Welcome to the Café of the Dark Guild’s Successor - Chapter 125

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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A café run by the successor of the Dark Guild.
125
The atmosphere made conversation impossible, so I waited for his concentration to end.
I thought it would finish quickly, but thirty minutes had passed. Just as I was beginning to tire, Grandfather lifted his hand.
“How is it?”
“Child, will you try to follow what I do?”
Grandfather’s eyes gazing at me were glinting far too brightly.
He held his palms facing each other with space between them.
“Imagine drawing a circle in the space between them.”
“A circle?”
Following Grandfather’s lead, I stared quietly at the space between my palms.
While Grandfather drew a circle in midair in an instant, no matter how hard I tried, nothing appeared.
“It will be easier if you recall the energy I infused into you.”
Thinking back to that tingling sensation and concentrating again, a spark suddenly crackled, and a line appeared in the air.
I was embarrassed that I could only manage to draw a rough line, let alone a circle.
“This isn’t working well.”
But Grandfather’s reaction was different. His expression shifted to shock, and he let out a breathless laugh.
“I gave it a try on a whim, but seeing it… I still can’t believe it.”
“Was something odd?”
“Odd indeed. Ordinary people need at least a month at the fastest, or over a year at the slowest, just to create that line.”
I stared at the line that had appeared so clearly in the air, bewildered.
“Is this really that difficult?”
“It is. Even I, who was praised for a talent that appears once in a hundred years, took a full week. You’ll manage it in two days.”
Grandfather spoke with exhilaration and grasped my hand firmly.
“Child, I won’t have it. Let us study Magic together. You may just cross the wall of the Ninth Circle that I could not.”
I shook my head, turning away from Grandfather’s hopeful gaze.
“Wouldn’t I be too old for that? People learn Magic from childhood, after all.”
“That’s mainly because nobles study it that way. Age doesn’t matter. As you climb higher in your Circle, your lifespan grows as well.”
……
“Don’t you want to be recorded in history? You could become the greatest Mage of all.”
“Don’t flatter me. I have no such ambition.”
I’ve never entertained thoughts of leaving a name in the world.
If anything, I’d rather disappear quietly, leaving nothing behind, remembered by no one.
Since I’d already mastered most techniques back in Raven, I felt no need to learn Magic specifically.
“When I poured Mana into you, there was no end to it. At first, I wondered if you had none at all, but seeing how you harmonized with your surroundings, I understood. You seem to have a special constitution that draws Mana from nature itself.”
“Is that good?”
“Good, you ask? Any Mage would envy it. However, since I have a similar constitution, this must be a family trait.”
With that, Grandfather brought over a bag containing Mana Stones.
“Processing these stones won’t exhaust you. You can process all of them.”
Yesterday he had stopped me when I said I’d process them, and today he was telling me to do them all, pretending not to notice.
‘He has some other scheme in mind.’
It seemed he wanted to train me to become accustomed to using Mana.
Every time I touched the rough Mana Stones with my hands, a faint light was born.
Though the stones in the bag varied in size, processing them each took similar amounts of time.
As I processed them one by one, Grandfather eagerly explained the benefits of learning Magic.
I pretended to listen while letting it go in one ear and out the other, until an unbearably foul stench made me wrinkle my nose.
“What is that smell? It’s getting worse.”
Looking about for the source, I spotted a cauldron hanging in the fireplace.
Grandfather rushed to the cauldron and stirred it vigorously with a ladle as he spoke.
“I was making medicine.”
“What exactly did you put in it to create such a stench?”
“Centaur horn and wyvern eye, young drake urine and…….”
“I’d rather not hear the rest.”
The more I heard, the more I doubted the very identity of these ingredients, so I gave up listening.
I peered into the cauldron once more, found it unbearable, turned my head away, and plugged my nose.
“Was the medicine I took the same?”
“Worse.”
“…It’s a mercy I was unconscious.”
Had I been aware, I would have expelled every last drop rather than swallow it.
The liquid in the cauldron changed from purple to deep brown, and now boiled up in a sickly green.
“It seems finished.”
Grandfather suspended all the liquid in midair and poured it into bottles in a steady stream.
“This really is medicine, isn’t it?”
“You don’t trust me?”
…I trust you.”
Reminding myself that he was a Sage Mage, I quickly capped the bottles.
“Take it quickly. It’s most effective if consumed within an hour.”
“I’ll be back!”
At the mention of an hour, I cast aside all remaining hesitation and ran straight for the Temple.
