How to Survive in a Good Small Guild - Chapter 61

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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 Decent Small-Scale Guild
Chapter 61
Yet turning the young lady’s heart proved far from simple.
She, whose self-worth ran lower than anyone’s, had said this even after hearing Luna Moor and my reasoning:
“No? That can’t be right.”
“A holder of a Master’s Degree in Criminal Investigation Studies made the inference, though.”
“Wow, a Master’s Degree in Criminal Investigation Studies? I only have a Ph.D. in Medieval Philosophy, a Ph.D. in Tragic Literature, a Ph.D. in Topology, and a Master’s in Biochemistry—how impressive you are….”
“……….”
Her self-esteem really was rock bottom.
“Actually, the reason I came to the Guild in the first place wasn’t quite that….”
Kallierd’s daughter lowered her gaze as she spoke.
“My family… they found out about my commission. So….”
“Yes.”
“Would it be possible for you to visit the Kallierd Estate?”
“The estate? Why….”
“When they learned I’d filed a commission to find my true daughter, my family was shocked. They want me to abandon the commission immediately. So if you could visit and demonstrate what we’ve uncovered so far, it might convince them….”
My face drained of color.
This was bad. I didn’t yet have information compelling enough to sway the Estate’s people.
***
I couldn’t face visiting the Estate alone.
So I gathered my guild members, shared what I’d learned, and proposed we visit the Kallierd Estate together.
“But how does this prove she’s really the young lady?”
“Quite right—it seems insufficient to me as well.”
“Your reasoning is always sound, but it appears insufficient to persuade outsiders. Perhaps if I provided additional corroboration….”
Even our guild members’ response made plain that the evidence of Kallierd’s daughter being the true one remained inadequate.
Curse it—in the original story, they’d found the culprit first and then revealed she was the real daughter, so there was more evidence!
I’d deliberately diverged from the original, only to end up with less convincing proof!
Since I couldn’t show them the original narrative, I felt frustrated—yet the other guild members seemed rather intrigued at the prospect of visiting the Estate itself.
“This is extraordinary. I never imagined I’d actually visit the Kallierd Estate.”
Morian muttered in a dazed voice, standing before the Kallierd Mansion.
We’d arrived in a carriage sent by House of Kallierd.
I’d dressed respectably for once, but I couldn’t say how the Estate’s people would receive us….
“Please come inside.”
“Ah, very well.”
By now, I imagined, the Estate’s people had learned of the young lady’s commission and were doubtless going through some touching scene where they said, “Oh, you truly are our precious daughter,” or some such thing.
If I found their true daughter for them, I would become their benefactor.
The trouble was, the evidence to convince them remained thin….
‘Somehow, I have to make Kallierd’s daughter awaken her Ability!’
As the butler ushered us toward the Reception Room, we glimpsed the members of House of Kallierd gathered there.
“Good day to you.”
As I hesitated, Sedrick stepped forward and offered a respectful greeting, and the rest of us followed suit.
“Yes, thank you so much for coming all this way.”
The young lady greeted us first, her manner warm. The other members of the household regarded us with evaluating eyes.
“We understand our daughter commissioned you.”
Marquis Kallierd broke the silence, his voice cutting through the air. Despite his age, he carried an aura of lethal sharpness—a man who had made his name through martial prowess in his youth.
“We’ll provide compensation, so you need not continue the commission. We have no further need to search for another daughter.”
The Marquis spoke bluntly, and the Second Prince, as he appeared to be, immediately concurred.
“There’s no reason to trouble Lucia’s heart with such nonsense.”
“Brother….”
“Now, Lucia. Do you know how long we’ve clung to this obsession with a ‘true daughter’? You’re already my sister.”
A touching atmosphere was already beginning to form.
“However….”
Just then, the First Prince’s attention shifted to Sedrick.
“There’s something familiar about you. Haven’t we met before?”
“No, this is our first meeting.”
“Is that so? How strange… there’s something about your bearing….”
The First Prince tilted his head in puzzlement but withdrew his gaze from Sedrick.
No—I couldn’t leave empty-handed like this.
Somehow, I had to make Kallierd’s daughter awaken her Ability of Falsehood today!
“No, I cannot abandon this commission here.”
In the end, I gathered my courage and opened my mouth.
“I’ve uncovered some rather extraordinary information. I believe I can demonstrate it today.”
“Demonstrate what, exactly?”
The Second Prince asked curtly, so I decided to make him my target.
“First, I’d like to ask you something. When you awakened your Ability of Falsehood, what process did you go through?”
