Ceres

31

Ceres took out a box of needles from her sleeves along with a fine thread and a dagger. The needles, thread, and dagger were cleaned with some liquid from her space bag and placed on top of the fire before setting them aside. Before proceeding with the operation, she have already gathered and channeled spirit essence onto Liuis' body. She was planning on cornering the parasite by luring it with spirit essence. Then, she inserted needles on different parts of Liuis body before opening his chest and heart. As her dagger sliced through Liuis' heart, everyone suddenly noticed that Liuis was barely breathing. He was dead! Guy was about to run towards them when Orion stopped him. Orion was anxious but because he made an oath to fully trust Ceres, he would do so.

After some time, Ceres started closing Liuis' heart and chest using some needles and thread. She also placed her hands in the middle of his chest as she channels spirit essence onto him. Then, a series of inserting and pulling out of needles amazed Orion and Guy. Along with this scenario, everyone can see that there are black smoke coming out from the places were Ceres inserted and pulled out the needles. After some more minutes, she patted Liuis' chest before he woke up and coughed a lot of black liquid. Ceres immediately held a basin were Liuis could puke the black liquid. She gestured him to lie down after. Then, she proceeded to the small clear jar near them and everyone saw that something was moving inside it. She cleaned it first with warm water before placing it in another liquid that came from her space bag.

Orion, seeing that Liuis was already awake, was going to go near them when Ceres stopped him.

"The poison is too strong here. You might get infected if you come closer. Gil, give them the antidotes and you take one too."

Gil followed Ceres orders and took out three white pills from his pocket. He gave the two to Orion and Guy and swallowed the third pill. Seeing Gil swallow the pill, Orion and Guy hesitated at first before swallowing theirs.

Ceres took out her medicinal cauldron and placed warm water on it. She lit the cauldron and after which, she took the basin with black liquid and got some samples before placing everything else on the medicinal cauldron. She has also placed some herbs inside and after some minutes, one can see that the black smoke has already disappeared. They do not know what Ceres did to the black liquid or smoke and they only saw her cleaning up everything. The things left were those that belong to the Hunts family.

Ceres stood up and told them that they could already help clean Liuis and his room while she would be going back to her room and also clean herself up. She reminded them to also clean themselves up after helping Liuis and to make sure that the bed sheets were changed into new ones. Then, she gave a list of herbs to Orion and told him to prepare a soup from those herbs and let Liuis drink it if he wakes up.

Guy accompanied Ceres and Gil to their rooms before he and Orion help in preparing Liuis' bath and bed sheets. Since no one is allowed to enter the courtyard, everything was done by Orion and Guy.

---

Ceres was soaking in a medicinal bath she made for herself while circulating spiritual essences in her body. She noticed that Gil was standing outside her room for some time.

"Gil."

Gil appeared not too far from the thin cover that separates the bath from the rest of the room.

"Clean yourself immediately."

Gil remained looking down on the floor.

"Princess, how is your condition?"

"Nothing you should be worried about."

The truth was that, she inhaled some of the poison during the operation. Fortunately, she immediately took the antidote, the same one that Gil and the others took. In her previous world, she was used to such things and there's no longer any poison that could damage her body. She underestimated the poison a while ago but it was not something that should be worried about. However, she clearly exhausted herself. The process of taking out the poison was something that should be done little by little. But, Ceres did all of it right after the operation.

"Princess, I have to be sure that nothing happens to you. Please tell me if something is wrong, no matter how trivial it is."

Ceres opened her eyes and wonders how such person can be so loyal to that mysterious man. Also, she cannot fathom the level of Gil, is he also someone strong like that person?

"I understand. Now, go back to your room."

---

"How's grandfather?"

Later that evening, Ceres and Gil were back at Liuis' room with Orion and Guy. Ceres was checking Liuis' condition while Liuis is still sleeping soundly. His body still took a toll from the operation however, his condition is already stable.

"The source of the poison was successfully taken out as well as the poison in his body. He only needs to regain his strength and heal his spiritual body. For that, I'll need some herbs."

Ceres handed down another list of herbs to Orion and when he took the list. He knew that such herbs were rare and even though they stocked some herbs, he will need to ask about those and purchased for the others.

She stood up and went near Orion. She pointed some herbs on the list to him asking if they have those because she will need it as soon as possible. When Ceres did this, she was close to Orion that Orion was startled and stepped back a little. Seeing Ceres that close and smelling the medicinal herb from her, Orion didn't know why but something inside him is unconsciously avoiding Ceres.

Orion gave the list to Guy and the latter immediately went to check their store room as well as the nearby stores and auction house.

After Guy went out to check for the herbs, Orion asked Ceres and Gil if they could talk privately and outside of Liuis' room.

Not far from Liuis' room was a garden. Under the moonlit night, they talk over some tea.

"Your grandfather needs a medicinal bath for both his spiritual and physical body. He also needs to take some pills to aid in his recovery. I will also be in charge of his diet for the time that he's still recovering. I will help him with his spiritual body for only a month. Afterwards, the recovery of his physical body will be up to you. As long as you follow my prescriptions and instructions, he will regain his peak condition."

Hearing all of these, Orion was slightly surprised.

"One month? That fast?"

Ceres only nodded. If only she was as good as Old Pang, she can clearly heal Liuis in one week. One month is too long and shows how she still needs to train her control of spiritual essences. Also, if she wasn't in a hurry, she will be overseeing Liuis' entire recovery. However, because of some circumstances, she needs to go back and train as soon as possible.

"Thank you very much for all your help. I promised to pay you. But, can you also identify the culprit?"

The air seemed to be heavy as the conversation became so serious.

"What do you plan to do after knowing who the culprit is?"

"Of course, I would get my revenge!"

Even with his resolution and killing intent, Ceres thought that he was very childish.

"Given your strength, you won't be able to do something to them."

Orion can only grit his teeth. He also knew the extent of what he can actually do but even so, he couldn't let those people go so easily.

Seeing that Orion was thinking about it a lot, Ceres said,

"I'll propose something."

"What is it?"

"Hire me."

"Huh?"

Orioncouldn't help but be dumbfounded. What does Ceres mean? Hire her? For what? Butfor someone like Orion, how could he have guessed that Ceres is a professionalassassin before anything else?-tbc

A/N: I wasn't really going to post anything online since I didn't plan to surf the internet anyway. But, I received news about one of my biases who will perform in our country soon. ;A; I just had to go online and express my happiness and gratitude and of course, flail with other people. In the end, might as well post chapters since I don't have anything to do. :)

By the way, hi Kradness~! <3 See you soon! :*