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

Meanwhile, the team assigned to stay was being oriented by Gill, this time they were heading around the territory for detailed guidance. Next to him was Poki, a Captain, as well as the handsome Gio his administrator-slash-secretary.

The small group walked around and studied the place, not taking to mind the various looks and whispers of the people around. Fortunately, everyone was busy making a living so there weren’t many people gossiping about them.

Outside the mines, the typical type of market found in aborigine villages was also predominant in Iron Mountains. There were hunters, gatherers, and those who process them, and they would do this over and over, day after day.

It was bland and boring to Alterrans, but it was the way of life here. The major change that their takeover had caused—so far—was just the lesser violence and maybe the activity brought about by the hiring notices.

It’d take time, but they should be able to improve it. In time, the cultures would mesh better and so would people’s lifestyles, regardless of whether they were aborigines or not.

Of course, they weren’t naive to think taking over people’s hearts would be easy. This was a place with aborigines as 99.9% of its population. This meant they grew up and lived with specific rules and world views. Handling this place was a far more difficult challenge than handling Limestone Valley.

Soon, they arrived at the barracks area. The barracks in Iron Mountains nee Guia Village was a System Barracks. Like the one Alterra got from Fargo Village, it was more like a place to train specific specializations—sword, spear, shield, or bow.

It was nothing that special to them because, unlike local territories, they didn’t mind training others and teaching others techniques. Alterra’s (which they got from Fargo) was connected to the main barracks and added as a feature that people could access using Contribution Points, but they were never dependent on it.

In Iron Valley, this was still very useful of course. In fact, at this time, the newly hired guards were there, training.

More than 50 people were doing the standard exercises. Some were sparring in an area, while the others were using the barracks’ features. For example, some people were lined up in the archery range, practicing, no doubt receiving System guidance here and there.

They were in groups, but the only two women were visibly separated from the others. They stood at least a few meters away from whichever group they were currently in.

Silvia saw this and looked immediately concerned. However, she didn’t dwell on to it yet as she listened to the status reports.

”We had already hired about 52 guards and are currently under probation. Two of them are… women,” Poki said, and his eyes couldn’t help but stick on the beautiful short-haired Silvia.

It was purely of admiration, curiosity, and also puzzlement. After all, she—also a woman—seemed to have a good position in the territory and it wasn’t anything he had seen before.

Rowan frowned and stepped forward, blocking his sight.

Poki shivered and looked away, once again wondering if he did anything wrong.

…

The group except for Poki left the barracks, and a few eyes followed them as they exited.

Poki noticed a few people pausing though and frowned. ”Go back to training! Do you want me to lower your score?”

Immediately, the newbies went back to training. The salary was confirmed to be really good, and they naturally didn’t want to lose the chance! In fact, they worked particularly hard today knowing the new leaders were passing by!

At some point, it was finally the women’s turn to the training area, and Poki couldn’t help but watch them closely.

Before leaving, Miss Silvia said to watch over the women—at least for the first few days—and to ensure they weren’t being bullied.

Yllana entered the swordsmanship area, while Mirea—-another one of the former lord’s women—-went to the Archery range.

As expected, their performance was really… inferior. They were slow and weak and they barely managed to pass the ’obstacle course’ test they set up.

Rather, they tried to pass it so desperately that Sir Gill probably felt pity on them.

He sighed, walking over to them after they were done. He was about to talk when he saw a few men stopped their tracks and watched curiously. Some even had derisive eyes, no doubt assuming the two women would be humiliated for their weaknesses.

Poki’s eyes twitched and he turned to the women. ”Let’s talk elsewhere,” he said before turning to look at the others, sneer on his face.

”Go back to work! We’re not paying you to gossip!”

...

The two women looked nervous as they were put aside to talk by the captain. It had only been a few days, were they going to be let go already?

Remembering their performances versus the men, they both felt a sense of dread regarding this conversation.

They didn’t want to leave! They liked the feeling of training. It was hard, but it felt like they were growing stronger, and they relished that feeling. Outside the barracks, it was too hard for them to do this!

At the thought, they couldn’t help but panic. ”Please don’t get rid of us! We’re going to try harder!”

Poki crossed his arms and sighed. ”I wasn’t. I’m taking you aside to ask you to work harder than others, and if anyone of the men try to bully you, inform me immediately.”

This made the two women flinch. ”Why…”

”Why am I being so kind?” Poki completed their sentence for them. ”Miss Silvia asked me to watch over you. She also told me to recommend action plans that would be good for you.”

The two women couldn’t believe their ears.

”That woman from before?” They couldn’t help but remember the beautiful woman with short hair with Sir Gill and the rest of them. Based on body language, she… seemed to have a similar standing to him?

”Yeah. Her name is Miss Silvia, she is in-charge of the administrative aspects of the territory.”

”What?”

The two women couldn’t help but look at each other with bright eyes.

It seemed that when Sir Gill said that women could have the same positions as men in their territory, he really… wasn’t lying?