Episode 5
“Welcome back, sir. I’m glad you came to me again.”
Standing in front of the Crown Prince, I put on a fake smile.
“I’d like to commission one more job. I’ll pay an appropriate fee, and if you succeed again, I’ll grant you whatever you want.”
“Oh, workers already came to start building the bathroom. Thank you very much. If I successfully complete this request, I’ll tell you what I want as well.”
“Understood. I have the ability to grant you anything you could possibly ask for.”
The Crown Prince said that proudly.
I gave him an awkward smile while pretending not to know his identity.
Soon, he told me what he wanted.
“There are fake holy relics circulating throughout the capital right now.
“The Temple has announced that it will respond to this matter harshly.
“However, no one has been able to discover who is behind these fake holy relics.
“I’m curious about who the mastermind is.”
“……!”
I flinched at his words.
Wait.
This was…
‘The Temple is behind this.’
In the original novel I had read, the Temple was portrayed as an extremely corrupt organization.
This incident was also something the Temple had staged themselves to manipulate public opinion.
The Imperial Family had recently been putting pressure on the Temple, so they were trying to gain sympathy from the people while demonstrating the Temple’s authority.
‘Can I really tell the Crown Prince about this?’
Normally, I barely paid attention to the Temple and only called them when necessary.
But regardless, the Global Information Network Guild was a subcontractor that gathered information for the Temple.
Our guild’s work records were regularly reported to the Temple.
If they discovered that I had provided information harmful to the Temple, I could be punished…
Or, in the worst case, eliminated.
‘No. Either way, my best option is to act as a double agent here.’
I had considered quitting the guild so I wouldn’t get caught up in a huge conflict between powerful factions.
But there was a practical problem.
First of all, I had no money to live on.
Audret Lavendel was a young newcomer to society with terrible educational and career backgrounds.
Finding another job would be extremely difficult.
My goal was to use my knowledge of the original novel to gain as much benefit as possible.
“…Yes. I understand.”
For now, I answered calmly and bought myself some time.
“I’ll let you know as soon as I find out.”
“Eeeek! Assistant Manager Audret! We have a huge problem!”
The moment I came out of the reception room, Susanna came rushing over to me in a panic.
This was strange.
After I discovered her weakness, Susanna had been holding a grudge against me and hadn’t even pretended to be friendly.
What was going on?
“Today is the day someone from the main contractor is coming!”
“……!”
My eyes widened.
“The main contractor… You mean the Temple?”
“Ah, right. The Temple. We’ve been calling them the Temple for so long because of how awful they are.”
Hmm.
It seemed Susanna also disliked the Temple.
“Can you really talk about them like that?”
“It’s just between us. Who cares? After everything we’ve been through, I know you hate the Temple too, Assistant Manager Audret!”
Since the opportunity had presented itself, I decided to get some information out of Susanna.
“By the way, you work for a subcontractor of the Temple, but you don’t seem to be religious at all.”
“What? Do you really think I’d work here because I believe in the religion? I just couldn’t find another job, so I ended up here.”
“……”
Ah.
So that’s how it was.
Very realistic.
Anyway, thanks to her, I learned that the members of the Global Information Network Guild didn’t particularly believe in the Temple.
They simply treated their relationship with the Temple as business.
“But when you say you’ve suffered because of them…”
“Hmph. I’m not considerate at all, but I am capable of feeling a little sympathy!”
“Wow. So you knew you’ve been rude to me this whole time.”
“Be quiet! Anyway, whenever someone from the main contractor came, you always took all the blame, Assistant Manager Audret.”
“I took all the blame?”
“Whenever there was even a small mistake in the calculations or something wasn’t handled properly, the Guild Master and the manager always dumped it on you!
“And there were even times when they dragged you to the main contractor’s office and you were punished.”
“……”
“But you’re not going to dump this one on me, right?
“Please tell me you’re not!”
“Ah. So that’s why you suddenly started acting nice.
“You were afraid that you’d be the one suffering this time because I know your weakness…”
“No, Assistant Manager Audret!”
While Susanna was making an annoying fuss, I thought about the relationship between the Temple and our guild.
From what Susanna was saying, the relationship between our guild and the Temple seemed completely one-sided.
The Temple was our main contractor.
They used their position to bully us while taking whatever information they wanted.
Meanwhile, we weren’t allowed anywhere near the Temple’s information.
“But even if they’re the main contractor, can they really bully us that much?”
I asked casually.
Susanna looked at me as if she didn’t understand what I meant.
“Do I really have to say it out loud?
“You know that if we didn’t have this guild, we’d have nowhere else to go.”
“What?”
“Everyone in our guild is basically unemployable.
“The manager couldn’t get another job because he was caught doing industrial espionage…”
“……”
“And I became notorious after I made a huge ordering mistake at my previous company while listening to a small phonograph.
“I accidentally added three extra zeros to the order, so it’s difficult for me to find another job too…”
What?
She really did listen to a small phonograph while working?
“And Assistant Manager Lavendel has trouble finding a job because her father was a follower of a heretical religion.”
I squeezed my eyes shut.
So that’s why everyone in our guild was working at this X-company guild.
None of them had anywhere else to go.
“Then what would happen if the Guild Master fired us?”
“We’d starve to death, hehe.”
“……”
This was truly a hopeless situation.
My chance to escape the original story had just become even more distant.
If I left this guild, I really might starve to death.
‘For now, should I approach the Temple while continuing to act like the original Audret?’
Just then, the Guild Master suddenly jumped to his feet.
“Everyone, stand up!”
“Eek!”
Susanna tremblingly stood up.
I and the enthusiastic villain manager also stood.
Soon, a man who looked to be in his early thirties strode into the guild building with an imposing air.
“Is everything I requested ready?”
“Yes! Here it is!”
The Guild Master quickly handed him the documents.
The man arrogantly flipped through them.
Hmm.
As rude as our Guild Master was, this man looked much younger than him.
Yet he was acting like a jerk simply because he was from the main contractor.
Then the man frowned as he looked through the documents.
“What the hell? The information is outdated.
“Why isn’t the Platinum Mercenary Corps’ information included?”
He spoke to the Guild Master almost as if they were equals and raised his head.
“Who investigated this?”
“Uh, uh…”
The Guild Master nervously shifted his eyes.
Then he looked at the enthusiastic manager.
“I assigned it to you!”
“Uh, well…”
The enthusiastic manager’s eyes turned toward me.
“I assigned it to Assistant Manager Audret!”
“……”
I considered dumping it on Susanna.
But in the end, I decided to step forward myself.
“Yes, I did it.
“It seems I entered something incorrectly. I’m sorry.”
“Do you think saying sorry is enough?
“You nearly ruined someone’s work.”
The man’s expression twisted into a furious scowl.
“It’s you again!
“What was your name?”
“I’m Audret Lavendel.”
“Right. Assistant Manager Lavender!”
He couldn’t even say my name properly as he raised his voice.
“You never do anything properly!
“Is there even anything in that head of yours?”
“I’m sorry.”
“I clearly told you what would happen if this happened again!”
“I’m sorry…”
“Come to the Temple’s western gate within one hour!”
Susanna nervously looked at me.
But I simply let the man leave.
Then I turned to the Guild Master.
“Guild Master, was this really my assignment?”
No matter how much I thought about it, there was nothing like this in Audret Lavendel’s memories.
“Wh-why does that matter right now?
“Just hurry to the Temple!”
“……”
Susanna pretended to sit down and whispered to me.
“It was the manager’s assignment.
“He never actually told Assistant Manager Audret to do it.”
So that’s how it was.
Mr. Park Geoseong, please give me the power to punish these people.
