Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

He stood there in a daze, staring at the dust rising on the road in the distance.

A monster he had just seen was moving swiftly from ahead. Behind her were dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of other monsters.

Looking closely, the one running in front was holding a stack of papers in her hand, while those chasing behind were trying to snatch the papers from her.

What kind of papers would make these Extraordinary monsters fight so desperately?

Galahad shivered. They were probably filled with twisted, blasphemous words.

No, that didn’t really matter. What mattered was—why were there so many Extraordinary beings here?

Just now… were there a hundred of them? At least several dozen, right?

How many Extraordinary individuals did the entire Church even have? Even if they had more than this, it couldn’t be that much more.

And yet, on this remote island, so many Extraordinary beings had gathered?

Was he going mad, or was the world mad?Galahad felt as though he was hallucinating. Strange whispers rang in his ears, noisy and irritating.

This was bad. His cognition had started to shift, and he was slowly falling into the Sea of Unawareness.

Calm down. Calm down. Must stay calm. Don’t look at those monsters—look at normal things.

Galahad struggled to steady his emotions as he looked around. Sparse passersby and massive tentacles in the distance existed simultaneously. Although the current situation was somewhat troublesome, it wasn’t too dangerous yet. As long as he gradually stabilized his cognition, there would be no problem.

Hallucinations were easy to distinguish—the inexplicable tentacles in the distance were a good reference. How could such bizarre things exist on the island?

He kept telling himself they were hallucinations, and tried to calm down, but the dizziness didn’t subside at all. Instead, it grew worse.

Alexei noticed his strange behavior and followed his gaze, seeing the black Polluted Serpent. He nodded with realization.

“That? That’s Castel’s energy supply system. You’re an Extraordinary, right? Please stay away from it. Inside is materialized pollution—essentially, fuel for the Stellar Furnace.”

Materialized pollution? Energy system? Stellar Furnace? Fuel!?

Why could he understand each word individually but couldn’t make sense of them together?

Damn. That accursed tentacle wasn’t a hallucination. He had chosen the wrong anchor!

Galahad’s consciousness began to blur.

Alexei didn’t pay much attention to any of this. He continued to lead the way while explaining that, according to plan, the two of them would take the steam locomotive to Castel’s main cathedral.

There was no choice. The Network Path System was currently under renovation and involved many secrets, so it wasn’t convenient to open to outsiders for the time being.

And the main cathedral had already been fully fortified. On the surface, only the armored train passage led in. All other entrances through the wall were underground.

Galahad stood there blankly, muddle-headed as he followed Alexei all the way to the platform. It wasn’t until the steam locomotive’s sharp whistle sounded that he shivered, drew his longsword, and looked around alertly.

“Mr. Galahad? Galahad!?”

Alexei called out to him several times, but under continuous stimulation, Galahad reacted with intense agitation.

He leapt down from the platform, intending to use his longsword to battle the massive steel monster before him. That piercing whistle was like the roar of a beast about to attack. Galahad gripped his sword tightly.

“Monster! Come on, I’m not afraid of you!”

He charged toward the locomotive, brandishing his sword. Just as he was about to make contact, he used his exquisite swordsmanship to sidestep the monster’s “attack,” and slashed the sword directly at its head.

From the perspective of the onlookers nearby, he had suddenly gone mad, screaming incoherently as he charged at the steam train.

Fortunately, the train had already been planning to stop there. When he rushed over, the locomotive had nearly come to a halt. His sword struck the armor plating at the front of the train and was instantly deflected, spinning through the air and flying far away.

Galahad was an Extraordinary. His physical strength far surpassed that of ordinary people—several times stronger, in fact. He could almost take on an entire squad of elite mortal soldiers by himself.

But standing before him was a steam locomotive weighing over a hundred tons, covered in armor. How many mortal soldiers it could defeat depended only on how much fuel it carried.

And so, a powerful Extraordinary was defeated by an ordinary steam locomotive. Fortunately, it had been stationary, so neither side was seriously harmed.

Alexei stood stunned for a while before finally realizing this wasn’t a prank. He quickly called for help.

The patrolling Banshee noticed the commotion and rushed over, lifting Galahad and taking him to the hospital.

Incidentally, the hospital on the island was opened by Richard. He had finally found an interest beyond dissecting corpses.

Hughes listened to the report, dumbfounded.

He truly hadn’t expected that the very first guest to arrive at Castel would cause such a mess.

When he heard that Galahad had attacked the locomotive, he couldn’t hold it in anymore and interrupted Alexei:

“Wait a second—he really charged at the steam locomotive? Are you sure his name is Galahad and not Don Quixote?”

“Don Quixote? Who’s that?”

“Never mind, forget it,” Hughes covered his face. “Anything else?”

“Mm, Nini wrote a new article. It’s being fanatically adored by the Banshees—like, really fanatically.”

“Whatever she wrote, ban it all. Prohibit publication! Anything else?”

“Captain Jeremiah insists on installing two new steam engines. He said one’s not powerful enough—it doesn’t suit his Black Pearl.”

Ever since Castel had emerged from the Sea Temple, they had been unable to stably summon Clamorer using the ritual. These steam engines seemed to have a subtle connection with the Sea God’s soul.

But soon the engineers on the island discovered that as long as the summoning ritual was performed near the Stellar Furnace, it could summon Machine Souls. And these Machine Souls seemed a bit easier to communicate with. More and more successful cases of communication had occurred, and engineers were now trying to formulate a complete process for pleasing the Machine Soul.

During the Deep Sea War, there had been a stockpile of Clamorer units. So at the moment, the island housed both the new steam engines and Clamorer, coexisting.

“He wants to install new steam engines too? He can appease the Machine Soul?”

“Captain Jeremiah does seem to have some talent. After sharing a few bottles of Sweet Fruit Wine with the steam engine, two marine steam engines actually recognized him. According to him, he hopes these two ‘new friends’ can accompany him on adventures.”

Hughes’s face twitched. Why did it feel like Castel’s path of technological advancement was going increasingly off track?

“Right, Lord of the Island, there’s another strange matter. We’ve discovered through testing that all mechanical constructs near Castel get enhanced.”