Time Healer Ceres

Chapter 17: A Deal

“We’re here–huh?!”

“Two bowls of stew, please—Ack! W-We were going to order two bowls, but... haha... something urgent suddenly came up!”

“Me too! I’ll come back next time!”

The two mercenaries who had just entered the shop spotted someone inside and immediately hurried back out the door.

“That makes thirty already.”

“......”

As Jay muttered, Ceres fixed her gaze on one particular spot.

“You don’t have to whisper.”

“Huh?”

“He’ll hear you anyway.”

Despite hearing every word, Kainel shamelessly pretended not to notice a thing. Right in the middle of the shop, he sat leisurely reading a book.

Is this a study room? Or a library?

This guy...

Should she just snatch those glasses off him and break them?

For some reason, the sight of Kainel sitting there so calmly all by himself irritated her to no end.

“Hey.”

“......”

At Ceres’s call, Kainel looked up at her.

“What are you trying to do here?”

“You should really fix that way of speaking.”

“What’s wrong with the way I talk?”

“Why don’t you just pick one and stick with it?”

It was neither formal nor casual.

“Should I?”

“......”

As if Ceres had been waiting for that, she immediately dropped the formal speech. Kainel placed his glasses on the table and held back a laugh.

“What are you trying to do?”

“Collect my money.”

“That’s what I’m asking!”

SLAM!

“Doesn’t your hand hurt?”

“You....”

Is that really what matters right now?!

Instead of reacting to the fact that she had just slammed the table with all her strength, Kainel only stared at her hand. A curse nearly slipped out of her mouth.

“Do you really have to sit here while collecting the money?”

“Then sign it.”

“......”

...Should I just kill him?

Ceres pressed a hand against the back of her neck and sighed. She had already lost count of how many times they’d had this exact conversation.

Was he always this frustrating?

Why is it so impossible to talk to him?

“I told you I’d pay you back. I said I’d pay everything on time without missing a single payment.”

“Then pay me back. I’ll stay here until you’ve paid every last coin.”

...Maybe I really should kill him.

At this point, even pulling out the sword she kept in subspace and swinging it around wouldn’t make her feel any better.

“You’re disrupting my business! I’m going to sue you for damages!”

“Go ahead.”

How irritating. Rich folks really were the worst.

Ceres glared at Kainel, who only smiled back as though none of this bothered him in the slightest.

Damn scoundrel.

Things had been like this ever since the day that man showed up carrying a stack of debt papers. Even after she promised to repay everything and pay the interest on time, he continued camping inside the shop every day, driving people up the wall.

Naturally, customers would take one look at Kainel sitting there first thing in the morning and immediately leave.

A few determined mercenaries insisted they needed stew to cure their hangovers, so they sat down and placed their orders.

But...

Thud.

“.......”

“Th-That...! Cough!”

“H-Here’s the payment!”

When Kainel closed his book and looked at them, they hurriedly threw down the money and fled before finishing half their stew.

“Do you actually want your money back or not? Because of you, all the customers are running away!”

How was she supposed to earn money to repay him if no one came into the shop?

Besides—

“How did you even manage to collect all the debt papers?”

Loan sharks weren’t fools. No one in their right mind would hand over something that brought in interest every month easily. But somehow, every single lender had passed their debt papers over to him.

How did that make any sense?

“Because there’s nothing more precious than life.”

“...Life?”

...Wait, did he threaten them?

Ceres stared at him in disbelief.

Did he seriously have nothing better to do these days?

“Well, some of them handed the papers over willingly.”

There was even one place that thanked him for taking the debt papers off their hands, despite him not threatening them at all.

Of course, Kainel had no idea it was the same place Ceres had once stormed into after they beat her employee.

Jingle.

“What? That guy came again today?”

Just then, the shop door opened and someone walked in. The man entering with a frown on his face was Tower Master Cheion.

“Hey, I told you I’d pay off that debt for her.”

“And why would you do that?”

“That’s exactly what I want to ask you.”

