After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 1188

Chapter 1188: Addictions (Part 2)
A/N: Did you guys see the latest character images? Added Gochi, Baku, and Maomao~! I’m still trying to get better images, but those will do for now xD.

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One could imagine the excitement and greed triggered by this information!

The only reason they probably hadn’t been attacked yet was because they couldn’t yet.

Limestone Valley was, after all, integrated with two other territories. Since Alterra just got attacked, this meant they had some leeway.

However, that was nearly a week ago. This meant that—in a couple of days—they would be vulnerable again.

Worse, what if several of those subsidiary villages allied to deal with them, like what happened to Alterra back then? Unlike Alterra, they didn’t have the strength of a town as a village!

“What do we do next, boss?” Benny asked as he looked worriedly at the data. Henry and Victor looked particularly conflicted.

“I’ll send a message to Alterra to report. Hopefully, they will send us a few forces to help us out.”

In the past few months, after training the local guards, Alterra had slowly removed their forces in Limestone Valley. The goal was to make them self-sustaining, leaving only a few people here and there to assist them occasionally.

Other than their local guards, the mysterious lord also somehow hired aborigines for them. These people would either walk down from the no-access floor or literally come knocking at the door.

Although they were still village level, every addition to their manpower—especially those automatically bound by oath to the territory— was appreciated.

In total, they had hundreds of guards so far, and many of them had awakened their elements.

This was already great under normal circumstances—their guards were very well-trained—but when it came to wars against several villages, they’d need more to minimize the damage and losses.

“Continue with training, but start the pre-war protocol,” Henry said. His captains nodded, most of them heading out to implement it.

The prewar protocol was the rule that prohibited people under a certain level from leaving the premises. It was also the rule requiring everyone outside to cluster in big groups and at least try to defend each other.

It was similar to what Alterra had, except they couldn’t afford to have so many Aether Letters to give to every captain, so their groups were even bigger.

Anyway, with the stronger monsters lurking around—it’d be too dangerous to get out in small groups regardless.

“I should stay a few more days in case a war happens,” Victor said with a sigh. He was scheduled to return to Alterra the next day. Supposedly, he would be escorting his family back so they could all live here for good.

Henry looked at him, patting his shoulder. “I’m sorry about this. My grandson needs his father.”

Victor’s eyes softened, heart filled with gratitude. At the same time, he felt embarrassed. Obviously, he was the assigned steward for Limestone Valley, yet much of the responsibility still fell on his father.

Vanessa, who was sitting at the side, frowned at this. She didn’t think her brother’s trip would get canceled.

“I… I can go to Alterra and escort them in your stead,” she said.

The father and son looked at her. She might want to appear like she wanted to help out, but she obviously just wanted an excuse to go to Alterra.

After so many instances, the two were finally disillusioned about their precious princess. Even they did not know how to handle her effectively, how to keep her in line somehow.

However, considering the impending wars, their patience was thin. Victor—who had not forgiven her for what she did to Juni—ended up being a bit too frank.

“Have you forgotten that you were banished?” he asked. “Do you want to keep humiliating yourself?”

A few months ago, Vanessa did something that got her kicked out of Alterra.

Somehow, she managed to buy something from traveling merchants from Towns. She used a good portion of her savings to buy a bottle, in fact.

It was a ‘love potion’, one available in Towns. In Xeno, this was basically just an aphrodisiac.

Taking advantage of being a teammate, she sent Garan a drink spiked with this potion. Because Garan thought it was one of the logistic team members who sent it—which was something quite normal—he consumed it without much thought.

Then… she ‘happened’ to enter his office soon after that, wearing a particularly fitted uniform. Garan was confused at first until he felt his body heat up.

“Captain? Are you okay? You look like you have a fever—”

Garan kicked her as soon as she approached him, making her crash to the wall.

Because the aphrodisiac was designed to loosen control, his kick ended up being so strong that a few bones were broken. This included her nose which hit the wall with such a loud bang there would’ve been a crack if it was made in Terran.

Vanessa could still remember the crippling pain that shook her whole body, how she could only stare at the floor while she was shaking in shock.

She would not be able to recover for more than a month after that—physically and mentally.

Anyway, at the time, Garan immediately rushed out and headed to the house. He quickly found and kidnapped his young wife who was happily bonding with her plants.

Suffice to say, even the then-level 13 Althea couldn’t get up the next morning.

Of course, Garan’s level was not too low even back then, considering it was just a low-level love potion.

In fact, even if he didn’t vent, he could’ve handled it on his own albeit with a bit of suffering—not that his wife needed to know that, of course.

Still—regardless of whether or not that was the case—how could Garan tolerate such disrespect?

Garan wanted to punish Vanessa harshly. He wanted to kill her—or at least to banish her from the Alterran circle of territories so she didn’t even have a home in Limestone Valley.

However, Althea stopped him from doing so. While everyone disliked Vanessa, it was not a crime worthy of death.

In the end, she was tried with a jury. She was just ‘banished’ back to her home, never to step on Alterra ever again. She was also kicked out of the Terran Mercenary Team, completely cutting off her access to Garan.

Anyway, it was an embarrassing situation and Henry couldn’t tell what to do anymore!

However, looking at her now, they knew she still hadn’t learned her lesson.

“Vanessa,” Victor said, narrowing his eyes at her. He could still remember her state when she woke up in Limestone Valley with a broken nose and broken legs. “Your obsession is seriously becoming a problem.”

Vanessa looked at him and her father. “When he saved me, I—I knew it had to be him!” she told them, as if it would somehow shift them back to her side.

“No, Garan was the only thing you wanted but couldn’t get,” Victor said, cutting her off. This was something Juni mentioned to him before. “It is just your pride and obsession—the selfish desire that you want to shove into everyone else’s mouths.”

“You’ve been blacklisted—and be thankful it was only that. You can’t enter Alterra anymore and we will never push for otherwise.”

Vanessa gaped at him in disbelief. She couldn’t control her heart! She just wanted to be happy!

Her mother taught her: She deserved all the happiness in the world. Her brother and father also told her this many times growing up! Why were they backtracking now, why was everything her fault?!

They were her family! They should’ve supported her like they always did!

Victor could tell that his sister did not understand. She was so smart, had such high grades, and was capable in everything else—why was she such an idiot when it came to Garan.

“Listen here—”

Henry raised his hand, stopping his children from arguing even more. He rubbed his temple, trying to calm down a worsening headache.

“You’re already in your mid-twenties, Vanessa, no longer a child,” Henry said. “I don’t believe you truly could not understand—you are too smart for that.

“You simply cannot accept the truth.”

“Our actions don’t only affect us,” he said. “We are leading a territory with thousands of people depending on us—”

Henry then looked at his precious daughter, hoping in his heart that she would come to terms with their new reality.

“Do not make us choose.”