Welcome to the Café of the Dark Guild’s Successor - Chapter 75

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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 Dark Guild’s heir.
75
When Bidler removed the mask he’d been wearing, black hair that melted into the night and sharp eyes were revealed.
His pupils, dilated wide, were filled with confusion.
In truth, it had been quite some time since Bidler first saw Prince.
In the past, when he was wandering through battlefields, he’d once encountered Prince by chance during an operation.
That time too, important information and items had been stolen from him by Prince.
He’d felt frustration, yet her skill was admirable. From then on, Bidler held her abilities in high regard.
“So it was all Rosia.”
Now that he thought about it, he’d felt a strange sense of déjà vu when he first saw Rosia. At the time, he’d thought it was just his imagination.
He didn’t know how she’d done it, but she’d altered her appearance; however, there was one thing Rosia couldn’t change.
Her body scent.
Earlier, in the room, the moment Bidler’s blade grazed Prince’s thigh, he caught the scent and flinched in shock.
Strangely, Rosia came to mind, and startled, he’d looked at her eyes—only to confirm the truth.
The time he’d spent facing Rosia told him everything.
Those eyes were unmistakably hers.
“Of course. Seniel’s sister couldn’t possibly be ordinary.”
Once he’d recognized her, certain moments flashed through his mind.
Rosia’s emotions and manner of speech, always excessively restrained. Her composed demeanor, never startled by anything.
The fruit peels carved so thinly they were nearly transparent, catching the eye. Sculptures almost like works of art.
From identifying and capturing remnants of Seiling’s forces to the wounds sustained from fighting demonic beasts.
He’d thought she was simply born fearless, but it had all stemmed from her skill.
“What kind of person are you, really?”
Rather than feeling deceived by her hidden identity, curiosity took hold of him.
How had she ended up in the Dark Guild? How had she become Prince?
“Seniel seems to know nothing about it.”
It wasn’t in his nature to keep quiet if he’d learned that his sister was the Dark Guild’s heir.
Besides, Seniel was the type whose face revealed every lie.
Seniel had definitely said his sister came from an ordinary household and had been adopted before him.
So had Raven used adoption as a cover to take Rosia?
Or had she gone to be adopted, then entered Raven through some turn of events?
His thoughts spiraled, and his questions kept multiplying.
His mind was so full of Rosia that he couldn’t think of anything else.
Most of all, what surprised him about himself was:
“……I’m trusting her.”
When he’d first met Rosia, he’d thought she was deliberately approaching Seniel and had found her suspicious.
If Bidler had been his usual self, the moment he learned that Rosia was Prince, he should have suspected whether she’d sought out Seniel for some ulterior motive.
Yet that suspicion and caution hadn’t arisen at all.
Instead, he’d felt sympathy for the life Rosia must have lived, and curiosity about it.
He found it striking that his feelings toward Rosia had changed so much from the beginning.
“Why? Is it simply because she’s my subordinate’s sister?”
As Bidler sank deeper into thought, searching his own heart for answers, something swept past him with a whisper.
Bidler refocused his gaze and looked up, spotting a tail.
“…Isn’t that the cat from the café?”
A silver cat with such distinctive features that it was hard to forget once you’d seen it.
How had the cat from Alein Mountain appeared here?
Eyeing it suspiciously, he drew his blade, when a flash erupted from the cat.
While he squinted for a moment, the cat transformed into human form.
“……?!”
Witnessing an unbelievable sight, Bidler gasped in shock, his mouth falling open.
At first, he instinctively took a defensive stance, but then the face seemed familiar, and he examined the figure more carefully.
Sure enough, it was a face he knew.
“……Master Meyson?”
“You recognize me?”
Though not a mage belonging to the empire, how could anyone not know his face?
The finest and most renowned mage alive—Meyson.
Bidler wondered why he, who had stepped down from the Master’s position and vanished, was standing before him now.
“Yes. Grand Archmage Meyson. Why are you…. Ah, could it be about the artifact put up as the prize?”
The artifact of an 8th Circle mage offered as the prize in today’s Guild War—it was a bracelet crafted by Meyson himself.
“I should have asked permission first. I apologize. You disappeared from the Magic Tower, so there was no opportunity.”
Thinking he might have offended someone of such stature, Bidler lowered his body respectfully.
If the Grand Archmage attacked, Bidler had no confidence in stopping him.
“No, no, that’s not it.”
“Sir?”
“You dared wound Rosia, and with poison no less! I could kill you right here and now with justification!”
Meyson’s furious voice thundered out, leaving Bidler bewildered.
But then—
“Did you just say Rosia?”
He never expected to hear Rosia’s name brought up in a conversation with a great mage, and Bidler couldn’t hide his confusion.
“That’s right. You’ve already figured it out, haven’t you?”
