Cthulhu Gonfalon

“This is what you found valuable? A present that was worthy enough to disturb me?”

The question was posed by one of the two marquis of the Gold Coin Federation. It was the current Darc Marquis, Rayson Darc.

He looked at the little crystal bottle, his eyes glistening with unhappiness. “A bottle of gold meta-allergy medicine… Could this make a godly weapon sharp? Or could it give me an indestructible body? Or, is it tasteless and colorless, so that it couldn’t be discovered via poison testing magic?”

The fat man, who was now bowing before him, was covered in sweat, partially because he had been running the entire way there, and partially because he was just nervous. He knew that this master that he served was short-tempered and would easily get angry if he was disturbed while enjoying his leisure time. However, he also knew that, if he didn’t send the precious medicine to him at this very first moment, he would be in bigger trouble later.

So, the fat man stood there nervously, waiting for Marquis Darc to finish raging. Then, he replied politely with a soft voice, “Marquis, this is a life-prolonging medicine.”

“A life-prolonging medicine?” Marquis Darc looked at the bottle suspiciously. The faint red clear liquid medicine in the bottle looked normal, appearing nothing like it could prolong one’s life!

“Yes! It can prolong one’s life. Accurately speaking, it can allow the user’s body to temporarily stop aging. Its effect will last for about ten years!”

Listening to the fat man’s introduction, Marquis Darc was curious. In actual fact, as one of the rulers of the Gold Coin Federation, he possessed a terrifying amount of power and wealth. So, he naturally could obtain large amounts of treasure. Even so, things that could prolong one’s life wouldn’t be easy to come by, no matter how wealthy one was!

Theoretically, it wouldn’t be difficult to prolong his life. Regardless if it was the fruit from the tree of life in the Ancient Forest, the youth spring at the Dragon Cliff, or a bunch of amazing mages, who could organize a life lengthening ceremony, all of these things could prolong his life effectively.

But, there was a difficulty that always arose, when it came to practicing such ways. The tree of life was gone, having left along with the passing of the Fairy Gods. Also, it was hard to find the Dragon Cliff. And, as for looking for a bunch of mages to lengthen his life, the cost of that would be very high. In fact, the price he would have to pay would be huge, enough to cause most of the Kings heartache, and far exceeding the capability of most any country’s means.

After all, although the King was noble, he now had an heir. In order to let the old man live a few years longer, would they really spend such an enormous amount of money? The country was not a personal possession of the King! Hence, even if he was willing to do so, those people, who shared the rights and wealth of the country, wouldn’t allow such unnecessary expenditures!

Likewise, in this world, it wouldn’t be too difficult for an expert to lengthen his life, but for a commoner to prolong his life, it would be extremely difficult. The King was no exception to this rule.

Then, is this medicine as magical as how my underlings have reported it to be?

“Tiger, to be frank, I don’t believe it,” he said. “If there was such a magical item, it’d be more appropriate if a great mage sent it over to me. But, it’s coming from you…. Tsk tsk.”

He shook his head, obviously disdainful. The fat man smiled bitterly and explained, “This only appeared in the auction earlier today. The people from the Void Mask church brought it for auction. I heard that His Majesty was in a good mood, and that made such a medicine. I also was told that he would occasionally auction two bottles.”

Marquis Darc was suddenly awakened, gaining more confidence in the man before him.

Such a matter as prolonging life was, of course, difficult for a commoner, but to a God that could do everything, it was nothing. Don’t forget that the Void Mask Majesty possesses unusual powers. Even among the Gods, He is one of the extremely amazing ones.

So, if it was truly His product, that wouldn’t be so strange…

But…

“Why did the Void Mask Majesty make this?” He fondled the crystal bottle, asking in distress.

“That Majesty has always adopted a unique trail of thought. He probably just found it interesting…”

Marquis Darc couldn’t help but laugh. He thought about it carefully, deciding that it actually made sense.

After all, what Majesty behaved normally?

And, how many of them were easily understood?

Would any normal person build a theme park in the world of ice and snow? Of course not!

“Yeah, after all… He is a jellyfish!” He smiled, then said, “For a human to guess a jellyfish’s thoughts, it wouldn’t be a good idea.”

Then, he put the crystal bottle onto the platter that his servant had placed next to him. He then stood up.

“Follow me. We shall visit the Void Mask church.”

“This is really the medicine that our church put up for auction, and it is bestowed to us by our God Himself.” A pastor from the Void Mask church used magic to check the bottle carefully, before concluding confidently that, “That’s right, it’s the life-prolonging medicine!”

Marquis Darc smiled, then took up the crystal bottle, removing the cork. He then took in all of the liquid medicine in one gulp.

“Fragrance of green grass, with a slight hint of blood.” He pouted, then said thoughtfully, “Would the raw material in this be a giant dragon’s blood? I have never heard of dragon blood that could be drunk directly.”

“The divine power of our master is not something our generation could ever guess about.” The pastor smiled faintly.

The ruler of the Gold Coin Federation nodded, then closed his eyes. He used his magic power to sense his body’s present condition. After a while, he looked pleasantly surprised, unable to hold back a smile of joy.

