Welcome to the Café of the Dark Guild’s Successor - Chapter 174

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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 Heir to the Dark Guild.
Chapter 174
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The sensation of being pulled through the door felt much like using a Teleportation Magic Stone.
The moment my feet touched ground, I looked around, but there was nothing to see.
Even blinking repeatedly offered no adaptation—I stood in perfect darkness, not a single ray of light seeping through.
“Are you nearby?”
Biedler’s voice reached me from close at hand.
“I’m here.”
I answered and moved my body toward the direction of his voice.
“It’s far too dark.”
“Let’s adjust to it.”
At least there was nothing on the ground to trip over, for which I was grateful.
With my hand outstretched, I stepped carefully forward and found Biedler.
“I can’t sense any presence here.”
“Neither can I. It feels like everything’s been cut off.”
My searching hand bumped into something with a soft thud.
It was Biedler’s arm—once he confirmed it was me, he grasped my hand again.
“We mustn’t get separated. Let’s hold on for now.”
“There’s no other choice, really.”
I agreed, knowing that if we scattered too far, finding each other again would be nearly impossible.
In a place where nothing could be seen and I didn’t even know where I was walking, I was grateful Biedler was at least beside me.
“If I came alone, I’d probably forget who I even am. This is a dangerous place.”
“It’s a space your grandfather created. To hide from Desikan. It seems to be cut off from the Intermediate Zone’s influence as well.”
“So it was indeed Meyson’s work. I’d worried it might have been abandoned for too long, but this is fortunate.”
The problem was that it had hidden itself so perfectly even I couldn’t find it.
“I have no idea which way to go.”
As I hesitated, unable to discern any direction, Biedler took the lead and pulled me forward.
“Let’s try anyway. If this truly is your grandfather’s space, we’re bound to reach something eventually.”
Spurred on, I cast off my uncertainty and began walking into the darkness.
I was grateful Biedler was with me. Whenever despair crept in, the sensation of his touch against my hand brought me back to myself.
“I wish I’d learned magic. Sword Technique is useless in a place like this.”
“Magic? Well, then—!”
I recalled the training I’d done with my grandfather and concentrated mana into my left hand, the one not holding Biedler’s.
“Are you attempting something?”
“Yes. But it’s not working well.”
I’d never tried creating flame before, so it wouldn’t obey my will easily.
But after several attempts, a small spark finally bloomed on my palm—small as it was, enough to cast some light around us.
“Impressive.”
Once light appeared, moving forward became far easier, even if it was modest.
As expected, the space held nothing at all, but we pressed onward steadily. Then, an unfamiliar sound cut through the darkness.
“Meow.”
A cat’s cry? Here, of all places?
I turned my light toward the sound in surprise and glimpsed a gray cat.
“Meow.”
Sitting still, licking its paw, the cat stared directly at us.
“Grandfather?”
“That’s your grandfather?”
“Something’s different, though…”
This gray cat differed in size and appearance from the one my grandfather usually became.
Smaller, younger—more like a kitten.
Yet I could distinctly feel a faint trace of my grandfather’s presence emanating from it.
“The eyes are similar, at least.”
Biedler crouched low and approached the cat slowly.
He tried to seize it by the scruff, but the cat eluded his hand with unhurried grace.
“Mew.”
With a single sound that seemed to say “follow me,” it padded ahead.
I started after the cat at once, and Biedler quickly caught up, grasping my hand again.
“This feels suspicious.”
“It seems friendly toward us.”
“What if it’s a trap?”
“Then we die.”
I said it flatly, and Biedler’s expression shifted to one of shock, as though I’d said something outrageous.
“I was joking.”
“What kind of joke is that…”
“We’ll miss it.”
The cat was already vanishing into the darkness, so I quickened my pace to follow.
Oddly, a faint glow seemed to bloom along the cat’s path.
Following that light, I grew more certain this led to my grandfather.
Before long, the cat ahead came to a stop.
“Mrow.”
It looked up at empty air, made a sound, then leapt and vanished.
“It’s gone.”
“There’s something there.”
I thrust my hand forward hastily, letting the firelight fall upon a massive cocoon-like mass.
Silken strands tangled thickly around it—enough space within to fit a person comfortably.
“Your Highness, help me with this.”
“Right.”
We rushed to the cocoon and began clawing at it.
Whatever it was, it resisted us solidly at first, but once Biedler and I applied our Aura, the threads began to yield.
And there, inside, lay my grandfather as though dead.
