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

At some point, Rowan and Silvia were called into the meeting to give a more detailed report. After all, letters could only contain so much content and could only go straight to the point.

There were plenty of details that could be important. For example, some subtleties in the relationships between the people there could not easily be captured in letters.

Silvia and Rowan reporting directly could include some basics and obviousness in the letter, but there are other things that were missed.

For example, Mafo seemed to be very fond of his nephew, and it was already an accepted fact that he was the heir.

However, Mafo was definitely not the type to assign an heir when he’s not the direct son. That guy was power hungry and didn’t seem to have ’honor’ in his vocabulary.

”They’re both incredibly ugly, too,” Silvia added with passion. ”We both have our theories, but we lack data and proof to confirm them.”

”How is his relationship with the nobles there?”

”There’s... a respectful distance, but they follow him.”

”The nobles there also seemed to have a business partnership with him, some of which were rather shallow, particularly with partners his brother had made back then,” Silvia added.

Rowan nodded. ”I haven’t heard of families that were outwardly rebelling against him, even before.”

”It is probably because he seemed gracious about letting his nephew, the son of the former Lord, be the heir.”

Hearing this, Rowan appeared awkward. Althea saw this but didn’t push for anything, he didn’t report himself. She just shifted her attention to the reporters to get more intel from the spies.

”According to some of our spies there, his woman was pregnant with a child...would he be able to keep it up if the baby was a boy?”

Since they started their mission there, they naturally had a number of spies there. The main one was Hiro, one of the Center hires, and one of the few level 20+ they got from there.

He came along with the rescue team and had been integrating even before they managed to rescue the ’slaves’. From what they gathered, he seemed to have gotten a job among a group of hunters, gathering most information while he was selling meat in markets.

He also used a bit of his stock of Harold’s meat softening solution to sell at a premium to noble houses where he’d get better information.

Tambai and Tanod would also be sent there eventually, but they let them have a rest for a few more weeks after successful spy work in Basset Town. The poor guys really wanted to relax in Alterra for a while.

According to them, they felt like holes were in their stomachs because of the rough bread the system restaurants put out. This was an exaggeration, of course, but they felt their emotions.

”The woman is a Terran, as well,” Loki from the intelligence department, continued. ”Her name is Sandra. I believe she was from Bright Village.”

A few eyebrows rose, some remembering her, while some took a while to recall.

”Ah,” Althea mumbled after belatedly remembering the woman’s face. Her eyebrows furrowed, and her face showed a bit of dislike, but many thought it was cute. ”She is quite unlikable.”

”Hmn, we’ll send more spies there in the future,” Mathilda said with a smile. ”Perhaps we can use the pregnancy to our advantage...as well as that woman’s greed.”

The rest of them paused and thought, some ideas brewing but, for now, they’d let things move on their own.

”In the meantime, as per your instruction, we have already framed Voumi, especially Hesso, a lot for some misfortunes that befell the Valov Town people,” Silvia said.

Rowan nodded. ”With the help of a few mercenaries from Takoda Team, we also cut off a few merchants and caravans from Voumi heading East,” he said. ”We had subtly planted the idea that we were from Valov.”

This way, the consequences of the many deaths from Valov Town would—at least for a while—befall on Voumi, hopefully delaying the trouble that they’d inevitably handle sooner or later.

At the same time, Voumi would be very guarded against Valov.

May they only have each other in their sight, at least for a while.

...

After a few more topics, the table decided to start a program of sponsoring ’slaves’. That was to say, the territory would pay for their freedom.

This program would be for exceptional individuals who had unfortunately become slaves. It might seem unfair to some, but there was naturally a lot of catch.

For example, if the territory freed them, then they’d be on bond with the territory for the next 5 years. Of course, they’d be paid according to the standard rates of whatever job they ended up taking.

The territory would also give a list of jobs they could take. After all, what was the use of hiring a fighter for his fighting skills when he decided he wanted to be a janitor, instead?

That said, this was not mandatory, and the ’slave’ had the freedom to take it or to save up to free themselves.

The soldiers and guards who joined the rescue efforts would be asked to send their own recommendations, but that’d be for later.

Then, it was Otto’s turn to report. He was set to give a detailed account of what he did. He didn’t embellish and actually downplayed a few things, but it still got applause and back pats from the younger Elders like Ansel.

He cleared his throat, a little embarrassed, and then handed over a list for the contributors among the ’slaves’ to give them corresponding contribution points to help them settle down. This would help out with the previously discussed project a lot.

Anyway, because they had thousands of people with them, they didn’t send an advanced report on who the rescued people were. Fortunately, the territories they were divided into had clear lines of communication. If people had relatives elsewhere, it was estimated they’d find each other within the following weeks.

The top of the list was Misha Berti, which made Althea’s eyebrows rise and she looked at Micheal, who was chatting with Ansel.

It seemed like he wasn’t aware of his sister’s arrival yet, right?

Then she looked at Otto, whose eyes softened when he pointed at the name.

Her lips twitched. Things could get interesting.