Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 616 You guys in R&D are all unreliable.
"By the way, my lord, although we, the Firemoth, split off from the Candlelight Society, we don't have such a complete lineage. But the Silent Sanctuary is different; they are one of the four major orthodox churches. Perhaps they know more secrets."

Hughes nodded slowly.

There's no rush. The priests at the Silent Church have only just woken up. We can visit them after they've gotten to know the island better.

Hughes originally thought Castel was strong enough, but after witnessing the Sea God Church's sacrificial ceremony today, he realized that the church actually had some trump cards.

Take the Church of the Sea God for example. It may not have the same production capacity as Castel, but if it were to sacrifice the entire city's inhabitants to create a storm at sea, Castel's fleet might not be able to withstand it.

The Silent Sanctuary is only somewhat disadvantageous against the White Mist; if they were to charge towards the machine gun positions, things might not go so well.
Uh, it seems like we still can't get through.

But the Bone Sanctuary used by Nabazel is also something of the Burialers. If it were used directly in Castel, it might not be able to stop it.

This is just the trump card they've revealed; they may have something even more terrifying, but the cost is too high for them to use.

In short, none of these churches are benevolent. They may not appear as powerful as Castel on the surface, but they may possess some strange and unusual powers that, though at a great cost, are difficult to resist once unleashed.

"I'll talk to the Patriarch of the Silent Sanctuary, and I'll also try to send people to make contact with the Mechanical Society. If we can exchange for this technology, or commission them to make the body shell, that would be acceptable."

Hughes didn't really have any intention of expanding outwards. The core of industry was the educated industrial population, and territory and cities were more of a burden to Castel.

Take the North, for example. Apart from seizing a lot of luxury goods from the homes of a few dukes, there's not much else to show for it. The meager productivity of an agricultural nation isn't even enough to cover the expenses of war.

The North, on the contrary, received infrastructure from Castells, as well as a railway line leading to Bloodharbor. In this respect, Grand Duke Alvarez and his people actually surpassed their ancestors in terms of territorial development.

It's just that the territory is no longer under their control.

"By the way, my lord, you said before that Gwen would also be doing research with me."

Hughes paused.

Richard's current weapons are already quite bizarre; with Gwen added to the mix, who knows what groundbreaking technological products they might develop.

I was too careless before. I never expected that Richard, who seemed so steady, would create such bizarre things.

He actually wants to develop legitimate industries!
"Well, I see you're managing too many projects right now, and I can't bear to see Chloe working overtime all the time. How about this, you'll focus on managing Chloe and Nora's projects for now."

"As for weapons development, I'll talk to Gaia and have her take charge. Castel doesn't need to fight now, so military production capacity will be reduced. It's a good opportunity for her to take on some research and development work on the side."

Gaia has always been calm and collected. Since Castells had been fighting all along, Hughes entrusted the military factory to her, including the most dangerous and important explosives production line.

Nothing went wrong until now.

Bringing her here now will definitely bring Castells back on track with his technology that has gone astray!

Richard was taken aback for a moment, then his face lit up with joy: "That's wonderful! I've always wanted to study my beloved medical skills. Saving lives is my passion, but I've been too busy to do so, my lord. Please wait for my results!"

Hughes glanced at the testing grounds; Richard's clone was struggling to stuff the howling coyotes back into their cages. Saving lives? Medical skills?
Hughes had a bad feeling about this.

None of his R&D personnel are reliable, especially the Moth of Fire. They are either like Richard, whose results are bizarre, or like Tata, whose research process is bizarre.

Gaia is still the most trustworthy!
Hughes, who left the testing ground with Richard, forgot one thing: Gaia had also joined the Firemoths, and before the Deep Sea War, she had spent all her time with Chloe and Monica.
Nora was unaware that her rendezvous had drawn the Lord's personal attention. At that moment, she was being held in Gwen's arms as she continued to lead the Burialers on a tour of the island.

The people in these silent sanctuaries are now very quiet, and the previous noise is gone.

I didn't feel much when I got on the subway. Although the train was powerful, the Burialers didn't think that this steel behemoth could defeat the Holy Temple.

But the airships were different. After seeing the colossal celestial beast, the priests of these sanctuaries all hung their heads in dejection.

It's very simple, the Holy Temple really can't beat this thing.

Moreover, Nini mischievously took them on a tour of the airport. Although the airships there were no longer as large as the Sky Veil Beast, there were far more of them.

This dashed the hopes of the Burialers. They might be willing to shoot down the Sky Veil Beast at any cost, but they could not possibly destroy the rows of small and medium-sized airships on the airport.

And so the entire Silent Sanctuary fell silent.

"Isn't this a bit too much of a blow?" Gwen asked with some concern.

"What kind of blow is this? I haven't even taken them to see the production line in the factory yet. If they saw that several airships can be built in a day, they would go crazy on the spot!" Nini flicked her tail nonchalantly.

"Indeed, facing reality is a good thing. What the Holy Church needs is change. Clinging to those ancient dogmas will only repeat the tragedy of a thousand years ago."

Nora said earnestly from the side.

After saying that, she suddenly looked at Gwen, her tone somewhat suspicious: "But it seems like this is the first time you've seen these things either, so why aren't you going crazy?"

“What’s so crazy about this?” Gwen said with a grin. “When I was little, I loved to daydream. I even fantasized about having a flying unicorn, a talking pet, and so on. Oh, I even fantasized about my grown-up self coming out to help fight. Airships are nothing compared to these things. Besides, it’s not like I haven’t seen them before.”

Gwen did indeed see airships in the North. When Nene rescued her on the battlefield, it was bombs dropped by two reconnaissance airships that killed the enemy.

Limbs and flesh flew through the air in the explosion; she still remembers that hellish scene.

Nora nodded, then suddenly frowned.

"Wait a minute, you can turn a heavy machine gun into this and even summon the Steel Ark, are those friends you imagined actually coming true?"

"How could that be, Lady Nora? You're still acting like a child. Of course, your fantasies about friends can't come true."

(End of this chapter)