Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 313 Sunset at Blood Harbor
"So, you'll let them get the bolt-action rifle from you?" The old woman looked at the young man opposite her with great interest.

Erwin chuckled softly: "Of course not."

"Giving them gifts is one thing, but if they covet our weapons, that's another matter entirely. However, the prince should find out soon enough."

At this point, Erwin asked with a hint of curiosity, "Grandma, I heard you're a researcher. I don't know much about these things—is it really alright for Lord Hughes to give them bolt-action rifles?"

The old woman looked up and adjusted her glasses: "I remember you joined the patrol team from the beginning and didn't go to the factory much?"

"Yes, Lord Alexei selected me in the first batch. I became a soldier before the factory was built—there wasn't even a Guardian Army back then."

The old woman nodded slowly, understanding. "I see. Do you know what's needed to make this bolt-action rifle?"

"Uh, coal? Steel?"

The old woman casually picked up the rifle that Erwin was standing to the side, skillfully pulled back the bolt, pushed it forward and backward, glanced at the receiver and chamber, and said leisurely:
"To manufacture this bolt-action rifle, 60 parts and 200 processes are required. It requires a specialized rifling production line, milling, heat treatment, a complete chemical process for producing gunpowder, the cooperation of seventeen factories to manufacture and assemble it, and 11,000 literate industrialized people."

"In short, producing it required an entire island of Castells, which was an industrial marvel."

The old woman placed the bolt-action rifle on the table and gently nudged it toward Erwin.

"Want to replicate it? Even if Nini used fossils as mud, she couldn't do it, let alone with cognitive interference."

Erwin swallowed hard; for the first time, this burly man felt a sense of awe towards the gun in his hand.

It is a product of industry, yet its complexity far exceeds human imagination.

I wonder what kind of despair the artisans of the Duchy of Tis felt when they saw it?

The intricate parts were piled up and pieced together to form a weapon that they could not understand at all; the only thing they could figure out was how to pull the trigger.

However, this bolt-action rifle was not the strongest weapon in Castel, and it didn't even rank highly. Even though Erwin didn't have a power worship, he didn't think this bolt-action rifle was anything special.

The lord was too lazy to give it a name, and simply called it a bolt-action rifle.

But in Blood Harbor of Tiss, this rifle has sparked so much covetousness and conspiracy.

Erwin understood Hughes's thinking—Castel only needed friends.

No one here is qualified to be his enemy.

Elwin suddenly felt a little bored. Tiss... Bloodharbor... was nothing special.

They're useless to Castells. There's no point in going here. Just pick up Connor and we can go back.

Somewhat boring.

The door clicked open and then closed again.

Erwin paused for a moment before realizing what was happening and greeted them:
"How's it going, Zoe?"

Zoe was unusually silent. She took off her muddy boots at the door, carried them in her hand, and went into the house wearing only her socks.

The room was covered with carpet, and not wanting to get it dirty, she picked up her shoes and placed them at the door.

When she turned around and met the concerned gazes of everyone in the room, Zoe pursed her lips.

“I just went to the slums, or rather, the lower part of Bloodharbor.” “I, I’ve never really been out much before. I’ve always worked as a maid in the manor, first in Duke Cohen’s territory, and then in Castells. I mean, I’ve never really seen these poor people.”

Zoe raised her head, her eyes shining as she looked intently at everyone in the room. She clutched the hem of her clothes, her voice trembling slightly.

"I'd like to ask, are all these people at the bottom of society suffering like this, or is it only Blood Harbor that is like this?"

The room was quiet for a while.

Most of the people of Castel were refugees who had fled from the surrounding area. Even after arriving on the island, they had to endure the plundering of pirates. It was only after Hughes arrived that they were able to escape this quagmire.

As a moth drawn to the flame, the mother-in-law had a life of constant wandering and had witnessed countless hardships.

Of all the people in the house, only Zoe had little contact with these lower-class people.

"always like this."

“The poor have always been like this, whether in the Rhine or the Gem Bay, they have always struggled in the mire of despair, and that has never changed.”

"My mother-in-law said softly."

Zoe gripped the hem of her clothes, bowed, and ran away.

She locked herself in her room and wouldn't respond to anyone calling her; only the scratching sound of a pen slicing across paper could be heard from inside.

The people in the room exchanged glances, and the atmosphere inexplicably became heavy.

Elwin stared blankly at Zoe's closed door for a moment, then suddenly looked around.

This is a separate mansion, which the prince allocated to the people of Castel to live in.

The mansion was beautifully decorated, even luxurious, with wool carpets covered in subtle patterns. These carpets, produced in the North, cost tens of rioles per square foot, enough to feed a fisherman for two months.

And this was just the most insignificant decoration in the mansion; the portraits hanging on the walls and the candlesticks inlaid with silver were all exquisite and luxurious objects.

But if you walk out of this mansion and go two streets further out, you'll reach the downtown area that Zoe went to explore.

Before coming, Erwin had heard that Bloodharbor was in chaos, cultists were rampant, and the people were suffering. However, he did not come into contact with any of this. There was no noise on the streets, and the guards patrolling day and night would suppress anyone or anything that should not be there in the lower city.

Blood Harbor is the largest port in Tess, with a total of 20,000 people living nearby, and several thousand more in the core area near the port.

These thousands of people live, work, struggle, and die here without disturbing the people inside the mansion in the slightest.

It was as if they didn't exist.

Erwin, representing Castells, lived in the manor with the prince, engaging in elegant exchanges of wits. The winner would mock him wantonly, while the loser would be frustrated and start over. All of this was irrelevant to the thousands of people outside who were struggling to survive.

Erwin stood up without realizing it. He suddenly realized that he seemed no different from the nobles he used to despise. He hadn't even noticed the existence of the poor people—even though he had been fishing on a boat just a few years ago, worrying about food every day.

He wasn't even as good as Zoe, that innocent little maid, whose boots were still lying by the door, covered in mud from the downtown area.

Erwin stared blankly at the setting sun outside. The afterglow of the setting sun fell on his face, on the millions of people in Bloodharbor, and equally bathed this vast, chaotic, prosperous, and decaying port.

(End of this chapter)