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Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

Chapter 107: Is He Crazy? · Oct 18, 2026

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Chapter List (689)

Page number / 14

101 Chapter 101: Hughes and Hughes and Hughes 2026-10-18
102 Chapter 102: Don’t Answer! Don’t Answer! Don’t Answer! 2026-10-18
103 Chapter 103: The Steam Engine is Cursing Again 2026-10-18
104 Chapter 104: Steel Is Forever Loyal 2026-10-18
105 Chapter 105: The Banquet Begins 2026-10-18
106 Chapter 106: 2026-10-18
107 Chapter 107: Is He Crazy? 2026-10-18
108 Chapter 108: 2026-10-18
109 Chapter 109: Something in the Sea 2026-10-18
110 Chapter 110: Gunpowder 2026-10-18
111 Chapter 111: The Yield Is Still Not Enough 2026-10-18
112 Chapter 112: The Expelled Church of the Sea God 2026-10-18
113 Chapter 113: The Truth in the Sea 2026-10-18
114 Chapter 114: I Have Extensive Experience Being Descended Upon by an Evil God 2026-10-18
115 Chapter 115: There Is a Traitor Among Us 2026-10-18
116 Chapter 116: The Studious Nun and the Unstudious Merchant 2026-10-18
117 Chapter 117: What Do You Think Pirates Are? 2026-10-18
118 Chapter 118: The Steam Factory 2026-10-18
119 Chapter 119: How Can Knowledge Be Considered Stolen? 2026-10-18
120 Chapter 120: The Evil God Summoned Earlier Hasn’t Left 2026-10-18
121 Chapter 121: Can It Pollute History in Reverse?! 2026-10-18
122 Chapter 122: The Authorization Letter and the Options Contract 2026-10-18
123 Chapter 123: Overproduction? Time to Dump It 2026-10-18
124 Chapter 124: I Am the Chief 2026-10-18
125 Chapter 125: Are You Competing with Monica in Innovation? 2026-10-18
126 Chapter 126: Digging All the Way Down to the Earth’s Core 2026-10-18
127 Chapter 127: The Empress Knows, But She Doesn’t Care 2026-10-18
128 Chapter 128: Can Extraordinary Paths Be Stacked? 2026-10-18
129 Chapter 129: Nice Ship You Have, It’s Mine Now 2026-10-18
130 Chapter 130: The Goods Are on Credit, the Ship Is on Credit, Why Can’t People Be on Credit? 2026-10-18
131 Chapter 131: Can’t an Evil God Be Used as a Receiver? 2026-10-18
132 Chapter 132: Storm Heavy Industries 2026-10-18
133 Chapter 133: Subway 2026-10-18
134 Chapter 134: Interlude – To Uncle Yule 2026-10-18
135 Chapter 135: They’re Back!? 2026-10-18
136 Chapter 136: Farewell 2026-10-18
137 Chapter 137: Atonement, Sinners 2026-10-18
138 Chapter 138: I Am Actually a Member of the Candlelight Church 2026-10-18
139 Chapter 139: It Wasn’t an Evil God’s Descent into a Vessel 2026-10-18
140 Chapter 140: Rather Than an Evil God Descending Into a Vessel, It Is the Vessel That Gives Birth to the Evil God 2026-10-18
141 Chapter 141: Creating an Evil God 2026-10-18
142 Chapter 142: Swallow My Flesh and Blood 2026-10-18
143 Chapter 143: The Curse of Immortality 2026-10-18
144 Chapter 144: Did the Symbiotic Contract Go Wrong? 2026-10-18
145 Chapter 145: Amnesia 2026-10-18
146 Chapter 146: Surrounding the Church 2026-10-18
147 Chapter 147: The Eerie Shell 2026-10-18
148 Chapter 148: Taming Pollution? 2026-10-18
149 Chapter 149: Are Fishmen Slaves Too? 2026-10-18
150 Chapter 150: Sunken Memory 2026-10-18

Listening to the information coming through the Mind Link, Hughes nodded silently and refocused his attention on Chloe in front of him.

The guests invited to the banquet were all nobles from the island, essentially all of Hughes’ subordinates.

For example, Alexei, who held a noble title. Any civil servant above the eighth rank could receive a noble title bestowed by the royal family.

Of course, they were not granted fiefs, but the title allowed them free access to high society, something many merchants couldn’t buy even with money.

Therefore, Hughes and Chloe’s quiet departure didn’t cause the slightest stir. Under Connor’s cue, Alexei had already steered the crowd’s conversation toward Castel Island’s unpredictable weather.

”Sister Chloe, we meet again. How have you been lately?”

Chloe touched her neck somewhat uneasily. Ever since Hughes came near her, she felt the hidden gazes around her suddenly intensify.

She didn’t need any extraordinary senses to feel the oppressive atmosphere, as if an invisible force permeated the air, making even breathing difficult.

Those six-armed serpents lurking in the shadows seemed to pay extra attention to Hughes. Their gazes were like icy blades, pricking painfully against her skin.

She would bet that if she made a single wrong move, a swarm of six-armed serpents would pour in from the doors and windows to skin her alive.Chloe took a few steps back, distancing herself from Hughes.

