Chapter 182

Yulia suddenly clamped her mouth shut and clung to my arm. She would let out little snickers, then tap my arm with her small fists, and I had no idea why she was acting this way.

Meanwhile, the guild members brought a mountain of snacks to our table.

It looked like they had ordered everything on the menu. The table was so full there was no more room.

“Astell, have the cold drink first. It’ll get watery if the ice melts.”

“But I just had breakfast not long ago…”

“And?”

“It just makes them look even more delicious.”

As if he expected that, Alex pushed a cream sherbet toward me.

As I was savoring the flavors and systematically demolishing the desserts, I noticed the surroundings had grown quiet.

When I snapped my head up, all the guild members turned away, feigning indifference.

*I’m pretty sure they were all looking at me just a moment ago…*

Wondering if I’d been eating too greedily, I glanced at Alex.

When I shot him a look that asked, *Do I have something on my face?*, Alex raised a thick eyebrow.

“What, you want me to order another one?”

“No…”

I guess I wasn’t being that unseemly. If I’d gotten something on my face, Alex would have wiped it off already.

Focusing on the desserts made me feel much better.

Right, tormenting myself over a past no one else knows is no different from self-harm.

No matter how much I suffer, I can’t change my past life, and Shinwoo has been reincarnated and doesn’t remember it anyway.

The moment I gathered my thoughts and let out a relieved smile, I heard a murmur.

Is something going on? I looked up and saw people just entering the building.

About twenty of them stood in the lobby, looking around.

They weren’t wearing our uniforms, so they couldn’t be guild members, and their fancy attire suggested they were nobles.

As I quietly observed the visitors, the corners of my mouth lifted. Among the strangers was a familiar woman.

Yulia, clinging to my arm like a koala, whispered.

“Guild Master, it’s Bluebird.”

“So it is. What’s going on?”

One of the Bluebird members stopped a guild member. They probably asked for my location, but the problem was what happened next.

“Let go of me!”

Our guild member violently shook off their arm and went on his way.

The lobby fell silent.

The nobles’ faces hardened at the unexpected situation. This must be the first time they’d been subjected to such an insult.

Still, they didn’t cause a scene. They seemed to have enough common sense not to act up in someone else’s territory.

Then, someone must have spotted us, because the gazes of the Bluebird nobles all turned in our direction.

“Oh, such intense stares. You’d think they came here to confess their love.”

I ignored Alex’s sarcastic remark and took a sip of my iced mint chocolate.

Ah, this feeling of brushing my teeth with chocolate. I love it.

The Bluebird nobles gathered near our table. As I stared up at them, someone stepped forward.

<Elaine Roma / Title — The Jealous One>

“Hello, Guild Master. Young Duke Alex, I see you’re here as well.”

“Pfft—.”

“…Why are you laughing?”

The Jealous One. What kind of title is that? So uninspired.

I covered my laugh with a cough and replied.

“Ahem. No reason, I just thought of something funny.”

“I see.”

Elaine Roma elegantly swept back her platinum-blonde hair and sat down in front of me.

“Did I give you permission to sit?”

“…I am here today as a representative of Bluebird. Please show some courtesy.”

“Alex, did you arrange to meet with Bluebird?”

Alex, who had been silently observing, smirked.

“You think I’m crazy?”

“Me neither… Barging in without an appointment and then demanding courtesy. What country’s etiquette is that?”

“How should I know? Astell, have some cookies, not just the drink. You’ll get a stomachache.”

I tossed the cookie Alex gave me into the air and caught it in my mouth. Elaine trembled at the blatant disregard.

“…Must you really be like this?”

*Tap.*

I silently placed my hand on the table. The Bluebird nobles flinched.

“If you want someone to be courteous to you, you should be courteous first.”

The silence grew heavier. All the guild members were now watching us.

Elaine Roma bit her lip and slowly stood up.

“I apologize for visiting without an appointment. I’d like to have a brief conversation with you, Guild Master. Do you have a moment?”

“I’m busy, so if you have something to say, say it quickly.”

Elaine sat down in the chair again, her face flushed crimson.

“I heard you’d changed a lot, Guild Master… I must have heard wrong. You’re still the same.”

She had such a roundabout way of talking. She could have just said, ‘You’re still crazy.’

I just smirked and shrugged, and Elaine took a deep breath as if to suppress her anger.

Her patience has improved. In the past, she would have been trembling furiously.

I don’t know how she became Bluebird’s representative, but it seems to have done her some good.

Elaine pushed a document toward me.

