Cthulhu Gonfalon

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

Wall was originally born to a small merchant family and could be counted as being a part of the grassroots of society. He'd learned to fight in his youth; when he was 17 or 18 his family ran into unexpected trouble and not only lost the family fortune, but also owed a huge debt. He was left with no choice but to travel across the country as an adventurer, risking life and limb countless times for around ten years before finally being able to pay back that money.

Once he'd cleared out his debts, his inclination for adventure dampened, and he settled down instead. He'd originally planned to live out his years in this calm and steady manner, but unexpectedly, misfortune came knocking at his door again. Thus the legendary story of him drawing his Black Blade to kill a noble and creating the peerless hero who endlessly terrified all the nobles in the world for almost 100 years came about.

All these events were already in the past, but Wall would never forget them. Even if he'd already become a god, he was still rather unfriendly towards merchants and nobles. Conversely, he was quite friendly towards adventurers, but this didn't really match with the "knowledge" clergy at all.

On one hand, he'd gained some realizations while cultivating his mind and spirit these past few years, but on the other hand, he'd been influenced by the power of belief and slowly began to change. What this meant was that he was no longer hostile towards merchants and nobles; on the contrary, he was willing to give his respect to those merchants and nobles who had the ambition to learn or who were willing to spread civilization. Thus belief in him slowly began to spread throughout the middle and upper classes.

Whatever you might say about it, knowledge would always be an extremely important power. Having knowledge meant having immense resources in your grasp that could greatly aid you in both war and governance. Great nobles and merchants might be able to ignore it, but those elites who yearned to join the upper class were deeply committed to learning and were all actively educating their own members—none of this could come to be without "knowledge."

Not only that, but many spellcasters revered Wall as well. Academic magicians had always especially believed that knowledge was the foundation of magic, and that a mage's education must first start by teaching the cultural arts. All of this leaned towards the conduct of Wall's religion, and many such people had already become his believers.

So when Wall came to the Mifata Federation and called his church and believers to begin expanding their influence, establishing a sphere of scholarly cultural influence within the once tough-as-steel Country of Casters, what they gained wasn't the indifference Sui Xiong had originally been a little worried about, but a warm welcome and fervent support instead.

Because the God of Spellcaster Le-Peyroux had passed, the people of the Mifata Federation were now all a little anxious and apprehensive. Especially because for a long time now, Ymirjar Le-Peyroux had been the Federation's patron saint, the stabilizing force in everyone's hearts. No matter how many storms the Federation weathered through, as long as they had him, the mages all held total faith that they'd make it through.

And yet, he was gone.

Ever since the Federation was established, he'd been like a towering sacred mountain that reached to the heavens, withstanding any pressure. No matter how dangerous the situation, he could manage to make the correct decision or simply use his own great strength to break through their predicament. Generation after generation, from ancestors to offspring, the people of the Federation had long since grown used to his presence, even forming a habit of praying to Master Le-Peyroux whenever they ran into any inconvenience.

This was just like how people in the east back on Earth would often lament, "Oh Lord of Heaven," and people from the west liked to lament, "Oh my God."

And yet, he had already fallen. The Mifata Federation's "Lord of Heaven," their "God," no longer existed.

This left a lot of people feeling empty inside. Often, people would run into trouble and subconsciously begin to quietly pray to Le-Peyroux for his blessing, only to suddenly remember that the Federation's patron saint was already gone…

As a result, many people would suddenly start crying and completely break down in tears.

When the Church of the God of Knowledge stepped out to publicize their own doctrine and called everyone to believe in the God of Knowledge, they were taking advantage of the perfect moment. Those people whose hearts were empty wanted something to rely on, and the God of Knowledge's doctrines and experience all gave them very good opinions. As soon as the public appeals began, a lot of people came in with the currents, directly putting their belief in Wall.

Of course, Wall wasn't the only god to take the chance for wanton evangelizing; there were actually quite a few churches all throwing manpower and physical resources into missionary work within the Mifata Federation.

But missionary work wasn't something you could succeed at just by throwing down manpower and resources. Belief wasn't a business, and if your doctrine couldn't obtain people's approval, then even if they joined your church, they could never manage to become true believers.

This sort of situation was called "false belief," meaning, "I say I believe, but in truth, I don't."

The situation above this was called "careless belief," meaning "I usually don't have much belief, but at the very least I believe when I'm praying."

Careless believers still counted as believers, but their belief wasn't steady, and at least half of them would worship multiple gods at the same time. They'd choose different gods to pray to depending on the circumstance, and they would hope for those gods' blessings in return.

This was like the people in the east back on Earth, who believed in the sky, different gods and in their ancestors. In short, whoever was willing to bless him, they were willing to believe in.

Many westerners felt that the belief of those in the east was hypocritical and that they'd turned religion into a business. They thought that belief should be given to one subject alone, and as for a god's blessing, that was something to consider after you'd paid your share. They even thought that, regardless of whether or not you received any blessings, that shouldn't affect your investment.

On this basis, they developed the ideology, "Everyone should worship our god and non-believers deserve to be taken out and hacked to death." This ideology then developed into, "All believers should follow our school's method of worshipping and understanding God, or else you'll be branded heretics and hacked to death."

Eastern people generally just chuckled at this, while inwardly lamenting, "There's something wrong with their heads."

That kind of belief system naturally existed in this world as well. Believing in investment without asking for anything in return was called reverent belief, and thinking that those who didn't believe in your own god were committing a crime was called mad belief.

In addition, there was another type of person whose life philosophy agreed with a god's doctrines on a fundamental level, to the point that their every action was basically in accordance with the doctrine. This type was the rarest and was called upright belief.

Those believers between reverent belief and careless belief only followed one god, but if this god didn't bless them, then they couldn't be expected to stay loyal. If necessary, they would just switch religions. These kinds were called true believers.

False belief, careless belief, true belief, and reverent belief were the four most common types of religious belief. Aside from fake belief being at the lowest level, the other three all needed to have a certain level of acknowledgment of the god's doctrines in order to be attained.

The Mifata Federation was a country of casters, and modern mages often discussed things using culture as their foundation. Therefore, even old farmers who couldn't recognize their letters knew to respect the culture in this country. The God of Knowledge's doctrine very quickly gained everyone's acknowledgment, making the missionary work incredibly easy.

As for the other gods, they naturally didn't have this sort of advantage, so their missionary efficiency couldn't even compare to the Church of the God of Knowledge.

Moreover, the Church of the God of Knowledge had another big advantage as well: They had money, and lots of it too!

Having come across this once in a blue moon chance, Sui Xiong definitely didn't worry about such an insignificant thing as money. He rationalized that spending it was also promoting societal progress. Have you not heard of GDP, my lord? Earning money and spending it are both GDP, you know!

Therefore, he gave out the order and spent an ocean of money as if it were flowing water. You could even say that he was paving the way with gold.

Earning money wasn't easy, but anyone could spend it!

With adequate funding to back them, the Church of the God of Knowledge's missionaries truly didn't pay any attention to the costs. The missionaries in some areas even shouted the catchphrase, "We wish to promote the entire country's education."

This left other gods' churches green with envy, but none of them had any money to use, so envying was all they could do.

In barely four or five days' time, the Church of the God of Knowledge had expanded without restraint within the Mifata Federation, or at least, they had gained a few hundred thousand believers. On top of that, they were still growing. Even the rulers of cities, as well as high-level mages sitting at the peak of the mages' tower, all chose to believe in him.

Accompanying this great increase in believers was the rapid promotion of Wall's Divine Power, and before he knew it, he'd reached the standing of a mid-level Divine Power.