How to Survive in a Good Small Guild - Chapter 53

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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 Guild
Chapter 53
Seraphine’s brow furrowed at those words. I seized the moment and spoke quickly.
“My intention wasn’t to help the Imperial Palace. In truth, there was another motive behind it.”
Yet even as I said this, doubt gnawed at me.
‘But was it really a weakness of the Imperial Palace?’
I’d asked Sedrick to bring me documents the moment I arrived at the office by phone, but that very fact proved I hadn’t been helping the Imperial Palace.
It meant I hadn’t unearthed some fatal flaw in the crown.
‘Did Sedrick exaggerate when he spoke?’
Sedrick knew about the relationship between the Temple and our Guild, so he must have judged that I’d be in danger.
I was fretting over whether Sedrick himself might be endangered when Seraphine sighed and spoke.
“We’re a Subcontracted Guild anyway. Bring him here.”
“Bring him here…?”
“…Actually, it would be better to step back outside.”
Thinking it dangerous to show the depths of the Discipline Room, Seraphine led me back to the entrance where we’d begun.
Escaping that dreadful space, I cheered silently within.
Standing alone with Seraphine in silence, she suddenly asked me something.
“Aria was protecting you, wasn’t she….”
…….
Seraphine and Aria were locked in some kind of factional dispute, so I couldn’t bring myself to speak of Aria before her. I held my tongue.
“Do you perhaps have a connection with Charles, the junior priest?”
Instead, when I asked that, Seraphine let out a snort of derision.
“Me? With that dimwit?”
Well, it seems Charles has no backing.
Good. Once I escape this place, I’ll definitely settle the score with him.
Just then, cutting through the awkward silence, Lize appeared.
Behind her came Sedrick, glancing nervously about the Discipline Room.
……!
Sedrick’s face brightened the moment he spotted me, but the instant he saw me sitting virtually imprisoned in the Discipline Room, his expression turned grave.
“This is….”
“Shh.”
I signaled Sedrick to stay quiet. Though he looked displeased, he closed his mouth.
“You brought the documents?”
“…Yes.”
Sedrick wordlessly handed the documents to Seraphine.
“This is….”
Seraphine’s eyes widened as she read through them.
“In the investigation into the Hartfield Marquis house, the Crown Prince directly intervened and forcibly treated the Marquis despite insufficient evidence. That’s what this says.”
“……?”
What? How did this happen? Isn’t that genuinely damaging to the Crown Prince?
I blinked in confusion, but Sedrick looked remarkably composed. Where on earth had he obtained such information?
“Good. If that’s the information you were after….”
Sedrick’s eyes flashed a message toward me. Reading that signal, I quickly opened my mouth to escape the crisis.
“Yes, that’s… that’s what the information was for. I absolutely had no intention of helping the Imperial Palace.”
“That much will do….”
Seraphine gestured to Lize. Lize then opened the door leading out of the Discipline Room.
“You may leave.”
“Thank you, Seraphine.”
I bowed respectfully and was about to depart when Seraphine’s voice called us back.
“Wait.”
“Yes?”
“Let me see your employee’s face.”
Seraphine unexpectedly summoned Sedrick, and he gazed back at her calmly.
A tense moment stretched between them.
“…No, it’s nothing. The face seemed familiar, but I was mistaken.”
Seraphine waved her hand dismissively once more.
Before she could change her mind, I quickly left the Discipline Room with Sedrick.
Lize said that since Sedrick was an outsider, he needed to be escorted out promptly, and I turned to him at once.
“Sedrick, what’s happening here?”
“I….”
“So the Imperial Palace truly has a weakness… what in the world is this?”
“Well! Someone came to the Guild. And the Guild Master said that if the Temple ever found itself in crisis, I should hand over these documents. That person’s name was Eric.”
“Eric?”
I stopped mid-interrogation of Sedrick.
Wait—Eric? He appears in the original work, and I’ve met him before. He’s the Crown Prince’s adjutant.