I wrapped the bottle carefully in cloth and held it close to my chest so it wouldn’t break.
“I hope it works.”
Grandfather said it would be a success if this medicine could at least diminish the Miasma that had settled in Cayden’s body.
I hoped, at the very least, that this medicine would ease Cayden’s suffering and extend his life.
Running without pause, I arrived at the Temple in half the time it normally took.
Without needing to search for him, I could feel Cayden’s presence within the Temple.
“Cayden!”
Calling his name as I entered, I saw him climbing a ladder, scrubbing the face of a statue.
The statue’s true form was the deity that was the cause of his suffering.
Seeing him devote such care to it filled me with a hollow ache.
“Rosia!”
Spotting me, Cayden waved his hands excitedly from atop the ladder, calling my name.
I walked right to the base of the ladder and sighed up at him.
“Why are you working so hard? It’s not like anyone comes to this Temple anyway.”
“Even without visitors, the deity must be watching over us.”
“I doubt it. How could they possibly care for all those believers?”
“Rosia, that’s blasphemy.”
While Cayden always defended the god, I glared at the statue instead and gestured.
“Come down for a moment.”
“Once I finish this spot. Just a moment.”
Seniel carefully descended the ladder after lovingly polishing the statue’s ear with cloth.
Once seated in a chair fanning myself, Cayden reached out and lightly tapped my forehead with his sleeve.
“You’re sweating despite the cold — did something urgent happen?”
“I brought you something.”
At the sight of the medicine bottle, Cayden flinched and stumbled backward, eyeing the sinister color of the contents with trepidation.
“…Did I do something wrong?”
“It’s not poison.”
“That makes it even more suspicious.”
Cayden opened the bottle’s cap, then quickly sealed it again in shock. He then stared at it as though it were a bomb.
“Your grandfather made it. He said it would suppress the Miasma that’s taken root in your body.”
“Even so, if Meyson made it… this is a bit much…….”
Even I had spent days considering whether to drink something with such a questionable appearance.
“Don’t think about it. Just drink it. Quickly.”
“But Rosia… this smell is…….”
“The sooner you drink it, the better the effect.”
I forced the bottle into Cayden’s reluctant hands and wouldn’t let go until he’d drunk every drop.
“How is it?”
“Worse than it looks. What did you put in it?”
“Better not to know.”
The moment Cayden emptied the bottle, he bolted to the kitchen. He filled a cup with water and drank it, then did so two more times, still unsatisfied.
Gagging, he rinsed his mouth.
Even then, he complained that his throat kept convulsing.
“How do you feel? Any change in your body?”
“I can’t speak to my body, but my tongue is definitely numb.”
Cayden, who had been mumbling, suddenly lost his footing and swayed.
“Are you alright?”
As I moved to catch him, Cayden collapsed to the floor.
I was startled to see his body go limp as he lost consciousness.
“Cayden!!”
I cried out without thinking and shook him, when Grandfather came rushing into the kitchen from nowhere.
“What’s happened!”
“Cayden has collapsed.”
I showed Cayden to Grandfather and asked urgently.
“Did something go wrong with the medicine?”
“I make no mistakes. Such an immediate reaction is actually a sign the medicine is working well.”
After examining every corner of Cayden’s body and checking his eyes, Grandfather assured me there was nothing to worry about.
I took a shaky breath and collapsed into a chair.
“His face has gone pale. His lips are turning blue… Are you really sure this is fine?”
“The energy consuming his body has collided with the medicine’s power and erupted. He must overcome it himself. If he cannot, even the finest medicine is useless.”
“Let’s take him to the Café.”
I couldn’t leave him alone in the Temple, so I lifted him to carry him myself.
Grandfather then used Magic to suspend Cayden in midair.
Though his floating figure was somewhat disconcerting, it seemed easier than carrying him myself.
As we entered the Café, Grandfather tried to lay Cayden on the sofa, but I stopped him.
“Customers will arrive soon… Let’s put him in my room for now.”
“Child… isn’t your room a bit…?”
“Should I put him in your room instead?”
“My room is also full of dangerous things. Let’s use the guest room.”
With Grandfather so insistent, I decided to lay Cayden in the guest room where Biedler was staying temporarily.
I opened the door carefully. Fortunately, the room was tidy and well-organized.
As I laid Cayden on the bed, thin strands of hair fell across his forehead.
I brushed them aside, and seeing his lips drained of color, I couldn’t help but sigh.
“When will he wake up?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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