Cthulhu Gonfalon

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

In sharp contrast to the joyous atmosphere in the Kingdom of Dwarfs, the royal palace of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs was currently covered in dark clouds.

"Why! Why would the Void Mask suddenly appear? Not only that, but he's even chosen to sleep there… what in the world is he thinking!?" Dyke Spoolin felt as if he was soon about to explode; only through yelling and shouting was he able to give vent to the feelings pent up within him. This allowed him to calm down just enough so that he wouldn't burst into pieces on the spot.

He continued to roar for a while, then angrily glared at the head of intelligence. "Why didn't you get any news of this before? I don't expect you to be able to keep surveillance over a god, but why wasn't there a single hint of any of this within the daily reports you gave me on the Republic of Northwest and the Church of Void Mask's movements? I remember your people had analyzed at most ten days ago that the Void Mask was on bad terms with the Orcs, so their offering assistance here was likely because they'd discovered he was getting the Dwarves involved, they and hoped to prevent that… In which case, could you kindly tell me why the Void Mask would run over here to help both the Dwarves and the Orcs?"

The head of intelligence was a round-faced, middle-aged man of average height. At present, his brows were beaded with sweat, almost as if the grease had been squeezed out of his fat body. Because he was standing relatively close, King Dyke's angry roars had already covered his face in spit, but he didn't dare lift a hand to wipe it off, instead keeping a nervous smile plastered on his face.

He was afraid to even attempt to justify himself. All he could do was quietly receive the torrential downpour of denouncements.

King Dyke didn't have high martial skills, being at only an average level; after about half an hour of yelling, he finally got tired enough to stop and calmly looked to the head of intelligence for a reply.

It was only then that the head of intelligence said with a pained look on his face, "The Void Mask's way of handling matters has never been by the book—one could say that he does as he pleases. Often, he won't give his subordinates a word of warning before going ahead with action. I don't know what he's thinking, but I can guarantee that the Church of the Void Mask and all the people of the Republic of Northwest have absolutely no idea that he has come to assist the Dwarves and the Orcs."

This wasn't actually true, as Easter at least knew about it.

But… could the spies of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs get any information from him?

Hehe. They'd have to find a way to get into the heart of intelligence staff training to meet him in the first place!

Of course, there was no way King Dyke would know any of this. He felt that what the head of intelligence had said made a lot of sense. The Void Mask's actions didn't follow the rules of common sense—that was a commonly-known fact.

He was a jellyfish, after all.

You could analyze a human's thought patterns or those of a Dwarf or Orc, maybe even a demon, but could you really understand a jellyfish's way of thinking?

Who even heard of a jellyfish having "thought patterns" before?

Mages and Druids had researched all sorts of animals on this earth in the past, and while the concrete details of that research were no longer accessible, they'd ultimately made an "intelligence chart" for all the different creatures. On this chart, legendary creatures such as dragons were listed as having the highest intelligence, relatively intelligent creatures such as apes and monkeys were generally around the average level, then below that were cats and dogs and the like followed by birds and a few large fish. At the very bottom were creatures such as small fish and shrimp.

As for jellyfish, they were on par with your average insect, a species listed as "lacking intellect." Unless unusual changes occurred, these creatures basically had no intelligence to speak of and had only the most basic instincts.

Ever since the Void Mask appeared, quite a few people had begun studying jellyfish. Naturally, some of them even made an attempt to raise the creatures' intelligence, hoping they could bring them up to a level that could be called intelligent. From there, they hoped to begin studying their behavior patterns.

Regrettably, up to now, these studies had yet to produce any decent results.

King Dyke knew all of this, of course, which is why he knew that trying to guess the Void Mask's thoughts would be even more difficult than ascending to the heavens. You could at least use magic when trying to ascend, and if you had high-level magical talent then succeeding wasn't impossible, but guessing at a jellyfish's thoughts… Alas!

Truthfully, he'd only been using the head of intelligence to let off steam. He hadn't really expected him to be able to give any worthwhile answers.

"The thing's already happened, so we might as well focus on how we should respond." The only one still able to keep calm at a time like this was the chief mage. There was worry in his eyes, but this was still much better in comparison with the king and the gathered chancellors. "In actuality, this occurrence isn't necessarily entirely lacking in benefits for us. Our army has no way to advance with the Void Mask blocking the road, meaning that naturally, this battle can no longer be fought—but not needing to fight means we can avoid quite a few risks."

So saying, he turned to look at King Dyke.

King Dyke of course knew what he meant. Even if they'd managed to pull in assistance from the Mifata Federation, they couldn't be sure that this battle would end with their victory. They could only be sure that their odds of success would be relatively large. But to have to pay out such an enormous price just for a "relatively large" chance of victory… This truly wasn't worth it.

With the Void Mask currently blocking the space right between the two opposing sides, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs could use the excuse to back down, no longer needing to fight a war they had no certainty of winning. You couldn't say this wasn't a good thing.

Thinking of the price he had already paid, he couldn't help frowning once more.

"That Void Mask… why couldn't he have come earlier!" he said irritably. "It would have been wonderful, if only he had come ten or eight days sooner!"

Yes, if this had happened ten or eight days earlier, he would have given up immediately, and he wouldn't have paid such a great price to involve the Mifata Federation.

Now the Void Mask was here, and the war could no longer be fought, but they'd already sent out their declaration with the Mifata Federation. That meant that the arrangements had already been completed, and they couldn't take back the object they'd given before.

Thinking on it again, his eyes lit up, and he said in a low voice, "Do you all think… If I insisted on fighting now, would that be possible?"

His chancellors all paled at that, hurriedly trying to convince him to give up on this unreasonable idea. Only the chief mage looked pensive, lowering his head as he pondered the king's suggestion.

King Dyke ignored his chancellors' adjurations, only looking at the chief mage as he waited for an answer.

After a long while, the chief mage lifted his head and quietly sighed.

"I'm afraid it wouldn't be easy," he said. "Those bastards are quite shrewd!"

"You once taught me that there are no truly loyal people in this word, neither are their shrewd ones; as long as the lure is strong enough, anyone can lose their head, even the gods are no exception."

The chief mage nodded his head. "But we aren't capable of bringing out a big enough lure."

"If it isn't big enough, then we just have to add to it." A trace of determination flickered in King Dyke's eyes as he spoke. "Whatever the price, as long as it helps us reach that goal, I can consider it acceptable."

The chief mage began to ponder again. He thought for quite a long while before saying, "Your Majesty, I believe that in this matter… it wouldn't hurt to ask for instruction."

Ask for instruction? Who could the king ask for instruction?

The gods, of course.

King Dyke stared dumbfounded for a moment before realizing what he meant; then he began laughing aloud.

"You're right! I really should 'ask for instruction' here!"

He said the phrase slowly, putting emphasis on each word as the teacher and student looked at each other and smiled.

If Sui Xiong were here and saw this scene, he would probably have muttered to himself and given them each a fox's tail.