“Would you care to read this?”

“Too much trouble.”

Elaine squeezed her eyes shut. Her clenched fists had turned white. When she finally spoke, her voice trembled slightly with barely suppressed rage.

“Then I’ll explain it to you. This document is a proposal for a merger between Bluebird and Guardian.”

“A merger?”

“We at Bluebird, along with Guardian, are responsible for the safety of the Empire. We’ve determined that it’s meaningless to divide ourselves and compete when we share the same goal.”

“Only after your backer disappeared?”

“…”

Elaine faltered for a moment.

“Of course, this wasn’t a decision made overnight. I have been pushing for a merger with Guardian for a long time. I was just waiting for the right moment while gradually persuading our guild members.”

Didn’t this girl hate me? She’d been so openly hostile, yet she claims she was pushing for a merger.

Should I laugh or not? She was lying so brazenly that I was starting to wonder if it was true.

The reason Bluebird was proposing a merger now was obvious.

Because of the Emperor, Bluebird’s image had taken a massive hit.

Even though they had helped in his downfall, in the minds of the empire’s citizens, Bluebird was branded as the Emperor’s guild.

On top of that, they were falling behind in clearing Gates. No one had any expectations for Bluebird anymore.

Everyone was looking for Guardian, so it was only natural that Bluebird’s prestige would plummet. It had even reached the point where people were saying Bluebird should be excluded from the Hunter system.

As the authority of the nobility fell, the status of a Hunter became more important. The era of dividing people by noble and common birth based on the illusion of a lofty lineage was over.

What mattered now wasn’t one’s origin, but one’s power. The power to protect oneself and others.

Yet Bluebird, despite possessing the power of Hunters, was not only failing to gain recognition but was on the verge of being ostracized.

So, it was a natural conclusion for them to turn their attention to Guardian.

The problem was their pride.

Anyone who was willing to move from Bluebird to Guardian had already done so. To have remained in Bluebird until now meant they were steeped in elitism to the bone.

They probably thought of themselves as the chosen ones. That they, Hunters of noble blood, could never be the same as commoners.

There was no way these people, consumed by their superiority complex, would take a liking to the guild of a woman they once scorned as the Mad Princess.

They were only bowing their heads now because the times forced them to.

There was no need to even look at the document Elaine offered. It would no doubt be a long-winded document, wrapped in all sorts of flowery language, demanding guaranteed authority in exchange for them gracing us with their membership.

“What we want is simple. I’ve heard that Guardian is divided into departments. Give us the positions of department heads. This is, of course, on the condition that all Bluebird members join Guardian.”

“And you?”

“Pardon?”

Elaine Roma’s eyes widened. She was feigning innocence, but there was no way she didn’t want something for herself.

“What you want can’t just be the merger of Bluebird and Guardian. What do you want personally?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

“There is no later. Say it now, or be silent forever.”

“I…”

Elaine anxiously wet her lips with her tongue.

“I want the position of Vice Guild Master.”

The air instantly turned frigid. Scornful laughter mixed with murderous glares erupted from all around.

Beside me, Alex muttered.

“What was Elaine Roma’s rank again… Hmm.”

His voice was loud enough for anyone to hear. Elaine Roma’s face turned the color of a tomato.

The last time I checked, she was around 70th. Unless she’d had a second awakening, her rank couldn’t have risen that dramatically.

“Well, you’re free to think what you want. Anyway, I’ve heard you out. A merger is good. I agree that in a world like this, we should gather our strength.”

“In that case, I’ll take that as you accepting our proposal—”

I cut Elaine off, tapping my fingertips on the document.

“Still, we have to crunch the numbers. This is a kind of business deal, after all.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“First, let’s check the difference in our levels. Yulia.”

“Yes, Guild Master.”

“What are the Gate clearance success rates for Bluebird and Guardian so far?”

“To date, a total of 168 Gates have opened, and Guardian has cleared 81% of them.”

“Did Bluebird clear the remaining 19%?”

“No, ma’am. The number of Gates you cleared personally accounts for 17% of the total.”

“So Bluebird’s success rate is 2%?”

“To be precise, their number of successful clearances is one.”

Her crisp, disciplined answers, so unlike her usual self, were quite satisfying.

I gave Yulia a bright smile before turning my gaze back to Elaine.

She was grinding her teeth so hard a vein throbbed on her jaw.

“From what I understand, a merger is something that can only happen between parties of somewhat equal standing.”

“…”

“But no matter how I look at it, I don’t think we’re on equal footing. What do you think?”