Cthulhu Gonfalon

The rain, mixed with a little bit of snow, was falling continuously; the sky and the earth were confused.

This was the first rain this year, and it started later than last year. Fortunately, the Northwest region never lacked rain because the melting snow and ice were enough to supply water. There was no need to worry about “spring rain being as expensive as oil.”

Along with the spring rain, there came some astonishing news.

Located at the central part of Main Plane, the Eagle Kingdom, which was the oldest human country in the history, had split up.

The eastern part of the Eagle Kingdom belonged to the famous Griffon Duke. The early Griffon Duke was a semi-divine griffon who had formed an unbreakable alliance with the God of Eagle and became his most powerful subordinate. Later, the God of Eagle challenged the God of Light and failed. He died under the hammer of the God of Light. The Griffon Duke was badly injured in the battle with the God of Knights and had to use the arcane arts to reincarnate. After his reincarnation, he became the God of State and Diplomacy, also known as the God of Royalty.

The God of Royalty still retained the memories of his time as the Griffon Duke. He had abided by his pledge of guarding the Eagle Kingdom. For a long time afterwards, his church, followers and he had become supporters of the Eagle Kingdom. The successive Griffon Dukes who had inherited his blood were also useful additions to the Eagle Kingdom. They defended the eastern part of the kingdom, resisted enemies from all directions and made the Griffon Duke more prosperous. They were claimed to have had one-third of the entire Griffon Kingdom’s strength.

But all of this had changed 150 years ago when the God of Royalty was killed by one of his mistresses, and his clergy had been taken away. His church and followers became belongings of the new-born God of Aristocracy. The God of Aristocracy did not intend to abide by the pledge made between the Griffon Duke and the God of Eagle. Under his influence, the Griffon Duke quickly deviated from the Eagle Kingdom and had the idea of splitting up.

The Eagle Kingdom had suffered heavy losses in the battle of “Sun’s Extinction Day” last winter, and it would never recover in twenty or thirty years. Therefore, the Griffon Duke, who had hardly suffered any losses, finally put his plan of independence into practice. At the recent feeding ceremony, he declared his independence and founded the Griffon Duchy.

Not only did the regions occupied by the former Griffon Duke and the eastern part of Eagle Kingdom become independent, but two earls near the Griffon Duke had also announced their accession to the Griffon Duchy. In terms of its land area, the newly-born Griffin Duchy occupied nearly 30% of the entire Eagle Kingdom’s territory. In other words, the current territory proportion between the Eagle Kingdom and the Griffon Duchy was roughly two to one.

This proportion was not ridiculous at all. Considering the difference in prosperity between the two sides and the current predicament in the Eagle Kingdom, it was certain that the Eagle Kingdom would not have the ability to counter rebellions for an eastern expedition.

Leon kept silent for a long time after receiving the news, and eventually, he didn’t come to his hometown. He thought over and over again and finally realized that this kind of thing was just a matter of time. Even if he was able to stop it this time, it would not be possible for him to stop this from happening later.

What’s more, even he himself didn’t have any identification of the Eagle Kingdom.

Time was the most powerful weapon. Thirty years was enough to make the former prince cease to be a member of his kingdom. Although he still remembered that the blood of the eagle flowed through his body, that was all he could remember.

If one day, the descendants of Eagle Kingdom met with danger, he would probably rescue them. But he would not fight for the premeditated split.

It was a great relief and pleasure for Casari. She had been worried about whether Leon would rush back after hearing the news. She thought that he would try to stop the split with his power and prestige. In that case, he would become a thorn in many people’s eyes and may meet other dangers.

As the owner of the Gales City and the contemporary Earl Riley, Casari’s interest in the Eagle Kingdom was only that it was Leon’s hometown and Leon liked eating home dishes. Except for that, she had no more interest in the Eagle Kingdom.

Well, for her, it would be best if the Eagle Kingdom retained only those local dishes. Last time, in order to save the Eagle Kingdom, Leon ran to fight with a strong man whom even the Void Mask had feared a lot. That was so terrible!

“The Griffon Duke is independent.”

“It’s expected.”

“Considering the present situation, it would be very strange for him not to be independent.”

Words like that had spread out in every country of the mainland, and no one was surprised. Even the new king of the Eagle Kingdom was just silent for a long time after hearing the news. Then he sighed deeply and said, “All right, forget it.”

For the residents of Pyroxene Town on the edge of the Ashes Woods in the Northwest region, the split of the Eagle Kingdom could only be regarded as a leisurely conversation. For them, the most important thing at present was the first trial harvest of Mayor Felix’s “artificial ore vein.”

