Welcome to the Café of the Dark Guild’s Successor - Chapter 48

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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’s successor.
48
“Wait.”
I placed the Brazier Item—which burned away information—on top of the stack of papers Raile had given me.
A small flame engulfed the papers in an instant. I emptied the remaining ashes into an ashtray and stood.
We slipped out of the shop and ducked into an alley to avoid the crowds. Raile had prepared a carriage ahead of time.
“Where are we going?”
“The Slums. The worst part of the Capital’s Slums.”
I sighed and gazed out through a gap in the curtain at the passing street.
“Are you worried about your mother?”
“Yeah. I feel like I didn’t know anything about her.”
“Even if you didn’t know other things, there’s one thing you can be certain of.”
I turned from the window to look at Raile.
“What’s that?”
“Love. She loved you.”
“……That’s true.”
My chest tightened.
Raile was right. No matter the circumstances, I never doubted that my mother loved me.
I had been showered with love in my childhood. That memory alone was enough to carry me through a lifetime.
“It doesn’t matter who she was. I just want to know, starting from now.”
“You will. I’ll help you.”
Raile shifted from the opposite seat to sit beside me, casually draping an arm around my shoulder.
“So lean on me whenever you need to.”
I brushed off his arm with a mock laugh.
“Don’t call yourself that. You lose to me all the time anyway.”
“That’s because you’re stronger. But I’m older by age, aren’t I? And I won at first, remember?”
“That was ages ago. I don’t acknowledge anyone weaker than me as my senior.”
“Honestly, there’s no rival like you. Just admit it.”
As we bickered over pointless things, memories of childhood surfaced.
Raile, once a promising Prince candidate, had kept watch on me as I climbed the ranks rapidly.
Back then, I had sent Seniel away and thrown myself into training without a smile, hollow-eyed and relentless.
I was always bitter, seeing everyone only as competitors. Raile was the only one who had approached me first.
“Become my rival.”
Those were his first words.
From then on, we fought constantly over the Prince position. At first, Raile won every time, then we matched, and eventually I always won.
The day I first beat Raile, two years after sending Seniel away, I smiled genuinely for the first time.
Raile lay sprawled on the ground, bewildered, and looked up at me with dazed eyes.
“You’re beautiful, you know that?”
My hair, crudely cut short out of impatience. A filthy face.
Even now, I don’t understand what he saw to say something like that.
I had struck the back of his head hard.
Now that he’s become the Guild Master, I can’t do that anymore.
“Raile, choose a new Prince. I’m stepping back from the front.”
“From the moment you beat me in a one-on-one duel, you’ve been the only Prince I recognize.”
Raile’s expression hardened. He withdrew the arm from around my shoulder, looking hurt.
“The Prince is the most important role in the guild. There will be complaints.”
“That’s why I’m thinking of changing the name.”
“To what?”
“Princess. How does that sound? You’ll remain Raven’s last Prince.”
I was momentarily speechless, but assuming it was a poor joke, I forced myself to ask calmly.
“……You’re joking, right?”
“Of course I’m serious.”
Stop talking nonsense.
I turned away sharply from Raile, whose eyes brightened with genuine enthusiasm.
Thinking it over again, I couldn’t help but let out a short laugh at the absurdity.
“Ah, you laughed. That’s unfair.”
“What’s unfair about it? It’s nice when you laugh. Laugh more, laugh lots.”
Raile stretched his fingers and pulled up the corners of my mouth with both hands.
I rolled my eyes and batted his hands away.
“Looks like we’re here.”
The carriage stopped.
The moment I stepped out, the stench hit me and I wrinkled my nose.
The streets of this infamous quarter—the filthiest and most desolate part of the Slums.
There were many sick people; the air reeked, and bodies of the dying lay scattered everywhere.
We passed people whose eyes, already devoid of the light of life, stared at us, until we reached the residential area where homes were barely distinguishable by cloth.
“Is this it?”
“Yes.”
There was no door, so there was nothing to knock on.
I pulled aside the cloth partition and stepped in. An elderly woman lay curled on the ground.
Through her tattered, worn clothes, I could see a skeletal frame, bone-thin.
“Hensia?”
Calling her name elicited no response.
I circled to face the old woman and studied her face.
“Are you Hensia?”
“When one of the guild members came yesterday, there was no response either. I think she’s lost her mind.”
I moved slowly toward her, knelt, and lowered myself to her eye level.
