My Disciples Became Scoundrels - Chapter 108

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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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The staff member hesitated before answering. In that instant, cold air suddenly flooded the space.
White breath began seeping from his lips. The staff member looked at Arkel in protest.
“Please, if you’d lower the temperature…….”
“I can’t control it. It’s just how I’m made.”
When had Arkel become capable of such brazen excuses? It seemed like Bella’s influence, somehow.
The staff member finally took a step back.
“……I’ll discuss it with my superiors. The amount is quite large, you see.”
The room warmed up at last. Truth be told, I was cold too—good timing. Since my resurrection, I’ve been weaker to the cold.
The money issue was roughly settled. But there was a more pressing problem.
“And I’ve submitted a request for promotion. You should have met the criteria by now.”
I’d been accepting dangerous requests frequently in the meantime. The eradication of Crimson Red should count for something in the evaluation.
The staff member narrowed his eyes at me.
“The criteria are met, but there are no vacancies at the Gold Rank.”
……So this was what would hold me back.
From Gold Rank and above, there’s a limit on the number of groups. And it’s already full.
Arkel looked at the staff member. It was cold. The staff member flinched and hurried on.
“You’ll have to wait until the rank adjustment in three months. If a vacancy opens up, I’ll contact you.”
The staff member looked at Arkel urgently.
“Could you please take him out of here now?”
The glass windows were beginning to frost over. I left word to contact me as soon as possible, then dragged Arkel out.
We left the reception room, but I felt frustrated. Three months was too tight a schedule. Arkel looked at me intently. The temperature around us rose slightly.
“Three months is too long. Shall we create a vacancy in the Gold Rank right now?”
“How?”
“If someone gets demoted or disappears, a vacancy will open up.”
If they all die, a vacancy will certainly appear. But I can’t watch my student be dragged away for mass murder.
“Let’s try another way. First, I’ll negotiate with one of the Gold Rank groups…….”
“Just because you’re Gold Rank, Merlin, doesn’t mean you have the right to be disrespectful!”
A sharp voice rang out. It was a familiar voice.
Wondering what was happening, I headed toward the Management Bureau lobby. People were gathered there. Two people were arguing.
One of them was Cassian. The vice-guildmaster of the Twilight Swallow Nest Guild.
He looked quite angry. The other person was also a familiar face.
“A guild that failed at providing support has no right to say such things. And yet you still demand full payment.”
It was the man who had followed the lady from House Morvan at the ball. The one who’d been bitten by the black panther.
Was his name Merlin? Cassian barely suppressed his furious tone.
“We fulfilled the contract. Pay what’s owed, Merlin.”
“I knew investigators could be rough, but I didn’t know they lacked shame entirely.”
Merlin regarded his opponent with arrogance.
“Swordsmanship alone won’t put food on the table. That’s why we hired you in the first place—and yet you don’t know your place.”
I looked at Merlin. Come to think of it, his guild was Gold Rank.
I understood the situation well enough; I just needed to find the right moment to intervene. I watched them from among the onlookers for a moment.
“The Swallow Nest’s support was subpar. You know it yourself—everyone except you was below standard.”
Cassian lost his words for a moment. It was probably true.
The guild members of the Swallow Nest were Silver Rank or below. Cassian alone was carrying the group’s standard.
He was like a white heron among a flock of crows. The problem was that the heron cared for the crows.
“Your guild’s job was to hold the line while we assembled the party. Your guild members failed at that task.”
“……But in the end, the dungeon was conquered successfully, wasn’t it?”
“Ha! This is exactly why I didn’t want to associate with blade-wielders. Hot-headed and ignorant.”
It was the kind of statement nobles would make. There was a high probability he actually was one.
Merlin elegantly covered his mouth with his hand. Only his eyes were visible above the sleeve edge that hid his lower face.
“If your upbringing fails you, you should at least have shame. Of course, if your bloodline were superior, you wouldn’t have needed to learn martial arts in the first place.”
The expressions of the onlookers changed. They were people carrying weapons—swords, spears, and the like.
Though Merlin had made enemies of many in the crowd, he didn’t seem to care. As if to say, what could these wretches possibly do?
In fact, several were sending favorable glances toward Merlin. The way nobles support other nobles.
Merlin was right—Magic, to some extent, could only be wielded by those born with superior bloodlines.
Those without exceptional bloodline, or those lacking in magical power—such people chose physical weapons instead.
I took a step forward through the crowd. I needed a Gold Rank vacancy anyway, but…….
Before the family called Balanus came into my life, all I had at my side was a single sword.
With no bloodline, no background—I had always had my sword beside me. We crossed the line of death together, stained with blood.
In a sense, the sword was my companion. I couldn’t let an insult to my companion pass.
As I drew closer, Merlin’s brow furrowed.
“……Balanus Domus. What brings you here?”
The moment the name Balanus was spoken, the onlookers’ expressions shifted. Their gazes were far from welcoming.
“Is that the Acorn Domus? The ones who raided the Black Jade Guild……?”
“Yes. Those very squirrels who came after Black Jade.”
Several of them glanced at the Acorn Necklaces hanging around Arkel’s neck and mine.
Compared to Black Jade, we probably did look like squirrels. And yet, even as they called us that, their eyes held the wariness they’d reserve for monsters.
It didn’t matter much. I ignored their words and stepped before Merlin.
