After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 600

Chapter 600: Gathering Survivors
Her emerald eyes looked at the two tokens in her hand in deep thought.

Although they had already won, the token wouldn’t automatically integrate into her, just as the teleportation array wouldn’t dissipate until the 28 hours were done.

It was also how Althea could choose not to merge yet, because doing so was basically telling people she was the Lord.

She had automatically received more than half of Fargo’s property though (he wasn’t very rich) as well as the money of the new ‘slaves’.

As for the new ‘slaves’ and their money, she’d handle that later. She knew freeing them from slavery needed some money, so they naturally had to let go of some of their wealth as well.

Pushing all these aside for now, she looked at the other notification she received.

[Would you like to announce the news to all citizens in the vicinity?]

She smiled.

Of course, yes.

…

A moment later, a similar pinging sound resounded in the Alterans’ minds.

[Ding! Altera Village (Lv3) has won against Fargo Village (Lv3)!]

This was received only by everyone in the Fargo territory because Althea didn’t pay for the extra costs of sending it to everyone outside the territory.

After all, she could just announce the same when they returned home in a few hours, let alone the fact that they could send messages through aether letters to those nearby.

Anyway, at the announcement, the Alterans looked at each other with wide grins and cheered.

“WOOOO! FINALLY!” Beanie yelled and raised his hands. “I heard a ding when I landed! The announcement was delayed a few minutes, but wasn’t the ding the signal? Did I get the Honor?!”

Hubert beside him shrugged as he wiped the sweat off his face. “We gotta ask the other team if they had the same.”

Beanie calmed down a bit, but was excited nevertheless. Even if there were other people who got the honor, he’d still get some rewards! Who didn’t like bonuses?

Before the war, a couple of richer people like Baron added a prize for whoever had the honors of being the ‘winning entry’. They pooled a reward of a whopping 100 Gold!

Of course, if there was more than one, then they would share it, but it wasn’t a small amount at all! They had oath system here in Xeno anyway, so they didn’t have to worry about liars!

In any case, this little prize made a lot of people desperate to get through the wall, which definitely helped in the speed of this war.

On the main battlefield, the Alterans were also celebrating. They looked at the sleeping slaves and heaved a deep breath of relief, finally relaxing a bit.

“I wonder who got the honor?” Jesse asked, drinking another potion. He was definitely planning on kidnapping said person to treat him in the tavern!

While he was in a daze, however, he did not notice a bloodied Fargo guard—one with bent legs—flinch behind him. As if using his last bit of strength, he jumped up with a low-durability weapon on hand, ready to take one last kill.

Angelo was laughing with a few others when his peripheral vision caught this movement. His heart dropped.

“JESSIE!!” he yelled, gesturing to run to his cousin.

However, the Fargo guard had already raised his weapon, the blade only an inch away from Jesse’s head.

SWISH!

SLASH!

“AHHH!” Jessie yelled when he found a detached head thrown at him. The man’s eyes were still twitching.

“GYAHHH!” he screeched again, like a little girl, throwing it away by instinct.

Angelo bumped his head in relief and pushed him to thank the half-orc who suddenly appeared next to them.

Apparently, just before the blade could touch Jesse’s neck, a claw suddenly appeared and beheaded the perpetrator.

“Thank you… thank you…” Angelo said, and Jesse immediately followed, realizing what happened. His heart dropped.

Did he almost die (again)?!

“Don’t be complacent,” Gochi said, and immediately everyone’s guards strengthened again. “Although we won, people can still attack within the duration of the 28 hours.”

At this, the Alterans once again raised their weapons and proceeded to beat up the Fargo guards.

Before they could do more damage though, a resounding voice echoed, yelling for them to stop.

“STOP!”

They paused, turning to see it was Fargo and the two strong aborigines still guarding him. “Every ambulatory survivor among my people will be coming with me.”

“What?” They exclaimed, disbelieving until they saw a few more people arrive.

It was Althea, Victor, and the others.

“Miss Althea? What he’s saying—”

“It’s true,” Althea said, shoulders slumped a bit. “I don’t have the power yet to make an announcement, but I confirm this. This was to prevent Fargo from making any more orders to the slaves who, frankly, wouldn’t be able to handle anymore.”

“In the same vein, Fargo’s men can no longer attack us.” If she didn’t make that deal, they could still be attacked. There would be no other rewards than petty revenge, but losing your life after the victory was much worse than losing it during the war.

At this, the Alterans’ shoulders slumped, annoyed at the guards, but also understanding of the compromise.

They could only look guardedly at Fargo and his men as they ‘collected’ whoever would be useful on their side. Realizing this, the injured guards rushed to stand.

They knew full well that they would only get tortured by the citizens who suffered under them if they stayed, so it was not surprising the men were desperate to follow—even if they had to crawl.

On the contrary, those who could not move anymore begged and cried, only to be ignored by Fargo and his men.

Althea looked at all this with watchful eyes, her eyes following Fargo, determining what else she could do except write on the aether letter.

While this was going on, there was another type of tension brewing around the territory.

This had to do with the ‘new slaves’.

Many of them had received the notification of slavery! Were they slaves now!? They have to know!

Fortunately, the people who spearheaded the questions were rational people who were biased toward Althea, Vivian, and Kyle.

Kyle walked over to Crow and the others, who were also watching the Fargo men group together with dark eyes. “Uhm, you mentioned Altera doesn’t take slaves?”

A few more murmurs resounded around, some worried, and some questioning.

Crow and the others, unsurprisingly, had no idea about how slavery worked so they could only shake their heads. “We’re not sure how the system slavery thing works,” Dog said, “But I can guarantee Altera doesn’t need or want slaves.”

Vivian sighed, “To be honest, it’s a little worrying.”

Sunny nodded. “We understand,” she said. “But we really don’t know much about the system. However, you should’ve seen with how we handled each other and the Fargo slaves.”

Vivian looked at her in the eye. As a former reporter, she naturally had the knack of finding out truth versus false. So far, the young girl was sincere.

Of course, not all encounters were calm. Some were demanding answers outright, while some just sobbed directly.

After all, they had seen how the ‘slaves’ from Bright were treated. Although Alterans looked kind now, who knew what they’d be like after everything! No one was naive to think the best out of strangers anymore!

This happened in various areas, some of which were near where Fargo was currently walking around.

Fargo chuckled when he saw this, turning arrogantly at Althea. “Over 5000 people. Do you really have an excess 25,000 gold to free everyone?”

Althea frowned. Even if she had that amount—which she didn’t anymore—she wasn’t planning on spending that amount at one time.

“I will be discussing it with the elders, but I assure you that while you may be a slave in name, you will not live as such.”

There were naturally plenty of questions, but Gochi found his way back next to her, and everyone had seen how scary he could be, so they could only hide back to their houses.

Althea sighed. She was not much of an idealist, so she knew fixing everything wouldn’t be instantaneous.

But…

She looked at everyone who was watching Fargo’s movements like a hawk, hoping for the worst for them, stabbing them with their eyes.

Althea’s lips twitched. They were, at least, in the right direction.