TCRDG 03

Chapter 03 …

The commotion outside grew louder, and every guild member entered the room, knelt down, and mourned Ajumma, weeping.

The funeral was held quietly.

We buried Ajumma on the guild grounds.

The only reason I ended up living this kind of life was because, ten years ago, Ajumma had brought me here.

Now that I was finally free from the life I had never wanted, I should have felt relieved.

“…Why do I feel so awful?”

I beat my chest in frustration.

I couldn’t understand this feeling at all.

When I was younger, I hated Ajumma.

The brutal training had been unbearable, and I resented the woman who had forced me into all of it.

But ten years had changed many things.

If Ajumma hadn’t appeared before Seniel and me after we lost our parents, I had no idea what would have become of us in those mountains.

In the end, I grew up safely, and Seniel was adopted into a noble family and was living the life she had always wanted.

That was enough.

I wasn’t grateful to Ajumma, but I had stopped hating her a long time ago.

I had planned to make the woman who kept me trapped here repay her debt to me for the rest of her life…

Yet she was gone so meaninglessly.

“…Farewell.”

Standing before Ajumma’s grave, I uncorked the bottle of liquor I had brought.

“I’ll let this take the place of my tears. It’s the drink you liked. Drink as much as you want over there.”

As I poured every last drop of liquor over the grave, Rayleigh walked up beside me.

“Queen preferred sweet wine over strong liquor.”

“That’s only because you don’t know. Ajumma only picked up refined tastes a few years ago. Before that, she only drank the strongest liquor she could find.”

“Really? If you say so, then I believe you. You knew Queen better than anyone.”

“…”

“What are you going to do, Prince? I want you to take over the guild. Everyone else feels the same.”

I quietly set the now-empty bottle beside Ajumma’s grave and closed my eyes.

“I’m sick of killing people.”

“The Guild Master doesn’t personally carry out missions. They only give orders. You just give the commands. We’ll do the work.”

Ajumma’s words echoed through my mind.

“You’re a kind child.”

Did Ajumma want me to leave?

At first, I had only done this because Ajumma forced me to.

But somewhere along the way, it had become as natural as breathing.

These were the only skills I had ever learned.

Everything I knew revolved around this life.

If I left this place…

What could I possibly do?

“…I need some time to think. I’m going to take a vacation.”

“Where?”

“I want to see my little sister.”

Just then, Sophia came running over, tears welling up in her eyes as she grabbed onto my pant leg.

“I heard Queen left the guild to you! If the Guild Master leaves, what happens to us? Is the guild going to disband?”

Her eyes were overflowing with tears.

For a brief moment…

She looked like a puppy that had lost its owner.

“Prince… you’re not really going to abandon us… are you?”

The moment I heard the word abandon, a long, twitching vein bulged across my forehead.

“Then should we all retire together? You, Rayleigh, everyone else… you all love this guild.”

“I don’t.”

Unlike me, who had been dragged into the guild by Ajumma, every other guild member had joined of their own free will.

Raven had a notorious reputation…

But it was also famous.

It proudly stood as the greatest of the dark guilds.

Everyone took pride in being a member of Raven.

Which meant no one wanted the guild to close.

Except me.

“Then, Prince, how about this?”

“How about you run a shop?”

“…A shop?”

I stared at Sophia, wondering where such an absurd idea had come from.

“Yeah! A shop!”

She grabbed both my hands, her eyes sparkling as she eagerly explained.

“We have one guild branch in every region, don’t we? We use them as contact points and places to gather information.”

“So?”

“You can take charge of one of them. If you don’t like the current location, you can start somewhere else—wherever you want.”

It was obvious Sophia had put a lot of thought into this idea.

Unfortunately…

It didn’t interest me in the slightest.

“I don’t know…”

Seeing my lukewarm reaction, Sophia moved even closer and raised her voice.

“You’d get to live the normal life you want without cutting ties with us! Isn’t that a great solution? Right?”

“I’ll think about it.”

After gently removing her hands, I looked back at the empty liquor bottle.

Then Rayleigh lifted my chin until our eyes met.

“Go see your sister. No matter how long you’re gone, I’ll protect this place.”

“But…”

She paused.

Her expression softened with affection.

“Just come back.”

“You’re our Prince.”

“The one who inherited Queen’s will.”

“I believe you’ll return.”

Rayleigh stepped so close that I could clearly see my own reflection in her eyes.

She lightly rested her forehead against mine and quietly whispered those words.

