Cthulhu Gonfalon

Viscount Samat, or whatever he was called, was lost to Sui Xiong. In any case, his name was not important—if he could change his attitude, Sui Xiong could arrange a new identity for him. If not, then he could be a Robinson. Having a background of living in the wild for sixty years was a good play as well.

In any case, as per what Star had said, he would get used to it eventually.

Viscount Samat had almost fully gotten used to isolation while living on this island. This island’s conditions were rather satisfactory, with good weather enabling him to practice Taichi all year round without fear of catching a cold. There were plentiful resources ranging from berries, roots to leaves, and they were all edible. Among the animals, although there were some carnivores, there weren’t any dangerous or poisonous snakes. As for mining, the resources were there should he want to engage in it.

Viscount Samat was someone who believed in the God of Aristocracy and was a legendary order knight. This was a powerful role, and he could be said to be a variant of a legendary knight who had given up his spirithood to gain powerful “order aura.” If one were to fight him solo, he would not seem extraordinary, but in battle, he had extremely unique talents. However, as he was within Sui Xiong’s God Kingdom, his link with the aristocrats was broken, and this greatly restricted his skill set. Thus presently, he was only at the skill level of a mid-level peak knight. However, this level of skill was all that he needed. What did he care? On this island that Sui Xiong had specifically designed, as long as he took the challenge of provoking the strongest creatures, the others would not bother him. These strongest creatures’ bodies allowed him to gain special talents, which then allowed him to be self-sufficient.

Coincidentally, Antonio Yug also believed in the God of Aristocracy and was one of the high-level priests in the Church of the God of Aristocracy. Like Toon Samat, he was also unable to contact the God of Aristocracy and thus partially lost his skills. With his current skill level, he was even slightly weaker than Toon Samat. However, he had a slight advantage in knowledge.

Toon Samat was a commoner by birth, and he slowly climbed up from the lowest rank with much effort just to become a viscount. This proved that he was ingenious and able to seize opportunities well, but yet, it also showed that he lacked a proper foundation. To be honest, his literacy level was extremely low, and his written vocabulary was limited to just a few simple words. Wilderness survival? Sorry, he did not understand that. Physics? Sorry, he did not understand that either. He did not even know how to assemble simple furniture and usually only used treated wood or stone.

On the other hand, Antonio’s skills were not as impressive, but he knew much more. After taking a walk around the island, he discovered several unknown resources and created a set of reasonable-looking plans to improve their standard of living. More importantly, Antonio was a priest and was the image of the God of Aristocracy that Toon believed in. Under Antonio’s guidance, Toon, who had been isolated for nearly two years, changed his attitude and did not continue his idea of giving up on the God of Aristocracy. Instead, he began to pray every morning and night.

Sui Xiong observed this whole situation without interruption. He was curious to see if these people could remain faithful under underwhelming circumstances. In any case, with his protection, both Toon and Antonio would not face the actual threat of death or get severely injured. To him, they were experimental subjects that he would care for.

Before he had entered this world, Sui Xiong had been acquainted with this phrase: A single disciple was not a disciple, two disciples were fake, three disciples were true, and a bunch of disciples was a crazy cult. The gist of this saying was that one’s faith in gods was ambiguous, and to many, it was just to allow them to gain recognition and secure positions. Just as how old religions paid attention to “rituals,””organizations” and “festivals,” they used these methods to influence their followers into believing that they were living a unique life by giving them the illusion of an exclusive fantasy. When someone lived solo, they were unable to gain this sort of religious community experience and would thus not be as deeply invested in the religion. However, the more people there were, the deeper the experience a religion could provide, solidifying it in the process.

In essence, faith was not for gods to see but for the people to feel.

Over the past two years, Toon had proved the part of the saying where a solo disciple was not a disciple: Originally, he had prayed every morning and night as well as before sleeping, wars and eating. Eventually, he found that there was little meaning in this as no one could hear or see him, rendering it useless to him. Thus, Toon began to reduce his prayer time and lost faith. Until Antonio’s arrival, “the Noble Lady” had become his catchphrase—like many other atheists, he also used phrases such as “My God” and “God Bless” casually.

Following the reasoning of the saying, was the duo considered fake disciples now? Sui Xiong was extremely curious.

This was something that required a long period of time to verify. Yet, from Marquis Yug’s words, as long as he could ensure Antonio’s safety, imprisoning him for tens of years and allowing him to lose faith was worth it. That would be enough.

Once Sui Xiong had informed Asner of the way Antonio had been handled, he had informed Marquis Yug, who had sighed lightly and smiled in satisfaction. In any case, his son was safe.

“I can relax now. After this, I will arrange for Neo to take over. If luck will have it, the war will not incur too many issues for the Yugs, and he will gain a full and complete family tribe. Even if Antonio returns in the future, he will not be able to shake Neo.”

However, a war was rather impossible. After about half a month, the news of the Dhaka Commercial Association’s decision to follow the Commonwealth of Gold Coins to allow commoners to pick their own surnames reached the great aristocrats.

Upon hearing this, they were shocked and disappointed.

“Things have gotten out of hand. If it were only the Republic’s plan, we could leave the matter alone; if it were just the merchants, we could fight them. But now, there’s also Dhaka to consider… This issue is building up, and we can no longer fight it head-on. We can only hide now.”

Everyone was speechless and remained silent.

“We have to observe Mifata now. If they follow suit as well, we will not even be able to hide but rather will be overwhelmed and defeated.”

“Mifata will not follow suit!” one of the earls yelled.

“For our sake, I really hope so…” Marquis Yug shook his head and sighed.

He did not have a good feeling about this at all.