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

The injured and unconscious Lurers were escorted to the hospital but would be accompanied by guards. The others were treated on the spot first, to be taken to the clinics or hospitals later, but interrogation was more important right now.

Mathilda, guided up by her son (and made to drink a healing potion, as with others), approached them. She looked at the conscious ’baits’ one by one with a heavy heart.

These people were people trusted wholeheartedly and have gone through various life-and-death situations with them. After forming friendships, they had never doubted them.

These were people they had trusted with their lives, not to mention that they all took oaths.

There was no way they consciously betrayed them! And they seemed to sincerely believe what they were saying. Mathilda—whose skills were on the psychological side—had more of an inkling about these things.

”They’re not normal—none of them,” she said. Althea also came to a conclusion.

Somehow, these people had been convinced to lure their Ministers here.

All of them were asked to bring the Ministers to this one spot, ideally to injure all of them, and it didn’t matter how deep the injuries were.

And it was to disable, not kill.

Considering the positioning of the bombs and where they were asked to stand, it wasn’t meant to take lives. After all, the war hadn’t started yet, and if one of them was the Lord, then the territory would have disappeared.

Everyone shall cry in regret then.

The best move was to faint or injure them (or both). They were aware of the medicinal prowess of Alterra—it was one of the things the territory was now known for—so basically, as long as someone was breathing, they were unlikely to die here. They knew this and took advantage.

This way, the war using a satellite couldn’t be initiated, and Valov could finally declare war!

The question now was how they managed to convince their people to do this. These people were friends they could trust their lives with.

Even until now, they seemed confused as to why they weren’t doing anything to fix the problems they were so worried about.

For example— ”The babies, Miss Althea! Why are we still standing here?!” Harold gasped, almost hyperventilating. He looked like he wanted to go look for the babies himself, but he seemed compelled to stay, or at least make sure to always have her following after him.

Really, what is going on?

”Harold...do you really believe the children are in trouble? Why do you think so?”

”It’s just...” Harold paused, a look of confusion passing by his face, but it was quickly replaced by a sense of urgency. ”I know it! I may have seen or heard of it—all I know is that the children are in trouble, and you must be there, Miss Althea!”

”Can people be convinced to this degree?” she asked, eyebrows furrowed as she looked at Mathilda.

Mathilda heard her words and fell into deep thought. ”If it were in Terran, it shouldn’t be possible...” she paused. Brainwashing could only do so much, and it couldn’t be this targeted. Not to mention, Harold and the others had their eyes wide open. They could see what was going on, yet remained steadfast in their beliefs.

”It might be an ability like mine.”

Everyone’s hearts fell when she said this.

Mathilda’s ability had powerful, convincing capabilities. Her passive ability was to entice goodwill.

Even those more powerful would have a higher chance of listening and be more amicable to whatever she said, just as a default, even if she were insulting them.

If what was happening to Harold and the rest of them was due to a similar ability, then it also had to do with the mind, which was extremely worrisome and difficult to defend against.

Other than their own levels, there were very few things to protect themselves from such an attack, especially if it was from someone much more powerful. This was especially true for the ’weak’. They would be helpless.

Mathilda walked over to Jun. ”Jun, calm down and listen to me,” she said, obviously trying to use her ability. Jun’s face made several changes, from confusion to calm, then confusion again.

Mathilda kept talking to him, asking him about Gwen, what he thought he saw or knew, but like how it was with Harold, it was always a vague answer.

They continuously went back and forth like this, questioning and clarifying, testing to see which could be a trigger for them to break free of the enemy’s hold.

Then, out of nowhere, they all took a dagger from their spaces and targeted their own necks!!

”HEY!”

”HAROLD!”

”JUN!!!”

The blades were stopped before they could draw blood.

It was fortunate that Garan and the rest were watching them closely. After all, they were technically ’traitors’ whether they knew it or not, so they were watching their moves well.

They tied them up completely this time, and Mathilda did her best to fix the problem.

Mathilda first used her ability on Jun, and it wasn’t easy, and they could see it from how she was getting sweaty just after a few minutes. It took a while before she got a hold of what the ability was, but she did manage to do so, though Jun lost consciousness by the time it ended.

Mathilda was dead tired after, however, and Althea took out a retractable chair from her space for her to sit on.

She also gave her some of her stock mana cookies and replenishing tea to recover her mental strength, which she had drained with this activity.

”He’s strong. To be able to plant beliefs in people’s hearts,” Mathilda said, voice raspy from exhaustion.

”However, I feel like the hold is not permanent,” she said, which was a little bit of comfort for them. ”They should regain their senses eventually.

”I wish I could tell when.”

Regardless of when this could happen, the state of everyone’s hearts was the same. They were livid.

Extremely livid.

How dare those bastards do this to their own people!?