I pulled my forehead back slightly…

Then slammed it back into hers.

“You people are way too sentimental. You’re so annoying.”

“Ugh… that hurt.”

“Rosia, do you know your head is ridiculously hard?”

“No.”

“I said I’m just taking a vacation! Why are you and Sophia acting like this is some final farewell?”

“Because it feels like you’re going to leave us forever.”

I patted Rayleigh’s shoulder.

She resembled Ajumma even more than I did.

“Don’t worry.”

“I’ll come back with my decision.”

Only then did Sophia and Rayleigh smile and let me go.

As I left the guild grounds, Sophia suddenly shouted from behind me.

“Wait! Aren’t you taking your sword?”

“You keep it.”

“You’ve always wanted it.”

“I only said that in passing! That’s your signature weapon! Prince! Priiince!!”

After talking with the guild’s officially ranked number one and number two naggers, my ears felt like they’d been assaulted.

I rubbed them vigorously.

Then…

I removed the mask that had been like a part of my body for all these years.

I couldn’t even remember the last time the midday sunlight had touched my face directly.

Ten years of guild life had left me with agile techniques…

Assassination skills capable of killing someone in an instant…

An exceptional physique…

And…

Money.

Most of my rewards had always been handed over to Ajumma, but I still kept a small commission for myself.

Since I never had any use for it, Ajumma had stored it in the bank for me.

By now…

It had probably grown into quite a fortune.

“The bank is in the capital.”

“I’ll stop by after I meet Seniel.”

Before leaving to see Seniel, I read through the reports I’d regularly received about her over the years.

“Participated in numerous wars.”

“An outstanding talent with exceptional skill.”

“Graduated from the Academy with excellent grades.”

“Ranked among the top competitors in the Swordsmanship Tournament.”

“Served for many years in the Second Prince’s personal knight order.”

“Highly likely to be accepted into the Imperial Knights.”

If I was someone who walked in the shadows…

Then Seniel was someone who lived entirely in the light.

Our lives had become complete opposites.

At the very end of the lengthy report, someone had written in red ink:

[P.S. She’s extremely popular.]

“…Just how popular can she be?”

Not thinking much of it, I gathered the documents and stored them inside my artifact.

“She’s going to be surprised.”

For the past ten years, Seniel and I had met only once a year…

For a single day.

And even then, only for about two hours.

It was a promise we had never broken.

If I suddenly appeared without warning…

She would definitely be shocked.

I wondered if it was selfish of me to show up before Seniel, who was living a perfect life without me.

Still…

I want to see her.

Before deciding what to do with my future…

I wanted to meet Seniel.

After riding without stopping for an entire day, I arrived at the territory of the Freya family, where Seniel had been adopted.

I rented a room at an inn near the bustling town square and immediately wrote a letter for her.

“Shell, take this to Seniel.”

I tied it to the leg of Shell, the raven who had served as the bridge between Seniel and me for the past ten years, and sent him into the sky.

Shell was clever.

Once he found Seniel, he would undoubtedly deliver my letter.

Still…

I understood why the townspeople were curious about a stranger appearing in their territory.

But all the sidelong glances were driving me crazy.

“I really need to dull these instincts.”

The heightened senses I had developed through years of surviving on missions kept trying to detect everything happening around me.

Forcing myself to shut out those instincts, I collapsed onto the hard bed, hoping to relieve the exhaustion from the long journey.

***

Recently, Seniel had been completely occupied with training for the Imperial Knights entrance examination, which was now only two months away.

As usual, she had gone to the capital for training.

It had been a full week before she finally returned home.

“Welcome back. You must have worked very hard. Were you injured anywhere?”

The butler greeted her warmly while taking her luggage.

Seniel let out a weary groan.

“My whole body’s covered in bruises. They make us climb mountains, cross rivers… honestly, they work us to death. I’m almost tempted to forget the entrance exam altogether and quit.”

“Oh, right.”

“Did any important messages arrive?”

“No, nothing particularly important.”

“However, invitations to parties from young ladies of various noble families have piled up.”

“They’re over there.”

Because Seniel was so popular, countless letters arrived from every corner of the Empire.

She had absolutely no interest in such correspondence.

Sorting through the pile and picking out anything truly important had become the butler’s responsibility.

“Just handle the replies yourself.”

“And reject every single one of them.”

Without giving the mountain of letters more than a passing glance, Seniel declared she was exhausted and headed upstairs to her room.