Cthulhu Gonfalon

“Madam, there is no response from the Plated Orb.” As the night grew darker and darker, the hotel lobby which was requisitioned by the church of the God of Aristocracy, was ablaze with lights. A knight in black plated armor came down the stairs and reported to a woman sitting in a chair near the door. She had been leisurely reading a book.

The woman put down her book. Her beautiful face showed a little astonishment and doubt. “That’s so strange! Crick should have fled. Could it be that he doesn’t have a scroll which records transmission magic or a Return Skill?”

“Maybe he wants to get out of the town through a tunnel,” a female wizard named Maggie said casually. She was sitting at a table next to the woman with her legs crossed. “The Keane Family has been running for several generations. Maybe there is a tunnel that leads outside of town.”

She stretched lazily and switched her legs. While switching her position, her slender legs were exposed under her high-forked robe. Some knights nearby obviously looked at those legs with brightened eyes, but they all turned their heads with privity and dared not to look anymore.

This woman had great power. You’d better not provoke her!

The woman who was reading was Machee Smith, the principal of the Church of the God of Aristocracy. She meditated, shook her head and said, “I am very familiar with the Keane Family, but I’ve never heard of any tunnel before. Although Crick did a good job of keeping my people from high-ranking, decision-making positions, there aren’t any tunnels. That’s impossible!”

“Is he stupid enough not to take any actions?” the female wizard asked. “I don’t think a person who has gotten so famous in just a few months can be so silly.”

Machee nodded slightly and thought for a moment. Suddenly, she turned to a curly-bearded man with heavy armor who was standing beside her and asked, “Paul, what would you do if you were him?”

The curly-bearded man was very tall and strong. More importantly, his face showed the righteousness of a decent warrior. After hearing Machee’s inquiry, he thought for a while and said, “As a vassal of our Majesty the Highness, I can’t escape from my due responsibility. Therefore, I would get my affairs in order and prepare to take my subordinates out on the expedition. But due to the unknown dangers of an expedition, it would be necessary for me to delay the expedition as long as possible so that I could live longer.”

Machee and the female wizard looked at each other and suddenly understood everything.

For them, “self-sacrifice” was an absolutely impossible choice because they were the kind of people who put themselves in front of everything, so neither of them thought in that way. But Baron Keane could be considered a moral model among the nobility. Even if his lord asked him to die, he would die without any hesitation. He would not try to escape from his responsibility. He had never thought of escaping.

They had distinct values and outlooks on life, and that’s why they didn’t understand Crick in the beginning.

“Well done,” Machee nodded and praised him. She smiled faintly. She was satisfied to see the uncontrollable joy on the man’s face, but actually, she felt very disgruntled.

She had taken a lot of measures, made many arrangements and convened quite a few hands to deal with Crick only to find that everything was useless because the opponent had died. She was very frustrated because she felt that she had wasted a lot of time and energy.

She even convinced a decent adventurer to pretend as Paul, a man who had saved Crick and his sister when they were children. Then she used this adventurer to trick Crick who had always adored Paul. But originally, she planned to find an opportunity to trick this gifted but stubborn Crick into a trap. If he was determined not to change his faith, then she would stab him to death as a sacrifice to her Majesty. However, Crick went directly to the Eagle Kingdom for death because of the God of Knight’s Oracle.

That was too abominable! He is such a bastard! He can only be killed by me!

She closed her eyes, took several deep breaths, and suppressed the restlessness in her heart. Then she regained her calm and ordered, “Now that’s the case, everyone will have a good rest these days. When the news of Crick’s death comes, we shall kill his sister. Anyway, since we are here, we must grab the Keane family’s territory and industry.

Her men obeyed her order with pleasure because the tough battle in their original plan merely turned out to be killing a little girl. Most importantly, they would still get their original benefits. How easy this task was!

Maggie picked up the book, The Art of Performing, written by the famous poet Shevariel von Stolovsky Franz and read it carefully. She was not a genius, so she had to strive to improve in order to find the right path in life.

It was about this time that the clerk of Viscount Erik was writing something down in a room of Eagle Wing City.

He used a brush bought from the Void Mask Chamber of Commerce. It was dipped in pungent green ink, and he wrote on a red animal skin that smelled like blood.

What he wrote was the basic information of those scouts who were recruited during the day, in which he emphasized Rien particularly. He recorded as much detail as possible about this young elite who came from the Association of Thieves: his appearance, attire, habits of speech and manners, major abilities, personality assessment, etc.

