Cthulhu Gonfalon

The information given by Randolph could be summarized with three points:

First, Sean Riley could possibly foresee the future, and knew that ship incident would happen.

Second, the ship incident was probably arranged by the officiant of the Church of the God of Aristocracy.

Third, Sean would leave here soon.

“I think Sean Riley is the most suspicious guy,” Ray said when they settled down in a hostel. He told them everything he had heard, and gave his analysis as well. “I think Sean Riley and the officiant planned this ship incident together.”

Everyone agreed with Ray’s analysis. After having a discussion, they decided to pay a visit to the Garth Commercial Corp the next morning, the commercial corp that Sean Riley built there. If nothing unexpected happened, Sean should have still been there.

The next morning, when they arrived at the Garth Commercial Corp, the guard told them that the chairman Sean was busy in dealing with business.

Ray frowned and sent a signal to Steele by looking at her. Steele and him had already formed a tacit mutual understanding, so she immediately knew what he meant. Then she began to seduce the guard.

The effect of Steele’s seduction was so powerful, which clearly showed the ability she had as a holy spirit. in fact, most of the legendary strong men could not withstand her temptation. This guard was such a strong man, and was at most a professional adventurer who was not even less powerful than Steele; so it was impossible for him to stand this temptation.

The guard looked at Steele’s eyes for one or two seconds, then his eyesight became restrained.

“Is the chairman Sean here?” Steele gently asked.

“I don’t know, I haven’t seen him for a few days.”

Ray frowned and asked, “Is it possible for us to pay a visit to him?”

“He said he is not feeling well these days, and doesn’t want to see anyone.”

“He is not feeling well? You didn’t mention this earlier!”

“This is what he has asked to say. He said that if there is anyone who wants to see him, I should reply by saying ‘the chairman is busy in arranging business.'”

Ray frowned again and asked, “Where does he live?”

“He lives in the room that is close to the sea on the second floor.”

Ray nodded, and asked Sui Xiong, “Your Majesty, can you help me to check for that room?”

Actually, there was no need to ask Sui Xiong to do such a trivial thing, but Ray was very worried, and could not wait to find out what was inside that room.

Sui Xiong checked the room with his spiritual sensing, and found that Sean Riley was not in that room. But there was a old man, whose hair had turned white, lying on his stomach on the ground. He had died several days ago, and his body was maintained by magic so it wouldn’t decay.

Sean Riley was the son of the castellan of Garth City, so he could not possibly be this old. So who was this old man? And why was he dead in Sean’s room?

Sui Xiong practiced a spell and projected the old man’s body in the air, so everyone could see it. Then he asked the guard who this old man was. The guard told him that he was the vice chairman of this commercial corp, who was in charge of managing the daily routine. He was also a relative of Sean’s.

“Sean killed him since he believes this old man would provide some evidence that could go against him,” Ray said coldly. “It seems that he has already run away!”

After a while, the whole Garth commercial corp turned into chaos. The news that the chairman was missing and the vice chairman was killed made everyone worried and frightened.

Sui Xiong got everyone together and questioned them one by one.

After a while, they finally knew where Sean was headed; a guard who was patrolling at night about eight days ago said that he saw the vice chairman, who was wearing a hat, leave hurriedly. Sui Xiong then found this guard had been captivated by a spell, and thought about the time the vice chairman was killed. Then he made the conclusion that Sean killed the vice chairman first, then changed into the vice chairman’s form by practicing magic, and ran away.

But… why did Sean leave in such a hurry? Why did he choose to kill the vice chairman? Was he hiding some secret?

“I don’t care what secret he is hiding. What we can do now is go after him,” Ray thought for a while, and made his decision. “There is a great chance that he is aiming towards Garth City. We should go after him!”

“Are we going to fly there?” Sui Xiong asked.

“It’s not a good idea for us to fly together,” Ray said. “Since he left almost eight days ago, there is no need to hurry. We shall make our preparations and take the boat to Garth City!”

Everyone began to make the preparations. Big objects like the carriage, the horses and the tent were sold while they looked for a boat.

While they did not manage to find any boat, an experienced old captain suggested they take a boat to White Pagoda Bay, then the Dhaka Trade Organization, then to Blue Moon Kingdom. When they arrived at Blue Moon Kingdom, they would find a boat to the Garth City.

“It doesn’t take too much time,” the captain said. “If you take the boat, it will only take seven or eight days more at most to arrive, and compared with a long distance journey, this delay is basically nothing.”

The captain was very right, and things were settled.

That afternoon, Ray and others took the boat and headed to the White Pagoda Bay.

