Cthulhu Gonfalon

Dahl’s Baron Hill?

Sui Xiong froze for a moment before recalling this place.

That was a relatively remote territory. Sui Xiong originally intended to use it as a site for experiments, and then he would send his church’s “European Prince,” Kabbalah, who was most highly-skilled in summoning Oracles, to be the bishop.

According to what Sui Xiong thought, the local lord belonged to the evil camp, so he was bound to clash with Kabbalah, who came from the good camp. By that time, Kabbalah would have no choice but to summon the Oracles for help. He could then test and verify the help that Oracles could render to these mid-ranked Oracles.

And he could take the chance to see how far these Oracles could be of use, and he could also test for the types of advancements the Oracles could make… in short, there were many things for him to study and experiment with.

However, even gods could not get everything to proceed as smoothly as they wished without any hiccups. Sui Xiong might have designed a good plan, but things did not go the way he expected. Or rather, Baron Dahl’s approach was the exact opposite of what Sui Xiong had expected.

According to his plan, Baron Dahl would not have been able to tolerate the help and organization that the Church of the Void Mask was giving the poor. So sooner or later, he would get into a serious conflict with the Church of the Void Mask. But in fact, after witnessing the combat power of the Church of the Void Mask, Baron Dahl had all but banished any intention of military confrontation. After all, for him, even if the poor people in his territory became stronger and harder to control, it would cost him nothing more than spending a few monies or cannon fodder. It was not worth taking the risk of losing his troops over this.

How much was a poor man’s life worth? The deaths of a dozen of his elite soldiers would cost him much more than all the poor people of the entire Dahl City put together!

With such a thought in mind, Baron Dahl began to make peace by fostering a friendlier relationship with the Church of the Void Mask. And not too long later, as the conflict between the merchant party and the aristocratic party intensified, Baron Dahl found himself in a dilemma. Baron Dahl did not want to join the merchant party or the aristocratic party. So in the end, he gnashed his teeth and immediately sought refuge with the Church of the Void Mask, where he set up a small autonomous region.

Speaking of which, he was also quite a relentless man. He clearly knew that he would have to suffer a great deal and lose a lot of interest if he were to seek refuge with the Church of the Void Mask. But to escape the tide of internal strife between the merchant party and the aristocratic party, he would rather suffer hardships and lose money. Just to complete the redemption ritual, he had given up half his life. If not for Bishop Kabbalah’s perfect mastery of the Healing Spell, it was highly possible that he could have died in the redemption ritual.

But it was also through that determination of his that Sui Xiong saw sincerity. So Sui Xiong changed his mind and gave Dahl Hill his blessings and protection.

Relying on Sui Xiong’s protection, Dahl Hill successfully evaded that great internal strife between the aristocratic party and merchant party that had once almost escalated into war. At present, he had changed course to a low-key development where he could live a secure and stable life.

It was probably because he maintained Dahl Hill at such a low profile that even Sui Xiong gradually forgot about this territory. If not for Leon’s reminder, Sui Xiong would never have remembered Dahl Hill.

So he hurried towards Dahl Hill. This time, he only took a few hours to arrive at his destination.

Winter had reached its coldest point of the season. As Dahl Hill was in a region where the climate was considerably colder than the others, now the entire territory was practically fully covered in white snow.

Bishop Kabbalah was sitting in the parlor of Baron Dahl’s mansion. He was having a one-on-one discussion with Baron Dahl.

The wood burning in the fireplace could at least maintain the warmth in the house. Though it was not warm like the mansions of aristocrats, where they could simply wear a single layer of clothing, at least the people in the house would not feel the dreadful cold.

Kabbalah was holding some herbal tea but did not look as though he wanted any tea. He was just quietly thinking. Seated across him, Baron Dahl was in deep thought. These two men, who held the two highest positions in Dahl Hill, were motionless, as though they were two stationary statues.

After a while, Baron Dahl sighed again. Then he said, “This matter… It’s really not easy to deal with!”

“I know,” said Kabbalah. “If it was easy to handle, I wouldn’t have come looking for you.”

