Chapter 192
“She’s someone Cheyenne cherishes.”
“So?”
“I’m telling you not to do anything unnecessary.”
“I cherish her a lot too. She’s the owner of the Tamer’s Relic—of course everyone should treasure her.”
“……”
Watching him smile faintly, Luca quietly shook his head. He couldn’t help thinking that Miss Ceres was going to be utterly exhausted.
That man had a special talent: once he fixated on something, he could drive the other person insane. Luca knew that better than anyone.
“You also carried out our master’s request properly.”
“Master…?”
…Please say the owner of the Tamer’s Relic. Don’t shorten it.
“But a request?”
What kind of request could Miss Ceres have made?
Thud.
As Luca wondered, Crown Prince Acerian pulled a document from his desk and tossed it in front of him.
“This is…?”
It was information about an orphanage located in the capital.
“The place that supplied children to the illegal auction house.”
“Ah…”
Luca immediately understood. It referred to the illegal auction house tied to Marquis Merial, which Crown Prince Acerian had personally raided and shut down not long ago.
“She told me to leave the headmaster alone for the time being. Said she had business with him.”
“The headmaster?”
Why would Miss Ceres make such a request? Luca couldn’t quite grasp the situation.
“I don’t know the details either. She said to leave him alone, so I did.”
The crown prince picked the document back up and smirked.
“Aren’t you curious?”
“About what, sir?”
“What kind of interesting thing she’ll do next.”
“……”
As his smile deepened, Luca once again put on an utterly fed-up expression.
Miss Ceres…
How on earth did you end up catching the eye of a man like that? Luca quietly shook his head, offering a silent prayer for her well-being.
“Hmm.”
[Puuh?]
[Pii?]
With her subspace left open, Ceres stood there frowning deeply. Seeing this, Kkamang and Airien tilted their heads.
Was the item she was looking for not there?
“No, it’s there… I just don’t really want to take it out.”
It was the perfect item to use right now, but… should she really take it out? She wasn’t confident she wouldn’t regret it. Still, when it came to making people pay for what they’d sown, nothing beat this thing.
Even back then, it was hard to handle… but now, after 300 years?
Ceres pressed her brow as a headache already began to form. Then again, who knew? Maybe after 300 years, its personality had changed a little.
Whoosh!
Clinging to a very faint hope, Ceres pulled an item out of the subspace. In her hand appeared a very small fan, its vivid red coloring particularly eye-catching.
Woooong—
“……”
A faint vibration, as if greeting her. Letting out a short sigh, Ceres unfolded the fan.
Flash!
A bright light poured out.
[Wow, damn! Do you have any idea how long it’s been? Seriously, aren’t you being a bit much? Over 300 years without calling me—wait, huh?]
As the light faded, a person appeared.
A woman who looked to be in her early twenties, with an extremely flashy appearance.
Her curly, multicolored hair was tied high into a single ponytail, and dark sunglasses covered her eyes. She wore a black leather top, a short skirt that exposed her thighs, and strange leather boots that reached up to her knees.
“…What’s with that outfit?”
[…Who are you?]
The woman slid her sunglasses down slightly and squinted.
[That rude soul aura—this has to be Grace. But why are you younger? What’s this? Did you get plastic surgery? Has that kind of technology finally reached this world?]
She tilted her head repeatedly as she examined Ceres’s face from every angle.
“Hands off my face.”
[See? That nasty way of talking—totally Grace. What happened? After 300 years you should’ve aged horribly. Why do you look even younger?]
“After 300 years, the normal thing isn’t aging—it’s being dead.”
[I figured you were too stubborn to die. Still, I didn’t expect you to look this different. What is it? Did you steal someone else’s body?]
Grinning, the woman stepped back and scrutinized Ceres more closely.
They’re all the same…
Was that really how people saw her in her past life? Jubellios had said something almost identical.
“And what about you? What’s with that ridiculous getup?”
She’d always worn bizarre clothes and accessories in the past, but this was by far the worst.
[This? It’s the fashion from a world I was hanging around in recently. Think of it as a ‘badass unnie’ concept.]
“Fa… what?”
…Here we go again. Always using weird words that made her head hurt. Some things never changed, even after 300 years.
[So, why did my little sister call this unnie after such a long time?]
Lowering her head to meet her eyes, the woman pinched Ceres’s cheek lightly and smiled deeply.
Ceres slapped her hand away and pushed her forehead back with a finger.
“Deal with someone for me.”
[Oh my.]
The woman feigned shock and leaned in close again.
[My, my. The person who shoved me into subspace for 300 years because using my power was ‘bad luck’ is now saying she needs me?]
“Then go back in.”
Ceres immediately opened the subspace again, about to shove the fan back inside.
[No, no! Noooo! You have to listen to me till the end! I’ll do it, I will! Whatever it is, I’ll do it—please!]
The woman suddenly burst into exaggerated sobs and clung to Ceres.
[I hate the subspace! It’s so freaking boring!]
“Weren’t you having plenty of fun in other worlds even without me?”
[I told you, without a proper contractor I can’t use my power properly!]
“Fine, just back off.”
Somehow she seemed even clingier than before. Ceres peeled the woman off her arm and shoved her back a step.
[So? Who’s the bastard I need to deal with? This unnie will handle it perfectly. Who is it? Go on, tell me~]
As if she hadn’t been crying a moment ago, the woman grinned and clung to Ceres again, acting cute.
Get off me.
Like a cat through and through—only acting like this when she needed something. Letting out a long sigh, Ceres looked down at the woman glued to her arm.
I really shouldn’t have called her.
Already drained, Ceres gently shook her head. Once this job was done, she’d shove her back into the subspace for good.
“Damn it!”
At the outskirts of the capital stood Jerry Orphanage. Its director, Jerry, was spewing curses nonstop, unable to contain his rage.
“Shit! What if I get arrested too?”
With the illegal auction house exposed, Jerry himself had become implicated and was now under investigation.
Having supplied children to the auction house, he’d trembled when soldiers showed up at the orphanage not long ago.
Fortunately, he hadn’t been arrested on the spot—but they had confiscated every document in the orphanage.
They’d even taken all the children away under the pretense of temporary protection.
Now, aside from a few staff members, everyone had fled the orphanage. Afraid of getting caught up in the mess, they’d all run.
“At least I need to sell the building and the land if I’m going to escape.”
He wanted to run just as badly. But he couldn’t do it empty-handed.
The moment he learned the auction house had been exposed, he’d put the building and all his land up for sale. But so far, no buyers had appeared.
Once they sold, he planned to disappear immediately. As long as his crimes weren’t uncovered before then. He hadn’t left behind any evidence… right?
“Unbelievable bad luck!”
This was all because of that damn bastard!
“Jien, that cursed son of a bitch!”
Everything had been fine until that bastard got dragged into the auction house. Why did everything start falling apart after that?!
