Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

Nora’s eyes lit up. So that was how it was!

It seemed Castel already had quite a bit of experience in this area.

“Don’t worry, Gwen, this isn’t a big problem.” Nora spoke with full confidence. “Next, you need to try to soothe the resentment of these ships, and then try to, um…”

“Try to what?”

“Try to let the warships that sank into the deep sea surface once more, and fight for Castel.” Nora’s words stumbled a little. She always felt that something was off, but she had clearly read this in the newspaper. In theory, it shouldn’t be wrong.

Poor Nora had grown up in the Northlands since childhood. If she had been to Rhine, she would at least have seen some tabloids that specialized in sensational gossip.

“Understood, Lady Nora, I’ll do my best!”

Gwen trusted Nora completely. She immediately focused her mind and began to respond to the steel in the deep sea.

The steel beneath their feet halted for a moment, then surged even more violently.

Gwen staggered and almost fell over. “La, Lady Nora, th-this, is this normal?”

“It should… be fine, right? I remember the newspaper saying this process was very difficult, and might even produce some humanoid deep-sea warriors. They are manifestations of the ship’s souls of sunken vessels from the past, and are also a kind of machine soul.”

“Ah, are we going to fight?” Gwen’s eyes lit up as she eagerly looked around.

Unfortunately, there was none. Although the sunken ships appeared very agitated, they showed no hostility at all. Instead, they seemed rather… affectionate.

“Uh, Lady Nora, these machine souls, or ship’s souls, don’t seem to be planning to attack us?”

“That doesn’t seem right, does it? I don’t think I remembered the procedure wrong…” Nora frowned her delicate brows and said tentatively, “How about… you try communicating with them? Ask them to lend a hand?”

“Alright, I’ll try.”

Not far from the two of them, the cargo ship had completely come to a stop.

If it were only Gwen falling into the water, the cargo ship probably would not have stopped. But that steel platform looked wrong no matter how one looked at it.

Rust-eaten iron plates, outdated steam engine models, anchors and decks covered in barnacles—everything spoke of their identity: ships that had already sunk into the deep sea.

Moreover, this place was a warship graveyard. Sailors traveling between Blood Harbor and Castel naturally knew about it. Most of them were now gathered by the railing, looking down in fear.

“Captain Evans, th-this, what’s going on?”

The slightly balding captain was also completely baffled. But seeing how nervous his crew was, he forcibly steadied himself. “Have you sent out a distress signal?”

“Someone was already sent to sound the steam horn just now. Oh, here it comes!”

Woo—

A loud steam horn rang out, with long and short notes mixed together, transmitting a message through simplified electrical code.

This place wasn’t very far from Castel. The Banshees at the harbor should be able to hear it. Their support speed at sea was extremely fast; it shouldn’t take long for them to arrive.

“Captain! Reinforcements have arrived!”

“That’s great. Are they Banshees?”

“No, it’s another ship—a very fast ship!”

The captain raised his telescope and looked in the direction indicated by the lookout. It was a small ship—actually not small at all, but it looked quite petite compared to the massive cargo vessel.

“Full steel armor plating, the latest dual steam-engine power, and that iconic large smokestack. Ha, no mistake, that’s the Black Pearl!”

Jeremiah was standing at the bow, frowning as he observed the platform formed from the steel of sunken ships.

A sailor standing beside him looked at the steel platform in the sea with some fear. Gwen was standing on it now, and several humanoid figures formed of steel were slowly closing in on her, looking as though they were preparing to launch an attack.

“Captain Jeremiah, it was this cargo ship that sent the distress signal. Th-that pile of steel looks very dangerous. Are we really going over there to save them…”

Jeremiah squeezed out a cold snort through his teeth. “Of course we are. Who do you think I am? Bring the ship alongside!”

As he spoke, he clenched the railing and shouted behind him, “Dragon’s Breath Cannon ready! Machine-gun positions, do not open fire yet!”

The steel platform was covered in rusted iron bars. Bullets hitting it might ricochet to who knows where, making things even more dangerous.

And besides—

“This feeling… it’s strange.” Jeremiah frowned as he looked at Gwen standing on the platform.

His ship was already not far from the platform, and he could clearly see the faces of the people on it now.

Naturally, he recognized Nora. In Castel, who didn’t know Nora and Chloe, the Empire’s Twin Pillars?

The Lord’s ability to put the dead to work was famous. Everyone was guessing whether Nora also had to work overtime every day.

But the other tall girl was someone he had absolutely no impression of.

Yet—

Jeremiah didn’t know why, but he felt a vague sense of familiarity from that girl, even though he couldn’t recall where it came from.

“Forget it, doesn’t matter. Is the Dragon’s Breath Cannon in range yet? Prepare to fire!”

On the deck, several sailors were constantly adjusting the direction of the Dragon’s Breath Cannon mounted in the brand-new fixed emplacements.

The Dragon’s Breath Cannon fixed to the ship was far larger and more complex than those used by Transcendents, but first, it could be used by Mortals, and second, its range was slightly longer.

The steel platform Gwen stood on wasn’t very large. Taking advantage of the Black Pearl’s long hull, Jeremiah slipped the ship between the platform and the cargo vessel. Very soon, the Dragon’s Breath Cannon roared.

The blazing jet instantly crossed dozens of meters, blasting the steel humanoids surrounding Gwen into the sea. At the same time, Gwen also knocked down several of them. She turned toward the Black Pearl and shouted loudly, “Sir, leave quickly! They’re about to surface!”

“Surface? What’s surfacing?” Jeremiah froze, then his eyes widened. “Wait, things from the deep sea surfacing… Wasn’t the Sea God already burned to death? Are we going to fight another Deep Sea War?!”

He hurriedly roared at the sailors to steer the ship away. The Black Pearl sped off from the platform in one swift motion, even sending out flag signals. The cargo ship nearby also began to move slowly.

At the same time, Gwen slowly closed her eyes.

“Lady Nora, all the procedures are complete. Next, I’ll try to let the warships that sank into the deep sea surface once more!”

She shouted excitedly, “My new friends, stop sleeping down there. Come out and let me see you!”

The sea surface, which had been relatively calm, suddenly seemed as if a red-hot branding iron had been thrown into it. It churned and boiled as it retreated outward. Beneath Gwen’s feet, the sea gradually darkened, rising unnaturally above the surface, as if something were slowly being forced out from below.

Not far away, a squad of Banshees was swimming over at full speed.

At the front, Nini shouted excitedly to the surrounding Banshees with a face full of exhilaration:

“See? I told you I wasn’t wrong! Sunken ships in the deep sea really can appear again, and even the procedure is exactly the same as what I wrote!”