How to Survive in a Good Small Guild — Chapter 32: The Venomous Smile of High Priest Aria
"Why can't you do your job properly!"
Sure enough, the very next morning, Priest Charles stormed into the guild office, his face flushed red.
Susanna, who was already familiar with Temple people, gestured to Cedric and Morian to step forward and greet him. Priest Charles's gaze swung toward them.
"So these two are the new hires."
"Yes. This is Deputy Morian, and this is Senior Associate Cedric."
"What, now that you've become a Guild Master, you think you can treat me lightly? Is what I say just words to you now?"
With that, Priest Charles beckoned to me. The gesture clearly meant: come to the parlor where the guild members can't hear us.
Once we'd moved to the parlor, he unleashed his fury on me all over again.
"I told you to get him an in-house loan!"
"Ah, I sincerely apologize. The negotiations, um… didn't go anywhere."
"Then make them go somewhere!"
Priest Charles barked at me.
"That's how you get leverage on him!"
"I'm so sorry. You did tell me, Priest Charles, that you would graciously help arrange an in-house loan using Temple funds at your own discretion. Clearly I've failed to do my job properly."
"That's right, I distinctly—"
The instant he said it, the parlor door swung open.
"…!"
Charles whipped his head toward the door, and the color drained from his face.
A woman with long golden hair and a star-shaped yellow hairpin had appeared, as if out of nowhere.
"H-High Priest Aria!"
Charles bowed and scraped in a panic. I, too, inclined my head politely.
I didn't expect a High Priest to come out in person.
Along with delivering the letter to Priest Charles yesterday, I had also sent letters to the Temple's higher-ups.
The gist of it was that Priest Charles was diverting the Temple's budget for his own purposes.
The whole 'in-house loans from the Temple' thing is a lie.
That absurd Temple from the original story — did anyone seriously expect it to have welfare programs? Based on everything I'd personally endured, the Temple was a black company, through and through.
Priest Charles had said he could do it "at his discretion." Which meant he was undoubtedly misusing the budget through some backdoor method.
And so, I'd sent those letters as bait — dangled so that other priests, the ones gunning to check Charles's power, might take a bite.
I never imagined it would reach a High Priest, though.
I had no direct means of sending a letter to the Temple's upper echelon.
So I'd gotten creative.
I visited a restaurant near the Temple — one that proudly advertised that Temple personnel ordered from it regularly.
Then I slipped the staff member there a small errand fee and asked a tiny favor of him.
Specifically: to tuck my letter inside an order of "the most expensive item on the menu, no substitutions," and have it delivered.
Whoever ordered the priciest dish would, without question, hold a high rank.
And to think it had made its way all the way to a High Priest!
"Lady Aria…."
The woman whom Charles had addressed as "High Priest Aria" — a mere mid-ranking priest — stared at him in silence.
"What's wrong? Why are you slinking about like that? You haven't done anything wrong to me. Lift your head."
"W-well, you see…."
"Managing the subcontracted guild was your job, wasn't it? Groveling at me like this hardly looks good in front of the subcontractors."
Huh? That sounded almost like she was taking Charles's side….
"Even if you did quietly shuffle Temple funds around, tell me — when have we ever had anything called an 'in-house loan'? Haha, it was such a novel word. I'd never even heard of such a program until yesterday. Honestly, if such a system existed, you should have informed me in advance!"
Nope. She's skewering him mercilessly.
Aria was the reigning champion of smiling while twisting the knife.
As her tirade rolled on, sweat began streaming down Charles's face in rivulets.
"Shall I report this to the Grand Priest?"
"Lady Aria, please, just this once, grant me your forgiveness—!"
"You don't take me for some common thief of the Temple, do you? Pfft, surely not. Haha!"
"N-no, of course not!"
"Oh, and, Priest Charles — this really isn't the time for this. You must be terribly busy, so hurry back to the Temple. I'll handle things here."
"…I beg your pardon?"
"Haha, well — you're about to be demoted to a junior priest, aren't you? Best run along and clear out your office before someone else claims it."
Truly magnificent.
Priest Charles left the parlor with his face crumpled, on the verge of tears.
