Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 87 The Secret of the Shell

Beatrice's maid soon came to tell her that the noble lady was ill and planned to rest for a day before attending the dinner prepared by Hughes tomorrow.

Zeus naturally agreed and asked his servants to deliver soap and perfume. There was naturally no condition for taking a bath while sailing on the sea. Although extraordinary people did not sweat much, they must have the need for a clean bath at this moment, which was a great opportunity to sell soap.

After explaining in detail how to use the soap and simply mentioning that it was a specialty of Castel, Hughes asked the maid to deliver an exquisite gift box.

——These soaps are naturally not only packaged in oil paper, those exquisite boxes are indispensable packaging to increase their value.

After dealing with Beatrice, Hughes found Connor.

He planned to ask about the Candlelight Society's actions.

His series of actions of going to the dock to greet her were only partially due to the need to sell soap, but his main purpose was to face Beatrice as a noble.

Beatrice is a noble and also an investigator of the Candlelight Society. However, the secrets on Castel are too real to withstand investigation. So, Zeus' best option is to completely pin this lady down as a "noble lady" before she even realizes what's going on.

As expected, Beatrice was still a little young, and she subconsciously followed Zeus's guidance and put herself in worldly shackles.

In this era, it is inappropriate for a noble lady to show herself in public.

The aristocratic circles in the empire were very chaotic, but most of that was done by married ladies. The upper class was still quite strict with unmarried ladies.

Hughes planned to continue playing the aristocratic social game with Miss Beatrice until she left.

This also has the advantage that Zeus can explore the secrets of his previous body, that is, the worker Zeus.

——Does the worker Hughes have a secret?
Lord Xius felt that there was a reason. Candlelight had gone to great lengths to transport the corpse intact and even specially brought the relevant workers here to pack it up. No matter how you looked at it, there must be some reason.

What could it be? A casual joke he'd made that triggered cognitive interference?

It is possible, but not very likely. He did improve the steam engine at that time, but there was no problem with his understanding of the machine, and the improvements he made were just some peripheral transmission equipment.

He gathered the workers together to tell stories - those stories did contain a lot of scientific terms, and he did intend to popularize science, but before he even started, he was killed by the priest.

Speaking of which, the identity of the priest seemed a bit strange. In the past, Zeus had a low status and had no contact with the church. In this life, he is a lord and has a certain understanding of the Candlelight Society.

But according to Nora, neither the [Investigator] nor the [Secret Keeper] would be dressed in gears and metal prosthetics. Maybe there would be a chance to hint at Beatrice.

"Master Hughes, Sister Chloe has completed the ceremony and sent the workers here. I have placed them on the east side of the island according to your previous arrangements. It's not far from your experimental base, and our people are guarding the area."

"Great, where's the cultist's body?"

"Buried in the cemetery in front of the church."

Hughes knew the cemetery, which was right in front of the church. He had passed by it before when he went to see Sister Chloe.

At that time, he was curious about why there were two cemeteries in one church. Now it seems that the believers are buried in the cemetery behind the church, and the cemetery in the front is used to seal the cultists?
"Do they have any rituals? Purify the cultists or something?"

"Probably not." Connor paused. "It was one of our people who buried the wooden box. There are not many people in the church. Brother Keschi is sick, Sister Chloe doesn't have much strength, and the believers in the church, uh..."

"What happened to the believers?"

"Believers come to our factories to work and have little time to attend church services."

The corners of Zeus' mouth twitched. Why did it feel like this church was in such a bad state?

All the believers went to work for money, and not many people came to the church. I don’t know how Sister Chloe managed it.

"Okay, let's leave it like this for now."

Connor nodded and took his leave. He had a lot of things to do recently. He had to make careful arrangements for tomorrow's dinner and also find a way to collect information about Ruoan's family.

Hughes sat on the chair for a while, then walked to the door and locked it.

He planned to find a chance to see the body of the worker Hughes later.

Although it's buried, digging it out shouldn't be difficult. Currently, there's only Sister Chloe in the church. I wonder what's happened to Brother Keschi, who's suspected to be a supernatural being. Now's a good time to investigate. Speaking of which, could Brother Keschi be the "Secret Keeper"? He seems completely different from the previous priest. There's no mechanical structure on him at all.

"Forget it, let's contact the Banshees first. We'll have to rely on them if we want to investigate."

Hughes did not intend to go and dig the grave openly.

There is a large forest near the church, and it is very easy to hide in it.

A plan gradually formed in his mind.
"Ok?"

Just as Zeus opened the mind link and was about to summon the Banshee, he suddenly thought of something.

When he was on the Golden Throne, he had the body of the worker Zeus.

After he was killed, the body would synchronously show a bloody hole in the chest.

Then
"If the corpse changes, will it also be reflected in the body?"

hiss.
This had never occurred to him before, but it was not difficult to verify.

After looking at the locked door, Xius found a comfortable position and slowly closed his eyes.

On the golden throne, Zeus's expression gradually became lively.

Soon, he withdrew his gaze from Lord Xius, and the noble boy lowered his head slowly like a puppet.

"It's back again."

His eyes turned to the chairs beside the long table.

A strong middle-aged man, an old man with white hair, a priest in a white robe, and a young man.

He first looked at the middle-aged man.

"Well, during the first advent, a farmer honestly farmed for a while, but when he was walking to a nearby town, he was killed by robbers."

There were several bloody holes in the farmer's chest.

Hughes turned his head.

"The second time I landed at the port, I found clues about the local brotherhood and wanted to investigate if they had any supernatural powers. However, I accidentally exposed myself and was killed."

Hughes looked at the priest and frowned this time.

"This body has been here ever since I crossed over. I can't descend, and I can't communicate. It seems something went wrong."

He stared at the white-robed priest, but the priest kept his head down, his face buried in the shadows, and did not look at him like the other bodies.

"Well, then there's the worker, Zeus, from last time. It looks like there's nothing wrong with the wound on his chest. It doesn't seem to have been touched. Perhaps it can only record the state at the moment of death."

He deliberately avoided the eyes of the worker Hughes.

If he looked into the body's eyes, the body would turn and look him in the eye, then complete the descent.

But if you don't look into the body's eyes like you are doing now, nothing will happen.

——This is how it should be.

As he stared at the wound, the worker Zeus slowly turned around and looked at the Golden Throne.

Under Zeus's horrified gaze, he tilted his head.

(End of this chapter)