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

A/N: Happy New Month guys! Thank you all sooo much for your support!! Special hugs to those who took extra steps to show their love by gifting, sending tickets, voting, and commenting/reviewing!

[I'm sorry I was in the hospital last night and just scheduled chaps, so I wasn't able to look at the top 3 Golden ticket gifters of May the day before it closed. T_T. Please know I appreciate all of youuu!! HUGSSSS. And if anyone took a look, do tell me!]

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"Why would I know—Ahhhhh!"

"Tell me. Where. is. my. grandmother?" he asked again, his hand slowly heating up even more, making the man scream like a slaughtered Broat.

"STOP ITT! HELPPP! SOMEONE!!" The man screamed his heart out, and naturally this caught the attention of other people.

Silvia vaguely saw some others seem to be calling for the guards and she wanted to go and stop him.

Fortunately, someone approached to stop the person and immediately went to Rowan. Silvia was nervous, fearing that this could end up becoming a brawl.

She studied where the man had come from, vaguely remembering that he had come out of an adjacent house. At this time, there was a woman looking out of the door, eyes filled with concern.

The man was tall and thin, and he held Rowan's shoulder. "Rowan, stop it."

Rowan's eyebrows furrowed as he turned, seeing a thin man with dreary eyes. "Pasa?" he asked. "It's you?"

Silvia heaved a sigh, realizing they were acquaintances. No, seeing Rowan's stance soften, as well as the fact that he recognized Rowan immediately, they must've been friends.

Silvia turned to the woman, who must be Pasa's wife, but her attention went back to the men as they spoke.

"Let go of him. I… I know what happened."

"Follow me," he said, leading them forward. He then took out a few silver in his space and handed them over to the man who was glaring at them. "Settle down or I'll call one of the people you're hiding from. Don't tell anyone what happened here."

"TSK," the man gritted his teeth and grabbed the money, slamming the door to their faces.

It was around this time that the woman came out of the house, and they realized she was very pregnant.

"Husband…"

"It'll be fine…" he said.

Rowan and Silvia looked at each other, immediately feeling worse. "If it will put you in danger…"

"No, Hesso won't bother with someone like me."

Rowan's eyes turned dark at the sound of the name. "It's Hesso?"

He should've known!

At this, the woman looked around in concern and held her husband's arm. "Just go inside and tell them what you know, please, husband…" the woman said, looking nervous. The man sighed, before nodding in the end.

Silvia also watched the interaction. The fact that the woman could request this of her husband meant that he listened to her as well.

Well, she should've known Rowan would be friends with decent people too.

"It was Hesso," Pasa said after they went in. "During the Heat Wave, he kicked your grandmother out, saying there were more in-need people willing to pay higher rent.

"He was confident you would rot in whatever village you ended up in, so he decided to confiscate the house, which was apparently in his name now."

Hesso was definitely not the owner of the property he was renting before he left. He must've bought it off at some point.

Rowan's fist clenched, knowing full well he had been targeted again. "That bastard—"

Attacking him wasn't enough, he decided to target a defenseless old woman, too!

He turned to Pasa, the anger layered with nervousness. "And my grandmother?"

"Alive," he said, and the other two let out breaths they had been holding. "She's living in the slums southwest."

At this, he couldn't help but remember the bastard next door.

"What about him? Wouldn't he cause trouble?"

He wouldn't put it past Hesso to ask that bastard to report to him when he appeared.

"No, the actual renter is different and he just pulled a relative over to live there as a favor. They just needed an excuse to... you know."

Kick out his grandmother

"Thank you. I owe you," Rowan said, handing him a gift. It was a few bottles, and he just said it was good to add to food.

Pasa just saw them off and didn't look at the gift at first, just appreciating the gesture.

"Be careful."

…

After about an hour of looking in a specified direction, the couple found the old woman kneeling down in front of a tree, laboriously gathering resources at her ripe age of 80.

Fortunately, their physiques were strong, and grandma was past level 15, so even when she got kicked out of the house during the Heat Wave, she survived somehow.

It had not been easy though, and it was obvious with the way her body was moving slowly, limping as if every movement was painful.

There was also a lot of dried blood in her clothing, some still wet, and it was obvious she was injured in many places, perhaps internally as well.

Even Silvia, who did not know the woman, felt heartbroken—let alone her own grandson.

"Grandma!" Rowan yelled as he helped her up. The woman was startled at first, puzzled by the suddenness of everything, but she gaped when she realized who it was.

"R-Rowan!?" she exclaimed in shock, before her eyes pooled with tears. "Oh, my boy…"

Rowan's shoulders slumped as he embraced the old woman, and Silvia's heart felt sad for them. She slowly stepped forward, handing one of Miss Althea's Pharmacist-grade Healing Potion.

"Let her have this," she said. Rowan didn't think too much and handed the potion to the old woman.

"Grandma, drink this," he said, and only then that he realized how precious it was. His monthly stock, sadly, had been consumed already, so he didn't have this anymore.

Silvia, on the other hand, was not a guard and was therefore not provided a few free bottles every month. This was her own stock and her own purchase.

Miss Althea's potions were not cheap, even with the discounts employees received, and yet Silvia gave them up without hesitation.

He looked at Silvia with appreciation before he guided his grandmother to drink it, using this time to observe his grandmother's state.

The closer they looked, the more they realized how bad her situation was. She was thin and frail, she was covered with bruises and wounds, with some wounds not healing fast enough, and had horrible scabs.

He was stupid to have agreed to that oath of not returning after a year. However, at the time, his life was practically threatened. They also threatened his home, and they had promised not to harm her so he had no choice but to take their word for it.

He was naive.

At this thought, his eyes sharpened.

That damned Hesso, he thought. He would pay for this!