Cthulhu Gonfalon Chapter 54

Chapter 54: Chapter 54

Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma
Anyone who could be entrusted with an important post must be a brilliant figure, and since the one who stayed was very brilliant, he managed to know how strong Ray really was. Then he was completely stunned.
The Geerteng Manor was a manor ruled by a Viscount; it was adjacent to the wilderness where there were many adventurers. While he transportation was not convenient and there weren’t many prey with high economic value here, the adventurers who would travel here varied from the green hand to the experienced. As for Satan, who was a middle advanced wizard, only the super elite, the captain of a group or some well-known masters, could match up with him.
The two men were Romon’s close relatives as well as his capable warriors. Even though they were some powerful figures among the middle advanced adventurers, there was still a big gap between them and the advanced adventurers.
In the whole Geerteng Town, there was one very powerful guy, Lyon Gervasi, the archbishop of the church of the God of Knight and Pioneer. He had been blessed by the God and it was said that he had touched the threshold of the Legendary World. Around two hundred years ago, he was persuaded by the first Viscount of Geerteng and thus came to this town and built the church. Now after two centuries, he had become the figure that steadied the whole Geerteng Manor and had more authority than the Viscount. If it were not for his making it clear that he would not get involved in this fight for the inheritance of the title, Romon would never dare to have the mere idea of taking control the Geerteng Town.
Competing with a strong man who had lived for over two hundred years, had pushed past a human body’s limits, and capturing his old friend’s fortune were not things that someone who even only had a shred of sense would do.
Now, Steele who was supposed to have been killed by her lovers had come back with a suspicious strong knight who had probably touched the threshold of the legendary world.
This… this… was absolutely…
The one that stayed had been thinking very hard to find the proper word to describe his feelings, but he failed to do so.
If Sui Xiong was there, Sui Xiong would definitely help him to finish the sentence—”F*cking Jesus Christ!”
“Ray, it seems there is someone who has been frightened by you.”
The one that stayed was so scared that his terror had been sensed by Sui Xiong who was very far away from him. Sui Xiong showed Ray where this guy was and said, “What have you done? That man is so scared that he is going to pee himself.”
“What could I have possibly done? During these years, I have done things like kill people, burn their property and rob people, anyway, I have done nothing decent. Maybe he was a family member of someone I killed before, or he was the lucky one who managed to run away when I wiped out the whole Iron Sand Chamber.”
“Could you please stop telling me the bad deeds you have done before, like you have killed one’s whole family or something. I am feeling rather uncomfortable.”
“… who said I have killed one’s whole family?! I have never killed any old people or women! I just went into the chamber and killed everyone I saw, both inside and outside— there were only some businessmen and hired thugs. I did not see any old people or kids!” Ray could not help redressing injustice for himself while Sui Xiong had randomly declared him guilty for killing some old people and kids. “There are only ruthless thugs in a smuggling chamber, no one would bring their own old parents or kids with them!”
Sui Xiong was a bit embarrassed and laughed a bit. Then he looked into his memory and realized that Ray had never talked about killing one’s whole family, and it was him that had created the scene of “killing the whole family” in his mind. Then he had wronged Ray?
“Well, you are not actually that bad!” Sui Xiong exclaimed.
“Bullsh*t! Almost everyone in the bandit world hated me that was why I always acted alone. Is this not enough to prove that I am really bad?” Ray could not help complaining. “Your Majesty, please do not judge a human on the basis of a jellyfish’s morality! If you want to practice a spell, then at least practice a spell that would work!”
“The morality of which the spell of detecting which side one was on was based on… was something I disagree with,” Sui Xiong said. “The dividing line between the orderliness and disorder is reasonable, but I think the distinction between the good and the bad still needs to be negotiated.”
“This is really a sophisticated question. I should not get myself into it; you should better find another God to talk with.”
“I think you are someone with insight, ideas and are very sophisticated. You are someone who I can talk about this sort of question with…”
“No! I am not that sort of person at all! You are going to drive me crazy by asking me these bullsh*t questions during these days. Unless you want a lunatic to accompany you, stop talking about these questions with me!” Ray instantly denied Sui Xiong’s suggestion. “As far as I am concerned, apart from these questions, you can talk with me about things like ‘now close the city gate’, ‘starting from here, let’s kill everyone we see,’ and ‘how many people do we need to kill before we can control this Viscount Manor?’… as long as you stop talking with me about that sort of question!”
Sui Xiong sighed and felt very sorry for losing a partner he could talk with.
Meanwhile, Steele and Ray had walked through the city gate and were casually heading toward the Viscount Mansion.
“The Mansion of the Geerteng Viscount was built around two hundred years ago. Since then it has been rebuilt and extended; now only the entrance door and the courtyard of inheritance where the big family conference is held are still the same, apart from these two, everything else was built later.” Steele was very familiar with this area and told Ray the history behind every place they passed.
