Cthulhu Gonfalon

Far south of the mainland, Knight Howard James was touring Keane Hill with his two sons in a humble countryside of the Duchy of Thunder. Seeing them passing by, farmers all stopped their work and saluted to them.

That was simply out of politeness. Compared with those rude northwestern people who were mainly illiterate explorers, the residents of Keane Hill were politer. Beliefs in the God of Art and Culture were also popular here.

Knight James was forty-two years old. As a mid-ranked knight, his power had almost reached its peak and would begin to decline in a year or two at most. Correspondingly, his two sons, 22-year-old Bonn and 18-year-old Shawn, had grown up. Bonn even had a daughter now. Knight James also had a 15-year-old daughter. It could be said that he had a big, extended family.

So he was much luckier than Knight D’vor Ouss, who had died in the battlefield, leaving his two sons, one 15 and the other 12, in the world. At that time, Knight James was left at Keane Hill for he had been weak in power and was familiar with Keane Hill. Things had been different for D’vor—at least one knight should go with the Hill Lord to the battlefield.

They had joined the earth-shattering war that made the sun and moon out of the light. Finally, only 12 out of over 100 people came home alive. They had been badly hurt, even the Lord Hill Crick himself. Compared to that, although Knight James hadn’t won the honor that could be treasured for generations, he was alive.

He appreciated that a lot. Though he was dull and didn’t say anything, he was clear in his mind—actually, he was not that dull as he had an intelligence of nine. It was common to see soldiers with that level of intelligence, but none of them were treated like idiots.

However, that war had made him alert. Since this winter, every time he was touring Keane Hill or dealing with civil affairs, he would take his two sons with him. He hoped that they could learn the skills of a Hill Lord and take his place in working for the Baron after his retirement.

The Baron referred to not Crick, but Miss Anna. Although the official Baron of the Keane Hill was Anna Keane, everyone knew that she had no interest or skills in being a Hill Lord. The future of the Keane Hill relied on his Lordship, Crick.

“Alas! When will His Lordship recover…” Thinking about the condition of Crick, the loyal captain of the Regiment of Knights couldn’t help but sigh deeply.

“Father, please be rest assured! His Lordship will be better soon!”

“Of course, how could a man who was able to come back alive from the battlefield of the Sun’s Death Day be so easily knocked down by illness!”

If Crick was here, he could look at Bonn and Shawn through his extraordinary talents of Transmigration and find that these two young knights were as loyal as their father with 100 percent of loyalty.

Before that big war, these two young men had never been obedient to the poetic Hill Lord. However, in that horrible bloody war, Crick had managed to come back with his body badly hurt by the Divine Curse. He had also taken back the corpse of his good friend and killed the evil b*tch, Miss Machee, on the way. Thus, he had built a great, brave image among the young men as if he were an idol.

What did the Divine Curse mean? It meant that he had been involved in the fight of Oracles or Holy Spirits. How brave and powerful was he for a mortal!

What did bringing back Spencer Smith’s dead body mean? It meant that Crick had been beside the knight when he died. He could stay alive while that famous master had died and even take back his partner’s body. All of that needed accurate judgment and extraordinary wisdom. After all, Crick was a follower of the God of Art and Culture, not the God of Luck.

On his way back, though he had been ill and badly hurt, he still successfully killed Miss Machee. She had done many evil things and even once became the evil God of Aristocracy to take charge of this area. This further proved that Crick was a tough guy with great power even when he was badly hurt.

Being brave, wise and strong, good at governance, honest and noble—Lord Crick was like a hero out of mythology and legends. That had been enough to make these young people admire and worship him.

Although Crick himself had repeatedly stressed that there were many errors in these statements and a lot of fabricated details, others just took that as his modesty and didn’t believe it.

Crick could not help it. The more he explained, the more people felt that he was hiding it. After all, that battle had been so tragic, and everyone knew that. The volunteer army had been fighting in the most dangerous place in the whole battlefield. It was an undeniable fact that Crick not only had come back all the way but also brought back the corpse of his friend.

However, Crick was reluctant to damage his friend’s reputation. The relationship between Smith and his sister was somewhat weird, reminding him of some unhealthy books he had read before. So he repeatedly told himself that he should never say anything and to try to forget those things. He also asked Donaldson to do so.

Donaldson, growing a beard and wearing heavy armor, had been hired by Machee to disguise as Paul, the legendary adventurer.

