Home/How to Survive in a Good Small Guild/ch 2

Chapter 2

"Senior Staff Odrette, why are you smiling so slyly like that?"

"Haha! She must be excited about the meeting with me!"

No matter what nonsense the guild members spouted, I focused on my own work.

Putting aside the mountain of tasks piled up in front of me, the first thing I set out to do was figure out which romance-fantasy world this was.

Fortunately, since it was an information guild, there were plenty of newspapers, making it easy to gather intel.

As a result, I discovered the original story of this world.

This world is from <The Villain Duke's Daughter Saves the Kingdom>.

It was a novel I'd read casually to kill time, and luckily, I'd read it recently enough that the contents were still fresh in my mind.

It started as a childcare-themed story and unfolded until the heroine came of age. Roughly speaking, the protagonist was adopted by a fearsome duke... and later discovers she's actually his long-lost biological daughter.

In this kingdom, three powers—the Imperial Family, the Temple, and the House of Duke Kaliad—each possess special abilities and maintain a balance of power. The heroine belongs to the House of Kaliad.

But honestly, isn't it a bit unbalanced for a duke's house to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Imperial Family and the Temple?

I wondered why no rebellion had broken out in this world, but I decided to just accept this flimsy world-building anyway...

From piecing together the newspaper articles, it seemed the heroine hadn't yet come of age or made her debutante debut. The romance arc with the crown prince probably hadn't started yet—instead, the family-focused childcare plot was likely underway.

Later, the heroine would fall in love with the crown prince, join hands with the Imperial Family, and drive out the Temple—the corrupt faction among the three powers.

I feel like I've seen the name Odrette somewhere, but also not.

Was she an extra? As I pondered this, I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"Senior Staff Odrette, can you help me out?"

"With what?"

Susanna stood behind me with a grin. Hmm, whenever she smiles like that, something bad always happens...

"We've got a visitor!"

"Oh, okay..."

As the name suggests, <Global Information Network Guild> was a no-name trash guild.

Still, occasionally we got small requests, like tracking down cheating partners.

"How about Senior Staff Odrette takes on this task?"

"Why me?"

"Oh, my stomach hurts so much today..."

Susanna put on an act so obvious anyone could see through it. But instead of telling her to do it herself, I paused to think.

Even though Susanna and I joined at the same time, she'd curried favor with the Guild Master and had a relatively good relationship with him. I wasn't in a position to clash with her yet.

"How about asking the Assistant Manager for help? I'm still a newbie, so I don't know much either."

"The Assistant Manager went out for a smoke and hasn't come back for an hour!"

Ugh, seriously. Our Assistant Manager was a passion-filled villain who also happened to spend three hours a day smoking.

Feeling my blood boil, I asked Susanna.

"What kind of visitor is it?"

"Hmm, at first glance, he was wearing a black hood pulled low so I couldn't see his face at all. He had several cheap gemstone rings on his fingers, so he just looked like some nouveau riche."

"......!"

Wait, I think I know this person?

I recalled the description of the crown prince from the original story.

He wore multiple rings made of low-quality gems. I tilted my head and asked.

"Your Highness, why are you wearing rings like that?"

"Oh, it's nothing. Just items."

Someone matching the crown prince's description had appeared? That couldn't be a coincidence, could it?

If the crown prince were to visit an information guild at this point in the story...

"I've come all the way to a neighborhood detective agency just to find you."

The crown prince had received help from the heroine before her debutante, and he was searching for her to repay that favor—because at the time, the heroine had been hiding her identity.

That's it!

The crown prince had come all the way to our information guild to find the original story's heroine!

Just like a romance-fantasy heroine who's possessed someone, I was forming connections with powerful people! I needed to build my network quickly.

With that thought, I played the part of the naive Odrette and said to Susanna.

"Okay... I'll do it."

"Oh my, really! Thank you!"

Susanna fluttered her hands and returned to her seat. I suppressed the smile threatening to escape and moved to the next room.

