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

Garan and the guards arrived right after the second explosion, which was less than a minute later. Some went to check on the ministers and their assistants, while the rest swept through the ground to check for any other dangers or triggers as well as remnants of what was left behind.

The bombs were somewhat strong, but they wouldn’t be able to lethally injure people beyond level 30, so it was them who were assigned to go around.

Althea found herself lifted up, and she unconsciously wrapped her arms around the familiar hold and scent. She buried her head on his shoulders and his neck, shivering.

”What’s going on?” Garan asked, voice cracking from shock.

Althea hugged him tighter, but desperately. ”Where are the children?! I think the children could be in danger—”

”What? They’re with Lola—they’re visiting the orphanage. I was just there.” When he heard the explosion, he assigned guards to guard the children.

Althea calmed down and then recalled a notification she had passed over due to her panic.

She took a deep breath and went out of his hold as she gathered herself. By this time, the smoke had cleared, and there were holes all over, damaged vegetation, and a lot of injuries. There didn’t seem to be casualties yet, fortunately.

”This must be Valov’s ploy so they could attack us.”

”What?”

”They had just declared war on us, husband,” she said, and then looked at Harold, whose panicked face remained and was exacerbated as he saw her.

”Miss Althea! The children, the children!!” his voice was cracking, and his eyes were teary. He was also injured, the side of his head and his arms showing relatively deep wounds.

”Where are they, where are they—”

If she didn’t see him limping or wincing, Althea would wonder if he felt the pain. Rather, it was more like finding the children was much more important than his injuries. He was sincerely looking for the children.

Looking at him like this, Althea’s eyes narrowed. Now that she was calmer, she could see Harold’s eyes were teary but glazed, and only now did she notice it.

He genuinely believed what he was saying.

And it wasn’t just them. Most ministers could possibly be the Lord, so they went through similar things.

At the side, they could hear Mathilda shaking her assistant’s shoulder.

”Jun? What did you say?”

Even Jun had the same appearance as Harold, panicked, teary, and even grief-stricken. ”Miss Mathilda! Please help! Didn’t Miss Gwen go out for training? She is in trouble now! Please, there’s no time to stay still like this!”

He said this while both he and Mathilda were injured; he himself was limping.

The other Elders, no, Ministers, were similarly injured and also very confused. Some of their assistants had already lost consciousness, though, so they could not even question them.

For Volohov’s case, Althea reckoned it would’ve been his wife who was used in this scheme. However, he was always with his wife, so there could be many things going wrong there.

Rather, when she asked him what he was doing there, they found out that one of the guards—who was also unconscious now—had convinced him that there were emergency situations that required their presence.

Gru’s caller was Dennis, his right-hand man, saying that there was an unknown illness in the plants there, and that it was spreading. They even said she, Althea, was already there and had called on him.

Rosalind’s lurer was a child who begged her to come with her. The only elder missing was Oslo, though she had a feeling it had to do with his high level and the attackers did not risk getting them involved in this particular plan.

That said, he wasn’t exactly disqualified as the Lord. Even if he had been hired through the Center, Alterra had been through many wars. Power-hungry aborigines would find it hard to accept that powerhouses could willingly serve weaklings without grabbing the power.

If they were in the Golds’ position, they would’ve usurped the throne long ago, so they assumed that could be what the Golds did. They might just be low-key and also hide their Lord status like Alterra’s ”first Lord”.

This was completely logical and, if happened outside of Alterra, had a very high chance of actually happening. It was not a surprise that Valov used a different plan for them.

To distract the Golds, they actually used goblins.

At some point, they had snuck in some goblins enslaved to them or to associate territories. They came with some caravans hidden, and the goblins were asked to beg the Golds for help.

If slaves ’freed’ weren’t asked to take Oaths after being taken in by Alterra, they would’ve long planted hundreds of their own slaves in the place. But alas! They could only go through something so roundabout with so many possible holes.

It had to be said: Valov’s Lord and his strategists had never had to use their brains to this extent before.

They were not few, and they could indeed serve as distractions, even if just for a few seconds. It was also Valov’s way to see which of the Golds, if ever, was the actual Lord. At the very least, they knew Oslo had a soft spot for goblins, so at least he would be preoccupied for a bit.

Back at the bomb site, the atmosphere was tense. People were slowly being treated with first aid or taken to the hospital directly, but the ministers themselves couldn’t help but feel extremely heavy in their guts.

Not because of the war declaration itself, but because it seemed like their trusted friends and advisors had ’betrayed’ them.

Like Harold, Jun was genuinely panicked, but at the same time, the words that came out of his mouth were similar.

They would keep repeating similar things, but no more details would be given. And the Ministers, in their panic and the extreme sense of urgency that roused from it, wouldn’t have a choice but to follow.

Even if they found anything suspicious, they still would go ahead since it was still within Alterra, and there was too much to lose if the claims were real.

Most of all, these people were people they never doubted at all, so even if there was an inkling of discomfort, they chose to believe them anyway.

Now, look at what happened...