Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

These two had never come into contact with Extraordinary power, at least they had never used it themselves. Although they had seen the Banshees and members of the Church of the Sea God, they had never personally experienced it.

At this moment, both of them were like children stepping out of their homes for the first time, cautiously probing their surroundings.

Hughes was naturally listening in from behind, catching bits and pieces of their conversation. Soon, he heard an interesting piece of information:

『Mr. Jeremiah, do you think this has anything to do with the sea drying up?』

The sea drying up?

Was this some kind of metaphor?

Hughes quickly perked up his ears, but the two of them didn’t dwell much on the topic.

『Not sure, maybe it has something to do with our location? We’re a little too close to the deep sea right now.』

『Is that so? By the way, should we find a few other crew members and see if they can hear our connection?』

『We can, but let me conduct the experiment. You shouldn’t go. This matter is quite strange, and it’s best to keep it confidential for now.』Hughes thought for a moment. It seemed the two of them, being on the same ship, were aware of the situation they encountered. Even if they mentioned it, there was no need for additional explanation.

That made it inconvenient for him to gather information.

Hmm, it would be best if he found someone who had no prior connection with these two and added them into the conversation. That way, they would have to explain a lot of details, such as this ‘sea drying up.’

Who exactly to add? That still needed some consideration. Hughes listened for a while longer before decisively severing the link and choosing to return.

He planned to go back to the island and check the roster of those he had previously dispatched. Perhaps he could select someone from there.

Arriving at the Throne Room, he chose to descend as Lord Hughes.

When he opened his eyes again, he was back in his office. At that moment, there was a knock on the door. Hughes walked over and opened it. Standing outside was Connor.

“Master, Lady Chloe is looking for you.”

“She just came by?”

“Yes. When she knocked, you weren’t here, so I asked her to come back later.”

“Got it.”

Hughes nodded and walked straight out of the room.

There were many matters he needed to handle, and every so often, someone would come looking for him. This made returning quite troublesome.

After all, once his consciousness left this body, he had no way of knowing what was happening here. If it was just once or twice, he could have Connor handle it, but over time, it would surely raise suspicion.

Especially Chloe. As an Extraordinary being, she could use the Chrysalis ability to directly see inside the room. If she ever got curious and decided to take a look, it would be a big problem.

He needed to find a solution.

After walking through the church for a while, Hughes arrived at Chloe’s room.

He knocked on the door, and soon, Chloe came over and opened it. Hughes noticed the glowing orange-red light in her eyes and raised an eyebrow.

“What’s got you so excited?”

Chloe’s eyes would glow when she was excited. Hughes had asked others about this before, but it turned out that he was the only one who could see it.

Perhaps she and he shared some kind of connection?

Wait a minute, she was the head of the Moths Chasing Fire, and he possessed the body of the Lord of Moths.

He definitely had to test this out next time. Hughes had a strong hunch that viewing from that body’s perspective would reveal something major. If only that body weren’t completely blind to everything on Castel Island, he would have the urge to descend right now and check.

“How did you know? Forget it, I’ll just say it—

The airship prototype is complete!”

Chloe was brimming with excitement. Without waiting for Hughes to respond, she grabbed his arm and pulled him downstairs.

There were several testing sites, but the largest one was the Eastern Test Site. That area had more space, and relatively dangerous experiments were all conducted there.

An airship was certainly considered a dangerous experiment—if it leaked gas, it could easily explode.

Thus, Hughes followed Chloe down into the church’s underground tunnels. They took a carriage through the networked passageways to reach the test site.

The subway project was still on hold. Hughes had attempted to run a train underground, but the results were poor. The immense noise and heat buildup in an enclosed space caused significant problems.

The solution was simple—switch to electric locomotives. However, while easy to suggest, implementation was much more difficult. Forget everything else, just supplying power was a massive issue.

Achieving full power coverage in the dense underground passage network was a monumental engineering task. Whether it could even be done was uncertain, let alone ensuring its reliability.

Moreover, Castel didn’t have rubber, so cable production would require alternative materials.

Before long, the two arrived at the Eastern Test Site. Hughes was surprised to find that not only were there many Moths Chasing Fire present, but a good number of Banshees had also gathered.

They were chattering excitedly amongst themselves, and a few were curiously watching the engineers adjust the airship’s propeller.

These Banshees were clearly sea-dwelling creatures, yet they were so fascinated by flight. Hughes recalled that they also loved gazing at the starry sky. Perhaps things they couldn’t reach were the most enticing to them.

“Lord.”

The crowd parted, revealing the airship in its entirety.

The airship wasn’t very large, and the signs of rushed construction were evident. Hughes had originally designed it to be powered by a steam engine, but now…

Was it hand-cranked?

Hughes’s face darkened as he stared at the hand-operated propeller, but Chloe didn’t seem to mind.

“Oh, don’t sweat the small stuff. If we included a steam engine, the whole thing would have been way bigger. I just wanted to make a smaller prototype first. Let’s see if it can fly before worrying about the rest.”

“You sure this will work? I mean, if it’s hand-powered, you’ll need several people taking turns cranking it.”

Human-powered aircraft weren’t unheard of—there were competitions for them on Blue Star. However, because they depended on the pilot’s stamina, they often couldn’t make a return trip. That’s why test flights were usually conducted over water, with boats following behind.

They could certainly test this one over the sea, but if it went down, there would be no coming back.

Most of Castel’s territory had already fallen. Aside from the fortress-like Eastern Test Site, only the main church and a small area around it remained. Gunmen were stationed at the church’s firing ports, guarding against the endless assaults from the Murlocs.

“This won’t be a problem.”

The one who spoke was Nini. She raised her hand and summoned two sea serpents. These were different from the ones she had summoned before—shorter and thicker.

The serpents quickly slithered onto the airship’s crank handles, looped through two specially designed protrusions, and then bit their own tails, forming circles.

Then, they began twisting their bodies in opposite directions, causing the crank to spin.

“…Fine. But who’s going up to fly it?”

“There’s no need for a person. I can use 【Self-Bind】 to open my vision and command Nini’s sea serpents to operate it.”

Chloe chuckled and added, “As for the passenger—I nominate this 200-kilogram iron bomb.”