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

At this time, the couple Eugene and Melissa were also still in the house in the living room.

While Melissa cooed her baby, her husband bonded with Theo, who they also treated as a son.

After all, once upon a time, Theo was really their son. Even if they reunited with their own relatives now, that aspect was not going to change.

They were playing jengga on one of the carpets, and Maya and Horus were playing along with them.

Adorably, when the boy managed to take a particularly difficult piece, he clapped his little hands and his cheeks flushed in glee.

It was so adorable and Eugene couldn’t help but pat the boy’s fluffy brown hair.

”You’ve grown so much now...” Eugene chuckled, kneading the boy’s wavy hair.

”Hehe,” Theo said, so very cute.

”What have you been up to lately?” he asked. ”We haven’t talked for a while now, haven’t we?”

Even if Theo’s father, Beanie, arrived and Eugene has his own biological child now, their father-son relationship would not disappear.

Eugene often hung around the villa even after moving out, and he had an arrangement with Beanie to take the child out for a few hours every weekend.

It was just that a lot of things had happened lately, with him practically sleeping in the laboratory and his free time spent on Melissa and his baby, so they missed a few weeks. He had always felt bad about it and he felt like if he always let it happen, he’d drift away from this boy.

He couldn’t let that happen. After all, once upon a time, they were practically each others’ sole emotional support. Back then, he promised to be his parent, and was determined to survive at least until the child could take care of himself.

When Eugene lost his lover and their child, he had entered the deepest pit one could enter. It was Theo who had tethered him to reality, giving him a will to live, allowing him to live long enough to reunite with Melissa, eventually building his own family.

If he were to just forget about Theo now, how ungrateful would that be?

Of course, the little boy had no idea about the complex thoughts of adults. He simply happily shared his day with an adult he liked.

”I study, then I play with Little Pepper and Little Meatball all the time,” he said, now without a lisp (he was very proud of this).

Eugene smiled. ”What do you like to study the most?”

”Mixing!”

”Oh?” Eugene asked, interested. ”What is your favourite mix?”

”Haozen berry and Jordana vine~!”

Eugene blinked. Those were some of the components of the basic healing medicine, wasn’t it?

Oh?

”Do you use it?”

”Hng~ since we always get boo-boos!”

Maya and Horus, who were at the side, nodded. ”Hmn~ It feels nice and cool.”

Eugene blinked and asked to take a look at the item. It was placed on an old container of jam...repurposed to hold the experimental balm.

To be clear, it wasn’t an actual balm with system effects, but it was done well for someone just out of toddler-period, and could work for people with very low levels. In time, he was bound to create a system-ranked one.

Eugene couldn’t help but take a deeper look at his adopted son. Did they find another genius?

....

The next day, the Research Center was as it was. Except in the late afternoon, they had an unexpected visitor in the Pharmacy group.

It was none other than Eugene and along with him was a tiny tot barely above his knee.

Immediately the pharmacist huddled together to fawn on the welcome dose of cuteness.

”Wow! Isn’t this baby Theo!” Gus, Penelope, and the others said, admiring, looking soft at the sight of such a cutie.

Theo had grown up a lot the past two years but he was still so adorable!!

Theo was very polite, even when telling people off. ”Uncle Gus. I’m no longer a baby.”

”Oh, yes, yes, of course! Theo is a mature big boy now! Silly Uncle Gus~”

This went on with several other researchers. Eugene sighed and looked at the nearest person who wasn’t fawning (though only because there was no space left for him).

”Can we see Althea?” Eugene asked, and this caught the attention of the others as well. The group looked at each other before escorting him to the biggest laboratory for pharmacists.

Althea was with the three old men, and they were huddled together over a table, obviously very immersed in whatever they were doing.

He cleared his throat several times before one of the top alchemists finally lifted their heads from whatever they were doing.

Eugene smiled and gently nudged the little lad to them.

At this, the five-year-old toddled over and looked up.

They looked at Eugene. ”What’s going on?”

Eugene smiled and kneeled down, patting the child’s fluffy hair. ”Tell them what’s your favourite subject, Theo.”

”Mixing~”

”Show them what you made.”

Theo blinked and took something out of his space.

The four alchemists leaned forward a bit, looking intently. Someone dipped his finger and studied its consistency, smelling it, and then nodding again.

The old men looked at the well-behaved boy. ”Theo, you made this?”

The boy nodded, eyes large and sparkling as always.

Of course, it was really just a crude paste, but the potential was there! They could tell because the proportions weren’t too far off, considering the ingredients the boy had access to.

Not to mention Althea, the other three old men had adoring faces.

”He’s quite adorable and smart,” Hoffen said, turning to Althea. ”If he shows passion for this field, why don’t we let him study more of it on the side?”

Althea smiled. Time would tell whether this passion would be maintained. Kids changed the answer to ’what I wanna be when I grow up’ questions every so often, after all.

However, since this was the boy’s interest now, she was definitely going to enhance it as much as she could and as much was healthy for his age.

No one knew this for now, but this was the start of Theo’s path to becoming Althea’s first apprentice.

This was something for later, of course.