Cthulhu Gonfalon

Once the question dropped, Ray and Casari who were originally all smiles turned gloomy.

The one who spoke was the priest from the church of Goddess of Bumper Harvest. Ever since the previous priest Heli Riley passed away, the old man that was originally far away from the control of church got a chance to turn around and become the leader of the church. This past year, he had been keeping a low profile, out of sight. From day to night, he had been praying in the rebuilt temple, so still that he made people think that he was almost a decoration.

But now, the truth proved that he was not a decoration, but waiting for an opportunity.

The very moment when he brought up “praying” in public during the celebration, it gave Ray and Casari a difficult problem.

Praying was nothing big nor small. For instance, visiting the temple for prayers in private was almost nothing. As long as one did not run to temple that was against their own God, it wouldn’t be a problem. For example, Ray believed in “Void Mask” but he always visited church of God of Wealth. Every time he went, he had to pray in silence before the statue of God of Wealth.

It was only etiquette, also due etiquette.

But during celebration, leading everyone to pray was entirely different in nature!

Ever since the church of Goddess of Bumper Harvest suffered heavy losses, most of the core experts were killed, even the Goddess herself took great losses and had already lost influence in Garth city. Especially during the process of city rebuilding, as the one who put in effort was mainly the church of God of Wealth. It eroded the roots of the people’s belief and elbowed Her out.

The people in this world had a low education level; most of them didn’t even know how to read, but they were not dumb. They could tell clearly that who was nice to them and who helped them.

Belief was something from heart; one was not able to fake it. The position of the church of Goddess of Bumper Harvest in Garth city was gradually replaced by the church God of Wealth, that was the reality.

To take back their belief, the most practical way was of course to help people with money, to help people to revive their city. The church of Goddess of Bumper Harvest of course had human and financial resources, but the church was burdened with internal conflicts too. Each local temple saw the chance and sought to replace Garth temple as the main temple for the church. The very moment, why would they take out funds to help people? It was good enough that they were not dragging anyone back!

If the new priest had enough capability or prestige, he might be able to suppress each local temple. But he had none. Besides praying, he had no other ways.

But a while back, a friend from another church visited him and gave him an idea.

“Seize the chance during celebration; why don’t you invite Casari to lead everyone to pray to Goddess?” The priest was blank back then; he didn’t understand what his friend, who was known for his wittiness, meant.

That friend smiled mysteriously. Even though they were in the private study room, he lowered his voice and explained it to him. He then suddenly saw the light.

Human and material resources were things that he couldn’t afford then. But as the church of Goddess of Bumper Harvest forcibly occupied Garth city for so many years, there was far reaching and profound influence. With one opportunity, he could give full play to the influence and reshape his image to retrieve the bad influence from back then.

If it was well manipulated, he could even embezzle the result of hard work that was done by the church of God of Wealth, like the turtledove that occupies the magpie’s nest.

The crucial point of the plan was to seize a chance to force the city owner, Casari, to lead everyone to pray to Goddess of Bumper Harvest and to thank Her for granting good harvest.

At first glance, it seemed to be something reasonable. But on such occasion, having the city owner to lead everyone to pray together to thank God equalled to re-establishing the church of Goddess of Bumper Harvest’s position as the ruler in Garth religion. It was actually a tradition of Garth city after all. Almost everyone participated in such prayers. If they were to be reminded of the past and linked up with the current situation, it would naturally recover the belief of Goddess of Bumper Harvest.

The ruling position of the church of Goddess of Bumper Harvest was a profound foundation for centuries, deeply tied to the operations of the Riley family. With only one move, they could put the profound foundation to use and immediately have the function of bringing the dead back to life!

Looking at Ray and Casari who were silent, there was a smug look on the priest’s old, ashen face. He waved his hands and had the people from the church to prepare for praying ceremony.

He of course could tell the unwillingness of the two, but what could they do even if they were not willing to? Don’t forget, the city owner, Casari believed in Goddess of Bumper Harvest since she was little; she was a member of the church herself. Unless she had the courage to turn around, announce the change of her religion and leave the church, she wouldn’t be able to reject such reasonable request.

The vase that had no talent but beauty; would she have such courage?

The priest smiled coldly in his heart and was overjoyed.

That period of time, including Casari, many Garths had drifted away from the church of Goddess of Bumper Harvest. What ruined Garth city back then was the Goddess’s self destruction due to exasperation. Fighting against an enemy that destroyed their homeland; it was nice enough that they didn’t withdraw weapon and fight against them. Why would he expect them to respect and believe in the Goddess of Bumper Harvest like they did before!

