Cthulhu Gonfalon

Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma

In terms of prosperity, Gars City was ranked high in the entire Kingdom of the Blue Moon. The tremendous power of the various organizations under the Riley family was frightening. Ray, even with his previous status, couldn't suppress this local bully! And moreover, he was now alone!

Unless… He could change his position now, for example, to the position where he became hopeless in a muddle-headed way, and narrowly escaped being killed before he came to himself.

No; even if he was in that position, it was useless, because Gars City was on the east coast and was not bordered by that place.

Ray secretly sighed and returned to the hotel.

Soon afterward Mrs. Teague, who had gone out to acquire the information, returned. She had been to the pub, but there was no difference between the information she and Ray acquired. At the most, she had one more thing. "The young master Sean had been out to expand the commerce route for two years, and returned shortly after. It was said that the work was done well and the city owner is very satisfied."

"It seems that… it's very difficult!" said Ray, while the crowd looked at each other hopelessly. "This place is almost his home base. To forcibly ask him for some things here is difficult! Difficult! Difficult!"

He used several "difficult's" in succession, which showed that he was extremely pessimistic about this matter.

"What if I try to negotiate with him?" Steele said. "Strictly speaking, the key reason for the death of Knight Parne and others is in the Church of Noble Maids and the "Undercurrent" Timsar. His Majesty has accompanied "Angry Tide" Heimsarah to chase it, and I believe that sooner or later he will give it proper punishment, and we will have to deal with only the former. Sean may have reached certain agreements with the Church of Noble Maids, but for these agreements, is it worth fighting against a God who walks on earth?"

Her words caused everyone to ponder. As she said, perhaps negotiation was also a good choice?

In the end, after discussion, everyone decided to negotiate with Sean, hoping that Steele's estimation was correct.

Sean Riley did not live in the mansion of the city owner. He had his own house. When everyone visited his house, they were not blocked and they successfully saw him.

As was said in the rumors, Sean was a handsome and very elegant young man. He seemed very humble and polite, making it easy for people to feel good about him.

"Are you the families of those who died in the shipwreck?" When they explained their intentions, he smiled gloomily. "I knew that you would come here sooner or later."

"Is it really related to you?" Ray frowned and asked.

"I'm sorry; no comment for the time being," Sean smiled slightly and replied. "I don't doubt your identity, but I'm very skeptical of your intentions and abilities. You must have heard the phrase, 'Confidentiality is the power of the strong.' So if you want me to reveal my secret, please prove your ability first."

Ray's lips trembled, then he smiled ruefully and asked, "What you mean is, we should show a bit of our strength?"

Sean smiled again. As if he had not felt the momentum from Ray, he said calmly, "A bit of our strength is like a clown juggling. There is a swamp about 50 miles west of Gars City, where some three-headed legless lizards with good strength live. If you want to prove your strength, please catch one of them and come back."

"You're asking us to catch a three-headed legless lizard by traveling that far?" Ray was agitated so that he almost laughed. "Why don't we just grab you?"

Sean looked at him indifferently, without showing weakness. "Don't say something that makes me doubt your intelligence. You're just a warrior who hasn't even reached the legendary level, and even if you have stepped into the legendary field, you aren't qualified to make trouble in Gars City. Get me? You can try it, anyway. It would not be me that would regret it."

Ray frowned and felt something was wrong.

This guy is… too calm!

Power and status could indeed make people full of confidence. One had their limits in their powers or position. When the other person was easily accessible, even a great king did not dare to put on airs with a senior soldier. There had been more than one king in history who was killed by assassins that launched a revolt in a close distance. And those assassins were often at an intermediate level.

As His Majesty Void Mask, once said, "For a king, a warrior who is within his reach is more powerful than the entire country." At this moment, the distance between Sean and him could already be regarded as "within reach" for a senior soldier. So where did the confidence of this guy come from that he could escape his assault?

He frowned and felt he was in a dilemma.

To be fair, the best choice for him at the moment was to rise and assault Sean, to directly subdue him, and forcibly get the secrets from him. Then he should take Sean as a hostage, rush out of Gars City and escape. In a long-distance pursuit, even if Gars City had a strong military force, it would not be able to make full use of it. Eventually, it would become a battle between Ray himself and the city owner, Joseph.

As he had his equipment and some last resorts, he wouldn't feel frightened even in face of Joseph, who was in the legendary realm.

After all, the city owner could not risk dying with him by desperately fighting against him.

But on the other hand, intuition also told him that assault was definitely not a good choice. Although the reasons were not clear, as long as they really fought, mostly it would be him that would suffer losses, and there would be great dangers.