“You wrote this letter, didn’t you? Do you remember the name Lilith?”
“Eeee!”
The old woman reacted for the first time at the name Lilith. Her head lifted, and focus returned to her eyes.
“Eeeeee!”
The old woman screamed at the sight of me. She curled into a ball, trembling violently, and covered her face.
As I studied the shrieking woman, something caught my eye—her clenched fists.
All the old woman’s fingers were fused together, the tips mangled.
“Signs of torture.”
“That’s not all.”
Raile, examining the old woman beside me, spoke in a grave voice.
“This person…… her tongue has been cut out.”
“What?”
“Open your mouth.”
I carefully held the old woman’s jaw and peered inside. Her tongue was indeed severed.
The strange sounds she made were because she couldn’t speak.
Finding cruel torture marks on both her hands and tongue, I was deeply shaken.
“That’s why she survived alone.”
“Right. Since she can’t speak, and can’t write either.”
I had brought an expensive Truth Pill that makes people confess everything, but it was useless in this state.
“There must have been secrets important enough to leave someone in this condition.”
Raile nodded silently in agreement.
I met the old woman’s eyes again. She continued to tremble, shaking with terror.
The fear etched deep in her eyes seemed focused not on me, but on something beyond me.
“Is there any way?”
“If there was a mage, maybe. For now, there’s nothing we can do.”
Since the old woman’s mind was not in a stable state, we decided to abandon the attempt for now.
“Keep Hensia alive and watch over her.”
“Understood.”
We slipped out of the tent, covered our faces with cloth wrappings, and walked toward the carriage stationed at the entrance of the Slums.
“Request the Information Division to continue tracking the Orphanage director. However much it costs, I’ll pay the difference.”
“You’ve already paid a substantial sum. Between us, there’s no need. Forget it.”
“I have plenty of money now. Take it when I offer. Use it for Raven’s operating funds.”
“Does Raven operate like a corner store? The money the Queen left is already vast. Forget it, and just use that wealth to do whatever you want and live well.”
Raile met my eyes directly, smiling with quiet maturity.
We climbed back into the carriage.
“I’ll contact you once I find out anything.”
Raile got off separately, saying he had somewhere else to stop by.
Watching his figure blend seamlessly into the crowd, I sank into thought.
‘I should have told him about the Demonic Beasts.’
It seemed like information the guild should know about, but I decided to wait until I learned more and was certain before saying anything.
***
Helitria, called the Holy Ground of the Temple.
Helitria was under no nation’s rule, and all matters were handled according to the will of the High Priests.
Three High Priests managed Helitria, and the most exceptional among them was selected as God’s Emissary.
Among the many duties performed by Helitria’s High Priests, the most important and secretive was the protection of the Aleine Mountain Range.
The Sealing War.
Six hundred years ago, someone deliberately opened a Dimensional Rift, and through it poured the abominations of the Demon Realm.
A war spanning a hundred years claimed countless lives. The entire continent lay desolate, and as defeat seemed certain, five heroes emerged.
They sealed the Dimensional Rift and the beings that had crossed from the Demon Realm within the Aleine Mountain Range.
This story was passed down by word of mouth only to the Emperor, the High Priests of Helitria, and the Master of the Magic Tower.
As centuries passed, the Imperial Court and the Magic Tower came to regard the Seal as legend, but the Temple did not.
After the Seal was created, the Temple took full responsibility for its protection and has guarded it ever since.
Even now, Divine Decrees concerning the Seal continue to descend upon Helitria.
In particular, the single priest capable of approaching the Seal was designated directly by Divine Decree.
The High Priests called them the ‘Guardian’.
The Guardian dwelt in the Aleine Holy Ground, managing the Demonic Energy flowing from the Seal and the souls trapped within it.
“Gregory, it appears that problems have arisen with the Seal recently.”
“With the Seal?”
“Yes. Last time, the Holy Sword Artemis revealed its form, and a Superior Demonic Beast manifested and attacked civilians.”
This was a conversation between Gregory, called God’s Emissary, and High Priest Martin.
“The Seal must have weakened with time. For Superior Demonic Beasts to be spotted…. Or could it be that someone deliberately tampered with the Seal like they did ten years ago?”
High Priest Frederick, who had been listening quietly, spoke in a grave tone.
Gregory stroked his beard thoughtfully.
Demonic Beast appearances were not uncommon, but this was the first report of the Seal’s medium—the Holy Sword—revealing itself directly.

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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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