Welcome to the Café of the Dark Guild’s Successor - Chapter 16

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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 operated by the heir to the Dark Guild.
Chapter 16
After glancing around the silent surroundings, feeling not a soul nearby, I swept my palm across the grave and slowly parted my lips.
“I’m here. Mom. Dad. I’m sorry for coming so late.”
My hand trembled as it touched the grave.
Warm sunlight filtering through the trees. The landscape here bathed in that gentle light.
Though the cottage had faded, everything else remained nearly unchanged—as if time had bypassed this place entirely.
Everywhere I looked, I saw the shadows of my father and mother.
From the small child I once was, playing happily, to the final moments of these two people who had so suddenly left the world.
I bit down on my lip and opened my mouth to speak.
“I’ve missed you. I kept turning away because I feared facing these feelings would shatter me… but I’ve missed you so much.”
The emotions I’d locked away so desperately, terrified they’d break me if I let them out, spilled forth helplessly.
This nameless feeling that had filled my heart all this time—it was longing.
Tears finally welled in my eyes. It was the first time since that day I’d made Seniel take the Memory Erasure Drug.
The tears that had gathered spilled over, rolling down my cheeks, and fell softly—plink, plink—onto the grave.
I wiped my cheek and let out a small laugh.
“I wanted to show you only a smiling face. But it’s been so long since I’ve cried—forgive me.”
With silent tears streaming down, I poured out all the words I’d been holding in my heart, one tumbling after another.
“I protected Seniel too. You always said that if anything happened, I was the older sister and had to protect Seniel no matter what. I did that.”
I had to give up my own life to protect Seniel, but I never once regretted that choice.
Yet the weight of an emotion I hadn’t even known I was carrying suddenly surfaced, and my throat tightened.
“…Did I do right? I did the right thing, didn’t I?”
I desperately wanted an answer, but my parents, already gone, offered none in return.
Instead, a conversation from long ago—with my father—suddenly came to mind.
‘Rosia, as you live, there are moments when you wonder if the decision you made was right, if the choice was wrong. Those moments of regret will come.’
‘Why regret? You should just do things right from the start.’
‘That’s the best way, yes. But if such a moment ever comes, remember this: at that time, there was good reason for what you did.’
As if he’d known this would happen, my father had already given me the answer long ago.
“Right. Back then, letting Seniel go was the best I could do.”
Murmuring to myself, I gently touched my father’s grave.
The hollow place in my chest began to slowly mend.
I talked on for a while longer after that, rambling endlessly. My mother and father wouldn’t have tired of my words.
There was still so much unsaid, but the time to leave had long since passed.
Finally, I knelt down and wrapped my arms around the grave, holding it tight.
“I’ll be back soon.”
Leaving behind my reluctance to depart, resolved by the decision I’d made in this place, I turned around resolutely.
I wanted to look around the cottage too, but I wasn’t ready to open that door filled with so many happy memories.
……
After caressing the cottage’s entrance with my hand, I hurried back to where I’d left the Coachman.
He jerked awake at the sound of my voice, wiping his mouth as he scrambled to his feet.
“Nothing there after all, was there? You took so long I thought something had happened.”
“Let’s go.”
He still had that confident look that said there couldn’t possibly be anything in a place like this.
As the carriage carried me back, I recalled the odd details.
Why had my parents set up a shop in a place like that in the first place?
How had my father, living in the mountains, accumulated such a massive debt of ten billion Jeri?
And what about my parents’ grave—the one someone seemed to have been maintaining?
Of course, there was no one left to answer these questions now, and all I felt was frustration.
I leaned against the carriage wall and sat with my eyes closed, thinking.
“What does it matter if something’s hidden there? I was overflowing with happiness there.”
Those memories alone had sustained me for ten years, and they would carry me through whatever lay ahead.
Because I’d spent so much time at the grave, I arrived home later than expected.
I’d assumed no one would be there, but the house lights were on.
When I opened the door, I saw Seniel and Orbis waiting for me in the living room, their luggage all packed.
‘Leaving that note was a good call.’
The two of them had been staying out a lot lately, but just in case, I’d left a note saying I was going out for the day—and I was glad I had.
“Sister! Was your trip fun?”
“Where did you go? I wish we could have gone together.”
Of all days, these two had to come back from the Imperial Palace today.
I deliberately put on a tired expression and walked deeper into the living room.
“Saw a few places. But what about you two? Is your work all finished?”
“No. It looks like it’ll take longer, so we’re coming home first to visit our parents. They reached out to us.”
Seniel now had a separate family. I knew that, yet hearing the word ‘parents’ stung my chest.
