“You want to touch my ship? You want to touch the Black Pearl!?”

On the dock, Jeremiah stood with a twisted expression, arms spread wide as he blocked the way in front of the Black Pearl like a mother hen protecting her chicks.

Standing opposite him were several engineers from the Moths Chasing Fire.

Kenn was at the front, still holding a stack of blueprints in his hands.

“Please calm down, Captain. We’re only here to get your opinion.”

“Impossible! If you want to touch my ship, you’ll have to step over my dead body first!”

One of the researchers from the Moths Chasing Fire tried to explain, “This is a free upgrade. Castel will cover all the refitting costs.”

“I refuse! The Black Pearl is everything to me. Don’t even think about sticking those two ugly wheels on her!”

“But this will improve her sailing speed—”

“That’s still… not happening! Don’t think I don’t know!” Jeremiah snorted coldly. “Even with paddle wheels and steam power, your ships can’t go over 10 knots. The Black Pearl sails faster than that with a favorable wind!”

“And have you considered this? The Black Pearl has a wooden frame. If you jam a steel steam engine straight into her, it’ll wreck her!”

“Don’t worry, Mr. Jeremiah.” Kenn quickly tried to reassure him. “We’ll also replace your lower deck with metal while we’re at it.”

“Metal lower deck?” Jeremiah frowned for a moment before glaring again. “Still no! I absolutely won’t let you attach wheels to her sides!”

“Relax, relax, no wheels.” Kenn hastily pulled out a blueprint. “We’re planning to use a propeller for propulsion.”

“No wheels? Then how’s the ship supposed to move? You little runt must be lying to me.” Jeremiah glared hard at Kenn, but his gaze couldn’t help drifting toward the blueprint in his hands.

There was a three-view drawing of a propeller on it, complete with specific dimensions and parameters.

Jeremiah’s eyes scanned the blueprint. He was standing a bit far, so he couldn’t make out the finer details. He snorted again and yanked the blueprint over.

“Hmph, this mounting position… under the water? So it can’t be seen from outside.”

But after staring at the propeller for a long time, he scratched his head in confusion. “This thing… what exactly does it do?”

Structures like this had actually appeared before—like the blades on a windmill at a mill. If Zoe, the mill master’s daughter, were here, she would’ve understood it instantly. Unfortunately, Jeremiah was a pirate. He had never seen a windmill.

“Mm, once it spins, it generates thrust. We’ve got a few test machines at the shipyard. Want to come take a look?”

“Fine... Wait!” Jeremiah’s eyes once again filled with suspicion. “You better not try to sneakily modify my ship while I’m away!”

He pointed at the Black Pearl, then at his own eyes. “I’ve got my eyes on you. If she has even a single part more or less when I get back, I’ll, I’ll…”

He hesitated. Normally, at this point, Jeremiah would show off his cutlass and musket as a threat—but his blade was currently with Alexei, and his musket...

The Moths Chasing Fire mostly held positions in the Holy Guard. Jeremiah glanced at the bolt-action rifles slung on their backs, then touched his own musket at his waist—and silently pulled his hand back.

Compared to those rifles, his crude musket was like a toy water pipe.

But a seasoned old pirate like him was not someone to be trifled with. Jeremiah sneered:

“I’ll expose your little scheme to the press and have Nini write a ruthless article on all of you!”

Hiss—

The Moths Chasing Fire members all took a step back, eyes darting away.

“Mr. Jeremiah, please, there’s no need for that, no need at all. Why don’t you come with me to the shipyard first?” Kenn coaxed and nudged him off to the side, the two of them walking together toward the shipyard.

Only then did the researchers finally breathe a sigh of relief. Nini’s deterrent power really was too much.

They truly had no other choice. Although they had successfully built a propeller based on the path provided by the Lord, they quickly found themselves in an awkward situation: there were no ships left for modifications.

Building a ship from steel was a comprehensive endeavor. No faction in this world had ever attempted such a feat, and the engineers of the Moths Chasing Fire didn’t know much about ships to begin with.

Though the addition of Kenn and Jeremiah had accelerated the project considerably, it was still not something that could be completed in a short time.

The Banshees had indeed found a few half-built ships in Gem Bay earlier, but Castel was currently in dire need of ships. All of them were converted into paddle steamers for immediate use, except for the one heading to Blood Harbor. The rest were now ferrying goods between Castel and Gem Bay.

Development of Gem Bay had already begun and was currently Castel’s most important project, prioritized even above Blood Harbor.

Though Blood Harbor had become a convergence point of various forces and was Castel’s first beachhead on the mainland, in the end, it was merely a port.

And ports—Gem Bay had many of them.

Thus, even though Hughes valued Blood Harbor, he had not neglected development in Gem Bay. For example, there was now a dedicated ship traveling back and forth between Castel and various mines in Gem Bay.

Gem Bay, also known as the Martha Archipelago, spanned a vast area. Although many secrets still lay hidden within it, Hughes had already dispatched people with the sea charts they had found and begun developing the mines.

Ores and raw materials were the foundation of industry. Hughes understood this perfectly. Everything in Castel was built on industrialization. What mattered most now was to continue advancing technology. As long as they were strong and advanced enough, whatever conspiracies surrounded them would be meaningless.

Take that prince, for example—he had used every tactic at his disposal to quell the rebellion in Blood Harbor. Truly impressive. But what if Hughes had been the one leading the Holy Guard there?

A machine gun at the camp gate—

Surrounded by heretics, deploy a machine gun—

And everything else could be resolved with a single squeeze of the trigger.

Only the weak needed to rely on schemes and finesse. With overwhelming firepower, all one had to do was crush their enemies.

In fact, if Hughes’s original fief had been Blood Harbor, there probably wouldn’t have been a rebellion in the first place. That Life Mother Church cult would likely be working for him, and that so-called Mother Priestess Mila might even be hanging from the chapel’s ceiling in Chloe’s place by now.

In his office, Hughes watched as a paddle steamer slowly entered the port, his gaze flickering.

Connor and Galahad had arrived.

They were Castel’s first batch of guests.

That prince—friend or foe, it remained to be seen. But that didn’t stop Castel from doing business with him.

If he was a friend, then it would be free trade.

If he was an enemy, then let Blood Harbor witness the Imperial Truth.