Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 315 Castel Who Can Never Return
Josh is a native of Castel. His ancestors may have had other places to live, but Castel is the only place he truly belongs.

Castel, fire and light in the storm, is a beautiful name, but that doesn't stop it from being just an inconspicuous little island in the stormy ocean.

Josh had wanted to go out and explore since he was a child.

Every child has this dream, but what sets Josh apart is that he's incredibly proactive.

As a child, he had built a raft out of dead trees and rowed it out to sea with a burst of enthusiasm.

Luckily, he was rescued by passing fishermen, and thankfully he didn't lose his life.

Later, a sudden storm orphaned him. After handling his parents' funeral arrangements, Josh had no more worries and his heart began to burn with passion again.

If Hughes hadn't come to Castel, Josh might have already left Castel on some ship, perhaps becoming a merchant, a pirate, or a famous figure, or perhaps ending his life hastily and feeding the horse-faced fish.

But when Hughes arrived, Castel changed, the Storm Ocean changed, and the fates of countless people took completely different turns.

Josh sighed inwardly; he truly hadn't expected to become the chief priest of a cult.

Yes, it's a cult. The so-called "Steam and Deep Sea Cult" is a cult, and Josh knows this perfectly well.

This was not his original intention, but fate played a cruel trick on him, and he eventually had no choice but to embark on this path.

It all started from the very beginning.

Josh disembarked with the goods he had bought on credit and set foot on the unfamiliar land of Blood Harbor with several of his fellow countrymen.

At that time, the prince was still a prince, and the queen's crown had not yet fallen to the ground.

Blood Harbor was thriving. Although the Empire forbade merchants to do business with Gem Bay, merchants from the White Raven Duchy and the Southern Continent still made Blood Harbor a jewel in the Storm Ocean.

Order and chaos coexist, prosperity and decay are intertwined, and opportunities abound. If you are bold enough and have a bit of luck, you can make a fortune here.

This place is always full of life.

Josh and his friends made their first fortune here with the soap they bought on credit.

Castells soap is extremely popular, and more importantly, they are currently the only ones with stock on hand.

For a time, Josh and his friends became incredibly popular.

At this time of day, it's usually the easiest time for discord to arise among a group of people, but Josh and his friends didn't.

Perhaps it was because they had a long-term vision, perhaps it was because they valued friendship, or perhaps it was because they knew that soap was only a negligible part of Castel's output, and that as long as they had the backing of Lord Hughes, they could achieve far more than that.

In short, Josh and his partners resisted the temptation, remained united, and established their own business association.

Instead of squandering the Leo they earned, they pooled their money and planned to return to Hughes to exchange it for a second batch of goods to expand their business.

Josh and his crew established a foothold in Bloodharbor and waited for Jeremiah and his Black Pearl to return.

This wait lasted a very long time.

The Black Pearl has yet to return, the prince has gone to the Rhine to receive his reward, strange things are happening on the sea, and undercurrents are surging in Blood Harbor.

The Chamber of Commerce is finding it increasingly difficult to do business.

After discussing it with his companions, Josh decided to temporarily retreat. They knew that Castell was their true base of operations, and they didn't need to force the business in Bloodharbor. The only important thing was Castell. As long as Castell was still around, everything would be alright.

Unfortunately, these expectations were nothing but beautiful illusions.

The sea began to dry up, and Jeremiah and Ken stumbled and fell to Blood Harbor.

Along with them was a whole ship full of refugees. Josh took them in, and although the merchant guild had lost its business, its previous foundation allowed them to barely survive.

But from then on, everything sank, with no turning back.

The Queen was assassinated, and the prince suddenly went from being a joke to a hero. He became a hero, but Bloodharbor fell into darkness.

Evil that bred in the shadows began to walk in the sunlight. The dried-up sea drove people to despair, and despair attracted cultists who took pleasure in it, turning Blood Harbor into a true hell.

Jeremiah insisted on leaving by boat, ignoring Josh and Ken's attempts to persuade him. His eyes were red, and he seemed like a madman who had staked everything on gambling.

In the final moments before the Black Pearl departed, Ken jumped aboard, and Josh knelt on the dock, struggling to reach out to him, as if that would win back his best friend.

The two were only a few meters apart, yet they went their separate ways.

Ken boarded the boat and went to the dried-up sea, leaving Josh on the shore to watch helplessly as their figures receded into the distance.

He longed to jump on the ship and leave, but he had his companions, his business guild, and a whole ship full of refugees behind him.

Josh gritted his teeth, wiped the rain off his face, and walked toward the storm-ravaged Blood Harbor.

He was still a boy, but he already carried too much on his shoulders.

"Josh, what do you think Castell will think of us?"

Josh felt a pang of pain in his heart, but simply shook his head expressionlessly.

"We have no other choice."

His companion, another hooded figure, also fell silent.

Bloodharbor had long since become a paradise for cultists. After the prince returned, he merely reorganized the upper city and left the merchants to fend for themselves.

They were as if they had been suddenly pushed into the water, destined to become fish before drowning.

They did it.

The group gathered the refugees and, in order to fend off the menacing cultists, once again invoked the name of the Secret Order.

The doctrines were false, the prayers were fabricated, and the believers were refugees in disguise; only the holy water boiling in the pot truly filled the stomachs of many.

It's unclear when exactly, but this united "Steam and Deep Sea Secret Order" gradually began to gain a foothold in Bloodharbor.

Even Josh adapted to this kind of life and even thought it was not bad, at least everyone could have rice porridge to eat and the refugees could survive.

But at this very moment, the believers came to report that a strange steamship had docked at the Blood Harbor pier.

Castells has reappeared.

Perhaps it was fate; when Josh harbored illusions about Castel, it disappeared from the sea, and when people despaired of it, it reappeared.

Castells, Josh so wished he could return to the boy he once was.

Unfortunately, he is now the leader of a cult. How could Lord Hughes possibly accept the existence of a cult in his territory?
The goods that Hughes had given him on credit were all converted into money and turned into holy water, which ended up in the stomachs of the refugees.

Josh pursed his lips, his mouth filled with bitterness.

He hesitated for a long time, but finally sent a message to the Castel team through someone.

After all, he was a Castel, no matter what he became.

(End of this chapter)