How to Survive in a Good Small Guild - Chapter 14

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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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How to Survive in a Good Small-Scale Guild
Chapter 14
The next day, when I saw the dignitary who had come to our guild, my pupils trembled.
“The Heindel Marquis came to our guild as a guest?”
“Yes, he’s waiting in a room right now!”
Listening to Susanna say that, I felt a bit stunned. The Guild Master wasn’t even here—how was I supposed to handle this?
“Odret, if that’s the Heindel Marquis, he must be one of the most powerful nobles, right?”
“Well, yes….”
I answered, recalling the Heindel Marquis as described in the original work.
He wasn’t just any ordinary noble. In the original work, he was a supporting character with considerable significance….
Hmm, but since I only know him from the original work, I’m not quite sure what image the Heindel Marquis has among the people of this world.
“Sedrick, do you know anything about the Heindel Marquis?”
The moment I asked that question to get a sense of common opinion, Sedrick’s gaze wavered.
“Ah, no, I don’t. A marquis… what is a marquis?”
What’s this? That awkward phrasing?
“You don’t know what a marquis is…?”
“A marquis, what is a marquis again….”
Had my judgment suddenly deteriorated?
At any rate, I couldn’t keep the Heindel Marquis waiting, so I had to go quickly.
“Susanna, I’ll take care of this….”
As I said that, I looked at Sedrick.
He’d become a contract employee because he wanted to work at the Information Guild and learn, but had I only been giving him odd jobs for the Guild Master this whole time? It seemed I should teach him some actual work. Well, I’m a good mentor, after all.
“Sedrick, would you like to come with me?”
“Me, you mean me, sir?”
“Yes, you said you wanted to learn Information Guild work.”
“Yes, I did. Yes….”
He hesitated for a moment, then stood up from his seat. And so I headed with Sedrick toward the reception room.
When I opened the door and entered, the man known as the Heindel Marquis was surveying his surroundings with a somewhat awkward gaze. And no wonder—this shabby reception room was nothing like the Heindel Marquis.
“Hello.”
“…Yes.”
He answered in a stiff tone. He looked exactly like a male lead from a typical romance fantasy novel.
But Sedrick’s face was no less striking than this one that resembled a male lead, was it? For an extra in this world, Sedrick really does have quite a remarkable face.
“You introduced yourself as the Heindel Marquis—is that correct?”
“That’s right. I am Frederick Heindel of the Heindel Marquis Household. I’ve only just arrived in the Capital recently.”
He pulled out a badge to prove his identity. However, lacking knowledge of this world and being distant from noble society, I couldn’t immediately recognize it.
While I hesitated for a moment, Sedrick, sitting beside me, nodded.
“Confirmed.”
Feeling my gaze, he added:
“I learned the crests of noble houses at my previous company.”
“Ah, a company like family.”
What exactly was that company teaching?
In any case, I began my conversation with the Heindel Marquis.
“Thank you for visiting our guild, Marquis. How did you come to know of our guild?”
When I said that to ease the atmosphere, the Heindel Marquis answered in a blunt tone.
“When I arrived in the Capital, I asked my aide if there was a suitable information guild, and he said he’d seen a poster in the lavatory and brought it to me. But when I looked at it more carefully, the handwriting was quite extraordinary.”
“The handwriting…?”
“Yes, it looked as if it had been taught by Mondrian, who is famous throughout the Empire for having the most beautiful handwriting.”
“I see….”
Sedrick’s handwriting really was exceptional.
“I thought that if a guild possessed such refinement, it would surely have information about noble society as well. So I came.”
“Yes, thank you for seeking us out. What brings you to commission our guild?”
He hesitated before beginning to speak.
“You can keep secrets well, I trust?”
“Of course, Marquis. That’s the Information Guild’s greatest duty.”
I answered with a confident smile.
“You may call me Odret, and this is Sedrick. We will help you with anything.”
“Sedrick? For some reason, his face seems familiar too…. Anyway, I’ve come to make a request regarding my wife.”
A matter concerning the Marquis’s wife… Following romance fantasy tropes, I could make a few guesses.
“My wife and I are in a political marriage. She comes from the Meraund Count Family in the Capital, and we saw each other’s faces for the first time when she came to the Northern Region for the marriage. Because the Northern Region is so harsh, the nobility were reluctant to marry into it, but she came willingly for the marriage. At first, I thought she too would flee before long, so I showed her no particular interest.”
Well, this too….
“The more time passed, the more I came to care for her. By the time I realized I loved her, I discovered that her family in the Capital had been abusing her all along. Because of that, she willingly chose to marry me as a way to escape her household.”
“I see….”
“After that, there was a conflict with the Meraund Count Family, but everything was resolved peacefully, and I thought all that remained was to live well with my wife. Both she and I had confirmed our love for each other. But just recently, my wife ran away from home.”
“She ran away? Do you know where she is now?”
“I do. She’s staying at a friend’s house in the Northern Region—someone she befriended there. But the important thing isn’t to drag her back by force. It’s to understand why she ran away.”
Finally! This is it! This is exactly what I was thinking about when I first possessed this body!
Using Romance Fantasy clichés to show off the Information Guild’s abilities!
“My wife started avoiding conversation with me a while before she left. She seems to be hiding something, but I can’t figure out what it is….”
“Have you confirmed there’s no other man involved?”
When Sedrick asked that, the Heindel Marquis glared at him with displeasure.
“I’ve already checked that. There’s absolutely no other man.”
“That’s not the right approach, Sedrick.”
Opening my mouth to demonstrate my ability as a senior, I spoke up.
“Have you checked on the Marquise’s health? Is it possible she’s been suffering from some illness and ran away without mentioning it because she didn’t want you to find out?”
“That doesn’t seem to be the case. If that were true, my physician would have reported it to me. Since my wife fell ill once before, my physician hides nothing from me—and he’s an extremely capable man.”
So it’s not a terminal illness.
“Then could the Meraund Count Family have made a move again? Perhaps they’ve been blackmailing the Marquise….”
“That was the first thing I checked. But they’ve completely fallen and are in no position to do anything.”
Not that either.
The most obvious possibilities had been eliminated, but there was still plenty of room for speculation.
Whatever the reason, the Marquise must have decided that her actions would be harmful to the Marquis, so she resolved to bear the burden herself.
“I’ve brought all the documents related to my wife, in case they’re helpful.”
I accepted the stack of papers from him. There were so many that it would take time to go through them all.
“Understood. If you return in four days, we will have our findings for you.”
“Can you truly uncover everything?”
“Yes, of course. Please have faith in us. If the matter goes unresolved, you can hold us accountable afterward.”
“…Very well then. I’ll return in four days.”
The Heindel Marquis said this and stood up, then, as if remembering something, asked a question.
“This sofa should be replaced. A spring has come loose.”
“Ah, yes….”
Then Sedrick muttered something under his breath.
“So that’s what an elite aristocrat is like….”
Wait, why is he provoking the Marquis? I was desperately hoping the Heindel Marquis hadn’t heard that voice, but of course he turned and stared directly at Sedrick, asking a question.
“Haven’t I seen you before?”
“…I don’t believe so.”
“Your face seems familiar somehow.”
“We’ve truly never met.”
“I see.”
Fortunately, the Heindel Marquis showed only that much interest and left the guild as he was.
“Why exactly were you provoking the Marquis, Sedrick?”
“I’ve been finding elite ways of thinking distasteful recently.”
What is he saying? Such a radical remark?

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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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