After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 152

Chapter 152: A World for Children
[17 days of Protection Period]

It just so happened that she received a twin-stroller as a gift earlier that morning, perfect to use on a morning walk to the neighbors’ this afternoon.

She walked towards the wooden contraption and couldn’t help but smile, remembering the touching event from earlier.

The morning was tranquil and the sun felt nice and she had just returned from her morning walk with the children—both lying happily in their simple stroller—when a familiar neighbor happily blocked their way.

“Baron?”

“Yes, Ms. Althea, it is I!” he said, putting his chest out proudly though it just made his stomach bigger.

“This is Bianca by the way, our top artisan.” He said with that amicable face of his, pointing at the gallant-looking woman beside him. But the woman looked shy and had to be pulled closer by Baron.

Seeing his usually-gregarious cousin was not talking, Baron decided to be her spokesperson. “To congratulate you on your birth, she carved up a bespoke twin stroller—among other things—for your children~!”

Althea was surprised and looked at the woman again—who was trying not to blush—and then shifted her gaze to the covered push cart sort of item she had in front her.

“These look wonderful! Thank you. Please come in.” She said and, after a bit of push and pull, the group entered the house with smiles. Althea prepared tea for them as they unpacked the gifts and even Althea was surprised at its quality.

Of course, first was the stroller. It was light, smooth, and delicately carved. Baron’s cousin, who had already hired dozens of woodworkers, seemed to have carved it herself.

It was made of rich, polished wood, and it exuded the aura of both elegance and comfort.

There were even cute carvings alluding to the children’s nicknames—Little Pepper’s had a condiment shaker with a smiley face and Little Meatball’s had, well, meatballs rolling happily.

Very cute.

The cloth of cushion was made of repurposed cotton, which was likely from their own stocks, as the cotton factory had yet to produce anything. However, it was sewed with precision and care.

Inside were other toys and accessories used by babies. There were four wooden teething toys with different shapes of Terran animals. Carved in each were their nicknames, and they got two of each.

Very thoughtfully, Bianca gave a dove and a puppy to Little Pepper, and a lion and a dragon to little Meatball.

Very, very, cute.

There were also four wooden baby rattles, carved to look like seasoning bottles (for Little Pepper) and little meatballs on a stick (for little Meatball)

Adorable.

And finally, there were wooden stacking toys that the children would be able to use in a couple of months, no less intricately carved than the others.

“This is amazing…” she mumbled. This cousin of Baron was really a talent.

The talent meant she had a lot of work, but chose to make such a detailed tool for her children.

One could see in the work whether or not the artist placed their heart and soul into it. Althea was quite touched; Bianca must really like children.

She vaguely had an idea why the woman was being a bit awkward around her. After all, when one truly cared for an opinion, one tended to be more nervous than usual.

Althea’s emerald eyes landed on the woman, who was trying not to ogle at the children.

“Would you like to hold them?” Althea offered with a smile, pushing the old stroller near her. Bianca brightened visibly, but dared not be rash.

“Can I?”

“Of course.”

“T-Thank you…” She said, and took a baby up—which happened to be Little Pepper.

“Wooo…” Little Meatball mumbled, drooling, and his little eyebrows furrowed. He was pouting so much his fat cheek looked even bubblier.

It melted everyone’s hearts.

At this time, Althea was already holding the toys for additional washing. She was smiling and looked at Baron, who had literal hearts in his eyes. “Please give attention to my son. He gets jealous easily.” She said, and Baron gladly complied.

“Yay! Yay!” Baron lifted the baby boy, and dropped him just as quickly, enticing adorable giggles.

“Hmnhnggg!” Little Pepper blinked, raising her small arms, also wanting a ride.

As such, the cousins played with the babies happily, and she could tell their family back in Terran should have a lot of children.

“Hmn. Our parents comprised of 7 siblings.” Baron said, giggling as Little Meatball drooled on him.

Althea remembered that the boys that went with him during the visit were also cousins?

Anyway, from this, Althea knew the children would have another pair of uncle and aunt that would spoil them thoroughly.

Later, she would find out that Bianca was unable to have children due to an accident years prior. Although she was a strong independent woman, she really would have loved to have a child of her own.

Baron, on the other hand, loved children because of his personality. Unconsciously, having children felt like having new friends and playmates.

Regardless, it just reminded Althea that she needed to make the territory safe enough that people would not need to worry about having children.

Of course, she would also create a territory where the children would feel safe, happy, yet grow strong enough to handle whatever the world would throw at them.

For this, she’d need a lot of help.

…

That afternoon, Althea prepared the children for their first neighbor visit.

She dressed them up in one of the few sets of baby clothes she had (she took baby clothes of different ages, hence couldn’t hoard too much of one size), and smooched on their soft cheeks because she felt like it.

She went down with the children and placed them in their lovely new stroller, looking around the house to see if anyone went home.

They should’ve already been done with training/hunting by this time so it was likely that everyone was busy with their own businesses.

The development of the territory was now at its peak, and her team had been made aware of the large territorial changes that would be visible later in the night.

To maximize profit, they naturally had to rush everything.

For example, Harold was running a restaurant, which was showing great promise. He was also finalizing some of the condiments and sauces they’d be using.

Sheila was running the pharmacy, also showing a lot of profit. The factory was working over time (paid very well) to produce more products. After the last beast tide, everyone had found an integral need to stock up on medicine.

In particular, there was a purchase limit of only a few bottles a day. During a real fight, how could they rest assured with such little stock? Hence, most people opted to buy a bit everyday, regardless of need, ensuring their own supplies.

And then there was Eugene, who was still tweaking and studying the machines and tools for the territory, occasionally walking around for ‘inspiration’.

Well, Fufi was an exception. Since the children were born, unless she would explicitly order him to go train (which was the current case), he would be no farther than a few meters from the children.

After double checking everything, she pushed the stroller to the next door.

She really hoped that the trip would be productive. After all, she was only so idle because she had just given birth. So she really hoped everything could be settled, so she would always have more time to bond like this with the children.