After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 141

Chapter 141: An Inch Closer
Aberdeen City, 19 years ago

He had just gone back from work when the 11-year-old Garan was met with a chubby brown-haired boy.

In his hand was a pink paper bag, and inside it was a stuffed toy to accompany that small dog stuffed toy of hers. Plushies should be big enough to be hugged, he thought, and she ought to have a much larger one than the old one that could fit in her small pocket.

Because of the gift, he took overtime work and took even more time to buy it, so he was a few hours late in getting back than usual.

He ran home excitedly afterward, looking forward to his Angel’s smiling face.

“Garan! Garan! Big news!!” The boy ran to him with his usual energy, but this time he was frowning and looked a little sad.

“Garan! Althea is gone!” The little chubby boy—Beany—said, looking at him with pity. But his pitiful look soon turned to fear.

“What? What do you mean??” Garan grabbed Bean’s shoulder, unconsciously pressing to the bone.

The younger boy’s eyes flinched in pain, squeaking, “She… she got adopted, just today!”

“WHAT?!”

The younger boy flinched, startled. “Well, actually the parents seemed decent—”

Garan’s dark face did not subside.

Poor little Bean didn’t know how to escape safely from this guy’s claws.

Garan’s breath was heavy, unsure how to absorb this sudden fact. He whipped his head and glared at the innocent Bean. “What happened?!”

Scared, poor Bean’s young mind just told him to tell everything he had seen. “Althea was crying, looking for you everywhere.” He gulped and almost screamed when he saw Garan’s face getting darker and darker.

“The principal tried to pull her somewhere else, but she was crying so miserably that the visiting couple saw her.”

“They found her lovely and it broke their hearts to see her crying. It happened that the couple was looking for someone to adopt.”

Garan looked at him, and he continued telling him what he knew. Pitiful Little Bean gulped again in nervousness.

“They promised her t-that if she behaved well, you would come see her. That’s all I know.”

Bean took a deep breath after finishing and tried to reassure this wild beast of a friend. “They looked very sincere.”

Garan frowned and clenched his fist. It wasn’t that he didn’t want her to find a good family, but he was angry he wasn’t there when she found one.

He wasn’t even able to say goodbye to her? He still had so much candy saved up to give her little by little for fear she’d ruin her teeth…

He turned to Bean. “Did you get their address?”

“Not, exactly, but the headmistress should have it.”

Garan frowned and turned, his feet automatically taking him to the headmistress.

Then, suddenly, he felt extreme pain in his body—so extreme that his legs gave way, and he fell strongly face-first on the floor.

He didn’t even feel the pain from the fall; the sudden grip on his heart felt so much more painful.

“Oi! Garan! What’s wrong with you?!”

.

.

.

A few minutes later, every news outlet would report that a terrorist attack happened in a certain children’s mall, killing hundreds of people, most of whom were children.

_____

Present.

Garan glared at the fog in front of him, thinking that it was the obstacles that had kept her from Althea back then.

He finally reached the fog and entered again, but came back out where he entered a moment later.

He frowned but continued doing so anyway, over and over again.

For the nth time, he stepped out exactly where he came in.

His fists clench, heart heavy and depressed.

He wouldn’t be so helpless again, would he?

In fact, he hadn’t found that terrorist group yet, even after all these years—

That group of bastards took joy in forcing terror into people’s hearts, destroying worlds, ruining people’s lives.

He almost lost his world back then, and he could still remember the despair that he felt.

Althea was said to be the only one to survive in that area, and miraculously only a part of her back received some burns.

It was just that even if it was relatively lucky, a wound was a wound, pain was pain, and it broke his heart regardless.

He could still remember her pale bloodied face when he saw her at the hospital even at this moment.

Althea still had that damned scar on her back. It was a large scar that extended from her lower back to her hip.

Every time he saw it, his determination to get rid of all scum strengthened.

