Home/How to Survive in a Good Small Guild/ch 37

Chapter 37

4. Big trouble—people are trapped in the company

"Work hard with a sense of ownership toward the organization..."

"Unnecessary chatter among colleagues is prohibited..."

Inside the room where intern priests were muttering and memorizing the scripture, I quietly glanced around.

It had been quite a while since I'd started coming to the Temple every weekend, but I'd never had a conversation with the other intern priests.

Because the lowest-ranked intern priests were forbidden from talking to their peers.

"What is the reason for prohibiting unnecessary chatter among colleagues?... Let's look at the model answer. Ah, because humans fall into corruption through language. Yes, as the old saying goes, the best part of the body is the tongue, and the worst part is also the tongue. Unnecessary conversation breeds seeds of distrust, which can lead to the collapse of the organization. Ultimately, we must understand the power of language."

As I could tell from overhearing the intern priest next to me muttering, the Temple was overinterpreting Park Geo-seong's essay.

It just means they don't like employees getting chummy and badmouthing the boss behind his back...

I stared blankly at the interpretation of the essay.

This was distributed to intern priests and contained the doctrines we had to memorize.

"Sigh..."

No one here to talk to, and the only places I could visit were the intern priest's office and the central museum.

That meant I had no information worth passing on to the Crown Prince.

Should I just tell him about the scripture next time we meet? But how do I explain it? It'd be strange if I seemed to know too much.

Wasn't there a way to get promoted to lower priest in one go? If I became a lower priest, I could dig up more information.

But the exams to advance from intern to lower priest were held every six months, and I'd narrowly missed the last one, so I had a long wait ahead.

There was an exception for performing special merits, but of course, I had no such merits to show.

As I was lost in thought, Priest Olson, whom I'd seen before, entered the office.

"Intern Priest Odrette."

"Hello."

"High Priestess Aria asked me to pass along a message."

He whispered to me.

"Among the intern and lower priests, there are those aligned with other High Priests, so always be wary of them."

"Understood."

So they wanted me to participate in office politics. Hmm, office politics...

That's my specialty!

With a pounding heart, I smiled brightly.

"I'll make sure to work for High Priestess Aria."

"Haha, excellent attitude. Oh, and from now on, the subcontractor information guild is under my jurisdiction, so you can report to me about the guild as well."

"Yes. ...Ah, may I ask one question?"

"Go ahead."

"Did the Temple decide the guild's name?"

"No, names don't matter much. The previous Guild Master—that despicable man—chose it himself."

I knew it. The name was so terrible I'd wondered how the Temple could have picked it.

"Then would it be alright if I changed the guild's name?"

"Do as you like. Just report it afterward."

---

"Alright, we have an important meeting today."

As I declared after arriving in the morning, everyone's attention turned to me. I addressed my precious three employees.

"It's time to change our guild's name. If you have any ideas, please speak up."

"But why change the name? Haven't we already gained quite a bit of recognition with the current name?"

At Morian's sharp question, I nodded.

"Yes, which is why we need to change it before it becomes more famous. If we leave it as is, we'll be stuck with Global-Whatever forever."

"Everyone who comes here does call it the Global-Whatever guild."

"We need a clearer and more memorable guild name."

Everyone agreed on the need for a name change. I couldn't bear to be embarrassed introducing this terrible name for the rest of my life.

With permission from Priest Olson, we could now change the name proudly.

"So I'm thinking of a new guild name that's more memorable."

Morian and Cedric each added their thoughts.

"It should also convey the feel of an information guild."

"I think we should include buzzwords that will make it easier to receive government funding."

"So does anyone have any ideas?"

"Hmm, among existing information guilds, the famous ones are Shadow Lion Guild, Silent Guild, and Black Shadow Guild."

Susanna started the discussion.

"But they all have similar dark images! I'd like us to have a different feel so we don't overlap with them!"

"For example?"

"Maybe include Guild Master Odrette's name..."

"Include it?"

"Something like Odretbly..."

"We're not making an SNS ID or a forum alias, you know?"

I was shocked by Susanna's ahead-of-her-time thinking. I didn't know about SNS IDs, but I couldn't name the guild like that.

"Let me speak this time."

"Go ahead, Assistant Manager Morian."

"We're going to change the information paradigm and dominate as the strongest guild."

"So?"

"Information Paradigm Research Guild..."

"That doesn't make it any shorter! We don't need unnecessary packaging for the guild name!"

When I snapped at Morian, he shut his mouth. Hmm, he was quick to read the room when I got angry. He seemed to realize that if he said more, my anger would reach its limit.

Finally, my gaze—provoked by Susanna and Morian—turned to Cedric. He swallowed and spoke with an unflinching gaze.

"We need to include keywords that the government likes. The previous Guild Master was clever about that one thing."

"What are the keywords?"

"They like words like global, meta, network, automation, science."

"Not cool at all..."

I just wanted a cool guild name...

A guild that gathers information—what plausible word could be associated with that?

My eyes lit up, and I asked Morian.

"Assistant Manager Morian, if you had to change 'information guild' into one word, what would it be?"

"Hmm, Information Research, no... Archive?"

Archive! That's it.

"Senior Staff Cedric, what words related to information guilds would the government like?"

"Smartization, system, data, light, vision—those come to mind."

Cedric recited words mechanically. I was sometimes amazed by his random abilities, which I had no idea where he'd acquired them.

Among the words Cedric mentioned, the decent one was... light?

"Assistant Manager Susanna, what do you think of the name Light Archive?"

"Hmm, it's good, but maybe a slight variation would be better? How about Arclight?"

"Arclight?"

"Yes, Arclight! I combined the two."

I rolled the word around in my mouth. Unlike other information guilds, it wasn't dark—it was bright!

"Alright, from now on our guild name is Arclight. Good work, everyone."

"Wow, my suggestion got picked in the end!"

"I provided the idea of 'Archive,' though."

"Since the government favors bright images lately, using 'Light' should help us secure government funding too."

Watching my team members each chime in, I looked satisfied.

"Then, to commemorate the Global Information Network Guild changing its name to Arclight Guild, let's do some more promotion."

"Yes, I agree. We should announce the name change and promote the guild to people who don't know us yet."

"As expected, Senior Staff Cedric. You're very proactive about your work."

"My... work?"

"Yes, you make the best posters."

Cedric's expression darkened as if he foresaw what was coming.

"Then, Cedric, I'll leave the poster to you again!"

"Yes..."

Seeing him look gloomy but now habitually pulling out colored pens, I encouraged him. As expected, all our guild members were multi-talented.

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