Cthulhu Gonfalon

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”

The mirror did not respond.

Of course, it was really just an ordinary silver plate. Even if it was relatively expensive, it was not a magical prop, so how could it answer?

If it really said, “Beautiful lady, you are the loveliest woman in the world!” then Kasalie might be scared.

She stared at the mirror, finding that the young girl in the mirror was beautiful, with appropriate clothes, and perfect makeup which made her even more stunning. The pearl pendant that hung on her chest, which complimented her ivory white skin, had an especially intoxicating charm. Even the maid beside her, when looking at her smile, felt shy.

But at that moment, the girl in the mirror was very depressed.

Women were trying to dress up, most of the time because they wanted to make lovers happy. When her mother was still alive, she compared the women to flowers that should not casually bloom in front of outsiders. At that time, she did not understand this, and could not fathom why her mother was so happy when her father came back.

Now she understood.

However…

She sighed deeply and the girl in the mirror sighed with her. The beautiful face was so sad so that even the maid beside her felt distressed.

“Mother, what can I do to make him happy?”

The girl in the mirror couldn’t answer. The maids couldn’t answer. Kasalie returned to the dressing table in a gloomy mood. Her eyes were full of confusion.

“Father, you once said that the best man was one who was not fascinated by my beauty, but simply liked me. Now I have met a man who is completely unfazed by my beauty; but how can he like me?”

She was depressed for a long time, and finally put herself together, completed her makeup, and went out with her maid.

“Good morning, Miss Kasalie.”

“Miss Kasalie, are you going out?”

Along the way, servants and bureaucrats greeted her, and she responded to each one. Whenever she responded, that person suddenly felt excited and rejuvenated; especially the young men. It was like they had drank a potion.

When she walked past the door of the Hall of the Governor, she stopped and looked inwards.

The tall, handsome man, who was steady as a mountain, was sitting in front of the desk. A lot of documents were piled on his, desk and people needed him to handle them.

The man was always busy. Before, when Gars City was in ruins, he rushed around the construction sites and took the lead in work. He also personally sneaked into the sea floor of the port of Gars to get rid of the large pieces of gravel that prevented the boats from parking. Afterwards, Gars City was slowly revived, and he dealt with the business that would never be finished all day. He also had to take the time to examine major cases, and deal with various forces. Sometimes needed to lead teams personally to annihilate the powerful monsters that fled from the wilderness and into Gars City.

It was because of his leadership that in the short span of two years, Gars City would be transformed from ruins into a prosperous business port.

If there was no such man, then the refugees who had lost their homes would not be able to rebuild the city, because they couldn’t even survive.

If not for him, perhaps she would have already been forcibly taken away by a bully as a plaything, or been competed for by powerful people as a rare collector’s item.

She watched the man’s figure for a long time, obsessed.

He was always so powerful, so stable, so reliable!

When faced with ruin, everyone else was full of desperation. He was like a fire, not only lighting up people’s hearts, but letting people who shivered in the cold have someone to rely on.

When monsters came one after another trying to take advantage of their tragedy, he was like a thunder who smashed them. The monsters either stumbled or fled, or became ghosts under the sword. In more than two months, he had battled more than a dozen times before he finally shocked all the bad guys, and protected the Gars City.

At a time when others forced her to abdicate at the ceremony and she was in a dilemma, he stepped forward, relieving her of pressure. Later he even convinced the great gods who even dispatched messengers to solve problems for her.

Unconsciously, Kasalie’s eyes had been completely attracted by the man. She stood fully in the doorway, staring at the man working at the desk, and naturally smiled.

“Oh! You are as beautiful today, as always!” an indecent voice awakened her. She turned and found that it was Steele, who did not take the cold seriously, and was dressed like summer.

She did not like this woman.

Not because of this woman’s amazing beauty, or because of this woman’s indecent manners, but because the woman was familiar with him, and was one of his few friends.

She let her enter the hall.

Steele walked in with a swagger and sat on his desk, completely ignoring the majesty of the governor, uncaring of whether or not Ray would be able to see her private areas. She even showed the white skin of her thigh by slightly lifting her skirt. The little purple lace of her underwear showed, tempting people to commit a crime.

