Cthulhu Gonfalon

Sui Xiong, of course, would not rest for only a day.

God had created the world, but only taken a one day break. That was just a story, and in his impression, God hadn’t done any great work until he had made the flood.

So you see, taking a break wasn’t a big deal, and the longer the better. On the contrary, if one worked too hard, trouble might come and even cause a disaster!

Ah, they needed to learn their lesson from history!

What was the lesson? Well, to not work too hard.

Zheng Banqiao, a Chinese poet, had said that ignorance was bliss and that it was a folly to be wise. Now that ignorance was a good thing, so was laziness.

For example, before Sui Xiong had traversed through history, he had read a novel in which the main character had been called “not lazy.” It was a nice name, huh? But the writer had spent several years on the book without finishing. It made the readers too anxious to read. Some crazy readers even tracked the writer’s character name in an online game and registered accounts on purpose to chase and kill him, pestering him to update the novel!

Thinking about that, Sui Xiong couldn’t help laughing.

Then he found a place lazily to sleep.

After all, after being busy for so many days, he was extremely tired.

“I’m tired.” Crick Keane laid on the chair and bathed in the warm spring with a depressed look. “Really, I’m just tired.”

Subordinates looked at him with eyes full of worry and kept silent.

A few days ago, he had inspected a spring plow when he had suddenly fainted. Although there had been doctors and priests that came to his rescue, he still fell into a coma for almost a whole day. After waking up, he was feckless.

He tried to cheer himself up, but just from his pale looks, everyone knew his condition was worse for wear.

No, it wasn’t “worse for wear,” but “very bad!”

“Brother, he… Is everything okay?” Baron Anna, whose face was full of worry, stared at Priest Miramon, the man who had treated Crick, in the side hall of Baron mansion.

After being silent for a moment, Miramon said with a sigh, “Crick is a great man. If I were in his situation, I would have already died, like a weed in the winter dies slowly.”

Anna didn’t reply, but couldn’t help holding the hand of Amyveile, who was her sister-in-law. Anna, the young Hill Lord, used her slender white hands to hold the baroness’ slightly rough hands tightly, but couldn’t feel any warmth from the other’s palms.

At that moment, their feelings ran as frigid and cold as a bitter winter.

“Will… he get better?” the former Baroness Amyveile asked in a low, husky tone.

While shaking his head, Miramon replied, “I’m sorry.”

“How about a sacrifice?” Anna asked. “Please forgive my offense—I mean, if we use the whole power of our territory to hold the grandest party for your majesty—”

“Miss Anna, don’t entertain foolish ideas,” Miramon said with a wry smile. He was reluctant to interrupt, but still continued, “Even if our God was here, he couldn’t really can do anything. God is our leader, our light, our belief, and our home. He’s not one of those so-called ‘Omnipotent Gods’ created by crooks, and there is no ‘Omnipotent God’ in this world.

“In order to treat Crick, I even prayed to God for a supreme spell and received it. But even so… what I can do is still limited.”

Miramon sighed deeply and continued, “Crick now has all types of Divine Power in his body which resulted in erosion. I tried to drive the Divine Power away, but found that even just removing a tiny bit would cause a mad reaction, nearly boiling all the Divine Power. If it wasn’t prepared well before, he’d be almost dead now.”

“All I can do now is add vitality for him, and help him last longer.” He hesitated for a moment and said, “In fact… please let me make this clear. What you’re doing is causing him pain.”

Anna and Amyveile’s faces paled, like they were dead.

“You mean… We’d better let him go, let him quietly…” Amyveile said hesitantly, “Go rest?”

“Yeah, everyone needs rest,” Miramon said. “Over these past years, as the chief of the Keane Hill, he really devoted his whole life. I remember once when I visited here, I even saw him reading and commenting on a document about someone being punished with five lashes… He’s too tired and really needs to go rest.”

Anna could hardly hold back her tears and finally cried in a low voice.

Miramon shook his head and sighed deeply, then said, “I can sustain his life temporarily through the strength of my God. But… this will not last long.”

“What should we do?” Amyveile was in a daze. Over these years, she had already become accustomed to following her husband’s command. Upon hearing the news at that moment, she felt like almost everything was gone, leaving her with an empty heart. She didn’t know what to do.