This tiny building consisted of just two rooms: the office where we worked, and the reception room for visitors.

Oh, and for the record, we had to use the restroom in the building next door. Ha ha, what a crazy trash company this is.

As I opened the door to the reception room, I saw a man sitting there with his hood pulled low.

"Hello, customer..."

I sat down across from him and greeted him.

"Would you like something to drink?"

"Do you have anything to drink?"

"There are tea bags in the office, but I have to pay for them out of my own pocket, so honestly, I'd recommend you don't have any..."

"...Understood. I'll pass."

"So, what brings you here?"

"...I'm looking for someone."

He hesitated before speaking.

"Honestly, I don't expect a small guild like this to find her, but my situation is urgent enough that I've come even to a place like this."

"Yes, go ahead. It might be something we can handle."

"I'm looking for a woman."

Finally, the words I'd been expecting came out of his mouth.

"She had black hair and black eyes. There was a large scar on her neck, and she was said to be mute from an injury. She claimed to be a maid of a noble house, but that seemed like a lie. Her hands had no calluses at all."

"Yes, and?"

"Now that I think about it, the injury to her neck was probably a lie to hide her voice too. The scar was likely fabricated as well."

"Where did you meet her?"

"...In the Alail Forest on the outskirts of the capital. It was hardly a place for people, but she suddenly appeared from somewhere."

Perfect. This was exactly the meeting between the heroine and the male lead I'd seen in the original story.

At that time, the crown prince had been poisoned by the Temple's scheme and was dying in the forest when the heroine saved him.

I could immediately identify who the crown prince was looking for, but the key here was to figure it out naturally. I couldn't seem suspicious.

"When was this?"

"Mid-August last year."

"Ah, I see..."

I twirled the pen in my hand. To naturally connect this to the heroine...

"You haven't been able to find her through other major information guilds either, right?"

"...I didn't visit those places."

"Why not? Our guild is just a small place that handles cheating cases."

"I have my personal reasons, so don't ask."

"Understood... Agh!"

Suddenly, something struck me and I screamed. Oh no!

I'd read the original story casually to kill time and had forgotten, but now I remembered Odrette's role!

"Hello, I'm Odrette. What can I help you with?"

"I'm looking for someone..."

"Yes, understood. I'll do my best."

In the original story, Odrette appeared as "Extra 1 from the information guild the crown prince commissioned."

"Customer, I've brought you some reliable information."

At first, Odrette brought the crown prince some fairly useful intel. Thanks to that, the crown prince trusted her and entrusted her with information-gathering tasks.

However...

"Something's wrong. Someone is leaking our information."

"Your Highness, I'll set a trap this time. I'll feed different information to everyone and see who the culprit is."

"What? That information guild was a puppet of the Temple?"

"I never imagined they'd take over even such a small guild, but that information guild itself was a subcontractor for the Temple."

That's right. Earlier, the Guild Master had called this trash information guild a "subcontractor," and the prime contractor assigning us work was none other than the Temple—the final boss and villain of this world!

Damn it! Even when I possess someone, I end up on the Temple's side!

In romance fantasies, it's rarer for a temple to be decent! They're almost always corrupt and evil organizations!

If I'd actively participated in their crimes, it'd be one thing—but I was just following orders for a paycheck!

So what happened to Odrette Lavendel, who leaked information in the original story...?

"No, I had no choice...!"

Haha, I think she ended up rotting in prison?

My face turned pale as I recalled this much. I couldn't end up in prison like that.

Should I just leave this guild after all?

Even if I had knowledge of the original story, it was meaningless as long as I belonged to this Global-Whatever Information Guild.

Since the guild itself was a subcontractor for the Temple, as long as I was here, I was classified as being on the villain's side.

Then, a good idea struck me.

What if I offered to become a double agent for the crown prince instead?

After all, the crown prince was the male lead, destined to defeat the Temple—our prime contractor. Wouldn't it be better to side with him?

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