How to Survive in a Good Small Guild - Chapter 7

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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 7
“…Very well.”
At last, having gathered his thoughts, the Crown Prince rose and stood before me.
“Speak your name and the terms of your oath.”
As he laid a hand upon my head, golden light streamed from his palm.
“I, Odrett Lavendel, swear that I stand in opposition to the Temple. I, Odrett Lavendel, swear that I wish to see the Temple destroyed. I, Odrett Lavendel, swear that to this end I shall lend my utmost efforts and cooperation to Your Highness before me.”
“What do you stake upon this oath?”
“I stake my very life upon this swearing.”
……!
He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and answered.
“Your oath is accepted.”
At last the light faded.
This meant my oath was true. For if I had sworn falsely, my life would have been forfeit.
The Crown Prince regarded me with a look of amazement.
“So you truly will cooperate with me.”
“Yes, Your Highness. I will bring you all the information necessary to see the Temple destroyed.”
“…It is settled.”
I smiled reflexively. With that, I had become entirely his instrument.
I had never wanted to meddle in the original story, truth be told. But what the Temple was doing—I simply could not endure it.
Daring to make me work overnight? Those bastards deserve the full weight of labor law brought down upon them!
“Then I shall be in touch soon.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
After answering the Crown Prince with proper courtesy, I turned my thoughts to what came next.
Well, then…
Should I bring this Guild under my control first?
***
“Come now, let’s give it everything we’ve got today!”
The Deputy Manager bellowed as he arrived at work.
“Odrett! Why are you looking so down? Come on, come on! Buck up!”
Go ahead and laugh while you can. Today is the last time you’ll be coming to work anyway.
I stared at the stack of papers and items piled on the Deputy Manager’s desk. True to his nature as an enthusiasm villain, the space was perpetually cluttered.
Masses of sticky notes, several notebooks, cigarettes… and even a mirror to catch sight of the Guild Master approaching. So he’d learned plenty from his time in this wretched Guild.
Yet something else had caught my attention these past few days.

Unlike Susanna, who was a writer of emotional essays, the Deputy Manager favored self-help economics books. Chiefly they advised not to squander even ten minutes, to work hard, show “elbow grease,” and hustle one’s way to money.
“Why has Susanna been so quiet lately?”
“Yes, yes?”
When the Deputy Manager suddenly spoke, Susanna flinched.
“What’s this? Why are you calculating the ledger by hand? Why aren’t you using a calculator?”
“Ah-ha-ha… A calculator is just so unreliable, you know….”
“What are you talking about? I’m telling you, Susanna, sometimes you seem a little off.”
I could feel Susanna’s sharp gaze directed at me, but I dismissed it lightly. Let her pay the price for all the grief she’d caused me.
Once the conversation with Susanna ended, the Deputy Manager began speaking to me.
“Odrett, why have you been leaving so early lately?”
“Ah, have I?”
“Yeah, let’s do some overtime today! We used to do it all the time together, remember?”
He lied to present himself to the Guild Master as a conscientious employee willing to work late. I regarded him steadily for a moment, then opened my mouth.
“Of course, Deputy Manager. We’ve done overtime together quite often.”
“Huh? Well, yes…?”
“But I worry about you so much. Your body must be tired. How about from now on you cut back on the overtime a bit?”
“Ha-ha, when you’re still young, without passion you’re just a corpse. Tired? What do you mean, tired….”
“But you do the Carriage Washing Station job during the day, and then you work at the Inn in the evening after you leave here. You’re doing far too much work. I’m afraid you’ll collapse.”
“What? What?”
His pupils began to shake.
“What are you saying? That I work side jobs?”
“What do you mean what? You told me yourself last time. How you go smoke for three hours during the day—that you were actually going to your job at the Carriage Washing Station.”
……!
“And you always dash out at six o’clock to leave work, just to line it up perfectly with your evening shift at the inn, don’t you?”
The Guild Master was a typical old-school type—he despised anyone who didn’t engage in company work with a sense of ownership, anyone whose eyes wandered elsewhere.
An evening shift at an inn was something he could get angry about and let slide, but taking three-hour breaks during daytime work to do carriage washing under the pretense of smoking was a breach of contract. It was grounds enough for termination.
To investigate, I’d tailed the Deputy Manager diligently for several days. I’d thought it odd that he smoked for three hours straight, and sure enough—he’d been sneaking off for side work during that time and returning.
“A side job? What are you talking about?”
The Guild Master, sensing the conversation had taken an unusual turn, interjected.
“Is what you’re saying true, Odrett?”
“No, absolutely not! Odrett is framing me!”
“Why would I frame you? I’m only concerned about your health,” I said, pressing on cheerfully.
I continued, talking my head off.
“There’s a Carriage Washing Station right over there. Why don’t you go check if the Deputy Manager is actually working there? Oh, should I call one of their staff over here? Guild Master, please do look after the Deputy Manager’s wellbeing!”
“This… this can’t be…”
Fury flickered in the Guild Master’s eyes.
“So you’ve been pretending loyalty to our guild while juggling not two jobs, but three?”
“No, no, Guild Master!”
“You’d better confess before I visit that Carriage Washing Station myself.”
At that point, the Deputy Manager had no choice but to come clean.
“G-Guild Master! My circumstances were just too difficult! I have a sick mother and a wife and children at home!”
“What nonsense? You’re not even married, and didn’t you say your mother passed away some time ago?”
“Ah, well, my situation was simply too dire!”
“Stop your lies! I trusted you, and you betray me like this?”
His words dripped with the indignation of a textbook curmudgeon.
“The guild is your home! You should be grateful for every meal! The moment you open your eyes in the morning, you should think of guild work—and at night before sleep, you should be thinking of the guild too! How dare you scatter your mental energy on other pursuits?”
I exchanged a look with Susanna—a look that said: how could anyone possibly think about the guild while sleeping? She sent back a look that said she had no idea either.
“Young people these days think their own bodies matter more than the company! In my day, even starving myself half to death, I gave total loyalty! When I was your age, I worked thirty-six hours a day and never gave a glance to anything outside the main job! You wretch—what does the guild mean to you?!”
I shot Susanna another look—this one asking how anyone could possibly work thirty-six hours in a day. She returned an expression that plainly said she still didn’t understand.
“This is a betrayal of our guild! A betrayal!”
His fury finally reached its crescendo. He began hurling the papers he’d been holding at the Deputy Manager.
“You’re fired from this guild!”
“G-Guild Master! About unemployment benefits—”
“This guild operates with fewer than five employees, so that doesn’t apply!”
A choked sound escaped him.
The Deputy Manager was driven out by the enraged Guild Master, his exit pathetically anticlimactic. The Guild Master, still fuming, declared he couldn’t work in this state and left early himself.
“Wow, truly impressive, sir… that skill for sending people away…”
Susanna directed some comment my way—whether flattery or appeasement, I couldn’t quite tell.
“Be careful, Susanna. You never know when you might be next.”
“O-of course… today I calculated a four-digit multiplication without a calculator, you see.”
“You’re doing very well.”
Susanna seemed to mutter something unflattering under her breath, but I let that slide.
In the quiet office, my thoughts turned to what lay ahead.
With the Deputy Manager gone, the Guild Master would be looking to hire someone new. Ideally, it would be someone I could manipulate easily—someone useful, someone on my side.

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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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