Time Healer Ceres
Chapter 34
<034>
“…….”
She was truly a strange woman.
Why did she keep poking at his childhood memories like this?
It was surely a gesture of kindness offered without any deeper meaning, but still.
An omelet packed with vegetables.
It was a dish Grace used to make for him often, back when he had been a picky eater as a child.
Swish, swish.
And just like back then, he meticulously picked out the finely chopped bell peppers that Grace had hidden inside to keep them out of his sight.
“…Hey.”
She was speaking casually to him now without even trying to hide it.
Kainel moved his hands a bit faster as he watched Ceres, who scowled deeper and deeper every time he picked out a piece of bell pepper.
‘…It’s annoying.’
But then again, why had he come back here today?
Was it because of the stew?
Facing Ceres and her heavily furrowed brow, Kainel found the remaining bell peppers and pointedly pushed them to one side as if to show off.
* * *
“Where on earth did she go?”
Darkness had fallen deep over the land.
It was late at night, a time when most were asleep, but Antonion was pacing incessantly outside the manor.
Unable to stay still in one spot, he craned his neck as far as it would go, looking around the surroundings with anxious eyes.
“Huh?”
Then, spotting a familiar silhouette in the distance, Antonion quickly ran toward it.
“Noona!”
“Antonion?”
“Why are you only coming back now!”
“What? Is something wrong? Why are you out here instead of sleeping?”
“I should be asking you where you’re coming from!”
“Me? A walk.”
“Again?”
At Ceres’s nonchalant answer, Antonion’s brow shot up in a sharp frown.
“Who goes for a walk every single morning and evening?”
“It’s not every day.”
“That’s not the point right now!”
Lately, Ceres had been going somewhere not just at dawn, but every night as well, only returning home after a long time had passed.
“If you’re going to walk, stroll in the manor garden!”
“Our garden is kind of lousy, though.”
“I said that’s not the point! I’m asking where you’re wandering off to at this late hour!”
“Just here and there.”
“Where exactly is ‘here and there’… Noona! A nosebleed!”
“…Damn it.”
The problem was that Ceres’s nosebleeds had become frequent. And always after she returned from those supposed walks!
“Seriously! What have you been doing lately!”
“It’s nothing. I just walked a bit too hard.”
“Was it really just a walk? What kind of walk is so intense that it does this!”
“Hey, keep it down. You’ll wake everyone up.”
What was with this kid?
Ceres looked at Antonion with a bewildered gaze as he snapped at her much more fiercely than usual today.
He wasn't exactly known for having a sunny disposition, but he wasn't the type to get angry without reason either.
Did you eat something wrong for dinner?
“…Sigh, just wipe the blood.”
As Antonion watched Ceres plug her nose with the handkerchief he handed her, his expression grew even more serious than before.
“Noona.”
“Yeah?”
Why was he calling her so solemnly? It was making her nervous. What was he going to say?
“Let’s go see a healer.”
“What?”
“You’re bleeding too often. It’s strange, no matter how you look at it.”
“I told you, it’s nothing. I know my own body best.”
“Stop being so stubborn!”
“Why is this brat keep raising his voice at me?”
“Oh, come on!”
Ceres blinked at the sight of the huffing Antonion.
Just what was he so angry about? Had she done something wrong?
“Go get an examination with me first thing tomorrow.”
“No, really, I’m fine. I’m going to cut back on the walks anyway….”
“Don’t lie!”
…But she was telling the truth.
From what she’d looked into today, that man—Dave’s father—was nearing his end.
More than one person had seen him screaming and rushing out of his house morning and night.
They even said they’d seen him crying and begging for forgiveness. He was said to be half-mad by now.
‘Whatever the case, it’ll be over soon.’
Then there would be no more reason to turn back time.
However, it seemed the current situation was being interpreted differently by Antonion.
“Is it because of money?”
“Suddenly?”
“Are you not going because you’re worried about the medical fees!”
Seeing Antonion’s eyes reddening, Ceres scratched her cheek.
Well, yes, they were dirt poor.
But she wasn’t so foolish as to endure being sick just for that.
“Fine, I get it.”
Though the money would be a total waste….
Fine. Let’s go, let’s go.
“You mean it?”
“Yeah.”
Only then did Antonion’s stiff face slowly relax.
