Welcome to the Café of the Dark Guild’s Successor - Chapter 36

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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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It’s a café run by the heir to the Dark Guild.
Chapter 36
“To the prince? How could I possibly presume to do such a thing.”
Even amid the confusion, it was an absurd proposition.
I passed by Bidler, who had his back to me, and picked up the basket I’d dropped.
As I bent to gather the scattered berries, my fingertips trembled faintly.
Bidler noticed and exhaled a shallow sigh before helping me collect them.
Once the basket was full, he took it from my hands.
“Let’s head back for today.”
I’d been thinking the same, so I nodded.
We walked the mountain path in silence and returned to the shop without further conversation.
Only when we reached the cottage did I remember that Bidler had been following me the entire time.
“Please come in. I’ll make you something to drink.”
“No need. What could you make looking like that?”
Bidler shook his head dismissively, then finally broached the reason for his visit.
“Those spies you handed over last time—I can’t go into details, but they were indeed members of a guild called Sailing. We obtained important intelligence because of it. I came to offer my thanks.”
“I’m relieved to hear it.”
“If you spot any suspicious people again, you’ll let me know right away?”
If there were any next time, I’d planned to interrogate them myself or hand them over to Raven, but for now I simply nodded.
“You came all the way here just to say that? Next time, send Seniel instead.”
I’d meant to add that Seniel’s face was more welcome, but I swallowed the words before they escaped.
“Two birds with one stone. I also came to deliver… Ahem. Take this.”
Bidler cleared his throat and withdrew a small box the size of a palm from inside his coat.
I tilted my head at the casket he handed me and opened it, squinting at the brilliant light that spilled out.
“What is this?”
“As you can see, it’s an earring.”
Bidler pointed to his own earlobe as if to say I ought to know.
Of course, I wasn’t asking because I didn’t know it was an earring.
“But why are you giving this to me?”
“Think of it as gratitude for handing over the spies.”
While recognizing him as someone who gave and received fairly, I still felt it a shame he’d chosen something as useless as an earring.
“I’d rather have money. I don’t wear accessories.”
Was I too blunt? Bidler’s eyebrows twitched sharply at the word “money,” and his brow furrowed.
“Then what’s that on your hand? I haven’t seen it before.”
“I received it recently.”
“From whom?”
I didn’t understand why it mattered, but his voice rose with an insistent edge.
I looked at him with eyes that asked why I should answer.
“Is it from that person you were troubled about earlier?”
Bidler stared at my bracelet for a long moment before sighing.
I didn’t feel the need to correct him, so I merely shrugged.
Bidler pushed away the jewel box I’d tried to return and turned sharply.
“If you don’t like it, dispose of it yourself. I’m leaving.”
He seemed far more displeased than when we’d first met, which troubled me.
Even so, he was Seniel’s superior—I searched my memory for what I might have done wrong, but found nothing particular to regret.
“I’ll have to sell it later.”
After Bidler left, I entered the shop and opened the box again on the table.
A ruby red as Bidler’s eyes, set in an oval, surrounded by delicate gold filigree—a magnificent earring.
“Everyone gives gifts that resemble themselves, don’t they.”
I alternated my gaze between Cayden’s bracelet on my wrist and Bidler’s earring, then closed the jewel box and tucked it away in a drawer.
For now, I was too unsettled by the memory that had surfaced to think of anything else.
How had a memory I’d forgotten for so long resurfaced from such a small trigger?
It occurred to me that perhaps there was some power inherent in the “oath” my mother had spoken of.
What if the oath had been broken when my mother died, and that’s why my memory returned?
It didn’t seem like an entirely baseless speculation.
I’d need to investigate what lay beyond the Thorn-Covered Cliff more carefully.
“Cayden might know.”
With plenty of time before evening, I decided to visit Cayden directly at the Temple, where he’d be handling duties.
As I passed along the footpath that Cayden maintained well, appearing on it daily, a fence came into view.
I naturally crossed over it, and as the Temple came into sight in the distance, I instinctively held back my step and swallowed hard.
“What’s this?”
The atmosphere felt wrong. Something eerie—goosebumps crawled across the back of my neck.
Ordinarily I should have felt Seniel’s presence somewhere around the Temple, but I couldn’t find any trace of it now.
“Cayden?”
Calling out his name cautiously as I walked toward the back of the Temple, something strange caught my eye in the field ahead.
In the center of the vast plain stood a very long, snow-white longsword, driven into the earth.
A dangerous and sickly aura seeped from the gap around it.
Looking closer, I saw that thick black blood dripped from the blade.
“…What is that?”
