Cthulhu Gonfalon

Chapter 291: Chapter 1

Maintain world peace and promote social progress. It was easy to say these seven words, but hard to achieve them.

The former was simple. It just meant to stop wars. Before a war broke out, people had to support the party that would be invaded and try to melt the hatred between the two parties of the war. Although it was not so easy, there were still ways to do it… However, the latter was too vague and general. Even though most of the higher rank members of the Void Mask Church were smart, they couldn’t figure it out.

“Let’s not talk about maintaining world peace for the moment. Since the battle of Sun’s Death Day was so terribly tragic, major powers in the world, at least those in the Main Plane, will be unwilling to start a war for a long time.” The pontifex Leon Igor thought about it for a while and said, “That is to say, currently, we should focus on promoting social progress. Your Majesty, what do you think progress is?”

Sui Xiong nodded, pondered for a while, and said, “So-called social progress should first be reflected in the improvement of people’s living standards, that is, to let the people eat and drink well, to live well, to protect their legitimate rights, and allow them to live in a rich and safe environment with dignity. Further, it means to promote democracy and protect personal freedom…”

He was speaking while thinking, and suddenly, an idea came to him, “Oh, I remember! It is… to build a prosperous, democratic, civilized, and harmonious country, to build a society of freedom, equality, justice, and the rule of law, and to advocate a culture of patriotism, dedication, integrity, and friendliness. Oh my gosh! I’m thankful for my experience drawing posters for the community, or else I definitely wouldn’t be able to recite it so fluently!”

Leon and the others were confused. They looked at each other without saying a word. After a while, Giant Gerald, who had been simple and honest as well as straightforward, asked, “Your Majesty, what you’ve said… I don’t understand.”

“It doesn’t matter. I can explain it to you one by one. It’s easy to understand.”

“Your Majesty, do you really need to set such a high target to promote social progress?” Leon asked, “I understand what you’ve said, but… won’t that be too optimistic?”

Sui Xiong was surprised at that, “Optimistic?”

He looked around the meeting room and found that almost everyone wore the same expression as Leon.

They were surprised, helpless, and hopeless…

“Well… It seems optimistic…” Sui Xiong wiped his sweat and said with a bitter smile, “We can lower the standards…”

“Your Majesty, in my opinion, to promote social progress, we just need to provide people with food, clothes, and homes to live in, as well as stable income, letting them save some money after a year of hard work. That’s to say, we’ll ensure that they’re living with dignity and don’t need to worry about going to hell after dying… Am I right?” One of the two leaders of the church, Olian Geerteng said, “If that’s the target, I think we have a chance.”

“That’s too low a target,” Sui Xiong murmured.

“It’s not low at all!” Olian sighed, “Your Majesty, do you know that? Before the establishment of the Stationary Workshop, more than ten people died from hyperthermia and starvation in the Geerteng Hill every year. The point is that the Geerteng Hill has been under exploration, so people there have more land, higher incomes, and more property than others. If it was in another Hill that had existed for a long time and been exploited by several royal families, it wouldn’t be strange to assume over a thousand people died every year…”

Sui Xiong frowned and asked, “Why didn’t you relieve people in the poverty stricken area?”

“It’s easy to rescue people in an emergency, but not from poverty!” Olian said with a sigh, “Those people who died from hyperthermia and starvation were poor. They usually had no land to plant on or no young and strong labor in their family to earn money. How much could they earn with elders, women, and children? The Geerteng Hill had been poor for a long time. In the winter, everything there is more expensive than ever, but we still managed to send some food and clothes to weaker families. However, it was too cold this winter…

“But the situation is better now. Since the establishment of the Stationery Workshop, the financial resources of the Geerteng Hill have been much more generous. I simply moved the families without land to the vicinity of the workshop and asked them to work for the workshop. On one hand, they have a relatively stable income, and on the other hand, it’s easier for them to get help in the winter.” Olian smiled and said, “These days, excluding those who were ill or slept on the road after getting drunk, there has been no one who died from the cold or starvation.”

Sui Xiong nodded slightly and looked at Leon.

Although Kalisa Riley was the Hill Lord of the Garth City, everyone knew that it was Leon who was actually responsible for the civil affairs of the Garth City.

Leon immediately understood what he meant and replied, “The situation of Garth City is better than that of Geerteng Hill. After all, it’s a commercial city with more working opportunities. Even if a family has no farmland or labors, they can still find jobs to make a living. It’s just that there are too many people in the Garth City and its surrounding area, so there are a lot of things to handle correspondingly. In terms of relieving poverty, I have only done some general work. I’m afraid that the work is not as good as that done in Geerteng Hill.”

