Time Healer Ceres
Chapter 38
He, too, had recently been harboring significant doubts regarding Cheion’s behavior.
Lately, the stories coming out of his mouth focused almost exclusively on one thing.
‘I’m telling you, Ceres treated me like a beggar at first. Even now, she doesn’t exactly treat me like the Magic Tower Master.’
‘Is that something to say with a smile? You were treated like a beggar.’
Or, he had said things like:
‘Luca! Ceres gave me an extra piece of meat today!’
‘You don’t even usually like meat that much.’
And then there was:
‘You know, Ceres today…’
At any rate, Cheion had been stopping by the stew shop every single day lately. And if Luca suggested accompanying him, Cheion would bristle and guard his territory fiercely.
‘I thought it was because of the Magic Stone.’
Since the owner of that shop was said to be the owner of the Magic Stone Cheion had been so desperately searching for, Luca initially thought he was acting this way strategically to get his hands on it.
‘But that wasn’t it.’
The Magic Stone seemed to have already been pushed out of his interest.
It meant there was something else in that shop that piqued his interest even more.
“Could it be that woman?”
Since Cheion was the type to fall for things easily and lose interest just as quickly, Luca assumed this time would be no different.
He didn’t know exactly what it was, but he was certain that, as always, Cheion would soon lose interest and move on to something new.
‘But this time, something feels different.’
Watching Cheion vanish just moments ago using magic in an uncharacteristic rush, Luca sensed that things were taking a strange turn.
“What is it?”
Gradually, Luca himself began to grow curious about what was in that shop and what kind of person the owner was.
[Skreeeeee!]
Thwack!
[Squeak!]
“If you’re a rat, act like one and play in the sewers. Why the hell are you gnawing on buildings?”
The head of a giant rat, which had been hungrily gnawing on a building wall, burst in an instant, and it collapsed to the ground.
“Haven’t seen you in a while, you little Baqura.”
Baqura.
They looked exactly like rats.
Except for the fact that they were larger than the average adult male.
They even ate humans and devoured buildings indiscriminately.
Nothing remained in the areas where those things appeared. The saliva dripping from the Baqura’s mouth was a highly lethal toxin.
A poison strong enough to melt iron.
“It’s almost nice to see you.”
Ceres clicked her tongue and ran toward another Baqura that was diligently gnawing on a different building.
[Skreeeeee!]
The Baqura, spotting Ceres, swung its sharp claws and spat its venom.
Crack!
[Kreeek!]
“Filthy. How old are you, still drooling?”
However, the speed at which the stick Ceres swung struck its head was faster.
“Why is it that you guys never change?”
Looking at the other Baquras, who were so preoccupied with gnawing on buildings that they didn’t care whether their comrades died or not, Ceres slowly shook her head.
The Black Forest.
When she lived as Grace, she had entered and exited it countless times.
Before being a healer, it was something she could never ignore as the Head of the Family of Elercia, who was hailed as the Sword of the Empire.
“You should look before you leap. Do you have any idea how many of your ancestors I’ve sent to the afterlife? No one has entered the Black Forest as much as I have.”
Ah, there was one person.
‘Kai.’
There was no place where the Black Forest appeared more frequently than the Principality of Persia.
As a result, Kainel also had to frequent the Black Forest until he was sick of it.
“There’d be no end to it if I tried to kill all of you.”
It would be easier if they attacked all at once like other monsters, but since these things had to be hunted down one by one, it was a chore.
There were two ways to escape the Black Forest.
One was to kill every single monster inside.
The other was…
“I wonder where the boss is?”
Eliminating the final boss of this space.
Then the Black Forest would disappear without having to kill every single one of those little rats.
“Right about there.”
Ceres’s gaze, scanning the surroundings, stopped at one spot.
In the distance, there was a place where an exceptionally strong presence could be felt.
Clutching the wooden stick, which didn’t have a single drop of monster blood on it, Ceres’s figure quickly vanished from the spot.
“Baqura?”
“Whoa, damn.”
“Ha, this is driving me crazy.”
“Why does it have to be those things?!”
