Cthulhu Gonfalon

After the God of Aristocracy took their leave with a pale expression, the God of Light sighed and looked at the crowd of gods around them.

“I trust that all of you are aware of the negative effects of the power of belief. I know that many of you who have also wondered if eliminating some of your followers would allow you to reduce these negative effects. For example, just like what the God of Aristocracy has done. They have allowed a large number of pan-religious followers and shallow followers to be killed. Anyway, after death, their souls will still end up going to the Underworld. This direct cutting of the ties thus reduces her burden…”

“As for what I’m about to say now, I’m only going to say it once,” said this king of the human gods. He spoke in a peaceful tone, but his eyes were slowing brimming with a murderous intention. “From now on, if any one of you do such a thing for your selfish personal gains, prepare to die!”

The gods were stupefied by his words, but no one dared raise any objection.

After a while, the God of Heroes asked in a low voice, “If… is there really a need for the condition of pure belief?”

“Bring this up to the masses first. Then we’ll discuss the specific methods together,” said the God of Light. “We are human gods. To us, whether the people believe in us or not, so long as we are still taking the side of the humans, then they are the ones we are obliged to protect.

“When we do things, we always have to put emphasis on the overall situation, so there are times where we have to sacrifice some people. But you all must be clear of one thing, what is the overall situation? The humans’ position is the overall situation. It’s the most important thing!”

“Be it good or evil, order or chaos. No matter what we do, we are serving the greater good of ‘humanity,’ and for this overall interest at heart, we can’t sacrifice humans, and gods alike!”

After he finished his piece, the entire hall fell into silence. The gods were rendered speechless.

After a long time, the God of Protection asked, “Your Majesty, the Legendary Masters of the Mifata Federation have joined hands to destroy the Golden Tower City and also exterminate the Church of the God of Aristocracy. What should we do?”

“What can we do? Just wait,” the God of Light snapped. “The Legendary Masters of the Mifata Federation provide an indispensable, high-end magic power for the humans. They are also the organization that restrains and manage the spellcasters. They are the key to how we humans keep a firm hold of ‘magic’ power. Of course, we can kill them all, but what comes next after we wipe them out? The Mifata Federation collapses, the spellcasters go out of control, a large number of spellcasters will change allegiance to other factions… Overall, this is not beneficial to humanity.”

“But, the dignity of the God of Aristocracy will…”

“What dignity does the God of Aristocracy expect to have? No matter how humiliating something could be, after a few hundred years, no one will remember it.”

The gods looked at each other. Ultimately, they were still speechless.

So this matter was settled as such. As the human gods made no response, the matter regarding the destruction of the Golden Tower City gradually died down to nothing.

Hence, the aristocrats of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, who had originally clenched their fists and set their jaws eagerly in preparation for a fight had to suppress their heightened emotions so that they would no longer entertain such thoughts.

The Republic of Northwest, the merchant party of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, the Dhaka Commercial Association, and now, adding the Mifata Federation, granted permission for the civilians to have surnames. There were more and more countries allowing their people to have surnames, so gradually, this had become the general trend. Even if the aristocratic party wanted to do something, they would not dare to make a move now nor would they even dare to use this as a reason.

They were aware that their power was indeed stronger than the merchant party and that they had an advantage over the latter. But compared to the Mifata Federation, they were not worth mentioning. Since the Legendary Masters of the Mifata Federation were so resolute in making this thing a success, even at the expense of destroying a city and completely turning their backs against the God of Aristocracy, this matter was practically a foregone conclusion.

There would not be a single aristocrat nor any country that would offend those great Legendary Masters over such a trivial matter.

On the contrary, even if it was just to get on their good side, there would be many people rushing to advocate the movement of civilians choosing their surnames. This would allow this movement to spread rapidly in various countries.

In another meeting of the aristocrats, Marquis Gordon brought up a proposal.

“Let’s get our people to select their surnames too,” he said. He seemed a little haggard, apparently because he had not been resting well and was mentally exhausted. “Rather than having to bow down again because we are unable to withstand the pressure, we should take the chance to do something ourselves when we can still control the situation.”

The earls looked at one another and finally, all of them cast their gazes over to Marquis Yug.

No matter what, these two marquises were still the leaders of the aristocratic party. Even the earls of the nine local regions, who had always been at odds with them, chose to back off at such a moment. They left the decision to the two marquises.

Marquis Yug had long reached a conclusion. When he heard of this matter, he sighed and said, “Seems like, things have come to the point where we are left with no other choice!”

“Yes, it can’t be helped!”

“Though it feels a little humiliating, humans can’t just survive on dignity after all.”

“In fact, we should convince ourselves that this is not a big deal. Even if everyone on Earth has a surname, our status alone is enough to make our surnames all the more glorious.”

Marquis Yug’s stand on this matter was very clear from what he just said. Seeing how the two leaders were also in agreement, the five earls of the central party all started talking at once, eagerly chiming in their support for the decision. The earls from the local party also voiced no objection. All of them indicated their agreement.

After all, the fact that around a dozen Legendary Masters had joined efforts to destroy Golden Tower City definitely placed a lot of pressure on them. Seeing how the hardline Marquis Yug also had to bow down to pressure, how could they still cling obstinately to their own opinions?

If they did not bow down now, would it mean that they were really going to wait for the masters to come knocking on their doors?

That was truly going to be a great humiliation!

“Since everyone is in agreement, this matter shall be settled for now,” said Marquis Gordon, somewhat wearily. “But… we have to be relatively stringent with the granting of surnames to the people. The number of surnames we can grant must be relatively few.”

“We can also learn from the Republic of Northwest and try to add on additional requirements on top of the existing ones,” Marquis Yug said with a smile. “For instance, one surname can only be used by 200 households, or something like that. This is a good idea.”

“Won’t that increase the workload quite substantially?” asked an earl.

“Of course,” said Master Yug as he laughed in a very sly manner. “But isn’t that the effect we want? When the workload is increased, we can’t make haste. Unquestionably, the delay will be much longer…”

“That’s indeed a good idea!” said another earl who could not help laughing heartily. “The way we work is definitely not as efficient as that of the Republic of Northwest. So it’s perfectly normal for one round of registration to take a year or two. It won’t be surprising if we take another six months to a year when it’s time for the final count. Then three to four rounds of registration would mean a period of eight to 10 years. It will be possible to drag on for another 20 years or so if we are to add on a few more rounds of registration.”

“Yes, 20 years later, who knows what will happen. By then, I believe the general trend of the world will be clearer. And we can head in whatever direction we want to with more certainty.”

At this point, those shrewd but sly old ones could not help looking at each other amidst their laughter.