“Me? I was around ten years old when I first used it.”
Fortunately, the Prince answered my question readily enough.
“Right, I hadn’t done my homework that the tutor had assigned. The tutor threatened to tell my parents, so I just decided I’d have to lie and say I’d completed all my assignments.”
“Son, that’s an awakening story I’m embarrassed to hear no matter how many times I do.”
“Well, Mother, in any case the result was successful. So there I was, telling my tutor again and again that I’d finished the homework from last time. And at some point, I realized I was actually using the Ability.”
“What emotion did you feel at that moment?”
“It’s a bit awkward to say, but… I felt like I needed to push through with it.”
The Second Prince answered somewhat sheepishly.
From those words, I gleaned a hint. ‘Push through with it’….
—In my case, I felt an intense sense of responsibility to protect.
Sedrian’s Oath required a sense of responsibility.
What House of Kallierd needed was that push to persist—perhaps what you might call ‘brazenness’….
Which meant the Kallierd daughter, with her low self-esteem, had good reason not to have awakened until now.
The moment I grasped something, I turned my head directly toward the Kallierd daughter.
“Well, the truth is, I’ve found the real daughter. You saw the evidence and confirmed it before coming here, didn’t you, Miss Kallierd?”
“What?”
“What did you say?”
“Pardon?”
While everyone displayed shock, I spoke with complete assurance.
“I now introduce Susanna, the real daughter.”
“What?!”
Susanna herself jumped up from her seat in even greater shock.
“What are you talking about, Guild Master? My parents, no—mph!”
After covering Susanna’s mouth, I continued speaking with utter audacity.
“Miss Kallierd, you confirmed the evidence before coming here, didn’t you?”
“Evidence? When did I ever….”
While the members of House of Kallierd froze, the daughter fumbled for words.
“The evidence I confirmed was surely not that. In fact, it was the opposite—I, that is….”
“Pardon? Don’t you remember what I showed you? Should I go fetch it again?”
“That’s not it… though I only have a memory capable of retaining everything I’ve seen three times, the evidence I saw and heard was not that….”
The Kallierd daughter still spoke without recovering her confidence.
But instead of agreeing with her words, I pressed desperately forward with the act.
Geo-seong, lend me your strength!
“Boss, you said in that drink session that you’d give the performance bonus this month, didn’t you?”
“Huh? Are you drunk? What nonsense is this?”
“Boss, you never gave that work directive…!”
“What are you talking about—I never omitted anything! You must have misread it!”
I continued speaking with an utterly shameless smile on my face.
“Ah, you mentioned feeling a bit dizzy earlier, so it seems you didn’t read the evidence properly. But it’s evidence that even you yourself acknowledged as clear and accurate.”
“But I never did any such thing….”
“What exactly are you doing right now?”
The First Prince tried to step in, but Sedrick exchanged a meaningful glance with him.
At that, the family seemed to grasp something and fell silent. Indeed, they were all quick to pick up on things. Or perhaps they’d sensed it instinctively all along.
“Well then, Agent Susanna. Congratulations on joining House of Kallierd!”
“Mmph!”
Susanna, still struggling with my hand clamped over her mouth, thrashed about, but at those words, tears began to gather in the daughter’s eyes.
“The evidence I saw clearly….”
“Agent Susanna, do well here from now on~. May you live long and happily~.”
“Mmph!”
“No!”
At that moment, the Kallierd daughter shot to her feet.
“You made me look like a fool, and it’s so unfair! That never happened!”
At the same instant, my vision turned white. What? What is this?
“It definitely did! That I’m the real daughter! That I have the evidence!”
My head throbbed. What had I been saying again, so that….
“No, I have to be her real daughter. Everyone told me that…. So… all the Guild members!”
I slowly closed my eyes, then opened them.
When I came to my senses, Morian and Susanna were nodding their heads.
“That’s right, Miss. You’re definitely her real daughter.”
“Right. I heard it too.”
Their eyes were completely entranced by something.
Hmm, but what’s the problem? It’s the truth.
I nodded as well.
“That’s right. All of our Guild members acknowledged it. That you’re her real daughter….”
Why was I suddenly saying something so obvious? I had proclaimed it before all the Guild members myself.
But strangely, the people of House of Kallierd suddenly rose from their seats.
“That orange light is…!”
“No doubt about it, definitely!”
“Impossible! That’s the Ability of Falsehood!”
“That means….”
The Marchioness Kallierd declared in a trembling voice.
“I found her at last, my baby…. She was here beside me from the beginning, and like a fool, I didn’t even see it….”

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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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