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

Several days later, on the way back, Ryo’s Team finally convinced the Abundance Village Lord and his guards (as well as a few other Lords) to undergo the alliance ceremony.

It naturally wasn’t easy to do this, and all the Lords actually brought scores of people each, mostly guards. After each territory they passed by as they headed back to Alterra, scores of people would be added to the party, letting it grow bigger and bigger.

When they saw the large entourage, the Alterrans’ eyes could only twitch, but they also understood.

Although they made oaths, oaths could have loopholes, so the citizens were naturally very guarded of their Lord. After all, if the Lord died, the entire territory would be destroyed!

Not to mention, what if it was a ploy and the enemy attacked while the Lord was gone? What would they do then!?

Heck, in the villages after Guardian and Abundance villages—to villages nearer the borders— the Alterrans were almost assaulted and kicked out, with the villagers calling them scammers as soon as they explained the requirements for the alliance.

Sure, the villagers were impressed with the few instant noodles and sauces they shared (though some did ask if it was poison), but that wouldn’t be enough for them to willingly let the Lord out of the territory and risk his life outside.

So how did they convince this batch in the end?

They showed their working mobile phones! Someone even played tunes.

/You think you owuun whatever land you land owuun~/

Ryo’s eyes twitched at the song choice, but fortunately, the people were gaping at the phone. It must’ve been an alien artifact to them now!

”It’s been a year! All of us still have working phones! Come with us if you want to charge your phones!”

This was Bento, one of the hot-headed materials engineers of Alterra, who volunteered on this mission in case he found some interesting things.1

For the diplomacy teams, although the majority of the members were guards, it wasn’t strictly limited to them. A good portion of those were part of Mathilda’s team, and a few civilians who volunteered and had a decent level.

When the party slots were quietly brought up among citizens (the whole thing was pretty low-key), Bento was in a very good mood.

Why? Because he found out that that bastard Eppot was finally behind bars. Without him this time!

They had gotten into quite a few skirmishes in the past, primarily because the bastard was disgustingly misogynistic and harassed a few women, causing both to be transported to prison.

It was fairly unnecessary, too, because there were anti-harassment rules that would’ve taken care of Eppot had he done a bit more. But what could Bento do? His eyes turned red whenever he saw such injustice!

Of course, Bento would then be released after a short investigation and some witness accounts. He would also be let go without negative points recorded under his name, but it was still annoying.

The last time though, he had been warned that he might get fined if he interfered again when the (very expensive) rules could’ve handled it on its own. It was simply to put a hold on vigilantism when things could be done in a more orderly manner, and especially not when they were at a time of peace and not a war.

/That the earttthh is just a dead thing you can clayumm~/

”The sounds are really coming from the phones!”

”It’s fully charged, too!”

”How?”

Anyway, although the phones didn’t completely convince them to take a leap of faith, it certainly made them more receptive to them. Instead of dismissing whatever they would say, they began to listen.

Of course, after this, if they still refused, then they could just opt out of the alliance entirely. Alterra would not be at a loss, and the instruction was just to do their best to offer decent territories within their capacity.

Otherwise, just ignore them.

The final straw that made the Lords ultimately agree was quite interestingly quite different.

The Lord of Mason Village—an old man named Menarco—was a half-Edenian and half-Yutan man. Although the two countries weren’t at war during their lifetimes, the discrimination was still very real.

He lived in Yuta too, which was famous for their strict rules and harsh treatment of outsiders, so he lived stepping on eggshells his whole life.

What made him curious was the fact that aborigines (allegedly) flocked towards Alterra, hoping to change residencies.

Many were even from Towns—even Cities!

Allegedly.

He had a lot of aborigine hires and they couldn’t believe it. They even asked a lot of probing questions, testing the Alterrans about what they knew, and testing whether they were telling the truth or not.

Of course, these aborigines were only village level, so what they knew about towns and cities was limited. However, Menarco had grown up in a sensitive environment, so he developed excellent observation skills and knew when someone was lying or not.

After a long interrogation, Menarco believed that these people... were not lying.

(Other) Terrans had, apparently, somehow grown to the point of becoming a Town in a year—something impossible according to his aborigine hires.

Further, they had grown so big that strong aborigines would let go of their residencies from a superior territory—another impossible thing according to the aborigine hires—and settle down in Alterra, instead.

They hadn’t said it explicitly, but calculating some timelines, it seemed that many of those aborigines (allegedly) settled down even while it was a Village!

He had to see it to believe it!!

Of course, he brought a lot of his guards and advisors, though he did leave enough people behind to defend against mobs and such. Anyway, he was reassured that Alterra was less than a day’s travel if they travelled non-stop.

Which... was really not reassuring. What if a territory did attack them?

”We’ll send reinforcements if you get attacked while you are with us,” they said when they put this issue forward.

Some more cynical people scoffed at the arrogance—who knew what kind of assistance they’d give in the end—while the others were still actively trying to persuade the Lord not to listen. ”Please, Milord, please think twice. What they’re saying, they’re all too—”

/Every rock and tree and creatuureee...has a layufff, has a spiriiiit, has a neighhhehemmm/

”STOP PLAYING THAT SONG!”

The Alterrans, at this point, knew they had already said everything.

”Listen, we don’t require you to come with us or join an alliance with our territory. Alterra has nothing to lose,” Bento snapped, reluctantly turning off his music. ”We can go now, and you might not see us again.

”Just so you know...more and more people have become aware of our elementalist status and people have been gathering forces to take us— enslave us.”

Mason had been through a war with an aborigine village, but they had handled it though with huge losses. They were not aware of the other things brewing outside, however.

”At least half of the Terran territories have fallen to aborigine attacks. We had also learned that some towns hold auctions, selling Elementalist slaves.”

This made everyone pale. Even the aborigines who knew full well that it was the likely scenario if everyone here really were elementalists.

Ryo and Bento looked at the villagers in front of them. ”So...your choice: Fight that battle on your own like you have been doing, or join hands with us?”

...

_____________

Disclaimer:

(c) Song lyrics used: Colors of the Wind by Judy Kuhn. xDDD

The lyrics, mispelled or not, are not mine

He was shown once or twice before, at least one of which was putting Eppot in place when he waas being a jerk to his sister