How to Survive in a Good Small Guild - Chapter 4

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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 4
“Susanna! What’s wrong all of a sudden?”
“Oh, no! I just thought I saw a bug pass by! And now that I think about it, I got confused with another task! This whole thing was definitely Odret’s doing!”
“Is that so? Why do you keep changing your story?”
“Hehe, I was just confused. I’m sorry….”
Susanna bowed deeply, and the Guild Master, though grumbling, turned to me.
“See? When you actually try, you can do it. Why haven’t you been doing this properly all this time?”
“Ha, I’ll work harder from now on….”
“Tch, that’s the problem with kids these days. Always goofing off.”
After the Guild Master finished with his old-timer nonsense and left, Susanna and I exchanged a knowing glance—roughly meaning she should follow me outside.
Unlike the confident front she usually put on in front of me, Susanna looked terrified, as though I had something over her. Which, well, I did.
‘Looking at her face, I can tell. She’s got the look of someone who’d be filming a vlog while wearing earbuds at work.’
Of course, vlogs didn’t exist in this world. Still, relying purely on my intuition, I’d investigated something and finally found what I was looking for.
‘This is it!’
Susanna had written an essay. She’d published an essay while leaking confidential information from the Information Guild—and quite a piece of work it was.

In it, she’d even exposed some of the private information of clients we’d handled.
No matter how much the Guild Master favored Susanna, he couldn’t brush this aside. If a client filed a complaint, he’d be in real trouble.
“Susanna, don’t you have something to say to me?”
“U-uh….”
She looked genuinely flustered for once.
“That essay of yours sold pretty well, didn’t it? You must have made some decent money?”
Surprisingly, Susanna’s anonymously-written essay had climbed onto the bestseller list. It was fortunate the book-indifferent Guild Master had no idea.
But why did people keep writing essays anyway? The president of the X-so Company where I used to work, Park Geo-sung, had written an essay about his life. Most of it was fabrication, but even through all those lies, he couldn’t hide his old-fashioned arrogance.
The title was something like ‘Park Geo-sung Begins Act Two of a Glorious Life,’ wasn’t it? Even the title was laughable.
While I was remembering that absurd essay by Park Geo-sung, Susanna visibly wilted.
“T-that is….”
“Don’t even think about denying it’s you. I’m still a supervisor at the Information Guild, after all. I have more than enough evidence to prove that author is you.”
“O-Odret! I was wrong!”
Finally understanding the situation, Susanna pressed her hands together and started pleading earnestly.
“Please don’t tell the Guild Master! You know what’ll happen if he finds out…!”
“It could end in a lawsuit.”
“S-so that’s why…!”
“But if we cover this up, it could come back to hurt me later.”
“B-but we’re the same year cohort!”
“Oh, right. Same year cohort.”
I’d considered throwing her out completely, but eliminating someone who has dirt on you seems like a waste.
Better to keep her working here for the long haul and use her to my advantage.
I smiled brightly at her and spoke.
“Fine, since we’re the same year cohort, I’ll do you this ‘favor.'”
“Really?”
“But Susanna has to do me a favor in return. That would be only fair, wouldn’t it?”
“W-what kind of favor?”
Susanna’s eyes darted around as she tried to gauge the situation. I shrugged and continued.
“It’s simple. You empty the trash bin in the morning.”
“Huh? Why would I do that?”
“Should I do it instead?”
“N-no, that’s not it…. We’re office staff, aren’t we?”
“So who’s been emptying the trash? Do you think it cleans itself? From now on, please empty it.”
“U-um, yes….”
Susanna looked blank, as if she’d never once considered trash duty. Ugh, a coworker with absolutely no sense of responsibility!
“Oh, and refill the snacks and tea bags for me too.”
“C-can we just bill the Guild Master for that later…?”
“No, our guild doesn’t work like that. Of course you pay out of pocket.”
“S-so if we don’t refill them, there’s no way around it?”
“The Manager told me to keep them stocked.”
“But still….”
“How much did you make from selling books anyway, Susanna….”
“Ack! I’ll do it!”
“Yes, thank you for doing me this favor.”
