Welcome to the Café of the Dark Guild’s Successor - Chapter 25

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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 Dark Guild successor.
Chapter 25
“Cock-a-doodle-doo! Bawk bawk!”
I’d always assumed roosters crowed only at dawn. I only learned different after arriving here.
The hen Eribel had given me—remarkably—crowed three times a day, at mealtimes.
At first I’d considered killing and eating it, but watching how quiet it went the moment I fed it, I figured it was some form of communication.
“I haven’t even eaten my own meal yet.”
I let out a shallow sigh and hurried to gulp down another mouthful of tea.
Fetching the feed I’d stored in the kitchen cupboard, I stepped out to the backyard where the coop came into view.
The hen, apparently irritable, was pecking furiously at the door with its beak.
Crouching down before the coop, I poured the feed inside, and it fluttered its useless wings with excitement.
“Hey there, chicken.”
“Cock-a-doodle-doo! Bawk, bawk bawk!”
“Eat well.”
Watching it peck at the grain without my prompting, I reached into the coop and tapped gently at its comb.
“You ought to have a name.”
I couldn’t keep calling it just “chicken.” After a moment’s thought, a name from an old book surfaced in my memory.
“Armstrong. How’s that?”
The hen offered no particular response.
Satisfied with my naming, I rose to my feet with a faint smirk.
Before heading back to the hut, I stopped by my parents’ grave.
I ran my fingers across the clumsy wooden tombstone—something I could never grow accustomed to.
“I should have a proper stone made when I go to the village.”
The finest, most durable one. Once I had nothing to give them, but now I had more than enough coin.
As I cleared the weeds growing around the grave, my eye caught a mushroom clinging to the base of a nearby towering tree.
“I’ve never seen a mushroom like that before.”
I moved closer and bent down to examine it closely. Blue-marked patches covered its rough surface, and it carried a peculiar sweet smell.
In such cases, one suspects poison immediately, but given that it was parasitizing a perfectly healthy tree, I found myself uncertain.
“Should I try it?”
I barely applied any force, yet the mushroom fell from the tree with a soft click.
Even if it were poisonous, it wouldn’t matter. I’d undergone Poison Training for years, consuming small quantities regularly.
Back at the hut, I decided to attempt something I hadn’t done in ages—cooking. I set about preparing the mushroom.
In a few hours, Cayden would bring dinner, but before then, I wanted to make something myself.
I tossed the cleaned mushroom together with onions and whatever vegetables remained into a pot, built a fire with firewood, and brought it to a boil.
Since the ingredients were all straightforward, I expected the taste to be at least passable, regardless of my poor cooking skills.
But then.
An increasingly strange aroma began to fill the hut, and alarmed, I quickly spooned some out to taste it.
“It really is possible for something to taste this… terrible.”
I opened my mouth and sighed.
My assumption that plain ingredients would yield plain flavor had been hubris.
If I’d only added onion, the taste wouldn’t have been quite so ruined. With all these ingredients mixed together, my tongue itself stung.
Once, my palate could only distinguish between edible and inedible. Now, it registered subtle differences between good and bad taste.
This was all thanks to Cayden’s cooking—and the thought that I could never serve this disaster to him made me quickly extinguish the fire.
“Maybe I should plant something instead?”
The land around the cafe was rich and fertile. If I couldn’t help with cooking, at least providing ingredients might be worthwhile.
‘That’s dangerous.’
I became aware of how naturally I’d begun weaving Cayden into my future plans, and my shoulders twitched with discomfort.
No one had ever entered my life so seamlessly before, and this change unsettled me.
In any case, to repay Cayden’s cooking in some other way, I hurried into the forest and gathered an armful of wood.
It was around evening when, having busied myself chopping firewood in the yard, Cayden appeared.
“Rosia, what are you doing?”
“As you can see. Making firewood.”
I set down the axe I’d been working with and brushed off my hands.
“Did Rosia carry all this wood alone? Every bit of it?”
Cayden blinked, clearly surprised.
“Didn’t take long.”
Compared to my failed attempt at making the mushroom soup, it was far easier—though I kept that to myself.
“You’ll need firewood too, won’t you? I’ll share some.”
At my offer, Cayden grew flustered, scratching at his forehead.
“The roles seem reversed, but… I like it. I’ll ask Rosia to help with the wood then.”
