Cthulhu Gonfalon

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

Before war broke out, Sui Xiong sent a priest to arrange a meeting with one of the priests of the God of Aristocracy.

He wasn't planning to stage any kind of nauseatingly melodramatic scene involving "rivers of blood below, drinking and gambling above." What he wanted was to use this time before the inevitable falling out to ask a few things.

A few things… that had happened over 40 years ago.

The two priests' meeting place was a particularly high-class restaurant, inside of which were a number of private rooms. They weren't large, just big enough for five or six friends to eat and drink together, or possibly for two or three people to have a private chat.

Sui Xiong's priest arrived first. Upon arrival, he immediately broke the legs of every chair in the room and moved the only intact one to the northwest corner. Then he pulled out a green-dyed, wooden jellyfish figurine and respectfully placed it on the table. He devoutly kneeled in worship before it before casually pouring out a few drinks over the dining table. He was standing solemnly in front of the sculpture like some sort of waiter quietly waiting for the other person to arrive.

After a long while, the God of Aristocracy's priest walked in.

This priest was dressed in an entirely different style from the Void Mask's priest. He wore an embroidered brocade gown so gorgeous it was enough to make people fear approaching. On this gown was an innumerable number of Magic Runes. If someone were to recklessly use magic sight to look at it, they'd be so dazzled that they might immediately go blind. The priest himself was robust and prosperous. You could tell at a glance that he lived like a prince by that round chin with at least four or five rolls of fat beneath and a protruding fat belly stuffed full of who knows how much of the nation's hard-earned wealth.

By comparison, the Void Mask's priest was much more plain. He was dressed in sackcloth with a suit of light armor and a single long staff. He was also carrying a little backpack on his back, giving off the dignified appearance of a traveler. Compared to this priest from the God of Aristocracy, he truly looked extremely poor.

But the truth was that this was all a misconception. The God of Aristocracy's priest wasn't actually a fat, good-for-nothing loser living off the wealth of the people, and the Void Mask's priest wasn't some destitute traveler either. If the need arose, both of them had enough talent to face a 100-man army without any trouble, fighting if they wanted and leaving if they felt like it.

High-level clergymen generally had that sort of ability.

The first thing the God of Aristocracy's priest saw as he walked in was the Void Mask's priest standing solemnly before a holy sculpture. It was only after that he noticed the broken chairs and the soaking-wet table, and couldn't help letting out a bitter laugh.

According to custom, in a negotiation like this, the two sides should bring out figures of their gods to worship, an act which signified that this was a holy conference being watched over by the gods. But at this moment, aside from those chairs with sawed-off legs, there was only a table covered in spilled drinks. Neither of these was fitting for worshipping a holy figure, which made things rather difficult for him.

But this priest was a high-level one after all, with a quick-witted mind. It didn't take much thinking for him to come up with a solution.

He pulled out a silver-colored seed and a vessel of holy water from his storage belt, filled a clean empty bowl to the brim with holy water, put the seed inside, and began reciting incantations. In an instant, that seed began to grow branches and leaves. It didn't take more than a moment's effort for the seed to become a little silver tree, at the top of which there was an inexplicable hollow shape. It was the perfect size for him to place the God of Aristocracy's holy figure and pray to it before also standing in attendance.

In this short span of time, with the help of a magic weapon and holy water, he'd created a temporary shrine.

At this point, you could see the different details within the two churches. The Church of the Void Mask was a newly-emerging one, having talented people but lacking in resources, while the Church of the God of Aristocracy relied on the Human God System. They had profound levels of inside information, but their talent was slightly inferior in comparison.

The negotiation had yet to begin, and the two priests had already used such a trivial thing as worshipping holy figures as an excuse to have a fight. They each had their advantages, so it was hard to tell the outcome.

Once both sides' holy figures had been worshipped, the two priests didn't say a word, but divine thoughts were crossing swords in the space between them.

This was the two gods each sending down a sliver of divine thought, attaching themselves to their holy figures, and opening the negotiation.

Negotiations between high-level priests like this were pretty much all like this. They were just there to act as witnesses and to pass the story on to the believers in their church. The actual negotiation was between the gods the two sides believed in.

The first to speak was the God of Aristocracy. He was disinclined to exchange greetings, instead directly asking, what exactly did Sui Xiong mean by this? Why was he secretly contacting him when the two sides were clearly about to go to war?

Sui Xiong skipped the pleasantries as well, giving the other an honest explanation of his purpose in coming.

"About 40 years ago, there was a Golden Tower City in the Mifata Federation. Your believers existed in this city, along with believers of the God of Knights, and both sides were at constant war with each other. Because the believers of the God of Knights were lacking in money, they slowly began to lose their advantage. It was then that a great merchant made contact with trade routes on the distant seas, so both sides set out only to run into the legendary sea monster, Undercurrent Timsar. They died together on the sea. Because their families were in debt from buying goods, your church pressed them into quite a wretched state…" Sui Xiong gave his simple summary of what had happened in the past, then asked, "I've always felt that something odd had been going on in the background back then. What do you think?"

The God of Aristocracy laughed indifferently. "There's nothing odd there, that sea monster was lured there by a clergyman of mine. In truth, even that long voyage and the moment they borrowed money were all planned out in secret by my clergyman."