“What are you here for?” said Ray, unmoved, continuing to look at the documents and not even lifting his head. “Every time you visit here you bring bad news.”

Steele appeared to be hurt and sadly said, “Do you really think of me like this? Am I such a bad woman?”

“If you can be a little more decent, you may be able to restore my impression of you.”

“Would you fall in love with me?”

“…I would hate you less.”

Steele laughed and shook her breasts—intentionally or unintentionally—to tempt Ray.

Ray sighed deeply and put down the paper in his hands, “If you aren’t busy, why not go to work in the hospital? I believe the patients would be happy to see you.”

“I just came for the things in the hospital,” Steele finally put on a serious look. “Recently, there have been a lot more injuries than before!”

A cold look flashed in Ray’s eyes. “Why?”

“The number of monsters on the other side of the Great Swamp has not increased significantly, but they have become stronger and more violent.”

Ray said, “Is it that their Majesty finally couldn’t hold back any longer, and wants to make trouble?”

“Perhaps, but for the time being, there are no obvious traces. There is only this possibility.”

Ray nodded his head and took out the pamphlet he used to record important matters and wrote it down.

No matter how good a person’s memory was, it was not better than the words written in books. As the Void Mask once said, “Good memory is worse than writing.” Ray strongly agreed with this, and felt greatly enlightened, so he prepared such a booklet.

Sui Xiong also helped him to blacken the cover of the booklet, and drew a line of white runes on it.

There were nine strange symbols, five on the left and four on the right. The second symbol was the same as the last symbol. The fourth symbol was the same as the penultimate symbol.

“The black cover and these strange symbols do they have any special significance?” he asked.

Sui laughed and said nothing, but he looked very happy.

A lot of things had been recorded in this booklet, and each of them was very important. It was not known whether it was for fate or not, but almost everything had finally developed into a bloody conflict.

For example, the first thing recorded in the booklet was that the believers of the God of Fear flooded into Gars City. They seemed to want to do something bad, and it was required that everyone be careful.

The final result of the incident was that Ray chased them for hundreds of miles on a copper-crown dragon, and killed all of them.

The notebook, which now said, “Monsters in the Great Swamp Have Unusual Trends, It Is Needed to Organize People To Eliminate Them as Quickly As Possible,”would clearly have a similar development.

After finishing that, Steele left. Ray then turned his eyes to Kasalie, who had been at the door, and he looked puzzled.

“City Owner, do you have anything to command?”

Because he finally noticed her, she was happy, but she also sighed because he called her in an estranged way. Kasalie just smiled and shook her head, and said, “I have nothing to do. I just came to see you. You are so busy, you work so hard!”

“It’s nothing,” Ray said with a smile. “It’s not a lot of work, just few little public affairs.”

But he immediately changed his tone and advised her. “City Owner; after all, I’m just an outsider. You’re the real owner of Gars City. I think you should learn more about government affairs, because it will be good for you in the future.”

Kasalie felt even more depressed. “Aren’t you a good governor? Even if I don’t study government affairs, it would be okay to keep you in power.”

Ray shook his head and said gently, “Although I am a knight, I am essentially a priest, and I am a chief priest of a church. After we have developed our church, I will be sure to govern that church and I cannot stay there in Gars City as a governor forever.”

“Can’t we build the church here?” Kasalie asked. “We have a large population and convenient transportation. Isn’t it the best place to build a church?”

Ray was slightly convinced, and had to admit that she made a good point.

“I would propose this to His Majesty, but you have to know that a God’s ideas are different from normal people’s,” He said. “Perhaps it seems to you and me that the bustling Gars City is far more suitable for the establishment of a church than the bitter cold Ashes Wood, but the willingness of His Majesty is the key to everything.”

Kasalie secretly sighed, and they chatted a bit before leaving.

Looking at the pearl pendant on her chest that she had just bought the day before from the Business Center of the Sea of Storm, she sighed deeply.

From the beginning to the end of their conversation, Ray never noticed it…