“Yes. Trust me.”
We spoke easily as we naturally drifted together toward the hut.
“How did the customers react to today’s drink?”
“What was it they said? That the drink tasted like a Potion?”
When I mentioned this compliment, Cayden nodded as if it were obvious.
“Didn’t Rosia notice? The water here tastes exceptionally good.”
“There’s a reason for that?”
Startled, I turned my head sharply toward him.
“Of course. Why else would a shrine exist deep in these treacherous mountains?”
“Rescue of lost travelers and reformation of bandits?”
After deliberating, I offered that answer, and Cayden let out a soft, low laugh.
“That’s very much like you, Rosia.”
“Am I wrong?”
I’d honestly believed that. Otherwise, there’d be no reason to waste a young Priest in a mountain region where you rarely saw believers.
“This is classified even within the shrine, but… I’ll tell only you.”
A shrine secret classified as top-grade information precisely because it was hard to infiltrate.
I lit up, nodding eagerly.
“This must remain known only to you.”
“Of course.”
Wasn’t “only you must know” really another way of saying “everyone knows”? Either way, I agreed.
“This region is an undiscovered Sacred Ground. Since it’s such hallowed terrain, all the water and plants in the vicinity have been touched by its influence.”
The information Cayden disclosed was so rare that I was momentarily at a loss for words, thinking ‘Should he really be telling me this?’
A Sacred Ground was, by definition, a space saturated with Divine Power. It amplified Divine Power and, depending on circumstances, could even cure incurable diseases.
Given the potential for abuse, the Temple Organization, the Imperial Court, and the Magic Tower all coordinate to manage them strictly.
Only four Sacred Grounds are known within the Empire, and this region isn’t among them.
If we counted Sacred Grounds across the sea in other empires, there might be a few more, but they remained rare regardless.
But an undiscovered Sacred Ground? And right nearby, no less! How could I not be astounded?
“Did your parents know?”
“Pardon?”
“Ah, I was talking to myself. But were you a Priest guarding the Sacred Ground? Is that possible at your age?”
For the first time, I harbored suspicion about Cayden’s identity.
A thin, frail-looking frame with no visible muscle. His bearing gave off nothing that suggested anything remarkable.
‘How could he…?’
Even for a remote mountain shrine, becoming a High Priest managing an entire shrine required significant ecclesiastical rank.
Cayden had never told me he was the High Priest, but since I’d never seen any other Priest there, he likely was.
Considering his age, it would be extraordinarily rapid advancement—though possible if his potential were exceptional.
But if that shrine were located in the Sacred Ground itself, the situation changed entirely.
Having a High Priest of that age oversee a shrine in the Sacred Ground would violate the strict regulations of such a closed institution.
“Should we eat?”
Cayden sidestepped the question, beginning to arrange the dishes he’d brought onto the table.
He clearly didn’t want to discuss it further. Pressing about something he wouldn’t volunteer felt wrong, so I let it go for now.
The fact that Cayden was keeping secrets from me was mildly startling, but then again, I had plenty of my own to hide.
Besides… I was hungry. So I picked up my fork quietly.
“How is it?”
The moment I took a large bite of the salad—fresh tomatoes topped with cheese—Cayden’s eyes sparkled as he asked.
“Delicious.”
Having tasted that bizarre soup before Cayden arrived, the comparison was all the starker.
“I’m always grateful that Rosia enjoys what I cook.”
Who wouldn’t devour this? Anyone with taste buds would pounce on it.
I swallowed the words threatening to escape, regarding Cayden sideways with longing.
‘I’d planned to have him quit the priesthood and work under me eventually.’
If Cayden had secrets and was a capable Priest, that wouldn’t be possible. Truly a shame.
Caught staring at me, our eyes met.
He smiled warmly and leaned his body toward me.
“What’s the matter, Rosia?”
“Why did you become a Priest?”
Cayden’s smile, which had been constant, tightened imperceptibly.
“If it’s difficult, don’t answer.”
“Once we grow closer, could I tell you then? Everything?”
How much closer was “closer”? Or was he saying we weren’t close now?
There was something in the way he drew that line, the sudden coolness in his expression, that made my chest tighten.
“Forget it. Why put conditions on it? I was just asking.”
Watching my reaction, Cayden smiled deeply and asked softly.
“Are you disappointed?”

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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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