"But didn't he die as well?"

"Dying for the sake of evangelizing is an honorable death indeed," said the God of Aristocracy. "His soul has already been received into my God's Kingdom. In a clergyman's point of view, what could be wrong with this sort of death?"

It was only then that Sui Xiong fully understood. He nodded, then said, "There is another thing I'd like to ask. When there was civil strife in the Kingdom of Eagle, Prince Woods launched an armed rebellion and killed the king…"

"That was also something pushed forward by my believers," said the God of Aristocracy, not waiting for him to finish. "Though the difference between this and the other incident is that in the other, they formulated, planned, and carried it out on their own; all I did was approve the report they submitted. This one I personally plotted and promoted, and I even sent a legendary Oracle."

"Then why did you suddenly retreat after all your great success without obtaining any profits?" Sui Xiong wasn't at all surprised by his reply, but he was extremely curious about the events that had followed.

The God of Aristocracy was quiet for a while, then let out a heavy, wordless sigh.

Sui Xiong waited a long time without receiving an answer. He was puzzled at this and so couldn't help asking, "What is it? Is something like this really worth keeping secret?"

"There's nothing to hide about it."

"Then why won't you tell me?"

"Why must you ask?" asked the God of Aristocracy in reply. "What use do you get out of knowing all this?"

Sui Xiong smiled, but he didn't reply. How could it be useful? He was just curious, is all. He really was puzzled right now, though. Why was the God of Aristocracy refusing to talk?

Could it be… he wasn't able to? Or maybe… he was afraid to?

Having thought up to this point, he got an idea and asked, "Did someone order you to retreat?"

The God of Aristocracy went back to playing mute.

Sui Xiong immediately confirmed his guess—as expected, the reason the God of Aristocracy had been in such a rush to start the great purge after pushing Woods Igor into seizing the throne had originally been because he wanted his own church to occupy the Kingdom of Eagle. But just when the purge was complete, before he could find the time to rake in the fruits of his labor, he'd unexpectedly been forced to leave by the God of Light. As a result, he'd wasted his energy and gained nothing at all.

In which case, why had the God of Light forced him to retreat? Was it because he was on good terms with the God of Knights? Or was it some other reason?

Sui Xiong couldn't be sure, but he knew that he wouldn't be getting any more information here.

He was silent for a while then said, "I have one more thing I'd like to discuss with you."

"What is it?"

"Don't you think your doctrine isn't comprehensive enough?" Sui Xiong hesitated a moment but ultimately still decided to give his suggestion. "An aristocrat's status should be able to go up or down so that an ancestor's honor cannot become capital to be enjoyed for every subsequent generation. If the offspring don't make something of themselves, it would only be right for them to lose their noble rank."

"Like what you have going on over at the Republic of Northwest?" The God of Aristocracy had evidently studied the Republic of Northwest's aristocratic system. There was a grin of dissatisfaction on his face as he asked in return, "So it's fine if your ancestors' struggles are turned into insignificant honor? Then what point is there in the people's shedding blood as they strive?"

"The ancestors didn't fight for their successors to become opponents in other people's struggles!"

"Who would work so hard, if not to stand above others! If not to let their family stand above others for generations to come! Who would put in so much of their heart into their church and country! Why don't you go read some history books!"

"People can't always live in the past; they need to look to the future and push forward for historical progress," urged Sui Xiong. "Just look at the late Ymirjar Le-Peyroux, that's what he did. Is there anyone now who still follows the practices of the Witch Age?"

"In all these years, there's only ever been the one Le-Peyroux," scoffed the God of Aristocracy. "Do you want everyone to be Le-Peyroux? That's unrealistic."

"The Main Plane only has so much land, but there is no limit to the aristocracy's greed. If this goes on, no family can last for long. Whether it be in a few decades or a few centuries, those people who have been so crushed by greed that they have nowhere else to go will eventually rise up and put an end to the aristocracy. When that time comes, any kind of family will be destroyed," said Sui Xiong. "I've studied history before. Since ancient times, there has rarely been a family that lasted more than 200 years, most of them dying out in the fourth or fifth generation. It was because their successors had fallen entirely into corruption, oppressing the people to the point they had no choice but to revolt."

"Is being able to pass it on for four or five generations not enough?" asked the God of Aristocracy in return. "A mortal's lifespan is only so brief. Is being able to pass on their family's honor for four or five generations not enough reason for them to fight?"

"But why can't they use a gentler method? Something more progressive, more capable of pushing later generations to continue striving…"

"That's not possible!" came the God of Aristocracy's stiff reply. "Breaking long-held traditions just for an insignificant bit of progress is a stupid way of handling things. I'm not going to hurt my core believers' benefits. That's my absolute position."

"Well then, I'll have to do it myself." Sui Xiong let out a heavy sigh. "Don't blame me when the time comes."

"If you can really push the entire aristocratic system to change, I'll certainly already have fallen by then," said the God of Aristocracy in a dull voice. "When that happens, you can tell the new God of Aristocracy about what we spoke about today."

Having finished speaking, the holy figure in the temporary shrine shook slightly; The God of Aristocracy had already taken back the sliver of divine thought.