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

This bitch!

She definitely led them to believe that they’d pander to their request!

If Silvia knew his thoughts, she would just smile professionally. Technically speaking, she hadn’t committed anything of the sort. These people simply took her words with the interpretation of their own bias.

With that bias being their wants followed without question—especially by a woman.

If they had made an oath, they wouldn’t have been able to force her to do what they thought she promised.

Of course, even if she said this though, it would only fuel the man’s fire.

He felt Rowan’s stare at him and he forced himself to calm. However, it was evidently not easy, because veins seemed to be popping all over his body, and a little more of this and he’d explode.

Ashol took a deep breath. However, if it would expedite the process, they might have no choice but to accept.

This wasn’t what had been discussed—at least not what he was led to believe.

Ashol’s eyes traced over the woman’s body, his own already heating up at the thought of it naked under him. He’d just punish her later on.

For now, he had to do his tasks and he shifted his malicious gaze to the other customers instead.

Anyway, these people shouldn’t dare raise the price after hearing they were from Valov Town! Maybe they’d even lower it!

He miscalculated this time. Again.

While some were indeed intimidated by the power of a Town—there were plenty of people there who were from towns themselves! These people… vehemently disagreed with the deal.

To make matters worse (for Valov) the remaining stocks were even bidded out. ”A powerful town like Valov should be able to out-bid the others,” Rowan said at the side, making them a little panicked.

In the end, the bidding began, and this earned Iron Mountains a lot of extra money.

It irked Ashol and the others very much, especially when they lost batch after batch, and they had to see other people smiling as they won a whole pile of black metal—each one Valov Town was being forced to let go of.

They were humiliated, and those smiling faces felt like mockery to them.

Someone from their team wanted to fake it and just force them to accept their lack of funds after they won the bid, but Silvia stopped this by saying she’d only accept upfront payment in public.

”For fairness of the bidding, all payments had to be done in front of everyone,” she said. ”We can’t have other people bidding over others but not planning to pay, right? That is what weak territories do.”

This shut down their nefarious plans. If they were unable to take out the money required, then they—and the territory—would only be embarrassed.

In the end—after a few more batches—Valov didn’t win a single one!

The arrogant Valov citizens were not reconciled. ”WHAT IS THIS?” he yelled. ”This is not fair! REDO IT!”

Some other people, particularly those who had won their batches, quickly chimed in. ”We won fair and square!” he said. He was one of the people from Ferrol Town and was a frequent customer here since the heat wave.

”Your Valov Town can’t be thinking of stealing in broad daylight!? Against our territory?”

Ashol pursed his lips and couldn’t speak for a bit. Ferrol Town was a higher level town than Valov. However, it wasn’t like they didn’t have stronger backing!

The thought allowed him to straighten his back and glare at them. He looked at Silvia and Rowan, who were now standing together and staring at them—as if waiting for what they’d do next.

”I clearly told you that this doesn’t only involve the interests of Valov Town,” he said, tone filled with implications.

However, it didn’t seem to shake either one of the two.

”We cannot damage the interest of the whole territory for you.”

Seeing her so arrogant, the misogynistic men decided it was time to put her in place.

”I’ve had enough of this!!” Ashol yelled, his large hands extending to get her. Similarly, his cronies gestured to attack everyone else—particularly, those who had won the bid.

However, another flash of light passed by and, this time, every one of them were transferred to the Prison.

Things immediately calmed down then, and Silvia—like a professional as always—simply apologized to their guests. ”I’m sorry for that,” she said. ”It’s difficult to handle some territories. You understand.”

”No worries, Silvia,” their regulars said with smiles. ”Some people are just difficult to talk to.”

She chuckled and excused herself. Rowan followed closely behind her, staring at her back and making sure she was okay psychologically.

He knew that—while Silvia didn’t shiver or falter at all during that event—she was definitely scared.

As they walked though, they were as relieved as they felt heavy.

”A lot of things happened, I see,” a voice sounded and they turned to see it was Reno. ”I was gone for half a day…”

He was part of the clearing team that left early that day, so his armor still had splatters of blood and his weapon had fresh marks of battle.

”Brother,” Silvia said, heaving out the breath she had been holding. Rowan saw this and wanted to pat her head. He wondered when she’d be able to breathe this easily as long as he was with her.

Reno was actually a few levels lower than he was, but in her mind he was still the most reliable.

This was understandable, of course. Although Rowan was stronger (for now) in terms of raw power, he still had a lot to learn when it came to other things like managing territories, certain more complex techniques, handling people, and so on.

Still, Rowan’s wish was to be skilled enough so the woman could relax as soon as he arrived. He still had much to learn, however.

Silvia was also a perfectionist, so Rowan’s evident lack of administrative knowledge and EQ indeed posed many challenges to him.

Anyway, Silvia filled her brother out with the events, and each sentence got him more and more tense.

He sighed in the end. ”Send a letter to Alterra,” he said. ”We need to know what they’d want us to do with those people.”

Then… he remembered the bits of information they got so far.

”And also tell them what we could be up against in the future.”