Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

“Any progress? Have you found Isaac yet?”

Gwen paced back and forth restlessly.

The battle had not taken much time—after all, the Resistance had far more people than the other side, and taking control of Sleddinburg had not been too difficult. After chopping off the heads of several nobles, the locals seemed to be far less hostile toward the Resistance.

But Isaac had disappeared.

Gwen had spent quite some effort contacting Isaac’s subordinates—the members of the Ashen Alliance who had been stationed in Sleddinburg in advance.

Yet they said they had only received Isaac’s order to open the city gates and cooperate. Once the battle started, no one had seen him again.

“Could he have returned to the camp?” one of the Resistance members scratched his head, sounding uncertain.

“Impossible. There shouldn’t be anyone left at the camp. Before coming here, I sent people to have the camp transferred. They should be arriving soon.”

As soon as Gwen finished speaking, Grisha came running in from outside, panting heavily as he called out to her:

“G–Gwen, everyone from the camp has arrived!”

The few people quickly stopped what they were doing and walked toward the castle’s outer walls.

Just as they reached the gate, Gwen saw a long line of people slowly approaching from afar.

A rider was saying something at the city gate, and when he spotted Gwen, he waved excitedly.

“Boss Gwen, we’re here!”

Gwen recognized him—Red, a brave hunter and one of the first to learn horseback riding. He had only returned to the camp earlier to recover from injuries sustained in battle.

“How was it, Red? Was the journey smooth?”

“Not bad.” Red smiled sheepishly. “We ran into a small group of Winter Wolves, but we had the numbers and weapons. They tried to harass us for a while—almost got surrounded by us—and then retreated.”

Gwen nodded. These people had set out from the forest camp a night early.

When Gwen decided to capture Sleddinburg, she had informed the camp in advance so they could depart overnight.

Her group was smaller in number, while the camp held the main force. The Winter Wolves cavalry might have been unmatched on the plains, but even they needed sufficient numbers to stand a chance.

If the entire Resistance mobilized, the Winter Wolves would need to gather a massive army to take them on.

That was why the Head Wolf had gathered Winter Wolves from three towns before daring to attempt a siege on the forest.

This time, the Resistance had only run into a small squad of about a dozen Winter Wolves—and without heavy machine guns in their hands, they stood no chance against thousands of Resistance fighters.

As for the risk of them returning to report and bringing reinforcements—

That was precisely why Gwen had told the camp to depart overnight, taking advantage of the darkness.

The Winter Wolves’ reinforcements were likely on their way, but so were the Resistance fighters—to Sleddinburg.

“Quickly, get inside. Don’t worry about the Winter Wolves. If they want to storm the city, let them try!”

As soon as Gwen finished, the surrounding Resistance members erupted in cheers. While no one was watching, she quietly pulled Rick aside and asked in a low voice, “Rick, did you see Isaac? Did you encounter him on the way?”

Rick was startled. “Wasn’t he with you all this time? What, did he head to the camp?”

Gwen frowned, shaking her head with a sigh. “No one’s seen him since the battle began. I have no idea where he went.”

“Isaac? I saw him.” A voice suddenly spoke nearby. Gwen turned quickly and looked down at the boy speaking.

“Grisha? Where did you see him?”

“On the city wall.” Grisha pointed toward the wall near the gate. “I saw him climb over the wall and leave—with a woman following him.”

“Climbed over the wall and left?” Gwen’s expression tensed. “Tell me exactly what happened—was he being chased?”

Isaac had been wounded in the earlier battle; if he ran into a strong enemy again, it would be troublesome.

“Uh, I didn’t see clearly. They moved too fast, but it looked like they were fighting.”

“What did the woman look like?”

“Red hair—really red, like blood. Not very tall, shorter than you, and she seemed to have bandages wrapped around her waist.”

“It’s her!” Gwen’s eyes lit up immediately. That was the woman she had injured back in Grizzly Town!

That had been her first battle against a Transcendent—and she had won. She’d been itching to brag about it ever since.

“Then it’s fine. That woman is weak—no way she’s a match for Mr. Isaac!”

Gwen patted her chest, breathing a sigh of relief.

“But why would Lord Isaac leave midway?”

Gwen’s hand froze. After a moment’s hesitation, she spoke softly, “Don’t worry about that. If Mr. Isaac did it, he must have his reasons.”

“Nini, how are we dividing tasks this time?”

“Una, you’re in charge of tracking the Resistance’s traces. Feniel, you’ll gather intelligence. I’ll be responsible for drawing the map.”

“Then—then who handles combat?”

“Combat? Do we really need to assign someone for that? Just keep one hand free to pull the trigger.”

Nini flicked her serpent tail impatiently, then suddenly stopped, cautiously peeking her head above the water’s surface.

“This should be the place.”

She looked around. The water here was freezing cold, bits of ice still floating along the riverbank. Trees on both sides had sprouted new buds, and occasionally, small animals peeked out from the forest.

“So this is the Northlands? It’s so cold!”

The Banshees were tropical creatures—part snake, part fish, part human—and Castel’s climate was hot and humid. This was their first time in the frigid Northlands.

There was no floating ice on the sea now, but in the rivers, it still appeared occasionally, since seawater froze at a lower temperature than freshwater.

They had swum here all the way from the sea. Though it was their first time coming north, they had relied on a crude map. Yet the Banshees hadn’t lost their way—

For their innate talent, Water Sense, allowed them to never lose direction in water. Thanks to it, their journey had gone smoothly.

“Let’s check the camp first.” Nini pulled out the map again and carefully unfolded it.

“Hmm... can you tell where the camp should be?”

The three Banshees huddled together, studying the map.

They were the first Banshees to arrive—completely unfamiliar with the Northlands. The map they carried had been taken from the Prince and later corrected several times by Nora, yet its accuracy was still far from perfect.

Thus, they even needed to locate the Resistance’s camp first.

And as Banshees, asking others for directions was impossible—if they entered a town, they’d probably get attacked, if not draw the Church’s attention.

They had to find the camp quickly. With so many people in the Resistance, it shouldn’t be that hard to locate… should it?