Cthulhu Gonfalon

Chapter 37: Chapter 37

Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma

In a pub in Pyroxene Town, Palin, Satan and the new chairman of the Association of Thieves “Grey Eyes” Rhode sat drinking.

Rhode’s attitude was very humble, and he had a flattering smile on his face. To quote Gu Long’s words, he was very anxious to kneel down and lick Palin’s and Satan’s boots clean.

After witnessing the incredible power of His Majesty the “Void Mask”, he, a not very faithful thief, found himself persuaded to devote himself to His Majesty’s command.

The God of Thieves was not a very powerful god. Despite his seniority, he had not been living well. This was mainly determined by his style of conduct. His chief holy missions were theft, concealing, and hallucinations, which at the first glance seemed very high-end, but in fact, he had been teaching believers to be worldly-wise and play it safe by not being involved in high risk things. He asked them to restrict their own desire and told them that it sufficed to run a little risk in the world so as to live a stable life. Under his guidance, the major business of the Association of Thieves included not only traditional ones like theft, trafficking and information selling, but also others such as the manufacturing and sale of counterfeit goods, operation of grocery stores and taverns, hostels, serving as locksmiths, and doing appraisals. In addition to these, there were quite decent professions, such as house and cemetery construction and archeology, and some mid-to-low end ones like self-help disaster education.

It was not hard to earn money by doing these things. However, it was obviously unrealistic if someone wanted to rely on these for peak life moments or becoming a proud swordsman. If you did not have a choice, then making money in silence and living calmly was, of course, not a bad thing. But after witnessing the mighty power of His Majesty the “Void Mask”, Rhode could not help but think of converting to another faith.

It was not to say that His Majesty the God of Thieves was not good, nor was it that he did not want to go to the Holy Kingdom of the God of Thieves after death. But as we all know, going to a holy kingdom after death was not so easy. The limited strength and the non-advanced divinity of the God of Thieves determined that he could not widely accept the souls of his believers. Even the chairman of the Association of Thieves in a town might not certainly be able to go to the Holy Kingdom.

If he was unable to go to the Holy Kingdom, Rhode could not expect a good end. Although he had not done extremely terrible evils, the accumulation of crimes such as theft, counterfeiting and fraud would be enough to behead him a few times over, not to mention his illicit fights that had nothing to do with justice.

Thinking of it, he could not help but envy the dead Ryan.

Going to the Holy Kingdom of the God of Redemption could not be a very good choice because the idea of this god was to have believers redeem themselves and others. Although Ryan had redeemed himself, he could not get peace and joy until he had redeemed sufficient enough people to truly accomplish his own atonement. As the envoy of the God of Redemption said, his road ahead was still long. As Rhode saw it, it was nothing more than avoiding the brutal consequences of falling into hell and replacing torture and torment with long periods of labor.

But this was sufficiently good!

If it was possible to have a good relationship with His Majesty the “Void Mask,” even if he could not usually receive his protection, he could get the chance of atonement and avoid falling into hell if he could invite the “Void Mask” to bless him when he was about to die. This advantage was enough to make the cowardly Rhode excited.

It was not even necessary to mention that His Majesty the “Void Mask” could provide protection to his followers strong enough to make others jealous!

There were so many gods in the world, but which god would turn angry and confront the God of Conspiracy because his followers were plotted against?

The “Void Mask” had! And won!

In contrast, when the chairman of their association, whose status was equivalent to the high priest, defected, the God of Thieves didn’t even notice it. He was somewhat... alas...

Palin was young, inexperienced, and lacked the ability to see the subtleties in people. But Satan was a strong and experienced man who made a living by using his brain, he even once suppressed Gerrard through his intellect. Satan understood what Rhode was all about with one glance. He could not help but smile.

“Chairman Rhode, let’s get straight to the point. Do you want to be a believer of our God?” He asked straightforwardly.

This straightforward speech style apparently made Rhode feel uncomfortable, who was used to bargaining slowly. He paused for a moment in spite of having contemplated various responses and nodded with a forced smile.

“The Immortal Thief is not a mean god, but are you not afraid of being punished as the chairman of an Association of Thieves who has betrayed his faith?” Satan directly asked the most crucial question.

To this question, Rhode certainly had carefully considered it and immediately answered, “Strictly speaking, I am still only a vice chairman, and I have not formally held a ritual ceremony for the approval of His Majesty to serve as the chairman. His Majesty, of course, would not tolerate the conversion of a chairman, but he presumably could tolerate that of a vice chairman. Anyway, His Majesty the Void Mask is also hostile to his enemies, and I guess an enemy of his, if not an ally, at least could be counted as a friend.”

“It seems that you have a very clear idea and have weighed the pros and cons carefully. Then I have another question,” Satan said. “His Majesty is one of the ancient gods of nature and not a god who is passionate about spreading the faith. If you want to join us, what do you think you can do for His Majesty? If you just believe in him, then forget it.”