Donaldson’s strength was certainly not bad, for he was also at the level of 12. Although his loyalty was only 60, it didn’t matter, for Crick could monitor his loyalty changes at any time with his special skills. As long as his loyalty did not decline, 60 was enough. The most valuable thing was that his intelligence was as high as 16, which was really at the level of mages!

With such a high intelligence, it was no wonder that he could disguise himself as a legendary master with the strength of a mid-ranked warrior. He had almost succeeded in tricking Spencer, who had almost stepped into the Legendary Realm.

Paul was a wandering, legendary warrior who traveled around to help the weak and correct evil things. But in the last one or two hundred years, he had rarely appeared in the human world. Some people thought that he had become a god, while others thought that he had ventured into other worlds because there were no challenges in the Main Plane. The last time he was seen by others was when he rescued Spencer and his sister who were kidnapped and almost killed by bandits more than 20 years ago.

Perhaps it had been fate. On that dark and tragic battlefield, they had met a man who had known Paul—a general of the Orc Empire’s Southern War Zone, the Iron Teeth, Ilo.

Paul was a Half-Orc from the Lionman, the same as Morani. Before he realized that he was a Half-Orc, he had used the name Leonard. At that time, he had been called the Armored Great Lion, a powerful general of the Orc Empire and a good friend of Ilo. Later, Leonard became a Half-Orc and took the road of becoming a kind ranger. He said farewell to his old friends and changed his name to Paul—Paul was a famous knight in history. He had devoted all his life to protecting the weak and saved countless people in his nearly 400 years of life.

Time flew, and situations changed. There were few people who remembered the Armored Great Lion, Leonard. Instead, Paul the Ranger had become famous with people.

In fact, Paul had become a legend. The last time Ilo met him was sixty years ago. Paul looked very haggard, sitting on a stone by the lake and meditating silently. Nobody knew what he was thinking.

Ilo invited him for a drink, but Paul told him that he had quit drinking.

At that time, Ilo was shocked as if he had seen a ghost. The Armored Great Lion, a hero who could drink dozens of kilograms of wine, had actually quit drinking?!

Ilo had never seen him since then. According to Ilo, there was no difference between death and the alcohol-free Leonard.

Crick certainly didn’t think so. He always believed that Paul was alive. Maybe he was lost on the road of life? Or maybe he was just under some secret training? In short, even if Ilo couldn’t see it, sooner or later the legendary figure would be on the stage of history again.

Regardless, that didn’t prevent Crick from asking Donaldson to shave Donaldson’s beard and change into a light armor to look like a normal warrior.

Since Donaldson’s real career was an armored warrior, how could he disguise as a legendary, armored warrior so successfully!

He didn’t even enter the first level of a Bard!

Donaldson’s current job was Crick’s entourage, handling a lot of chores for him. It was not easy, but it was not that hard. The key was that it was safe. Donaldson was a man of great strength and had a strong build. However, he was a little cowardly. He was like a silver gun with a wax head. If he was ordered to take a sword and fight with others, he couldn’t even show 70% of his real power. It was really a waste for him to have such a strong build and a brave face.

“Sort these documents into different files.” While Knight James was touring Keane Hill with his sons, Crick was also doing something. After reading the regular news bulletins he had bought from the Association of Thieves, he asked Donaldson to collect them and sort them into different files by putting those closely related to Keane Hill together. Those important ones, but had nothing to do with Keane Hill, should be put on one side, and the unimportant ones to the other side.

Donaldson was very familiar with this job, so he had never made mistakes. He deserved to spend a long time with Maggie.

At present, the most important news was the independence of the Duchy of Griffon. But it had nothing to do with Baron Keane and deserved no attention at all. By contrast, it was the jostles of the Duchy of Thunder that worried Crick.

Baron Keane was somewhat a hero, but he would be nobody in front of the Duchy of Thunder. In the last minor confrontation between those big men, Keane Hill had suffered a great loss, and even Crick himself had almost died. If he were to get involved in such a political wave again, Baron Keane’s boat would be smashed to pieces by the storm this time.

So Crick had been thinking about what ways could he avoid these political jostles to maintain his hill’s peaceful development?

After thinking for a long time, he sighed deeply. With his hands covering his chest, he coughed a few times and shook his head helplessly.

After all, he still had many weak helpers. Facing such a storm, there was really no good way out.