Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 780 Speech in the Auditorium
"What, are you going to kneel down?"

Seeing Hughes shake his head with a smile, Isabella snorted, "Then let's not waste time. Everyone's here, let's get to the meeting."

After saying that, she turned around and strode away, her high-tied hair bouncing with each step.

Isabella has participated in many of Castel's affairs under the guise of a "prince," but this seems to be her first time coming in her true form.

Her high-profile return was mainly in the Duchy of Tiss, and many people in Bloodharbor had not yet seen her.

Seeing the empress's energetic and decisive demeanor, many people showed expressions of admiration.

Alexei looked on with a nostalgic expression: "The last time I saw her was at the graduation ceremony. I got beaten up by her knight commander back then, which now I think must have been Galahad. No wonder he looked so familiar."

“You can go over there and get beaten up by him now,” Hughes glanced at him.

【Knight】It may be shameful to use the extraordinary path, but it is still overwhelming when dealing with mortals.

On the other side, Beatrice's expression became complicated when she saw Isabella.

The last time we met, she was the Queen's loyal servant, but now she is Castel's loyal fountain.

The day the Queen was assassinated left such a deep impression on her that Beatrice thought it would be a nightmare for the rest of her life.

I never expected to actually see the Queen herself today.
It feels strange when an ancestor you worship every year suddenly stands up and chats with you for a few minutes.

"What's wrong?" Hughes noticed her strange expression and leaned closer to ask.

"It's a bit embarrassing. Although the assassination attempt was a conspiracy, I really failed to protect His Majesty. Later, I even became the Pope of the Candlelight Society, which can almost be called betrayal. Sigh."

Beatrice's tone carried a hint of melancholy.

She was just a naive young girl back then, full of unrealistic fantasies about the future, never imagining that so many things would happen later.

Hughes thought for a moment and decided to comfort her, so he turned around and pulled a young man over.

"Look at him."

Beatrice stared intently; the face looked familiar, but she couldn't quite place it. Perhaps she'd seen it before? Who was this?
“He is a prince. I mean, Archduke William.”

Hughes patted Beatrice on the back: "Look, even the prince isn't embarrassed, so why are you embarrassed?"

A question mark slowly appeared above Beatrice's head.

The prince didn't seem to mind. He smiled and replied, "Just call me Prince. It's a form of encouragement."

Beatrice looked at him with some curiosity: "Don't you feel offended? And your assassination attempt would have been pointless."

The prince shook his head: "That's not the case, Miss Beatrice. When I went to assassinate the Queen, I never thought about success, nor did I care about any reputation."

“I went to assassinate him only to let my people know that Tiss has not surrendered.”

“I have never been trained and have never been a good assassin, but I still choose to go—the people call me a prince, so I should fulfill the duties of a prince.”

"I know I will fail, but as long as I draw my sword, someone else will put it into the enemy's chest."

"Rebellion has never succeeded on its first attempt, but the success of a rebellion always begins with the first time a sword is drawn and pointed at the enemy."

Beatrice was stunned.

The prince bowed slightly in greeting. Isabella, who was in front of him, glanced at him, chuckled softly, and then turned around and continued forward.

Her long red hair danced like flames. "Alright, let's go downstairs first." Hughes clapped his hands and gestured to the people in the corridor. "Let's go downstairs."

Hughes' office certainly couldn't accommodate so many people, so they marched in a large group to the lobby below.

Strictly speaking, this place is also a church. Imperial Truth has all sorts of people, but hardly anyone prays here. Therefore, the main hall here—that is, the chapel—has always been rarely used.

Sometimes the technical priests would use this space to give lectures, and the war priests would also come over when they were too busy to set up a sand table exercise.

Today, the chapel was unusually packed with people.

The harbingers of death, Castel's high-ranking officials, some of the onlookers from the ecclesiastical army, and even Ignati and many priests from the Silent Church, all gathered in the chapel this time.

More people could be seen gathering in the distance, standing on tiptoe to look this way. Big Gwen, who had been squeezed to the outside, was trying to lift Nora (above) a little higher.

Nora also had Chloe's diary on top of her head, which was a rather unusual way of stacking people on top of each other.

Well, even three stories high, they wouldn't be enough to form a whole person, unless you count Big Gwen and Little Gwen together as one person.
Seeing this, Nini had a sudden inspiration and lifted Monica up as well, which made Monica scream in anger.

Amidst the chaos before him, Hughes stood on tiptoe to look ahead, only to see a dense mass of heads. He had originally been standing in front of the pulpit, but after a moment's thought, he simply stood directly on the pulpit.

Now he's tall enough that even Nini next to him can only look at him at eye level.

Hughes waved to the crowd, and the noisy crowd quickly quieted down, all turning to look at their lord.

Even Monica was put down with her mouth covered.

Hughes coughed, looked at the crowd around him, and said loudly:

"Everyone, I am very happy to be able to gather here today, to see faces I haven't seen in a long time, and to see my companions who have walked with me all this way."

"Unfortunately, we are gathered here today not to celebrate victory."

"Castel has experienced countless victories. Although our journey to this point has not been smooth, we have also rarely tasted defeat."

"But this time, we were defeated in the battle on the Rhine."

The banshees inside the house lowered their heads. Although they had always seemed unreliable, they were very serious and focused when it came to battle.

Most of their abilities are designed for combat, and they have always regarded combat as an honor.

In the battle between Rhine and Jules, they fought with all their might, but ultimately they were defeated.

Although they didn't show it much, they were actually quite devastated. The banshees have been honing their combat skills day and night, and even Nini has stopped writing reports.

Now, when they hear Hughes mention it, they feel their faces burning with embarrassment.

"But I don't think failure is entirely a bad thing."

"Nini, you participated in the entire battle. What do you think was the reason for the defeat?"

Nini thought for a moment and then said, "We don't know Jules's capabilities, our tactics are a bit too aggressive, and we're not strong enough."

At this point, Nini lowered her head in shame.

"So, how do you think you can become stronger?"

(End of this chapter)