Time Healer Ceres

“Like they were looking at something they’d been waiting for a very long time. That’s the best way I can put it.”

Unlike the priest walking ahead with a solemn expression, the children and women following him were all smiles.

“They looked really excited.”

Their flushed faces stood in stark contrast to the priest’s indifferent expression.

“Hmm.”

Ceres frowned as she listened to Ersi. So, these strangers had entered some mysterious place in the middle of the night, and every one of them had looked happy.

“But something even stranger happened.”

“What is it?”

“They didn’t come back out.”

“What?”

“The priests came out after a while, but...”

About two hours later, the priests who had gone inside began coming out one by one.

“But the children and women never did.”

Although Ersi waited another hour, none of the children or women who had gone inside came back out.

“Could there be another entrance?”

“I’m not sure. I couldn’t see that far. They might have come out after I left. It was too late, and I couldn’t stay until the end.”

Ersi kept watch at the same time and place for several more days, but nothing like that happened again.

“Did you try talking to the priests you saw that day?”

“Yes. But I couldn’t find anything suspicious.”

The first person Ersi approached was the High Priest who had been there that night.

“Lord Byron, did you sleep well last night?”

“Yes. I was especially tired yesterday, so I went to bed early.”

“Ah, I see. You looked a little tired, so I was worried you hadn’t slept well.”

“Haha. Thank you for worrying about me.”

Ersi tried the same with the others he had seen that night. But even though he was only casually probing them, the priests lied without batting an eye. Ersi couldn’t bring himself to press them any further.

“This is getting strange.”

Ceres only meant to catch the priest who was illegally examining Tamer Relics.

But...

If Ersi was right, something else was going on.

“Keep a closer eye on those priests.”

“Yes.”

Both Ceres and Ersi wore grim expressions. They could both instinctively tell that this was more than a simple matter.

***

[Buuu! Buu, bu! Bubu!]

“......?”

...What is that noise? Sooty?

Early the next morning, Ceres was still fast asleep when the incessant squealing finally woke her.

“What is it now?”

Sooty was sitting beside her bed, crying at the top of his lungs. What was he so upset about this time?

[Bueee!]

“Did someone hit you again?”

Ceres asked, her voice still sleepy.

Sooty shook his head.

“Then?”

[Bu.]

Sooty pointed at the bracelet around her wrist.

“Airien?”

Did the two of them get into another fight? But where was Airien? Did she run off somewhere to avoid getting scolded?

“Hmm?”

As Ceres glanced at the bracelet, her eyes slowly widened.

“The color...”

The green gemstone set into the bracelet, the same color as Airien’s eyes, had completely changed.

“...Black?”

Ceres frowned as she stared at the pitch-black gemstone. It had been perfectly fine when she went to bed last night.

“Airien?”

She called for the little rabbit, but there was no response.

[Buuu! Bu!]

As if to say See?, Sooty started squealing again.

“What happened?”

Ceres slipped the bracelet off her wrist and examined the black gemstone closely.

A Tamer Relic isn’t responding to its master’s call?

This was unsettling. In all the years she owned Tamer Relics, she had never encountered anything like this before.

“Something must be wrong.”

I have a bad feeling about this. Something troublesome is coming.

Bang!

“Lady Ceres!”

As if to prove her right, the door suddenly flew open, and someone rushed inside without knocking. It was Herion, the head of House Ellesia.

“It’s terrible!”

Her eyes were already red. Panic was written all over her face.

“What happened?”

“Jubelios... Jubelios... Sob.”

“......”

Herion struggled to get the words out before bursting into tears. Ceres’s gaze fell on the family head’s ring on her finger.

The ring had turned black. The red gemstone that marked it as a Tamer Relic was gone, leaving the entire ring pitch-black.

“Lord Jubelios isn’t responding when I call him.”

“When did this start?”

“T-this morning. Everything was fine when I went to bed last night...”

She had seen him return to the ring after giving her his usual nagging. But when she called out to him that morning to say good morning, he didn’t respond.

“The ring changed color, too... Sob.”

Tears spilled from her reddened eyes.

“W-what if something happened to Lord Jubelios? I don’t know what to do...”

“......”

Ceres was just as bewildered. She couldn’t imagine why a Tamer Relic would suddenly stop responding.

“Elliet.”

Just in case, Ceres picked up the red fan she had tossed aside and called for Elliet as well. But there was no response from her either.

Its color has changed too.

The red fan no longer looked as ornate as before. Even the gemstones set into it had turned black.

What happened?

If Herion’s ring had changed too, then it was possible that every Tamer Relic was in the same state.

Bang!

“Master!”

The door burst open again, and someone rushed inside. It was Ersi, the disciple who should’ve been at the Temple.

“What is it now?”

“It’s terrible!”

“Did you have a Tamer Relic too?”

Is that why you came running here?

“Huh? A Tamer Relic?”

Ersi looked at her in confusion.

“Then what is it?”

“The Holy Spring.”

“...The spring?”

“The spring at the Temple...”

“......?”

Ersi struggled to get the words out and swallowed nervously. Ceres frowned at him.

“What happened to the spring?”

“It’s turned red.”

“...What?”

“It’s red. Like blood.”

Ceres’s eyes widened slightly.

“...Blood-red?”

“Yes.”

“The Holy Spring?”

“Yes!”

...All of a sudden?

“The Temple is in complete chaos right now.”

The Holy Spring was practically the symbol of the Temple. It was said to have been created by divine blessing, and to hold the power of the Supreme God that had manifested Tamer Relics since ancient times. But now, something had happened to it.

“We’re trying to keep everyone quiet for now, but this is too serious to stay hidden. It’ll get out soon.”

If word got out, the repercussions would be massive. People might even say that the Temple had been abandoned by the gods.

Just thinking about the chaos that would cause made Ceres feel faint.

“Is that why?”

“Pardon?”

“The power of the Tamer Relic is gone.”

“What...?”

The power of a Tamer Relic was gone? Ersi stared blankly at Ceres’s words. Only then did he notice the gemstone set into the bracelet nearby. It had turned completely black.

“What on earth...”

Ersi couldn’t get the words out. Herion was just as stunned.

Was Lord Jubelios’s disappearance connected to what had happened to the Holy Spring? What were they supposed to do now?

What if I can never see Lord Jubelios again?

Tears began to fall from Herion’s eyes again.

“Hmm.”

Ceres was troubled too. She stared at the blackened bracelet, lost in thought.

[Buuuueeee!]

...Ugh, you’re so loud. How long are you going to keep crying?

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