Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

Hughes glanced around absentmindedly, and suddenly froze.

He rubbed his eyes and looked around again.

“Where’s the mist?”

All around was a frozen plain. Although the seawater from before had disappeared, it was still the Northlands anyway—there wasn’t much difference. Since he couldn’t move, Hughes did not care much.

But not being able to see the White Mist—that, he cared about a great deal.

“Has Little Gwen finally taken control of the Temple of Forgetters?!”

Hughes’ face lit up. It was his first instinctive thought. Little Gwen had been acting mysteriously all this time; whenever he asked, she claimed she was dealing with the White Calamity. Hughes had always suspected she was just making excuses, yet there had been nothing he could do about her.

Now this was perfect. If the mist was gone, then the White Calamity must have been dealt with.

However, before he could rejoice for long, he suddenly noticed a huge lump of White Mist in the distance, trembling as it drifted toward him.

The sight gave Hughes a strange sense of familiarity. After thinking for a while, he suddenly slapped his hand.

He had seen it in the workshop of Castel’s Second Textile Factory. That was how they transported cotton—on a small cart dragging an enormous bundle of it. The cotton was so big it completely hid the worker; from afar, all one could see was a mass of cotton moving by itself.

Hughes shuddered.

Cotton had workers moving it—but was someone moving the White Mist too?

Hughes stared at the base of the mist. Faintly, he really did see something enormous—

“Eek!”

It seemed someone had let out a startled cry. The White Mist trembled violently, and after a moment, a small head poked out from within it.

“Hughes, you’re awake?”

“Little Gwen?”

“It’s Gwen.” Little Gwen looked displeased.

She ran a couple of steps forward, then realized the distance was too great. With her short legs, it would take half a day to reach him.

So a thin wisp of mist suddenly appeared beside Hughes. Gwen spun lightly and hopped out from it.

Hughes looked her up and down in surprise. “Why do you have dark circles under your eyes?”

Gwen’s face darkened. “You’re asking me? Why don’t you ask your maid? She chatters nonstop here all day—I can’t even sleep properly!”

As she spoke, she tugged on a thread.

And Hughes was—

Dragged into the Connection.

Hughes: “???”

Wait. Why did it feel like even the only thing this shell could do had been replaced by you?

The moment the Connection opened, Hughes heard singing.

“Father~ Cleric~ Her Holiness the Pope~”

“Mechanical~ Gear Sage~ Arch-Mechanism Chancellor~”

“Dragon’s Breath Cannon~ boom~ and it’s all gone~”

Hughes: “.”

He set the thread aside and quietly asked Little Gwen, “What is she doing?”

“No idea. She just talks endlessly in the Connection every day. Sometimes she sings, sometimes she talks to herself, sometimes she says strange things!”

Talking endlessly to oneself?

Hughes’ expression turned serious. “Sounds like some kind of mental disorder. Schizophrenia?”

One major symptom of schizophrenia was hallucinations. Zoe’s muttering fit the pattern, and she clearly seemed unable to distinguish reality from illusion.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying! But I also think there’s something wrong with her head. It should probably be surgically removed for treatment.”

“…Alright. Tell me first—what strange things has she been saying?”

“She says she’s a hero in the darkness, a knight in the shadows, an unknown guardian, a sacred fountain healer…”

Hughes’ eyelid twitched.

“Disorganized speech. Delusions. This is bad…”

“I don’t think she’s mentally split,” Little Gwen said, crossing her arms. “I’ve figured something out recently. She might also be trying to treat Beatrice.”

“Be—Beatrice?”

“Yes. Beatrice seemed injured, and the Pollution Erosion in her body was particularly severe. I put in quite a bit of effort and improved her condition a lot.”

As she spoke, Little Gwen stuffed another thread into Hughes’ hand.

“In a moment, don’t be scared. I’ll connect Beatrice’s Connection to you as well. Her body is full of pollution right now. But with me here, definitely, definitely, definitely—”

Hughes clenched the thread and instantly linked up. Little Gwen suddenly began to stammer.

According to her expectation, the pollution inside Beatrice would surge forward violently. As the relay, she would have to withstand the tsunami of pollution.

But when she braced herself for the impact, she found that the pollution merely brushed against Hughes—and then, as if mad, retreated at lightning speed, faster than it had come.

“Don’t worry. I’m experienced when it comes to pollution,” Hughes said, patting his chest. The large hole in his chest echoed when he did.

This worker Hughes shell had once been used by the Moths Chasing Fire to perform the Descent of the Lord of Moths. When Hughes descended, the shell had been filled with pollution.

In the end, it hadn’t even taken long to Purify Pollution completely. Later, when Hughes learned that the Heretical God could be burned, he regretted it deeply—

Now the Moths Chasing Fire could no longer summon the Heretical God for fun.

And just now, even through a relay, once he connected, Hughes sensed that the pollution inside Beatrice was far less than that of the Heretical God.

After all, what she carried inside was merely seawater. The Heretical God’s pollution had condensed into solid form.

Hughes casually transmitted a thread of vitality over. This kind of Connection was not a Symbiotic Contract, so it could not restore Beatrice’s life force—but it immediately suppressed the pollution within her.

Gwen stared in astonishment. “H-how did you do that?”

Hughes spread his hands. “I don’t know either. Pollution seems to fear me. When it sees me, it’s like it’s seeing its natural enemy. But I haven’t really done anything.”

“Really? I’ve never been to Castel, but I’ve heard about the Stellar Furnace. And don’t Steam Engines burn pollution too? If I were pollution, I’d stay far away from you as well.”

Hughes scratched his head awkwardly.

“Ahem. How long has she been like this?”

“A few days.”

“Then counting the time, intelligence should’ve reached Castel by now. I’ll go ask…”

Hughes slowly lowered his head. After waiting for quite a while, Gwen finally saw him open his eyes again.

But his expression was strange.

“What happened?”

“Well… the development of events is rather bizarre. The Delegation successfully exchanged for technology, incidentally wiped out the Mechanical Sanctum, incidentally abducted Her Holiness the Pope, and incidentally organized a rebellion that smashed Rhine…”

Little Gwen: “.”

Little Gwen: “Wait. Who exactly went in the Delegation?”

“Just Gaia and Zoe. Erwin brought some Church Guard along, but the ones who actually did anything were basically those two.”

Little Gwen scratched her head, opened her mouth as if to say something, then swallowed her words, looking hesitant.

“What is it?”

“Well…” she said haltingly. “I was thinking—could Zoe’s muttering actually carry some deeper meaning? It allowed her to accomplish so many feats… Should we try it too? Whispering in various Connections?”