Cthulhu Gonfalon

In this world, war was a common occurrence. It was not uncommon for an entire family to be killed when a battle was lost. This was not a rare sight. But this was an act of carrying out a massive massacre of civilians, even to the extent of complete destroying villages and towns without considering the outcome. It was just to destroy the opponent’s logistics and weaken the opponent’s will to fight. This behavior had seriously broken the long-standing “practice.”

In general, such things largely happen outside the Main Plane. Only among races who based their strongholds in small worlds where they fought and killed each other would there be such cruelty. And within the Main Plane, even the elemental creatures that were almost unfeeling, as well as the evil and ferocious devils, would not do such things—because they were simply meaningless.

What was the use of killing people? Could it be that human flesh tasted much better than other meats? Even if human flesh was tastier, it was not as though there was no human reproduction happening in other worlds. Putting in so much effort and investing so much money to barge their way into the human world and all of it just for the sake of tasting a mouthful of fresh human meat?

If there was anyone who did this, even among the devils, this person definitely belonged to the category of “sick and requires treatment.”

Generally speaking, even the evil living creatures of the Lower Realm, such as the devils and so on, would only kill the humans and take their souls away as replenishment for their subordinates. Simply killing people for the sake of killing was really... rare.

In fact, this was no longer a matter of a “rare” problem—it was perverse and insane.

When news reached the aristocratic party’s territory, all the great aristocrats who had previously discussed this matter with Earl Hauss, were dumbfounded. They originally thought that Earl Hauss would do nothing more than the common burning, killing and pillaging. They had not expected this guy to be such an evil jinx. Everywhere his invading troops set foot on, they would leave almost no one behind, be it man or woman, old or young. They even burned down all the houses and farmlands and killed all the livestock. They even tried ways and means to pollute the water sources. If not for the fact that they had limited time, even the farmlands would have been damaged by spells.

“This... this is really... really...” Marquis Yug stuttered. At the Council of the Aristocrats, Marquis Yug shook his head a few times but did not know what to say. He ended up uttering “really” repeatedly and then said nothing more.

“We should never have made any promises to him!” said an earl from the local party. His tone was filled with indignation. “We would never have expected him to be so murderous! He must have killed thousands of people after those few battles.”

“According to the North, it was nearly 6000 people,” replied an earl from the central party. “We are quite resigned to the situation at the moment. We are in a very difficult position...”

He was currently the one in charge of diplomatic ties with the merchant party. Given how both parties were supposedly equal in strength, even if there was nothing much to gain from the diplomatic work, there should not be any losses either. But because of Earl Hauss’ crazy behavior, the aristocratic party was suffering a great loss with regards to diplomacy. Not only was the merchant party hopping mad, there were also many churches of good gods that were exerting pressure on the aristocrats.

It was really beyond their imagination for things to have come to this point. They originally thought that no matter how ferocious Earl Hauss was, the most he would do was to cause harassment to every place he set foot in. He would kill 30 to 50 people and create riots in each and every place, then he would leave—this was evidently what Earl Hauss had told them during their discussions right from the start.

Theoretically speaking, killing all the people in one place was a far cry from just killing a small number of them. The latter saved much time and effort, and the rest could be allowed to stay alive and spread fear. If they directly killed all the people, then the only thing they could spread was hatred.

What Earl Hauss and company wanted was to sow the seeds of fear, thereby undermining the merchant party’s will to fight. At the same time, they wanted to create chaos and ruin the logistics of the merchant party. Merely killing along their way as they traversed village by village, town by town, it was impossible for them to achieve such an effect.

At present, the one who was placed in the most uncomfortable spot would be this earl who was in charge of the diplomatic work of the aristocratic party, and not the merchant party itself. On the one hand, he had to placate the diplomat of the merchant party, who wore an “I’m so angry that I’m about to explode” expression. On the other hand, he had to explain to the churches of the good gods so as to prevent the aristocratic party from becoming a public enemy of society. He also had to strive to pursue the original diplomatic objectives... He felt that out of all the diplomats from time immemorial, there was no other who could be as miserable as he was.

In truth, his situation was really not the worst. After all, the aristocratic party was still strong enough to hold its ground. The diplomats of those weaker countries would be the most miserable ones. They existed purely for the nonfunctional purpose of putting up a show. They were even often subjected to humiliation.

In the face of Earl Hauss’ crazy behavior, the merchant party was naturally exploding with fury. They hastily formed a rapid-mobility troop, then hurriedly sent the troops out. Following the traces left by Earl Hauss and his troops along the way as they wreaked havoc, the merchant party’s troops tried to catch up with them to annihilate the entire troop.

A few days later, there was news again.

The merchant party’s rapid-mobility troop had certainly caught up with the aristocratic party’s rapid-mobility troop that was led by Earl Hauss. The two parties fought a great battle in the wilderness. However, the outcome of the battle was the complete collapse of the rapid-mobility troop that the merchant party had spared no expense in putting together. Other than the few lucky ones who survived because they had teleportation spells or transportation scrolls, the others, near to 300 of them, were wiped out.

This news brought great shock to the Council of the Merchants. Even the aristocrats were in an uproar.

In war, the difference in numbers should never be neglected. The aristocratic party’s rapid-mobility troop only had about 200 men, while the merchant party, on the other hand, had 300 men. In terms of equipment, the wealthy and generous merchant party had provided its rapid-mobility troop with weapons, armor, warhorses and consumables that were as superior as those of the aristocratic party.

In terms of quality, the merchant party might lack the conditions to meet contingencies, but they had many mercenary organizations that had worked with them for a long time. Accordingly, the troop that was formed by the merchant party through the transfer of elites was supposed to be much better than the rabble assembled by the aristocratic party after the various aristocrats had “cleaned up their inventory.”

But the result turned out to be the exact opposite. The aristocratic party’s rapid-mobility troop, which should have been bound to lose, won the battle. On the contrary, the merchant party’s troops, who had the upper hand in both manpower and material resources, suffered a crushing defeat. The troop was almost completely wiped out.

This was inconceivable, but it was the harsh, iron-clad truth.

In the face of such a truth, the great aristocrats were somewhat lost as well.

“What should we do?” Marquis Gordan asked at the Council of Great Aristocrats. “Let us discuss. Given the situation now, what is the right thing to do?”

“First, we have to change the way we think,” said an earl from the local party. “Earl Hauss’ method is certainly very extreme, but we have to admit that he’s strong, so strong that... that he was able to change the outcome of this war.”

The great aristocrats looked at one another and silently nodded.

“At the beginning, we were as good as those merchants from the North. No one could do anything to the other, but with him and his troops, the logistics of the merchant party definitely met with some problems. Their will to fight suffered a great blow. In this case, we should be able to gain some advantage when we finally meet to sign a peace treaty,” that earl said. Then after a slight pause, he emphasized, “Not just a petty advantage, but a great advantage!”

“We don’t object to this,” said an earl from the central party. “But the problem is, he also puts us under a great deal of pressure.”

“Yes. He does bring us a great deal of pressure. It’s a great deal of trouble. But he can also bring us victory!” said the previous earl. And he emphasized, “Victory!”

The great aristocrats fell silent. Indeed, when it came to war, victory was the most important thing.

No matter what they did, without victory, everything else was meaningless.

Even at the expense of a hefty price. So long as they could claim victory, any price would be worthwhile.

At long last, the great aristocrats passed the resolution. Bearing the pressure from various parties, they did all they could to buy as much time as possible for Earl Hauss so that he and his troops could reap more successes of battle.

As for morals and consciences, they did not have much of these in the first place. As for that little bit they had left, to win the war, they would not mind selling these out as well...