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

Limestone Valley

The 28 hours had officially ended and the people of Limestone Valley could finally heave a deep breath of relief.

The rules and regulations were finally up and running again, so anyone wanting to implement their bad thoughts would have to think twice lest they wanted to be thrown straight into jail.

The territory, at this time, had finished incinerating their dead. Like Alterra, they opted to burn their people with relatives and friends in separate areas to separate their ashes for collection.

This time though, almost all of the dead had relatives or friends. There was no 'mass' burning, only separate mournings.

This meant that each corpse had at least one person who was angry with the Voumi slaves.

Although it was well known that the majority of the deaths were made by aborigines, most of those people had already been killed, so seeing people even partially responsible—even if simply by association—alive and well made them targets for hate and dislike.

If the rules weren't already up, a lot of people would've attacked.

Some were misplaced anger, while some were debatable, but either way—it was understandable.

To handle this, Victor just made the slaves stay in the tunnels until it was time for departure. He also took the few surviving enemies and—if it was determined that they had indeed killed someone from Limestone Valley—he set them up for a public execution.

After the execution and the disappearance of the Voumi slaves from their eyes, a lot of people decided to celebrate in their own way.

Like Alterra, a lot of stores would implement some discounts. While the profit margin could be lower, a lot of people were in celebratory moods so the overall gain was still positive.

Of course, no one celebrated too noisily or grandiose simply because there was still the looming death of their companions. Even if they personally didn't lose a love one, perhaps a neighbor did, so the celebrations were very muted.

Anyway, while most of the territory was finally taking a well-deserved breather, there was a group of people with dark faces.

They were now in the Village Center living room, discussing some of the aftermaths.

They received a response letter from Alterra, asking to send the Elementalist slaves there instead. This made sense because if the newcomers would become time bombs, then Alterra would be the one to be able to handle it unscathed.

Victor would be leading the party there, and he'd be traveling with Mao and the others who were set to return the next day. He was heading to Alterra to get his family, anyway.

Now that that was done, there was another issue they had to figure out: Where was Vanessa?

Henry was naturally fidgety but, fortunately, his instincts as a former general remained, otherwise he'd be a panicked father all over.

"Are there any clues?"

"No… she really disappeared after entering the second floor."

At their level, jumping down a floor was easy as jumping a few steps of stairs.

"Did you think she…"

"Why would she?"

Indeed, if the territory really was about to fall, perhaps she'd really desert—as sad of a thought that was—but Limestone Valley had won, and didn't show any signs of losing at all. Perhaps, during the elemental war there was a challenge, but there was nothing indicative that they could lose.

Vanessa had selfish tendencies and she wouldn't give up the comfort brought by being in Limestone Valley over anything else.

At this, Henry tapped the table, his hands clenching to a fist. He took a deep breath, and sighed.

"Someone took her—I know it."

…

Vanessa's eyes opened to see herself in an unfamiliar place. The ground was shaking, she realized, and she felt dizzy as soon as she opened her eyes.

Then, she recognized where she was.

She shot up, falling again due to the shakiness of the room.

"Wha—"

She was in a beast car! And it was going fast!

She looked up to see the man with a deformed face looking at her with interest. He was really ugly and it made her stomach lurch.

Then, a thought came to mind and she immediately touched her clothing, heaving a deep breath when she saw everything was intact. Her dress was commissioned from clothesmakers imported from Alterra.

They were designed to be difficult to take off by other people—specifically for the protection of women. It wasn't impossible, but she definitely would've been woken up if it did happen.

The man saw her movements and laughed, his voice creepily rasp. Obviously, whatever injury destroyed his face affected his throat, too.

"Hmn, I'm sending you as a gift, so of course I'm not going to touch you… yet."

She shivered.

Still, she should be thankful he hadn't done anything—she knew full well most aborigines here would do if given a chance.

However, she couldn't feel thankful at all. Another bump on the rocky road shook the carriage, reminding her that she was getting farther and farther from home.

"Where are you taking me?!" she yelled and tried to get out of her binding. She raised her hand to create water to take down the rope—only to realize she couldn't unleash anything.

Her eyes widened and she turned to look at her captor.

"You're wearing an anti-aether necklace, not sure if you know that," he said, apparently enjoying her fruitless struggles.

Vanessa looked down at her neck and indeed saw a metallic string necklace with a translucent pearl in the middle. If she didn't know what it did, she'd have found it beautiful, but right now it felt heavy on her neck.

She bit her lips and glared at him. "Are you from Inko? Voumi Town!?" she asked, genuinely confused. They just knew Belize came from a higher territory, but they didn't know where it was exactly.

"You even know about Voumi Town eh?" the man said, impressed. "It's true that you people seem to know and prepare for a lot.

"To be honest, we have nothing to do with Voumi Town, I am just here to see the excitement happening in these parts—and also to check where that bastard Belize is.

"After all, he stole something very important to us."

She looked at him. "Whatever it is, it's not with me!" she yelled, pleading him to just let her go. She used her most demure and pitiful look which worked on most men, though it only amused the deformed bastard.

"Oh, yes, I know—" he said. "He could've also sold it elsewhere or maybe even took it to his grave. However, in the minute chance it's in that territory called Alterra, Basset Town will take care of it for us anyway."

He passed by there before heading into these parts. They were preparing to attack a new Town. At the time, he didn't bother too much with it until he found out who Limestone Valley was connected to.

It was very… convenient.

"Then why are you—" Why are you taking me?

"Now that I have some clues, I can just leave it up to them. As for you… the City Lord's 120th birthday is coming soon and I'm constrained to give him a good gift."

He extended his rough hands and touched her face. "When I saw you, I thought you'd be perfect."

She shivered and frowned, feeling bitter that this was even happening to her.

But, for the most part, she just felt fear... understanding that the life she had been taking for granted was now getting farther off her reach.

With that realization, the tears in Vanessa's eyes finally fell.

Someone… please help me!