“...Yes.”
“Then did I ever miss an interest payment?”
“No!”
That figured. She already confirmed that Ceres was never late on payment.
In truth, she didn’t even need to look into it. The answer was obvious with a little thought.
The original Ceres wasn’t the bold type.
There was no way someone like her would dare cheat money from a group as notoriously vicious as Croy’s.
She might not have been able to repay a single coin of the principal, but she would’ve done everything she could to keep up with the interest and pay it on time without fail.
“Then why did you touch my employee?”
“......”
Croy swallowed, his throat dry.
If he admitted that he had planned to ruin the shop, take it over for cheap, and handle it however he pleased, it was obvious what would happen next. He would be beaten again.
He at least had that much sense, so he kept his mouth shut.
Smack!
“Are you ignoring me?”
“N-No!”
Keeping his mouth closed or not, the result was the same. He still got hit.
“If you have something to say, say it to me from now on. Don’t go bothering my well-behaved staff for no reason. If you’re going to cause trouble, come to me instead.”
“......”
Wasn’t that basically the {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} same as telling him not to come at all? After getting beaten like this, even someone with no brains would think twice. Who would willingly come back just to get hit again?
“Answer.”
“Y-Yes!”
After roughly sorting things out, Ceres looked over those who were still holding their hands up.
It had been her order, but seeing them now sitting on the ground, covered in injuries and groaning in pain, was pitiful.
“Start from there. Come one at a time. I’ll treat you.”
“...Huh?”
Treatment? What treatment all of a sudden?
At her words telling them to come closer one by one, everyone instinctively flinched. It felt less like treatment and more like she was about to beat them again.
Whether they understood or not, Ceres just smiled as she looked at Croy.
“But my treatment fee is rather expensive.”
So—
“Let’s settle next month’s interest with this.”
“......”
“Answer.”
“Yes, understood!”
Do as you wish.
Croy and everyone else present nodded vigorously, as if that alone was their only path to survival.
.
.
.
Chapter 7: Have You Seen the Blue Stone?
“Hey, did you hear?”
“Hear what?”
The stew shop was bustling from early morning. It was a place where weary travelers naturally drifted in. Mercenaries who had been waiting to soothe their empty stomachs poured in the moment the doors opened.
“I heard Grand Duke Persia showed up at the Imperial Council this time.”
“What? Seriously?”
With the council having taken place just the day before, it was only natural that everyone’s attention was fixed on the same topic. Depending on the outcome, the regions they were assigned to defend could change, along with their future movements. All of them were on edge.
“Wow, that monster finally showed himself to the world?”
“They say he still looks like he’s in his twenties.”
As expected, the one drawing the most attention was Grand Duke Persia, who had broken his long absence and revealed himself at last.
“Doesn’t he age at all?”
“That’s why they call him a monster.”
“Figures, that ice mon—”
Thud!
“—!”
Two bowls of stew were set down on the table with a sharp noise, cutting off the conversation.
Startled, the two mercenaries looked up, only to meet Ceres’s cold gaze. Their mouths snapped shut at once.
What was that? Did we just mess up?
We didn’t fight, didn’t break anything while drunk, and we waited quietly for the food... Ah, is it your face? She’s pissed because of your face. That’s it!
Keep talking and you’re dead, you b*stard!
The two men darted their eyes about, quickly running through everything they did.
“The stew’s here.”
“Huh?”
“It won’t taste good once it gets cold.”
“Ah...”
Catching the meaning behind her words at once, they hurriedly lowered their heads and began eating.
“......”
After watching them for a while, Ceres returned to the kitchen and stirred the bubbling pot with a ladle.
Kai came to the capital?
Until now, she had deliberately avoided any news about Kainel. She knew that if she heard anything, she would be tempted to go see him.
Why not go?
...Because we’d end up fighting. That guy would never believe me.
No matter how many times she told him she was Grace, he would never accept it.