At the same time, he was reminded that he had to be so strong no one could stop him from seeing her again.

He would protect her from any sort of harm, he had vowed back then. And he had indeed protected her well, especially after she couldn’t get adopted afterward.

This was because both the adoptive parents died in the accident, and she was tagged unlucky because of it.

She was called a jinx, turned into an outcast, and was bullied when he was at work.

He tried bringing her to work, but it didn’t always work, and he often lost his job because of it.

This was primarily because working at his young age was illegal, and bringing her to work highlighted that fact.

Other than him and Beany, she didn’t have any friends. She focused much of her affection on plants, obsessed, to the point of poisoning herself trying to explore their world.

So no matter how beautiful a child she was, no one dared to adopt her until many years later.

While it was a good thing for him in the end, he couldn’t help but feel unfair to her.

His Althea was so good…, no one had the right to reject her, it could only be the other way around.

And now…, Garan held his chest where his constricting heart was.

He could feel that something happened to her again, and this time nothing could stop him.

His sharp cerulean eyes glared at the mysterious cloud in front of him.

He would not lose; Not this time.

….

For the nth time, he tried entering the ominous cloud again, to no avail.

“Boss? What’s going on?” It was Gill, and a few others.

They were tasked to follow the boss and help him with whatever he suddenly had to deal with.

One could imagine their shock to see their usual cool and composed captain suddenly turning pale and terrified, darting in the direction of the cloud.

But when he suddenly yelled sister-in-law’s name, things suddenly made sense. Only Althea could break all the walls around the captain, making him forget everything else.

Garan, drenched in sweat, just stared at them for a moment before shaking his head.

“Go away.” He said. “This has nothing to do with you.”

“But captain–”

Vanessa stepped forward, looking gentle. “Captain, please have some water, we—

Garan raised his right hand and a spear of ice appeared. He quickly threw it into the fog, but a second later it turned back to him.

Swish!

He avoided it, but there was now a line of blood on his cheek.

“Boss! Are you okay?”

Garan unceremoniously wiped the blood and looked at his soldiers seriously. “You can see that the cloud is returning my attacks right? Still want to stand there?”

“…”

Seeing them unmoving, Garan sighed. “I’m just trying to get inside in advance. It’s my personal effort and has nothing to do with the team. You being here won’t help me.”

He paused, “There’s no need to waste your time here. I am enough.” He didn’t know if more people would affect his work negatively and he’d rather not risk it.

Gill and the others looked at each other, reluctantly nodded, and stood several meters away to safety.

Garan saw that they were far enough and this time raised his hand to produce metal.

He tried sending spikes but this time he avoided them with ease, then he produced much smaller metals, like pellets.

His metal element, unlike the black iron of others, was closer to steel. It could also last longer.

If it was small enough and he used all his strength, he could even conjure a small piece of metal that wouldn’t disintegrate afterwards.

It was what he used to make Althea’s space stone accessory. It was very strong, superior to the stainless steel found in Terran.

Similarly, these pellets were such things.

He threw them inside the fog, but unfortunately, they all came back to attack him in turn.

He frowned, trying a few more things until he determined continuing to do so was pointless.

Giving up on using his ability, he just went in the fog over and over and over again.

Over and over.

And over and over until the bright sky revealed the two moons.

“Boss, boss!”

“What is it? I won’t stop.” He said but Gill’s eyes were bright.

“That’s not what I meant, boss!”

He raised an eyebrow.

Gill grinned. “We counted. After hundreds of tries, you last a little longer inside than before!”

It was only a few seconds, but after so many times they could finally notice it to count.

Garan’s blue eyes brightened and he whipped his head to the cloud.

He smiled at this realization and a bit of hope, his plummeting spirit rising a bit.

Immediately, he darted back in. And again, and again.

It didn’t matter how small it was, as long as he was getting closer.

Every tenth of an inch taken was still a tenth of an inch closer.

‘I’m coming, Althea. Please be alright.’