Cthulhu Gonfalon

Before embarking on this expedition, Wilder had discussed the matter with Singh. Wilder had carefully analyzed the laws of the Republic of Northwest as well as the doctrine of Void Mask. He had then pointed out that the biggest obstacle that was being posed to the success of this expedition would be the attitude that the various Orc gods had towards faith and the policies towards faith in the Orc Empire as well.

“If it’s possible to do so, the government could change their attitude, and the policymakers could then make adjustments to the policies. That’s the best solution we have,” Wilder had then suggested.

However, Singh had rejected this proposition.

“The Orc System is rooted in the idea of blood ties and cares deeply about the purity of the relationship between souls. If this is lost, we Orcs will lose a part of our identity. We wouldn’t be us anymore. At that point, living or dying would make no difference and have little meaning if we lost our main values as a race.”

Wilder had begged the great God of Orcs, but Singh rejected him not once, not twice but three times. In the end, Wilder had no choice but to change his approach and went to find Lefon.

Lefon had replied in an extremely decisive way. “If we lose this battle, we might as well follow the footsteps of the pygmy tribe and step out of the Main Plane. This world is so big, there is definitely space for us to find a place for the Orcs to reside in. That wouldn’t be a huge problem. On the other hand, if we give up the foundational idea of using blood and soul relations to determine our society, we will be losing the main values of the Orc tribe. Even if we stay on the Main Plane, we would be losing a part of ourselves forever, and that is not acceptable!”

With such a strong and non-negotiable answer, Wilder could not do much to change the Orcs’ mind further. All he could do was to skirt around the issue and continue pondering about how to convince the Void Mask instead on this matter of policies.

Towards this, he came up with several different angles of argumentation, hoping that at least one of them would be convincing enough to allow him to succeed.

Towards Sui Xiong’s queries, Wilder immediately replied, “What’s the difference between helping the Orcs versus the dwarves or elves? In all cases, we are just helping to resist aggression.”

“The thing is, the Orcs have always been the aggressors towards others while the elves and dwarves are usually the ones at the mercy of such aggression,” Sui Xiong replied. “The Orc Empire is the world’s biggest country in terms of turf; they own more than 40% of the land on the Main Plane. The vast, untended plains of the northern part of the Main Plane definitely had other races and tribes living there in the past. Where are they all now? If one can be aggressive to others, similarly, others can be aggressive towards you as well. This is a very basic and just matter.”

Wilder had smiled slightly. Sui Xiong’s thinking had not differed from what he had expected. He thus replied, “In the past two hundred years or so, the Orc Empire has not attempted to further expand their physical territory. Up till the last millennium, the Orc Empire ‘s expansion plans were also duly stopped by the combined efforts of the Eagle Kingdom as well as the Kingdom of Holy Angels. They have been stopped already. Do you think that the many future generations after should pay for the crimes of their ancestors, which happened thousands of years ago?”

Without waiting for Sui Xiong to reply, Wilder continued his monologue. “As compared to the Orcs, humans have recently also become more cruel in their aggressive deeds. Originally, during the great migration and when there were big developments in the past, the humans did many cruel things as well, and you know that too. Even if we do not bring up the past, in the last few years, humans have still been aggressive towards the dwarves and the Great Marsh!”

Sui Xiong was unable to argue against this as he knew it all to be true as well.

In this world, if we were to tier the different races, one could not deny that humans were definitely at the top of the list when it came to aggression. If one wanted to say that humans were ranked second, no one else could rank first. As compared to humans, the aggression by the Orcs was actually pale in comparison. This was mostly because their aggression and schemes had been stopped by humans and they could not continue expanding on them.

“I want to ask you something. Do you agree with aggression?” Wilder asked.

Sui Xiong flinched and replied, “Of course not!”

“Let’s discuss things further then. If humans choose to be aggressive and encroach on others’ territory, do you approve of it or disagree?”

Sui Xiong thought about it before replying, “I disagree with it.”

