Welcome to the Café of the Dark Guild’s Successor - Chapter 3

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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 3
Commotion erupted outside, and all the Guild Members filed into the room, fell to their knees, and wept in mourning for Queen.
The funeral proceeded in silence. We laid Queen to rest on the Guild’s grounds.
I’ve lived this life because Queen brought me here ten years ago.
Now that I’ve finally escaped the life I never wanted, I should feel nothing but relief.
“Why do I feel so terrible?”
I thumped my chest, trying to make sense of the feeling. I couldn’t understand what this was.
When I was younger, I hated Queen. The brutal training was agony, and I despised her for putting me through it.
But ten years changes a great many things.
If Queen hadn’t appeared before us after we lost our parents, I don’t know what would have become of Seniel and me in that forest.
As it stands, I grew up well, and Seniel was adopted into a noble house and is living the life he wanted. That should be enough.
I’m not grateful to Queen, but I stopped hating her long ago.
I’d planned to make her pay her debts to me for binding me to this place, yet she’s slipped away so carelessly.
“…Rest well.”
I set down the Liquor Bottle I’d brought at Queen’s grave.
“Let tears be this instead. Enjoy plenty of what you loved there.”
I was pouring the bottle’s contents without waste onto the grave when Railly approached my side.
“Queen preferred sweet wine to harsh spirits.”
“I didn’t know. Her refined tastes are a recent thing. She used to drink only the harshest liquor.”
“Is that so? If you say so, then that’s how it was. You know Queen better than anyone.”
“……”
“What will you do, Prince? I want you to take over the Guild. Everyone feels the same way I do.”
I stood the now-empty Liquor Bottle beside Queen’s grave and closed my eyes quietly.
“I’m sick of killing people.”
“Guild Masters don’t move directly anyway. They just give orders. You give the orders. We’ll handle the rest.”
Queen’s words echoed in my mind—that I was a kind child.
‘Did Queen want me to leave?’
What had begun as something forced upon me by Queen had, at some point, become second nature—as natural as breathing.
All the skills I’ve learned, everything I know how to do—it’s all this. What could I possibly do if I left here?
“…I need time to think. I’m taking a leave of absence.”
“Where to?”
“I want to see my brother.”
Just then, Sophia came running over and grabbed at my pant leg, her voice trembling.
“Queen entrusted the Guild to you! If the Guild Master leaves, what happens to us? Do we disband?”
Sophia’s eyes were filled with tears as she looked up at me.
For a moment, I wavered—she looked like an abandoned puppy.
“Prince… you’re not really going to abandon us, are you?”
The word ‘abandon’ sent a twitch across my forehead.
“Then should we all retire together? You love the Guild anyway, same as Railly and the others. I don’t.”
Unlike me, who was dragged into the Guild by Queen, the other Guild Members all joined of their own volition.
Raven had a fearsome reputation, but it was matched by great renown. We prided ourselves as the best among the Dark Guilds.
Everyone took pride in being a Guild Member of Raven.
So no one would wish for the Guild to close. No one except me.
“Then Prince, what about this? You run a shop.”
“…A shop?”
I stared at Sophia with an expression suggesting she was speaking complete nonsense.
“Yes! A shop!”
Sophia seized both my hands and her eyes shone with excitement as she elaborated.
“We keep one branch in each region anyway. We use them as contact points and to gather intelligence.”
“And?”
“You take charge of one of them. If you don’t like the existing location, you can start anywhere you want.”
Sophia’s scheme seemed clever enough by her standards, but I wasn’t the least bit interested.
“I don’t know…”
Seeing my lukewarm response, Sophia pressed closer and raised her voice.
“You get to live the normal life you want while staying connected to us. It’s a win-win, right?”
“I’ll think about it.”
I withdrew my hand from Sophia’s and looked back at the Liquor Bottle.
Then Railly tilted my chin up to meet her gaze.
“Go see your brother well. I’ll guard this place however long it takes. But.”
Railly paused, her expression softening with tenderness.
“Come back. You’re our Prince. Queen’s successor. I believe you’ll come back.”