“Grandfather!”
“He’s still breathing.”
Biedler held his hand to my grandfather’s nose to check his breath and nodded.
“Thank goodness. We came to search just in time.”
Our eyes met, and I swallowed the leap of joy that threatened to escape.
“But what do we do? These threads are still connected to him. Cutting them by force could be dangerous.”
“We need to wake him.”
If my grandfather had hidden himself here by his own will, then leaving would also require his own will to do so.
But no amount of calling or shaking brought any change to him.
I realized I needed to make a decision and turned to Biedler.
“This place may be safe, but time is passing outside. Go first—I’ll stay.”
“Leave you behind?”
I may be fine, but if I’m not beside Elder Wyatt when he destroys the fragment, I could be trapped in the Intermediate Zone. You’d be in danger.”
“That’s impossible. You can’t escape this place alone.”
Just as I was about to insist he go ahead while I tried to wake my grandfather,
the ground beneath us began to tremble, and the entire space shook as though on the verge of collapse.
“What is this?”
Biedler and I clung to the cocoon and each other, gritting our teeth to keep from falling.
“So you were hiding here.”
Desikan’s chilling voice echoed through the space.
This time it wasn’t only I who heard it—Biedler flinched beside me.
“It’s Desikan.”
Then blood-red eyes appeared in the void.
“You show yourself willingly? Do I amuse you so?”
Desikan’s voice seemed to have an effect on the space itself—the surroundings began to crack.
Fissures appeared in the black void, light poured through, and the landscape of the Intermediate Zone became visible beyond.
“Ungh…”
Even unconscious, my grandfather’s face twisted in pain.
“My offer stands. If only you remain, I will let all the others go. But refuse, and none of you will return alive.”
Desikan’s words came like a threat, and to prove them, the cracks revealed Seniel and Cayden struggling desperately, along with the High Priest.
All of them were visibly exhausted, their movements sluggish, their bodies covered in wounds.
Cayden in particular, facing overwhelming numbers, managed only to hold on through Sacred Objects from the Temple, but he could barely wield his sword properly.
“His arm is injured.”
At that moment, an axe thrown by a Demonic Beast flew toward Cayden’s back.
“Cayden!!”
I cried out in alarm, and my voice must have reached him—Cayden spun and dodged the axe.
But attacks rained down in rapid succession, and he barely managed to block them.
Before he could catch his breath, a massive boulder fell through a gap in the space.
It headed straight for the cocoon with no way to escape—until Biedler’s Aura-wreathed blade shattered it to pieces.
“…We’ll all die at this rate.”
I called out to Biedler, who stood before me.
“I’ll wake him and get us out. Go help them now.”
“Understood. Remember—there’s little time. Don’t be late getting out.”
I nodded, and Biedler turned back and forth between me and my grandfather one final time, his gaze complicated, before racing toward the gap.
I gripped my sword and focused on the cocoon wrapped around my grandfather.
“I’m sorry. The longer I delay, the more danger the others are in.”
I struck my blade precisely at the threads that clung to my grandfather’s body, but the silk moved fluidly, wrapping around the sword instead.
The thread crawled up the blade and even around my arm. I couldn’t pull it free.
“Grandfather, please. It’s me—Rosia.”
I created flame in my other hand to burn the threads, but only more threads came rushing at me in response.
“I have no mercy now. Watch as they die, one by one.”
As Desikan’s mocking laughter echoed, thunder crashed outside.
Lightning struck the earth, boulders flew in all directions, and everything and everyone came under attack indiscriminately.
I almost wished Elder Wyatt would sever the connection to the Intermediate Zone already.
“It won’t work.”
Unable to free my arm from the threads by any means, I channeled mana into the Artifact Ring I’d received from the Mage Tower.
“You said it freezes the surroundings.”
The Artifact was originally meant for use against Demonic Beasts, but in this moment, even if extreme, it seemed my only choice.
As the ring activated, the surroundings rapidly began to freeze.
The threads wrapped around my arm, the cocoon they connected to, the ground itself, the collapsing space—everything.
I pulled my sword and arm free from the frozen threads and turned my gaze back to my grandfather.
The powerful magic inscribed on the Artifact was his own, and his body quickly froze as well.
“Have I failed?”
As ice crept toward his face, I moved to stop it—when my grandfather’s eyelids trembled and slowly rose.
“Grandfather!”
Blue eyes gazed at me, slowly coming into focus.
At the same moment, the ice around the threads connected to him melted with a soft crackle.

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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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