Time Healer Ceres
Chapter 35
Chapter 35
“My child, my child is so sick! How much longer do we have to wait?”
“Please wait. It is not your turn yet.”
“It’s already been five hours since treatments began! Why hasn’t a single person been let inside? I’m asking you, how much longer do we have to wait?!”
“It is because there are already many others waiting inside.”
“That’s…!”
Tears welled in the woman’s eyes from sheer anxiety.
Knowing her child’s condition was growing more critical by the minute, it was agonizing to just stand there and wait.
‘Should I go somewhere else even now?’
But she had already tried that. It hadn’t done any good!
This was her last resort….
Clack, clack.
Just then, a luxurious carriage approached the main gate.
The administrator who had been speaking to the woman rushed over to it.
“Welcome, Lord Clio.”
After checking the crest engraved on the carriage, the administrator broke into a smile so bright it made one wonder if he was the same person who had looked so indifferent in front of the woman just moments ago.
“My body feels quite sluggish today.”
“Yes, of course. Please, come right inside.”
“Keep up the good work.”
The man, who appeared to be in his early fifties, closed the carriage window he had briefly opened and hurried through the main gate.
“Tsk.”
“Sigh.”
“Pushed back again.”
Sighs escaped the lips of the people watching the scene from the sidelines.
They were already as used as they could be to seeing nobles enter ahead of them despite having lined up since dawn, but that didn't mean the sense of futility ever vanished.
“H-Hey! What about us? When on earth can we go in?! Please, let us in quickly too! Why only those people…!”
The woman who had spoken to the administrator earlier clung to him again, her eyes red with emotion.
She tried to appeal to his sense of injustice, asking why someone who arrived late was allowed in first, but the answer remained the same.
“Wait.”
“My child is very sick!”
Of course, the woman knew. She knew it was absurd to expect the same treatment as a noble.
However, the current situation was far too dire for her to understand and accept such things one by one. The heat radiating from her child’s body was growing more intense.
“Please…!”
The woman grabbed the administrator’s arm with all her might.
At her touch, the administrator recoiled as if he had touched something filthy and shoved the woman away violently.
“I told you to wait!”
Thud!
“Ah!”
“As if there’s anyone here who isn’t sick!”
Ultimately, the woman stumbled and fell. Because she had been shielding the child with only one arm while grabbing the administrator, the child also fell and rolled across the ground.
“Z-Zen!”
“Ugh….”
A faint moan escaped the child lying on the ground.
As if he had no strength left to cry or move, the child showed no other reaction.
“Urgh!”
The woman tried to rush to the child, but she seemed to have twisted her leg when she fell, making her movements extremely awkward.
Slide.
“…!”
At that moment, a pair of hands reached out and carefully picked up the child before the woman could reach him.
A pale hand was placed on the forehead of the child, who still hadn't regained consciousness.
“The fever is severe.”
The person clicking her tongue lightly was none other than Ceres.
“How long has the child been sick?”
Dazed for a moment by the sudden situation, the woman finally rushed to the child’s side at Ceres’s calm voice.
“A-About fifteen days. I took him to other doctors, but it didn't have much effect, so…”
So she had ended up here. Because she heard that all the skilled doctors were gathered in this place.
But in the end, she couldn't even pass through the main gate.
A pathetic parent who could only stand by and watch as her child’s life flickered out.
Ceres patted the back of the woman, who was desperately holding back tears, and straightened her back from her crouch.
“Let’s move for now.”
She couldn't treat the child standing out here like this.
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?!”
Only then did the administrator, who had been watching the situation with displeasure from the side, approach while shouting. It was to prevent Ceres from taking the patient away.
There were often people like that—doctors from nearby clinics who would secretly take patients who were waiting in line!
To dare openly take a patient from right in front of Elercia County’s estate of all places!
“Fuck.”
“W-What?”
The administrator looked bewildered at the profanity that pierced his ears so clearly.
Did that young lady just swear at him?
“Yeah. Fuck.”
Why? You want me to say something worse?
I’ve learned quite a bit of profanity while working at the shop lately. Our regulars have quite the foul mouths, you see.
