Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

Chapter 33: Ores and Schools

When Hughes returned to the manor, he encountered Alexei, who was waiting for him.

Seeing the somewhat awkward smile on Alexei's face, Hughes immediately guessed his reason for coming.

"Out of money?"

"Yes." Alexei sighed. "Whether it’s recruiting personnel to explore the island or establishing a school, everything requires money. Not to mention the renovation of the workshop."

There was no way around it. Any industry required initial investment, and this part of the expenditure was unavoidable. Hughes was already mentally prepared for it.

"Don't worry about the money. I'll figure something out. Tell me about the progress."

Alexei nodded and quickly took out his notebook.

"The mineral deposits have basically been identified. Most of this information comes from previous island surveys. We followed the records to investigate the sites and compiled the findings."

Hughes took the booklet and flipped through it casually. His eyes widened in surprise.

"You're saying the island has iron ore, copper ore, limestone, sulfur, and gypsum? And all of these have already been confirmed?"

"Yes. I've personally visited these mining areas. Aside from some uncertainty about the exact quality, everything else checks out." Alexei shrugged. "We don’t have professional surveyors, so we could only ask some blacksmiths to take a look."

"Without proper surveying, how did you find these mines?" Hughes twitched at the corner of his eye. "They wouldn’t happen to be open-pit mines, would they?"

Alexei nodded. "They are."

Hughes fell silent.

Open-pit mines might not always yield the highest-quality ore, but they would never be too poor either.

Besides, for Castel at this stage, mining more challenging ore veins was almost impossible.

Hughes hadn’t expected much, yet it turned out that all of them were open-pit mines?

"Why weren’t these mines developed before?" Hughes took a deep breath.

"My lord, this is the Storm Ocean." Alexei gave a bitter smile.

Indeed, this was the Storm Ocean. Pirates lacked the ability to smelt metals; they preferred to buy finished products directly.

The northern White Raven Principality and the western Empire had no shortage of ores, so there was no reason to transport them from such a distance.

As for the south? Would anyone dare to cross the storms at the center of the Storm Ocean?

Speaking of mines, Hughes suddenly recalled what he had seen underwater, how the Siren tribe, enslaved by the fishmen, was primarily engaged in mining.

So there were ore veins beneath the sea as well. They just needed to drive away the fishmen.

Wait a minute. Why were the fishmen mining? Could they even smelt ores underwater?

Hughes narrowed his eyes.

"Let's set that aside for now. How are the factories coming along?"

"The olive oil factory is already running smoothly. The trial production phase was a success, and now the process is stable. Output is steadily increasing, but…"

"But what?"

"The production of olives can’t quite keep up. Castel does have many olive trees, but a lot of them are on the mountains, making them hard to harvest."

Hughes nodded. He had already noticed this issue.

Olive trees were not particularly suited for tropical climates. Castel had a towering volcano, and the climate at its base differed greatly from that of the mountains. Olives mainly grew in the valleys, and the easily accessible ones were limited.

Transporting olives down from the mountains was exponentially more difficult.

Without suitable transport equipment or even paved roads, harvesting required a massive amount of manual labor.

"Don't forcefully harvest the mountain olives. Human resources are extremely valuable. Our goal isn’t just to produce olive oil but to train a skilled workforce."

"Skilled workers?"

Alexei was taken aback. He had no experience managing factories.

To him, these craftsmen were like the logistics troops of an army, there were elite combat units, but he had never heard of elite logistics teams.

He had visited the factories before. The craftsmen were doing repetitive and simple tasks. What was there to train?

Hughes chuckled. "Look, the people working in the factory now, I call them craftsmen, not workers. That’s because they haven’t fully adapted to factory operations yet. Even though they work in a factory, they’re doing things similar to what they did in workshops."

"But my definition of a worker is someone who has basic professional knowledge, who knows what they should do, what they can do, what is dangerous, and what is life-threatening."

"Don’t underestimate this. Industrial processes must be learned over time. Many dangers aren’t immediately obvious. If people don’t learn and adapt…"

"Then it will cost lives."

Alexei was speechless. He had never considered this before.

"Just wait and see. Once the workers in the olive oil factory become more proficient, production efficiency will improve drastically, and accidents will decrease significantly."

Hughes flipped through his notes and asked, "How's the school coming along?"

"We've found a few empty buildings. Desks and furniture are easy to arrange, but it's hard to gather enough books and paper in a short time."

"No need to worry about that." Hughes smiled. In this era, when people thought of schools, they envisioned something akin to modern universities.

Basic education? Nobles hired private tutors, while commoners—

Why would commoners need to go to school?

Hughes needed to solve the problem of fundamental education, to train qualified engineers, or even lower, to train qualified workers.

"Our school doesn’t need paper and pens. Just find a wall or a large enough wooden board and paint it black." A blackboard was enough for teaching.

The territory produced gypsum and limestone, making chalk incredibly easy to manufacture.

Even without chalk, one could write on a blackboard using a piece of soil.

"Education isn’t as difficult as people think. As long as there are students and a blackboard, knowledge can be passed on."

Alexei opened his mouth, wanting to say something but unsure how.

Although he was an orphan, he had received an elite education and understood the implications of Hughes’ actions.

Universal education? Teaching a bunch of commoners to read?

Just the idea of such a school would make Hughes a laughingstock among the nobility.

Yet Alexei felt something indescribable.

He had grown up in an orphanage. He had seen how the lower class toiled their entire lives in confusion.

He was not one of the high-and-mighty nobles, his feet had once trodden the muddy earth too.

In the end, he said nothing. He simply tightened his grip on the curved blade at his waist, it was the one Hughes had given him.

Lately, it had become his habit. Whenever he held the blade, strength surged from within, supporting him.

"In any case, the school must start classes as soon as possible. I will personally select the instructors. The workshop renovations must also proceed without delay. Our time is limited."

Alexei gave Hughes a serious look, saluted him, and left the manor.

"Why is he using military salutes again…"