After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 1021

Chapter 1021: Helios and Sahara

Olga then left Sahara alone with Helios (though not without a teasing smile). Sahara wanted to just watch him, but suddenly felt awkward when they were really alone.

She ended up leaving to check on her servants, though she did end up back next to him, sitting by his bed patiently and without moving.

She just watched the man breathe with a complicated expression on her face, and heavy and mixed emotions in her heart. She couldn’t help but remember their meeting.

He rescued her from evil men, though she forced him to do something unbecoming for both of them. At first, she convinced herself it was all the love potion’s fault. She couldn’t control her body.

However, as more time passed, things became clearer and clearer to her and she didn’t know how to feel about it.

Although she had taken a love potion back then, her level was not too low and desert people tended to have a higher tolerance to poison. In fact, she vaguely felt that she had snapped out of it before they completed the deed.

Combined with her superior level, if she truly didn’t want to be touched by him, he would not be able to, not to mention she technically forced herself on him before her head cleared completely.

Although it had been painful, if she wanted to she could’ve pushed him away and ran to her maid and guards, asking them to buy her some medicine.

However… she could not bring herself to do so. The attention and care given to her, the sensual heat he made her feel, made her reasoning—something she had been proud of—escape her.

Instead of feeling terror and disgust, his warmth was something she liked and even longed for after it was gone.

She couldn’t handle the shame of what she had done so she ran away, but there was no day that passed that her mind wouldn’t go to that night. She felt humiliated and she hated herself for it and, by extension, she disliked the man, too.

But he arrived in front of her, shielding her, as if shielding her from her own burdens and the shell around her heart cracked embarrassingly easy.

And… more importantly…

She held her stomach with a small bulge. She pursed her lips and then looked at the man.

Should she tell him? Why shouldn’t she?

Besides, Olga’s words echoed in her mind. This man… seemed to be the key to her problems?

She didn’t know how long she was in a daze. She only shook out of it when she saw him shift in his position.

She gasped, sitting beside him on the bed. “Are you awake?” she asked, looking closely at his handsome face.

His eyelashes fluttered open and his eyes gravitated to meet hers. For a while, time seemed to stop and all they could hear was their own heartbeats.

Unable to handle his heated stare, Sahara stood up and sat back on her chair, appearing her composed self again, except for the twinge of pink on her cheek.

Helios stared at her for a while longer, gulping.

“Hi…” he said, voice a bit raspy and it just made her blush even more. Seeing her unmoving though, Helios immediately gestured to sit up.

Sahara flinched. “Don’t move.”

Helios paused but did not lay back down. His eyes stayed on her, making her feel nervous. Obviously, he was several levels weaker than she was, why was she so intimidated?

She frowned when he gestured to move again. “Don’t move! Your injury could get worse.”

In response, he smiled as he looked at her. “Then come closer.”

She awkwardly followed his wishes. To outsiders, they would see her as stoic, but all Helios saw was her concerned eyes and shy flushing face.

When she was close enough, his large calloused hand found hers. She flinched but she did not take away her hand, telling herself it was just because she was afraid he would get injured.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” he told her, and her eyes inexplicably felt hot. “I’m so relieved…”

Her heart beat loudly, she could swear other people could hear it.

It was embarrassing and uncomfortable, and she was unfamiliar with how to deal with this emotion.

“Olga said that you can help me,” she blurted out and it made him pause a bit.

She felt a bit regretful as soon as she said so. What if he thought she was kind to him because she needed something from him?

Normally, she wouldn’t care as long as the goal was reached, but somehow she didn’t want him to think that way.

“I…”

“How can I help you?” he asked, and she could tell he was asking genuinely. Her heart twitched in warmth and guilt.

Similarly, this shift in topic let her go back to her own element, and this allowed her to explain what the problem was. She returned to her usual composed self, and she was thankful for it.

“Our territory is experiencing a food shortage now, and I have come here to ask for assistance.”

They had survived somehow with the sparse resources by living pitifully underground for the most part, keeping their population limited and trained. But they felt starkly that it had gotten more and more difficult to just survive as usual.

She could not imagine how they handled the Extreme Heat! It was already so horrible in the forests, how much worse was it in the deserts?

Many adjacent territories didn’t care for them, so she doubted they could’ve gotten assistance…

The thought of her people’s suffering added a jolt of panic in her heart and she turned to him with hopeful eyes.

“Miss Olga… she told me your village would be able to help me more than she can, though I don’t know how—”

“Miss Olga is right,” Helios said, and he said so with such certainty that it took her aback.

“But… it’s not my decision to make, but the elders’,” Helios calmly added. “What do you have to offer?”