She was not that slutty now, instead Ray could tell she had a very deep love for this city and this Viscount Mansion. It was as if she was a bad kid who had been doing bad things away from her home and finally came back home after all these years wandering from one place to another. Although her personality had changed a lot, when she recalled all the memories of her childhood, she felt she was that pure and kind little girl again.
“This woman is not that bad and can still mend her ways…” as a God, Sui Xiong could easily feel that Steele’s mind had changed, and he could not help but laugh.
Ray sneered and chipped in, “Miss Steele, the store we have just passed by seemed to have been rebuilt recently. It seems that everything is still fine in the Geerteng Manor.”
Steele was in a daze and woke up from her memory. She turned around to see the store Ray referred to, thought a while and said, “That store…” she thought again and then shook her head, “I do not quite remember…”
“Why not ask someone else?” Without getting a reply from Steele, Ray immediately get off from the horse and stopped an adventurer who was just walking by and asked.
“About a month ago, the owner of this store went out to replenish his stock. While he was riding, there was someone riding in front of him very quickly. His horse was frightened and was out of control, then his carriage was turned upside down and all his goods in the carriage were confiscated.”
The adventurer knew what had transpired and told Ray everything he knew, “He did not come back home and hanged himself on a tree along the road, then his wife and children killed themselves. Later, this store was bought by a relative of an aristocrat. He rebuilt this store and reopened it recently.”
Ray did not show any emotions and asked, “How much did that man spend on this store? This is really a good area. It must have cost him a fortune!”
“No, not expensive at all. The original owner was actually in debt, and the new owner promised to return the debt and he got this store without spending a penny. If the original owner were not in debt, his wife and children would not have killed themselves,” the adventurer smiled and shook his head. “So being an aristocrat is really good.”
“How about the debt?” Ray asked, hoping to get to the bottom of this matter.
“In fact, the debt was all because of the efficiency of the circulation, which means that when the goods were confiscated, the owner then became broke and was in debt. When the goods were returned to him, he would not be in debt anymore,” the adventurer sighed. “My friend, do not joke with me! This sort of thing is too common here!”
Then he shook his head, sighed and left.
Ray laughed and casually said, “‘Once the goods of a merchant fall onto the ground, his goods shall be confiscated.’ This law has already been abolished in many regions of the Gold Coin Federation; I never thought it still works here— it seems that the officials here are having a hard time collecting the tax!”
“Quite true, this city is not that big. We do not have enough sources of various revenues. We can not make everything look good if we have not come up with more ways to collect more money!” Steele forced a smile and said, “To make everything look good, we have indeed come up with many ways. Alas! We aristocrats should not be troubled by this sort of thing! I do hope we can abolish the laws that hinder the revenue collection as much as possible!”
Ray sneered and asked Sui Xiong in telepathy, “Your Majesty, do you still think this woman can mend her ways?”
Sui Xiong was silent for a while, then he said, “I think the suggestion you made earlier was worth trying.”
“What suggestion?”
“Block the city gate, kill everyone and control the Manor.”
Ray was stunned. “What! Are you kidding me! Currently, my picture is on the wanted paper of the Church of the Brutal Hunter. Do you want my picture to be put on one more wanted paper… ? No, several more wanted papers?! Besides, it is impossible for us to do as you told! If you do this yourself, it is possible that you could wipe out the whole population of this city at most, but you can not possibly control the manor! I am not even the Geerteng Family…”
“Have you forgotten that you told me that the bloodline can be easily changed with only a magic ceremony that costs about twenty to thirty thousand gold coins?”
“But why do I need to change my bloodline to the bloodline of a Viscount in the countryside! I am—” Ray suddenly realized he was going to say something he was not supposed to say, so he immediately stopped talking, and this had made Sui Xiong feel unhappy.
This guy was indeed smart, if he had said just one more word, I would have known his origin!
He sighed and said, “This woman is past help… maybe we should find someone younger and purer, after all a white paper is a better choice for writing.”
“No matter how pure one is, they would finally be spoiled by the extravagant aristocratic life.” Ray had no confidence in the aristocracy.
“Then find someone who is pure in character and has less desire.”
“There is no one like this among the aristocrats!”
“Then find someone who is not an aristocrat, and later we just need to spend twenty or thirty thousand gold coins to hold a magic ceremony.”
“… well, I have to admit that you are right this time…”
Then things were settled between the two. When they got settled in the Viscount Mansion, Ray would show himself in front of everyone and help Steele to keep up her appearances. Ray began to take a walk casually around the Geerteng City.
As for the reason why he agreed to do so, he did not bother to say, since there was no one who could stop him from doing anything, or technically speaking, no one would try to stop him.
The Geerteng City was not big at all. It only took Sui Xiong and Ray less than a half day to see the whole city. Luckily, they had managed to find a person who was young, pure and a bit talented: the collateral branch of the Geerteng Family; Olian Geerteng who was the administrator of the Geerteng City Library. She was just fifteen years old.