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

”Y-You can have it! Just let me go!” Tout screamed, as if it was a good deal for Alterra—one that he ’willingly lost to’, even.

Mathilda ignored him while she thought, and Angelo 1just smacked him on the back of his head. ”You can’t possibly think we’ll just let you go, right?”

At this, some of the popcorn-eaters at the side commented. ”He’s stupid enough to think he’ll win against Alterra! Don’t assume he has a brain!”

”...”

Tout gritted his teeth, his eyes twitching in annoyance. He just sent everyone his ’deadliest’ glare, before turning to stare at Angelo.

”You’re probably going to keep me to know more about Basset Town! Too bad—I’m under oath!!” he said with a vindictive grin, as if that’d cause despair.

”Don’t worry, we have our ways,” Angelo said—completely unaffected—and he looked at Mathilda, who waved them away.

Angelo grinned and dragged the bloodied bloke straight to the torture chambers. Only Patte was there now, it was nice to have a new guy.

Tout didn’t know where he was being taken, but he was instinctively terrified. ”Noooo!” he yelled, trying to struggle, but to no avail.

He had been weakened greatly—when the war ended, his spirit was dangerously low. Then, when he was pulled up, he was also forced to eat a pellet that made it difficult for him to gather enough energy to even attempt to run away.

”Let me go!!!” he yelled, but then… Angelo did, and his face fell smack on the ground.

BANG!

”You—”

”SHUT UP!” Angelo yelled, hitting his head. He coughed, and could only look bitterly at the young man.

This wasn’t fair! He gave them his token!

(He forgot that Angelo found it instead, but who was counting?)

As he was dragged though, he could hear the the old woman ask the crowd. ”Who wants to buy a token?” she asked. ”We’ll start selling it for… 50 Gold.”

”!!!”

The cheapest token could sell for 1000 gold, okay! The incredibly poor and hopeless ones would still sell for 100!!

”First priority are Alterran Residents, does anyone want to buy it?”

”Eh…”

Tout could hear some groans all around him. He turned to see, gaping when he saw their expressions.

These people dared look disgusted!!

So rude!!!

…

No Alterran Resident volunteered in the end. This was understandable. They had worked very hard to become proper residents, who’d want to get a disgusting headache?

”No Residents? Then Alterran Citizens,” she said, referring to those who were paying the daily fees.

Naturally, there was a bit of a pause, with some people genuinely thinking about it. If one just looked at its definition, anyone who wanted a bit of power—and hadn’t invested too much in Alterra yet—would naturally be tempted!

Still, no one moved forward.

First of all, there was the issue of money. Unlike Residents, they had a very limited amount they could take out.

In general, non-Residents could only loan enough to use for a few month’s survival at best.

And… after a bit of thought, they also didn’t want to go out of Alterra.

Leading another territory was too troublesome! The infrastructure (or lack thereof) was already there and would be too costly to demolish and upgrade. Who would want to live in such a ’primitive’ place?

It would be full of aborigines, too! In the past months, a lot of exchanges between the satellites had happened. From the stories in Iron Mountains, they naturally had an idea about the challenges of taking a predominantly aborigine territory!

”Okay, so last chance, Alterrans, I will be selling to the guests.”

No one answered and Mathilda turned to look beyond the crowd to the curious aborigines. They had been there a while, some being there for as long as the Alterrans.

Interestingly, a lot of them had bought some recliners and chairs from Baron’s woodworking shop and they were quite comfortable at the side, being sold various goods by the opportunistic snack sellers.

”We only need you to sign a peace oath—that is, you will simply not be allowed to attack Alterra or any of the associate territories. Other than that, it’s yours.”

”The price will start at 100 Gold,” she said.

At this, many aborigines raised their hands. To be honest, they were shocked that no Alterran seemed interested, but a token was a token!

A small bidding war happened then, and the Resso Village token was granted to one of the merchants from Ferrol Town. It was sold at a price fair for both parties.

The merchant got an entire territory—a dream, really—for a dirt-cheap price of 242 Gold, and Alterra got a bit of change just before the end of 28 hours approached.

Win-win, indeed.

Well, except for poor Tout who—by the time the deal was finalized and the token merged with the buyer—was still screaming his heart out.

…

While this was being handled, the Mauin villagers also helped out with the Prisoners of War, but in a different way.

They had a very clear agenda—to find the Hasa Villagers. Because the oath was one of honesty, they just had to ask them where they came from.

During the inquisition in the Plaza, they asked these people where they came from. From there, they could filter out the ones they needed.

They found a handful of survivors who—with permission—they tortured themselves. All of the Mauin men there could do this, because all of them were guards.

In the end, after inflicting a lot of suffering, Mauru and the others obtained the map to Hasa Village… and some information about their old brethren.

”S-Some of them are alive!! AHH!!” one yelled, succumbing to the pain and deliriousness that came with it.

They naturally tried not to say anything. After all, their captors were incredibly sensitive. Saying the wrong thing about their brethren was equal to their suffering.

”We… we liked some of them alive b-better.”

Immediately, the prisoners were beaten up even more. ”What did you do to them?!” Mauru and the others asked, and their attacks got more intense the more they heard.

This made the ex-Mauin Villagers feel complicated. Many were still alive—which was such good news—yet they also felt horrible for them.

They suffered for so many months! Would they still be sane when they found them?

They kicked the damned men who—when they realized there was no way they were getting out of this alive—decided to detail everything they’ve done with evil smiles on their bloodied faces.

The former Mauin Villagers could no longer hold their strengths and eventually took their lives.

Mauru 1heaved a deep breath, cold eyes looking at their prisoners’ lifeless bodies. After a pause, he turned to look at his brethren.

At this time, about a dozen men and young men were there to join the inquisition, and each one of them had extreme anger painted on their faces.

Mauru, as the leader of their group, forced himself to calm down—to balance things out, even when his heart was also bursting in anger.

Too bad the prisoners were already dead and they couldn’t vent anymore.

”We… now that we know what happened, I’d like to get as many of our brethren here as we could,” he said. ”But the path would not be easy, especially now that we have upgraded to Town.

”Who’s coming with me?”

One of Baron’s cousins who entered the guard team

One of the leading people amongst the Mauin Village, one of the villages that fell a long time ago