. The little boy who had always followed him around, calling out, “Brother, brother”...

When he stepped closer and saw Ren’s condition, he could barely bring himself to describe it. It would be easier to find an uninjured part of his body than one that was still intact.

“His hand... Ren’s hand...”

The worst injuries were on the child’s right hand. His fist was clenched around something so tightly that the flesh had torn apart, exposing the bone underneath.

“He won’t let go.”

His mother’s voice trembled with tears. His father and mother tried to open the child’s tightly closed hand, but their efforts were in vain.

“Ren.”

He moved closer and took his younger brother’s hand. His touch was careful, almost fearful, as though even the slightest pressure might break him.

Slowly.

Then, like he had been waiting for his brother, the hand that had remained clenched and stiff like stone finally opened.

Clink.

The object that fell from the child’s hand was a crushed and broken eagle pendant.

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