After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 1059

Chapter 1059: More Arrivals

The following week, Alterra received visits from a few Lords. One was none other than their new (secret) ally, Yassop. He was with Ladron, who went back via the array before it closed to escort him to Alterra.

Yassop was beyond the level cap so he was not able to use the array, but they did leave for Alterra the same day he received the notification. He arrived the afternoon of the following day and there, he found out just how truly different Alterra was.

At the same time, he lost confidence in even getting an alliance.

When Alterra returned the slaves without a proper explanation, he was just confused. Ladron also didn’t know why, and he just passed on what they told him.

Anyway, at first, it didn’t make any sense. Even if they were unskilled, they were still hard labor with minimal costs to maintain.

In Yasof, at least, he gave slaves wood weapons and allowed them to go out in groups and forage their own food. This way, they could live decently without causing any strain but, at the same time, they were forces that were ready to be used as soon as they were needed.

There was, on the surface, no reason to reject so many slaves—especially those they won fair and square. It puzzled him almost his entire way there.

Until he saw the place himself, and he immediately came to a conclusion: Alterra Village was about to upgrade.

Alterra was already beyond their league, but once it upgraded then it’d be too far. Since the slaves were returned, what did he have to offer, really?

Both he and Ladron were at a loss, wondering if they would really be stuck with Basset Town forever.

Their moods didn’t remain excessively down, however, because a man named Jun greeted them with an amicable smile. He even gave them some drinks as they walked towards the Village Center which, by the way, didn’t really look like one.

Were those lights from Crystal City? They’re unnecessarily opulent!

Anyway, the two of them were then led to the room filled with elders—three of whom were women—and, although he didn’t show much, he was as nervous as Ladron was.

He was so old. Most of these Elders were half his age. It was shameful to lose ground when the deals hadn’t even started.

He heaved a deep breath and gained some footing. He let out a gentle smile and did a standard casual greeting. “Good day, I am Lord Yassop of Yasof Village.”

“I already said everything in my letter and I hope you have considered my proposal favorably,” he said, taking out baskets filled with flora from his space.

These were some plants endemic in his area. Ladron, when he arrived, advised him to do so (an Elder named Ansel apparently gave hints for a price).

“I was told the elders appreciate all plants. I’m not sure which ones are already available here, but I brought what I can.”

“Thank you for the effort,” one of the women—a beautiful young brunette—said with a smile, taking the baskets in her space. “While all these species are already known and studied by our team, we appreciate every sample brought to us.”

This made Ladron and Yassop’s shoulders slump in disappointment. They were at a loss because they had already given anything they had that could potentially interest another territory.

After a few tense moments, Althea smiled. With her, the rest of the Elders relaxed as well.

“Actually, it’s not that we require our allies to be completely useful to us,” she said, making them look at her.

“We aim to be completely self-sufficient. We make partners not because we are dependent on them for anything—but because we simply prefer having more allies than enemies.”

This made his eyes widen, but also got him quite confused. What was with all these extra steps, then?

“I just wanted to see you in person,” she explained. “We don’t want to be associated with people whose… methods we don’t agree with, after all.”

She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table and resting her chin over her hands. “So… tell us more about you and your family,” she said. “You better be honest; Don’t hide anything.”

…

Yassop told her everything she asked for. Their territory did not have many secrets except for his daughter being alive anyway, and he felt he could say that.

Althea and the others listened intently, and when they looked aghast and wronged when he told of Patte’s wrongdoings—even cursing at him, swearing to let him ‘see the light’ —he felt connected to them.

He felt teary and touched, and he wanted to cry—thinking he was allowed to, for the first time.

He never felt it before. Many other nobles would advise him to let it go. ‘It’s just a daughter’, they would say. ‘Just make another one.’

Finally, he felt more that these people could really be on his side.

It was just that… after his story, Miss Althea nodded as if she had decided on something. “Okay. We’ll take your daughter and grandson as hostage, then.”

“Excuse me?!”

“They’ll live here in Alterra,” she said as if it was already done.

Yassop and Ladron gaped at her in disbelief. The contrast of emotions and atmosphere they felt in a day was too much. It felt dizzying—

“Stop teasing them now, Althea,” Mathilda said, shaking her head with an amused smile. The rest of the elders were also smiling, which just made the two outsiders really confused.

Althea shook her head. “I’m not. Technically speaking, they’d still be his citizen—his family members,” she said. “From an outsider’s perspective, they’re really hostages.”

“This will also give you an excuse for not attacking us well, and refusing to attack again in the future—because we somehow got hold of your precious grandson.”

“They’d pay for everything of course. They’re not guests.”

She then looked at the two. “You can think of them as our hostage, but really—do you think they’ll suffer here?”

This made the men pause in thought, recalling the things they had seen so far. The place was beautiful, the amenities were amazing, and the people—they were the brightest they had encountered.

Furthermore, the state of women here… was the best they had seen. Three elders were women, and they had seen girls with hunting gears outside. They had only seen a small portion of Alterra, but these things were testament enough on what kind of place this was.

Back home, even if Yelena could come out, she would receive derisive and judgemental stares, if not eyes full of pity. In all cases, Yelena would suffer.

Here… they had a feeling it would be different.

Yassop’s eyebrows furrowed as he pondered, wondering everything that could go wrong, but—outside of uncontrollable accidents—he couldn’t see disadvantages at all.

After a few moments… the old man finally nodded.

“Yes…” he said, looking at Althea straight in the eye. “…please take my family hostage.”

…

Meanwhile, while this important meeting was ongoing, the intelligence team sent out an alert promptly sent to the Guard Station. The Station then forwarded the news to people who’d be interested in the information.

For example, Althea, who was listening to Ansel happily bill Yassop for the ‘hostage fees’.

Ding!

She blinked, opening her interface.

[A man named Patte has arrived in the territory]