Chapter 23
“…No.”
“Then, have I ever missed an interest payment?”
“Never!”
Of course not.
Even without checking, it was clear that the interest here had never been missed, not even once.
In truth, there wasn’t much need to verify. A little thought made the answer obvious.
‘The original Ceres wasn’t a bold person.’
There was no way someone like her would dare default on payments to the notoriously ruthless Croi gang.
She might not have been able to pay back the principal, but she would have done everything possible to ensure the interest was paid punctually every time.
“So why did you mess with my employee?”
“…….”
Croi gulped audibly.
If he admitted that they wanted to ruin the shop to take it over cheaply and do as they pleased, he’d only get beaten again, right?
Croi had enough sense to keep his mouth shut.
Smack!
“Are you ignoring me?”
“No, ma’am!”
Of course, keeping his mouth shut didn’t mean he wouldn’t get hit anyway.
“From now on, if you have anything to say, say it to me. Don’t bother my good employees. If you’re going to cause trouble, bring it to me.”
“…….”
Wasn’t that just another way of saying “don’t cause trouble”?
After getting beaten up like this, no matter how stupid they were, how could they even think of coming back? Were they supposed to come back just to get beaten up again?
“Answer.”
“Yes, ma’am! Yes!”
Having roughly settled the situation, Ceres looked over the group, still sitting on the floor with their hands raised high.
Though she had ordered them to do it, seeing them groaning in pain and covered in bruises was a pathetic sight.
“Come here one by one, starting from that side. I’ll treat you.”
“Pardon?”
Treat them? Suddenly?
Hearing her call them forward one by one, they instinctively flinched.
Was she planning to hit them again under the guise of treatment?
Regardless, Ceres glanced at their leader, Croi, and smiled slyly.
“But my treatment isn’t cheap.”
So…
“Next month’s interest will be covered by this.”
“…….”
“Answer.”
“Yes, ma’am! Of course!”
Whatever you say, ma’am!
Croi and everyone else in the room nodded fervently, as though their lives depended on it.
***
“Hey, did you hear the news?”
“What news?”
As usual, the stew shop was bustling from the morning, a place where footsteps often lingered.
The mercenaries, waiting to soothe their aching stomachs, rushed inside as soon as the doors opened.
“They say the Duke of Persia showed up at the Imperial Conference.”
“What? Is that true?”
Given that it was the day after the Imperial Conference, it was natural for the mercenaries’ attention to be focused on one topic.
Depending on the conference results, the regions they were assigned to defend could change, altering their future missions.
“Wow, so that monster has finally come out into the world?”
“They say he still looks like he’s in his twenties.”
What drew the most attention, of course, was the Duke of Persia, who had broken his long silence and revealed himself.
“He really doesn’t age, huh?”
“Which is why they call him a monster.”
“Truly, an ice mons—”
Clang!
A stew bowl landed loudly on the table where the mercenaries were talking.
The two mercenaries looked up in surprise, meeting the icy glare of Ceres.
‘What? Did we do something wrong?’
‘We didn’t argue, break anything, or cause any drunken trouble. We even waited quietly for the food… Oh, is it because of your face? That must be it.’
‘You’re dead, man.’
The two mercenaries rolled their eyes nervously, replaying their actions in their minds.
“Your stew is here.”
“Huh?”
“It won’t taste good if it gets cold.”
“Ah…”
Understanding immediately that she was telling them to shut up and eat, the two quickly grabbed their spoons.
“……”
Watching them for a moment, Ceres returned to the kitchen and stirred the bubbling stew pot with a ladle.
‘Kainel came to the capital?’
Ceres had deliberately avoided hearing about Kainel. She was afraid that hearing news about him would make her want to go find him.
Why didn’t she go see him?
—Because they would fight.
‘That guy would never believe me.’
No matter how much she claimed to be Grace, he would never believe her. He was too grounded in reality.
He would probably draw his sword right away, accusing her of trying to pull some ridiculous stunt.
‘If I showed him the mana stone he gave me as proof, it’d only make things worse.’
He’d demand to know where I stole it from and wouldn’t hesitate to half-kill me before interrogating me further.
“Ugh, my head hurts.”
Just imagining the situation gave her a headache.
‘I’m not exactly one to back down either.’
Since she wouldn’t just take a beating, she would end up drawing her sword as well. In that case, there would be no peaceful resolution.
“And a monster?”
Ceres frowned as she recalled the mercenaries’ conversation.
She hadn’t been called by the best names before, but “monster”?
Was it because he didn’t age?
Ceres sighed deeply.
It was her who had stopped Kainel’s time.
The Persian family, rulers of the North for generations, possessed a unique ability.
The power of ice.
Though the Persian family was also known for their swordsmanship, many mistakenly assumed them to be a family of magicians because of this ability.
But their power was fundamentally different from magic, which relied on mana.
‘It’s a unique power passed down through blood.’
The problem was that this power had severe side effects on the body.
Most previous heads of the Persian family had not lived past their thirties.
‘Which is why I used it.’
What did she use?
Her own power to control time.
She had frozen Kainel’s body in his twenties, just before his condition could rapidly deteriorate.
To stop his body from deteriorating further, she had locked his time in place forever.
There was no other way to save him.
‘I had planned to release it someday.’
When she had grown older and much time had passed, she intended to restore his time.
But she hadn’t expected to die so early.
‘How could I have known I would die so soon?’
Restoring his time and dying herself just to let him die too would have been absurd.
“And a monster…”
Was that what they were calling him now?
It left a bitter taste in her mouth. What did they know about him to talk like that?
Ceres let out a short sigh.
“Lady Ceres, two stew orders.”
“Got it.”
Jay entered the kitchen, taking the orders from a new customer. Spotting the pile of dishes, she frowned but quickly rolled up her sleeves and began washing them.
“……”
Ceres, having filled two bowls of stew, glanced at Jay briefly before carrying the bowls out herself.
***
At a corner table in the shop sat a young man and woman.
“Rina! Open your eyes!”
“…Where am I?”
“We’re here to eat. Get a grip.”
“…You try talking with the Tower Master for three hours every day and see how you feel.”
“No thanks.”
The man looked perfectly fine, but the woman sitting across from him was a wreck.
With hollow eyes, she looked as if she hadn’t slept for days and might collapse at any moment.
“So this is what it feels like to have your energy drained…”
“Why did you even show that video to the Tower Master?”
“I didn’t show it to the Tower Master. I showed it to my teacher!”
The woman, Rina, snapped at him, clearly exhausted.
“That mana stone… what’s so special about it anyway?”
“My thoughts exactly.”
Rina, utterly drained, collapsed onto the table.
What she had done out of admiration for her teacher had become the main cause of her chronic fatigue and hair loss.
Not long ago, she had stumbled upon a mana stone with unique properties in a magic shop. Intrigued, she had recorded it on video, thinking her teacher would find it fascinating.
“I must have lost my mind. Why did I even film it?”
She wanted to go back in time and scold her past self.
The moment she showed the video to her teacher, things took a turn for the worse.
Boom!
“Eek! T-Tower Master!”
“My blue stone! My blue stone!”
“Huh?”
“My blue stone! Where is it?”
“B-Blue stone?”
Her teacher had shown the video to Tower Master Chaian, which had caused all the trouble.
After seeing it, Chaian came to Rina and bombarded her with questions about the mana stone.
“Have you gone back to that shop?”
“Have you seen my blue stone again?”
“What about the woman? Do you know where she really lives?”
“Why? Why? How would I know?”
…Why? Why?
Why does the Tower Master ask the same questions every day for three hours straight?
Why? WHY?????!!!!
—
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