Home/How to Survive in a Good Small Guild/ch 65

Chapter 65

A few days later, while I was alone at the guild finishing up some work, the phone rang.

-Od, are you there?

"Ah, yes. Mr. Rian."

It was a familiar voice—Cedrian. The reason he'd called was, as expected...

"Are you calling about the Lady of Kaliad's matter?"

-Me? Why?

"Well, because the Lady helped you in the past..."

That was, after all, the reason Cedrian had first come to our guild.

The Lady had somehow learned of the scheme, helped Cedrian out of the goodness of her heart, and Cedrian—hiding his identity—had fallen in love with the woman who'd helped him, right?

Perhaps after the Lady's debutante, the romance with her would begin in earnest. Now that her identity had been revealed even earlier than in the original story.

-That's not why I called.

"Ah, well, that's something you'll have to handle personally, Mr. Rian."

-What are you thinking?

"Excuse me?"

-...Anyway, I wanted to talk about the Temple. Have you visited the Temple lately?

"Not recently."

-Good, the Temple is too dangerous...

"I might be promoted to mid-level priest soon!"

-Wh-what?

"The former Guild Master plotted against me. But I turned that against him..."

I recalled something and smiled slyly.

"I'm going to make it look like the former Guild Master was scheming against the Temple and I stopped him!"

"......!"

"Oh, I also found out what he's been up to. So I recruited an ally."

Ah, I couldn't stop smiling.

"Assistant Manager Morian Croucher—the only guild member the former Guild Master doesn't know by face!"

---

"What's this?"

Hubert Heim received a document envelope from the man he'd hired.

"I... found it in a safe? It looked important, haha."

"Y-yeah."

"Hmm..."

"What about the promised payment?"

"Take it."

After tossing a bundle of money to send them off, Hubert Heim sat in his office and opened the envelope.

"What is this?"

What was written inside was information about the Temple.

And even that wasn't important—just a list of intern priests and the Temple's inventory.

"Such useless information..."

It seemed that since he'd been ousted, Odrette Lavendel had become more deeply involved with the Temple.

"Hmm."

Hubert Heim looked around his empty office.

"As expected, it's too shabby. Maybe I should do another day of part-time work."

After being kicked out of his Guild Master position, there was nothing Hubert Heim could do.

He was older, had no proper experience outside information guild work, and had even been driven out of that guild—no one wanted to hire him.

Of course, if he lowered his standards, he could find work, but he had no intention of doing so. Wasn't it only natural for someone who'd once been a Guild Master to be treated with respect?

So Hubert Heim scraped together what money he had left and set up an office.

He started a "guild consulting" company.

That's right—to make money, he chose to "sell methods for making money."

Of course, among those who sell money-making methods, none actually make money that way, and most of it is just flashy nonsense...

But anyway, he had experience as an information guild master, so he used that to advise people starting new guilds.

Though he'd only had two clients so far, he'd extracted hefty consulting fees from them.

And when money was short, he did day-labor jobs.

"Hmm, but can I use this somehow?"

Holding the Temple information, Hubert Heim rolled his eyes.

The reason he'd tried to steal information from Odrette's guild—now renamed "Arclight"—was to show off his power.

To demonstrate to his consulting clients: "See? I'm still closely connected to Arclight, and I left the guild voluntarily to help more people, not because I was kicked out."

'But why did I get Temple information instead of Arclight info?'

Still, he could use it. For example, he could claim to have connections with the Temple, one of the Empire's Three Powers...

Just as he was lost in thought, his office door opened.

"Excuse me... are you Hubert Heim, who does guild consulting?"

"Yes. And you are?"

"I... my name is Mori."

---

Morian looked around the office.

He'd been hired by Odrette to do a day's work, paid in advance.

'First, I'm supposed to act like a client.'

"Oh... is this your office? It's small and nice."

"This is one of my secrets to success. Spend money where it's needed, save where it's not. I'm a mobile consultant, so I don't need a big office."

"Indeed..."

As Odrette had requested, Morian acted like someone taken in by Hubert Heim's words.

"I heard you've made many guilds successful... is that true?"

"Of course! You know the Arclight Information Guild?"

"Yes, I know it..."

"That guild's success is all thanks to me! I was its Guild Master once, but I handed it over and left!"

"What was your reason for leaving?"

"I wanted to share my success secrets with everyone! Isn't it good if we all succeed together?"

"Wow, what a nice mindset..."

Even Morian, who'd never experienced this Guild Master, could tell he was hopeless. Morian was grateful that Odrette was his Guild Master.

'Though she sometimes seems crazy, she's competent and pays well.'

No matter how strange his boss's personality was, as long as she paid him regularly, he was satisfied.

Even Senior Staff Cedric seemed to like the Guild Master, which Morian found increasingly baffling. It was also strange that Odrette never seemed to notice.

'She seems oblivious in that regard.'

Or maybe she just didn't think of her guild members as romantic interests.

"So, what kind of guild do you run?"

"Ah, I... run a Beauty Guild."

"B-beauty?"

"We research and produce cosmetics for women."

"R-right."

Since it was a field he knew nothing about, Hubert Heim looked a bit flustered but composed himself.

"How's the situation?"

"Very bad. We've gathered quite a few members, but our cosmetics aren't getting any promotion..."

"Then I'll give you a solution!"

The solution Hubert Heim offered was absolutely terrible.

"Now, you have to think about what women are like! Quality doesn't matter. Ingredients don't matter either. What matters is packaging. They use pretty cosmetics!"

"Oh, right."

Morian was a man, but even to him, it sounded like complete nonsense. Anyone with even a shred of intelligence wouldn't talk like that.

"And sell them at a high price. That way they'll look expensive and good, right? Women love luxury!"

"Oh."

"You said promotion is the biggest problem, right? Post thousands of flyers."

"Yes, thank you. But what if this solution doesn't work?"

"Hah, there's no way it won't!"

"Oh, may I ask one more thing?"

Morian began to recite what Odrette had requested.

"What do you think about providing products to influencers? I heard women follow influencers."

"Good. For example?"

"Temple priests, for instance... they're targets of respect from women."

"Not bad. Just go with that."

"But Temple priests are very difficult to approach... do you happen to know any, even intern priests? Ah, if I could just get in touch with intern priests, sales would rise, and I'd pay more for this consulting..."

"...Wait!"

At that moment, Hubert Heim reached out his hand.

"I know the list of intern priests!"

"Really?"

"If you need it, I can provide it. Of course, for an additional fee."

Odrette had taught Morian several traps to set in case he didn't fall for it, but Hubert Heim was dumber than expected.

Morian easily obtained information about the intern priests from Hubert Heim.

And at that very moment...

"So you were stealing our information, were you?"

The office door opened, and a woman with short black hair and a blue headband appeared.

She looked at Hubert Heim with a mocking smile.

"Caught you red-handed. This is a breach of contract, and you'll have to pay the price."

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