Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

Chapter 583: Gwen and Her Luggage

Gwen inexplicably had a kind of illusion—was Castel itself a steel ark, floating upon the sea?

No, there was no need to mention Castel. The colossal vessel before her eyes alone was already so huge it resembled a sea island.

A steel island.

Compared to it, the human figures on the deck were so small they were practically ants.

“Steel ships. How was this possible? Steel, such heavy steel. How could it float on the water?!”

Gwen raised her head to look at the ship before her, her neck growing numb. Such a gigantic vessel—no one knew how much steel it had used. That much steel could probably crush a fortress, right?

Yet when made into a ship, it could float upon the sea.

“Extraordinary Power? No, impossible. Even a hundred Transcendents, even a thousand Transcendents together couldn’t carry such a heavy ship. This. This…”

Gwen’s voice trembled slightly, carrying an indescribable undertone.

“This too is a creation of Mortals?”

Gwen had always felt that describing mortal creations with divine miracles was already praise beyond measure. After all, for insignificant Mortals, being compared with Gods was already exaggerated enough.

But as she looked at the steel creation before her, Gwen only felt that such thinking was gradually collapsing, even becoming somewhat… laughable.

How big was the largest church in the Northlands? Was it even half the size of this ship?

This was a miracle forged of steel, a divine kingdom floating upon the sea!

No. It was not a divine kingdom. This was the realm of Mortals, a power no less than any miracle.

In Gwen’s heart, a vague thought slowly began to take shape:

Perhaps Mortals were not inferior to so-called Gods at all. Perhaps Mortals possessed the potential to stand shoulder to shoulder with Gods, even—

“You should turn your head to the side. There’s more than one such ship at the docks,”

Nora had already noticed Gwen’s abnormality. Seeing her shocked expression, for some reason, she suddenly felt much more refreshed inside.

She did not offer any comfort. Instead, she added fuel to the fire, now watching Gwen with great interest, a faint trace of anticipation hidden in her eyes.

Gwen turned her head, only to discover that the miracle-like creation did not exist alone—there was an entire row of them.

Although Tata had suffered repeated setbacks in manufacturing Ironclad Warships, by a twist of fate, he had instead produced fairly decent cargo ships.

“Bigger is better” did not hold true for warships, but for cargo ships—under certain circumstances—it was not a problem.

The larger the cargo ship, the steadier it sailed, and its boxy, coffin-like shape was actually quite suitable for resisting wind and waves.

Thus, this type of cargo ship began mass production, becoming Castel’s first vessel to be launched in large quantities.

Moreover, the manufacturing speed was extremely fast. It did not need to be completed in a dry dock; instead, construction could proceed both above and below water simultaneously. Many Banshees especially liked doing this kind of underwater work.

And so, Gwen saw this entire row of miracles belonging to Castel.

Yet Gwen did not go mad. On the contrary, she grew excited. “Lady Nora, is Castel itself an even larger ship? A ship of steel?”

“Why would you think that?”

“Because Castel seems to have a lot of steel. If Northlanders built cities near stone quarries, they would use stone to build a ring of walls. Since Castel does not lack steel, shouldn’t it also make an ark out of steel?”

“They even have flying airships. Then it wouldn’t be strange if the entire sea island were a steel ark. Their Steam Engines can curse at people—who knows, maybe the church could stand up and fight too.”

“Just imagine it. You painstakingly prepare a pile of siege equipment, and the enemy church stands up and stomps everything into the ground with one foot!”

The more Gwen spoke, the more excited she became.

“That’s not quite that outrageous. Castel is just an ordinary sea island,”

Nora muttered.

She had not expected that after being shocked by Castel’s creations, Gwen would not lose her mind from being unable to accept them. Instead, her eyes were filled with fanatic fervor. This…

Was Castel Syndrome really like this?

Nora felt somewhat confused.

“Bad!” Gwen suddenly shouted, startling Nora in her arms into jumping.

Then Nora asked, slightly embarrassed and annoyed, “What’s wrong?”

“That… Lady Nora, look at that… the one numbered 005…”

Nora followed Gwen’s trembling finger. A ship was sounding its steam whistle, slowly leaving the dock.

“What’s wrong? It looks fine to me,” Nora examined it carefully. The ship looked quite normal—it had already retrieved its anchor and was moving away from the dock.

“That’s the ship we’re supposed to be on!”

Nora stiffened in Gwen’s arms.

The two of them had already spent quite some time buying fries and eating fries. Then, on the way, they pondered the nature of Extraordinary Power, and afterward Gwen had been stunned by the cargo ships—completely forgetting about boarding.

Although Hughes had coordinated a spot for the two of them, it was not to the extent that an entire ship would wait for them. When the time came, the cargo ship directly raised anchor and prepared to depart.

“Uh… how about we wait for the next one? It’ll probably be tomorrow…”

“No, no need. This distance should still be enough!” Gwen glanced at the cargo ship that was moving away from the shore and rushed a few steps to the edge of the dock.

She dragged her feet half a circle along the ground, twisted her upper body, tensed her waist, and her entire body was like a spring compressed to the limit.

The next instant, she spun violently. At the moment the force was fully released, the hand holding the suitcase swung upward.

An arc cut through the clear sky above the sea, and the suitcase was flung onto the deck of the cargo ship.

Nora stared in shock. This worked too!?

Then she suddenly sensed something wrong, because Gwen began charging strength again. This time, what she was holding in her hand seemed to be… only Nora.

“Wait—no! Stop! Stop!!”

Nora’s shout streaked across the docks of Blood Harbor: “I’m afraid of heights—aaaaaah!”

Her pitch-shifted scream made everyone on the dock raise their heads in unison. Then they witnessed an unforgettable scene.

The white-haired girl leapt into the air, as light as a stormy petrel, passing over the dockworkers, over the gantry crane, over the seagulls in the sky.

The sea breeze brushed across her cheeks. Under the sunlight, her smile was as brilliant as the azure sea—clear and warm.

Just looking at her was enough to feel that unrestrained freedom.

She leapt into the air, leapt into the cargo ship bound for Castel.

In the sea, the Banshees on near-shore patrol lowered the weapons in their hands, sketched the image in their minds, and directly sent it into the Mind Link group.

『Look at this. Who was it that bet Gwen would go crazy? Does this look like crazy to you?』

『How is it not crazy? That face is completely distorted—oh, that’s Nora.』

『Speaking of which, this is the first time I’ve seen such an exaggerated expression on Nora.』

『Indeed.』

『Indeed +1』

『Get a screenshot of her and make it into an emoji.』