Sui Xiong frowned slightly, then looked at Mrs. Teague.

Over the years, the Void Mask Land had been developing consistently, and its governor was also changing. Recently, Liv, who had been originally in charge of political affairs, finally couldn’t stand doing paperwork in the office all day long. She had resigned, formed an adventure team, and had been in Northern Iceland during this time. The current main governor was Mrs. Teague, who had been in charge of civil affairs before and had a high reputation among people. Thus, it was just one more job for her to do, and she could do it well.

“The situation of our land is much better.” Mrs. Teague said, “However, it can’t be taken as an example for other areas.”

She said, “Our income is so high that only the disposable floating capital is enough to provide everyone with abundant food and clothing. Under such circumstances, I can certainly ensure people will enjoy a comfortable life. But if you want to make our experience universal, that is impossible.”

“Why?” Sui Xiong asked.

“Your Majesty, do you know that our Void Mask Land is the largest entertainment venue of the highest level in the Main Plane? There are a large number of rich people there. It isn’t rare to see customers spend money like water here. What’s more, we also have another financial source, the once-in-a-decade auction of Longevity Potions, which is a great chance to make money for the whole Main Plane…” Mrs. Teague said with a smile, “Just these two financial sources have been enough to support the living of a small country, but how can other countries have the same financial sources as us? Your Majesty, you’re planning to promote social progress, not the progress of our area alone.”

Sui Xiong nodded. His dream was different from those millionaires living in the desert on the earth who relied on the abundant oil to make money and never helped poor people. He wished to promote the progress of the whole world, at least to achieve social progress in the whole Main Plane. As Mrs. Teague had said, the two financial sources for Void Mask Land were beyond the available range of other areas. Even if they wanted to follow this pattern, they couldn’t. It would be meaningless to take the Void Mask Land as an example.

Suddenly, an idea came to Sui Xiong. He remembered Baron Keane in Duchy of Thunder.

Compared to stationary base Geerteng Hill and major commercial city Garth City, Keane Hill had a more average situation. It had neither special financial sources nor convenient transportation. It was just a small Hill. If he could promote the development there and let the people live and work in peace, then his experience would be worth spreading.

Actually, there was no need for Sui Xiong to wait for the development results of the Keane Hill. He could find another place and do construction there first to see whether it worked!

He made a decision.

“Call some adventurers that have traveled well together,” he said, “I’m going to find a place as average as possible to build a new hill.”

“If I’m able to promote the development of an average hill, then I’ll find the right direction to promote social progress!”

Several hours later, more than ten adventurers who weren’t young anymore were called together. Sui Xiong changed his appearance to a noble and received them with Mrs. Teague.

“You want to find an average hill close to Void Mask Land?” asked an old adventurer whose hair had almost turned gray. He had retired from his adventure career and worked as a doorkeeper at a library in the Void Mask Land. “How about the Pyroxene Town or the Gold-panning Town?”

Sui Xiong was surprised at that answer. Honestly speaking, although the Mask Void Land was in the Northwest, he knew very little about the Four Towns in the Northwest.

In his impression, the Rye Town was the largest transportation hub in the Northwest area. It boasted an advanced agriculture and less contamination. The Pyroxene Town had a vein of precious stones. Although it wasn’t rich, it still could produce high quality precious stones sometimes. The Gold-panning Town boasted mines of gold, copper, and iron. Its gold mine attracted a large number of wealth-hunters, and its copper and iron mines remained as major sources of income. The Dragon-roar Town’s development mainly relied on the mountain. Its financial income mainly came from hunting demon beasts in the mountain.

To be honest, he thought that the Four Towns in the Northwest had different characteristics, and none of them were average. Then why had this old adventurer mentioned the Pyroxene Town and the Gold-panning Town? He asked that question.

The old adventurer answered with a laugh, “Your Lordship, you focus too much on ‘average.’ What does average mean? It means average income, average resources, and average transportation. The Rye Town has very convenient transportation, while the Dragon-roar Town has the Void Mask Land to the north and a mountain full of demon beasts to the east. These are all unique resources, but are there any unique resources in the Pyroxene Town and the Gold-panning Town?”

“Yes, the former has the vein of precious stones while the latter has gold mines.”

“The vein of precious stones in the Pyroxene Town isn’t rich at all. The gold mine in the Gold-panning Town is even worse. There are at least eighty, if not a hundred, veins like that on the earth,” the old adventurer said with a smile, “You only see that they have veins, but ignore the fact that they make very little money from them…These two towns are so poor that they even can’t afford to build an army. What else can they do?”

