Cthulhu Gonfalon

The centre of the Geerteng Manor was Geerteng Town.

In this world, a civilian did not have a first name, only the aristocracy did, and the first name of a aristocrat was also his title. To emphasize this, he would usually name the center of his manor with his first name.

For example, the Viscount Tsang Cheung. The prefecture would be called the Cheung city— it should be the Tsang city, since “Tsang” is the first name.

Currently, in the Geerteng Manor, there were two candidates fighting for the inheritance of the title: Romon Geerteng, the b*stard of the Viscount Geerteng, and Geerteng’s niece, Steele Geerteng.

And Ray as well, who was wearing Sui Xiong’s incarnation on his head, as if it were a hat. Ray had a first name too, which he did not like to talk about.

Of course, except for the aristocracy, many clergy had also got their own first names. For example, a clergyman that had been blessed by a God could have a first name granted by the God. When Sui Xiong’s Holy Place was built, those advanced clergies that had been involved in the construction and the governance of the Holy Place could use the name of the Holy Place as their first name. Besides, there were also some non-clergies that had been granted a first name… but anyway, they were few.

In a word, in Sui Xiong’s view, the development of the civilization of this world was not that advanced, since the registration of the civilian’s names in a large scale had not even started and not to mention that they had not even recieved their first names— while on the earth, the registration of the civilian’s names had already been finished in the Spring and Autumn period, but compared with that period and excluding the existence of the magic spell, the level of productivity in this world was so much higher than that of the Spring and Autumn period!

Judging from this, the rulers, including the aristocrats and the Gods in this world, were just a bunch of crap that had been hindering the development of the civilization!

While Sui Xiong was criticizing the rulers of this world, Ray and Steele were walking on the unsurfaced road toward the Geerteng Town.

Ray did not take his Nargacuga with him, instead he had freed it when he had arrived at the margin of the Gray Stones Mountains. He felt that a Black Armored Knight riding a Nargacuga was too obvious, while just a black armor would be more common.

To make the domesticated Nargacuga become a beast-like creature again, Ray, who was always very stubborn asked Sui Xiong to use his power to make it wild again, so the Nargacuga could adapt into the life in the forest. Then the Nargacuga that had been Ray’s mount for a few years became fierce again and wanted to attack Ray, but left without any reluctance when realizing it could not possibly win. At that time, Sui Xiong realized that this great bandit was feeling rather sad.

Maybe for a man like Ray, who had got used to being alone all these years, the mount was probably his only friend. Seeing his only friend leave and realizing that he might never see it again, how could he not be sad.

Ray’s horsemanship was really good, which greatly surprised Steele. Although she called him the “knight,” she never really thought he was— was there any knight who would be walking in the mountain alone with a spear on his back and a sword hanging around his waist, and not riding a mount?

A real knight, no matter how bad a situation he was in, must be holding a sword and riding a horse all the time. Since without a sword and a mount, he would not be able to exert his full power.

After seeing how marvelous Ray’s horsemanship was, she began to question her judgement she made earlier.

He managed to tame a very hot-tempered horse simply by touching it two times with his hands; the rhythm of his talking did not change at all when he was comfortably riding the horse as if he was walking; when he was riding the horse, his actions were in great harmony with the actions of the horse, and it seemed that he was ready to pull out his sword and fight at any moment… if he was not a knight, then who was!? As far as she was concerned, the few most famous knights in the Geerteng Town were just like this. Could this mysterious black armored knight really be a powerful knight?

Thinking this, she begin to feel nervous. A knight, especially a powerful knight was always of great birth. There two common kinds: an offspring of an aristocrat who was too young to inherit the title, or an elite strictly cultivated by a church. No matter which kind a knight was, he must have seen a lot and had a good knowledge of the “Aristocratic Principle”.

Steele was confident that she could twist an adventurer who did not have a thorough understanding of the aristocratic world around her little fingers, but she did not think so when facing a knight of noble birth or an elite-to-be who was cultivated by a church.

As for scheming, could she be better at this than other aristocrats? Of course not. If she was, then how could she be usurped by a b*stard with complicated background and almost lose her life?

How about compared to an elite-to-be cultivated by a church? She could be no better. After all, an elite-to-be was raised to fight against an aristocracy.