Although it wasn’t clear, he could really feel that there was some sort of change that had just happened in his body. Some youthful vigor felt keenly revived within him.

It was not that he had fully recovered his youthful vigor, but more that he could really feel that he had stopped aging, as though the power of time had lost its power over him.

“This is so magical!” he exclaimed happily. “How much of this do you have left? I will buy all of it!”

“Mister Marquis, birth, old age, sickness and death are unbreakable standards for all living things. Even if it was used on our master, he could only delay the process of aging and death until slightly later in his life.” The pastor, who had received instruction from Sui Xiong earlier, replied, “To any one person, one bottle of this medicine is sufficient. Ten years later, if one takes the medicament again, it would only then yield one-third of its original effect. Then, likewise along this same pattern, thirteen years later, it would have nearly no effect.”

Marquis Darc creased his eyebrows, but didn’t look disappointed. To be able to live ten years longer was already a wonderful reward! After all, humans can’t be greedy!

However, he did reconsider, after having another idea. If he were to take the magical medicine in order to make a deal with big figures that were in the same position as him, he would definitely achieve an extraordinary benefit!

But… He asked, “Such a medicine, did the Void Mask Majesty send out a lot of it?”

“Not many bottles,” the pastor replied. “His Majesty said that there wouldn’t be many people that could afford it, so He only sent a few bottles to the capital of every country.”

Marquis Darc sighed. “As expected! Anything that I could think of, there was no reason a God couldn’t do the same, or more.”

He wasn’t especially regretful, but he still urged them to promise him that, if there was any more medicine to become available again, they must save one bottle for him. He assured them that money wouldn’t be an issue. Although the second bottle could only prolong his life for three years, three years was still very impressive!

A similar situation took place at night in the capital of every country that the bottles traveled to. Those big figures that were high up were all shaken by these bottles of faint red medicine. It caused them all to cast out their fortunes happily.

Not only that, but due to the effect of medicine, the higher ups of the various countries now had good impressions of the Void Mask Church. Even the Holy Angel Kingdom that normally discriminated against foreigners, now displayed goodwill towards the Void Mask Church.

“Commoners are so weak!” Looking at the pile of gold coins, Sui Xiong couldn’t help but sigh. “We are talking about a mere ten years of life, and it makes them all go crazy!”

“Luckily, it is only ten years!” The God of Justice shook His head and also sighed. “If it were any longer, you might be in big trouble!”

“What trouble would I have?”

The God of Justice looked at Sui Xiong, looking very solemn. He then replied, “People with money and power could live another dozen years, so the theory itself is flawed! If they were to live longer, or even to live forever, I would have to stop you!”

Sui Xiong was stunned. This caused him to go into a deep thought bubble. He then nodded quietly.

The God of Justice was right. For people that had money and power, death was almost the only thing that made them equal with the poor. If they had money and power, which then meant that they could afford a sufficient amount of the life-prolonging medicine. This would mean that they could live forever. Then, it would really eliminate the very last semblance of equality.

Such a situation would not only dissatisfy the God of Justice, but even Sui Xiong himself couldn’t accept it. Luckily, the situation at the present moment wasn’t that terrible. The medicine now was merely prolonging life for a dozen years. As such, it was yet considered as being a serious issue.

After all, people who had money and power, already lived better and longer than the poor. Thus, it was something very normal, and there was nothing wrong with that. Also, it was bad to constantly look at money, as there was no need to hold grudges against the wealthy.

“What should we do with the money?” He looked at the pile of gold coins and asked.

“You can do what you want with it.” The God of Justice couldn’t be bothered. “Use the coins as you can. If you can’t, then forget it. If you can’t think of anything right now, just pile them up and use them as a bed.”

“Huh?” Sui Xiong was stunned. He couldn’t help but think of the famous legend. Then, he thought of the purpose of money…

A few days later…

“No! No! Let me go! Let me go!” Graupel hugged a beloved blanket tight and exclaimed, “I am staying here! I’m not going anywhere else! Let me go! Let me go!”

Gerald couldn’t even drag her along, but was exhausted and panting for air. Sui Xiong saw this and had no choice but to do it himself. He rolled her along with her blanket.

“Woo! You don’t mean what you say! You said you’d let me watch over the maze…”

Graupel thought she was going to lose her affluent job, so she was crying her eyes out. Her tears dropped on the ground, splashed a lot of dust up as they came.

A few minutes later, they came to a newly built cave, which was about the same size as the one before, but deeper. Behind the cave, there was a transportation portal that linked to the ground, so that it would be convenient for staying within.

“This is your new house.” Sui Xiong put Graupel down. “I am only changing your bed.”

Graupel’s eyes grew big, as she looked at the pile of gold coins that were almost bigger than the size of her entire body. Although her tears weren’t dry yet, she started laughing hysterically.

She jumped over so quickly, she even frightened Sui Xiong. She lied down on the pile of gold coins, “swimming” with her claws among the pile of gold coins, laughing happily.