Cthulhu Gonfalon

Something surprising had happened at Gale Prefecture in the Duchy of Thunder recently.

Baron Keane, who had been dying, suddenly recovered from his illness and then carried out a large-scale verification and adjustment process among his subordinates. A large number of subordinates who had originally occupied key positions were transferred to idle positions that lacked power. Many more people had been found guilty of various crimes and punished.

The most surprising one was the chef of Keane’s family, a well-known man throughout Gale Prefecture. He had been found poisoning the Baron Keane’s food!

Such a crime was, of course, unforgivable. In accordance with the law, the chef’s family members had to be punished as well. But Baron Keane said that the chef had been working for the Keane family for many years. He should be given credit for his hard work, if not for merit. Even if he had made a mistake, his own life would be enough to justify the crime. His family had nothing to do with the matter, so Baron Keane specially remitted their punishment.

How did Baron Kean recover so quickly? How could he find the wrongdoer within his family? Why was he so kind? These were the most puzzling things for people.

Inside the secret chamber of the Church of the God of Aristocracy, the Archbishop of Gale Prefecture said with a sneer, “Crick Keane is a scholar after all. He can’t do great things with mercy and a kind heart!

“He is a believer in the Distant Song, a weak doctrine. Its church organization is small as well. All in all, it is because they lack resoluteness and decisiveness in action.” The Bishop who had been responsible for dealing with under-the-table affairs was full of disdain and ridicule. “Whether they are gods or men, they are weak. Even if they were reaching the end of their lives, all they could do is kick their legs and refuse to die. How can they have the courage to kill?”

The Archbishop nodded slightly and made some arrangements for other work.

Such a Baron was not worth so much effort. Since this Baron was popular among the people right now, there was nothing the Archbishop could do. He needed to wait until the Baron was not popular, then it would be the right time for the Archbishop to deal with him.

Anyway… Even if he could play more tricks, he could not change the fact that he was just a Baron. How much manpower and money could a Baron have? How much impact could he have on the upper class?

Behind the Church of the Aristocracy, there were the great aristocratic groups.

Crick, or Sui Xiong, didn’t know that. His “system” was not so strong that once someone set him up, a reminder would pop up saying, “Task: Fighting Against Assassination” or something like that. All his energy was now in internal purging.

The results of the purging were astonishing! After gauging his subordinates’ loyalty, he was shocked. All kinds of problems made Knight James, who had been truly loyal to Sui Xiong, jump into a rage. If Sui Xiong hadn’t stopped him, James would have pulled out his sword on the spot to cut those people down.

Crick himself was shocked too. Although he had made some preparations in his mind, he had never thought the problem could be so serious! In fact, much of Baron Keane’s power had been overridden. Lower and middle-ranking officials who had been loyal to him had either been excluded from useful positions or directly killed—there had been around five murders!

“These guys must be crazy! They don’t take human life seriously!”

After looking at the crime files for a while, he angrily threw them on the desk and sighed. Then he picked up the wheat tea and poured half a cup the cold liquid into his mouth, but it was still unable to suppress his anger.

He had been drinking wheat tea after he recovered, and he was not used to the kind of tea that nobles often drank. Nobles drank tea that was made by grinding and boiling spices. Then they added some spice powder into the filtered tea, which was beyond the acceptable range of a Chinese man. He would rather drink fried wheat tea from the Northwest Void Mask Land because at least it had a clean flavor.

Since the “Traverser Sui Xiong MK5” had suspected some things of the Void Mask Land before, Sui Xiong specifically modified the memory of Crick Keane, or “Traverser Sui Xiong MK6,” to make him ignore earthen style things and avoid further trouble. But he did not modify Crick’s aesthetic standard. Thus, Crick’s eating habits and lifestyle had been undergoing subtle changes.

In general, he had been gradually less sociable among nobles and more close to the lower-middle class.

After all, Sui Xiong was originally a poor person!

He couldn’t really understand the ideas of the upper class. Those nobles who had a good relationship with Crick Keane, after knowing about the current situation of the Keane family, had given suggestions that were simply baffling!

One friend’s suggestion was, “Sell your property, live in the Void Mask Land, and settle down there for the rest of your life. Having money in hand and knowing art so well that you can go there and compile operas or something. Besides, the temple of your church is there too. They will take care of you more or less.”

That was too cowardly. Crick really hated that. But anyway, it was still something could be taken as a suggestion. At least it could be implemented.

By contrast, the suggestions of several other friends made him wonder whether or not they were on drugs!

Their suggestions could be summed up in one word, killing.