Sui Xiong pondered for a while then understood.

Unlike him, the old adventurer saw the problem in the aspect of geographical position and income level. It was true that there were veins of precious stones and gold mines in these two towns, but it didn’t bring them a high income because of low production.

Compared to that, the agriculture and commerce in the Rye Town and hunting of demon beasts in the Dragon-roar Town were incredibly reliable financial sources, which made these two towns privileged in development.

“What are the income levels of these four towns?”

“That shouldn’t be a question for us.” The old adventurer said, “We’re just average adventurers. You should ask the Association of Thieves about that.”

Sui Xiong nodded. He gave them some money as a consultation fee, even more for the old adventurer, and asked them to leave. Then he went to Rhode.

Rhode was turning 70 that year. Thanks to the Longevity Potions, he looked like a man in his fifties. Due to his original strong power, although his hair had almost turned gray, he was still in good spirits, old but vigorous.

When Sui Xiong came to him, he was instructing a group of young people from the Association of Thieves on authenticating antiques. He was an expertise in that. He had even earned the title “Gray Eyes” for his excellent skill.

For thieves, eyes, hand, and dagger were very special titles. Eyes was used to describe a thief that was very good at authentication; hand was used when a thief was good at assembly and disassembly of gears or stealing; dagger meant that the thief was a good fighter.

Quick Hand Ryan, the former chairman of the Association of Thieves of the Pyroxene Town, who had tried to plot against Gerald and Palin, was an expert in gears and traps. Rhode, who had succeeded him as the chairman of the Association of Thieves of the Pyroxene Town and later became the chairman of the Northwest Association of Thieves, was a master at authentication.

Once, after getting drunk, he had admitted that he had been a well-skilled expert in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins before. He had even competed with several other experts for the highest honor, “Golden Eyes,” in the field of “eyes” in the Association of Thieves. He had lost for being less skilled than the others. Later, unfortunately, he had offended an influential person, so he’d had to run away. He had come a long way to the Northwest to seek shelter.

Of course, Rhode himself was a great man now, and he wasn’t even bothered to seek revenge on the man who had forced him to escape, because in his view, although he had been forced to run away and suffered a lot during the journey, he had also won a great opportunity. How could he possibly have met His Majesty Void Mask, and what would have happened to him if he hadn’t been able to run to the Pyroxene Town from the Commonwealth of Gold Coins?

Although he wouldn’t thank the man for persecuting him, he would never seek revenge on him on purpose, either. In his opinion, it was the arrangement of fate. His experiences that year were nothing more than the God of Fate’s trick.

Now, Rhode had retired from the chairmanship of the Northwest Association of Thieves. He served as a consultant and taught young people how to authenticate antiques every day. Besides that, he still dealt with financial affairs of the Void Mask Land, which was enough to live out the rest of his life happily.

“Your Majesty, are you asking about the specific income of the Four Towns in the Northwest?” Hearing Sui Xiong’s request, he was a little surprised and tried to remember for a while, then he told him detailed information on income and prices in the Four Towns in recent years like he was counting his own treasure.

The information was, to be honest, a secret, but one of the main businesses of the Association of Thieves was to inquire and sell information, so it was not a big deal for members of Association of Thieves to know. Even if Rhode had almost retired, he still knew the details.

In fact, Rhode had been focused on this information all the time, because he had been in charge of finance.

After listening to Rhode’s report, Sui Xiong finally understood why the old adventurer had recommended the Pyroxene Town and the Gold-panning Town. Although both towns had mineral veins, in fact, they didn’t get much income from them. The condition of the Gold-panning Town was a little better. No matter what, they could manage to maintain a stable income based on the copper mine and iron mine there. The Pyroxene Town, which mainly relied on entertainment consumption, didn’t have enough income. What’s more, the opening of the Void Mast Land had made it harder to earn money, so their income had declined steadily. It had dropped from the original core position of the Four Towns to the lowest ranking.

Actually… The Pyroxene Town was now somewhat abandoned.

The so-called vein of precious stones had a very low output, so not many workers were needed there. Sometimes, there were high-grade precious stones, and they would be sent to the Void Mask Land to be sold. At present, there were not many people living in the Pyroxene Town except workers and vendors who provided services to the workers. Even the churches of the God of Aristocracy and the God of Law had moved out. There was only a small divine temple of the God of Wealth left.

Sui Xiong pondered for a long time and finally made up his mind. He drew a circle around the Pyroxene Town on the map.

“If that’s the case, let’s start from here to make a change!”