Cthulhu Gonfalon

In general, when something is gained, another is lost. While one is celebrating with glee, the other side would probably be depressed and upset. Even if in a situation, both sides benefit, there would still be third parties who were jealous of the positive outcome, maybe even to the extent that they would drink alone to drown their sorrows!

But not this time.

The God of Conspiracy’s death was something that filled all sorts of groups and communities in this world with joy.

The joyous celebrations lasted for about a month, and within that month, many places which were at war came to a temporary ceasefire to celebrate. Some even, in the spirit of the celebrations, ended their wars there and then! There was the feeling of warmth in the air and even the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs who, all along threatened to attack the Kingdom of Dwarfs, took this chance to announce the start of peace talks instead.

This was due to the fact that the death of the God of Conspiracy was a momentous occasion that deserved a good celebration. It would be unthinkable to mention killing or fighting at this moment! Instead, it was a good chance for everyone to start anew and make amends.

With the help of the Orc Empire, the Kingdom of Dwarfs increased exponentially in terms of status and power. Even though Sui Xiong no longer acted as a guard (like the Kingdom of Dwarfs’”city borders”), the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs was still unable to guarantee victory over them now.

After all, one fought a war for personal benefit. If one was able to guarantee benefits or that their benefits would at least outweigh their losses, it would be hard to sustain war efforts. The reason why the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs was able to sustain war efforts thus far was due to its consecutive success in previous battles and lost little. The most dangerous and life-threatening tasks were all carried out by hired troops, and thus, they were not too concerned about their death rate. Overall, there was high morale in the country and nationalistic, explicit support for war. The Kingdom of Thousands of Springs thus emerged as a sufficiently prepared military power among the countries.

However, now, with the help of the Orc Empire as well as the extra time acquired through Sui Xiong’s creation of defense mechanisms for the Kingdom of Dwarfs, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs now hesitated to attack further. They had planned to increase their number of hired troops and use this fresh batch to attack again. But his was foiled by the fact that the Mifata Federation and the Commonwealth of Gold Coins attracted large numbers of explorers to migrate. In addition, the surname plans in many countries caused many explorers to think of retiring earlier and settle down to continue their family name peacefully.

In the end, all these factors made it harder to fight a new war as there was no longer momentum, and the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs faced a major setback in the disruption of their war plans. Under these circumstances, the monarchs and courtiers of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs decided to temporarily change their plans after organizing several discussions about the topic at hand. They believed that the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs was already sufficiently powerful with its own leadership and developing land. Besides, it was extremely possible that circumstances would change once again within the next 100 to 200 years. With this mindset, they sent out their ambassadors to negotiate with the Kingdom of Dwarfs.

The higher-ups in the Kingdom of Dwarfs had mixed opinions towards the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs’ attempts at peace talks. Some felt that it was a good opportunity to end the war and achieve a few hundred years of peace in the near future, while others suspected that it was merely a ploy by the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. On the part of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs, the ambassadors maintained an earnest attitude and even suggested that many churches could be invited to the negotiations to ensure justice.

When discussing covenants, without gods present as neutral parties, it would just be an empty treaty. On the other hand, if gods were present, there would be great obligation tied to the covenant. This was especially if several gods officiated the covenant at the same time, ensuring both sides’ compliance. This was similar to Earth where promises by two opposing countries to end conflicts would mean nothing unless the United Nations’ sent a joint order for a ceasefire. In that case, the countries would have no choice but to obey as they would not want to risk offending major world powers. Of course, there would be some who disregarded the United Nations, but this was rare and asking for trouble. The last person who had done this was Kadazo from Jianghu, and by the time Sui Xiong had crossed over to this world, he was already known as a dead man. This was merely on Earth; who would dare to cross a group of gods in this world? That wasn’t something that could be dealt with merely one death occurrence!

Interestingly, the god that the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs invited to oversee negotiations was Sui Xiong! With such a choice, those who were wary in the Kingdom of Dwarfs were appeased and thus agreed to preliminary negotiation talks. While they did not trust the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs fully, they had full trust in the Void Mask Lord. If the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs were to try anything funny, they would be going against the powerful the Void Mask Lord and endanger themselves.

If that happened, the anger of the Void Mask Lord alone would destroy the entire Kingdom of Thousands of Springs easily.

After the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs and the Kingdom of Dwarfs signed a peace treaty, the Mifata Federation also signed a secret internal agreement shortly after. This was between Mifata’s higher-ups and the Church of the Void Mask, and there were two components to the agreement: Firstly, Mifata recognized and allowed for the Church of the Void Mask’s preaching and would not harm the Church of the Void Mask’s disciples or physically disturb independent areas governed by the Church of the Void Mask on religious terms alone. Secondly, the Church of the Void Mask promised not to encourage further notions of independence in other areas of Mifata as well as promised that any area which subsequently fell under the control of the Church of the Void Mask would remain in the Federation.

This was a rather balanced agreement. Although many in the Church of the Void Mask felt that the Void Mask Lord had been too lenient or gracious without any proper need to do so, Sui Xiong maintained his stance and went with his instincts, nevertheless.

In a secret meeting, Sui Xiong explained his stance to the higher-ups in the church: If Mifata was able to maintain the current status quo, there would be peace, which was definitely a good thing. There were also many countries that wished to become Republican. Besides, if Mifata were to gradually weaken, if there came a day where it collapsed, one also could not predict which direction other countries would take.

“You never know… When the time comes, maybe the entire Mifata will take on our flag…”