How to Survive in a Good Small Guild - Chapter 63

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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-Scale Guild
Chapter 63
“Your Highness, what are you doing here?”
It was the first thing the Duke said upon arriving at the empty room, having requested a private audience.
Sedrian sighed and removed the watch from his wrist—a device that obscured facial recognition and shifted his eye color to brown.
“How did you know?”
“Just now, you alone were unaffected by the Falsehood Ability. There’s only one way to counter it: possessing the Oath Ability. But why have you come here?”
First Marquis Heindel, and now Duke Kalliard.
“I had some personal business to attend to.”
“Are you perhaps surveilling my house?”
Sedrian answered at once, noting the suspicion in Duke Kalliard’s voice.
“I have no interest in the Kalliard Duchy. What interests me is the Acrylite Guild. I became entangled with it quite unintentionally while working undercover there.”
“The Acrylite Guild, you say? Now that I think of it, they performed remarkably well—so that was all Your Highness’s doing.”
“No, that’s not it either.”
He would never dream of taking credit for Odret’s work.
“The one who’s truly exceptional is the Guild Master. As the Master of the Information Guild, she possesses far greater capabilities than I do.”
“Ah, I see….”
Yet Duke Kalliard’s eyes remained clouded with doubt.
“What exactly were you infiltrating that Acrylite Guild for? Is it something I’m not permitted to ask about?”
“…Initially, I had a purpose related to classified matters I couldn’t speak of, but that business is now concluded.”
Sedrian decided it was better to be forthright.
“Then why now….”
“Now it’s truly for personal reasons. You might say I’m experiencing what it’s like to be a laborer….”
Sedrian noticed the Duke’s expression shift to one of disbelief, but he didn’t bother pointing it out.
“This is suspicious. Most suspicious indeed….”
…….
Blast it. If this continued, rumors of his infiltration would spread through the nobility soon enough. He needed to quell Duke Kalliard’s suspicions quickly.
“Very well. I’ll tell you the truth, but you must keep this secret.”
Sedrian finally revealed the truth.
“It’s a purely personal, emotional reason.”
“An emotional reason?”
“That is to say, it pertains to the sort of feeling humans universally experience—something beyond one’s control—a romantic and fateful emotion….”
Somehow he was beginning to sound increasingly like Morian’s way of spinning a narrative.
Duke Kalliard’s expression shifted to one of bewilderment.
“Surely not the blonde woman who sat on the far right? It must be the Guild Master.”
…….
“I see….”
Now it was Duke Kalliard who looked flustered, as though he’d stumbled upon someone else’s love affair.
“…My apologies.”
“I didn’t wish to speak of it either.”
The air between them grew awkward.
“…In any case, I’m grateful for your assistance to my house in your capacity as a guild member, and furthermore….”
The Duke hesitated before continuing.
“Do your best…?”
…….
Somehow Duke Kalliard had suddenly become human. Sedrick left the Duke’s residence with his spirits somewhat dampened.
Then he spotted Odret waiting for him ahead. She had been looking this way with displeasure, but her expression brightened once she saw his face.
“You made it back safely!”
“Yes.”
“Thank goodness. Come back quickly!”
“Well….”
“Because there’s an absolutely enormous amount of work to do!”
“Yes, I do love work.”
It was nonsense by now, how many times over, yet somehow a smile played at his lips. Sedrian returned to where he belonged—at Odret’s side.
***
The weekend when I was finally to meet Sedrian had arrived.
To keep the secret from leaking, I waited in front of the Crown Prince Palace—not the main entrance, but where the servants who transport supplies pass through.
Soon, Eric appeared.
“Please follow me.”
“Yes.”
Eric guided me through a maze of corridors, and yet I couldn’t help noticing how he kept glancing back at me as we walked.
“Is there something you’d like to ask?” I said.
“Oh, no. It’s just… the Guild Master is fascinating, that’s all.”
“Hmm?”
“I mean… what sort of person are you, exactly… ah, never mind.”
……?
At last, we descended underground through the labyrinthine passages, and Sedrian emerged from the dim chamber ahead.
