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

A/N: Quarterfinals for Character Voting for Althea is uppp~ (Garan’s is in 3 days lol)

If you have extra points, please vote for our girl~

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While Gill had already arrived home with his beloved (and even going to hotels), Helios had just traced his own target.

It was not an easy task. However, he fortunately had been trained with some investigative skills and he finally found the woman’s identity.

Interestingly, one of the breakthroughs was the men he had taken her away from. They went to him themselves, not knowing it was him who caused them trouble.

They actually went to him for a deal about Alterran products and he low-key asked whether they knew of a pretty noble woman he could court.

They suggested a few to him, all daughters of rich merchants or low nobles, which in some perspectives was beyond his league. When they suggested this to him, it was with the attitude of doing him great favors.

They then ranted about a beautiful woman, who was sent by her father to help out their town. Helios had an inkling that it was her because they described her as a beautiful woman with unique sandy hair and she was taken away just when they were about to have fun with her.

He did not like their tone—it made him want to stab them and cut off their tongues—but, for the sake of getting information, he prodded them more.

He leaned over, as if curious. ”What kind of woman would escape from your clutches?”

”It’s just a woman from a barren town called Dune Town looking to save it,” the man said, sneering. ”It was quite amusing seeing her go around from noble house to noble house and asking for help—but also refusing to become the patriarch’s woman!”

The man spat on the ground. ”It was so… naive! Nobody would send their daughter out like that unless they were looking for a husband!”

That was what everyone assumed, and Helios wondered if that was really true. The culture of Xeno was really different, after all.

The thought of that woman married to someone else—getting touched by someone else—irked him so much. More importantly, seeing her suffer broke his heart.

The fact that these men almost touched her made him want to skewer them with metal spikes.

But, he stopped himself. Between him and his uncle, he was the suave one.

”I’m interested,” he said. ”In this so-called Dune Town,” he stood up and went to the pantry, generously getting them a glass of cheap Alterran alcohol. ”Tell me more.”

Their eyes sparkled at the drink, taking a sip, and appreciating its taste.

They didn’t know why he’d be interested in such a town, but they spilled info for goodwill. Anyway, there was no harm in telling, especially if it would give them more advantages for the ’imminent deal’.

So, with the influence of alcohol, they told him everything they knew.

Apparently, Dune Town was one of the very few towns in the Great Desert, a vast desert South, bordering the human territory, and a few others like some clans of orcs and, more prominently, the Undead.

When he heard of the undead, he immediately thought of zombies, particularly the type Terran was filled with before it got destroyed.

However, there were differences. For one, these things were not entirely brainless. They were not fully sentient and were definitely carnivorous, but they didn’t stupidly fall into traps and so on.

According to the information, the monsters were in what seemed like a perenial state of rotting but not completely dead.

They moved about as quickly as normal humans though. Imagine semi-rotting not-so-brainless enemies that couldn’t be killed easily, that would still move even if you removed appendages. He shivered at the thought.

In terms of strength, they were weaker than humans, probably due to the rotting muscles, but as mentioned they could continue to move even if there were only skeletons left in their bodies.

What was terrifying about them was the damage they could do when they scratched or bit someone. Unlike Terran zombies though, they wouldn’t turn into zombies as well.

Rather, it seemed like undead blood or saliva had a special component that kept them alive… and killed other people.

According to what they knew—though the story could’ve not been accurate as it had been some time and passed around so often—they arrived about a hundred years or so after the Elves disappeared.

They came in tens of millions and were one of the new species that were transmigrated like they did. It felt offensive to be ranked along with these monsters, but what could they do?

As one would expect, millions of zombies appearing wasn’t a minor thing. Fortunately, like what happened to the Terrans, these ’newcomers’ —who didn’t really have much humanity—were also concentrated in a particular area for the first month.

This area, luckily, was near the desert and only the fringe towns and villages experienced a zombie apocalypse of sorts.

It was a pandemic and several villages fell during this time, and even a town, and so the surrounding territories had no choice but to work together and contain this problem.

After a few hundred years of battle that spanned generations, the surviving Undead were finally pushed back somewhere far into the desert behind a tall mountain range. Every few years a few undead would appear and infect a few people, causing problems, but they would be dealt with with great force.

Anyway, Dune Town was one of the towns basically had to deal with that. Top that with their resource problem, people were suffering and the economy was at an all-time low. The best course of action was to establish a relationship with a richer town, which was what everyone assumed that woman was doing.

His heart broke for her. That amount of pressure… he wouldn’t wish it on his enemies.

”What’s her name?” He asked, appearing nonchalant. ”That woman.”

The men looked at him weirdly but answered what they knew. ”Sahara or something,” one said, though not entirely sure. They weren’t the type to remember mere women’s names.

Helios, though, felt it must be accurate. ”I see… Lady Sahara of Dune Town…” he repeated, as if tasting the name on his tongue.

What a beautiful name…