Cthulhu Gonfalon

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

Manpower was lacking, and skeletons couldn't be used. From the looks of it, Satan's great plan had run aground on the reefs before it even managed to set sail.

Naturally, he didn't want to give up, but he didn't want to wait too long either, so he turned his gaze toward Sui Xiong. If ordinary people couldn't solve the problem, he could only turn to the gods for help.

Sui Xiong thought for a moment then asked, "Leon, Olian, Anna, is it possible to transfer manpower from your three territories?"

Currently, Geerteng Hill, Garth City, and Keane Hill each belonged to their own separate countries. However, because the Church of the Void Mask held positions of absolute control in their lands, they were more-or-less basically all a part of the Republic of Northwest. One thousand men's worth of manpower was certainly impossible for the Republic, but if the number was split between these three territories then it wouldn't be too difficult to manage, would it?

Olian Geerteng was the first to reply. "We can transfer 200-300 people on our end, but I'm afraid any more than that isn't feasible. Our farms, stationery factories, and medicine fields all require a lot of people on staff."

"I don't believe I can manage even 300 on my end." Anna Keane, who rarely spoke and therefore truly achieved the phrase 'talk less, listen more,' let out a sigh. "The Keane Hill has always had a low population."

"Then the rest can be left to me," Leon said with a smile. "Though you'll need to give me some time—let's say around two months. I can collect the rest of the required manpower within two months."

"They've got to be reliable! I don't want any people that might start causing trouble halfway in!" Satan stressed. "If any problems come up in this project, it's going to be a huge incident!"

"That's exactly why I'm asking for two months' time," Leon said, full of confidence. "Don't worry, two months from now, the men I'll have for you will be the most faithful and reliable you can find!"

Thus, the matter was decided. Madame Teague would check the current supply stores, doing her utmost to raise sufficient supplies for the project, while the three territories would begin enlisting and transferring personnel in preparation for the job. This would begin in two months' time.

After the meeting, Garth City's Lord, Kalisa Riley worriedly asked, "This is 5 or 600 people we're talking about; can we really pull together that many? With such an important project, it wouldn't be very reasonable for us to enlist from outside either…"

After tens of years of self-discipline, the Kalisa of today was no longer the "first beauty on the east coast." Although she couldn't necessarily be called a capable official, she could at least manage not to be as disappointing as the great majority of this world's ruling nations. She understood Garth City's situation relatively well, and after a little calculation, she had realized it would be very difficult to pull together enough surplus workers to fit the current demand.

"What's so hard about it?" Leon laughed and said. "We can trade out people from some of our current projects, use the outside recruits to work for us instead, and have the ones that prove reliable be sent out to the Republic of Northwest to help construct the magic array. Two months' time is more than enough for the new hands to gain experience, so nothing will be delayed."

It was only then that Kalisa understood his plans, hurrying to nod in agreement.

This was actually quite a simple affair, although the majority of the people had momentarily failed to realize it.

Of course, even if Olian Geerteng and Anna Keane thought of the same solution, they wouldn't necessarily be able to follow through with it. Geerteng Hill was relatively remote, its population low to begin with, so enlisting new laborers would be no easy task. Keane Hill might have more convenient travel, but the territories surrounding it didn't exactly hold friendly feelings towards them; with them basically hemmed in at the center, enlistment would be more difficult for them than for Geerteng Hill.

When they enlisted people in the past, foreigners were usually brought in through the help of transmission formations. Not only did such a method have high costs, but the people they enlisted needed to settle down first. For a short time, they were unable to begin work, so as far as they were concerned, it was truly impossible to transfer that many people. It was not just an intentional avoidance of responsibilities.

By comparison, Garth City not only had convenient travel but also had a flourishing trade and was overlord of a large swathe of the surrounding region. Those heroes brave enough to say "no" when up against the Swordsman's blade had pretty much all already obtained honorable ends. They most likely would be praised as brave and courageous by everyone up in their respective Gods' Kingdoms.