“Obtaining warmth is a big problem. I’m aware of this. But to help all the poor people safely tide over this bitter cold, a great amount of fuel is needed anyhow. We don’t produce coal here, so we can only use wood. But extensive cutting down of trees for firewood would mean conflict with the Druids in the forest…” said Baron Dahl. Shaking his head gently, he said, “With our strength, even if we can win against them, we will still suffer a great loss. It’s just not worth it.”

“It’s for the sake of the people’s lives, so there’s nothing such as worth it or not,” Kabbalah advised.

“The poor people’s lives are lives, the soldiers’ lives are also lives,” Baron Dahl said very earnestly. “Bishop Kabbalah, I’ll do away with all that empty talk and courtesies and get straight to the point. Those soldiers were selected and trained at a great expense. They have always been loyal and brave, and this territory under my rule depends on them. I can’t risk their lives just to protect the poor people from the cold.”

Bishop Kabbalah frowned and said, “But don’t soldiers exist for the purpose of protecting the people? If the soldiers don’t protect the people, then do their existence hold any value at all?”

“It’s not wrong of you to say that, but I can’t be telling them things like ‘the poor people need firewood to keep themselves warm, so they need to cut down many trees. But there are Druids in the forest, so you guys have to deal with the Druids and leave the cutting of trees to the poor people’… is it possible to say such things to them? Even they themselves will not say yes!”

Kabbalah went silent. After a while, he sighed again and said, “Where on earth did those Druids come from!”

This was not a question; it was merely Kabbalah expressing his sentiment.

Since last fall, Druids had been seen in the forests near Baron Dahl’s territory. They were not the typical religious sect that emphasized the harmony between man and nature, as well as the balance of nature. They were more like a sect that went to the extremity of blindly protecting nature with the belief that all humans should return to nature. This sect protected the natural ecosystems in the most unscrupulous manner and prohibited all acts of destruction of nature in an extremely strict way. This included, but was not limited to, clearing wasteland, cutting down trees and making roads in the forests. Over the past few months, they already had several confrontations with the adventurers of Dahl Hill. Although neither had lost any lives yet, there had been many cases of injuries.

Under this situation, even if the weather was cold, the civilians would not dare venture into the forests to cut trees, lest they meet with attacks.

For the ordinary civilians, even if they did not cut down trees, they could still purchase coal or the likes of it for heating purposes. Or they could simply save up on firewood and wear thicker clothes. So long as they were more or less warm, they would be just fine. But the poor civilians could neither afford to buy coal nor did they have thick clothes to wear. If they even had to lack firewood to stay warm enough, the number of people freezing to death this winter was truly going to unimaginable!

Bishop Kabbalah certainly would not allow this cruel thing to happen right under his own eyes. So he brought his clergymen for a round of negotiation with the Druids.

The outcome of their negotiations was clear, so he had come to pay the lord a visit at his mansion. He was hoping that Baron Dahl would send troops to help him “convince” those Druids and thus, help the poor people to pull through this winter.

However, Baron Dahl was unwilling to deploy his soldiers. Regardless of the fact that he too, was a follower of the Church of the Void Mask, he simply could not bear to lose any soldiers for such a matter.

In this regard, Bishop Kabbalah was also at his wit’s end. The so-called goodness meant that one could sacrifice one’s own interests when there were people in need, but it did not include sacrificing the interests of other people to help those in need.

He was a good person, so he could not convince himself to force Baron Dahl to send troops.

So things were now at an impasse, and they were already into the third day of their discussions. No matter how the Church of the Void Mask tried to plan and redistribute as comprehensively as possible, the firewood reserves for the slum areas were nearly used up—and this even included the large amount of firewood obtained from the reserves in the Baron’s mansion that had been taken out to help the poor.

With things escalating to this situation, Bishop Kabbalah was also at a loss. Just as he was pondering whether he should or shouldn’t go to the merchants in this territory to seek financial assistance in whichever way possible, he suddenly heard a voice coming from the bottom of his heart.

That voice was deep and vigorous, and it carried a sense of sacredness that gave him extreme happiness.

Don’t worry, I’m on my way.