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

She had lived low-key since then and hoped that, because she was rarely out of the room, people did not know of her associations at all.

It was a good thing if she wanted to escape, but how would she handle it if she wanted to re-enter the palace? It was a high-risk endeavor that could also get her killed.

But...if she decided to live passively, would she be able to handle the next three years in peace?

Knock, knock

”Miss?” a small voice sounded at the other end of the door. This pulled her back to the present, and it made her feel a little annoyed.

”Go away,” she snapped, burying her head into her arms for a bit more warmth.

”I’ve brought some soup...though it has frozen now, you can still heat it up with the fire.”

Vanessa frowned, and her eyebrows furrowed. Her stomach growled, and she shakily walked to the door and opened it to reveal a man with many scars and had an uneven step.

”Miss Vanessa!” A child no more than four years of age peered from his back. She was wearing several layers of clothing and looked like a little ball. If Veronica liked children, she’d have thought she was adorable. Maybe.

Anyway, the little girl held up the aforementioned frozen soup and handed it to her.

Vanessa nodded coldly, handing them the few silver she knew it cost.

The little girl blinked as she stared at the money, and then turned her head to look at her father.

The scarred man nodded, and only then did the girl accept the payment.

This man’s name was Jecob, a man in his 30s. He owned the house she was in and was technically her landlord. The past two weeks, she had been buying food from them, and she had already paid for accommodations a week in advance.

However, the little girl was a bit energetic and was always looking to talk. Vanessa had never been fond of children and wasn’t exactly the most nurturing kind. She could maybe tolerate the little girl for a bit in normal circumstances, but this freezing temperature didn’t quite make it conducive for much patience.

As for how she’d handle her own child, she would cross that bridge when she got there. Anyway, if she could regain a place in high society, a nanny would be easy to get.

The father and daughter did not get offended by her dismissive attitude. The girl seemed to be completely immune to it.

”We should stay together for warmth!” the little girl said, sitting next to Veronica and snuggling next to her like she was a stuffed toy.

The little girl’s name was Jana, Jecob’s daughter, and she was five years old though she looked less than four.

Vanessa frowned at the proximity, eyebrows furrowed, and she couldn’t help but glare at the little girl. At the same time, she needed as much of her energy saved to deal with this cold.

In the end, she just let her be, allowing her to chatter at the side. The girl’s father just smiled at them and handed them an extra blanket. The man himself seemed to be relatively high-level in his early level 30s. So his attire was not as thick as either of them. Anyway, Vanessa wasn’t one to be concerned for others, so she didn’t reject the extra blanket.

She placed it around her shoulder, and because the little girl was sitting so near her, she ended up getting inside, with the little girl thinking she wanted to cuddle.

Vanessa’s eyes twitched, but she didn’t have the energy to push her away either. Instead, while she hugged her knees, her mind whirled about how to get herself to a warmer home.

However, the more she thought about it, the riskier it seemed to go to the palace.

While the Lord seemed mild-mannered, his brother was not. Before the cold, she had seen the brothers walking around, though in retrospect, they must have been studying their city and preparing it for the cold.

They must’ve heard the news somewhere, because people were ordered to gather all the loose resources they could get, as well as stockpile as much food as they could. People thought it would be a war for a while until the temperature dropped to the negatives.

Vanessa could still remember what the brothers looked like. The true Lord was very ill and even had a crutch, while his brother looked very strong and handsome—with fiery red hair and terrifying eyes and patterns on his body—but all she felt for him was fear.

He was likely to kill anyone who had aligned with the acting Lord, and she and her child would not be safe.

Even when she realized that they were not looking for her at all, she still felt extremely paranoid and refused to head out unless she had to.

She only went out to buy sustenance, and fortunately, her wallet was thick, and she had a lot of expensive things in her space, so she was not poor.

However, the cost of living in a city was so high, and she did not dare sell many of her items because they came from the dead man. They were also so expensive and could be traced to her. Unless she could get an injection of ’safe’ funds, she feared that she would not be able to afford staying in inns for long.

At some point, while she was coming home from buying food from the restaurant, she rescued a little girl from getting run over by a careless beast cart.

She did it by instinct, just because it was easy for her, and perhaps it was the soldier in her, but nothing else. She did not even like children.

She always appeared gentle and graceful back then, appearing to love children, but that was all an act. Whenever she saw them, she just felt they were troublesome.

However, the girl’s father was so thankful that he practically kowtowed to her. It added a lot of pressure to her, and she even wanted to run away, afraid the attention would reveal her paranoid self.

”Please, let us repay you! Please! Despite my disabilities, I have a lot of savings and some resources. Please tell me what you need, and I will give it to you.”

From the passersby’s gossip, she found out the scarred man was a retired guard, forced to retire after his injury.

She even witnessed him being recruited by someone from the fiery man’s team, trying to get him back as an instructor. He rejected them, which Vanessa thought was stupid, but he just told them he wanted to spend time with his daughter, who had just lost her mother.

The two found out she was jumping from inn to inn and offered their small home, which still had an extra room in it. Vanessa, who had been wondering what to do with her accommodation.

She did not accept it for free but paid a small accommodation fee, simply because she did not want to be associated with them in a personal manner, only in a transactional sense

Then the cold snap happened, and he had no choice but to stay with them.

She turned to look at the child who had suddenly stopped talking while she was in a daze. The little girl, at some point, seemed to have fallen asleep.

Vanessa sighed, but soon felt the attack of slumber as well.