Cthulhu Gonfalon

“The Mifata Federation and the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs have formed an alliance?” Sui Xiong couldn’t help a moment’s shock at receiving this information. “This… it’s a little ridiculous!”

He knew perfectly well what had happened years ago. Considering that the other country had attempted to surprise-invade them through large-scale transportation portal, the fact that the Mifata Federation hadn’t dispatched Legendary Masters to bring down a couple of meteors upon their enemy was already quite generous and gentlemanly of them. But how could they have suddenly turned around and formed an alliance with them?

This couldn’t possibly be that syndrome where you fall in love with the person oppressing you, could it?

Sui Xiong couldn’t bring himself to believe it and so went to look for Easter.

Easter calmly listened to his story, thought over it, and then said, “It isn’t all that strange, really.”

“What? It isn’t?” Sui Xiong asked in bewilderment. “What part of it isn’t strange? The Mifata Federation and the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs are sworn enemies! If you hadn’t successfully sent back the news back then, they’d have suffered unavoidably great losses!”

“But the fact of the matter is that they didn’t suffer any losses,” Easter said. “That’s just how people are. If they haven’t truly lost anything, then they won’t truly hold a grudge. Even if they had suffered losses, what of it? There’s a proverb—I don’t know if you’ve heard it before or not—that goes: ‘As long as the price is right, even your own family can be sold.’”

Sui Xiong frowned. “That goes far beyond moral principles!”

“And what are moral principles? How much money can you make by selling them?” Easter asked with a small smile. “That’s politics for you—since ancient times, it’s never changed.”

“But… aren’t the leaders of the Mifata Federation a group of Legendary Masters?” Sui Xiong continued. “Legendary Masters are always relatively reserved; they should have some level of integrity, a sense of honor! And yet they just… this is practically a betrayal of the work you risked your life to complete!”

Easter let out a laugh that was as pained as it was calm. “I’m grateful that you would care about what I think, but you shouldn’t use your own ethics to make demands of others, especially when those others are rulers of countries. Although you may be a jellyfish, your code of ethics already surpasses that of a vast majority of people. As for those rulers of countries, most of their ethics are far lower than the rest of this world’s average level.”

Sui Xiong knew all this perfectly well; he just couldn’t bring himself to understand it.

After a long, heavy sigh, he lamented, “Back then… that really wasn’t worth you dying!”

“Perhaps, but there are many things I might never have been able to accept if I hadn’t gone through that experience,” Easter said with a smile. “That’s life for you—you win some you lose some, you lose some you win some.”

Sui Xiong shook his head, choosing not to dwell on this potentially painful subject, and asked instead, “What do you think is the reason for their collaboration this time around? Is it just to fend off the Orc Empire?”

“It most likely to fend off the Orc Empire, yes,” Easter said. “Though their choice of battlefield will be the Mountain of Broken Clouds.”

Sui Xiong’s pupils contracted slightly; he understood what that meant.

The Kingdom of Thousands of Springs had allied with the Mifata Federation in order to defeat the Kingdom of Dwarfs, who had support from the Orc Empire!

“I think… maybe we should do a little something,” he said. “The Dwarves are our friends, and we have relatively good relations with the Orcs as well. At the very least, we have better relations with them than with either the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs or the Mifata Federation.”

“The simplest solution would obviously be for you, Your Majesty, to make a personal appearance and prevent this war,” Easter replied. “I don’t know what price the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs may have paid to get that alliance with the Mifata Federation. But I can guarantee that a relationship based on bribery cannot be kept for very long. If this war fails, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs will regret paying whatever price they did, and the Mifata Federation of course won’t be willing to return the profit they’ve already gained… just like this, the two sides will start to feud. We might not even have to lift a finger, and their alliance will fall apart like ashes.”

Sui Xiong couldn’t help smiling at that. “Letting me set out to mediate on my own—I have to say that’s a much higher level than just ‘lifting a finger.’”

Easter already understood his temperament and gave a smile of his own. “I get the feeling, though, that Your Majesty is someone who would definitely enjoy this proposal.”

Sui Xiong laughed aloud at that. “You’re right! I absolutely love this proposal!”

