Cthulhu Gonfalon

There was no kind-hearted God willing to see a God of Knights suffer, including Sui Xiong. Even the Orc Gods who were His enemy felt the same.

No, the Gods of Orcs did not wish to see Him weakened, demoted, or even fallen.

After all… as an enemy, the God of Knights had integrity, followed the rules, had moral values and was very tolerant. In contrast, the God of Light was fierce and cold. He did things unscrupulously and had no limit to how low He could stoop. Being an enemy of His was way more dangerous and way more difficult than being an enemy of the God of Knights.

And yet, what was ideal and what was reality were always two different things.

Leon hid deep sighs in his heart after he received the news from Sui Xiong. He pretended to be a young thief who ventured out for adventure and came to the big camp in the north of Eagle Wing City.

The scout camp was located in the furthest north side of the big camp. It was also the frontmost line of the whole army. They had the best logistics supply and treatment because they were responsible for the most dangerous and difficult jobs.

Before the big war happened, the first scout war erupted. Those brave men chosen from one in 100 would fight in small team units, even going so far as an individual counting as a unit. They would try hard to suppress each others’ scouts in order to gather any valuable intelligence. After a big war, even the victorious party would suffer a loss of over 30% from their scouts camp. The scouts camp of the defeated party might even be annihilated.

Even though one could use magic spells or the air force to look for jobs, the intelligence acquired was relatively unclear. There was no way for it to be detailed and accurate. Most generals deeply hated the scout wars that made them send their precious elite men off to crazy killer battles. But they had no other choice if they wanted to win.

When Leon arrived, the previous batch of scouts had just departed and the scout camp was rather empty. Besides the officers who were responsible for reorganization, there were only the logistics officers, busy arranging wills and other documents.

Due to the high risk involved in serving in a scout camp, almost every scout left behind a will before they left for the battlefield. Some people would bid farewell to their friends and family, some people would arrange their funerals, some would tell the secrets they had hidden for many years.

All these wills would not be opened. They would be kept in cases and sealed with magic spells. Each of these cases would be specially treated with a magic lock, the spell only losing its effectiveness when the owner of the will passed away. When the time came, the logistics officers would take out the wills of those who died on the battlefield and complete their death wishes.

In general, this was a privilege that only nobles were entitled to. As for normal soldiers, only those who served in scout camps would have the same treatment.

“How many cases were opened today?” said the old soldier who was responsible for arranging this data. He was an old man whose hair was almost completely white. He only had one arm, and there was a scary scar on his face. He also walked with a limp. There was no doubt he was a strong man who had crawled his way back to life after facing the God of Death.

Coincidentally, Leon knew him.

The man was named Star Erif. He was a family member of Count Erif. That year during the last Orc invasion, he was one of the scout camp members who fought ’till death on the battlefield. He was hurt badly in the war. After that, even though he had been retrieved from a pile of dead people and saved by a strong healing spell, his was never completely healed. That was because the thing that had cut his arm off was a horribly cursed weapon. Unless the weapon was found and cleansed, not even a high-level recovery spell could make his cut-off arm grow again.

Star was a typical soldier. As long as there were wars to be fought, Orcs to be killed, he didn’t care who was leading. Leon remembered back when his grandfather had evaluated his man. He said that this man was born in the year of the dog and that as a result, he was good at guarding the door. But he was not guarding the door of the Igor family. He was not guarding the door of the Eagle Kingdom. He only guarded the door of mankind.

Time flew by quickly. The fierce one-armed warrior was now old and fragile. He was too old to join the battlefield anymore and could only manage logistic work now.

Leon sighed secretly in his heart as he walked up to greet him. He asked where he should report to.

Old Star took a look at his papers and nodded. Then he used his one arm to point to the far-away practice grounds. “Go over there and find young Erik. He will be in charge of assessing your abilities, and will use a magic spell to identify your reliability.”

“And after the assessment?” Leon asked.

“Until then he will tell you what to do. I am very busy here,” old Star said begrudgingly. But his face looked a little dazed. “I still had to calculate how many great young men died today…”

Leon was quiet for a moment before he saluted him. Then he went to the practice grounds.

Looking at the retreating figure, old Star frowned a little as he mumbled to himself, “This man… he looks a little familiar. Where have I seen him before?”

Old Star was old and his moves had degraded; there was no way he could kill anybody now. But as an elite scout, his vision was still there, and his memory was good. He did not dare boast that he had a photographic memory. But as long as he had seen and spoken with someone, he could vaguely remember the person.

That look when the newcomer scout turned to leave: where had he seen that look before?

The old, aging scout was deep in thought for a while. But he could not find the right answer even after digging deep into his memory. In the end, he could only sigh deeply.