“As a fellow swordsman, I couldn’t let certain remarks pass.”
“Are they untrue? How many swordsmen carry blood that isn’t inferior?”
“What does ‘inferior blood’ even mean in the first place? Does it simply mean weakness?”
I gripped the hilt of my sword steadily.
“Among swordsmen who’ve survived with nothing but a blade and no bloodline backing them, there are no weaklings.”
A sharp crack split the air.
I let my Blood Energy ripple outward, no longer contained. The air around us grew heavy in an instant. I watched the onlookers instinctively retreat.
Merlin belatedly released his own aura, but it fell short—a dull thing, lacking the edge that marked those who’d danced along the edge of death.
I spoke through the undulating Blood Energy.
“If you mean to claim superiority, Merlin, prove it with blood.”
He couldn’t possibly have missed the invitation to fight. As he hesitated, Merlin’s attendants carefully intervened.
“……Guild Master Merlin. You have another appointment.”
Fighting here would gain them nothing. A Gold Rank brawling with a Silver Rank would be beneath their dignity.
Being underestimated had its uses. In the end, Merlin withdrew.
“……Insane squirrels, the lot of you.”
If they were fleeing from squirrels, what manner of creature were they?
Once Merlin left, the spectators dispersed one by one. Only Cassian remained in the now-empty lobby. He cleared his throat.
“You didn’t need to step in for my sake.”
“I wasn’t helping you in particular. I simply couldn’t stand by as a swordsman.”
“……So Dein Balanus’s son truly is different.”
Right. This one did hold me in some regard. I ought to press him for information while I had the chance.
“What guild does that Merlin belong to?”
“The Fourth Eye. It’s where the mages gather.”
“It seems they haven’t been paid for their commission.”
“Yes. The Fourth Eye appears to be facing some financial difficulties.”
Financial difficulties. It brought to mind the fact that they’d failed to secure the support of their noble patron. And how desperately Merlin had clung to her despite being treated poorly.
Cassian glanced at his companion. He seemed to have his own business to attend to. He gave a light nod of acknowledgment.
“I’ve no love for Balanus, but today—your conduct as a swordsman—I won’t forget it.”
A polite young man. Even if his relations with Cesare weren’t good.
We left the Management Bureau. On the walk home, I fell into thought.
“Since the Fourth Eye is desperate for funds, let’s make use of that.”
Arkel stiffened.
“Surely you’re not thinking of buying a Rank Adjustment?”
“No. I simply don’t want to do anything that would help Merlin. I’d rather not go crawling to him first, either.”
I had no desire to spend money, and besides—with that personality of his, he wouldn’t accept a straightforward transaction anyway.
And I had no wish to be the one seeking him out and bowing. Kalan might be different.
“Let’s make him come to us instead.”
There are certain offers in this world that cannot be refused. Especially when one is drowning in debt.
* * *
Merlin, the Guild Master of the Fourth Eye, was in a dismal state these days.
In the guild building’s office, he stared endlessly at the ledger before him.
The Accountant standing beside him finally broke the silence.
“Guild Master, we’re running a deficit.”
“…….”
“Payday is coming up soon, as you know.”
A guild is a profit-seeking enterprise. Which meant salaries went out every single month.
The Domus might operate on devotion without compensation, but guilds were different. If he didn’t pay his members, they’d leave.
He glanced at the Accountant.
“If we just delay salaries by one month…….”
“I always keep my resignation letter close at hand, Guild Master.”
“You came to the guild to make money?”
“Of course I did.”
“Do you think you’d receive treatment like this anywhere else? I keep you around because you’re here.”
Merlin bit his lip. No matter how many years they’d worked together, the Accountant was still an outsider at heart.
‘Damn it. Now that the patrons have dried up, I can’t cover expenses with commission alone.’
He’d lost the Morvan Lady—a colossal patron. After that, he’d managed to connect with a few aristocratic patrons here and there, but they never lasted.
Ever since losing to Balanus at the Hunt Festival, his reputation had plummeted. That moment marked the beginning of his decline.
‘If not for Balanus. I could have kept the Morvan Lady’s patronage.’
Just as Merlin was wracking his brain for sources of income, one of his guild members brought him a letter.
“A letter has arrived from House Morvan.”
“What?!”
Merlin tore open the envelope eagerly. The neat handwriting belonged to the Morvan Lady.
[I am currently seeking new patrons to support. I do hope you will attend our tea gathering.]
Had the capricious lady’s feelings shifted? Had she perhaps grown tired of Balanus?
Merlin sent back his acceptance immediately. He couldn’t afford to miss this opportunity.
And so the day of the tea gathering arrived.
Merlin had groomed himself as impeccably as possible. He couldn’t risk making even the slightest bad impression on the lady.
He entered the grand mansion. This time, he promised himself, he would win her favor—but the moment he stepped into the dining room, his breath caught.
“You’re the last to arrive, Merlin.”
The lady greeted him warmly. But Merlin couldn’t respond immediately. Because of the people in the dining room.
Several figures sat along a long table. Six guests. Familiar faces. Faces bearing an unmistakable aura of danger.
‘All of them Gold Rank guild masters except for one?’
Dein sat among the Gold Ranks, positioned at the lady’s right hand.
He was sipping his tea with unhurried composure. The lady spoke with radiant cheer.
“Thank Dein, everyone. He’s the one who suggested I invite all of you.”

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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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