A few days ago, after finding out why Kainel kept lingering around the shop, Cheion had made a proposal.

“I’ll pay off all of Ceres’s debt.”

“No.”

“What? Why not? All you have to do is accept the money!”

“That’s for me to decide.”

“Ha! Fine, then I’ll just give the money directly to Ceres. Ceres! I’ll give you the money, so pay it back.”

“No.”

“What now?! Why are you refusing too?!”

“Taking money from you would still mean owing you something. I don’t want to keep becoming indebted to different people.”

“You don’t have to pay me back!”

“No. Emotional debts are still debts. This is my problem, so I’ll deal with it myself.”

Ceres had sounded so firm at the time that Cheion almost felt hurt. Remembering it now, he puffed out his cheeks before turning back to Ceres.

“Ceres, think about it again. I’ll pay a market price for the protection stone. That alone would be enough to clear all your debt.”

He was referring to the protection stone he had received from the man claiming to be the Drow family’s butler, in return for putting up a barrier around the shop during the Black Forest incident.

“I’m paying full price for it, so there’s no reason for you to feel burdened—”

“I’m counting that toward the 5,000 gold you paid me as a temporary secretary.”

“Th-That was your salary!”

“Are you going to keep pretending not to notice? That job wasn’t even worth 500 gold to begin with. You filled the rest with your own money.”

“Luca, you traitor...”

Cheion slammed his forehead against the table, inwardly cursing Luca who had obviously leaked the information on purpose.

Clicking her tongue, Ceres told him not to blame innocent people before bringing him a glass of cold water.

“Why do you keep bringing up something that’s already settled?”

“Because that means you practically worked for free!”

“So what? Between us, I can do at least that much.”

“......”

Between us...?

Cheion, who had been throwing a fit moments ago, finally went quiet.

Looking both miserable and conflicted, the Tower Master turned back toward the original source of his frustration. If he had to sit here watching this maddening situation unfold, he might as well start an argument instead.

“Why did you even buy up all of Ceres’s debt papers in the first place?”

Since when were they close enough for him to buy up her debt just to stop the interest from piling up?

“Are you bored? Did you just feel like causing trouble? Wow. There goes the Grand Duke of the North’s reputation.”

“Are you curious?”

“Yes!”

Ceres let out a sigh at how quickly Cheion answered after acting sarcastic earlier. Why was the Tower Master this gullible?

Cheion, that b*stard is obviously messing with you...

“You think I’d actually tell you?”

“...Wow.”

Just as expected, Kainel answered with that irritatingly twisted tone of his.

Cheion’s mouth fell open. Was this man’s personality always this terrible? The sight of Kainel smiling as if he were mocking him was so annoying.

“I believe I already told you this wasn’t any of your business, but it seems you’re even worse at taking hints than I thought.”

“Can’t you just accept the money?”

“No.”

“Wow, seriously?!”

Cheion roughly ran his hand through his hair in frustration. He seriously couldn’t understand either of them.

Everything would be resolved if they just accepted his money, so why were they both insisting on making things complicated?

“Do you want some tea?”

“No! I don’t want any!”

“Then forget it.”

“Ah, wait! I’ll drink it!”

Cheion had answered stubbornly to show how annoyed he was, but when Ceres turned away, he immediately caved.

Watching from the side, Kainel looked at him like he was pathetic. It was only tea.

“Here.”

“Thanks!”

But a moment later, Kainel’s brow twitched. He realized only Cheion had been given tea.

“What about me?”

“What about you?”

“Are you not giving me any?”

“No. Why would I?”

“You gave him some.”

“Because he’s cute.”

As Cheion broke into a grin, a cold smile spread across Kainel’s lips. It was the exact smile he wore whenever he was in a bad mood.

His eyes narrowed as he watched Cheion deliberately sip his tea in front of him.

That brat keeps reminding me of someone.

He’d noticed it before, but the Tower Master really did act like Artia, especially the way he subtly got under people’s skin.

Was that some kind of common trait among Tower Masters?

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