“Figured out what?”
“That Rosia is affiliated with the Dark Guild.”
Only then did Bidler realize that Meyson’s appearance was connected to Rosia.
“Do you know her?”
“How could you not recognize her when you’ve seen her face up close? You’re blind, aren’t you? Tsk, tsk.”
Meyson’s brusque anger made no sense to Bidler.
“Look at me carefully.”
Despite his instruction, Bidler did stare intently.
Embarrassed at being face-to-face with him, Bidler found himself recalling someone in Meyson’s features.
Truthfully, he’d never made the connection before.
The atmosphere and hairstyle were so different, and above all, Meyson maintained such a youthful appearance that he couldn’t have made the association.
Yet—
“Could it be…….”
Radiant silver hair and deep blue eyes, and above all, a magnificent and striking beauty remarkably similar to Seniel’s.
Bidler, unable to hide his shock, widened his eyes and asked:
“Are you their father?”
At that question, Meyson’s expression softened for a moment.
“You brat. You sure are good at social graces. Father?”
Meyson turned his head to the side, trying to suppress his laughter.
His constantly angry expression eased, and his voice grew gentler.
“I’m their grandfather.”
“I see. Ah, well, that would make sense.”
Meyson, whose face was youthful yet whose age was immeasurable, could well be their grandfather.
“Do Rosia and Seniel know this fact?”
“Not at all. They think I’m just a cat.”
Now that he thought about it, Seniel had recently mentioned that a silver cat kept following him around.
‘So that was the Grand Archmage.’
A memory came back of hearing that during training, a knight who disliked cats had kicked one, and the next day his leg was broken—a chill ran down Bidler’s spine.
“This doesn’t seem like something to hide. Why not tell them?”
“……You have no need to know.”
Seeing Meyson’s darkened expression, Bidler guessed there were family matters he wasn’t privy to.
“But why did you reveal this to me?”
“Because you’re manipulating my grandchildren. And not just one—both of them!”
Meyson’s voice thundered like the sky itself, ringing through Bidler’s ears.
“I’m giving you a warning.”
When Meyson snapped his fingers, a circular ring of fire appeared around Bidler.
Menacing crimson flames wavered as if ready to consume him at any moment.
The heat was so intense he’d actually be scorched, and Bidler’s face flushed red.
“Don’t drag my grandchildren into dangerous affairs. If you wound them again like today, then—”
The flames surged up, towering above Bidler’s height in an instant, then extinguished.
“I’ll kill you. No matter who you are.”
At the ominous force carried in Meyson’s voice, Bidler’s body trembled.
His eardrums nearly burst, so he covered his ears and forced out his words.
“If you don’t want the two of them to be in danger…you could always become my ally.”
Regardless of his reasons, meeting a Grand Archmage was an enormous opportunity for Bidler.
Especially since he was Seniel and Rosia’s grandfather—there was no more reliable and trustworthy asset than this.
“You brazen bastard. Not content with using my grandchildren, you’re trying to exploit an old man too?”
Seeing Bidler’s audacity even in such a situation, Meyson let out a bitter laugh.
“Not interested. I’ve decided to spend my remaining years not as a Grand Archmage, but as my grandchildren’s grandfather.”
With that, he opened his palm.
For just a brief moment, Bidler experienced a vision of being engulfed in hellfire, his entire body burning.
Having tasted the power of 8th Circle Magic, Bidler dropped to one knee and let out a cry of agony.
“You’ve got some mettle, kid.”
Meyson had applied the full force without holding back, intending to knock him unconscious, yet impressed that he was enduring it so well.
“Remember that I’m always watching.”
“…I understand.”
Having delivered his warning clearly to Bidler, Meyson turned away.
As he moved with his silver hair flowing, he paused and murmured:
“The princess of Roa and the first prince—or should I say crown prince now. Look into the connection between that man and yours.”
“Sir? What do you mean by—”
Meyson, having said his piece, opened a portal and vanished in an instant.
Left alone, Bidler looked over the now-quiet grass and laughed hollowly.
“What is all this? Am I dreaming?”
The fact that Rosia was Raven’s Prince was hard enough to accept.
But now the greatest mage on the continent was her grandfather.
The shocks came one after another, yet they did resolve several mysteries.
“Now everything makes sense.”
That Seniel, who wasn’t from one of the Five Great Houses, possessed outstanding abilities,
and that Rosia could see through magic and obtain the jewel box.
It all became clear when connected to Meyson.
What was certain was that Rosia, who would play the fiancée, Prince of Raven, and the great Grand Archmage—
were all people desperately needed by Bidler now.
“Seniel really was a blessing.”
He smiled, thinking how fortunate it was that he’d saved Seniel, the hub around which all these encounters had revolved.

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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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