Cthulhu Gonfalon

Sui Xiong started to ponder.

Make the people feel that I need them... the best way should be to start with belief, right? So long as I reinforce the church’s preaching work and put up an act of needing belief, that should do.

But I really don’t need belief...

He quietly shook his head and rejected this notion.

Though he could always put up an act even if he really did not have such a need, Sui Xiong, unfortunately, exhibited the common failing of artists again—stubbornness.

He did not wish to use such a cheating method to solve the problem.

He knew that stubbornness would do nothing to solve the problem. He was simply being willful. But he just wanted to be willful.

Being artists, would it be justifiable if they did not have a temperament characterized by a bit of stubbornness and tactlessness!

Had anyone not seen Li Bai and Du Fu? They were artists and literary artists as well. Are they tactful? Tactful, like real!

Yan Zhenqing, a calligrapher, tactful? Tactful, as if!

Zheng Xie, a calligrapher, also a painter, tactful? What was that? He did not understand...

As an artist, Sui Xiong held these predecessors in high esteem. It was fine if there were no conditions. But when there were conditions, it was always inevitable that he would want to emulate these wise men of the past.

So now, he wanted to follow suit.

Theoretically speaking, such unnecessary stubbornness would bring him great trouble, so much to the extent that he could not think of any suitable method even after pondering for a long time.

In the end, after thinking from within the context of home to out of the country, he finally found something of value after searching through every nook and cranny of his memory.

After the former Soviet Union was established, for whatever unknown reason, it was probably the need of nation-building, the then head-of-state, Lenin, issued a nationwide call to hold a “Saturday Voluntary Labor” campaign.

How long had this been going on? Sui Xiong had no impression. He only remembered that this campaign seemed to be in full swing. The people all appeared to be very enthusiastic.

Should I also come up with such a voluntary movement in the Republic? Then from the voluntary movement personnel, I can carry out the selection of advanced members and award these people with the title of “pacesetters of nation-building?”

This doesn’t seem quite right. Since this is voluntary labor, why is there a need for selecting among the advanced?

Sui Xiong frowned and recalled something else.

Most modern countries had a slogan that said: “The people are the masters of the country.” Whether this slogan was true or false, at least it clearly showed an attitude.

So could the Republic of Northwest also make efforts in this direction? Establish a social atmosphere in which the people were the “masters of the country”?

He could not help but fall into a reverie of thoughts. Many thoughts of matters like social supervision, grassroots elections, opinion polls and such, were thronging into his mind. But all of these were merely miscellaneous thoughts and were not shaped in a systematic manner.

Obviously, these ideas were valuable. But they were not utilizable for the time being, at least not at the current moment.

So what was the final conclusion?

Sui Xiong smiled and made his decision.

“Let’s have a voluntary labor movement. We’ll build our nation, give back to society and realize our value in life,” he said. “Give publicity to this in my name. Tell everyone that to contribute to this country is to honor my glory.”

“The lord protects the world, and thus the world honors the lord,” he said. As he said so, he recalled that before he traversed worlds, he often saw this couplet on the doors of a small church near his dormitory. The diction was not fantastic, but it was catchy and easily read. So he casually said it off the top of his head.

Because what followed next was the issue of people being the “masters of the country.” He had not noticed the sudden spark in Palin’s eyes after hearing what he said.

That was the light of joy and excitement.

...

“Just being away for a few months, and the house that obstructs our view is finally torn down,” said Fira Kenji. He was walking along the street and looking at the slight changes made along his way. He was muttering to himself as he said, “It’s better to tear it down. This way, the entire street seems to look even straighter—straight lines are more beautiful. They enable efficient travel and are easily managed. Every city should make full use of straight lines!”

He was not worried about the original inhabitants of that house. All the citizens of the Republic of Northwest knew that if the state needed to demolish houses, it had to provide appropriate compensation. The most common practice was to first complete building the replacement house according to the citizens’ needs, at the place they had decided after discussing. When the furniture was all set, the people could move in at any time. Then the demolition of their original houses would commence.

From his old house to the new one, the only inconvenience was probably getting to know and familiarize himself with the neighbors again. Other than that, there was no other loss on his end.

Fira’s home was also on this same street. It was located right next to a small shop. His house was not very big, and to be honest, it was not very compatible with his status.

But he was not bothered about it. Making it to where he was, very few people would care about these mere worldly possessions.

In theory, every advanced mage could build a magic tower for himself or go inside the magic tower to build an individual dwelling for himself. But since Fira had joined Mr. Palin’s research institute, he no longer considered himself as a magician, but rather defined himself as a “scholar” or a “scientist.”

The former was the identity commonly used by magicians, while the latter was a term that His Majesty, the Void Mask, occasionally used.

Scientists were people who achieved their goals by studying and researching for means that did not involve the use of magic. They were the ones at the forefront of the entire society and also one of the most important forces for propelling social progress.

Fira did not understand these words back then. He merely looked forward to them because they came from the mouth of His Majesty, the Void Mask. It was only later when he and Mr. Palin worked together to complete the creation of the washed powder salt technique and calculated the benefits this technology could bring to the people that he truly understood the influential impact of a “scientist.”

He was not an excellent magician. His “Green Magic” might be wonderful, but compared to the magic system of the academics, he clearly did not have an advantage.

As a magician, he did not feel that he had made any decent achievements that were up to mark. All that he had accomplished by far would either only be things that were going to be shelved and neglected or things that someone might want to learn from in the future.

But so what?

As a scientist, he was proud of his achievements.

So long as the washed powder salt technique was widely promoted, everyone on the Main Plane would be able to eat cheap, refined salt!

For a person to make such an achievement in life, this person’s life would have not gone to waste. Even if they had to die that very moment, there was nothing to regret.

This was what Fira thought about after he calculated the value of the “washed powder salt” technique.

But fate was so wonderful. He was not going to die early, after all. Instead, because of his research results, he won His Majesty, the Void Mask’s recognition and got the opportunity to serve His Majesty.

Even... possibly become a god follower of His Majesty!

He did not have much confidence in regard to the final possibility. But it did not matter. It was already very good if he could become a follower of His Majesty!

So he had a smile on his face, and his steps were light.

After he had settled his personal matters, he was well on his way towards reaching the peak of his life!