He really did like it, too, so he went ahead and followed it.

One morning a few days later, a gigantic green jellyfish set out from Void City. It flew through the sky all the way to what could pretty much be called the border between the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs and the Kingdom of Dwarfs. This was where the Dwarfs had constructed a fortress to defend against the coming invasion.

The area outside the fortress was covered in strange rocks, and rugged terrain like countless blades pointed up at the sky. There was only a single little road between the precipitous mountain rocks that could take you near to the fortress.

The topography truly made this mountain pass one in which a lone man could hold out against ten thousand enemies. Placed on Earth, one couldn’t imagine getting a step past its boundaries even with the most magnificent army you could muster. But in this world full of magic, as long as you had enough magical power to help you, a natural stronghold like this couldn’t really do anything to hold back its enemies. For example, if a mid-ranked spellcaster were to put in all his effort, he could manage to make maybe three to five people fly. Although they wouldn’t be able to fly for long, that would already be more than enough to have them pass the stronghold, fly into and maybe even right out the back of the fortress. As for an advanced mage, if he didn’t consider the toll it would take on his body, he could even construct a temporary portal and allow a fully armed battalion of over 1000 men march right into the fortress, making the natural stronghold lose all meaning.

So although the Dwarves always picked strategically-viable places to build their fortresses, those fortresses had never actually done anything to obstruct the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs from invading.

But if they stopped building fortresses because of this, that would be even more unacceptable.

Although the fortresses couldn’t prevent their enemies from attacking, they could at least use up a great amount of the enemy’s magic power!

So the Dwarves continued to build fortresses with that thought in mind and were continuously breached in turn. If it weren’t for their persevering nature and stubbornness, they probably would have fallen apart long ago.

Now that they had the Orcs to support them, the Dwarves had gained a boost of confidence. But when they found out the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs had gained support from the Mifata Federation, they became riddled with apprehension all over again.

The Country of Casters was famed for its military prowess. Who wouldn’t be afraid? There were many countries on the continent, but which of them could manage to turn both the countries surrounding them into vassals? None but the Mifata Federation!

There were none who dared to be confident when faced with them as an enemy.

Filled with apprehensive thoughts like this, the Dwarves and Orcs guarding the fortress looked up to see a gigantic jellyfish. The jellyfish was speeding towards them from the northwest skies, then gradually dropped down over their heads before resting motionlessly halfway up the mountain.

This was His Majesty the Void Mask, wasn’t it? What was he doing here? The guards all shared bewildered glances.

After a long while, the jellyfish still had yet to move and in fact had started snoring.

Huh? Why would this honorable elder want to run all the way here just to sleep? Was this a good spot for sleeping?

Everyone looked at each other, but none were willing to run down and wake up the sleeping god, rushing instead to send news back to the rear lines.

Soon enough, the king of the Dwarves received the information.

He frowned at first, but after thinking for a moment all the wrinkles on his face smoothed out, and he laughed aloud despite himself.

“I get it! His Majesty, the Void Mask, really is too generous!”

When he said this, the chancellors of the Kingdom of Dwarves, as well as the high-level army commanders who’d rushed over as support from the Orc Empire, all understood both what he meant and what Sui Xiong intended.

It could be assumed that this kind of jellyfish god couldn’t bear to see the terrible sight of these two sides warring against each other, and so had blocked the battlefield with his own body.

With him sitting there, who could pass through? Even if you were fearless enough to try forcing your way through, you’d still have to move him out of the way first!

“This battle can no longer be fought,” said a young Orc. “I’m a little disappointed.”

“Not needing to fight is the best outcome we could have,” said an elderly Orc. “Besides, if it’s war you want, you’ll have plenty of opportunities in the future.”

“Whatever you want to call it, peace is definitely the best!” The king of the dwarves, who’d previously been so worried he’d even quit drinking, immediately lifted a small wine barrel. He shouted in great delight, “Let’s all drink a toast to peace! A toast to His Grand Majesty, the Void Mask!”

“Cheers!”

The sound of laughter echoed throughout the underground stone-carved hall.