How to Survive in a Good Small Guild - Chapter 69

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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 69
“Wait, is that… actually allowed?”
“What, you mean we’re supposed to knock them out with brute force?”
The other Intermediate Priests seemed taken aback.
But Etienne burst out laughing.
“Ha-ha-ha! Bwahahaha!”
He laughed with such delight that tears welled up in his eyes, then nodded vigorously.
“That was magnificent! Absolutely entertaining!”
“Thank you.”
“In any case, only one person survived the trial and made their opponent fall — that counts as a pass.”
As expected, the ambiguous parts came down to the High Priest’s discretion.
And Etienne seemed to be getting considerable enjoyment from my actions. True to someone working in the Temple, his sense of humor was thoroughly unhinged.
“Say, would you like me to teach you a funny joke?”
I seized the moment and spoke quickly to Etienne.
“If a king falls over? King Kong.”
“Ha-ha-ha! Slandering the royal family! I love it!”
Etienne was even more delighted by the joke mocking the royal bloodline.
“Excellent — Odret Lavendel passes! You’ll hold your Intermediate Priest promotion ceremony tomorrow!”
“Thank you.”
And so I became an Intermediate Priest.
***
After the trial ended, the clash between me and Ans, the Junior Priest, naturally became the hot topic.
“That was truly remarkable.”
“She’s completely mad.”
“That’s the kind of talent our Temple needs.”
As everyone praised me, I confidently left the testing ground.
“Sister, sister!”
Then I heard a voice calling out from behind, catching hold of me.
I turned to see Stella standing there.
“Sister, you were so fun! Maybe you could even become a High Priest!”
“Yeah, thanks.”
I thought of the Stella from the original story.
The original was set a few months ahead of this point, where Stella thought something was wrong with this place and wanted to leave — but it seemed she hadn’t sensed anything amiss yet.
When she meets Princess Kalliard later, she gets help from her… but for now, she hadn’t noticed the strangeness of Temple life.
If Stella were to open her heart to me, maybe I could help her escape. She’d gathered a lot of information in secret, so she’d be useful.
“I’m going to become someone as wonderful as you.”
Stella said that instead. And she uttered something shocking for a child to say.
“Or I might get abandoned!”
“…….”
“…You knew?”
I thought she wouldn’t know at this point in time.
“Knew what? Oh!”
Stella answered brightly with a smile.
“That I’m not the High Priest’s real daughter? Of course I know!”
“…….”
Stella wasn’t the High Priest’s biological daughter — she was a child he’d adopted from an orphanage to use as he saw fit.
“Heh, I know it too.”
Stella spoke matter-of-factly.
“Right now the High Priest treats me like his daughter because I seem talented, but if I lose my ability… I’ll be abandoned, right? Until I prove my worth, I’ll have to keep taking missions.”
“…….”
“So I’ll never get abandoned. I’ll definitely show them how strong I am!”
This was one of the reasons Stella ran away in the original story. She’d learned the Temple was strange, and she’d come to realize she could never earn its approval.
“But the ability you’re talking about…”
“Oh, the Temple’s objective. Since you’re an Intermediate Priest now, you’ll find out soon anyway. Others will explain it to you shortly.”
“Please tell me, Stella. What is the Temple’s objective?”
Wasn’t it simply to bring down the Imperial Palace and House Kalliard, and seize control of the entire empire?
“Well, that’s obviously…”
Stella seemed pleased to be sharing something with me.
But what came from her mouth was a bombshell revelation.
“That’s to bring the Prophet down into this world!”
“What did you just say?!”
For a moment, I felt as though my eyes might burst from their sockets.
What on earth was she talking about? Summoning the Prophet?
But the Prophet was… Park Geo-seong!
“So we’ll summon the Prophet and advance the Temple even further!”
Wait, they can just do that?
In other novels I’d read, the Temple’s final goal was always something like eternal life, immortality, resurrection, or summoning an evil deity—something grand like that.
And here, the Temple’s goal was summoning Park Geo-seong, some middle-aged nobody with a beer belly?
