After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 492

Chapter 492: Slavery (Part 1)
A/N: Would like to take this chance to send my love to the Alterans who sent votes, golden tickets (some even sent large bulks, huhuhu thank you), and gifts!

The story has been in a decline the past few months, and your support gives me sooo much encouragement. Love you, Alterans!

….

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The couple went home very late that night, and they decided to have a proper rest with the children that night. The two babies slept peacefully (and adorably) on their father’s chest, and Althea’s head rested on his broad shoulder.

Garan felt extremely warm, surrounded by his family like this. The depression of the possible deaths and the upcoming war dissipated a bit.

The Elders scheduled the war to happen within 7 days. This was because there would be the element of surprise but, knowing Fargo and the others, a lot of people would be dying in between. The longer they took, the more civilians would suffer.

At the same time, they couldn’t risk their people’s lives by rushing, so they gave themselves some time to prepare everyone.

As they lay there, the couple’s minds went to various places. Garan thought and analyzed their strategies, thinking of loopholes, while Althea thought about the various rules of war.

“How does slavery here work, anyway? I mean, with the added variable of the system.” Althea asked, and this made Garan pause.

They indeed needed to be clear on this, as they could have some bearing during the war. Garan thought of what he had gathered during this time. The first thing to mind when it was his wife asking was:

“I heard that slaves’ wealth would automatically go to the lord’s pocket.”

Althea’s eyes twitched. So other than half of the lord’s and the territory’s money, they would also get the entire wallet of half the population.

No wonder people still waged war despite all the rules.

She couldn’t help but think of a situation where they visit a stronger territory and a war began. Wouldn’t they risk becoming slaves if they were unable to get out?

She should get more of those exemption tokens from Oslo in case they had to go adventuring someday.

Or even better—figure out how to make them!

“Official Slaves are also system-bound to follow whatever their masters wishes, though in case of territory slaves, any citizen could order them around,” he said, gently patting her curvaceous waist as she laid on him. “If they were asked to jump, they would be compelled to do so.”

This only applied to territory slaves though. System slaves could only be ‘created’ during wars. The other slaves, like most of the goblins caught in Guia back then, weren’t and so they had to be monitored and ordered around closely.

This made Althea flinch and looked at him. “Hadn’t there been cases of slaves fighting back?”

“There are,” he said, “But none have succeeded. Slaves could not hurt people—or citizens, to be more accurate—within the territory, not unless ordered by the lord.”

“If they found a loophole from the orders, they could fight to orders for a while, but I heard the punishment was draining a person’s lifespan.”

They had asked this of both Gaudi and Gochi before they got freed, though in Gochi’s case, it seemed like it never really occurred to him to try. After all, he grew up in such an environment and it was a difficult thing to break away from.

“So pitiful…” she mumbled and he sighed, embracing her closer to him. It so happened that the movement made the babies turn in their sleep and they entered deeper into their shared embrace.

“Don’t worry,” he said, hugging her and their babies tighter. “There will be no such thing in Altera.”

…

Fargo

Deep into the night, an oppressive sight revealed itself. Hundreds of slaves worked to create a crater into the mountains, dig, hit, and dig again, without stopping, no matter how exhausted they were.

The cool night winds hit their wounded skins, making them shiver, but they couldn’t even pause to warm themselves no matter how much they wanted to.

The slaves continued to work with their makeshift weapons, whether it was axe or swords, as there weren’t enough experts to create a sufficient amount of digging tools like pickaxe and shovels.

It didn’t help that they were outside the territory—that was to say, there could be monsters or poisonous insects abound. In one day, there had been a dozen people who had been made sick by insects and even more bitten by monsters. In both cases, if a slave was injured enough to be unable to work, then they’d be disregarded.

By disregarded, it meant that they would be asked to block the way of monsters—to sacrifice themselves for the others, so to speak.

Hence, at this time, the number of people bleeding profusely while working was not small, but they had no choice but to continue lest they encountered a worse fate instead.

Anyway, the air of the mines was thick with the acrid scent of sweat, dried blood, and the muted sounds of labor. Of course, overwhelming all these sounds were the yells of the so-called slave drivers.

“Limestone is awesome, but it wasn’t important enough for us to spend so much manpower on. These slaves… are really useful!” A man said. His arms were crossed and he watched his fellow Terrans—without a hint of guilt—slave away despite their tiredness and injuries.

“Move it!” one yelled, kicking a slave whose legs had buckled. He dropped his axe and left a bit of work undone.

The slave had no choice but to stand up, legs shaky, and he could only push his body to the limit.

After a few swings, the emancipated man fell down again.

“Stand up! Work!” A guard yelled, and the man had no choice but to do as asked, no matter how many times he fell down. This was all to the amusement of the guards watching.

“HAHAHHAHA!”

“Wow, this slavery thing is really amazing.”

“It was like using those electric necklaces, but much more effective.”

“Heh, I remember you having quite a bit of fun from those,” another one said, teasingly.

“Ah~ good times! But this place isn’t bad either,” they said. They missed the modernity for sure—they missed the good food, their TVs, and porn, in particular—but this place was freer.

Here, they were truly top of the food chain! They didn’t even need to worry about the police or the soldiers. Here, as long as one had strength, their will was the boss!

While the guards were having fun, the slaves could only force their bodies to move and do their jobs. Occasionally, when the ‘bosses’ would get bored, they would even make a few slaves do odd things like dance or lick their shoes while smiling.

It was as if they were testing the limits of their orders, and so far none of it had failed.

The slaves were dying inside as their bodies were giving way on the outside. They couldn’t even kill themselves unless the ‘master’ would give permission.

It was humiliating! They would really just rather die!

Someone… please help them!