After dumping all the tedious work I’d been handling onto her shoulders, I flashed a smile of victory.
Good. Escape from the bottom rung of the X-so Guild hierarchy achieved.
“Oh, but why do you want to keep working at this guild, Susanna? Didn’t you make a lot of money selling your book?”
“Well, I have a contract for my next work… and if I break it, the penalty would be quite substantial.”
“I see. Then you’ll be working here for quite a while.”
“Yes! So please, keep it secret from the Guild Master!”
“Ah, but then there’s one more favor I’d like to ask. The Guild Master told me to empty the trash, and the Manager told me to refill the snacks and tea bags. So doesn’t that mean I get to ask you for a favor too?”
“What now….”
After two years of survival at X-so Company, I was about to show her how this place really works.
“Ahem, Susanna. I noticed last time when you were doing the accounting ledger that you were using a calculator.”
“Yes…?”
“From now on, when you work, don’t use the calculator. Calculate by hand instead. The calculator could break, you know. How could I trust a machine?”
“But that doesn’t….”
“Please don’t use the calculator anymore. It bothers me quite a bit.”
“No, well… yes….”
In the end, Susanna nodded, watching my expression carefully.
It might seem odd, but for now it was a necessary measure to keep Susanna in line. Park Geo-sung, thank you for teaching me how to pick apart every little thing.
“So let’s both do our best moving forward.”
“Yes, yes!”
The glance Susanna shot my way seemed like she was looking at someone strange, but I didn’t mind. If you want to survive at X-so, you have to become part of X-so yourself.
***
“It’s strange, really….”
In a clean office, gray eyes gleamed beneath dark hair. The man’s gaze was fixed on a document he’d received not long ago.
The man’s identity was none other than the Empire’s Crown Prince, Sedrian Elbaron. At this moment, his mind was caught on a single thought.
‘How was I able to find information at such a small guild?’
He’d had no expectations whatsoever of the “Global… something-or-other” Guild. It was truly a place he’d sought out with the desperation of a drowning man grasping at a rope. He couldn’t ask the large guilds for help.
The employee who attended to him there was a young-faced woman who seemed to be little more than a junior member of the Information Guild.
Her dark black hair and violet eyes gave off a gloomy atmosphere, and while her face was objectively beautiful, the deep dark circles beneath her eyes and her melancholic expression made her beauty far from striking.
What she’d demanded as a condition for finding the information was also quite strange. Build a bathroom? Who would have thought they’d receive such an odd request in their lifetime?
Yet that woman had truly succeeded in finding the information he desired.
If the person who’d helped him that day was Princess Caliyad, then everything would fall into place. Recalling the conversation they’d had in the forest, his conviction that it was Princess Caliyad grew even deeper.
Now that he’d discovered his collaborator was Princess Caliyad, the rest was a matter for him to handle himself.
However, there was something unsettling about that Information Guild.
Sedrian’s gaze fixed on the document he’d received. At the very top, in small letters, was a title.
0411_Final Report Truly Final (3)
‘This is exactly the same title format as the Temple uses.’
It was information an ordinary person would never know, but Sedrian, who’d always kept watch on the Temple and collected intelligence about them, could tell.
Something was definitely suspicious. Sedrian resolved to investigate the background of that guild.
“Eric, that Global… whatever it was called. In any case, investigate that guild for me.”
After giving the order to his aide, days later the Crown Prince received shocking information.
“Your Highness, that guild appears to be connected to the Temple in some way. If I had to make a comparison… it seems to be a subcontractor for the Temple.”
“A Temple subcontractor?”
Sedrian’s eyes gleamed.
He’d been searching for a way to penetrate deeper into the Temple, and this guild seemed so clumsy and easy to approach.
If he used it well, he might be able to turn the tables and extract information about the Temple.

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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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