Cthulhu Gonfalon

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The capital of the Orc Empire was called the "Golden Tent." Long, long ago, the Orcs had still been a nomadic society. They had lived by rivers and grass and had used tents as their homes. At that time, high-ranking tribal leaders had liked to use golden tents to symbolize their power and status.

Later, the various races of the Orcs had achieved unification after years of war. After the unification, they had formulated relevant regulations on the colors and decorations of the tents.

According to the regulations, only one pure golden tent could exist in the entire Orc Empire, and it belonged to the Emperor of Orcs. Princes could use tents that consisted of silver tops and golden sides. Dukes could use tents that consisted of silver tops, silver sides, and golden totems. Marquises could use tents that consisted of silver tops, silver sides and golden decorations. Earls could use tents that consisted of silver tops, silver sides, and golden tassels. Viscounts could use pure silver tents, and barons could use tents with silver totems.

As for people under viscounts, they were not aristocrats. They didn't have the qualifications to talk about the ritual system.

Times had changed, and now the Emperor of Orcs didn't live in a tent anymore. He lived on a low hill in the central region of the prairie, and they built a city there. They still used the name, Golden Tent.

The city was often ridiculed by others because it didn't have walls.

However, why did the city need walls? If the Orcs didn't invade others, others would be thankful. Who dared to invade them? Monsters? Beasts? The Orc patrols were all around the city. The farthest one was hundreds of miles away. What beasts or monsters could pass through the defense line of countless patrols and break into the city?

The Golden Tent didn't have stone walls, but it built a living wall with countless patrol officers. The most conspicuous thing in this city was the tall building that stood on the platform at the center of the low hill. The golden top was shaped like a tent. Obviously, it was the palace of the emperor.

Around the palace, circles of houses lined in order and distributed down along the slope. The residences of the emperors and the aristocrats were not built directly on the ground. Instead, they first built high platforms on the ground and then built their residences on the high platforms. Civilians were not allowed to build such houses. Although some businessmen had a lot of money, they could only build their houses on the ground since they were not aristocrats.

The Orc Empire paid great attention to the ritual system. According to the levels of their identities, the foundations of their houses were different. The number of steps they could build from the high platform, the height of every step, and the decorative patterns they could use all followed particular regulations.

Sui Xiong looked down on such regulations.

He thought that a powerful country and a powerful nation shouldn't regard a ritual system as something really important. Of course, they should still follow some regulations, but the regulations shouldn't be too particular.

Instead of thinking about how to set rules for the people at different levels, the leaders should think more about how to win the hearts of the people.

A country relied on its people and resources, certainly not on a ritual system.

Therefore, the Republic of Northwest didn't pay much attention to such rules. Of course, they still followed some rules. However, in today's world, the Republic was definitely a country that cared the least about the ritual system.

They didn't have an imperial garden, an imperial workshop, or an imperial style. Apart from some measures taken to ensure safety, there were no essential differences between the lifestyle of the officials of the Republic of Northwest and that of the civilians.

When Sui Xiong showed his idea, some people advised him not to be so extreme. They thought he should respect the tradition. However, Sui Xiong didn't care. He asked lazily, "Tradition? We jellyfish don't have any traditions."

His words were obviously artificial arguments. However, the Void Mask was indeed a jellyfish. No one could ask a jellyfish to do things according to the rules of others.

The Orc Empire obviously did things according to the rules of others, and they were very crazy about that. Sui Xiong walked down the street with his subordinates, and he saw a white stone road. It was located in the central part of the wide street, and it was wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side. It stretched from the edge of the city towards the center of the city.

"This is the famous Imperial Road to the Golden Tent, right?" Steele asked. Steele looked at the white stone road curiously, but Steele didn't stupidly walk over and touch it. "It is said that unless the emperor permits, even the aristocrats won't be allowed to step on this road."

"Right," Sui Xiong said, nodding. "One foot on it, cut off the foot. Two feet on it, cut off the head. No exceptions."

"How horrible! The emperor doesn't go out usually. It shouldn't matter whether others walk on this road or not."

"It can create a sense of authority and sacredness," Sui Xiong said. "It seems to be close at hand, but it actually has an unreachable distance. As a result, people can clearly understand the gap between their identities. This method is quite old-fashioned."

"What? Old-fashioned? Is there another country that has an imperial road?" Steele asked curiously.

Sui Xiong smiled. He didn't explain.

He couldn't say that on the Earth, this method had been used more than a thousand years ago. It was not rare at all.

They walked on the wide street. There were separate houses on both sides of the street, but they didn't see any shops.

In the Golden Tent, shops were concentrated in a block called the Businessman Square. Except for this block, shops were not allowed in other places; the violators would be executed.

At this moment, Sui Xiong and his subordinates were heading towards the Businessman Square.

He had already studied the topography of the Golden Tent. There were about three places that were suitable for building guillotines: The first place was the large square in front of the palace. The place was large and broad enough to accommodate a large audience.

However, people were not allowed to enter it without a reason. The aristocrats couldn't enter the square if they didn't have official missions or the emperor's calling. Even if a guillotine was built here and it was used to execute a lot of people, it would be useless because no one could see it.

The second place was the large square in front of the Guard Camp. It was also large and broad enough to accommodate a large audience.

However, civilians were not allowed to enter that either. The aristocrats were unrestricted, but there were only a few aristocrats here. Moreover, they grieved for their fellow beings. How could they come to watch the execution?

So there was only one place that they could choose—the Businessman Square.

This large square was a place where large-scale markets were held in the middle of the month and at the end of the month. It was usually empty, and no one used it. This time, it was suitable to be used to hold activities.

In fact, it was much smaller than the other two squares. However, getting there was convenient. It was adjacent to the civilian residential area, and it didn't limit the entry and exit of the civilians. It was the most suitable place.

Of course, Sui Xiong was powerful. As long as he was willing, the Orc Empire couldn't prevent Sui Xiong from calling people to see the fun no matter if the place was the square in front of the palace or the square in front of the camp. However, Sui Xiong would leave this place eventually. At that time, the Orc Empire would blame the civilians.

He was not willing to bring such trouble to the civilians. Therefore, Sui Xiong simply found a place where the civilians could enter and exit freely.

For this "performance," he specifically left some important "actors" behind!