Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

“Loyalty, combat effectiveness, and numbers—these three things cannot be achieved at the same time. Earl Bazel gave up on the loyalty of the Winter Wolves Guard. Anyone who has even a slight understanding of their system would know that the best choice for a Head Wolf is to defect with his subordinates.”

“So, Bazel has to replace the old Head Wolf periodically, clearing out all those loyal to the previous one, and assign a new leader to the army, starting the cycle again.”

“Now that the Winter Wolves Guard has killed so many commonfolk to fake their battle achievements, it already counts as betrayal. If Earl Bazel finds out, he’ll definitely replace them.”

“Th-That’s impossible, isn’t it?” Gwen was shocked. “When the old Head Wolf needs to be replaced, wouldn’t he have already completely taken control of the Winter Wolves? By then, wouldn’t it be impossible to change him out?”

“Could it be... he sends more soldiers to surround the Winter Wolves? Wouldn’t that just push the Head Wolf into open rebellion?”

Isaac let out a low chuckle, casually picked up a cobblestone, clenched it hard in his hand, raised his arm level, and slowly opened his fingers.

The stone crumbled to powder in his grip.

“If he’s able to implement such a system, it means he has people capable of enforcing it. Maybe it’s an elite force with extremely high combat power—but more likely, he has an extraordinary individual under his command.”

Gwen was startled by this deduction. She stammered, “A-A-An extraordinary?”

“Yes, and one who is skilled in combat. Someone like a 【Watcher of the Night】 wouldn’t do. This extraordinary needs to infiltrate the military camp, behead the Head Wolf, and suppress the rest. Mere assassination skills wouldn’t be enough. Also—”

“Also what?”

“Also, they must be absolutely loyal to Bazel. Without such an extraordinary, his Winter Wolves would’ve devoured their master by now.”

Gwen was slowly catching on. Her eyes lit up as she looked at Isaac. “Sir, with your vast knowledge in the extraordinary field, you must already have a guess, right?”

“You’re quite sharp.” Isaac smiled. “I’ve seen Earl Bazel’s crest—it has an iris flower. Only a few nobles in the Empire’s south use that symbol. They all have one thing in common: they are served by extraordinarys on the 【Knight】 path.”

“Uh, I don’t know much about the extraordinary, but judging from your tone, that seems important. Is there something special about that path?”

“Yes.” Isaac nodded. “There is something special—”

“They’re especially weak.”

Gwen’s eye twitched.

“The greatest strength of this path is loyalty. Their power comes from oaths—they’re absolutely incapable of betrayal. And they’re good at frontal combat. But overall, that’s about it. Bullying regular folks is no problem, but in battles between extraordinarys, they barely have any advantage.”

“So that means…”

“So that means he definitely can’t beat me.” Isaac licked his lips. “Now is a golden opportunity. If I go to the camp and kill that extraordinary, the situation across the North will change dramatically!”

“Without the threat of the Head Wolf, the Winter Wolves Guard will grow arrogant and refuse to obey the lord’s commands. Earl Bazel will lose control over the army. Without an extraordinary by his side for protection, the Three Grand Dukes of the North, who already can’t stand him, won’t hold back!”

Nobles usually didn’t involve extraordinarys in their own games, and there was an unspoken rule not to send them for assassinations. After all, that would only benefit the extraordinarys, and noble bloodlines would be squandered for nothing. But all of this was based on the premise that everyone had extraordinarys serving them.

Without extraordinary protection, a noble either had to pay taxes to the Church in exchange for sanctuary, or become a vassal of another noble. Otherwise, they were likely to die from various “accidents.”

There was no Church influence in the North. If Bazel lost his extraordinary, he wouldn’t even qualify to sit at the table.

At that point, the North’s powers would be reshuffled. The Three Grand Dukes would surely clash over who gets to devour Earl Bazel’s territory. None of them would care about the Resistance.

They might even deliberately leave an opening so the Resistance could escape—just to avoid interfering with their spoils.

Having followed Isaac for some time, Gwen had learned quite a lot. She now had a basic grasp of the Northern situation, and with just a bit of thought, she understood it all.

Her eyes lit up, her face full of excitement.

“L-Lord Isaac, isn’t this a bit too risky?”

Her voice trembled—she couldn’t help it. This was a golden opportunity to save the entire Resistance! The extraordinary beside Earl Bazel had just happened to leave, and they had his whereabouts. If they missed this chance, they might never get another.

Assassinating someone in a heavily guarded noble manor was on a completely different level of difficulty!

“Don’t worry, Miss Gwen. My extraordinary abilities aren’t something I can elaborate on, but just know—I can easily take down a 【Knight】. And since the other side is completely unprepared, even if my ambush fails, I can retreat immediately. You and the others can support me here, and even if those wolf pups chase after me, we can still fight them off. It’s practically foolproof!”

Without wasting more words, Isaac gave a few brief instructions and headed straight toward Grizzly Town.

Gwen knew how precious this chance was. She rallied the Resistance soldiers, lifting their spirits and preparing to provide support at any moment.

As Isaac walked toward the town, he went over his plan again. He was a dual-path extraordinary—【Investigator】 and 【Chrysalis】. Though these didn’t offer much advantage in direct combat, they still allowed him to make full use of the 【Investigator】’s base strength. Few could match him in a head-on fight.

And even if he couldn’t win, 【Chrysalis】 was top-tier for escaping. Many of the 【Investigator】’s escape abilities also synergized with 【Chrysalis】. His chance of failure was almost nonexistent.

The only variable was that 【Investigator】s occasionally had bad luck. But he was dual-path, so the impact was minimal. Normally, nothing went wrong.

Isaac had always been cautious. Only after careful deliberation did he make his decision.

But just as he stepped into the town—

He frowned.

Why was there such a strong smell of blood?

Could it be... the Winter Wolves had gone mad and slaughtered the whole town? Or were there cultists who sacrificed all the townspeople?

Isaac dared not be careless. He immediately cloaked himself and used the ability of 【Self-Binding】 to scout.

His vision rose into the sky. Under the control of his will, he quickly checked several residential houses.

People. There were people. There were people in this one too…

Nothing seemed wrong. All the houses had people, alive and acting normally. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Until he looked at the military camp—and drew in a sharp breath.

So many corpses? At least a dozen people, and they were arranged in such strange poses…

Would a 【Knight】 do something like this?

His cautious and suspicious nature made him immediately decide to abort the mission. He began retracting his vision to end the ability.

As the perspective returned, it naturally centered back on his own location—and thus, he saw——

The expressionless girl standing right next to him.

“Found you.”