Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

“This matter felt strange to me as well.” Hodge slowly opened his mouth. Before the attack, Hunter had already informed them of all this intelligence. The Allied Forces had spent a long time preparing to deal with Earl Bazel.

The Allied Forces had taken almost all the strongholds near Wolf Castle. Wolf Castle had essentially been besieged. Whether the Allied Forces were destroyed or Castel launched an attack, Earl Bazel theoretically should not have been able to receive any information.

Yet they indeed left Wolf Castle, abandoning the stronghold they had used for half a year of recuperation.

“I’ll report this to Lord Alexei first. He must know more than we do. You come with me.” Hodge thought for a moment, then pulled Hunter along as they stepped into Alexei’s command tent.

Alexei was originally responsible for affairs on Castel Island itself, but this time he had been dragged over by Hughes to command the frontline battles.

One reason was that he was already in charge of military affairs in Castel and had commanded the Holy Guard in the Deep Sea War—he was familiar with everything.

Second, Alexei graduated from the Royal Army Academy. No one understood better than he how the Empire’s armies fought.

Well… perhaps The Prince understood more than him, but this expedition was ultimately led by Castel.

As for Alexei’s original work… Hughes could only shoulder it himself.

A manager capable of coordinating the entire industrial output of Castel’s factories—there was currently no one else who could replace him.

After Hunter and Hodge finished reporting the situation, Alexei果然 had a different thought:

“Could it have been a Transcendent? The Northlands have an unexpectedly large number of 【Investigators】. The Tribunal has tried to use Transcendent power to interfere in local affairs. Earl Bazel would be an excellent breakthrough point.”

Alexei pondered, then picked up another report.

“This was the record Isaac left when he first returned to Castel. It mentions that there was an extremely powerful Transcendent beside Bazel, named…”

He glanced up at Hodge. The slightly thin man stared expressionlessly at the ground, as if he did not care at all.

“…named Lina. If she is still with Earl Bazel, then perhaps she may be helping him gather intelligence.”

Hodge had a younger sister also named Lina. After he was captured by the Church of Candlelight, contact with her was lost. According to his descriptions, Lina’s appearance was exactly the same as the Lina in the Northlands.

If the intelligence ended there, Alexei would basically conclude that this Lina was indeed Hodge’s sister—perhaps, for various reasons, she encountered the supernatural after Hodge was captured and then drifted all the way here.

But Castel Island also had another Lina’s shell—an empty body.

The Moths Chasing Fire once recruited a member in Rhine named Lina, who looked identical to Hodge’s sister. Later, she stole classified information and was caught in the act by Chloe, instantly becoming an empty shell.

That Lina had been a mortal—whether before being caught or after becoming a shell. She had undergone numerous examinations and was nothing more than an ordinary person.

Thus the situation grew increasingly confusing—exactly which Lina was Hodge’s sister? Or were neither of them? This still required further investigation.

Hodge had originally only been a banished prisoner, but during the Deep Sea War he joined the Holy Guard and fought bravely, even earning the rank of Captain. He was qualified to know part of Castel’s truth.

He had already seen the Lina shell, had read the case files, and had even drawn connections from Chloe’s Diary. He understood this matter from beginning to end.

“Don’t worry. Castel will get to the bottom of this.” Alexei patted his shoulder, quietly comforting him.

Hodge only nodded simply without saying more. He was now a member of the Expeditionary Army, no longer the factory worker of Rhine he once was. He had new faith and new aspirations. His sister was indeed very important, but if she chose to oppose Castel…

Well… Hodge did not know what he should do then.

But Castel had not removed his soldier status because of this, nor did they stop him from coming to the Northlands to search for the truth. He did not want to betray this trust.

Hunter looked at the two men sinking into silence and became a little anxious: “My lord, if a Transcendent is really gathering intelligence—no matter whose forces they belong to—can’t we do something to stop them?”

“That is rather troublesome.”

Castel’s greatest weakness was indeed that they had too few Transcendents.

For an emerging power, having several Transcendents in service was already quite good.

 Isabella, as the Empress, did not even have many 【Knights】 at her command.

But when competing directly with the Tribunal, this was far from enough.

The Tribunal undoubtedly had many Transcendents. Transcendents were always extremely precious, and most lords could not afford the resources needed to cultivate one.

Most of those resources were monopolized by the Tribunal.

Castel did indeed have many Banshees, but first, once they were too far from Hughes, they continually lost life force and could not remain long; second, their reconnaissance ability on land was limited.

They were suited for direct combat—but Castel’s Expeditionary Army certainly did not lack that.

“I will submit a request to the Lord, but the only one likely to come right now is Richard. One person is insignificant in the grand scheme of the Northlands. We already have more than ten military detachments deployed and cannot cover everything.”

Most of these detachments had gone to search for the Resistance Army. There was still no news. And now Earl Bazel had left Wolf Castle for unknown reasons and disappeared.

The water in the Northlands grew muddier by the day.

“Although it looks troublesome, the problem itself is not large.” Alexei gave a cold smile. “What we need to do is simple—advance forward and crush everything. No matter how muddy the Northlands’ water is, once we drain it, everything hiding beneath will show itself.”

Hughes sat inside his office, staring despairingly at the mountain of documents piled on his desk.

In recent days he had returned to Castel to take over island affairs, only to discover just how much of a workaholic Alexei truly was.

“Great leader of the Moths Chasing Fire, fearless warrior of Castel, tireless seeker of Truth…”

〖Alright, alright, stop. My diary pages are too small—I can’t fit that many titles.〗

“Dear Lady Chloe, would you be willing to handle these few documents?”

〖I believe my diary also counts as a type of document. You want a document to process other documents?〗

“Ahem… Nini’s Newspaper also counts as a kind of document…”

〖How do I process them?〗

“Just check if there’s any important information. These are various miscellaneous reports—summaries of messages from everywhere. Their priority isn’t high, but occasionally important intel appears.”

〖So basically busywork.〗

“That’s not quite right. Chloe, you are meticulous. You might find something valuable.”

Hughes awkwardly pushed a few manuscripts toward her, then fled back into the ocean of paperwork.

Once he started processing documents, it took the whole day.

“Well? Did you find anything important?” Hughes asked while stretching.

〖No. All boring things. Things like a Coyote run over by a train again, a fried-fish stall closing, and so on.〗

“Oh, that’s a pity. I quite liked that fried-fish stall.” Hughes said casually. After a moment, he suddenly turned his head.

“Wait—was it that ‘Yami Fried Fish’ stall that closed? Did it say why?”

〖Yes. Apparently Gwen claimed she had family matters to handle and went back. Only Bettys remained and couldn’t handle it alone, so they’re resting for a few days.〗