Now only Aria and I remained. I bowed my head quietly before her.
"Your name?"
"Audrette Lavendel. I'm the Guild Master of this guild."
"Right. Guild Master Lavendel."
She called me by my actual name? That alone put her favorability rating leagues above Charles's.
"More capable than I expected."
"Thank you."
"That clever scheme to deliver the letter, for one. Did you investigate my tastes beforehand and discover my love of garlic-cream-rose pasta?"
…There's another person besides Susanna who eats that monstrosity of a menu item?
"No, my lady. I simply selected the most expensive item on the menu."
"Sharp mind…."
She smiled at me.
"The original problem arose from keeping leverage over your employees, didn't it?"
"Yes, but I hold separate leverage over him, so there won't be an issue."
"I see…."
Aria studied me, as if measuring something.
"A subcontracted Guild Master. Capable. Has some spine, too… You're exactly what I need, as it happens."
"…."
"So here's a proposal."
Aria extended her hand toward me. As I hesitated, uncertain of its meaning, she spoke.
"Won't you become an intern priest of the Temple?"
"A… what?"
"Purely an internship, mind you. The gap between an intern priest and a junior priest is the difference between heaven and earth. But as an intern priest, you'd receive pay, and you'd have the opportunity to be recognized as one of the Temple's own people."
An outright opportunity, is what that was.
For me — scheming to unearth the Temple's internal secrets and pass them to the Crown Prince — it was the opportunity of a lifetime!
"I hardly know what to say—"
But proper etiquette demanded I at least demur, so Aria offered a magnanimous addition.
"It's a freelance contract, so you're paid per the work you do. Work more, earn more. If guild duties keep you too busy to take on much, that's no problem at all."
Ah, a freelance contract… Somehow I suspect that whatever each completed task pays, it'll come out to less than minimum wage.
Be that as it may, I pretended to deliberate for a moment, then took Aria's hand.
"I am deeply grateful, my lady. I will gladly follow the will of High Priest Aria."
"Haha!"
She laughed brightly, gave my hand a light shake, and stepped out of the parlor.
The guild members had risen from their seats and stood fidgeting nervously, their eyes darting back and forth between me and Aria.
"Which one's the new hire?"
"That would be him."
When I pointed at Morian, Aria asked him lightly,
"I hear the Guild Master dug up some dirt on you?"
"Pardon? …Ah, that. The truth is I do drunk horseback riding, which makes employment impossible—"
"Haha, relatable enough! Never mind! Keep up the good work here at this guild!"
Waving her hand airily, Aria departed the guild.
The office was ours again. Convinced that we'd pulled it off without a hitch, I collapsed into my chair, thoroughly spent.
"Haah…."
"Guild Master!"
At that moment, Morian looked at me with, of all things, sparkling eyes. Since when did the man with the permanently dead-fish stare make that face?
"I'm moved beyond words!"
"I'm sorry?"
"I listened to every last decibel of that priest going full angry mode in there! Saying I had to be given an in-house loan and all…."
"Ah…."
"You were protecting me from ever experiencing such an ordeal, weren't you!"
"Well… yes, that's right."
I gazed off into the distance, misty-eyed.
I couldn't bring myself to tell him it was actually because his household was too pitiful for words, so I improvised something suitably vague.
"Say what they will about Morian — he's my guild member, after all…."
"Good heavens. Such ownership mentality."
This time it was Cedric who spoke up.
"That is the posture we should all aspire to. Even in hardship, the resolve to protect one's subordinates. A textbook specimen of kingship."
"…?"
"I have the deepest respect for you, Guild Master."
"Uh, right. Thank you…."
Cedric, who normally reacted to everything with a flat, minimal response — what on earth was going on with him?
I felt vaguely dissatisfied, but Cedric was gazing at me with a face of genuine, profound emotion. Fine, Morian was the party involved, but why Cedric…?
'What's his deal?'
'His judgment's been broken since forever, remember~'
I shot Susanna a look, but that glib answer was all I got back.
Well, whatever. I'd earned my guild members' trust, so I supposed it counted as a win….