Time Healer Ceres

“How is Cheion?”

Luca sighed heavily and shook his head.

“It’s the same.”

Ceres, who had come to the Magic Tower, clicked her tongue at his answer.

It had already been a week since Cheion shut himself in his laboratory. He hadn’t eaten or slept...

Kainel, who had come with Ceres, frowned at the tightly shut laboratory door.

“We should just beat him up and drag him out.”

“Why beat him up? Just drag him out.”

If they were going to drag him out, there was no reason to beat him up first.

“He’s researching.”

If Cheion were simply holed up in his room for no reason, they would’ve dragged him out by force. But he was actually hard at work on his research.

Marquis Merial’s blood...

Cheion was investigating whether magic had anything to do with Marquis Merial’s transformation into a monster.

The examination of Marquis Merial’s body was already complete. Cheion had also searched the lounge where the Marquis had been, as well as the surrounding area, for any traces of magic.

But they had found nothing. As a final step, he was analyzing Marquis Merial’s blood to see if any magical power remained.

Still, a week is a bit much...

Normally, Luca would stay by his side, making sure he ate and drank while nagging him about this and that. But this time, Cheion had forbidden anyone from entering. No one could get into the laboratory.

What if he collapses?

...She was worried.

Ceres let out a quiet sigh as she stared at the laboratory door.

BANG!

“—!”

The next moment, the laboratory door was blown open with a deafening crash.

“Ah, sorry. My foot slipped.”

“.....”

It was Kainel. Standing with his arms crossed, he casually shrugged after kicking the door open.

“...Hey.”

“What?”

“Good job.”

“.....”

Ceres gave Kainel’s shoulder a light pat as if praising him, then stepped inside. Through the open doorway, she spotted Cheion staring at her with wide, startled eyes, his mouth hanging open. She strode toward him.

“How’s the research going?”

“Wow... It’s Ceres.”

A bright smile spread across Cheion’s dazed face. He grinned as she approached, then nestled his head against her.

“Let’s go eat.”

“...But I still have to finish this.”

“You can finish it after you eat.”

“Should I?”

Cheion lifted his head and smiled. Ceres could only sigh at the sight of him.

Pat, pat.

She gently patted his back as he rested his head against her again. Seemingly enjoying her touch, Cheion closed his eyes and stayed perfectly still.

“.....”

The truth was, the results were already in. There wasn’t a trace of magic behind Marquis Merial’s transformation. Yet Cheion kept clinging to the research because... he felt like he had to do something.

...Or maybe because I can’t stop thinking about it.

His grandfather’s severed head... his body hacked to pieces...

“Waaah! Grandpa!”

“Oh dear. How did you fall like this?”

“Waaah!”

“Grandpa will make it stop hurting. I’ll even cast a spell to make all the pain go away.”

“...A spell?”

“Yes. Whenever you’re hurt, say the spell and it won’t hurt anymore. You won’t even cry.”

“Are you a mage too, Grandpa?”

“Haha, look. Your tears are already gone.”

“Ah, Grandpa, you’re a liar.”

“Hahaha.”

The memory of his kind grandfather from childhood slowly became blurry. He was afraid that the sight of his grandfather dying a gruesome death after hurting others would be the memory that stayed with him instead...

Pat, pat.

As if to soothe him, Ceres kept patting his back. Cheion buried his face deeper in her arms.

Whoosh!

“How long are you going to keep acting like a child?”

A hand suddenly caught Cheion by the back of the neck. It was Kainel.

“Go wash up first. Don’t come rubbing that filthy body against anyone.”

“Filthy? What’s filthy about me? I use magic to keep myself clean every day—aaaah!”

Cheion squirmed, but he was no match for Kainel.

“Ceres!”

“Just go with him.”

In the end, Kainel dragged Cheion out of the laboratory. Ceres gave him a little wave.

“Let’s get the meal ready.”

“Of course.”

Only then did Luca, who had been watching from the side, sighed in relief and hurried to tidy up the laboratory. He also made up his mind to keep Cheion away from the laboratory for a while.

.

.

.

Chapter 61: The Day of the Festival

“Break them.”

“Hahaha, I’m not very good at that.”

Crush.

“...Grand Duke Persia told me something once.”

“What is it?”

“He said that whenever you crush cookies, it means I can tease you a little more. Apparently, it’s a sign that you really like the person.”

...But is that really true? If I tease her any more, won’t I be the one getting crushed instead of the cookies?

Crown Prince Aseraian smiled awkwardly as Ceres glared at him. She was slowly crushing the cookies in front of her into powder.

It was only after things had settled down somewhat that Aseraian was finally able to meet with Ceres. The first thing she said to him was to reveal who was behind everything.

Previously, he had hinted that he would tell her if she told him about the black egg. Now, she was telling him to stop hiding it.

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“This isn’t the time for that. After seeing what happened, do you really still want to play word games? Just tell me already!”

“Veilks. It was him.”

Another cookie crumbled to dust in Ceres’s hand. Crown Prince Aseraian hurried on.

“He’s the one behind Marquis Merial, just as I said before.”

“How did you know?”

“When I was listening in on the fake Saintess before, I heard his name several times from the people who came to see her. They said they were delivering Lord Veilks’s orders.”

“.....”

As she had suspected, Veilks really was behind everything, including the fake Saintess incident.

“I’m curious, too.”

“.....?”

“How did you know?”

“Know what?”

“That Veilks was behind it.”

When they had spoken before, Ceres had seemed to know nothing about the person controlling Marquis Merial.

“Are you interested in curse magic?”

Yet that was the first thing she said when she saw Veilks at the party, as though she already knew everything.

Aseraian had been wondering about it ever since. How did she know? Did she meet Veilks privately before that?

“It’s the power of my Tamer Relic.”

“...Your Tamer Relic?”

“Yes. It can recognize anyone who uses curses.”

It wasn’t a lie. The only catch was that it wasn’t a Tamer Relic known to the public. It was something she had obtained back when she was Grace.

“Hmm. Curses, huh.”

Aseraian looked thoughtful. Her Tamer Relic seemed to gain a new ability every time he turned around. It could protect people from monsters, cure epidemics... and now it could even detect curses?

“Hah.”

He had never heard of a Tamer Relic with so many different abilities.

“Well, if that’s what Master says, I suppose it must be true.”

“Could you please say ‘Tamer Relic’ before ‘master’?”

Ceres sighed at Aseraian, who merely grinned at her complaint.

“So, what happens to him now?”

“I suppose he’ll inherit the title soon.”

Marquis Merial was dead, and Veilks, his only remaining blood relative, would inherit his title. There was nothing they could do about it.

“So, all we have is suspicion.”

“That’s right. We have no solid evidence that he was behind it.”

They hadn’t heard Veilks conspiring with the fake Saintess themselves. All they had was his name being mentioned by someone else. That alone wasn’t enough to put pressure on him.

“What about your Tamer Relic? Couldn’t that prove it?”

“As you know, they can’t exactly talk.”

[Buu?]

[Pi?]

Sooty, who had been picking up cookie crumbs from the floor before brazenly snatching a cookie right off the table, and Airien, who had been trying to stop him, both peeked up. They looked at her as if asking, “Are you talking about us?”

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