Did the Crown Prince move to help me ahead of time, knowing I’d be in danger because of the Temple? By handing over his own weakness?
“I’m not entirely sure, but Eric said to pass along this message—that information of this caliber is acceptable to disclose, so to use it as I see fit.”
……
“I confess I didn’t understand the meaning of those words, but… could it be that the Guild Master and he are on the same side?”
Sedrick still seemed unaware that the Imperial Palace was allied with us, but I understood from his words that the Crown Prince had helped me.
In other words, the Crown Prince had risked bringing public scandal upon himself just to pull me out of the Temple’s crisis.
A long sigh escaped me.
“G-Guild Master? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, really. I’m just… deeply grateful to someone. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay such kindness.”
“I’m sure that person is grateful for your hard work too.”
“Do you know who I mean?”
“W-well, no. I just meant… you’re always working so hard, Guild Master.”
Watching Sedrick try awkwardly to console me, I felt genuine admiration for the Crown Prince.
He wasn’t the cold, merciless protagonist of the original work, but rather someone who understood how to care for those beneath him.
“I’m truly moved.”
“G-Guild Master, but…”
Sedrick hesitated, searching my face before asking.
“Why were you in that place earlier? It said ‘Discipline Room’ on the door…”
“Oh, that—I nearly received discipline, but I managed to slip out cleanly. Don’t worry about it.”
“The methods they use there…”
“Hmm, well, it’s classified, but it wasn’t particularly dangerous. Just things like salary cuts and a written reflection, you know.”
I couldn’t alarm my subordinate, so I gave Sedrick a vague reassurance.
“You should head back now, Sedrick.”
“Yes? But Guild Master, you…”
“I’m a junior priest here, so I have work to attend to.”
I sent Sedrick on his way toward the south exit with those words.
“I have something urgent I need to take care of.”
Charles, your time is up.
***
“Wh-what!”
When I returned to the office looking perfectly fine, Charles’s face went pale as if he’d seen a ghost.
I spoke to him with absolute confidence.
“Oh, it’s nothing serious. I was falsely accused of helping the Imperial Palace, the Temple’s greatest enemy, but… it turned out I had actually acquired information on the Imperial Palace instead.”
“What!”
Charles cried out in shock, but the other junior priests reacted even faster.
“Really? You extracted information from the Imperial Palace, our greatest enemy?”
“Yes, and High Priest Seraphine acknowledged that achievement and released me.”
“Ohhh…”
Admiration gleamed in the eyes of the junior priests as they looked at me.
“But…”
I posed a gentle question to them.
“The Imperial Palace is our greatest enemy, isn’t it? Has everyone here had some experience with them?”
I wanted to understand where their excessive faith came from, to verify whether they’d actually suffered harm from the Imperial Palace.
But the answer that came back was as follows:
“It’s the result of interpreting the great Sacred Scripture left by the Prophet!”
“It’s written right there in the Scripture, hahahaha!”
Ah, so they were just ordinary charlatans.
Having confirmed once again that the Imperial Palace in this world was on the side of the righteous protagonist, I took a moment to reflect on myself.
‘I’ve been far too careless.’
As Guild Master of Acruite, I hadn’t been faithful to our Guild’s motto.
Strike before you are struck.
Yet I’d nearly fallen victim to Charles’s false accusation. Now, even if it’s late, I must counterattack.
“By the way…”
I smiled wickedly at Charles.
“High Priest Seraphine said she won’t let slide whoever dared provide baseless information and waste her time.”
I have Aria backing me up, after all.
Aria will gladly step in for this. Because….
‘She can actually use this to attack Seraphine — for nearly disciplining an innocent person!’
I ran into Olson before coming here. He must have passed word to Aria by now….
“Listen, Charles!”
Right on cue, Olson opened the office door and stepped inside.
“High Priestess Aria has summoned you to the Discipline Room!”
“What? That means….”
“Three days of discipline for slandering a colleague, undermining the Temple’s credibility, and attempting to damage morale!”
Farewell, Charles.
You go right ahead and copy scripture to your heart’s content.

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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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