Cthulhu Gonfalon

Ray frowned, thinking hard while talking to himself.

“There does not seem to be any problem at all, and it is not uncommon that failed investments have caused a number of families to suffer heavy losses and huge debts… But to persuade people like Knight Parne to join the voyage, who have settled here for many years? Certainly, the travelers would have to be sure of a good outcome. After all, for them, if a good outcome was at least 70% certain—no, if it were only 70%, they would not take the risk! They have families, careers, and definitely have no reason to risk their lives striving for wealth!”

“But… where is the problem? It’s quite clear that the Golden Tower City is not a coastal city, but why did that businessman choose to venture an ocean trade? It was not too hard to understand; maybe he quietly caught up with the city of Gars. Merchants are profit-driven: as long as they can make money, it doesn’t matter to them even they are asked to travel across the ocean. And since he explored commerce routes that time, it would have been easier to cause trouble if they recruited partners when they had arrived at cities near a seaport.

“So, it was clear he that took on a lot of shareholders, but also privately borrowed a lot of money and had debts? I suppose that was normal since he was 100% sure about the voyage trade, which was also the first trade that was the most lucrative, of course, the capital should be as much as possible. No borrowing would have been abnormal!

“Was the problem with the chief priest who was in the Church of Noble Maids? No, he was behaving normally… While watching his opponent and for profits, he bought a good deal of the same kinds of goods and got into the boat. Also, in the face of Timsar, he fought to his death. The whole process could not be seen as strange or suspicious. The suspicious detail was where the church found all that money. Sure, the church bought a large batch of goods, but could they also lend others a lot of money? Actually, it is not strange that the Church of Noble Maids had huge sums of money because they relied on many large aristocrats… Perhaps it was because of the huge sums of money that had been lent. The chief priest followed them on board wanting to supervise the process of this business himself…

“…All are wrong! But surely there was something else wrong!”

Ray pondered for a long time, but after all, he could not find the key to the problem, and ultimately he appealed to Sui Xiong for help.

After dinner, they came to the hotel for a rest after they bid farewell to Mrs. Teague, Liv, and Nice. Steele again secretly went to some unknown place, and Ray and Sui discussed.

“There must be something wrong with this!” Ray said, “Although I still cannot find out where the problem is, I can smell a conspiracy!”

“Yes, this is something wrong with this!” Sui nodded repeatedly. “Knight Parne and the others had no reason to cross the sea because they were not short of money!”

“Actually, they were short of money,” Ray said. “It was definitely a matter of a large sum of money when the Church of Exploring Knights (the alias of the God of Knights and Exploration) was struggling to fight against the Church of Noble Maids. Those Knights were not rich, and a few years before I’m afraid it was difficult for them to support their families. Since they saw a safe and lucrative opportunity, they certainly would not let it go.”

“Fair enough. Plus, through the voyage, it was possible to enhance their social relations, as long as the risk was not great. It was not more than a year or so.”

“Well, because the chief priest of the Church of Noble Maids was also on board, they did not have to worry about being caught, and the reason for the captain embarking was very good. There was nothing wrong.” Ray pondered for a long time but finally, he still found no solution. “Your Majesty, why not simply use your magic?” Ray asked.

“Magic? There is no magic for detecting other gods inside the church.” Sui Xiong said. He thought for a moment, shook his head and said, “Only some gods with holy missions, such as conspiracies, spies, and so on, have such special spells.”

“Isn’t there is a spell with which you could invite some unknown singular existence to answer questions? It seems that they could answer most questions correctly…”

“Oh, you are talking about that series of spells. Although I don’t think they are necessarily useful, let’s try it anyway.” Inspired, Sui began to prepare spells. A moment later, accompanied by black smoke and cold evil atmosphere, a terrible ghostly face appeared in front of them, watching them with the cold eyes that could freeze one’s marrow.

Ray was somewhat horrified to be seen by it and hurriedly spoke. “Please answer my question. Was there a conspiracy behind the death of Knight Parne?” he asked.

The look on the face became a little confused, which meant it was using its talent to spy on the long river of life to search for the answer to this question. But before it could find the answer, the face suddenly became frightened and disturbed. Then the face distorted, accompanied by a shrill yell. It blew into a cloud of smoke. Then, all the smoke and cold air started to spin, becoming a whirlpool and disappearing without a trace.

“What’s going on?” Ray asked doubtfully, startled.

“There was a strong presence that acted,” Sui Xiong said, easily spotting the problem. “But I’m not sure whether this person deliberately a magic lock so that all the spells related to the search were automatically triggered, or he set up an alert that enabled him to act himself when the alert is turned on.”

Ray was silent for a moment and asked, “How strong is he, roughly?”

“This is hard to say. In the former case, it is almost infinitely strong,” Sui said. “Even in the latter case, it is still formidable.”

“Compared to you?”

“No matter how strong the opponent is, as long as I do not rashly intrude into the other world and do not fight against it with means such as fate, I am afraid of no enemies in the ordinary battle of mankind.”

Ray thought for a long time, and finally shook his head and sighed deeply.

