Time Healer Ceres

“Julia, don’t go too far.”

“Okay!”

You’d think Julia would’ve gotten tired of it by now, but the child was still happily running through the snow. Meanwhile, Sooty and Airien had already lost interest and retreated into the shadow and bracelet.

I should make some warm tea again today.

After spending all day rolling around in the snow, Julia sometimes ran a slight fever at night. But she was having too much fun for Ceres to stop her.

Watching the child run toward the back of the garden excitedly, Ceres sighed. Julia was going to trip at this rate.

Completely forgetting Ceres’s warning, the child became so absorbed in leaving footprints across the white snow that she kept going farther and farther.

Roll.

“Huh?”

Just then, something rolled right in front of Julia. It was a small red stone, no bigger than a fingernail. Its sparkle caught her eye, so she instinctively stepped closer.

“It’s pretty.”

Thinking she should pick it up and give it to her older sister, Julia giggled as she reached for the red stone.

Flash!

“—!”

The red stone suddenly burst into a brilliant light. Julia squeezed her eyes shut against the glare.

“W-Whoa!”

Then, she felt something wrapping tightly around her entire body. She opened her eyes. Black vines were writhing around her, twisting and coiling as though they were alive.

“Julia!”

Ceres saw her from afar and immediately rushed toward her.

“Sis....!”

But before Ceres could reach her, they vanished in an instant.

“......”

Ceres arrived a moment too late. She could only stare blankly at the spot where Julia had been.

“...Sooty.”

[Bu?]

At Ceres’s call, Sooty popped out of the shadow and looked up at her, as if asking what was wrong.

“Find Julia.”

This was the same creature that had found Julia instantly at the academy during a Black Forest incident.

[Bu!]

Sooty nodded vigorously to show that he understood, then slipped back into Ceres’s shadow just as he had before.

[Buu. Bu!]

But almost immediately, Sooty popped back out of the shadow, frantically waving his arms and legs with a panicked look on his face.

“...You can’t find her?”

Sooty nodded. Ceres let out a long breath as she watched him nod emphatically.

Stay calm. I can’t panic now. She’ll be okay. Julia will be safe.

Ceres hurriedly opened a subspace and pulled out a small orb. Cheion had given Julia a small bracelet just in case and placed a tracking spell on it. The orb was linked to that spell and would lead Ceres to Julia.

Humm...

The orb gave off a faint glow for a moment, then went quiet. It couldn’t locate her.

“......”

Sooty couldn’t find her, and the tracking spell wasn’t working either?

Ceres’s expression slowly hardened. As far as she knew, there was only one place where magic detection from outside simply didn’t work.

Ceres turned her gaze toward a certain place. A place where strange cries could be heard day after day without end.

...The Forest of Ice Trees.

Ceres’s expression grew colder than ever.

***

“I really don’t understand. How could this happen...”

Del frowned deeply. News had just come that Julia had disappeared after being attacked by magic. Of all places, it had happened right inside the Grand Duke’s residence.

How could anyone have the nerve to sneak into the residence and abduct a child? Whoever was behind this certainly had some guts.

The bigger problem was that Julia seemed to have been taken to the Forest of Ice Trees. There were plenty of reasons to think so. Magic tracking didn’t work there at all. In the Empire... no, on the entire continent, the Forest of Ice Trees was the only place like that.

No magic or artifact could be used inside the Forest of Ice Trees. That was why it was the place mages feared most. The mana there was strangely tangled, making it a place where only monsters could live.

This is a disaster.

To make matters worse, far too many outsiders had arrived at the Grand Duke’s residence at this time. People from the Temple had come to take Saintess Yuness back with them.

They had barely arrived when news of Julia’s disappearance came in. With the Temple people now added to the list of possible suspects, Del could feel a headache coming on.

We need to find the child first.

Finding Julia was more important than finding the culprit. On Kainel’s orders, hundreds of private soldiers already gathered at the entrance to the Forest of Ice Trees.

“I just hope the child is safe.”

Even Saintess Yuness and the Temple members offered to help with the search. More accurately, Yuness insisted on going with them to find Julia, so the Temple members reluctantly followed her.

Though there was one exception.

“Master... No, you mean Miss Ceres’s younger sister was abducted?”

One of the younger priests looked shocked when he heard the news and stepped forward, offering to help before Yuness could.

Putting that aside...

Del glanced toward Ceres and swallowed nervously. He felt uneasy about the aura coming from her, who had been staring at the entrance for some time now.

Kainel was the one to stop her moments ago when she tried to enter the Forest of Ice Trees alone.

“Wait.”

“There’s no time!”

“How are you going to find Julia by yourself in a forest this big? Besides, the master of that forest is an S-rank monster. Do you think you can protect her and fight it at the same time? Even you can’t do that alone.”

“......”

...So this is what she’s really like.

The relaxed, easygoing Ceres was nowhere to be seen. With an unfamiliar dark sword hanging at her side, she stood while staring into the Forest of Ice Trees. She carried the imposing presence of a seasoned warrior who had spent decades on the battlefield.

“Wow. Master is really something else.”

Like Del, another person couldn’t take his eyes off Ceres. It was Priest Ersi, one of the Temple members who had come to escort the Saintess. He was shocked when he heard that Julia had disappeared.

“I have a family now. Two kids.”

His master had looked so happy when she said those words. It was clear from her expression how content she was with her life now.

Whoever had laid a hand on his master’s family wouldn’t get off easy.

“......”

After staring into the Forest of Ice Trees for some time, Ceres finally turned toward Kainel. When their eyes met, Kainel nodded.

“Begin.”

At his command, everyone gathered there carefully entered the Forest of Ice Trees, alert for monsters that could attack from anywhere.

Whoosh!

Ceres was the only one who shot forward at once. Her movements were as frantic as the worry in her heart. Kainel clicked his tongue and hurried after her.

Halt.

Ceres suddenly stopped. Something felt off as she raced forward with all her senses heightened.

What is this feeling?

The forest was unnaturally quiet. She couldn’t sense any presence nearby.

It had been a long time since she last visited, but the Forest of Ice Trees was supposed to be a place where they had to fight monsters from the moment they entered.

But now? There wasn’t a single monster in sight. Her senses told her there wasn’t even one living creature nearby.

Frowning at the strange silence, Ceres looked toward a certain spot. The area was eerily quiet, as though every monster had fled. However, there was one place where she could sense a powerful presence.

Mixed in with that strong presence was another one she knew all too well. Small and fragile, yet all the more precious because of it.

“Your Excellency, I think it’s over there...”

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