”What’s wrong?”

”Afraid.”

”.”

Hughes’ eyelids twitched. He cleared his throat and said, ”Then I’ll get straight to the point. Sister Chloe, what exactly were you doing yesterday?”

He had already made up his mind. No matter how Chloe tried to deny it, he would make sure she revealed some information.

Cooperating with the Moths Chasing Fire could be a slow process, but he needed to at least gain a basic understanding of this organization.

If they were truly insane cultists, then this collaboration wouldn’t be worth it.

Castel only needed to develop steadily. Eventually, it would possess the power to handle the extraordinary world. There was no need to take unnecessary risks.

This moment marked the first confrontation between the two sides.

”Summoning an Outer God,” Chloe said flatly.

Hughes’ expression froze instantly. The air seemed to solidify in that moment, and a trace of shock flickered through his eyes.

He truly hadn’t expected Chloe to just say it outright.

Hughes stared intently at Chloe, trying to find any hint of a joke or a lie in her expression. But Chloe’s face remained unnervingly serious, even carrying a faint trace of mockery.

Just as she thought, Chloe mused inwardly. He actually doesn’t understand what the Moths Chasing Fire represents.

His willingness to engage with them ultimately stemmed from ignorance.

There was nothing shameful about ignorance, and pursuing knowledge because of it was even commendable.

But Chloe had seen too many nobles before, greedy, weak, eager to chase after truth yet unwilling to pay the price.

”Why summon an Outer God?”

Chloe lifted her head, as if seeing this lord for the first time.

He seemed to be the first noble who, upon hearing their goal, didn’t scream for the guards but instead sought to understand their purpose.

Oh, I see now.

Chloe suddenly recalled the strange fluctuations she had sensed on the island not long ago. This Count Hughes had also summoned an Outer God.

Heh, what am I thinking? This very room probably contains more than one of an Outer God’s followers.

Chloe, suddenly losing interest, spoke in a bored tone, ”Summon the Lord of Moths, then kill it. This ritual will remove the pollution from us.”

”Kill it? Remove pollution? Isn’t the Lord of Moths the god you worship?”

”Exactly. And because we worship it, we must kill it. We can’t actually allow an Outer God to descend, that would bring disaster.”

I’m not like you people from the Sea God Church, Chloe thought to herself.

Hughes felt his brain struggling to keep up. Why worship it if they were going to kill it?

They summoned an Outer God but didn’t want it to descend, weren’t they completely insane?

Did these people actually have any rationality? Or were they just pretending to be sane?

Hughes decided to avoid questioning the Outer God aspect for now. Instead, he focused on the part he understood. ”You performed this ritual, causing such a commotion, just to deal with pollution?”

”Yes, this way fewer people will die.”

”Pollution can kill people?”

Chloe fell silent, thinking that this Count was seriously insane. Wasn’t pollution dangerous enough already?

She had long heard that the Sea God Church had ways to utilize pollution, but even they feared the vast, polluted ocean. Yet Hughes spoke as if he didn’t care at all.

Well, that made sense. After all, only a madman would bring six-armed serpents into his manor.

The room fell into silence.

Communication seemed difficult. They lacked both common ground and trust… Maybe getting to know each other more before negotiating would yield better results.

Hughes pondered on how to break the deadlock. Perhaps… cooperation?

『My Lord, Beatrice seems to have run into some trouble.』

A slightly puzzled voice came through the Mind Link from the Siren.

『What happened?』

『She, uh, she didn’t find the extraordinary item we left for her.』

The so-called extraordinary item was actually a clue deliberately left for Beatrice by the Sirens.

Hughes knew that the extraordinary aura in the manor couldn’t be hidden from the investigator, so he simply let her discover some extraordinary items to put her mind at ease.

It was a jar of ”candy” left by Nora, something that could cleanse pollution. Hughes didn’t know the specifics, but it should be enough to attract Beatrice’s attention.

If left unchecked, Beatrice could easily cause trouble. Explaining things to her wouldn’t necessarily work, but if she found clues on her own, she’d be much more likely to believe them.

After all, she discovered them herself. She wouldn’t doubt her own conclusions.

『Did you hide it too well?』

『No, we placed it right on the table. It’s the first thing she should see when entering the room.』

『She didn’t look for it?』

『She did. She even searched the table for a long time and checked for hidden compartments, but somehow, she completely overlooked the jar sitting right on top.』

『.』

『My Lord, what should we do now? She seems to have lost track of time. The maid is supposed to check on her soon. Should we send the maid in?』

Hughes’ eye twitched. How incompetent was this investigator? She couldn’t even find something in plain sight?

No, that didn’t make sense. She had extraordinary abilities to aid her search. So why couldn’t she find it? Bad luck? Impossible.

”Ahem.”

Chloe coughed lightly, drawing Hughes’ attention.

”Is that Beatrice in trouble?”

Hughes raised an eyebrow.

”Don’t look at me like that. I left a mark on her. She’s been in the upstairs room for half a day, frantically searching for something.”

”She ran into some trouble.”

”Then how about I go find her? I think I can guess what you’re doing. It’s hard to hide things from an investigator with so many people around. I can provide some assistance.”

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