Welcome to the Café of the Dark Guild’s Successor - Chapter 13

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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 cafe run by the heir to the Dark Guild.
13
[Raven Organization Chart]
The moment I saw familiar names written on the paper, my heart sank and I swallowed hard.
“Ra… Raven?”
Even from a glance, the contents were alarming. The personal information of Guild Members I knew was densely recorded.
“Oh no, miss! That’s a Classified Document—you shouldn’t be reading it.”
Seniel, who had been distracted talking with me, startled badly and took the document from my hands.
Orbis seemed to come to his senses as well, approaching the table.
“Is this the guild you’ve been pursuing?”
“What? You know about it too?”
I gazed at the documents piled across the table and bit my lip firmly.
All of this concerned our guild. Even without information about me specifically, worry for the guild came first.
“How would I know?”
“Right?”
Seniel, whose expression had hardened for a moment, smiled again and gathered the scattered papers before I could see more.
“Why are you tracking them?”
“You’re awfully curious today, miss.”
Seniel meant it as a joke, but feeling caught, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
“B-because the guild name is pretty. I like ravens, you see.”
“Oh? Is that why you keep Shell? I always thought it was unusual—most Messenger Birds are pigeons.”
He actually believed that?
Shell was a raven I received as a child because the bird was our guild’s symbol, but it made for a convenient excuse.
“That’s right.”
“Recently, Raven stole something very important from us. We’ve been tracking them, but apparently the Guild Master died recently? So we’re considering absorbing that guild while we have the chance.”
“Seniel! Even if it’s Rosia, you shouldn’t be saying such things……”
Orbis belatedly covered Seniel’s mouth, but I’d already heard everything and smiled awkwardly.
“Please, don’t worry. Why would I go spreading this around?”
The moment I left the Imperial Palace, I planned to report everything to the Information Bureau.
“Right, miss? You absolutely cannot tell anyone, absolutely.”
“Of course. Don’t worry. You both seem busy, so I’ll be on my way.”
Eager to leave, I tried to stand at once, but Seniel grabbed my arm.
I stiffened and turned to face him.
“Why?”
“It’s already too late to leave tonight. The main gate will be locked.”
“Then what do I do?”
“Sleep here. The Separate Palace has plenty of guest rooms. His Highness brought you all the way here, so he’d naturally permit it.”
At the thought of spending the night in the Imperial Palace, I blinked blankly.
While I stayed here, information about Raven would continue to be collected and organized.
My heart felt uneasy, but there was no way to open the Imperial Palace’s gates now that they were locked.
“Understood.”
With no choice but to stay the night at the Imperial Palace, I was shown to a guest room.
***
The Separate Palace indeed had plenty of empty rooms, and the guest room I was led to had no particular owner yet was filled with ornate furnishings.
But my mind was too jumbled to appreciate such things.
I sat on the edge of the bed and recalled what had just happened.
“They’re trying to absorb our guild in the chaos? I never imagined it. Is this the will of the Imperial Court, or is it the 2nd Prince’s unilateral decision?”
As I’d witnessed earlier, the relationship between the 2nd Prince and the Empress was extremely poor.
According to the information I’d heard, even the Emperor didn’t favor the 2nd Prince.
Then it was highly likely this matter was entrusted only to his close associates and was being conducted privately.
“How many would there be? I need to find out the scale of this.”
Since I, who had carried out the guild’s operations all this time, knew nothing of this, they probably weren’t conducting business through underground channels.
Regardless of why they wanted to absorb the Dark Guild, I needed to know their scale first to mount a proper response.
‘I’ll investigate. This is my only chance.’
To verify the information gathered here in the Imperial Palace, now was the only opportunity.
Once I left this place in the morning, I might never see these documents again.
Risky though it was, I couldn’t simply pretend to know nothing about guild affairs, so I draped the shawl from the hanger over my shoulders and stepped into the corridor.
I deliberately didn’t hide my presence.
I stepped outside as if taking a walk and checked whether the lights in other rooms were off.
Then—rustle.
Sounds continued from a nearby bush. Wondering if it was a cat, I approached, only to find a child crouching there.
“Shh!”
Startled by the child’s sound, I covered my mouth, and he gestured for me to come closer.
‘The 3rd Prince I saw earlier?’
It was strange that a young prince would come all the way to the Separate Palace and hide like this at such a late hour, but I crouched down as well.
