Time Healer Ceres

“Aria?”

Feik hurried over to her. The way she was slumped over her desk made it clear something was wrong.

“Feik...”

“W-What’s wrong?”

At the sound of his voice, Aria slowly raised her head. Her eyes were brimming with tears.

Feik’s expression instantly hardened.

“What happened?!”

“Sniff...”

“Who did this to you? Who was it?! Tell me!”

Aria wiped at her eyes and shook her head.

“It’s nothing.”

“What do you mean it’s nothing?!”

“Feik...”

The tears she’d been holding back finally spilled over. Her pale hand reached out and clasped his tightly. The faint tremble in her fingers made her look heartbreakingly fragile.

“I... I can’t do this anymore...”

“Aria...”

“It’s because of Ceres...”

“...What?”

As soon as Feix heard Ceres’s name, his face went cold.

“Sniff... You’re the only one I can talk to about this.”

He knew. Whenever things got difficult, Aria always leaned on him. This wasn’t the first time she’d come to him in tears because of Ceres.

Every time he heard it, his anger only grew. He’d even joined the others in making Ceres’s life difficult, hoping to force her out of the Academy.

Yet despite everything they threw at her, that stubborn girl had never once backed down.

“I really want to die...”

“Aria, don’t say that!”

Aria buried her face against his chest and broke into sobs.

“Ceres... Ceres is making my life miserable... sniff...”

As he gently soothed her, he clenched his jaw.

***

What is she doing?

Ben, a member of Sky’s intelligence guild, could only stare in disbelief at the scene unfolding before him.

Of all people, Ceres Drow was being dragged off somewhere by a male classmate.

Seriously?

Not long ago, he’d watched her take down an A-Rank monster with a single blow. After seeing that, he’d made a promise to himself.

Never get on her bad side.

So, how was he supposed to make sense of this?

The same person who could kill an A-Rank monster without breaking a sweat had just fallen for an attack so clumsy it was embarrassing. And now, she was letting herself get dragged away.

What are you up to this time?

Ben had no choice but to keep watching from the sidelines. After all, he’d already been warned.

“No matter what happens, don’t interfere.”

“Do you think I’m insane? Why would I stick my nose into someone else’s business?”

“Because I know perfectly well that you spend all day following me around with nothing better to do.”

“Tch...”

...Sure, he’d confidently said he wouldn’t get involved. But was it really fine to leave this situation alone?

She wasn’t actually unconscious and being hauled off somewhere, was she?

“Ugh, what a pain.”

Ben ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

“I’m not your errand boy.”

With another sigh, he recalled the favor Ceres had asked of him and quickly disappeared.

.

.

.

Chapter 27: The Mask Comes Off

“Why are you doing this?”

“You really have to ask?”

Ceres sat bound to a chair, her wrists and ankles tied with rope. Standing over her, Feik ground his teeth.

“Everything about you is a problem.”

“Funny. I was about to say the same thing.”

“Damn it!”

Thud!

He kicked the chair with all his strength. Even then, his anger showed no signs of cooling.

“Do you have any idea what kind of joke I’ve become because of you?!”

“Were you ever anything else?”

Despite being tied up, Ceres remained as calm as ever.

That infuriating composure finally pushed Feik over the edge. He grabbed her by the collar and yanked her upright.

“You know where this is, don’t you?”

Of course she does. Lately, she’d actually been eyeing this place as a potential spot for afternoon naps.

The abandoned building stood far from the Academy’s main grounds, tucked away in a corner no one had reason to visit. It looked like it had once been used for club activities, but now, it seemed to serve as a storage space for discarded furniture and unused supplies.

Though the ghost rumors help keep people away, too.

The place was practically deserted because of them.

“Let’s see if you can keep talking like that after a week locked in here.”

A mocking smile tugged at his lips before he turned and headed for the door.

Bang!

The heavy wooden door slammed shut. Watching it close, Ceres chuckled.

“That’s it?”

He was really leaving? Without even bothering to gag her?

Sure, hardly anyone comes here. But what if she starts screaming?

“All you did was kick the chair.”

Honestly, she was expecting a little more.

It would’ve worked out better that way...

If she’d gotten roughed up a bit and ended up looking battered...

She might’ve liked that more.

Creak.

Some time later, the basement door opened once again. Soft footsteps echoed through the room as someone quietly stepped inside.

“Hello, Ceres.”

The bright smile on her face couldn’t have been more out of place. It was Aria.

“See? I told you things could get dangerous.”

Pouting slightly, she shook her head and reached out to smooth Ceres’s tangled hair. Her expression was filled with concern.

“Did you put him up to this?”

“What a scary thing to accuse me of. All I did was tell him how much you’ve been making me suffer.”

“......”

“That idiot decided to do something like this all on his own.”

She giggled.

“He was exactly the same with Senior Sens, too.”

Sens Byrol.

The viscount’s son was a popular upperclassman. Between his skill with a sword and his respectable family background, he had plenty of admirers.

Then one day, he started paying attention to Ceres. Not Aria but Ceres.

“Can you believe that? That he liked you instead of me?”

That was why Aria confessed first to Sens.

As expected, kind Ceres started avoiding him on her own. But Aria made sure everyone saw her as the one trying to come between her and Sens.

Aria quietly spread a few rumors and ruined Ceres’s reputation. She even put on a sad face and told Feik how much she was suffering because of her.

“I cried my eyes out about how miserable I was, and before I knew it, he was dragging other people into it and bullying you.”

She never asked him to do that. Feik did all of it on his own.

“So, blaming me would be a little unfair.”

“Is this because of the letter?”

At the mention of the letter, the smile disappeared from Aria’s face. A slight frown creased her brow. She sighed.

“That idiot Tonio.”

The man Princess Nailia had loved for years and eventually became her lover.

“We dated for about a year.”

It was around six months after Princess Nailia had confessed to him and officially started seeing him.

“Geez, even I was surprised by how easy it was.”

The memory seemed to amuse her. A smile slowly returned to her lips.

“Isn’t it funny? The man she loved so much ended up choosing me in the end.”

It was exhilarating. Watching the princess, who was blissfully unaware, openly shower Tonio with affection while he was secretly seeing someone else behind her back.

How many times had she laughed about it in private?

“But then, that idiot decided he wanted to tell her everything.”

He said he couldn’t keep lying to Princess Nailia anymore. That he was going to tell her the truth.

“That couldn’t happen.”

She had put too much effort into building a connection with the princess.

“Did he think I’d throw all of that away over a man like him?”

Ridiculous. It had only started as a bit of fun. Why should she let years of effort go to waste over something trivial?

“So, what did you do?”

“I sent him to the Black Forest.”

“.....”

“He said that since it meant betraying someone precious to him, he wanted a little time to think. So I told him that if he distinguished himself in the Black Forest, I’d respect whatever decision he made. And would you believe it? He actually joined the subjugation.”

Aria giggled, but a moment later, her brow furrowed deeply.

“All he had to do was stay there and die quietly... but instead, he left behind a letter. A letter revealing the whole truth to Princess Nailia.”

Before leaving for the Black Forest, he’d shown Aria the letter himself. He said that once he returned, he would deliver it to Princess Nailia.

He asked her to wait a little longer. When he came back from the Black Forest, everything would come to an end.

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