“I knew you would definitely disagree.” Wilder smiled slightly. “Furthermore, not long ago, you even took it upon yourself to lend a helping hand to the Kingdom of Dwarfs when the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs had tried to invade them. It was such a huge contribution to their defense efforts that it is still fresh in everyone’s minds.”

Sui Xiong smiled politely in return to that compliment, but internally, he felt that something was amiss in his heart.

Something about Wilder’s words did not seem quite right...

“At that time, we Orcs had also been on the side of the Kingdom of Dwarf’s,” Wilder smiled again and said. “I believe you would also remember that! At that time, the Orc Empire had sent out many elites to help increase the defenses of the Kingdom of Dwarfs and helped them prepare for a battle with the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs.”

Sui Xiong nodded his head in agreement. This was true. Although in the end, the conflict did not end up in a physical battle, the Orcs’ help was still indispensable and notable.

“See, we Orcs have already proved that we in fact are against aggression through our tangible actions, right?”

Sui Xiong hesitated for a while before furrowing his brow and nodding slowly.

“To reiterate, you are against aggression as well, right?”

Sui Xiong nodded again.

“In that case, we’re actually on the same page and are standing on the same side as each other, are we not?”

Sui Xiong thought about this statement for an extremely long time until he was dazed and confused. It felt like there was a flock of birds circling around his head, cackling and singing songs right above him.

He knew that Wilder’s persuasion definitely was not completely accurate, and that something was missing or wrong. It was just that he could not exactly pinpoint what the flaw in Wilder’s argument was.

Yes, it was true that if the Orcs opposed aggression and he opposed aggression as well, that they would be on the same side in battle as they were unanimous in their values.

But... but... but...

Sui Xiong shook his head firmly as if to dismiss that imaginary flock of birds disturbing him and sighed deeply.

“What you said does make sense,” Sui Xiong replied extremely hesitantly. “However, I really do not like the way the Orcs do things generally...”

“In this world, there is no individual that can satisfy someone else’s requirements entirely.” Singh smiled in a rather self-dismissive way. He had practiced this bitter expression many times and had finally gotten Wilder’s approval. “For example, many of your methods and your way of thinking may not be agreeable to others as well.”

Sui Xiong was a little dazed and froze as he suddenly realized the conversation was somehow suddenly directed towards him unknowingly.

“Furthermore, I am able to promise on behalf of the various Orc gods that if you help us to fend off and defend against the humans’ aggression, the Orc Empire will abolish our tribal chief system and change to become a full republic system. We will not use blood ties and status to elect our leaders like we did in the past, but instead allow the people to vote according to their own desires to pick our elder group. The emperors’ powers and jurisdiction will be awarded to our various chief elder associations’, and the chief elder association Great Council will be the highest-ranking and most powerful group with the most powers in our new Republic of Orcs.

“We will also abolish the control that the aristocratic tribal chiefs have on their underlings and tribal members, effectively removing their control over trade products as well. These powers will be transferred to the chief elder association Great Council. Lastly, we will also take tangible and conscious steps to dissolve the overall political control that the aristocrats have and transfer the national aristocratic identity to a representation of honor without any special privileges...”

Singh had rattled off this long string of words in one breath and then eventually cast a peaceful yet serious gaze onto Sui Xiong. “Are you satisfied with all the conditions that I just mentioned?”

Sui Xiong fell silent as he really did not know how to answer that question.

If he only cared about his own feelings, it was true that he was not inclined towards the Orcs, whom he hated. He did not really wish to help them and make himself an enemy of the humans as well.

On the other hand... No matter how he looked at it, logically, in terms of theory and benefits, there was no reason for Sui Xiong to reject Singh’s offer.

Singh had already phrased his conditions clearly and made a strong argument for them. He was so earnest as well. How could Sui Xiong reject him now?

As Sui Xiong gazed at Singh, who was patiently waiting for his reply, he felt stressed and in a tight dilemma. Having to make a choice here felt more awful than having to go into battle with several gods with great Divine Powers...