How to Survive in a Good Small Guild - Chapter 18

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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 Small Guild
Chapter 18
“I’m sorry?”
“Pardon me?!”
“Did you just say what I think you said?”
Susanna, Cedric, and I all reacted in unison—the words had hit us like a shock. They wanted to squeeze more money from our already pitiful wages?
According to Odret’s memory, last month alone the Guild Master had demanded money from us under the pretense of his birthday. Now he was saying he’d be taking a cut every single month?
“This is truly unjust,” Cedric said.
But this time, I couldn’t even bring myself to stop him. I mean, if they were taking more from this salary, what were we supposed to do?
“Guild Master, what exactly is the content of this training?”
I forced myself to calm down and ask. He answered with a pleased tone.
“It’s training to relieve the stress that comes from working as an informant in the Guild.”
“I’m sorry?”
“I’ve already arranged it for tomorrow.”
Stress relief training? That counted as training?
The moment the Guild Master dropped his bombshell announcement and left to eat, the three of us found ourselves in rare agreement and began talking.
“This is truly unjust,” Cedric said.
“I completely agree! If they take more money, what are we supposed to do?” Susanna asked.
“This doesn’t make any sense….”
“Odret, isn’t there some way around this? You’re so good at scheming!”
“Scheming?”
“I mean, you’re just… smart.”
Susanna stumbled over her words as she added, “You could definitely figure something out!”

“Don’t put all the responsibility on me. Sigh….”
This time, even I had no idea what to do. I let out a long breath.
“Let’s first listen to this training tomorrow and then think about it.”
***
The next day, a young man arrived at the Guild just as the Guild Master had said. With an awkward expression, he began speaking to us.
“Now then, I shall begin Liberation Training to eliminate the stress in your hearts.”
What on earth was this supposed to be?
“From now on, follow my lead. Breathe in, then out….”
……
Faced with training that seemed utterly useless, our faces twisted. But since the Guild Master was watching us from behind with a pleased expression, we were forced to follow along with the breathing exercises.
“Now, your stress is circulating through your heart with this breathing. We’re going to release it outward. Each of you, take a balloon.”
The man handed us each a balloon—still uninflated.
“We’re going to fill them with stress and create stress balloons.”
“……?”
“Blow into the balloon and fill it with your stress!”
No, your very existence is the stress you’re causing us….
After even Cedric blew into his balloon with a thoroughly unamused expression, the man made a grand gesture and shouted.
“Now, pop the balloons! Your stress flies away with it! Come on, try it. Stress, be gone~!”
“Ha! Our nephew’s doing so well!” the Guild Master exclaimed, clapping his hands in delight.
He practically glowed with approval.
And at that exact moment, I made a decision.
I’d originally planned to make the Guild Master a puppet and control him from the shadows. I was scrapping that plan.
I couldn’t take this anymore.
I would become the Guild Master myself.
***
After the Guild Master left that day with his nephew, cooing over him, I immediately began investigating the procedure for replacing the Guild Master.
In this world, guilds with fewer than five members are registered as Autonomous Profit Associations, with the Guild Master as the operator and us recorded as Associate Members.
To replace the Guild Master, you need the consent of three or more members. If Susanna, Cedric, and I agreed, it wouldn’t be difficult.
However, as a measure to protect the Guild Master, you cannot replace them without cause. Usually, violation of guild bylaws allows for replacement—such cases include Financial Embezzlement, mission failure and damage to the guild’s reputation, or threatening the safety of Associate Members.
In other words, we needed to find evidence that the Guild Master had committed wrongdoing.
Of course, we’d also need to report it to the Temple afterward. If the Temple found out we’d simply discarded one of their people, they’d be furious. We’d have to prove that the Guild Master’s wrongdoing had caused harm to the Temple itself.
And since the Temple would need a new Guild Master they could trust…, I’d have to figure out a way to improve my reputation with them, which wouldn’t come easily.
“That’s why I intend to become the new Guild Master.”
When I gathered Susanna and Cedric and said this, their expressions shifted.
Cedric thought for a moment, then nodded his head in agreement. But Susanna’s face went pale.
“Eek! You’ve found my weakness and you’re going to enslave me!”
“When I became Guild Master, there’s one thing I can promise you above all else. The work may be hard. You may come to dislike me. But your wages—I will never touch them.”
“…!”
“In fact, I’ll raise your salary by seven percent effective immediately.”
“Wonderful! I’m going to support you, Odret!”
Susanna’s expression transformed in an instant at the mention of wages—suddenly the picture of compliance.
“So what do we need to do?”
“Find evidence of the Guild Master’s wrongdoing.”
“Like what we just did with the Nephew? Using company funds that way—wouldn’t that work?”
“…That alone won’t be enough. It’s too common a method.”
Cedric spoke in an even tone.
“You know something about the law, don’t you, Cedric?”
“Yes, I learned a bit at my previous company.”
“Why on earth… ah, I see.”
Perhaps he’d learned it while reporting improprieties at that company. My gaze toward Cedric softened with sympathy.
“Honestly, if we dig around, I’d bet we find embezzlement for sure.”
“I agree.”
“We should start by looking for the Accounting Ledger.”
“Let’s do as Cedric suggests.”
And so our plan to remove the Guild Master began.
In our Guild, the Accounting Ledger was usually kept by Susanna. It explained why she always calculated numbers without a calculator.
Normally the Guild Master would hold the ledger personally and hide it away, but our Guild was so poorly run that we’d been handling it ourselves all along.
“Look, but there’s nothing obviously wrong here…”
The Accounting Ledger Susanna showed us was immaculate. There wasn’t a flaw to be found.
“The expenses look normal, we’ve been paid our salary as contracted…”
“The only irritating thing is the Guild Master spending two hundred thousand Pesos on a Name Plate for himself, but there’s no actual problem.”
As we studied the ledger in silence, Cedric, who had been quiet until then, finally spoke up.
“Is this really the total income for the month?”
“Yes, it is. We only had five commissions this month.”
“That doesn’t add up.”
“What doesn’t add up, Cedric?”
“It’s strange that the Guild Master maintains the Guild on such meager profits. He’s a greedy man—I doubt he’d run a Guild just to earn an ordinary salary.”
“I thought the Temple was supposed to be providing subsidies, but now that you mention it, those probably aren’t enough either.”
“So you’re saying the Guild Master took on commissions behind our backs?”
Susanna posed the question, and I shook my head.
“That doesn’t make sense. He wouldn’t bother handling commissions alone.”
“Then what?”
“Perhaps he’s been collecting under-the-table money using this Guild as cover.”
Cedric said as much, and though the picture still wasn’t clear to us, we decided to dig deeper into the ledger.
“You know, in novels I’ve read, there are usually two sets of books…”
Muttering to myself, I began searching through the Guild Master’s desk. That’s when I noticed a drawer underneath was locked.
“Hmm? What’s so important that it needs to be locked?”
“Can’t we just open it?”
“It’s locked, so I can’t open it…”
Unlike the Crown Prince we’d worked with recently, we didn’t have any lockpicking skills among us.
That’s when Cedric stepped forward.
“I can open it.”
“You can, Cedric?”
He took a sharp pen from Susanna and began working at the keyhole intently.
Soon enough, the lock really did click open.
“I learned it at my previous company.”
“Your previous company?”
“Well, they’d lock us in to make us work overtime… so I’d open it and go home.”
“Good grief, that company deserved to be reported.”
If our company was evil in its purity, that one was chaos incarnate. As my sympathy for Cedric deepened along with Susanna’s, he pulled a Black Notebook from the drawer.
“Is this perhaps another Accounting Ledger?”

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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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