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

His eyebrows furrowed and looked at Gingo, trying to think where exactly it all went wrong. Sure, the enemy was well-prepared, but Bright Village was in no way weak compared to other villages. Even if it was defeated, it shouldn’t have been this… crushing, this helpless.

He looked at the man in front of him. Just how much of the chaos that happened before and during the war his doing?

Micheal opened his lord panel to see the list of population, his blue eyes scanning the names, as well as the loyalties. The average was still around 60s.

And Gingo’s… was as is.

This made his blonde brows furrow. ”How… your loyalty…”

”There’s a treasure that was lent to me by my friends, allowing me to add 50 to my loyalties,” Gingo kindly supplied, obviously not caring what he heard at this point.

Juno frowned at this. He had heard of it, but he had never seen such a tool himself, as it was something mostly found in cities or higher Towns. It simply didn’t occur to him to mention it to the lord, and he blamed himself for it.

”My lord, don’t blame yourself. They are too cunning. No one would’ve predicted it,” Juno said, weapon out and ready to fight the others as needed.

It was also Gingo who was the main voice against calling Altera for. After all, he had been in charge of the Treasury and he had one of the biggest voices regarding what they could afford.

How could they have known he was against the call for help because he was planning something so sinister?

”On the contrary, I should apologize, my Lord,” Juno said, heaving a deep breath. ”This information should have come from me.”

Micheal shook his head. This really couldn’t be blamed on their side at all.

”So loyalties in the panel may not be trusted, then,” Micheal mumbled, though internally thinking of what to do with the aftermath.

His people among the military force were either dead or had turned. What of the people?

Perhaps, he should’ve let them run to Altera? However, he shook his head in the end. They had noticed a number of people went missing right before the war.

In retrospect, considering how early they made a mess of their infrastructure, they might have been pruning their forces outside the territory early on as well.

Micheal only looked at the level 16 Juno before turning to the enemies. Unfortunately, Fargo had for some reason plenty of that level as well. However, the advantage of being the defending territory was that enemies beyond the level cap weren’t allowed to enter the walls. They could cause chaos outside, sure, but inside was a prohibited area.

This meant that Juno was the strongest within the walls at this time, and they naturally couldn’t be careless.

Of course, it wasn’t that they didn’t try to take him down before the war, primarily through poison. But Juno had always been distrusting in nature and he always took care of his meals on his own, making that plan fail.

It would’ve been a hard fight if they fought fairly, and now that there were so many attacks from all directions, Bright couldn’t fight back at all.

There were barely any deaths on the other side, while on his side not only Bruno, but also Dig died brutal deaths.

Dig even received a bullet from Gingo himself.

Micheal heaved a deep breath, looking at Gingo. ”Why?”

The man looked at him without emotions, ”I was promised to lead this place when you’re gone.”

”Do you really think they’d do that?”

”Sure. Their territory was placed in a really good spot, not inferior to Altera. I heard they even found limestone deposits there. Heh.”

”Well, now that you got it, now what?” Micheal asked, ”Are you going to kill me?”

”No, of course not,” he said, ”First, give us the token.”

Micheal gripped the token in the middle of his palm, eyes filled with reluctance. ”If I give this out, what is your guarantee that you won’t kill us?”

Gingo looked at him before laughing. ”Heh, funny how you say that. Speaking of which, we also want a lot more than just the token, and we prepared something to ensure we get that.”

The next thing they knew, he and Juno were being dragged out, all the way to the plaza.

The bloodied Micheal looked at the plaza that had been littered by his guards and citizens. There were many citizens who were held at gunpoint.

”Look at what you did,” Gingo said, ”If you had let go of that pride of yours, maybe they’ll safely be in Altera.”

His words triggered more sobs filled with regret and a few bad looks.

Micheal had his reasons and knew that it wouldn’t have been so simple, but what use would it be to explain now? Besides, with the enemies around the territory even before the war was announced, how could they have arrived in Altera safely?

Gingo and the other people of Fargo seemed to enjoy the despair in the air, relishing it.

But it was broken by screams when a few people were pulled into the open spaces with guns on their heads.

”YOU!” Micheal yelled, eyes contracting as an even darker omen gripped his gut. ”What do you want?!”

”In fact, we want more than just the token.”

During wars, Gingo learned from Fargo that not only would the token dissociate with the Lord, but the building functions would be greyed out and the execution of all rules and regulations would be temporarily halted.

All these had the obvious goal of hastening wars. With the right mind, it could also easily be used by enemies.

”We want everything.”

Even if the Lord token was taken, the money remained with the Lord. They wouldn’t be able to recover whatever gold or inventory a person had when he died. What could he do with zero gold?

”You can buy people’s lives with the token and the gold you have,” Gingo said with a grin, ”What do you say?”