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

Jonathan read the letter Wazan and the others had just sent back to their hometown, just before they went out to tag along in the Alterran caravan.

He might not be able to block it, but he—and other Lords, for that matter—could definitely take a peek. They were arrogant, too, so he doubted they put things in code.

And they really didn’t bother.

/It seems like Voumi Town is involved in this somehow./

/As we have reported previously, the latest team had perished in Voumi Town, which was claimed to be an accident by the leading party. However, we found some witnesses and evidence of skirmishes with Hesso, the supposed town heir./

/Interestingly, we have gathered information that people from Voumi have been appearing greatly in this region, attempting to take over the place./

/We found that most of the elementalists he had been auctioning out were from here, so this makes sense. However, they had seen Valov as a threat to this plan because it is not too far from the region either, at least not by Mercenary Hall./

”I surmise that this is why they have been trying to undermine the connection between Ferrol, which has the nearest Mercenary Hall to the region, and any territory that could undermine its rule.”

Because the posts themselves cannot be taken out of the Post Office, he had asked a trusted slave to copy the contents

Unlike others, Jonathan treated his family’s slaves quite well. They basically just lived as normal servants who might have to follow whatever their master ordered. Because he was a personal slave, naturally, only Jonathan could order him around.

/We will continue to investigate Voumi Town’s involvement and who they are taking allegiance to, but we have obtained reliable information that Alterra Town is a hidden subsidiary of Voumi Town, similar to how Guia Village has been to Valov./

Jonathan nodded, relieved that the other side’s thought was really heading in that direction, just as Lord Althea said.

He knew that Voumi Town had nothing to do with Alterra.

But these bastards didn’t have to know that, did they?

...

Wazan had already long mentioned Alterra and Iron Mountains in his report. It wasn’t difficult to find out, after all. Sadly, Lords were not allowed to tamper with the letters except to copy and read their contents, so there was nothing he could do about that.

So what could they do? It was to lessen the importance placed on Alterra, to veil its actual influence on these events, and shift it elsewhere.

Fortunately, they already planted a lot of things and events in Voumi that would’ve made sense, and they just had to feed some gossip and ’legitimate sounding’ information here and there, and it was bound to eventually reach Wazan’s ears.

It was better for them to think Voumi already owned Alterra, and to properly obtain it, they had to get rid of Voumi first.

Interestingly, this hidden ’subsidiary’ status of Alterra made Wazan and the others look down on it more, making them more arrogant.

Wazan’s group watched the carriages get filled up by people from various places. The caravan was heading out, and they were not invited.

It had to be noted that a good portion seemed to be Ferrol residents, which made Erggo and the others scoff at the ’attempt’ to shield themselves. ”Did they think we’d care if they had Ferrol citizens with them?”

”They probably think because their town level is higher, that their status is as well.”

Generally speaking, a ’lower-level’ town would always watch out for stronger ones. This included not purposely hurting the town’s citizens without reason. They believed this was how the Alterrans saw it, and they were offended, even more energized to ’put them in place’.

They also saw the mercenaries, also powerful in their own right. ”Heh, did they think hiring mercenaries would keep all of that safe?”

Granted, mercenaries could get troublesome, but these were hundreds of people. Aborigines might bring their own guards, but the foreigners didn’t. They just needed to wait for a mob—which was inevitable—and swipe away a few people.

They had naturally observed the parties even before approaching the branch.

They zeroed in on three decent targets to kidnap. The first one was a woman guarded by a mercenary from Twinwave. She was a weak woman, but for some reason, she held some position in one of the richer groups within Alterra.

If they got her, her party would pressure the territory to handle it nicely. That mercenary team from a stronger town should also help, assuming they really put so much importance on a woman, of course. (They did know that the woman was lovers with a high-ranking mercenary, so this was likely, even just for the sake of face).

Another target was one of the Alterranguards, who was a woman. They didn’t know why a woman was a guard at all. She probably received the position by warming the bed of the team’s leader, but she could prove useful to them, too.

Most of all, she was a supreme beauty!

Also, they brought interesting creature—battle pets! Although such critters were bonded to a person, when that person died, the bond was ended. When they got the woman, they could get her feline as well.

Although the pets had an instinct to be hostile to the people who killed their masters, it wasn’t like they couldn’t sell them for a high price elsewhere!

Lastly, there was a man named Gus, a skinny man who didn’t look like much. They found this one by accident. Before they approached the base, one of them subtly followed the last tour, and they found out more about him.

Apparently, he was a pharmacist!

No matter if he just awakened, pharmacists were still treasures even in Towns! Further, there was a premium on a pharmacist from a territory that has historically released interesting potions!

Above the women, they had to have this one the most!