Kainel was more realistic than anyone. He would draw his sword first without hesitation, demanding to know what kind of trick she thought she was pulling.
If I showed him the mana stone he gave me as proof, it would only get worse.
He would accuse her of stealing it, beat her half to death, and interrogate her afterward.
“Ah, my head...”
Just imagining it made her temples throb.
I’ve got quite the temper myself.
There was no way she would just let him strike her. She would draw her sword as well, and at that point, neither of them would walk away unharmed.
“But still... a monster?”
Ceres frowned slightly as she recalled the mercenaries’ conversation. It wasn’t as though she herself was known by kind titles, but even so, hearing him called a monster left a bitter taste.
...Is it because he hasn’t aged?
She sighed.
After all, Grace was the one who had stopped Kainel’s time.
The Persia family was the rulers of the North for generations. There was a unique ability passed down only to the head of that bloodline.
The power of frost.
Though they were a house of swordsmen, many mistook them for a mage family because of it. But their power was fundamentally different from those who wielded mana.
A power inherited through blood.
The problem was that the power affected the body itself. Throughout history, most heads of the Persia family had never lived past thirty.
That’s why I used it.
Her power to reverse time.
She had halted his physical time in his twenties, just before his condition began to deteriorate rapidly.
To keep his body from worsening any further, she had sealed his time in place, locking it there indefinitely.
Because there was no other way to save him.
I meant to release it someday.
Once she had grown older and enough time had passed, she planned to return his time.
But that never came to pass.
How was I supposed to know I’d die so early?
Besides, if she released it just because she was about to die, she would only be condemning him to start dying again.
“But... a monster?”
That was what they were calling him?
“...D*mn.”
It sounded unpleasant. What did they know about him to talk like that?
Ceres scoffed.
“Lady Ceres, two stews.”
“Alright.”
Jay stepped into the kitchen with the order from newly arrived customers.
Then, spotting the towering stack of dirty dishes to one side, her face fell. She rolled up her sleeves and immediately set to washing them.
In the meantime, Ceres filled two bowls with stew. She glanced at Jay for a moment, then picked up the bowls herself and headed out.
***
“Rina! Open your eyes, hey!”
“...Where am I?”
“We came here to eat. Get a grip.”
“...Do you wanna try talking to the Tower Master for three hours every day?”
“No, I’ll pass.”
In one corner of the dining area sat a young man and woman.
Unlike the man, who looked perfectly fine, the woman across from him was in a terrible state. Her eyes were sunken as if she hadn’t slept for days, her expression vacant like she might collapse at any moment.
“So this is what people mean by getting your energy drained...”
“You brought that video to the Tower Master yourself. What did you expect?”
“I didn’t show it to the Tower Master, I showed it to my teacher!”
The woman snapped back at the man, who clicked his tongue in disapproval.
“Geez, what’s so special about that mana stone anyway?”
“Exactly.”
Rina slumped forward onto the table, clearly exhausted both mentally and physically.
What she had done out of affection for her teacher, in the end, became the cause of her chronic fatigue and hair loss. It was enough to drive her mad.
She stumbled upon a mana stone at a magic shop not long ago. Fascinated by its unusual properties, she recorded it. She had wanted to show it to her teacher, who had a keen interest in such things.
“I must’ve lost my mind. Why did I even record that?”
She felt like going back to that moment and beating her past-self senseless.
It started after she showed that video.
Boom!
“Eek! T-Tower Master?”
“My mana stone. My mana stone!”
“...Pardon?”
“My mana stone. Where is it?”
“M-My mana stone?”
The real problem was that her teacher had shown that video to the Tower Master.
As soon as Tower Master Cheion saw it, he came looking for Rina and began bombarding her with questions about the stone.
“Did you go back to that shop?”
“Have you seen my blue stone again?”
“That woman... Do you really not know where she lives?”
“Why? Why don’t you know?”
Why, why?
Why was the Tower Master repeating the same questions every single day for three hours straight?
Why? Why!