Cthulhu Gonfalon

The autumn sky was clear, and the air was crisp.

In the Duchy of Thunder in the southern main plain, the air pressure wasn’t high, and the air wasn’t too dry, even for autumn. Therefore, it wasn’t refreshing.

However, facing the neat golden farmland filled with heavy ears of grain, one could estimate that it would be an impressive harvest without even having to do any reaping…

In this case, there were two kinds of people who were still in a low mood.

One was weird people, and the other was mad people who believed in the God of Starvation.

Crick was neither a weird person nor a believer of the God of Starvation, so he looked at the vast golden fields with a good mood and laughed happily.

“I can’t imagine it!” Standing beside him was the magical adviser of the Keane Hill, master Damwade. This calm and cold-hearted magician was shocked at that moment, and a strange ray of light flashed in his eyes that made him become much brighter.

“Look at those fields. I predict that we’ll harvest three or four hundred per acre.” The housekeeper, Layton, said with a smile, “Sir, you’re so wonderful!”

“It’s the farmers, not me, who are the best.” Crick laughed and said, “I just came up with ideas, but they were the ones who actually cultivated the land.”

“The yields of these fields have been almost the same for the hundreds of years that they’ve depended only on farmers,” Master Damwade said seriously. “After hearing the news, I studied the historical records carefully and found that the ordinary fields could only yield one hundred per acre, except for some special fields that were managed by magicians; even two hundred per acre could be considered a miracle, enough for people to hold a grand ceremony to thank Ms. Rich, the former Goddess of Harvest. If such a situation happened in Keane Hill, there won’t any records in history apart from some obvious bragging that can be seen at first glance.”

Crick laughed. “History is always moving forward.”

“Yeah, history is always moving forward.” Master Damwade nodded with a smile and looked at the golden fields in a trance.

“Just… I never imagined that I could witness such a scene with my own eyes, and I’ve even become one of the figures who promoted the progress of history…”

From fertilizer to harvesting and the development of various kinds of farm tools, he, who was a part-time alchemist, had put in a lot of effort. He said that if the current scene meant that ‘history was moving forward,’ then he had really contributed to promoting the great cause of history.

Perhaps nobles would despise this, but as a spell-caster and scholar, Damwade knew what this meant.

This meant that when he grew older and was dying in the future, he would probably be praised by some God for his contributions and thus gain eternal life. Even if there was no God who would appreciate him, the kings in hell would also treat him with special respect for his great achievements and give him preferential treatment.

Only Gods and merit were immortal in this world.

The housekeeper, Layton, whose IQ was only nine, had rich experience with farmland management and didn’t think too much. He quickly estimated this year’s harvest and the the taxes he could receive, then his old face burst into laughter immediately after his estimating.

But he suddenly stopped laughing when he thought of a serious problem.

“Sir, since we have such good harvests here, will the price of grain be reduced?”

Although his IQ wasn’t high, he had abundant social experience after being a housekeeper for so many years. He remembered that every year when it was time to harvest, businessmen would lower the purchasing price of grain so that farmers couldn’t benefit too much, even if they’d had abundant harvests.

The Duchy of Thunder was located in the south, with a warm climate and fertile land, always an important grain-producing area, but neither farmers nor lords had been able to make a fortune just by growing grains.

Although this time, the harvests of the Keane Hill had been extraordinarily abundant, even being called a miracle, businessmen would depress the purchasing price anyway…

Crick raised his eyebrows slightly and asked, “Do you think that the businessmen will force the price down to the lowest they can?”

“Yes. They’ve done it lots of times.” Layton sighed. “When it’s time to harvest, those businessmen will lower the purchasing price of grains to its lowest… I’ve seen it too much.”

“They can only do that to civilians. Would they dare to do that to our nobles?” Crick asked in a low voice, “If they encountered any bad-tempered nobles, they could be hanged immediately. ”

“Haha, as long as they can make money, even being hanged isn’t terrible for them.” Layton sneered, “I heard that a viscount hanged a businessman who had lowered the purchasing price of grains in anger, but what happened after that? Nobody wanted to buy his grains, and they ended up rotting in the warehouse.”

“That’s unreasonable!” Crick frowned and said, “Life is much more important than money!”

“I don’t understand deep things, but I’ve never heard of a businessman who wouldn’t press for a lower purchasing price at such a time.” Layton huffed and said, “Generally speaking, they form an alliance and draw up a rough price. The actual price can only float up and down from this price, and even the whole country is like this.”

Crick’s eyes suddenly lit up. “The whole country is like this?”

“Definitely. ”

“Then we don’t have to worry about it.” Crick laughed. “I sent Rena to do some research before, and she found that there were no big differences from this year’s harvest between that of the previous year in other regions except for Keane Hill. In other words, the grain prices should be about the same.”

