Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 568 Emerging from the White Mist
"What do you mean by 'it's Bazel'?"

Finier scratched her head, reached out and yanked a section of leg bone off the skeletal giant.

She then threw the bone on the ground at her feet. The bone bounced once on the ground, and then, as if attracted, slowly crawled toward the skeletal giant.

The leg bone rolled a few times on the ground, then lightly jumped back onto the skeletal giant.

"You see, it will recover."

"Oh, that's interesting, but what does that have to do with it being Bazel? Is there writing on the bones?"

"There were no words written on the bones, but words were written with the bones."

"???"

Based on the banshee's description, Hughes roughly reconstructed the situation—a pile of bones was thrown out of the mist. At that time, it wasn't a humanoid skeleton, but a scattered pile of bones, arranged into a line of text:

“This is Bazel.” The banshee’s tone was very strange. “This is the line of words that was thrown out, spelled out in bones: ‘This is Bazel.’”

She pointed with the tip of her tail at the skeletal giant on the ground.

"Then, after several hours, it slowly returned to this state. The skeletal characters were stuck quite tightly; it took breaking many bones to pry them apart."

Hughes's eye twitched, and he looked at Count Bazel on the ground with pity.

Little Gwen was quite vengeful; she suffered even after death. I wonder who she learned that from.

“Then this must be Count Bazel. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am Hughes, the lord of Castel and the border count. I’ve heard so much about you.” Hughes squatted down and looked at Bazel, who was pinned to the ground, with a smile.

Finel's tail loosened slightly, and Bazel's skull slowly rose from the soil, his eyes filled with venom. Well, it's hard to read an expression from a skull, but the resentment was so intense that everyone present could feel it.

"Hughes, you won't get a single piece of information out of me. If you've got the guts, kill me again!"

"Bazaar said in a sinister tone."

"It's alright, it's alright, if you don't want to talk about it, then don't. Your information isn't very useful to me, but you yourself are very important to Castel."

The skeleton was stunned. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but Hughes had already stood up. With a push from Finier's tail, he was pushed back to the ground and ate a mouthful of dirt.

“Take him to Bloodharbor, to the Inquisition, to Castells, to the Cathedral.” Hughes’s voice was filled with exhilaration. “He will pay for what he has done—tell Nora and have them come back to Bloodharbor with me. Two seats have been reserved for her in the Inquisition.”

As Hughes's figure receded into the distance, Bazel suddenly felt a lightness on his body as he was lifted up by the tall steel giant beside him.

The gaze beneath the armor met his for a moment, and a voice came from within.

"The lord will not kill you, and may even give you a job, though the environment may not be good. I hope you can adapt."

Bazel was stunned. Just as he was about to say something, the large hand that had lifted him up was no longer gentle. It slammed him to the ground, and Bazel, who had been painstakingly pieced back into human form, shattered into a pile of bones.

"Logistics, get a shovel, scoop it up and load it onto the truck."

Blood Harbor seems a little different today.

Betty peeked out from her newly rented shop; there were far fewer people buying fried fish from her today.

There were Secret Order night watchmen every so often on the street, but today there seemed to be an unusually large number of them.

And
"Sir, are you a defender of the Imperial Truth?"

Betty called out timidly to the two figures carrying rifles. The two were standing at the street corner not far away. Usually, only members of the Secret Order patrolled this place, but today even the Guardians of the Faith had come out.

"Yes, but to be precise, I now belong to the expeditionary force. What's wrong, little girl?"

"Is something big about to happen? Why are there so many people?"

Betty's face paled slightly. A year ago, she was just getting by in the downtown area, barely scraping by. Now, she had finally managed to get an education, made friends, and even bought a shop. Her life was like a dream.

If I told her now that all this wonderful life was about to shatter.
The young man from the expeditionary force was kicked by his comrade next to him before he realized what was happening.

"No, no, oh wait, it's something big, but good news! We've captured Bazel! He'll be escorted back from Blood Harbor soon, the train will arrive later!"

Betty paused for a moment before letting out a slow breath. She was being too anxious and fearful, always afraid of losing the life she had finally achieved.

"Yes, sorry!"

"It's alright, it's alright. Little girl, would you like some fried fish? There's a good shop nearby, I'll go buy you some."

His comrade next to him kicked him again.

Bettis turned around, grabbed two boxes full of fried fish, shoved them into the two people's hands, and ran towards the station.

She wanted to see for herself what the evil Count Bazel looked like; the newspapers had recently reported on him extensively, and Betty always found them fascinating.

Two expeditionary soldiers, holding fried fish in their hands, scratched their heads, still unsure of what to do, when suddenly they felt a weight on their shoulders.

The two turned around and saw a figure as strong as a bear standing behind them.

"Captain Kyle!?"

"I just heard someone say that some expeditionary soldiers were bullying a little girl, so I came to see what was going on." His gaze fell on the fried fish in the two people's hands.

"Oh, you even stole the fried fish?"

The two men, who had straightened up, began to tremble.

Betty jogged through the crowd, straining to stand on tiptoe and peer towards the station.

Unfortunately, she was too short, and there were too many people crowded at the station, so she couldn't see anything.

"Betty, you're here to join the fun too?"

Betty turned around and saw an old woman.

"Hello, Grandma." Betty quickly greeted her. This was a regular customer who often bought fried fish from her stall. She didn't know her name, but everyone called her Grandma, so Betty followed suit.

Grandma grinned, patted Betty's little head with a smile, and then took her hand: "Little Betty, Grandma will take you inside to have a look!"

"No, no need, I'll just keep an eye on things from outside!"

Betty tried to wave her hand to refuse, thinking that her mother-in-law looked quite old and it would be difficult for her to squeeze into the crowd.

But her mother-in-law pulled her through without a word, and to Betty's surprise, the journey went very smoothly.

Betty suddenly felt her mother-in-law loosen her grip, and the next moment, with a short scream, her mother-in-law actually picked her up.

(End of this chapter)