“Then come with me to Elercia County tomorrow.”
“…Where?”
“Elercia County. I heard they’re famous for their healing arts.”
“No, wait a minute. There’s no need to go all the way there….”
“Is it because we don’t have the money?”
“…….”
Watching Antonion’s eyes threaten to turn red again, Ceres couldn’t say another word.
Chapter 10. This is Elercia County?
“We’re walking?”
“Yeah.”
“We have a carriage too.”
“I know. The one that hasn’t been maintained in so long it wouldn’t be strange if it fell apart any second.”
“…It just looks that way, it’s actually quite sturdy.”
Ceres cut him off while stroking the head of the pouting Antonion.
“Still not riding it.”
“Why?”
“Walking is more comfortable.”
It was the day they had decided to visit Elercia County.
She had tried to drag her feet for a few days with various excuses to avoid going, but in the end, she had no choice but to surrender to the fierce glares Antonion constantly threw her way.
This kid is surprisingly stubborn. Who does he take after?
“Are you really going to walk?”
“Yeah.”
Rejecting Antonion’s suggestion to take the carriage once more, Ceres stepped forward.
“It’ll take over an hour on foot.”
“I know.”
Watching Ceres insist on walking that long distance, Antonion let out a short sigh.
Come to think of it, he didn’t think he’d ever seen Ceres ride a carriage since she lost her memory.
Even when she occasionally took Yulia to the Academy, she seemed to go on foot.
“You take it.”
“Forget it.”
Was she doing this because she was embarrassed by the old carriage?
‘No, that can’t be it.’
She was the kind of person who, even when he begged her to buy new clothes, would keep wearing old ones that were on the verge of having holes, asking what was wrong with them.
“Why on earth won’t you ride a carriage….”
Antonion watched Ceres, who had already walked far ahead, and shook his head slightly as if she were hopeless.
He didn't think she would tell him even if he asked.
Quickly catching up to her, Antonion asked something else instead.
“Do you know the way?”
“Of course.”
Confidence radiated from Ceres’s answer.
And why wouldn’t it? Despite how she looked now, she had been the Head of the Family of Elercia.
She could find it with her eyes closed….
“It’s not that way. You have to go right.”
…When was this building built?
“That’s not the path. Take the middle road.”
…And when did this road appear?
Who gave them permission to just start making new roads however they pleased?
“Noona.”
“Huh?”
“Just follow me.”
“…Okay.”
In the end, Ceres followed behind the leading Antonion with a dejected expression.
She had nothing to say even as she listened to Antonion grumble incessantly about what had made her so confident about walking.
‘Three hundred years is a long time, after all.’
Still, seriously? How could it change this much?
It was enough to make an old-timer feel sorrowful!
“It’s there.”
“…Right.”
It was the Elercia County estate.
As the Elercia manor began to gradually reveal itself, Ceres found her steps slowing down instinctively.
‘It’s the same.’
So many things had changed, yet how could the manor look so utterly unchanged?
Seeing an exterior that was barely different from when she had been there gave her a strange feeling.
The place where she had spent her entire life.
The place where she had staked everything she had.
And….
‘The place where I met my death.’
Although it was only an hour’s distance from the Drow Barony, she hadn't been able to bring herself to set foot here.
Because while it was a place she knew all too well, it was no longer the place she knew.
“Noona?”
“Yeah.”
After standing still for a moment, Ceres resumed her walk at Antonion’s call.
* * *
“Phew.”
“Mom, my legs hurt.”
“Just bear with it a little longer.”
“How much longer do we have to wait?”
“I’ve been out here doing this since six o’clock.”
“I have to get an examination today, no matter what.”
“It’s already my third day. If I don't get in today….”
An endless line stretched around the Elercia manor.
There were those who had come with their elderly mothers, and many stood holding fussing young children in their arms.
People who had sought treatment from local doctors to no avail flocked to Elercia County. Clinging to their last hope.
However, there were those for whom the time left to hold onto that hope was not very long.
“Ex—Excuse me!”
“What is it?”
A woman rushed urgently toward the administrator guarding the main gate of the Elercia manor.
In her arms, she held a boy who looked to be about three years old.
The child was limp as if he had lost consciousness, and hot, ragged breaths escaped his mouth incessantly. Anyone could see his condition was not good.