The piece of animal skin was soon full of words. The clerk examined it carefully and made sure that it was correct. Then he picked it up and threw it into the burning brazier on the ground beside him.

It was strange to say that this animal skin looked solid, but it burned quickly when it encountered fire. The flames were very small, but its burning speed was very fast. The whole animal skin had burned into white ashes without a trace in just a few seconds.

The clerk examined the brazier carefully, then covered and wrapped the rest of the ink and put it into an inconspicuous box. This box was made of a special wood that could absorb odor, and there were lots of ink and animal skins in it.

After finishing this, the clerk cleaned up everything on the table and took out two magic scrolls to clean his body and absorb the odor of the house. Then he burned the magic scrolls that had lost their magic and turned them into blank parchment. Finally, he opened the doors and windows to ventilate the room so all traces of his actions would disappear.

After all this work had been done, he put out the brazier and went to bed.

…

Among the Orcs’ barracks thousands of miles away, there was a camp that was guarded by a large number of troops. Several Orcs with great power were sitting there solemnly. They were watching the animal skins that were pinned to the magic array in the sky.

These magic arrays were made of precious materials with each corresponding to a focal point. As soon as there was news from a focal point, it would be received immediately.

At that moment, words appeared on one of the animal skins and quickly covered the whole skin. The words appeared exactly as how the clerk had written them.

An Orc took down that animal skin, replaced it with a blank one and then scrutinized the information on it carefully.

“Ah,” he said with a little worry, “there comes another powerful figure among the humans.”

Another Orc nearby looked at it and frowned. “Where does this type of person come from? He almost possesses the stealth ability of a high-level thief, and the shooting ability and sharp observational skills of a high-level paladin… Such a scout is just like a trump card.”

“This news must be reported quickly, and a specialist should be arranged to kill this guy and remove this unstable factor as soon as possible,” the leader of the Orcs said grimly. “Our emperor’s grand goals shouldn’t be hindered by any enemy.”

All the Orcs answered seriously, and one of them took this document to report it immediately.

After a while, this document was sent to a figure wearing a hood in his own barrack. His appearance could not be seen clearly.

“Lord Atel, this is what Lord Elo asked me to send to you,” the herald said. “Lord Elo asked you to remove this hidden danger as soon as possible.”

The man in hood didn’t answer, but he nodded in order to show that he had understood.

After the herald left, he unfolded this rolled animal skin, scanned it carefully and laughed coldly under his hood.

“A little guy possesses the ability of both a high-level thief and a high-level paladin… No wonder they worry so much! If this guy appears in the Scout War, we don’t know how much trouble he will bring us!”

“All right. Since I have nothing to do now, I shall find him in person and make sure that this hidden danger is no more.”

Atel went to the entrance of the camp, gave the animal skin to the guard and said a few words to him. Suddenly, the hooded Orc disappeared into the shadow without any warning.

After only a few minutes, Atel appeared in the air force camp again. He asked the quartermaster for a mount with low combat abilities, but that could fly very fast when needed.

“Lord Atel, I wish you a good journey!”

The dangerous person who inherited the name of “assassin” was of the most powerful stalkers and killers in the Orcs army. Among the soldiers’ farewells, Atel waved to the ground and rode the flying mount which had been resting and saving its strength all this time. He rose to the sky slowly, headed south and soon disappeared into the night.

…

Suddenly, Leon, who was sleeping in the guest room of the house of Viscount Tariq, was shocked and opened his eyes.

With a flash of light in his hand, the sword “Holy Avenger” appeared. Strange ripples appeared on the silver-white sword through the moonlight reflected from the window. Leon closed his eyes and concentrated his mind on the sword. The mysterious power linked his heart to the divine sword, making him feel as if he had become a fresh breeze rising up into the sky.

A dark red breath was approaching slowly in the northern sky.

With strange ripples gradually subsiding, Leon opened his eyes and sneered.

“It seems that some of the Orcs are coming for me…” he snorted and said unhappily. “There are so many ears and eyes in the Eagle Kingdom… I just arrived today, and the Orcs already know of my arrival.”

“Forget it. Finding the traitor is not what I should do. I shall be ready to welcome that friend from far away!”

He looked at the chilling and shining sword and showed a dangerous smile on his face.

“I must give him a very important lesson…”