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

In the West, Voumi had sent all of its remaining subsidiaries to find a place to wage war on. They were desperate to get new elementalists now due to some internal conflicts.

One of the territories they were targeting was one of the stubborn ones. It was still a Terran territory, but it was lucky enough to find a small valley and had remained undetected by aborigines during the first year.

Because of this, whenever they attacked a neighboring (Terran) village, they triumphed over them at all times, and had become arrogant.

When an unknown territory approached them, opening an alliance whilst asking him, the Lord, to go out was extremely stupid of them. Anyway, they were left alone, and they thought ’good riddance’.

However, because of this, when one of the low-level territories at the borders alerted the alliance that several of Voumi’s subsidiaries were making moves again, this territory wasn’t informed.

How could they be informed? They were not allies and therefore were not connected via their respective Village Centers.

Because subsidiaries weren’t satellites, Voumi could indirectly start several wars at the same time.

The stubborn territory was soon taken over, and half their slaves were taken to Voumi to finally replenish their elementalist population.

On the other hand, its neighbor, which had accepted the alliance and was warned even before the declaration, and some reinforcements from a nearby ally were also sent in.

They were attacked less than a week later by another Voumi subsidiary and won without much bloodshed on their side, even getting the token of the attackers.

Anyway, the contrast was quite stark.

Voumi naturally was told of this. However, Voumi wasn’t in a position to do too much at this time, and they did not have the resources to thoroughly investigate either.

This was because a good portion of their forces had become addicted and, with the lack of the powders, became a bit difficult to control.

Another...Hesso tried to assassinate the Lord’s child!

It was such a shocking twist that it was the topic of discussion for weeks after that.

Hesso was now imprisoned for trying to kill Sandra and his seed, and the bastard was drug-addled enough to actually curse at it to die, erasing all doubt that it really was him.

The investigation claimed that Hesso had met with people from Valov Town shortly before that. This exacerbated the relationship between the two. If they were at the same level, perhaps they’d have gone to war already.

It also made sense because the Voumi people believed that the poison could only be from Valov.

A while back, Alterra had spread news in Voumi that Valov was also producing the drug, and this was something—through their spies and allies—spread everywhere.

They did not spread that it was in Voumi because it was unlikely, considering how poor they were, and they still had hundreds of elementalist slaves (maybe thousands again, after the latest wars they had against non-allied terran territories). If Voumi was targeted as the producer of the drug, then many of those Terrans would perish as collateral damage.

So they had to add and put in a lot of drama so that they’d be busier with each other. Valov’s hands would also be full to some degree, and perhaps they could also detect the true source of the drug while those bastards were busy.

The Intelligence team had narrowed it down to somewhere North of the Terran region, and they could see this because the Northern territories they went through had the most addiction cases.

However, their resources were spread thin in the other directions, so most of what they were doing in the North was only gathering intel. They were also subtly spreading word of ’decent’ territories they could find anywhere South of them.

Guardian Village and they were also tasked to go around in their area, to connect with more territories on their own, and investigate the issue from their side as well.

There had actually been dozens of refugees who had already escaped and settled down in associated territories. They were afraid of the growing chaos of the drug pandemic and how unstable everything was becoming.

They found out that many of these territories had been decent once, but they were now rotting from the inside due to the powders. It was truly a tragedy.

One day, though, they received a major lead to something they had been investigating: The source of the drugs.

...

”This is... unexpected...” a soldier—Loki—mumbled, reading the letter with a complicated expression on his face.

The others couldn’t help but be curious. Loki was very rarely reactive to the news he received. Even when they found out that Rowan was actually Voumi royalty, he barely batted an eyelid.

”Where did it come from? Who is it from?”

”A Town called Flaret Town,” he said. ”And it’s from...someone we know.”

Not just someone they knew. It was a comrade they went through life and death with.

Loki received a letter from none other than their old friend Gian, telling them a cryptic message only a few soldiers could understand. It still used the local lingua franca, however, perhaps to avoid appearing suspicious.

Sedonia has begun again this time. They are making them here. Many friends and relatives are trying to settle down, but to no avail.

Most of the people there right now were not part of the original group of soldiers. So they had no idea what the letter meant. Some looked at it from different angles, as if it would somehow enlighten them about the hidden meanings.

”I didn’t think we’d hear from him again,” Loki said. ”We have been making a few ripples in the North, perhaps Gian was made aware of our movements somehow.”

”Who’s Gian?”

”A former teammate.”

”Former?”

”AH! He’s the one who teamed up with Fargo!” another said. This happened to be one of the guards who went to the war, and had lost a friend in there.

He naturally didn’t like Gian, who had once served Fargo. ”I don’t trust him. What if it’s a trap?”

”Do we know what this means? It’s code, isn’t it?”

Loki shook his head. He was not privy to every mission the others got. ”I’ll call the others; perhaps they could tell.”

That said, to think they’d hear from Gian again after so long...

A few others, like Mao and Luis, appeared next, and luckily, they really did know about it. ”The Sedonia Mission was a major drug raid we did—I dunno, three or four years ago—in the border of Yuta country back then.”

”To interpret his words, it seems like Flaret Town is the source of the drugs, and there are also many Terran slaves there.”

And among those slaves, there was —perhaps— at least one talented chemist who could create drugs that affected superior physiques.

Anyway, regardless of its source and its accuracy, they finally had a lead!

This was quickly reported to the Elders, who made a swift decision.

”Find out more about this Flaret Town,” Althea said, narrowing her eyes. ”In one way or another, we will destroy this industry—at least to the point that it would no longer threaten any of our people.”