After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 1012

Chapter 1012: The Princess of Bleulle

A/N: Althea had successfully passed the quarter finals for this year’s Character voting contest! Thank you to everyone who voted for her~! HUGS!

Now, it is Garan’s turn in the quarter finals~!

If you have excess points, do send them his way~ (voting can be done either via event page or just by the fandom)

Voting ends around Dec 18 24 at 8:00 am GMT+8~ Thank you in advance! o/

((Next year I will get the babies up there for voting lollololol would be so fun haha))

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Octavia entered shortly after, followed by two maids who stood dutifully by the door as she went in.

She was as beautiful as always, red hair flowing down her shoulders and framing her pretty face. She had a gentle smile on her face, but she did have a sharp aura around her, indicative that she was not one to be messed with.

“Did I come at the wrong time?” she asked, looking at the people inside. Obi wanted to answer but Olga pinched his arm to stop him.

“OW!”

Octavia didn’t even see Obi, nor did she care for his exclamation. Her green eyes ended up on Orion—whose expression was stoic as always— as he wordlessly drank his tea. He was leisurely sitting there with his eyes closed, and he did not even bother to look at her.

Her heart clenched but, even so, Octavia’s face did not change. Instead, she shifted her gaze to his wife, who was seated closely next to him.

Hilda felt her stare and she unconsciously looked down and, for a few moments, the room was met with an awkward silence.

“Octavia, you are back,” Gaia broke this silence by standing up and greeting the woman. In this world, they’d have all stood up if the Lord entered the room. However, other people would not get the same treatment.

“Auntie…” Octavia said, her sharpness softening immediately as she held onto the older woman’s hands.

Octavia was a distant niece of Gaia, the daughter of a cousin on the maternal side. They were quite close, especially when the girl was growing up, and stayed with her a lot.

The two women together were also quite a sight. Although their hairs were of different shades of red—with Gaia’s more brownish than Octavia’s striking red—they certainly popped a lot in a room with predominantly golden hair.

Gaia led her to sit with the rest of them, taking careful consideration to sit her near Olga, and as far away from Orion and Hilda as possible.

Speaking of Hilda, Gaia looked at her meek daughter-in-law. She was still a little pale and couldn’t meet the other woman in the eye.

However, in contrast to how she was before—seeming like a weak and ill gugu bird chick whenever Octavia was around—Hilda now had her back straight and appeared a lot more composed.

Gaia let out a soft breath, relieved. It seemed that the success of her business gave her some confidence against her husband’s former beau.

“When did you get back to Bleuelle?” Gaia asked the younger girl. “How was the visit with the allied city?”

Both the lord and his only child, Octavia, had gone to visit an allied city the past month or so.

However, from what she remembered, Octavia and the lord had gone to visit Hassen City, which was also more than 5000 miles away from them, though in the Northwest direction.

Of course, cities had teleportation arrays so the distance wasn’t actually much of a factor.

In any case, they had no news of the lord returning, so she was surprised to see the girl here.

“Just today,” Octavia said, answering her question. “I missed you, so I went straight here.”

She said this to Gaia, though her eyes—consciously or not—slid towards Orion with meaningful light.

Gaia cleared her throat, immediately shifting the conversation. “The Lord still hasn’t returned?”

The younger redhead shook her head. “He is busy either looking for an heir somewhere, or busy making one.”

They looked at the young woman in pity. She was the lord’s only heir, but was never considered for the role because she was a woman.

The only reason she had not been married off was that she was the only confirmed protege of the Lord. Bleumrick certainly didn’t stop looking for an alternative, however.

Some said it was retribution. After all, the current lord brutally killed all his siblings and their children to gain his current position. It was a famous time when the City was bathed in blood, which also established Bleumrick’s power.

Anyway, it was no secret that the lord had been actively looking for a male heir, and his harem of dozens was a testament to that.

The scheming that went on inside the lord’s large palace was terrifying. Many of these women died because they were a threat, and some were already pregnant when they perished.

Anyway, it was all quite chaotic and, if Octavia was right, then this meant the lord was looking for another wife—ideally a young noblewoman—in another City.

Speaking of harem members, Olga was nearly selected when she was younger. However, Gaia and the entire family put their foot down. Although Bleumrick did succumb in the end, he definitely lost all favor of them since then.

This added with Orion’s decision to marry Hilda instead Octavia, and the two families had been in a state of tension ever since.

However, Octavia was a distant relative of hers—the daughter of a second cousin—and they were relatively close since she was a child. Although Gaia had long felt a bit of darkness in the woman, she was reluctant to cut ties in hopes of keeping the girl on the right path.

The deities knew the girl’s own family wouldn’t care.

Anyway, after the initial greetings, the rest of the family excused themselves to leave the two redheads alone.

Gaia did not stop them, knowing the generation didn’t quite get along with each other. Octavia was also not the Lord, so she could not expect the same reverence. In the end, the only ones left were her and Olga.

As for Zaol, he knew they’d be talking about the trip but did not want to hear about it. After all, Hassen City was the place that—to his knowledge—tortured and killed his sister.

Olga stayed for the face of it and for her mother. She had maintained a civil relationship with Octavia through the years, though they were never like sisters.

Gaia knew this and never pushed them to get closer. In the end, she just patted the younger woman’s hand.

After a bit of small talk, Gaia finally went to the point. “What are you here for, Lady Octavia?”

Octavia couldn’t speak for a moment. Her shoulders slumped as she pursed her lips—a rare show of weakness on her part.

“My proposal is the same, but this time… the timing is urgent.”

Olga’s eyebrows rose and she looked at her mother, who shook her head. “It is up to Orion, and he rejected it firmly the previous time.”

Octavia pursed her lips and her fist clenched. “Then… let me talk to him, one on one…

“One last time.”