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

The Thebes Family was the previous Lord’s maternal family, which was also Rowan’s distant relationship.

Mafo and the previous Lord had different mothers, so Mafo definitely did not have good feelings about this family. He was naturally low-key about it though, at least at first, silently manipulating things so the family’s heirs perished one by one.

The patriarch of this family was also a powerhouse once, but he had long been ill, and this was exacerbated by the continuous loss, let alone his wife, with a much lower level than his.

The old couple just put themselves in isolation in depression, not caring about the world anymore. They also had anti-slave tokens each, so they really didn’t bother with whatever happened with the territory anymore.

A town’s land was vast, and their land was far from the residential areas, nobles’ or commoners’ alike, so it could be said that they had truly detached themselves from the town’s affairs.

It was sad, but they were the only noble family that could help out with managing Voumi.

While Rowan could just ignore this class in general, it was a fact that they were still powerful and someone needed to hold the faction in line. The foundations of noble families, in general, were not so weak that he could just disregard them altogether.

Rowan’s level was too low, for now, and the friction that caused was a bit troublesome.

However, it was also not too hopeless, and he wouldn’t be too dependent on a third party either.

This was because every noble family had a few people who got addicted—for the most part, they were even important members of the family—and, in Voumi, it was Rowan who held the power behind their cure.

People naturally had to be polite to him and could not be openly hostile. The assignment of a decent noble above them was more for convenience and as a shield because Rowan had much more to worry about than organizing and managing the people from the upper class.

”So you are the new Lord,” the man said, surprised at him and his level. ”Congratulations, sir, but my masters are too weak to get out of their rooms at this time.”

They had no idea about Rowan’s bloodline or that he was their grandchild.

Most people didn’t, in fact, as Rowan didn’t want it spread out. When the Elders who had lost their positions, they didn’t care to spread it out either. Whatever he would do, Rowan didn’t want the glory given to people who had nothing to do with it. It was Alterra’s work, not anyone else’s.

Anyway, today, Rowan visited the Thebes family Lord and was greeted by their steward. The old couple themselves were not there.

Rowan nodded in understanding and took out a basket from his space. ”This is a gift from Alterra Town, the new master territory,” he said. ”We hope the patriarch and his wife can be in attendance for our upcoming gathering next week.”

The words ’master territory’ and ’town’ made the steward frown. Rowan understood why.

For those who did not know what happened and had no idea of the context, they would definitely frown and look down on him for allowing their home to be a mere subsidiary of a fellow Town.

Rowan didn’t care for it either. After all, Alterra always proved themselves in the end, usually without having to try.

...

The party began a few days later. It was held at the Lord’s palace. It was refurbished and customized in a classy way. It wasn’t too gaudy, but very pleasing to look at.

This was all thanks to the mistress of the house, Silvia, who arrived a week prior to the party.

The servants were now in proper uniforms and greeted them with respect, and they welcomed the guests with grace. A servant would then escort a family to the venue.

The venue was the open space where the slave trading was once held, but it was redecorated and rearranged so that people would wonder if it was the same place at all.

Only the patriarch, one wife, and their heir were allowed in this party. It was designed to be a relatively intimate gathering with few attendees, all of whom were supposed to have some impact on the territory. As such, the invited acted much more properly, so as to not embarrass themselves with their peers.

Still, the atmosphere was...complex, to say the least. Some people there were closely associated with those who fell and had taken considerable losses themselves. They grumbled a lot and tried to plant discontent in their chatters. Some were subtle jabs, while some were open rants.

The noisiest topic was, unsurprisingly, the fact that they had fallen so much they’d have to pay tribute to another town—one that was not even two years old, in fact.

At the same time, because many people in power fell, it created a vacuum at the top, just waiting to be filled. In that case, many ambitious nobles hoped to occupy that place and plant someone on their side as elders.

On the surface, they seemed to be optimistic, and they would also mention some of the impressive things they had seen.

For example, how they cleaned up the dirt so quickly, though that just made a few from the first group glare at them instead.

There were also some...who were just watching. Even after everything happened, some people had indeed remained neutral, though not many, and most were barely even considered nobles at all.

The fact that they got invited to such an exclusive event, however, was fairly telling.

Amidst all of this, people’s eyes always gravitated to the side of the room. There was a buffet table at the side, and there were also servers, emanating an aroma that kneaded people’s stomachs.

The servers could naturally see this and smiled. ”Please have some,” they said. ”These are all ready to serve as soon as you wish to eat. And you can eat as much as you wish.” Some servers even took little plates and placed some finger foods on them, handing them out to other people to taste.

With these reassurances, people started to approach the buffet table to take their own finger foods.

This arrangement had been done before, but the moment someone put a bite in his mouth, they realized the quality difference was akin to the earth and the sky.

”This is...delicious.”

”It’s called parmesan chicken wings, bought from Alterra Town,” the server kindly supplemented. ”Now that we are a subsidiary to them, the trade has opened up and more of their produce are finally leaking to our markets.”

This was a scene all over the buffet tables. Whether it was the spiced fried tofu, fries, sandwiches, desserts, and the like, the servers made sure to tell them that they were delicious because they came from Alterra.

Subtly or not, they would say that because Voumi had been openly hostile to Alterra before, these products wouldn’t have landed on Voumi if they didn’t become a subsidiary!

The implication was they should be thankful for being forgiven at all! They could even be rewarded with food like this.

Like this, even if it was little by little— and even if most would not admit it —many people had indeed softened up to the idea of them becoming a subsidiary to another town.

It wasn’t that bad, after all.