“I must be really old! So useless…”

This was actually not entirely his fault. With Leon’s current disguise, it was really hard to tell that he was related to some distinguished person. He looked very similar to his father from behind; to the ex-King who was murdered by his younger brother not long after he was enthroned. But who would have thought these two people were related?

Leon did not know that his cover had almost almost been blown. He quickly stepped into the practice grounds. Inside, there were quite a few newly recruited scouts who were training. There were also many older soldiers teaching them the necessary skills of being on a battlefield, trying hard to increase their chances of survival.

“You are Rien, and you came from around Rye Town of the four towns in the Northwest. And you are a thief?” asked Count Erik. He was the main officer of the Scout Camp. Erik looked at his papers carefully. He hesitated for a while before asking, “How has old Rhode been?”

“Mr. Rhode is almost retired now. I have not been to Void Mask Theme Park for some time, so I really have no idea about his situation,” Leon answered. “But… at least he was still in good spirits last fall during the harvest festival.”

Count Erik nodded and spoke again. “I remember the church of the God of Light in Rye Town was working hard to cleanse a lich. Has the cleansing finished?”

“They had not finished cleansing on the day I departed, but they said it would be done in a few days,” Leon answered. “I have spent some time on the road, I guess the cleansing is done. Or maybe they needed more time.”

Count Erik nodded again and inquired about the situation of the four towns in the Northwest, especially Rye Town. In the end, he took out a blue crystal and looked at the color of the crystal. Then he smiled with satisfaction.

“Very good, you did not lie,” he said. “Well then. Let’s do a simple physical test.”

He pointed at a human-shaped target far away and said, “Now, run over there as fast as you can and attack that target—just as you would attack a person. Then run back over here again.”

Leon looked at the target and asked, “I just have to attack it?”

“That’s right,” Count Erik said. “You’d better hurry up. The sooner you complete it, the better your evaluation will be.”

Leon turned his hand around to remove the foldable short bow that hung on his waist and combined the three parts of metal into a bow arm with a turn and a twist. Then he took out the bowstring and hung it up, took out an arrow from the rounds tied to his leg, and put it on. He did not even take aim intentionally. Drawing the bow and taking aim, he only took one arrow to shoot the target. It landed a shot in the throat position.

“Is this speed alright?” he asked.

Count Erik was stunned. He could only react after a few seconds and could not help but laugh while clapping his hands. “Bravo! Bravo! Your skills do not look like a thief’s skills at all!”

As he said that, he was suddenly frozen. He could only see the shadow of “Rien” who was nearby, gradually turning gray all of a sudden. He blended into the shadows of the tent next to him, completely losing his tracks.

“Sir, I’m also good at sneaking.” It only took a moment, but his voice now came from behind him. “Besides, that arrow shooting took quite a lot of luck. If I had to do it again I cannot guarantee I would shoot the throat again with one arrow.”

Count Erik was stunned again. This time he was stunned for a longer time. His back even had a few goosebumps.

If the previous God-like precision shot was enough to make him marvel, the sneaking to get behind him in the blink of an eye scared him.

“You… are you really a thief and not an assassin?” he could not help but ask. “Sneaking, sniping… these skills all make you look like an assassin!”

“Ever since Mr. Rhode took charge of the Association of Thieves in the four towns in the Northwest, the thieves in the four towns can no longer take assassin jobs,” Leon answered. “I respect Mr. Rhode very much and will adhere to the rules he set. But if I was on the battlefield, I would be more than happy to take on an assassination mission.”

Count Erik suddenly realized something. He thought he understood Rien’s background. “This old Rhode… he has great skills, good vision, but he is too courteous. He is always harmonious, and will not fight if he does not have to. I will admit that he is doing great in with money. He has his way of managing people too. He did make the Association of Thieves in the four towns in Northwest bigger and stronger these past few years. But talented people like you are stuck with minor jobs like identifying, theft, tracking, etc. What a waste!”

Leon smiled but did not answer.

His powers had made the lie detector crystal dysfunctional, because the more you said to it, the more you would make a mistake. It was better to speak less when it came to lying.

“Combat ability good, sneaking ability good. The only thing left is scouting ability…” Count Erik thought for a bit and said, “When you were walking here, did you notice how many tents were in this scout camp? Was there anything significant or worth mentioning when you were on the way here?”

Leon scanned through his memory and recited the number of tents. It was totally accurate. As for any significant intelligence that was worth mentioning… he thought for a bit longer and said the number of people that died today on the battlefield, just as he heard it when he was leaving Old Star’s place.

Count Erik nodded repeatedly. In the end, he picked up his pen to sign on his papers and wrote some comments on it as well.

Without a doubt, all three skills that a scout needed, he had.