Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

Speaking of the existence of the Banshees, Hughes also felt a bit of a headache.

Back when the Life Mother Church rebelled, Hughes, in order to save the Holy Guard and the Cult of the Hidden, had thrown himself without hesitation into the Banshees’ squad. They, in fact, had saved Blood Harbor.

But after all, the incident had come too suddenly. With no advance publicity or preparations, the Banshees were simply introduced just like that. Most people, for the moment, still found it difficult to accept.

After all, Blood Harbor was different from Castel. The Church of Candlelight had preached here for many years. Although the entire Principality of Tis had, in fact, become an enemy of the Church, many prejudices had already long been deeply ingrained.

Perhaps the people of Blood Harbor would eventually accept the Banshees’ existence, but that would, after all, take time to mend slowly.

Fortunately, the Prince directly used tough measures, suppressing all opposing voices. No matter what people thought in their hearts, at least on the surface, everything remained peaceful.

Speaking of which, the Prince’s series of actions truly made Hughes view him in a new light.

Hughes had originally thought the Prince excelled only in leading armies to battle. Only recently had he been surprised to discover that the Prince also possessed remarkable skills in construction.

Blood Harbor was in chaos, people were restless, and the Prince’s subordinates had very few nobles left. A normal lord would have already been overwhelmed just dealing with these affairs.

Yet the Prince barely spent much energy on such matters and still quickly secured his subordinates’ loyalty. His foresight in industrial construction sometimes even exceeded Hughes’ expectations.

For instance, he invested great effort into infrastructure.

Hughes had never spoken to him about the importance of infrastructure, yet the Prince seemed to understand it instinctively. Right from the beginning, he had discussed with Hughes how to build roads and other basic facilities.

Thinking back to the Prince’s experiences, he seemed not to have had much direct experience managing a territory, yet his methods were so practiced.

Hughes had even once suspected whether he might be a transmigrator.

Investigating the Prince’s identity was truly troublesome. Castel had little influence either in the Empire or in the Principality of Tis, so the investigation had been set aside for now—even if there were a Heretical God living in the Prince’s body, Hughes would not care too much. As long as the Prince could help push forward the process of industrialization, that was enough.

It was not as though he had never seen Heretical Gods before. There was still one sealed inside the furnace, all for Castel to shine and burn brightly, after all.

Hughes himself now lived in Blood Harbor. Everything in Castel had already gotten on track, with little needing his direct management. By contrast, the Banshees were constantly stirring up trouble, and Tata’s ship designs were growing larger and larger. Hughes truly felt weary, so he simply ran off to Blood Harbor instead.

This place, at least, gave him the genuine feeling of construction being carried out.

The Prince was overly enthusiastic. Hearing that Hughes had come, he even considered giving up his own manor to him. Hughes thought for a moment and declined.

The Upper District lay in the heart of Blood Harbor, with relatively high terrain. It might have been fine for a residence, but it was not suitable to be marked off as an industrial zone.

He directly set up a temporary office near the docks. Many tasks were moved here, and since several literacy classes were also nearby, he could conveniently check on their progress.

The recruitment for the Expeditionary Army from Blood Harbor had not even begun. After all, Cognitive Interference in this world was too troublesome. Before developing industry, it was nearly necessary to first spread universal education—this could not be rushed.

But laying down the Railway was a different matter. Most of the first batch of conscripts for the Expeditionary Army were engineer soldiers. With literacy classes running, docks being built, factories being laid, the progress of the Railway was being pushed forward simultaneously.

For now, the speed of railway construction was not particularly fast. More importantly, they were accumulating experience. After all, the expedition was a massive undertaking that could not be finished in a mere day or two.

Hughes’ plan was to spend half a year to a year laying Rail Tracks toward the Northlands, then deal with all troubles along the way, and finally gather forces for a decisive battle with the dukes in the Four Northern Territories.

Originally, his thought had been to first send soldiers to provide support. But after discussions, they concluded that the refugees would hardly survive, so Hughes simply decided to proceed step by step.

Since they sought revenge, then the roots had to be pulled out. Hughes had already made up his mind.

What he aimed to do was not merely defeat Earl Bazel’s army, but to cleanse the entire Northlands.

Just as the Prince had done in Blood Harbor, changing the city’s ruler, Hughes would do the same in the Northlands—only instead of a city, it would be four ducal territories.

Nora’s flail could not make them repent, so Hughes might as well just send them to meet Nora. Hmm… something about that felt a little off.

In any case, since the goal was thorough revenge, the foundation had to be laid step by step. Wherever the Railway was laid, the expedition would advance.

For this, Hughes had even slowed the grand development plan of the eastern part of Gem Bay. After all, the Northlands already had the mines they needed. As they pushed forward, factories and machine guns would also be set up along the way, so they would not lack raw materials.

After signing off the documents on his desk, Hughes summoned Connor to deliver them to each department, then stretched lazily and walked outside.

He did not worry much about his own safety. Although Blood Harbor was chaotic, there were not many forces that could truly threaten him.

The Prince’s decrees did not cover the Lower District. That part of the power vacuum had originally been filled by various gangs, but after the Life Mother Church rebellion, the entire power balance in Blood Harbor had changed.

Gangs indeed had some cohesion among the lower populace, but compared to cults, they still fell short. Blood Harbor, by simply bringing in cultists, had easily solved its gang problem.

And most of those who worshipped Heretical Gods had lost their lives during the rebellion of the Life Mother Church. As for the few who slipped through… they somehow disappeared.

This, in truth, was Gwen’s doing. With nothing better to do, she had casually wiped out all the secret societies one by one.

Hughes had suspected it, but in the end attributed it to infighting between the cults. He had sent many Extraordinary to investigate, but all came back with nothing.

Speaking of Extraordinary, the Granny who had been in Blood Harbor had secretly left earlier. Hughes had dispatched her to the Northlands to collect intelligence.

Long ago, he had once sent Isaac to the Northlands to organize an intelligence network, but there had been no news ever since. This time, he also hoped she might find some clues.

To be honest, Hughes was rather pessimistic. Given the methods of the Moths Chasing Fire for transmitting intelligence, to be cut off for so long most likely meant misfortune had already struck. But even if the Ashen Alliance could not be contacted, gaining a clearer picture of the Northlands was still worthwhile.

At present, Hughes’ intelligence about the Northlands basically all depended on the Prince. Yet limited by the times, the Prince’s intelligence transmissions were quite delayed. He only had detailed reports from about half a year ago, plus scattered tidings from recent months.

That was still thanks to the Prince’s former alliance with the Northlands. Now that the pact had been torn apart, transmitting news had become even harder, leaving only Extraordinary like Granny to try to find a way.

This time, Hughes went out with the purpose of visiting Josh’s Cult of the Hidden.

Although the Cult of the Hidden no longer officially worshipped him as a God, there were still many who secretly did so. After he came to Blood Harbor, they had even formed a guard unit to protect him in secret.