Layton thought for a long time and finally understood, bursting out in laughter.

Since the harvests of the whole Duchy were almost the same as the previous year, Keane Hill would earn big profits because of its bumper crops this year.

“Great! There’ll be much more money in the territory next year!”

Crick nodded with a smile. Although the money they won as the grand prize at the Void Mask amusement park wasn’t entirely gone, for a territory, it would be much more stable and reassuring to be able to depend on its own production.

As long as the agricultural income of this territory remained at its current level, he was confident that the Keane Hill would become the most prosperous baron hill in the Duchy of Thunder within five years. Given ten years to build up Keane Hill, even a viscount hill wouldn’t be able to reach the same prosperity, and given twenty years, he could be able to contend against the counties that controlled the state administration as just a baron hill.

Time was on his side.

The three men laughed, walked down from the watchtower, and returned to the castle.

In every field of Keane Hill, farmers were both delightful and worried. The joy was certainly due to the abundant harvests, while the worry came from the fear that it would rain in the last period before harvest.

As was known to all, the most terrible thing for a harvest season was rain. Once it rained, the quality of the grain would decline, and the wet grain needed more time to dry, which would cost them more energy and time. If the grain didn’t dry enough, it would grow moldy and bad, unable to be sold for a good price.

“The barn in the village isn’t big enough!”

“Why not build more barns now and expand the barnyards along the way?”

Similar words came from the mouths of every village chief, and petitions were quickly sent to the lords.

Crick certainly wouldn’t refuse such a request, and he also contacted two of his knights. He suggested they seize their last free time before harvesting to build more barns and expand the barnyards.

He had very high prestige in the territory, and at his command, residents from several villages gathered together and devoted themselves to the construction work.

Fortunately, there was no rain for the next half month thanks to the Goddess of Harvest.

Taking advantage of the rare dryness, the autumn harvest work proceeded tensely. Due to the abundant harvest and lack of hands, Crick had to hire temporary workers to finish the autumn harvest.

Fortunately, a heavy rain swept the whole south just the third day after the autumn harvest was completed.

In the heavy rain, many peasants burst into a flood of tears, and many lords sighed deeply, but the peasants and lords of the Keane Hill were certainly not among them.

They were already preparing for this year’s harvest festival at that time.

Meanwhile, people from the Church of the Goddess of Harvest soon heard the news and came there.

They claimed that their harvests came from the gifts of the Goddess of Harvest and called on the people of the Keane Hill to believe in the Goddess so that they, too, could be blessed and have an abundant harvest.

Rena, who had been recruited by Crick and became an investigator for him, got the news quickly and reported it to Crick.

At a high-level meeting among barons in Keane Hill, Knight Howard James frowned and asked, “Sir, what do you think we should do?”

He wasn’t a believer of the Harvest Goddess, nor did he believe that this year’s harvest had anything to do with the Goddess.

As they all knew, the Goddess of Harvest had been quiet those years, without any big moves, since the last time, she had failed in battle with the Goddess of Wealth. She wouldn’t grant such an abundant harvest to an area that didn’t even have a temple… Come on! Knight James’ IQ wasn’t high, but he couldn’t be fooled about this matter!

Besides, over the years, the Goddess of Harvest had blessed some areas, but who had ever heard of the areas that were blessed by her receiving a yield of 300 or 400 bushels per acre?

Crick smiled, but his eyes were somewhat bleak.

The territory’s harvest was not only due to the development of science and technology, but also due to the farmers’ hard work. The Church of the Goddess of Harvest did nothing bu jump out to take credit for the achievement. How could he allow such a thing to happen?

They wanted to take the credit for their own, but too much merit would certainly crush them to death!

He didn’t rush to a conclusion. Instead, he asked his subordinates for advice first.

“All right. Everybody is just trying to have their fun…” Layton was obviously in a good mood facing such an abundant harvest and didn’t want to have a falling out with the Church of the Goddess of Harvest.

“This… I think it’s a good opportunity to form a good relationship with them,” the young knight Rios, the son of late knight Devol Rios, proposed.

This proposal was approved by many people. After all, the Goddess of Harvest was a very influential God, and it would be good if they could have good relations with her Church.

Crick turned his head towards the priest of the Church of Void Mask.

The priest had recently assumed his place, and his name was Milomon, a werewolf. It was said that he was not only skilled, but also had a good mind.

Faced with Crick’s inquiry, the gourmet Mr. Milomon, who was an excellent Scout for the Orcs Empire and now the local priest of the Church of Void Mask, smiled and offered his own suggestion.

“Since we have such an abundant harvest here while other places are suffering from disasters, we should contact those who have suffered,” he said. “The gifts of the Goddess…”

Crick’s eyes suddenly lit up.