Curses erupted from the mercenaries, one after another, as they identified the monsters roaming through the darkness, destroying buildings and attacking people.
“How are we supposed to catch all of them?”
If you looked at the Baqura individually, they weren’t a huge problem.
They were bulky, and the saliva from their mouths was a deadly poison, but they weren’t high-ranking monsters that were impossible to handle.
The problem was that their numbers were ridiculously high.
To escape the Black Forest, they had to deal with all of them.
“So, do we take down the boss?”
Who? How?
“Are you crazy? That’s just asking us all to die together!”
The Baqura boss was so strong that ordinary mercenaries wouldn’t even dare to approach it.
The miasma emanating from its entire body, as well as its massive size, made people lose heart just by looking at it.
Taking on the boss with the number of people currently here was literally a suicide mission.
“At least the Guild Master should be here.”
Wouldn’t someone like Skal, the Black Guild Master, be needed to stand a chance?
Even if dozens of mercenaries like them attacked, they wouldn’t be able to touch a single hair on its body.
“For now, let’s just deal with those things until reinforcements arrive.”
“We have to.”
[Skreeee!]
Sensing killing intent, the Baquras that were devouring the surroundings turned to look at the mercenaries one by one.
Faced with the red eyes of dozens of rats larger than humans inside the darkened Black Forest, the mercenaries gulped, their throats dry.
Vrooooom—
“……?!”
It was then.
The mercenaries, who had drawn their swords, couldn’t help but be momentarily bewildered. This was because the Baquras, which looked ready to pounce on them at any moment, simultaneously floated up into the air.
[Skreee?]
Whoosh!
[Kwaaaaaaak!]
Then, massive flames struck the bodies of the Baquras!
With horrific screams, the bodies of the Baquras burned brightly in mid-air.
“W-what is this?”
Watching the Baquras vanish without a trace in an instant, the expressions of the mercenaries all turned blank.
Were Baquras monsters that could be handled so easily?
“Excuse me.”
“……!”
At that moment, a bright voice was heard.
Turning their heads, the mercenaries saw a young man walking toward them with long strides.
‘Isn’t that person him? You know, the young man who’s been seen often at the stew shop lately.’
‘I think so… That sly guy who was looking for a chance to cut in line while cracking lame jokes.’
‘Looks like him.’
At the appearance of a familiar face, the mercenaries began to whisper among themselves.
They thought they had heard he was a magician… Could that magic just now have been cast by him?
“By any chance, have you seen the stew shop owner?”
At the question from Cheion, the Magic Tower Master, the mercenaries slowly shook their heads with dazed expressions.
At that sight, a long sigh escaped Cheion’s lips.
“Where on earth did that lady go?”
A short while ago, when Cheion stopped by Where Your Steps Linger, he saw Ceres’s young brother and the shop staff huddled together.
Upon hearing that Ceres had gone out saying she had work to do, he rushed out to follow her, but no matter how much he searched the area, he couldn’t find her.
“What is she, really?”
Cheion’s gaze shifted downward.
In his hand, he held a small black stone.
‘What is that?’
‘Lady Ceres gave it to me. She called it a Defense Stone.’
‘…….’
The black stone that the man named Colin had been holding.
Cheion, seeing that object imbued with Defense Magic—the so-called ‘Defense Stone’—couldn’t say anything for a long time.
He barely managed to restrain himself from rushing straight to his laboratory to deconstruct the Defense Stone.
‘How could she use a formula like this…’
The more he looked, the more incredible it was.
Cheion, having briefly examined the magic formula contained in this small Defense Stone, was struck with a massive shock, as if he had been hit hard on the head with a blunt object.
‘And what about this powerful mana?’
It would only last for about three hours, but to put it bluntly, it contained an immense defensive power capable of blocking even a dragon’s breath.
‘Using something like this just to block things like that is too much.’
So, he had begged and pleaded until he got it.
After placing several layers of protective barriers around the shop in exchange for the Defense Stone, Cheion immediately set out to find Ceres.
‘How does she even have something like this?’
Following the Magic Stone, now there was a Defense Stone with a formula he had never seen before.
Every single item that came from Ceres was far from ordinary.
Just what was that woman?