I couldn’t bring myself to tell Seniel, who was talking about new parents, that I’d visited my real mom and dad’s grave today.
“…I see.”
“Sister, if you’ve finished what you needed to do, come down with us.”
“All right.”
I set aside talk of discovering my old home for now and began packing my own things to leave.
***
A few days had passed since I returned to Bidler’s estate.
On the way back, Seniel had gone straight to his parents’ main residence, so it was just Orbis and me here now.
Seniel, who’d been away from home so much, was stuck at his parents’ place and hadn’t visited in days. In that time, I made my decision.
“I’m leaving the guild.”
My mind was made up—there was no point in hesitation. I immediately whistled to signal the guild.
Flutter—
Shell, who was always circling nearby, flew down from the air and landed on my forearm.
Since it was still daytime and she’d apparently just woken up, her drowsy eyes blinking seemed endearing, so I smoothed the feathers on her head.
“Shell, this time it’s Reilly.”
“Caw!”
But instead of flying off, Shell hopped up onto a nearby branch.
“What’s wrong? Are you hungry?”
As I tilted my head at Shell’s unusual behavior, a Throwing Star suddenly flew at me from that direction.
I quickly moved my body to dodge it, my eyes narrowing.
‘An enemy?’
But there was no way anyone should know I was hiding here. I readied myself and tried to sense their presence.
Yet feeling that unmistakably familiar aura, I let the tension drain from my body all at once.
“Reilly.”
At my call, a well-dressed man emerged from behind the tree.
I’d never seen Reilly like this before—without his mask, showing his face, dressed so formally—so I couldn’t help but laugh.
“What’s with that outfit?”
Looking at Reilly now, I was newly aware that without his mask, he had the kind of face anyone would turn to admire.
I swept my eyes over him from top to bottom, wondering when he’d grown up like this, and stepped closer.
“It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I dressed up a bit to make a good impression. What do you think?”
“Looks decent enough.”
“The daylight prince is beautiful. I’ve always hated that mask hiding your face, and now that I can see it in the light, it’s nice.”
Seeing him grin the whole time and speak in such saccharine tones, Reilly was clearly in an excellent mood today.
“Enough with the nonsense. Why are you here?”
“I wanted to see you. It’s been so long since I left the guild.”
“Just tell me what you need. There are eyes watching here too.”
Reilly paid no mind to whether I answered or not and stepped even closer.
“Didn’t you miss me? We’ve never gone this long without seeing each other.”
“Why are you like this today? It’s annoying.”
I frowned and pushed away Reilly’s shoulder as he tried to embrace me.
Reilly had always been glib, and this kind of behavior wasn’t new.
Since he was like this with just about everyone, even his disappointed expressions didn’t really stir my sympathy.
“Did you find out what I told William?”
“Yeah. It was so heavily shrouded in secrecy over there that I never would have discovered it without your tip.”
So the Black Eagle Knights did have something hidden.
“A new guild appeared a few years ago. They don’t do much work, but they’ve intercepted some big jobs—the Aide. I suspect they might actually be the Black Eagle Knights in disguise.”
“You don’t mean—that Aide?”
My eyes widened without thinking.
“Exactly. They keep trying to make contact with us, demanding we hand over the Map of Great Sword. The name ‘Aide’ is a cover—I think they’re actually the Black Eagle Knights.”
Who in the world would suspect that the Crown Prince’s personal knights were operating as a dark guild?
The unbelievable truth, combined with worry for Seniel, made my head spin.
“Make sure our information doesn’t leak out. They’re looking for an opening to get their hands on the Empty Raven from our side—the Guild Master’s prized possession.”
“I already investigated the new recruits that came in this time… and found spies mixed in. I’m glad I caught them beforehand.”
“Spies? What did you do with them?”
“I extracted information from all of them, but they were just rookies. They hadn’t learned anything worth knowing—just disposable pawns sent to test us.”
“Did you kill them?”
“No. If Aide really is connected to the Crown Prince, any reckless move could be dangerous. I just gave them a warning and let them live.”
“You did well. Still, be careful. There might be others we haven’t found.”
“Don’t worry. We’re not so weak that we’d fall even if we saw it coming. You know that, right?”
I nodded in agreement with Reilly’s words.
“It’s suspicious that the Second Prince is secretly building his own faction in the shadows.”
“Yeah. The Second Prince building power instead of the First Prince suggests the possibility of rebellion. It’s a dangerous guess, but…”
Recalling the conversation Bidler had with the Empress, it seemed nothing was beyond him.

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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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