Rhode was dumbfounded for a moment, not expecting to actually encounter this question. Most of the world’s gods were keen on spreading the faith because accepting the feedback of the power of faith was the most common means to enhance the godly level. However, for ancient gods who had gained strength from the source of the world, the existence of faith was not a major issue at all. Whether people had faith or not had no effect on them.

Therefore, if one wanted to join the church under the command of an ancient god of nature, it became very difficult.

After all, they did not mean to recruit people.

After thinking for quite a while, Rhode said, “I am well informed in the four northwestern towns, and I have great experience in appraising. I am a qualified expert in the industry if I go to the Commonwealth of Gold Coins in the southern part of this world. In addition, I am also very good at forging instruments, making and dismantling various gears and traps, and I also know a lot about geology, history, animals, and plants...”

“But are these useful to our God?” Satan asked.

Rhode silently shook his head in frustration.

The ancient god of nature existed outside of the civilized world, and while those skills were useful in the civilized world, they were of no use to him. A great god also didn’t care about trivial things like geology and knowledge of plants or animals.

Just when he was upset, Sui Xiong’s voice suddenly sounded in the air, “This tavern has been run by your Association of Thieves, right? So can you operate a shop?”

Rhode shook his head. “There are others who are in charge of the tavern. I know little about business and management.”

In front of a god, he did not dare to lie.

“Then, Palin, how about you?” Sui Xiong asked again.

“Your Majesty, I can learn it,” Palin replied immediately. “I am young and quick to learn, and I can get some experienced people from my uncle to help me before I complete my studies.”

“If you are looking for someone to help, I have more people who can help you!” Rhode hurriedly interrupted, “Your Majesty, I know a lot of capable people, of whom at least ten are merchants with good records!”

“So your specialty is your connections.” Sui smiled and said, “Gerrard has always suggested that I establish my own church and faith system. Although I am not determined yet, I have tried to establish a village of pioneers. If you are willing to work for me Rhode, I will ask you and Palin to set up the village. How would you like it?”

“No problem! I certainly can do a good job!” Rhode was overjoyed, and he promised while patting his chest.

Palin bowed his head and promised, “Your Majesty, I will do my best.”

He knew he was young and had limited ability. The only thing he could promise was to do the best.

“Do not worry, it is not hard for us to build a village of pioneers.” It turned out to be Rhode who encouraged him. “To establish such a village requires nothing more than three things: food, population and military forces. We can spend money to buy food, and it is not difficult to recruit pioneers so the population isn’t a problem; military forces should not be a problem either because we have the huge man Gerrard. As long as we are not dumb enough to build the village beside the residence of the fiercest legendary monsters in the Ashes Woods, can trivial things like skeletons withstand Gerrard’s ax?”

Everyone suddenly realized, as Rhode said, with military safeguarding and no shortage of money, building a village of pioneers in the Ashes Wood was not a difficult task at all.

It was like sowing seeds. Al that was needed was care and patience if the seeds were good; the soil and the climate were suitable; and the water and fertilizers were sufficient.

Thinking of it, Palin and Satan could not help but smile.

Perhaps for His Majesty “Void Mask”, the establishment of a village of pioneers was merely a game not worth mentioning, but for them, this was an opportunity to dedicate their power to the god they believe in.

The ancient God of Nature had always been unambitious, and their believers often had no sense of existence. However, this world ran with its own rules. If a believer could not follow the idea of his god or make enough contributions for the god, even if their soul was taken to the holy kingdom after death, it could not be reincarnated easily or become a holy creature with an almost immortal life. In the Holy Kingdom of the ancient God of Nature, there were so many souls that had not been able to successfully complete reincarnation but simply rested between life and death and sometimes woke up.

Neither Palin nor Satan wanted that kind of end. So, of course, they must strive to make more contributions to their own god while they were still alive so as to be able to be reincarnated after death.

As for the first formal task assigned by the god, they both wanted to do their best to establish a positive example for future followers. It was also a solid foundation for their way to the reincarnation in the Holy Kingdom.

So they soon started a detailed discussion of the specific plan to establish the village of pioneers: Where should they buy supplies? Where should they recruit villagers from? Where should the village be situated? How would they tackle problems of transport? How would they build it? Questions were raised one by one and they discussed the solutions.

At first, Sui Xiong listened with great interest but found it boring as he listened. He shifted his energy to the outside of the tavern to see Gerrard’s situation. He saw that Gerrard was teaching martial arts to the thieves. This giant was more honest and straightforward, and his nature of enjoying teaching other people did not disappear. As soon as he saw this group of thieves with humble skills but good physical constitution, he could not help but teach them something.

Sui Xiong’s followers were busy, so he didn’t find it good to disturb them. So he stopped and began to read the documents that the God of Redemption gave him...