Maybe this knight was better at using his mind than using his sword… Thinking this, Steele became anxious and felt like she might have invited a wolf into her backyard when there had already been a tiger at her front door. What was even worse was that the tiger was still there…

Steele Geerteng, who always considered herself clever, beautiful and an elite of the younger generation in the Geerteng Manor, suddenly realized that her asking Ray to help her might not have been a wise choice.

Since it was no use crying over spilled milk, she felt she had already been cornered and was sure to be defeated. She thought she now was just like a civilian in an aristocratic court, and everything was just a show since she had already been declared guilty and the punishment had been decided accordingly. She felt like as long as there was still a shred of a chance that she could survive, she should try her best to defend herself, hoping she could reprimand the shit out of them and silence the accuser and the judge.

Then, even if the poet who was employed by the emperor singing “no matter how persuasive the defense of the guilty was, she did not deserve any applause” in the very next day, she would not feel sad since she knew she had at least tried, and could still smile in the gallows while telling herself “it was not my fault, it was the God that wanted me to die.” She knew she could at last die with dignity.

Thinking this, Steele was relieved.

Anyway, it was better to die this way than being f*cked and squeezed to death by her lovers…

The two were riding the horses rather casually and moving toward the Geerteng Town. When seeing that Steele was still intact and riding past him, the captain of the guard was so shocked that his eyes became as round as two balls, as if his eyeballs were going to drop out at any minute.

“M… Miss Steele!?” he stood in front of the horse without knowing what to say.

To say “welcome back”? No it was not right, if the Childe Romon knew that he had welcomed Miss Steele back in public, he knew he would definitely be killed!

Then “why are you here”? Not good either, since Miss Steele was still the heiress of the Viscount and if not for the Childe Romon, she would be the one to inherit. I am just a gatekeeper, and I am not f*cking her on the bed now. I could not possibly disrespect her! Am I that naive to think that a sick tiger would not be able to kill a man? What should I say then?

There were some tiny beads of sweat on the forehead of the tall and strong captain, and they soon gathered together and became bigger and bigger, and became two streams of sweat that flowed along his cheeks in less than thirty seconds.

After all, he was quite experienced and had been in this situation before. Then he smiled and cleverly said, “Miss Steele, earlier before, you took a group of men with you? Why is there only one left?”

Steele sneered, changed her sl*tty expression she always had whenever she saw a man, kept that chin up and said with the very noble accent, “You amaze me. I never knew a gatekeeper in the Geerteng Town would dare to question his lord who he is supposed to be loyal to. Do you really think I should report to you before I do something or about who I choose to accompany me when I am out?”

Steele was being really sharp and cleverly elevated the conversation to a level of class struggle. The captain was startled, then he immediately stood at attention and shouted, “Line up! Welcome Miss Steele back home!”

The soldiers were confused, but were on alert when seeing their leader had been reprimanded. Then they instantly stood in two lines in a welcoming formation.

Technically speaking, they should not stand in a welcoming formation, since this was a ceremony that only a lord could receive. The old Viscount had just died, and the new Viscount had not been named, so no one in the Geerteng Town should be entitled to this ceremony.

But who would fuss about this superfluous rule at this moment?

If things went as Romon had planned, there would be someone stopping this from happening. Since among the soldiers, there were two of Romon’s subordinates, and these two were sent here to cope with some accidents.

Seeing this, one had got on the horse and went to the mansion house of the Viscount to deliver the message. While the other, who seemed quite strong, did not come forward to stop this from happening after thinking carefully.

As the two had been entrusted with an important post, this meant that they were not stupid. They immediately felt there was something wrong when they saw the soon-to-be-dead Steele suddenly become so mighty and the bribed lovers had become a unknown black armour knight.

So they did act rashly. The one who stayed was really very strong. He was close to the level F, an advanced swordsman, and had a sharp eye. He looked Ray up and down and surprisingly found that even though the black armour knight was sitting on the horse, his body was in a position which could help him to counterattack an attack from any direction, which was indeed amazing— or the word “amazing” was too feeble to describe him. He was incredibly powerful!

The one had seen the strongest knights in the Geerteng Town, but they could only be in this position when they were in a fight. While this black armour knight was not planning to fight with anyone now, he was in this position daily.

He made a conclusion without thinking very hard.

A conclusion that terrified him so bad that he got cold feet.

This unknown black armour knight was probably an advanced adventurer, or maybe he was probably— close to being legendary!