Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 561 Familiar Yet Unfamiliar Castel
The next day, Hunter went to the courthouse, posted bail, and led out a weary-looking Alvarez.

"What happened, Uncle? Were you beaten up inside?"

"No, the guards are very dutiful, it's just a long story."

Alvarez waved his hand, not wanting to talk about these things anymore. He looked around. Bloodharbor was shrouded in a thin mist in the early morning, and the sea breeze brought a warm and humid atmosphere, which was completely different from the North.

"You know this area well, right? Show me around."

Hunter wanted to say that he wasn't actually very familiar with it. He had been transferred to Castells not long after he was sent here, and he hadn't stayed in Bloodharbor for very long.

But he's been to Castells, so how could Bloodharbor possibly scare him?
"Well, let's go check out the docks first."

He had probably inquired about the current situation of Blood Harbor before he came. Blood Harbor is now divided into a dock area, an industrial area, a residential area, and a central area.

The central area, consisting of schools, courthouses, railways, and the building where Hughes works, is arguably the busiest part of Blood Harbor.

The original upper city had gradually declined, and without the nobles, the area gradually lost its original prosperity.

Moreover, with the prince's secret instigation, many buildings in the upper city were destroyed. After taking over the properties of these nobles, he did not rush to repair them.

After Blood Harbor's industry developed for some time, the area was rezoned as a residential area, and many workers moved in. Many of the former people of the lower town became the neighbors of Grand Duke Tiss, which is quite poignant.

It was early morning, and workers were leaving their homes and flocking to the factory.

Alvarez looked the workers over carefully, a hint of surprise in his eyes.

"What's wrong, Uncle?"

"These people, well, they seem to be..."

"vitality?"

Alvarez shook his head, then nodded; he couldn't quite describe the feeling either.

He had met many people in the North: freemen who needed to rent land to cultivate, various artisans in the city, and bureaucrats and nobles in the city hall.
The workers in front of me are different from them.

"I can't explain it either." In the end, he could only shake his head dejectedly, burying his question in his heart.

Hunter led Alvarez to a shed near Blood Harbor, which was actually a neatly constructed wooden shop along the street.

A tall sign above reads "Yami Fries & Fried Fish".

"This is my friend's shop. Let's buy some food before we leave."

Alvarez nodded.

It was very close to the factory area, and the people queuing were all nearby workers. The queue was long, but it didn't move very slowly. Soon, Alvarez saw the scene inside the store.

A short girl was standing on a wooden crate, tiptoeing and using long tongs to flip the fried fish in the pot. She put a plate of freshly fried fish, still smelling delicious, aside, while a boy next to her hurriedly started packing it up.

"Ah, this is a little loose. I'll wrap it again." The boy gave a slightly embarrassed smile. "I just started today, so I'm not very good at it yet."

Are you a new employee at the store?

“No, I’m just here to help. I was cooking porridge around here before, and Betty couldn’t manage it all by herself, so she asked me to help.”

The little girl next to her nodded earnestly: "Yes, everyone else in my shop ran away, leaving me all alone. I was even thinking of closing down, but the local believers... I mean, the workers in the neighborhood really like the fried fish here, so I asked Mr. Josh for help, and I didn't expect him to come and help in person." Then, as if remembering something, she added, "You can try Josh's porridge sometime; everyone loves it!"

Alvarez smiled and nodded, taking the fried fish wrapped in newspaper from Josh and sniffing it.

"It smells so good. This oil isn't made from beans, is it? That kind of oil doesn't have such a rich aroma."

"Yes, this is olive oil, one of Castel's specialties, which is said to support the entire island's industrial base!"

Alvarez didn't understand industrial bases, but he knew how to fry fish.

"This fish is also great. Sea fish used to always have a strange, indescribable taste, but this one doesn't. Is it a specialty of Castel?"

Josh's lips twitched as if he had just thought of something.

He vaguely remembered that Castel had investigated this; the creatures of the sea were actually formed from the flesh and blood of the sea god. Since the pollution of the sea was purified, have these fish also changed?

While thinking about it, Josh tore off a piece of fried fish and put it in his mouth. He chewed it and it didn't seem to make any difference.

When he looked up, he found Betty glaring at him angrily, her two long braids swaying back and forth.

His hand holding the fried fish froze.

"Yeah, sorry!"

The workers in line all laughed.

Alvarez looked at the people around him, who seemed genuinely happy and joyful, something rarely seen on the faces of people from the North.

Whether free citizens or nobles, whether poor or rich, few can experience such pure joy; it seems there is always something holding them back, something that traps them.

Alvarez's doubts deepened.

While eating fried fish, the two strolled over to the dock area.

This place is bustling with activity, while a tall lighthouse stands on the distant sea. The azure sea, the gray tower, and the thin mist rising from the sea at sunrise create a scene as beautiful as an oil painting.

Alvarez admired the view with great interest for a while, then prepared to leave, but suddenly stopped in his tracks as he turned around.

He slowly turned around, placed his palms over his eyes, squinted, and looked carefully.

"Hunter, can you take a look? Is that lighthouse built directly out of the water?"

"what?"

Hunter looked up as well, and after a while, the two were surprised to find that the lighthouse was not built on an island or reef, but stood upright in the water.

"Could it be that the tide is rising now, and the land will be exposed when the tide goes out?" Hunter asked hesitantly.

His research interests included architecture, so he naturally knew how difficult it was to build a lighthouse in the sea.

Even if Castells had concrete that was stronger than rock, it would probably be difficult to do so.
"Hunter, I don't really understand what low tide is, but it happens at certain times, right? After a while, the tide will come in, so can we still do construction then?"

"Hmm, they have a sturdy building material. The houses we just passed were built with it. Maybe, maybe it can be used in water too."

Hunter's voice trailed off as he suddenly realized he didn't know much about Castel, this mysterious island from the sea.
(End of this chapter)