Railly leaned close enough that my reflection shone clearly in her eyes, then pressed her forehead to mine and spoke softly.
I pulled my forehead back slightly, then pressed it to hers again and flicked her forehead firmly.
“You’re being unnecessarily sentimental. Stop it.”
“Ow, that hurts. Did you know your head’s unnaturally hard, Rosia?”
“I didn’t say I was taking a leave. Why are you both so serious?”
“Because it feels like you’re going to leave us.”
I tapped Railly’s shoulder—the one who resembled Queen far more than I did—and stood.
“Don’t worry. I’ll come back with a decision.”
Only then did Sophia and Railly smile and release me.
As I departed the grounds, Sophia shouted loudly after me.
“Wait! Aren’t you taking your sword?”
“You take it. You wanted it anyway.”
“That was just something I said! It’s your signature weapon! Prince! Prince—!”
After talking with our Guild’s official complainers ranked first and second, my ears were ringing, so I shook them out.
Then I removed the Mask I’d worn as one with me all these years.
I couldn’t remember the last time midday sunlight touched my face directly.
Ten years in the Guild left me with Agile Techniques and the Assassination Art to kill a person in an instant, and superior physical ability.
And… money.
I’d donated most of my compensation to Queen, but I kept a modest commission for myself.
Since I had no use for it normally, I’d left it with Queen to be kept at the bank, so a fair sum should have accumulated.
“The bank is in the Capital, so I should go see Seniel and check on it.”
Before heading out to meet Seniel, I reviewed the reports I’d been receiving periodically about him all this time.
“Multiple war participations, promising talent with outstanding skill, graduated from the academy with excellent grades, ranked in the Swordsmanship Tournament, served in the Second Prince’s Direct Knight Order for years, very high possibility of joining the Imperial Knight Corps…”
If I walk in Shadow, Seniel walks perfectly in Daylight. We’ve lived completely opposite lives.
At the very end of the long report, a note in red ink read: [P.S. Extremely popular.]
“What, how popular?”
I thought nothing of it and filed the documents away into my Artifact.
“He’ll be quite shocked.”
For the past ten years, Seniel and I had met only once a year, for just a day—barely two hours.
It was a rule we’d never broken, so showing up unannounced would certainly surprise him.
I wondered if it was wise to appear before Seniel just as he was living his perfect life without me.
‘But I want to see him anyway.’
I wanted to meet with Seniel before deciding what to do next.
After a full day’s ride, I arrived at the Freyja Family Estate where Seniel had been adopted.
I found lodging at an Inn near a crowded plaza and immediately wrote a letter to send to Seniel.
“Shell, take this to Seniel.”
I tied the letter to the leg of Shell, the raven who had been the bridge between Seniel and me for the past ten years, and sent him off.
Shell was clever enough that he’d definitely deliver my letter once he found Seniel.
Still, I noticed strangers arriving in the estate drawing curious stares, and it was getting on my nerves how much people were watching.
“I need to dull this sense too.”
The sharp instinct I’d honed for survival and work was trying to detect everything around me.
I forced myself to shut out all my heightened awareness and collapsed onto the hard bed to shake off the exhaustion from the long journey.
***
Seniel had been training without rest, preparing for the Imperial Knight Corps entrance examination now just two months away.
Having gone to the Capital for training as usual, Seniel was returning home for the first time in a week.
“You’ve worked hard. Are you injured anywhere?”
Seniel groaned as he handed his bags to the butler who greeted him warmly.
“I’m covered in wounds. Mountain climbing, river crossing, how much more are they going to put me through… I’m about ready to throw in the towel on this whole entrance exam thing. By the way, any important messages?”
“No, nothing particularly significant. Though there are stacks of party invitations from young ladies of various noble houses. There, you see.”
Seniel was so popular that letters arrived constantly from all corners of the empire—beyond count.
Since Seniel had no interest whatsoever in such letters, it fell to the butler to sift through and identify the important ones.
“Just send polite refusals on my behalf. All of them, of course.”
Seniel gave the pile of letters only a cursory glance and headed upstairs to his room, saying he was exhausted.

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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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