Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 570 Trial
Ash lifted Bazel's head in front of him, his cold eyes beneath the steel visor meeting the empty eye sockets of the skull.

"Humiliation and ridicule? I'm used to it." Bazel said coldly.

"No, I'm just stating a fact."

Ash shook her head, her snake tail swaying, and with a clatter of steel against concrete, she slowly stepped off the train.

She moved forward, toward her people, with the banshees following behind her, toward the people of Bloodharbor, amidst deafening cheers from the crowd.

Ash straightened up, raised the hand that was holding Bazel, and the Banshee's tall body stretched out, looking like a god walking among humans against the backdrop of her steel armor.

The banshees followed silently behind her, their armor creaking as they slithered. Mortal soldiers of the expeditionary force flanked them, holding aloft the insignia of Castel and the symbol of imperial truth, their rifles slung over their shoulders, the fine rifling visible through the dark muzzles.

The banshee and the soldiers marched down the street, and wherever they went, the people cheered. The prince's harbor guards stood on both sides of the street to maintain order during the procession.

This is Castells' most powerful moment. They took in refugees whom the North dared not accept, resolved the calamity that wiped out the White Ravens, defeated the combined forces of the three Grand Dukes of the four Northern Lords, and now they are parading the culprit, Bazel, through the streets of Bloodharbor.

A sudden blast of a ship's horn high in the sky seemed to make the earth tremble. Bazel looked at the shadows that had suddenly fallen on the ground and slowly looked up at the sky.

"What, what is that?"

"Airship, Castel's Sky Veil Beast, the manifestation of the Lord's will in the sky."

Ash raised her wrist, allowing Bazel, whom she was holding, to look up at the sky. Above the dome—no, that enormous, sky-covering figure was Bloodharbor's new sky.

A melodious steam whistle sounded from the sky, and a locomotive in the distance responded with its own whistle.

Many prisoners of war brought back from the North for trial collapsed to the ground, covering their ears and trembling all over. Every time the huge figure in the sky appeared, it was accompanied by the whistling sound of bombs cutting through the air, an echo of death in the present world.

They refused to get up from the ground, as if their souls had been crushed into dust by the explosions on the battlefield, leaving only their ownerless bodies trembling in place.

Bazel stared blankly at Castel's colossal celestial beast, lost in thought.

He never actually fought against Castells' expeditionary force; he had only heard about the deeds of several dukes.

In his view, the three dukes of the North were all useless: Duke Alvare was a useless man who only knew how to surrender, Octavia was a useless man who only knew how to run away, and Duke Dragonfang was a useless man who didn't even know how to run away or surrender.

Castel's victory over them doesn't necessarily mean he was that great; Bazel had also seized the territory from the three grand dukes.

But at this moment, as Bazel looked at the airship that almost covered the entire sky above, and then at the heavily armored Banshee beside him, he suddenly wavered.

Can he really defeat these monsters?
Perhaps provoking Castel was a mistake from the start.
No, impossible. Bazel gritted his teeth, a ferocious glint appearing in the skull's eye sockets.

Ash led Bazel through the streets of Bloodharbor and arrived at the port.

Rows of ironclad warships were already lined up, and they fired in unison when Ash arrived at the port.

The Dragon Breath Cannon unleashed a burst of bright jets, the fire so intense that it even eclipsed the sun in the sky.

Bazel was momentarily stunned by the firelight. By the time he came to his senses, Ash had already turned and led him away.

"This, this is."

Ash glanced at him but didn't tell him, "I don't need this to beat you up, you don't need to know." Bazel's eyes flickered, and after a moment of silence, a muffled voice came from the skull, "I thought we were going to board a ship to Castel."

"The trial court is in Blood Harbor. You will be sentenced here, and then sent to Castells after the verdict is handed down. Otherwise, if you go there first and go mad, wouldn't you have just evaded the trial for nothing?"

"Going to Castel would drive you crazy? Why?"

"It's hard to explain. Most people can't comprehend Castel's power. Even just the perception of him can shatter their will and drive them insane."

A hint of doubt flashed in Bazel's eyes.

What kind of power could drive someone mad, to the point that they can't even bear to look at you?

This is real?

Bazel wanted to retort, but thinking of all the strange sights he had seen in Blood Harbor along the way, he kept quiet.

He was dead, only a skeleton remained, devoid of flesh and blood.

Otherwise, if he still had a physical body, he might have shown some weakness and shame when he saw those things.

After the parade, Ash, accompanied by the banshees, took Bazel to the courtroom.

The courtroom was now full of people.

Apart from Judge Chloe, the high priest of the Bloodharbor Secret Order, Josh, the school principal, Zoe, the chief ship designer of Castells, Tata, the head of the arsenal, Gaia, and Richard, the head of the research and development department and chief of the Firemoth, were all present.

As for Hughes, he was whispering something to the prince beside him.

Although the prince's port guards did not participate in the battle directly, they had been helping the expeditionary force manage the rear. They were involved in maintaining security in Blood Harbor and transporting supplies.

Beside the prince was Galahad, the knight who had always followed the prince, now dressed in a completely different outfit.

He still had a long sword hanging at his waist, but he no longer wore that shiny plate armor. Although he was watching the trial in the courtroom, he still carried a long spear on his back.

It was a specially tuned bolt-action rifle, and with bullets he had hand-polished, it successfully set Castells' longest shooting record.

Beside Galahad was a somewhat hunched old man, Yuan, the prince's former butler.

Besides these, there were several unfamiliar faces, all of whom were civil officials promoted by the prince.

The prince continued to implement the empire's civil service system in Blood Harbor, but with further optimizations, completely eliminating the aristocratic system from the bureaucracy. Hughes had estimated that even without him, the border count, and without Castel, the prince himself could have completely changed the empire's administrative system.

In particular, after abandoning his status as empress, he could openly send nobles to the gallows and take back the power of the empire into his own hands.

The courtroom doors slowly opened, and Ash's tall figure appeared in the corridor, the towering dome of the hall seemingly not far away from her.

Everyone looked at Ash, who walked across the corridor and arrived at the original recessed area in the center of the courtroom.

He then shoved Bazel into a chair, sending bones flying everywhere.

(End of this chapter)