Cthulhu Gonfalon

Sui Xiong was a student in the Goddess of Joy's kingdom for three months, and eventually, the Goddess of Joy felt that he had learned enough theory—everything else had to be put into practice.

One could say that he had graduated.

"You're a very talented person. Although you have some flaws in your knowledge and can lack seriousness and dependability at times, your sudden inspirations and passion help to mitigate that," the Goddess of Joy had commented as she sent him on his way.

"Your level of knowledge has already surpassed many other gods. Let's not talk about mere kingdom-building, I want to see you build other things… For example, you mentioned in the past that you would like to build a "warm fortress," that sounds really interesting. You're different from me. You're a relaxed and exploratory creator. As someone who has come before you, I'm excited to see what you'll be able to come up with!"

Sui Xiong had smiled and thanked her before taking his leave.

Although his journey in the Sorrow-Proof Field had been full of hardship, he had also sufficiently met his goal of coming here and even received much new inspiration.

When Sui Xiong had returned to his kingdom, he was excited to start improving its' facilities. However, upon his arrival, he was informed that the Goddess of Love had come to visit.

"Huh? What is she here for?"

Sui Xiong was rather apprehensive but still consented to the meetup.

The Goddess of Love had appeared and resigned.

In a very unhappy tone, she had said to Sui Xiong, "What exactly did you say to mislead Kalisa? Although I could sense that she has come to understand her inner values, she insists on not changing her faith… which must be your doing!"

Sui Xiong was of course aware of this. Previously, the Goddess of Love had teleported down to the human world to test Kalisa's faith. She had spent significant effort and used several means to get Kalisa to admit that she only had her lover on her mind and cared about nothing else.

Since she had admitted that, it was natural that Kalisa should then follow the Goddess of Love. However, Kalisa had given the goddess an extremely surprising answer.

"What you say makes sense, and I approve of your teachings. However, my heart has no space for anyone other than Leon, and you are no exception."

Sui Xiong was not at the scene and thus did not witness the Goddess of Love's reaction, but he could bet that she had been extremely disappointed at that point in time.

As for Sui Xiong… When he had received the news, he had been studying with the Goddess of Joy and had casually brought it up for them to laugh about together.

This could be considered karma for the Goddess of Love for the last six months!

The Goddess of Love was not someone who gave up easily. One could see this from how stubborn she had been previously when she was at loggerheads with Sui Xiong. So she had not given up simply due to Kalisa's initial rejection and had stayed in Garth City to bother Kalisa on a daily basis.

However, to her disappointment, Kalisa was extremely steadfast in her belief and would not budge no matter what the Goddess of Love said.

She was not even willing to become the Goddess of Love's Holy Spirit!

"While alive, I want to be with Leon. When I die, I also want to be with him! If he can become a god afterwards, I'll go to his kingdom. If not, wherever he goes, I'll follow."

The Goddess of Love had been extremely angry, but she could not have retaliated as such a lovesick concept was directly in line with her own values.

"Don't you want to become stronger? If you do, you could help him. If you follow me, I could promote you to the level of an elector and give you immense power," the Goddess of Love had proposed.

"I won't take the branch for the root. Having power is good but I can live without it, and I won't change myself for it." Kalisa had thought about it for a while and finally responded.

When Sui Xiong heard about this, he had immediately sent out a flash of holy light which materialized into a necklace-shaped artifact in Kalisa' hands.

His intentions were clear—the Goddess of Love wanted to poach Kalisa and fight him? He could easily respond!

The Goddess of Love was easily defeated then and there. Although she had mid-level Divine Powers, she did not have a strong body to act against such a move.

So she had come to find Sui Xiong to stir trouble in anger.

"I feel like you shouldn't have come. Faith is free. Whoever Kalisa chooses to follow is her choice. If you couldn't convince her otherwise, that is your problem, not mine," Sui Xiong had said in an innocent-sounding way.

"Well, you supported her! She was originally ready to change her mind." The Goddess of Love was infuriated.

"Are you crazy? You've been actively poaching my discipline, and you expect me to do nothing about it? That's way too selfish, even for you!"

The Goddess of Love was speechless as she knew that he was right, and she could only stare at him angrily, brows furrowed.

"But… but…"

"There's nothing more for you to say. The fact that I didn't stop you when you approached Kalisa already shows some grace on my part. You shouldn't be so unreasonable."

The Goddess of Love was speechless, and she could only rage internally.

She did not stay angry for long, though, and eventually, she asked Sui Xiong to guide her on how to gain faithful disciples who would stick with her and not be swayed.

Was there really a need for such a thing to be taught? Sui Xiong felt mystified.

In his opinion, a follower was like a good friend who respected you. If such a friend were to choose to end the friendship or lost respect for you in the future, they would be free to do so. One did not really need to worry about ensuring followers were permanent; such efforts were rather unnecessary and a waste of time.

The Goddess of Love's face changed once Sui Xiong voiced this opinion out loud.

She had an unreadable expression that wasn't anger nor jealousy, but rather… If Sui Xiong were to return to the present, one could say that she was staring at him as if he was slow.

Of course, this angered Sui Xiong.

"Hey! What's that look supposed to mean?"

"Nothing much, I'm just shocked." The Goddess of Love shook her head and continued to glance at Sui Xiong with the same look. Suddenly, she had a flash of inspiration and started nodding her head furiously.

"What are you thinking about now?" Sui Xiong asked.

"Nothing much! I'm leaving." The Goddess of Love turned away, but Sui Xiong stopped her.

"No, you're not allowed to leave until you explain yourself!"

"There's nothing much to say…"

"Do you think I'm stupid? That look clearly meant that you disagree with what I say!"

"Well…"

In the end, Sui Xiong was unable to squeeze the answer out of her, and he was left feeling extremely unsatisfied and internally more alert for any nonsense that the Goddess of Love might pull.

At the end of the day, I'm still very different when compared to the gods of this world…