“Your Highness, did you perhaps lose your way?”
“What? I’d never lose my way.”
“Then what are you doing here?”
“Shh. Be quiet.”
The prince covered my mouth again with his small hand and pressed his eye against a hole in the bush.
His posture seemed terribly practiced, as if he’d done this many times before.
Watching his legs fidget continuously, it seemed he’d been in this position for quite a while.
What on earth was he watching for?
Curiosity got the better of me, and I too peeked out toward the clearing.
Just then, I heard someone walking into the open space before the bushes.
The young prince inhaled sharply, so I too held my breath still.
The person in the clearing began Sword Training. Dressed in pristine white practice clothes and moving with elegance, they looked almost as if dancing.
‘Bidler.’
The person the young prince had been spying on was the 2nd Prince.
After training for a long while beneath the moonlight like that, he wiped away sweat with a towel he’d brought and disappeared.
“Hehe. Isn’t he cool?”
“Yes, he is.”
“He’s my brother.”
The prince, his cheeks flushed from how intently he’d watched, boasted with gleaming eyes.
“Why do you watch him from hiding?”
“Mother hates it. If my brother is with me, he gets scolded.”
The prince’s mood dimmed. Standing up abruptly as if his legs had gone numb, he wet his finger with saliva and alternated tapping his nose and forehead.
“She must love him very much.”
“He’s cool! When I grow up, I’m going to be cool like him too.”
His mimicry of the 2nd Prince’s sword training posture was endearing yet pitiful.
‘They have a difficult relationship.’
Judging by the Empress’s temperament from what I’d seen earlier, she would never tolerate the 3rd Prince spending time with the 2nd Prince.
As I stayed quiet, the 3rd Prince tilted his head and reached out his chubby hand.
“Which attendant are you?”
“I’m not an attendant—I’m a guest.”
“From which family?”
Though young, his tone carried the dignity of his birth as a prince.
I bowed my head respectfully.
“From a humble household, Your Highness. A commoner.”
“What? Why is a commoner in the Imperial Palace… oh no!”
Before the prince could finish speaking, I heard attendants calling for him in the distance.
“I have to go. Today stays secret, understood?”
The way he scurried off in different directions looked just like a rabbit.
With the crimson eyes of imperial blood, he looked even more so.
“Like Seniel when he was young. How cute.”
Recalling Seniel’s childhood for the first time in ages, I rested my chin in my palm and watched the 3rd Prince disappear—when I felt a familiar presence behind me.
I pretended not to notice and waited for him to pass, but the source of that presence proved to be heading straight for me. He stopped at my back and spoke in a cool voice.
“You again.”
“…Good evening.”
I widened my eyes as if surprised to see Bidler suddenly appear.
In truth, I was somewhat startled—even though I’d sensed him approaching, he’d appeared closer than I’d anticipated.
“What are you doing here at this hour?”
“I couldn’t sleep, so I was taking a walk.”
“In that posture?”
I was still in a crouch from hiding behind the bushes with the 3rd Prince.
Bidler regarded me with obvious suspicion. Given his demeanor, it seemed my plan to sneak into his office was clearly compromised.
“I was swept up by the 3rd Prince.”
Since there was nothing to hide, I spoke honestly and rose to my feet.
“I have the feeling you’re following me around. Can you explain that?”
“It’s purely coincidence.”
“If coincidence happens too often, doesn’t it become suspicious?”
“Then perhaps it’s fate.”
I blurted out the line to get out of the situation, and Bidler’s mouth fell open slightly at my words. His ears seemed to have turned a little red too.
“I didn’t take you for someone who speaks so carelessly. I’m disappointed.”
…What have I done to deserve disappointment?
Rather, I thought—what does his disappointment have to do with me—and answered flatly.
“It was a joke.”
“Who makes jokes like that?”
Was it my imagination, or did contempt flicker in the way Bidler looked at me?
‘Was my joke really that strange? The Guild Members always laughed.’
When I sometimes spouted nonsense, the Guild Members would laugh until they were holding their sides, finding my jokes funny.
So I’d believed all this time that I had a gift for humor.
But seeing Bidler’s cold reaction—more objective than the Guild Members—it seemed it had all been a misunderstanding.
“I won’t do it again. But you trained even though you knew we were there?”
“That brat will wait forever if I don’t show up.”
Surprisingly, Bidler didn’t seem to dislike the 3rd Prince.

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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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