“Oh! Even if you want to continue to track down this conspiracy, there are no clues!” Ray helplessly said. “Without clues, no one can solve it!”

Sui Xiong also sighed, as a God was not omnipotent.

After a while, Ray said, “Your Majesty, Knight Parne has passed away. Are you still going to find a lord for the Holy Land that is about to be built?”

“Of course. I just haven’t figured out who to look for,” Sui said. “It is not that easy to find an administrative talent who is competent, has good character and has no conflicts with me in terms of faith.”

“I know a few people who may be qualified,” Ray said, pondering. “Although it has been a long time since I contacted them, their abilities are definitely suitable. And in terms of faith… Maybe there would not be huge problems. What I am not sure of is what their character are like now. After all, people change.”

“If they are a good fit, allow them to try. Where do they live?”

“Eagle Wing City, capital of Kingdom of Eagle,” Ray said. “At least 15 years ago, were all in Eagle Wing City. I haven’t heard anything about them these years, but they probably still live there.”

“That’s fine.” Sui Xiong nodded first, solidifying his intention. But the next morning, after a night of thinking, he changed his mind.

“Things can’t go like this!” he said. “The deaths of the group of good people headed by Knight Parne are not resolved, and their families are still under pressure. Since I have encountered such a thing, I have no reason to stay aside, idle!”

“Should we pay their debt?” Ray asked.

“I’m not comfortable with that…” Sui said.

“Things need to be done step by step. We should help them solve their immediate trouble before we do other things,” Ray said. “Not to mention that if there really is a conspiracy behind this thing, we would disrupt the follow-up plans of those who plotted this after we pay the debts. Then those evil people will come to cause trouble for us. At that time, the clues will come naturally to us, won’t they?”

Sui Xiong nodded, amazed.

Ray’s vision and tactics were indeed good. If he was not so disinterested in being a lord, perhaps it would be a good choice to make him the lord of his Holy Land.

Encouraged by Sui, Ray was more proactive and made plans after some consideration. His plans needed to severely agitate those evil people who made the plot, and let them lose their cool to present themselves.

A few hours later, they visited Knight Parne’s home again. Liv had gone out that day, and only Mrs. Teague and little Nice were at home. When they learned that Mr. Ray had contacted the lord through magic, and that the Lord had said he could help those people in trouble pay the debt, they could not help but be surprised.

“But… That is a staggering number!” Mrs. Teague was stunned, and stumbled.

“How much?” Ray asked.

“My sister has counted that, which is a total of…” Nice tilted her head, thought for a moment, and said a number enough to frighten families that were relatively wealthy. “Ah! And how could I not count the interest? I do not know…”

This number was not beyond Ray’s expectation. He smiled softly and said, “Rest assured, even with the interest it is not a big issue. I will go to raise the money, and after Miss Liv comes back, would you invite her and those friends here tomorrow so that we can talk about it in detail? How about it?”

“No problem!” Answered Mrs. Teague immediately. Then she worriedly said, “But… it is not a small sum of money! The tax that we Golden Tower City can dispose of is no more than 2000 gold coins a year…”

“That’s because most aristocrats do not pay tax on all kinds of businesses,” Ray said with a smile. “Do not worry. Our Lord is new-rich. This is indeed not a small number, but to him, it’s nothing more than a grimace.” He grimaced to prove his point, which was so funny that little Nice laughed.

After the deal was finalized, Ray took his leave. He woke up Steele, who was still fast asleep. On the back of her hands, the number of red flames increased to seven; she was about to change into a pig. The two went together to several stores that mainly dealt with magical materials, spent all the cash and gems, and acquired as much as they could with as many magical materials as possible at low prices.

Thanks to the fact that the Church of Noble Maid suppressed the market for magic materials during this period, the prices of such things in Golden Tower City were indeed low. They easily acquired a large number of materials. By simply going to other cities, they could have some profit even if they sold it at lower prices. But how could Sui Xiong be satisfied with selling them at lower prices? After leaving the city, Sui Xiong left Ray as the coordinate, cast the magic spell of transmission, and took Steele to cross almost half of the continent back to the Territory of Geerteng. They finally went to the Black Blade Wall.

Since the last accident, Sui Xiong had made a lot of effort on the magic of transmission. During this time, he had successfully identified several devout followers as coordinates of transmission. It could only transmit another body that was smaller and weaker. It could not deliver their own bodies, which were overly powerful and too bulky, because of the limits of the magic of transmission. However, it was sufficient for delivering goods.

They directly went to visit the lord and showed him the magic materials. Olian instantly brought together several big aristocrats and merchants in the territory to jointly discuss a scheme to make a fortune.

After a few hours of discussion or argument, the batch of materials was sold at a very good price. The aristocrats and wealthy merchants involved in the trade also smiled, and everyone was satisfied.

Carrying a space bag filled with gold coins and gems, Sui Xiong returned to the Golden Tower City with Steele and met Ray, who was still frivolously tossing about the copper dragon and trying to train it as his horse.

The proceeds of this transaction alone was worth several times the debts!