Wearing thick protective clothing, Reif and three cautious excavators used sickles to cut off the upper part of the gray-black mushrooms. They were growing at the bottom of the first tunnel and were spurred by magic. The excavators put them in a special, sealed box.

This kind of mushroom could continue to grow as long as it retained the lower part, and the negative energy it absorbed would be condensed at the top. Therefore, it was quite easy to harvest. All they needed was sufficient protection and care.

The thick protective clothing had made a lot of trouble for harvesting. Everyone became somewhat clumsy, and their sickles had cut into their hands more than once. But it was lucky that the protective clothing was especially thickened and reinforced along the arms and that the sickle was not sharp, so they did not feel any pain nor were they injured.

They finally harvested the first batch of mushrooms after a busy afternoon, and then they put them into six big boxes. These boxes were moved out and transported to the magic school by other workers. They would be extracted in a special extraction room and become valuable negative energy essence, as well as residue that could be used as mushroom fertilizer.

After work, Reif walked out of the tunnel and stood in the Purification Array according to the regulations. When he left the array, he quickly took of his stuffy, protective clothing.

Raindrops and tiny snowflakes fell on him; they were very cold. It felt so nice since he was now covered with sweat!

But the young magician in charge of the supervision immediately shouted and ordered him to go back to the lounge and change into warm clothes to avoid getting sick.

“Are you in such a hurry to die?” Peik, the old man in charge of the duty room said. “You’re only thirty years old, and you don’t even have a wife or child. Why do you take things so hard since you now live a comfortable life?”

Reif laughed bitterly. He wanted to tell the old man that he actually had a wife and child.

At least, he once did…

But after all, he did not say that. All the memories and thoughts turned into a silent sigh.

If only he could have met such a good woman as Mayor Felix in those days…

Rief was depressed for just a moment. When the last digger came out of the tunnel to be purified, he took off his protective clothing and went to the newly-built lounge next to the room on duty. The young magician took out a sound transmission staff, and there came his teacher, Mayor Felix’s voice.

“Everyone has worked hard during this period. The production and the quality of the mushrooms are excellent, and the first stage of the work in the ore veins can be said to have achieved great success. Here, I want to thank you for your hard work.”

The excavators laughed happily. Although they did not have any education nor any experience in fighting, they could at least recognize these words were out of sincerity.

Mayor Felix went on to say, “Next, we’ll take three days off, and the salary will be calculated according to the usual standard. And then I will give you a bonus!”

All the excavators cheered after hearing this. They had been living such a poor life, so paid holidays were already very good; but bonuses would be even better, especially since Mayor Felix had never been stingy. She would never give them only a few coins like the previous miners got.

“How much will the bonus be?” a man with a short temper asked in a hurry.

The young magician shook his head showing that he did not know.

“It must be a lot!” another said with a steadier smile.

“Yes! Maybe it will be five silver coins, or maybe even seven, no, eight…”

Anyway, these were all just guesses.

Reif smiled, wiped the sweat and rain off his body with a dry cloth, and picked up his cup on the wooden shelf of the lounge. Then he went to the big barrel to pick up a cup of steaming wheat tea and drank it.

Today, the wheat tea was a little spicy and sweet. He guessed that there were herbs in it that could prevent cold and sickness.

That was great!

He sat on the bench and listened to the enthusiastic comments of his fellow workers. The hot tea flowed through his throat down to his stomach and then to his whole body. He could not help but laugh at the continuous spring raindrops outside.

It was so nice to live such a life!

After a while, a patrolman came in the rain and handed out the “bonus” mentioned by the mayor just now. Unlike their previous speculation, it was not five, seven, eight silver coins for each person, but one gold coin!

All the miners were stunned by the golden coin.

Although ten silver coins could be exchanged for one gold coin theoretically, in fact, it was impossible to save a gold coin all year round for most poor civilians. Even before Mayor Felix came, most people here had no chance to even touch a gold coin.

Life was so difficult. They had used up all their strength just to be alive. Save up money? Gold coins? Only in their dreams.

More than one excavator turned the golden coin over and over again and looked at it many times. They were frantically trying to find a place to put it away, but they did not know where they could put it. It was really embarrassing.

Reif’s right hand was still holding the cup steadily while his left held the golden treasure. He felt at ease when looking at it.

He clenched his left hand and felt the hard coin cut into his palm. Then he raised his head and downed the hot tea with hope and confidence in his eyes.

“Our life will surely get better and better!”

He spoke to himself, but everyone around had arisen in agreement.