Holding the child, Ceres slowly turned to look at the administrator, one corner of her mouth curling upward.
He didn't even glance at a critical patient, yet he hates the idea of losing them to someone else?
“Amusing.”
Seeing that smile, Antonion flinched and quickly took a step away from her. He knew very well that his noona was currently pissed off.
If he wanted to avoid catching any stray sparks, the best answer was to just quietly step aside at times like this.
“Hey.”
“H-Hey?”
The administrator’s face contorted further at Ceres’s blunt address.
Has she truly gone mad? To be so fearless!
“You, how long has it been since you learned healing magic?”
“What?”
“I asked how long it’s been.”
“Why would I learn healing magic?!”
“…You haven't mastered healing magic?”
The administrator, who had shouted back, turned red as if he found the question absurd.
However, it was Ceres who let out a hollow laugh of disbelief as she looked at him.
“A person who hasn't even mastered healing magic is managing the main gate?”
This place has truly gone insane.
Ceres’s smile deepened.
“Ugh….”
“…….”
Ceres, who was about to spit out more words, couldn't help but pause at the faint moan coming from the child in her arms.
“I’d like to move locations. Somewhere I can lay the child down.”
“Pardon? Ah, yes!”
The child’s mother, who had been fidgeting while watching Ceres argue with the administrator, hurried to lead the way.
As Ceres followed behind her, the gaze in her eyes sank into a chill colder than ever before.
*
“Lord Kainel?”
Dell, the aide, looked at Kainel in confusion when he suddenly ordered the carriage to stop.
Seeing him open the window and stare intently outside, Dell followed his gaze and frowned slightly.
“It seems there is some sort of trouble.”
A young child and a woman who appeared to be the child’s mother were collapsed on the street.
“Hmm?”
But just then, someone approached and picked up the fallen child.
Then, the woman spat out some very flavorful profanity.
‘Ho.’
Dell couldn't easily take his eyes off the woman who, with a calm aura, rendered the administrator unable to utter a single word.
However….
‘She looks familiar.’
Where had he seen her?
“……?”
And there was someone else staring at the woman just as intently as he was: Kainel.
“Is she someone you know?”
Dell found this situation itself fascinating. Kainel was a man who wouldn't show the slightest interest in matters unrelated to him, even if a commotion broke out nearby.
It was even his first time seeing him look at someone with such interest.
“The person who gives food.”
“Pardon?”
The person who gives food? What did that…?
“Ah!”
Only then did Dell remember where he had seen the woman.
She was the person he had encountered at the shop when he went to pick up food before.
“And….”
“And?”
“…….”
“……?”
…Someone who keeps bothering me.
Kainel did not take his eyes off Ceres until she, carrying the child, became a small dot and disappeared.
“We’re going back.”
“Pardon? What about the consultation?”
Dell, who had been pestering him for a long time to go to Elercia County for a consultation, had only managed to persuade him to come today.
It was because Kainel’s insomnia was growing increasingly severe.
But to just go back now?
“Look into it.”
“Look into what, sir?”
“About that woman.”
At Kainel’s command, Dell belatedly looked out the window again.
Was he talking about that woman from just now?
Dell’s eyes were filled with surprise.
“Understood.”
But soon, Dell nodded vigorously.
He didn't know what was going on, but the fact that Kainel was showing interest in something else was a very welcome development.
“Still, since you’ve come all this way, why not receive a consultation before we go?”
“……”
“…Let’s go back.”
Dell let out a long sigh as Kainel silently closed his eyes.
It seemed they would have to come back here another time.
*
“Mama….”
“Zen! Are you awake?”
Tears welled up in the woman’s eyes.
When she first started following Ceres to change locations, she had wondered if this was the right thing to do.
Even if she was angry and desperate, shouldn't she have waited in front of Elercia County until it was her turn?
But at that moment when everyone else looked away, seeing Ceres pick up the child lying on the cold ground, she had followed her lead as if possessed.
The woman, who had brought Ceres to the inn where she was staying, was anxious even as she watched her treat the child.
Was my choice correct?
What if something goes wrong with the child? What should I do then?