Killing all the disloyal people, hanging their bodies on the roadside to deter those who had been unfaithful—this is what they said.

Come on… There were hundreds of people! To kill so many people at one time—wouldn’t he become a great devil?

What’s more…Where would he find an executioner to kill so many people? He would be regarded as a lunatic!

But those nobles did not think so. They said that nobles were sacred and inviolable. Anything or anyone that dared to harm nobles should be severely punished. There would be absolutely no tolerance.

Crick laughed and said that he would consider their suggestions carefully, and then he told the steward, Layton, to be on guard against these guys.

“Aren’t those of His Excellency’s opinions reasonable?” Asked Layton.

“But they are idiots.” Crick sighed. “You know, teammates who are as silly as pigs are more terrible than opponents who are as smart as gods! If the force that has infiltrated our family like is a smart opponent, then they are silly teammates. Layton, silliness is contagious, too!”

Layton nodded repeatedly, though he didn’t completely understand that.

At dinner of the next day, he asked curiously, “Sir, is silliness really contagious?”

Crick pondered for a long time trying to find an explanation, but when he saw Layton’s character attributes, he sighed deeply and gave up.

[Layton, 10 in Strength, 12 in Physique, 10 in Agility, 12 in Perception, 9 in Intelligence, 10 in Charm, 120 in Reputation. Occupation: Steward at Level 5, Priest at Level 1, 100 in Loyalty]

Without any help, the steward had already been a silly man!

“That was just a joke.” He ended the conversation with a simple sentence and then looked at James, the head of the Regiment of Knights. James had insisted on standing next to Crick but refused to eat together with him.

[James, 14 in Strength, 14 in Physique, 12 in Agility, 10 in Perception, 9 in Intelligence, 10 in Charm, 200 in Reputation. Occupation: Warrior at Level 3, Knight at Level 4, Hill Lord at Level 1, 100 in Loyalty.]

Both of his two generals, in fact, were a bit silly…

Sighing deeply, Crick said, “Let’s talk about Spencer’s suggestion.”

Spencer Smith, the deputy head of the Regiment of Knights in the Church of the God of Knights at Duchy of Thunder, was in charge of the official affairs of Gale Prefecture. This young knight was a brilliant rising star. He had even entered the final stage of the World’s No.1 Martial Arts Competition in the Void Mask Land and had been one of the top 16. It had been only in the winners’ group that he had met the “Bow Master” Lewre Spoolin and in the losers’ group that he had met the “Thunder Battleaxe” Soocher Magnus. Soocher Magnus stopped in the top 8 and failed to go any further.

Compared with his subordinates, Crick felt that this young expert’s suggestion would be more reliable.

No matter what, his intelligence was higher than those subordinates!

[Spencer Smith, 20 in Strength, 18 in Physique, 16 in Agility, 14 in Perception, 14 in Intelligence, 18 in Charm, 650 in Reputation. Occupation: Warrior at Level 3, Knight at Level 8, Paladin at Level 8, 80 in Friendliness.]

Look at those gorgeous attributes! Look at that high reputation! Look at his great level in total!

What was a winner of life? This was it!

Crick believed that if a fight broke out, it would be possible for Spencer alone to destroy the entire Regiment of Knights led by his Baron without any difficulties.

So he felt that Spencer’s suggestion could still be reserved. If it wouldn’t work, the whole family could just gather their money and run away.

Thinking of that, he could not help but sigh deeply.

The situation before him was too grim!

Maybe they thought Crick was unable to turn the tides, or they had no fear because of their strong power. Those guys who had set Sui Xiong up didn’t cover up the news very carefully. After a little searching, he found out who was behind the group of traitors.

It was the Church of the God of Aristocracy.

The answer did not surprise him, but it made him somewhat depressed.

The opponents were too strong, which made the revenge too hard!

The Church of the God of Aristocracy had been developing faster and faster these years, and its influence had become larger and larger. They had received support from the great nobles represented by the king. For the nobles of the rank of Viscount and Baron, they mainly tried to get their cooperation. But if they refused to cooperate, the church would eliminate them. In recent years, many nobles who had been determined not to cooperate with them were killed.

Crick Keane had been a firm believer in the God of Art and Culture. The church of the God of Art and Culture had been a major target for the exclusion and attack of the Church of the God of Aristocracy, so this young Baron reasonably appeared on the list and lost his life.

After dinner, Crick took the files and sat in his study to think.

After a while, he sighed deeply. “Crick Keane, whether you get revenge for yourself or solve the problems facing the Keene family, it’s going to be very difficult…”