As for the ones currently remaining, they'd all already bowed their heads like the well-behaved citizens they were, going so far as to send their own sons and daughters to Garth City both to study and to act as hostages. Even if you sent them some courage, they wouldn't dare to obstruct Leon's business.

He wasn't called the King of the Seaside for nothing!

If Leon wanted to enlist workers, there wouldn't be many difficulties on the whole. The only bit of trouble was that the newly-recruited workers might include too many spies. He therefore had no choice but to send local workers to the Republic of Northwest to assist with construction, while local construction was handed over to the newly-recruited outsiders.

Would these newly-recruited foreign workers include spies? Would these spies cause trouble? Leon didn't care in the slightest.

If someone's spies caused trouble, he'd make a note of it in his black notebook; then, when he found the time, he would pick up his sword and go pay them a visit. He'd have a nice long talk with the leaders of those countries that had sent out the spies.

Of course, his approach was sure to be a friendly and amiable one, but who knew whether the other person might suddenly get unwell and contract some terrible illness or something.

Anyway, whatever happened was none of his business. Whether it was their heartbeats suddenly stopping, or them shouting and screaming as they committed suicide, or them maybe writing a baffling string of characters before dying—none of that was any of his business. In any case, he wasn't there to prove anything.

If a master at the legendary peak wanted to cause a bit of inconvenience for someone, how could he possibly make any mistakes!

Not long afterwards, all three territories began their enlistment of manpower.

Funnily enough, it just so happened that the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs was also enlisting at the same time. They were enlisting people for the invasion of the Kingdom of Dwarfs though, whereas the three territories which followed the Void Mask were enlisting for construction within the homeland. As the salary was about the same on all sides, quite a few low-level adventurers much preferred running off to join Garth City's workers rather than go to become soldiers for the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs.

This wasn't only because of money. Admittedly, being a worker was the tougher job and not as relaxing as being a soldier, and it did not have the extra income from looting after a victorious battle. But who could guarantee that the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs would win?

News traveled fast among the adventurers—relations were currently intensifying between the Orc Empire and the Kingdom of Dwarves. The Orc Empire's new emperor Ilo had even stated that if the Kingdom of Dwarves really did come into a crisis, he wouldn't mind putting on armor and heading out to the battle himself to help his new friends in battle. This was certainly just business talk, but everyone could see from it that the Orc Empire had strong support for the Kingdom of Dwarfs.

With the Orc Empire's support, the Kingdom of Dwarves was no longer the weak little country that had lost many kings in battle to the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. Now, whether or not the Mountain of Broken Clouds' Border-Developing Campaign could have positive results or not was something that could be brought into question!

The propaganda of those government officials naturally wasn't worth writing home about. Among the adventurers' currently more widespread opinions, even the most positive people believed that the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs wouldn't be able to gain more than a slight upper hand. If they wanted successive victories like they'd had in the past, seizing control of great quantities of wealth and resources—well, that was basically impossible.

Meanwhile, a more pessimistic view was that the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs would be utterly routed this time around, with the only question being how many losses they would take. The most pessimistic of all even suspected that the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs would have their army entirely defeated, with the Orc and Dwarf allied armies coming in with a counterattack to take back the land they had previously lost.

Whichever possibility you chose, the long and short of it was that this war was going to be a difficult one. Difficult meant that people would die, and the first ones to die would obviously be the mercenaries. If there weren't any other options, then they might as well. However, seeing as how going to Garth City to do manual labor was an option they could choose—aside from a few brave people with great skill or those willing to risk their lives for money—the large majority of adventurers decided they'd much rather just travel over to Garth after weighing the pros and cons.

After all, manual labor was a safe job, and what adventurers wanted to do was to earn money, not gamble their lives!

So Leon unwittingly struck a huge blow to the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs without moving a single soldier, ultimately giving the Kingdom of Dwarfs powerful assistance in their resistance against the coming invasion.