“Just act like normal.” Miramon couldn’t help sighing. “He’s one of the most intelligent people I’ve ever seen. He must know the condition of his own body. I’d never believe that he would be scared by death! So I think he must get everything arranged, just like before, at the battle of Sun’s Death Day, when he went with his army.”

Grasping onto a last hope, Anna said with a loud voice, “Everyone thought brother would die, but he still came back alive.”

“Yes, I also hope that a miracle could happen again and pray for this blessing all the time,” Miramon said with a wry smile. “Please forgive my incompetence. All I can do now is this.”

Then he gave a bow and left the hall, leaving the two helpless woman there crying for the almost dead man.

Miramon walked quietly on the flat and clean street, looking at the prosperous shops on both sides and the people who came and went on the street in high spirits. Looking at this, he couldn’t help laughing.

But the next moment, he couldn’t help sighing.

Over these years, the progress and change of Keane Hill had been witnessed by all. Now, this small baronet had been regarded as a pearl by the Duchy of Thunder and attracted attention from many parties. More than one powerful noble family had sent envoys to invite Baron Keane to join their camp.

Everyone knew who brought them all this honor, but the man who had invited it was dying.

Miramon shook his head, took out a bottle of wine, and took a sip.

This grass liquor had been specially produced in an Orc flavor by Void Mask Land. They had soaked all kinds of grass with delicate liquor and carefully chosen ingredients. Finally, it had developed a wonderful flavor that made people think of a prairie after taking a sip.

Miramon always liked to drink when he was in a bad mood. The taste and aroma of this grass liquor helped him recall his early life. At that time, he had been carefree, running on the grasslands, grazing with the sheep, guarding villages, and fighting fierce beasts. Although life had been hard, his mind was clear and refreshed, without any gloom.

He was much stronger than before, but no longer had a clear mood like he had before.

Clear liquor flowed down his throat into his stomach, as if it had turned into fire that was burning in his chest.

However, this time, his mood didn’t improve, but became even more gloomy.

He remembered the helplessness he had felt as a child, like poverty, death, departure… At that time, he had been carefree, which didn’t mean that life could really be carefree. He just hadn’t understood it.

He closed his eyes, and the sky was dark. To a youth, being carefree was nothing but expected.

Miramon drank a lot in his anxiety, and his mood became worse and worse. At last, he threw the liquor bottle on the ground angrily and scolded himself, “I want to quit drinking!”

After that, he realized that he still didn’t want to throw the liquor away and picked it back up.

“Wasting isn’t good. We’d better finish it all off before we think about anything else.”

Then he shook his head and waddled along the street in a state of intoxication. Ignoring everything along his way, he returned to the Church of Void Mask.

When he was still far away, two diners sitting next to a window chatted about him at a busy tavern nearby.

“Baron Keane is really dying.”

“Yes, even this high-level priest looks desperate. It’s probably hopeless.”

“What a pity!”

“What’s the pity? Everyone’s going to die.”

“Although everyone will die, everyone’s life is different. A man like Baron Keane shouldn’t die at this moment, even if he will die eventually!”

“It’s not something that you and I can decide. What we can do is accept the reality and see if we can take advantage of this opportunity to make a profit.”

“Really? Can that really make us a profit?”

“I’m not sure now, but I think there’s a very good chance. You see, he’s dying. The unruffled guys who had been suppressed by him over the years must take action, so this is our chance.”

“Well… which party should we stand with?”

“From our standpoint, of course, we should stand on the side that will take action. After all, more stable the Keane Hill is, the less of a chance we have, or maybe a stable society will be more suitable for our interests.”

“What you said is too profound, I cannot understand!”

“Haha, l’ll make it short. Do you think Baron Keane is a coward because he’s close to death?”

“Absolutely not!”

“That’s right. An injured beast is the most dangerous. At this moment, his life has come to an end. In order to guard the people and the things he values, his actions have to be very ferocious. Making trouble now is the same as putting your head in the mouth of an angry beast, like a performance in a circus.

“That’s asking for death!”

“Yes, since so many people are seeking death, why don’t we just seize the opportunity to get a profit? No matter where they come from, profits are profits. The color of gold never changes according to its origin.”

“That’s right.”

“And I believe, even if the man is dead, it won’t mean his family is over, so seize your last chance to be friends with him, and maybe there will be an unexpected harvest.”

“That’s right!”