Can they really do that? Who reads novels like this? …Well, I’ve read it, but the original story never had anything like this!
“Haha, I really hope the Prophet gets summoned! For that to happen, the High Priest’s miracles need to grow even stronger!”
So all this time, they’d been making sacrifices just to summon Park Geo-seong….
“Ah….”
I staggered backward, putting distance between myself and Stella.
Truly, as I’d always felt, the Temple in this world had completely lost its mind.
***
“I passed the Intermediate Priest promotion examination.”
When Sedrian arrived that evening and I told him exactly that, he practically leaped with joy.
“I’ve been so worried. You weren’t injured?”
“No, in fact I passed the exam in record time. Thanks to that, it wasn’t particularly difficult.”
“Even so… I was quite concerned.”
As I kept my expression composed, Sedrian spoke as though he were the one more anxious about it all.
“Then, once you’ve identified the Temple’s weaknesses and brought it down, is there anything you’d like to do after? Whatever it is, I can make it happen for you.”
“Hmm, wealth and status?”
“Would that suffice?”
“That would be quite important, yes.”
In some novels I’d read, the heroine and hero abandoned wealth and status at the end, choosing to live happily together in obscurity. That wasn’t what I wanted.
I wanted to enjoy wealth and status, to live grandly and without worry!
“Is there anything else?”
“Hmm….”
I gave a slight shrug.
“Truly, that’s all there is.”
“Then once the Temple matter is resolved, there’s nothing else you wish to pursue? Something you’ve been too busy to do all this time, perhaps?”
“Oh, I would like to travel. I’ve never left the Capital before. It might be nice to take a group trip with my guild members—a team workshop of sorts!”
“Is that so? You seem quite attached to your guild members.”
“Of course. They’re all capable people.”
Sedrian seemed very interested in my guild members. Was he concerned about spies? To assure him of their trustworthiness, I spoke quickly.
“First, my deputy Susanna was once my peer. Though we had some friction early on, from a certain point she began following my leadership. She’s especially talented at reading trends.”
“That makes sense. Your leadership is quite exceptional.”
“You know of my leadership?”
“I meant it seems that way.”
“I see. And my deputy Morian—I selected him personally. He has a bit of swagger and likes to boast, but his abilities are genuine. He’s never failed at any task I’ve given him.”
“And?”
“Finally, my chief Sedrick… I pay more attention to him than the others.”
“Why is that?”
“As someone entering the workforce for the first time, I worry about him. Since our guild is essentially his first job, I want it to be a good experience for him. More than anything, unlike Susanna or Morian, he’s not very skilled at workplace politics, so I’m concerned he might be taken advantage of.”
“Er, workplace politics?”
Oh no—that was far too crude a phrase to use in front of the Crown Prince.
“I apologize. Please disregard what I just said.”
“No, wait. This chief named Sedrick can’t do politics?”
“It’s not politics exactly, but workplace politics—it’s something different….”
“That’s nonsense.”
“Oh, could there be a problem?”
“No, it’s just… I’ve never heard that term before, so I found it curious.”
Even after that, Sedrian seemed somewhat taken aback for the rest of our conversation.
Perhaps he was flustered by my crude expression of what should be a noble pursuit. I’d have to be more careful next time.
“In any case, tomorrow is my Intermediate Priest promotion ceremony. Once that’s done, I’ll have access to more information, so I’ll be able to help you even further!”
“…Yes, I’m always grateful. You’re truly precious to me, Odret.”
“Haha, and I’m always thankful for your help too. Isn’t this what you’d call mutual benefit?”
I smiled brightly as I spoke.
“To help you, Sedrian, I’ll urge our guild members to work even harder!”
“…Very well.”
Sedrian’s expression darkened abruptly.
“I, I seem to need to wake early tomorrow, so I should take my leave now.”
“Yes? Yes….”
The duties of Crown Prince certainly did seem quite demanding.
That busy demeanor—I should set a good example so our guild members can learn from it too!

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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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