How to Survive in a Good Small Guild — Episode 30: Suspiciously Cheap Rent
The next day, I glanced over at Morian, diligently working away at his desk.
He certainly seemed like a capable hire. Still, better safe than sorry — this was an information guild, after all. A little background research wouldn't hurt.
I checked the address listed on Morian's paperwork. He lived near the guild, right in the heart of the capital.
Wait, rent there has to be expensive? That's strange. If he had that kind of money, there's no way he'd be working at our guild.
Something about it smelled off, so I decided to dig into it.
"I'm going out on a field errand," I announced, standing up from my desk — and casually grabbed the ring Latelle had given me yesterday. Cedric fixed me with a suspicious look.
"No, seriously, I won't make you work overtime.... It was a joke...! Who in their right mind would use a one-time-use item just to force overtime?! I'm only taking it in case of an emergency...!"
Offering explanations whose number I couldn't even count, I hurried out of the guild. All right. Today's agenda: learn everything there is to know about Morian.
I headed to the central district where Morian lived and prowled around the vicinity of the address on his file.
No matter how I look at it, this is way too nice a place?
He was a bit older than me, sure, but even so, this was a villa that no ordinary twenty-something could possibly afford.
Since I couldn't quite bring myself to walk inside, I was loitering awkwardly near the building when a middle-aged woman popped up out of nowhere and called out to me.
"Miss! Over there!"
"Y-yes?"
"Are you here to see the apartment?"
"Yes, an apartment...?"
"You came because of the tenant listing, didn't you?"
"Haha, that's right."
Well, perfect. Might as well take a proper look at the inside of the villa while I'm at it. It'd be a bit awkward if it got back to Morian, but if I keep this lady's mouth shut about it later...
Following the middle-aged woman inside, she guided me through the building with an appraising eye.
"I'm the owner of this villa. You look like the tidy type, miss. Won't be making a mess of the place, I can tell."
"Haha, of course not.... So, how much is it?"
"Three million pesos down, four hundred thousand a month."
"Huh? Really?"
Something was wrong here. That was far too cheap for a villa in the heart of the capital. You could actually get a place at this price? If my parents hadn't left me the house, I'd have been seriously tempted myself.
"And the monthly maintenance fee?"
"Eighty thousand pesos."
"Why are all these numbers so... reasonable?"
"Right? You must have noticed coming here, but the transit's excellent too. And the location goes without saying."
"Yes, yes."
"Perfect safety for a young woman living alone, too. There's a police substation nearby, so patrols come by all the time."
"Sounds wonderful."
Nodding along to the woman's pitch as I walked down the corridor, I noticed something strange.
Why are there so many doors packed in here?
From the outside, the building hadn't looked nearly big enough for this many.
Just then, the middle-aged woman opened one of the doors — apparently the unit being advertised for rent.
A moment later, my jaw dropped at the scene before me.
"Th-this is...."
It was a corridor so narrow you'd have to turn sideways just to walk through it. Inside sat a tiny bed and a single wardrobe, wedged in so tight there wasn't even floor space left to stand.
"It's smaller than I expected...."
"Well, duh — at this price, obviously!"
"What about cooking and laundry...?"
"You share the facilities on the first floor."
And that was when the full picture hit me. This villa had started life as single-room units, each one since chopped into at least two — possibly three or four — cramped partitions.
Poor Morian....
Suddenly my heart ached for him, paying good money to live in a place like this. At this size, even four hundred thousand pesos was a rip-off....
"Where's the bathroom?"
"Up there, can't you see?"
"...?"
I looked up — and had to confirm, one more time, a scene I could barely believe.
No wonder the ceiling had seemed absurdly low. Floating in midair, connected by a set of stairs, was what appeared to be a bathroom.
Insane. It's only because I'm a woman that I can manage this much. A man of average height wouldn't even be able to lift his head in here....
So Morian was just another poor twenty-something all along....
My suspicions about him seemed to be melting away entirely. Come to think of it, I'd heard he'd moved up from the provinces on his own — and he'd had to live in a place like this, alone? Honestly, the real fault lay with a landlord who carved apartments up like this and still charged through the nose for them....
"Well, the view is quite nice, at least."
The middle-aged woman must have caught my shifting expression, because she added,
"This unit even comes with a window. Quite the luxury."
Meaning there are rooms without one...?
"Now, take a look at this. A cemetery view."
"...?"
What? Why is there a graveyard right behind the building?
Ah. Every single element of this apartment is so absurd it borders on the surreal.... If this place showed up on a house-hunting show, the guests wouldn't be able to keep their composure and the viewers would be cursing in the comments....
To hell with the probation period — I need to make Morian a permanent part of this guild, and fast.
And so I resolved to keep Morian with us for a long, long time to come.
"Where is it you keep running off to these days?"
"Father?"
After work, Cedrian turned at the sound of his father's voice, starting in spite of himself. There behind him stood the sun of this empire — his father, the Emperor.
"I... have been working to uncover the Temple's vulnerabilities. Those who would dare stand against the Crown."
"You're still a long way from being entrusted with the affairs of state, and I know you've buried yourself in Temple business of late. But...."
The Emperor studied his son with a suspicious expression.
"Conducting your work somewhere other than the Imperial Palace — isn't that going a bit far? Just how long do you intend to keep this up?"
"Until I'm promoted to deputy, ah — no. Soon I'll have greater access to information concerning the Temple."
Cedrian could feel his father's gaze growing more and more strange, but he forced himself to pretend not to notice.
His father knew only that he had infiltrated a guild. He did not know that his son, the Crown Prince, was toiling there as a humble supervisor in charge of every manner of menial chore. If the Emperor ever learned of it, he would order him to quit on the spot. Under no circumstances could that secret come out.
"More to the point, Father — what brings you here?"
At Cedrian's hasty change of subject, his father seemed to remember, and finally arrived at the matter at hand.
"You're of age now. Time you were thinking about marriage."
"...Yes."
"No young lady who's caught your eye?"
"I've been rather busy lately...."
"Then you'd have no objection if I were to select a suitable lady for you, I take it."
"...No, Father."
Cedrian's answers were slowing. He had never shown much interest in women. He knew that as Crown Prince he would have to marry someday — but that was the extent of it.
So he'd assumed he'd have no complaints about an arranged match, yet faced with his father's questions, he found himself strangely unsettled.
"I'll discuss it with my ministers and arrange an audience for you before long. If there's anything you desire in a spouse, I'll take it into consideration — speak up if you wish."
Cedrian had never once paused to consider what kind of woman he might like. Confronted with this once-in-a-lifetime conundrum, his mind began to churn.
"Since it's a political marriage anyway, rather than falling in love, I suppose I'd want a lady of strong character and good virtue — someone with whom I could maintain proper courtesy and faithfully fulfill our duties to one another."
"Be specific."
"She'll be learning the internal affairs of the palace as Crown Princess, first of all, so good paperwork handling would be a plus."
"Paperwork handling?"
The Emperor's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly, but Cedrian failed to catch it.
"Someone who can manage a budget well, save money, and use resources efficiently. She'll need to manage subordinates, so she should know how to delegate work properly. She should also be capable of stalling or telling a necessary lie when the situation demands it.... Ah, and it would be ideal if she had experience with actual labor, so she could truly understand the hearts of the people...."
"Why are you being so specific?"
His father was now looking at his son as though he were a total stranger.
"This is strange. The answer I expected was something along the lines of 'as long as she has a good personality.' Isn't this excessively detailed?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Why are you describing her as if you've actually met such a person?"