“Welcome, client.”
“Right. This way, then.”
We moved into another room, and I found myself facing something that looked like an interrogation chamber—a grim space where five men sat bound to chairs.
“Most of the high-ranking members who knew anything about the case were killed during the suppression. This is all we have left for interrogation.”
“Yes, thank you.”
As I stepped forward, they turned to look at me with a mixture of fear and resentment in their eyes.
“The case is already closed. What more do you want?”
“Damn it, we’ve said everything we know.”
“Quiet!”
I snapped the word out sharply, and they fell silent at once, glancing nervously at me. After all, they were the bound prisoners, and I held all the power in this room.
“You’ve all been sentenced to long-term imprisonment, haven’t you….”
I let my gaze sweep across them as I spoke.
“If you want any chance at early release for good behavior, you’d do well to cooperate quietly with the interrogation, wouldn’t you?”
…….
That seemed to have broken their spirit somewhat.
I studied the bound men slowly, one by one.
Physiognomy Technique No. 1—activate!
‘…They all just look brutish, frankly.’
Curse it. I still couldn’t match Park Geo-seong’s skill with this technique.
“I’ll interrogate this one separately,” I said.
I pointed roughly at the man sitting in the middle, and Sedrian caught Eric’s eye to have him moved. Questioning them separately meant they couldn’t coordinate their stories.
While Eric kept watch over the remaining prisoners, Sedrian and I proceeded to interrogate the one in isolation.
“One question: why did you deceive that low-ranking member?”
“I don’t even remember anymore! That was seventeen years ago…. Do you really think anything useful will come out of interrogating me now?”
It wasn’t entirely wrong reasoning. For something that happened seventeen years ago, we might never find precise evidence.
“Perhaps, but you ought to remember who was behind it.”
“I’ve told you a dozen times—there was no mastermind!”
If they’d actually known who was pulling the strings, they would have turned informant long ago and gotten their sentence reduced, rather than waste all these years in prison.
The fact that they’d survived at all was proof that they knew nothing of consequence.
So I’d approach from a different angle—what they could speak to.
“Doesn’t it strike you as odd? That only the high-ranking members died during the suppression?”
“What do you…!”
“Have you never wondered if there really was a mastermind? It’s quite convenient, isn’t it—only the low-ranking members, who knew almost nothing, survived? Those who have nothing to confess no matter how much you press them.”
…….
At my words, the man’s pupils flickered.
“Well… I suppose that’s true, but I really don’t know anything, and if I said something carelessly I might incur additional charges. But what could I possibly do about it?”
“What sort of work did you do as a low-ranking member?”
“Whatever they told me to do when committing crimes. And in the office… I’d make coffee.”
“What did you testify when you were arrested?”
“I memorized that statement by repeating it a hundred times back then.”
The low-ranking member spoke without much conviction, but I suspected the Imperial Palace and the Kalliard Duchy might have overlooked something in their investigation.
“A week before the kidnapping of the Duchess. Had no work, just sat around. Made coffee when told. Then six days with no visitors. The high-ranking members were away, so we did nothing. Then suddenly on the day itself, orders came to kidnap the Duchess and bring her in, and to watch her carefully. That’s all.”
“Is there any information you can glean from that?”
Sedrian leaned toward me and whispered quietly, but I went on to interrogate the other members in a similar fashion.
“What were you doing a week before?”
“I washed strawberries for a high-ranking member. Then I sat idle for six days. One day they suddenly ordered me to kidnap a noblewoman and bring her in.”
They had repeated their testimony so many times seventeen years ago that they had it memorized word-for-word. It matched exactly what Sedrian had shown me in the records.
But something struck me.
“Premium coffee and strawberries…. There must have been a visitor in the room where the high-ranking members were,” I said, turning to Sedrian.
I turned to face him fully.
“These are the sorts of things you only serve for important guests. We’re getting closer to a resolution for the Guild’s case….”
“You’re right. We should be able to solve the Guild’s matter soon enough.”
‘The Guild’s’…?
“It was a slip of the tongue.”
“……?”
Quite the sense of solidarity you have, I must say.

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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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