From what the priest saw, these people forgot about Her kindness and turned their back on Her; they didn’t know the good and the bad. So what if She ruined Garth city? Everything that they had belonged to the Goddess! As a believer, it was only right and proper to dedicate their lives to that God, not just a few houses!

So, he had been boiling with anger all the time, but he suppressed it like a volcano that was accumulating power in silence.

The moment he saw the leader of Garth in a difficult position, he was pleased with the feeling of revenge and held back his laughter.

Of course, he couldn’t laugh yet. Wait till everything was done and dusted, when he could lay back and enjoy the fruit of victory. He could then laugh with no worries.

Casari was hesitating. Although she didn’t have much ability and experience, she could differentiate between good and the bad. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest had not contributed anything during the revival of the city, but they stood out at the very moment to accept the reputation of revival naturally. It just didn’t make sense at all!

As for belief… she hadn’t been a devout believer since the very beginning. After going through the terrifying riot and battle, she even felt a sense of fear and distance towards all Gods. For the past year, she had been avoiding each and every temple carefully because every time she looked at a temple, it would remind her of the terrifying memory.

From the angle of a God, it could be tell that there was no line of belief on Casari anymore. She, at the very moment, was one of the so called “faithless.”

Whether out of emotion or disbelief, she was not willing to pray to the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. She was even more unwilling to lead everyone to pray and to give credit and blessing to Goddess of Bumper Harvest for the fruition of everyone’s effort.

But she was not courageous enough to reject the request of the priest.

As the priest’s friend had predicted, Casari was only a vase after all. She had received literature and art education since she was young, but kept completely ignorant towards politics, military, martial arts, and magic. The city owner Joseph’s original intention was to let his youngest daughter be an artist that was not involved in politics; to marry her into another city with friendly terms, to be a city owner lady, and to live a smooth and steady life.

Her father was a middle aged legendary expert that could at least live another few centuries; her sister was the priestess of Goddess of Bumper Harvest. Even if she didn’t step foot in the legendary realm, she would at least be a high level pastor. Her brother was a genius in sword craft. He also had a bright future ahead of him. She relied on the powerful and influential Riley Family that terrorised the whole of East Coast, and she relied on the commercial city that was in the top few in mainland, Garth. With such backers, she had no need to work hard to enjoy life.

Who knew a storm would arise from a clear sky, with all of Casari’s backers wiped out in a night!

She was only a weak woman left alone, and she was pushed towards the toughest point by fate. She was like a piece of fat meat that was just grilled and left in the wild, attracting countless hungry beasts to keep their eye on her.

If she wasn’t lucky that she met a knight that with too much sense of justice who happened to be a legendary expert, she would have been eaten up without leaving any scraps behind!

However even though Ray could block off those spies that had bad intentions for her on normal days, he couldn’t back her up then. After all, the priest’s request was completely reasonable.

That was the advantage of “fit and proper.”

Casari was hesitating and subconsciously looked towards Ray.

All this time, she had already gotten used to relying on the upright, strong, handsome knight. Regardless of the size of the matter, if she asked him for help, he would definitely solve it.

It was like Monk Tang who ran when in danger, who always called, “Save me, Wukong.” Nobita would always cry and look for Doraemon when he had difficulties. Although it was a different world, the emotion was the same.

Ray sighed and took one step forward. He stood between Casari and the priest.

“The city owner is not feeling too well recently. She needs to rest,” he said.

How could the priest let Casari escape so easily! He smiled an affable smile and said, “Not feeling well? Then there’s more reason to pray! Pray for a blessing to help the city owner recover.”

The way he smiled seemed harmless to all living things on earth, but triggered the anger in Ray.

It was such a pity that at that very moment and venue, it was not suitable for a fight.

The chaos in the previous celebrations had left a deep scar in people’s hearts. If there was any accident in the celebration, it would break apart people’s hearts that had just been brought together!

He was pissed and he couldn’t help but pray to Sui Xiong. He pleaded for him to punish those bastards. Not much; just a “Cannot Hold One’s Liquor” spell that would make their head spin and their eyes blur would do!

Sui Xiong immediately received his prayers. He looked toward Janvier and Heimsarah and smiled.

“It’s time!” He said.

Heimsarah immediately sent out the news. Along with the light breeze, the sea water near Garth city suddenly rippled and surged. A huge wave didn’t splash around but soared up into the sky slowly.

Within the waves, there was melodious singing. The singing was not loud but free, natural and distant. Those who heard it would be attracted and drowned within.

The originally crowded plaza was suddenly quiet. Only singing lingered and reverberated in the air.

It was the most famous singing, the mermaid song, the real sound of nature.