As I stared, the murky aura that hung like mist around the longsword suddenly took serpentine form.
Then, at tremendous speed, it lunged at me, attempting an attack.
It happened too fast to dodge. As I clenched my teeth and twisted my body to evade,
Cayden appeared from behind me and stepped into its path.
Then he unleashed a light that appeared to be Divine Power, shooting it toward the miasma.
Both the serpentine smoke and the blood-dripping longsword that had been planted in the plain vanished like illusions.
Cayden turned toward me slowly, as I stood in shock, my eyes not trusting what they’d seen.
“Rosia.”
His voice was deeply strained, and seeing his pallid face, I approached with concern.
“Why do you look like that? You seem unwell.”
“I haven’t been sleeping.”
“What was that just now? What was the sword, and the serpent that tried to attack me…?”
Cayden, who had been standing precariously, stared at me intently before suddenly hanging his head and burying his face in my shoulder.
“It was all an illusion. You just caught a trap—forget about it, Rosia.”
“A trap? But it felt far too real…”
I tried to push his face away, but he seemed as though he might collapse at any moment, so I held him instead.
“Should I take you to the Temple?”
“No. To your shop, please. Will you help me? I have no strength left.”
Cayden whined like a child, his eyes wide, and lifted one arm. I had no choice but to loop it over my shoulder and support him.
I practically threw him onto the sofa the moment we arrived at the cottage.
Watching Cayden lie there like a doll without resistance, I realized his condition was truly grave.
“Wait a moment. I’ll make you something to drink.”
Cayden, sprawled on the sofa like a rag, gently tugged at my sleeve as I turned to leave and shook his head.
“Don’t go. Just stay with me.”
I couldn’t ignore the plea in his voice, so I sat at the edge of the sofa.
Then Cayden leaned against my shoulder and buried his face.
“You’re doing something dangerous at the Temple, aren’t you?”
“…”
“Why are you hiding it from me?”
“I’m sorry, Rosia. I’m not doing anything wrong, so please just pretend you don’t know. This is Temple business.”
Since I was an outsider to the Temple, I understood that he couldn’t tell me everything.
Setting aside the details to investigate later, I asked the reason I’d originally come to find him.
“So, do you happen to know anything about the Thorn-Covered Cliff?”
Cayden looked up at me. Purple eyes, framed by long lashes, stared directly at me.
“Did you see the cliff?”
“Yes. Just now.”
“Why did it appear to you? Has a crack opened?”
Cayden murmured to himself before speaking with sudden firmness.
“Getting close to the thorns could kill you. It’s dangerous, so don’t even think of approaching it again.”
“So you do know about it? Could we cross over that cliff?”
“No. That cliff cannot be crossed.”
Cayden’s voice began to fade as he mentioned being tired. I pulled a blanket from beneath the sofa and draped it over him.
His breathing grew steadier—he seemed to have fallen asleep—but his lips remained an ashen white.
“What on earth are you doing?”
His expression of distress even in sleep pained me.
I’d never seen him sleep before dawn, but had it always been like this?
Memories overlaid themselves—of my own self returning from guild missions, aching and groaning.
“Can’t he heal himself?”
It would be nice if his abundant Divine Power could ease his suffering. What was driving Cayden to this extreme?
There was nothing I could do, but as he’d asked me to stay, I kept vigil beside him so he could sleep peacefully.
Between recalling the childhood memory and seeing that strange vision, as my tension eased, my eyelids grew heavy.
‘I’m sleepy.’
I tried to fight it, forcing my eyes open, but eventually succumbed to the warmth of the sunlight and drifted off.
***
It had been an exhausting day for Cayden.
A crack had opened in the barrier set upon the mountain, and miasma began to seep through, along with the souls he’d painstakingly contained.
He’d expended tremendous power all morning dealing with them, when Rosia suddenly appeared at the Temple.
There was a crystalline mass of miasma directly in her path. If she’d taken a direct hit, she would never have survived.
For the first time, his heart lurched in his chest. Nothing mattered but keeping Rosia alive.
Perhaps because of that. He dispatched the miasma—which had even taken serpentine form—with surprising ease despite it being no simple opponent.
In exchange, he’d exhausted all his strength. He was too tired to move any further.
Thanks to Rosia staying beside him, he managed to force sleep, and he slumbered deeper than he’d expected.
‘I’ve never recovered this quickly before.’
Cayden’s eyes widened as he awoke, puzzled by his unexpectedly swift recovery and his refreshed body.
‘Rosia?’
Rosia’s face was right there before his eyes.
He could feel her steady breathing as clearly as if she were close enough to touch.

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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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