After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World

”I’ll miss you, bro,” Ansel said as they saw Oslo off in the gate. Oslo laughed, copying him and placing his hand on the other’s shoulder.

”Likewise,” he said with a smile, his sights moving to the rest of the crowd seeing him off. His eyes somehow fixed on the beautiful woman with green eyes. ”I will miss all of you.”

And he turned back with his bike, heart filled with gratitude, looking forward to what he could possibly give them back.

As Oslo went out, another group was heading in from the southwest direction.

It was Gill’s group, still much larger than the seven people who left Altera a few weeks prior.

The group brought a couple of new people with them, all with various emotions, unsure of what to expect of this new territory—a new village.

For example, in the Terran Mercenary team, there were the five aborigine team members they brought. They felt complex and were really unsure of what to expect of… a village.

After all, growing up, they had known villages as the lowest level existence among territories. The difference between typical villages and towns was as start as the sky and the ground.

However, they had seen the products and felt this one was different.

How different though, they really couldn’t tell.

The soldiers chose members of the logistics team for this batch, including Pipa and Roana, in hopes they learned something from the Alteran locals. The primary goal here was to improve the life of the members staying in Ferrol and perhaps guide them to triggering occupations themselves.

Of course, the Aborgines signed a bond with them, where they’d have to work for the Terran Mercenary team for at least 5 years, depending on the value of knowledge and improvements they received.

It would also lessen the inevitable reluctance the people assigned to Ferrol would feel. After all, they would still be able to eat delicious fresh food even when they were far from Altera!

Other than their own team, another group was an uninvited one. They literally just caught wind of their leaving and randomly decided to tag along.

This group consisted of Cassandra, her friend, their maids, and their guards.

The bright side was that Cassandra’s group had rented some beast carriages for them, lessening their travel time, so they didn’t mind the intrusion.

One must know that because of the blood-thirsty nature of the beasts, it was technically impossible to tame them.

Beast Tamers, a rare occupation, learned a technique to get into beast’s minds and make them believe the tamer was one of them—that the Tamer was the undisputed leader, and whatever he said was to be followed.

Even if the drivers of the carriages were not necessarily beast tamers themselves, they had to have the special whistle bespoke for that monster by the beast tamer. Excluding the exuberant fees of tamers themselves, the whistles were also extremely expensive.

This was why carriages, on most occasions, could only be seen in cities or high-level towns.

Anyway, during territory wars, special teleportation circles could be activated at a discounted cost. The need to improve transportation wasn’t too critical so it never really developed beyond the rare carriage or slave-pulled rickshaws.

Hence despite being so expensive (and risky), it remained to be the most sought-after mode of transportation.

But rich-girl Cassandra brought three. Although her town wasn’t a city yet, it was obvious it was not far from upgrading.

She bribed their team with the free use of her carriages and they agreed. Anyway, the woman brought a few guards with higher levels than they did, so they didn’t think of her as a burden at all.

As such, the men were divided into two carriages, and the two women and their respective maids stayed in one.

Speaking of maids, their names were Cicy and Vivi, respectively. They were both in their late twenties, around their age, and they had served the two ladies since they were children.

Even with the wide gap between nobles and commonfolk, the two ladies still treated the girls like sisters, at least more than the norm. So while the two ladies chatted, the maids often joined in.

The four of them usually chat around a lot while traveling, but this time Cassandra was being unusually quiet.

”Did anything happen to your lady?” Vivi asked Cici who shook her head with a similar expression of puzzlement.

Veronica pouted, crossing her arms, but patiently waited for the other girl to open up like she usually did.

So, uncharacteristically, the women’s carriage was a little more quiet than usual.

Thanks to the carts, the few-day travel time was reduced to less than a day, and they were nearing their destination when Veronica couldn’t hold her breath anymore.

At this time, Cassandra was still glaring at the carriage in front—something she had been doing for hours.

It was amazing how her purple eyes were still lubricated with all the staring.

Veronica looked at her friend with a lot of eagerness. ”Still not going to tell me?”

Cassandra blushed. ”No!” She said, but her mind inevitably went back to that day of her first ’real’ kiss.

They were obviously arguing a few moments prior, but the next thing she knew their lips were locked, electric currents passing between them.

It was also very hot and she wondered whether Gill used his ability on her.

Cassandra’s breath hitched as she felt his lips grind on hers, and her heart filled with a mixture of surprise and anticipation.

She gasped in his lips as he pulled her closer to him, making their bodies flushed, and she relished in his warmth.

She closed her eyes as she absorbed all the sensations.

’So this is what a real kiss feels like…’ she thought, but her mind was quickly turned to mush as he parted her lips with his tongue, gingerly entering her mouth and tasting every bit of it.

Their lips and tongues clashed, expressing what couldn’t be said in words.

Her fingers buried in his long hair, mimicking him, taking an active part in the sensual exploration of each other’s mouths

They were still in an alley, but they forgot they were still in public.

Then they heard chatters nearing and Gill immediately separated from her, walking away without another word.

Present—

She could still remember his toe-curling kiss that straightened her spine and struck her soul like it just happened.

How dare he skitter away without a word after giving her the best kiss she’d had so far!

Prick!

It was just that her upbringing prevented her from demanding an answer after that. She still had her pride!

She was curious about Altera itself this time, and she was not following him at all!

Veronica’s eyebrows rose and leaned over, trying to get her to spill, but the other woman was deep in a heated soliloquy with herself.

It was just that before Veronica could pinch her to catch her attention, the carriage stopped abruptly.

”Halt!” She heard her guard yell. Veronica nodded at her maid who sneaked her head out the curtain.

”What’s going on?” She asked, Cassandra was finally pulled out of her trance and looked around.

”The carriage up front suddenly stopped,” Cassandra mumbled, making Veronica roll her eyes.

”Yes, I can see that.”

Cassandra missed the quip and looked out as well. ”Is it another mob?”

This made Veronica and the maids worry, ”No, right?”

Fortunately, they weren’t left steaming in worry for too long. Soon enough, instead of yells and monster growls, they heard discussions and exclamations instead.

They soon realized that they were made by the familiar voices of the Terran members.

”What is that?” One asked, and they recognized the voice as Luis. Sammy soon answered him after a moment of pause.

”Looks familiar…”

”Is that a bike?”

”F-Fudge! Seriously?!”

”Cool! They finally finished it! Where do I order?!”

A similar discussion about the ’bike’ exploded from the soldiers, while everyone else was just puzzled.

The girls were very curious and were about to go out when they heard another yell.

”Hey, it’s Oslo!”

Cassandra and Veronica paused their movements, eyebrows raised high at the mention of the familiar name. ”Our Oslo?”

”Probably just the same name?”

The two quickly got out of the carriage with their two maids following closely behind.

They walked forward to see that it was indeed the handsome blonde, riding a weird contraption with two wheels.

”Oslo?” She voiced out, though without the usual tone of annoyance. Although she talked about him behind his back with family, she never actually did so outside.

One reason was that they were actually friends and it was just her hobby to mock him (he really, really deserved it anyway). Another reason was that his family was much richer than hers—even if they weren’t lords themselves.

In terms of network and riches, the Golds surpassed her family’s many times. And even if he was useless, the guy was both a dual elementalist and an architect.

A waste. The biggest waste of talent Xeno had ever seen…

She also knew that he had been sent to villages via the Chancery of Appointments for training.

Heh… it must’ve been torture for him to be a hired help at some random village—

But her purple eyes looked at his handsome face which was all bright with smiles.

Er…, probably?

He… probably lost it after all the stress, perhaps??