Moreover, he was no longer a solitary thief. There was a group of companions who needed his care. If they really had a fight, even if he could break through and escape, what would his companions do?

Steele would most likely be able to escape, but what could others do: Mrs. Teague, Liv, Ranke, and little Nice?

He hesitated again and again and eventually decided not to launch an assault. He sighed and said, "Well, I'm going to catch the three-headed legless lizard then. I hope you're not stupid enough to force me to turn against you!"

After that, he left with all the grievant companions.

Sean smiled, saw them off, and shook his head contemptuously.

"His intuition is good, but his vision is not. The horizons of all adventurers will eventually be the same!"

He sat down again, took out a document to scan it, and quickly forgot the people who had come from far away.

A few days later, Ray returned to Gars City with some embarrassment, bringing a three-headed legless lizard that was tightly tied up.

When he took the giant beast that seemed to weigh a ton and stepped into Gars City it even felt as if the earth shook and mountains moved. The onlookers almost blocked the gate.

The three-headed legless lizard was not very powerful, but it was definitely not weak. It was about four to eight meters long, and three to five meters tall. Some small ones weighed seven or eight hundred kilograms, and some bulky ones could weigh even over two tons. The huge body gave it amazing power, and its massive scales could provide a defensive force comparable to that of a man of unusual strength with a full set of steel armor, and a heavy shield held in his hand. Not only that, but these monsters still had terrifying vitality. Unless special weapons were used, ordinary weapons needed to cut off all three of their heads in a short time and burn them with flames before they would be able to truly kill these monsters.

Some of the three-headed legless lizards could even use magical powers, such as Flames, Cold Ice, Lightning, and Toxins. It was said that someone had seen a long-lived and ridiculously strong three-headed legless lizard that not only had a great size, but also three heads that were able to spit flames, cold ice, and lightning, respectively!

This legless lizard that Ray caught alive was certainly not a particularly powerful individual. It was just a monster that had become an adult. It was not very good in terms of combat effectiveness. A team of skilled adventurers could successfully kill it. However, hunting and catching one was completely different; the teamwork and fighting involved were even more different. This warrior who had not appeared here must have had an awesome strength, because he could single-handedly get this guy from the marsh and carry it all the way into the city!

"Only those legendary strongmen could do this kind of thing!" Inside the crowd, some people commented on him this way.

This news quickly spread to the leaders of all the forces in Gars City, including the city owner Joseph.

More than one person began to investigate Ray. Because there was no special meaning of confidentiality, they quickly investigated it clearly, and then the strong leaders received a second report.

"What did Sean want to do?" the chief priest Heli Riley said to herself. In the magnificent temple of the Goddess of Harvest, she took two pieces of information and was lost in thought.

Unlike ordinary intelligence merchants, she had more powerful intelligence channels. She had always been wary of her brother who seemed to be easy-going and had nothing special, because she had a lot of information that was not known to ordinary people.

At this moment, the time of the mining ceremony was coming. But Sean made a big move. What was the intention?

At this time, Ray once again visited Sean's residence.

"I've brought you what you wanted, and it's just outside your gate," he said to Sean gruffly. "So you should give me what I want. The information!"

Sean put down his documents, smiled, and gently said, "I think you may remember something wrong. What I said before was that if you could catch a three-headed legless lizard, you could prove your ability and that you would be qualified to get the secrets. But when did I say that a foolish beast could be traded for such secret intelligence?"

Ray was grim, clenched his teeth and looked at him angrily.

He had already reached the edge of his temper: these days he was fighting all sorts of messy vipers and beasts in the damn marsh to find a three-headed legless lizard, catch it alive, and drag it all the way back to town. At the moment, he was not only physically and mentally exhausted to the extreme; his mood couldn't be worse.

If Sean dared play tricks, then he would just go, get a good rest, and send his companions away. Then he would come in here alone, grab the bastard, cut his ear off first, then torture him slowly!

Sean seemed not to have seen his almost flame-lit eyes, and slowly said, "I have always kept my word. It would be very costly for me to destroy my credit."

"What do you want?" Ray interrupted his nonsense and asked coldly.

"At the mining ceremony, I'll need your strength," said Sean lightly. "Before that, you should have a good rest until all things are determined. If I haven't died yet, I'll not only tell you everything, but also will help you without sparing any effort."

"What?!" Ray was dumbfounded, and didn't understand what he meant.

"Anyway, you will understand then." Sean smiled and looked on, mysterious.