Cloud Pagoda Bay was not that far away from White Pagoda Bay. This boat was sailing smoothly in the tranquil sea during the whole journey. Both the captain and the sailors had accumulated lots of experience, since they sailed between the two bays many times each year. They were familiar with the surrounding water areas, as if the region was the garden in the back of their house; they knew every rock and every undercurrent. For Ray and his team members, this journey was very easy and happy. It seemed like they were on vacation.

After they transferred to another boat at the White Pagoda Bay, their journey continued smoothly. In the east of the Mifata Federation, there was a small country called Dhaka Trade Organization. The sea transportation in this region had began to develop, and got better and better; then this country formed, and seafaring people of this country had been developing very well since then. All this time, only the boats from the Dhaka Trade Organization could manage to cross the dangerous Iron Cliff Mountains and safely arrive at Blue Moon Kingdom. In this way, they monopolized the trade in this region.

They had been sailing in the sea for almost twenty days and were in the tiny sailboat the whole time, so it was only natural for them to get tired. To kill time, Steele would shamelessly become a pig to happily play with young Nice.

Ray was rather different from them. He was learning seamanship from the sailors with great curiosity, as well as teaching Liv and Ranke to practice the martial arts. When he was free, he would sit on the ship board and fish. In a word, he never feel bored.

Liv was a bit lazy. Compared with her, Ranke was very diligent. Every day, he would practice very hard for about ten hours, and did not stop until he was feeling exhausted. Once he had a rest, he would start to practice again.

As the saying goes, ‘everything comes to him who waits.’ After the twenty days, Ranke’s swordsmanship had improved quite a lot. Ray said he finally looked like a man who knew how to use a sword. When he was practicing with Liv, he was able to make his attack or defend himself. Even if he was in a difficult situation, he would not get flustered. Now he finally looked like a real swordsman.

But after they transferred to the boat that sailed to the Blue Moon Kingdom at the Dhaka Trade Organization, things were not as sunny as before.

This boat was a standard passenger boat. Although the boat ticket was very expensive, the accommodation was top class. Apart from the small space, both the inner decoration and the utensils were as good as those in a ordinary hostel. While the captain was a very strict old man, he was very stubborn and always saying things like “The sea is very dangerous, no passenger is allowed to loiter on the deck.”

Even Ray could not stand being trapped in inertia for this long. As for Sui Xiong, he went into the sea and changed back to his original form, and happily swam in the sea.

Under Sui Xiong’s watchful eye, everything would be fine.

But Ray was being too optimistic.

When the boat was crossing the most notorious submerged reef, the “Hell Bay” around the Iron Cliff Mountain, the clear sky suddenly changed. Black clouds were gathering overhead, and the tranquil sea began to tumble. One wave came after another. Almost in the blink of an eye, they were sailing in a storm.

The captain was very surprised, and immediately ordered all the sailors to act while loosening the sails and carefully watching the situation on the sea. He managed to slow down their speed and was trying to dodge the submerged reef, or something more dangerous.

Since Ray and Madame Teague were very strong, they were asked to help the captain.

“Are we coming across a sea monster?” Ray was very excited and curious.

He had been a adventurer for so many years. He had killed a mountain spirit, fought with a huge dragon, and met a God, but he had never met a sea monster!

The captain wore a very serious face and was extremely worried. He said, “Yes; we have come across a sea monster, and it is not an ordinary sea monster. It may be the ‘Furious Tide,’ Heimsarah.”

‘Heimsarah?’ The creature as strong as the ‘Dark Tide’ Timsar?” Ray was stunned became more curious.

The Furious Tide and the Dark Tide were the most notorious monsters in the Main Plate. Not only were they very powerful, but there were also many legendary stories concerning them. Until now, no one really knew what they looked like.

Ray knew that he was not that strong enough to be able to see what it really looked like. But I have Sui Xiong! His Majesty would definitely have a closer look at it, and is sure to tell me later.

“I never thought I would have an encounter with a legendary sea monster during this journey!” He could not help but laugh. “Maybe I will become the first human who knows what the ‘Furious Tide’ really looks like!”

He told Sui Xiong what the captain had told him via telepathy. Sui Xiong was very curious about this, and went straight to the center of the storm to find out what was really going on there.

In the center of the storm, he saw a tumbling magic power, and the water around it was tumbling as well. Beside it, there was a small tornado encircling this tumbling water.

Looking carefully, Sui Xiong found that there was a God’s force in the core of the magic power. This force was steady and tranquil, which was totally different from the tumbling water and the tornado. It was still, as if it was sleeping.

“Hello; are you Heimsarah?” Sui Xiong tried to send a signal via telepathy.

When this signal touched that magic power, the God’s force shook a bit, as if it had woken up. Then Sui Xiong received the reply.

It was very ambiguous telepathic message, which probably meant Hello.