Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

Must! Be! Held! By! Hand! To! Fire!

Three hundred kilograms, held with one hand—wouldn’t the recoil be several tons?

Only the Holy Guard, who were superhuman, could even manage this kind of cannon, right?

Hughes’s eye twitched.

“Can’t the soldiers just hold the cannon steady while firing?”

“No, that would cause danger.” Richard pulled a blueprint out of his satchel. “Strictly speaking, this type of cannon was already very dangerous. In order to successfully communicate with the Machine Soul, the grip was placed almost right next to the firing chamber.”

“This kind of firing is extremely dangerous. Without the Machine Soul protecting the user, otherwise—”

“It would burst the chamber?”

“No, something even more severe. It would self-detonate.”

Hughes swallowed hard. At least with this weapon, there was no need to worry about the enemy picking it up and using it against them—because the moment they fired, it would just explode.

“Holding the cannon to fire disrupts communication with the Machine Soul. Without that connection, there’s no way to guarantee the mixture of pollution with the propellant in the shell, which could lead to pollution overflow. That is extremely dangerous.”

Pollution was deadly to Extraordinary beings, though ironically less dangerous to ordinary people.

But only by comparison—if an ordinary person came into direct contact with Entity Pollution, they would still be corroded and lose control. The only reason a Stoker of the Steam Engine could add pollution into the furnace was because of the active suppression of the Machine Soul.

The Dragon’s Breath Cannon worked the same way. Its core function was letting the Machine Soul suppress the pollution. If the Machine Soul went on strike, the Hand-Cannon would instantly become a dangerous source of pollution.

Richard sighed.

“So, all I can do now is make the cannon as small as possible. There’s no way, at least for now, to build it into a naval gun. Perhaps in the future there might be cannons that can communicate with the Machine Soul without needing to be handheld—but not yet.”

“So that means this weapon can only be given to the Banshees, right?”

“Not exactly.” Richard’s expression turned strange.

For the Banshees, using the Dragon’s Breath Cannon posed no issue at all. With their strength, the weapon was just right. In fact, many Banshees complained that the Gatling wasn’t strong enough, and the Steam Rifle didn’t let them fire to their hearts’ content.

Aside from the Banshees, other Extraordinary individuals could also use the weapon. Richard himself, as one of the Moths Chasing Fire, was not known for physical strength, yet he could still unleash the power of the Stage Two Dragon’s Breath Cannon.

It was simply strenuous—he needed to use his full strength to resist the recoil.

As for humans—Hughes saw no hope of them ever using this weapon. No amount of training could allow a human to withstand tons of recoil!

But Richard seemed to think otherwise.

“My Lord, I have long been researching the mysteries of the human body. Forgive me for saying this, but within the Moths Chasing Fire, no one understands the human body better than I.”

Hughes shuddered. Could it be that Richard had actually discovered something?

Forbidden zones of God, sanctification of the flesh, unlocking the genetic lock…?

But Richard abruptly shifted the topic.

“I discovered that humanity has limits. Flesh has limits. But steel does not.”

“Why not replace weak flesh with unyielding steel?”

Hughes was dumbfounded.

What a lightning-fast turn in logic!

But then he recalled—hadn’t such research already existed in this world? That Mechanical Priest who had once killed him, wasn’t his entire body made of steel prosthetics?

Hughes frowned. In the past, he had known very little about the major Churches, and had assumed that Mechanical Priest belonged to the Candlelight Emblem. But now that he thought about it—it looked more like the Mechanical Sanctum.

And weren’t the Mechanical Sanctum and the Candlelight Emblem at odds with each other?

“Richard, what is your relationship with the Mechanical Sanctum?”

Richard froze, clearly thrown by the sudden leap in topic.

“There’s no overt connection. But secretly, the relationship is decent. Even before Moths Chasing Fire split off from the Candlelight Emblem, there was a fair bit of exchange with the Mechanical Sanctum’s predecessor—the Mechanical Society.”

“And what about the relationship between the Mechanical Sanctum and the Candlelight Emblem?”

“Quite poor. The Mechanical Sanctum was closely tied to the Royal Family and was nearly hostile with the Candlelight Emblem. But that was before. Now that the Empress is dead, everything is uncertain.”

Richard spread his hands.

“It’s been a long time since we received any news from the Empire.”

Hughes tapped his finger against the cannon barrel.

If the Candlelight Emblem and the Mechanical Sanctum were on such poor terms, then why had he been killed by a Mechanical Priest, only to later be sheltered by the Candlelight Emblem?

Thinking back, that Mechanical Priest seemed to also bear the emblem of the Candlelight Emblem.

Forget it. No point in dwelling on it. When he descended into the body of the worker Hughes again, he could listen for news from Scepter’s side. For now, he needed to focus on the present.

“My Lord, since you asked about the Mechanical Sanctum, then you must have guessed my line of thought.” Richard smiled and nodded. “The Mechanical Sanctum’s practice of amputating limbs and directly replacing them with mechanical structures, I consider… somewhat extreme.”

“I want to make a reform. Not discarding weak flesh, but protecting and supporting it with unyielding steel.”

Hughes’s eyes lit up.

A mech suit? Or an Exoskeleton? Boldly say it—I can definitely accept it!

Then he watched as Richard pulled out several blueprints from his satchel.

“I designed several models of Dragon’s Breath Cannons that can be fixed onto walls, based on the architecture of Castel’s main cathedral.”

Hughes took the blueprints and carefully flipped through them.

Richard’s thinking wasn’t complicated. If humans couldn’t wield the Dragon’s Breath Cannon, then just fix it onto permanent fortifications like the cathedral.

And Castel’s cathedral was, indeed, entirely a permanent fortification.

Once mounted on the church, the Dragon’s Breath Cannon wouldn’t need to worry about recoil. Humans could operate it freely, and with a few mechanical bases, it could even rotate.

Hughes studied it for a long while before finally nodding.

“The design seems sound. But it can only be installed on permanent fortifications?”

“For now, yes.”

“Then we can’t use it offensively?”

“Hmm… what if we let the church stand up and charge with the army?”

“Of course not!” Hughes buried his face in his hand. “I thought you were developing an Exoskeleton or something—like mechanical-powered armor. But your solution is to make the church stand up? That’s hardly more reliable than Tata’s ideas!”

Richard, embarrassed, removed his monocle and polished it over and over with a cloth.

“Ahem, my Lord, that kind of technology is only held by the Mechanical Sanctum. I’ve heard parts of it are even lost.”

Good heavens—so to build Exoskeletons, they needed archaeology?

“Any other solutions?”

“I think the Compassionate Mother’s biological modifications could be another route. But… that is rather heretical.”

Indeed heretical. And the Compassionate Mother herself wasn’t especially strong either, so pursuing that direction would be pointless—at least in terms of artillery.

Hughes sighed. It seemed cannons were still far from being practical.

Just as he was about to leave, Hughes froze as he glanced at the blueprints in his hand.

These were the new ship designs he had just gotten from Tata. The ship was enormous—large enough to hold all the people of Castel.

Then… wouldn’t building a church on top of it be perfectly fine?