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

"Hey, you!" Someone yelled, staring right at them. "Why are you looking at us like that, HUH?!"

He was looking at Rowan, who couldn't hide the sharp look in his eyes. In his mind, he just wanted to burn these bastards. Even if they were all of a higher level than he was, at this time, he just felt… angry.

In fact, if one looked at his cup, one would see the bubbles created by the liquid heating up.

Obviously, a little over a year ago, this kind of talk was so prevalent that it was normalized. Although he didn't like the conversations nor had he ever participated in them, it didn't really trigger emotion in him.

Now, after being accustomed to Alterra—and most importantly, after falling in love—these kinds of comments suddenly felt personal.

Before anything could explode, the person in front of him stood and headed to the other table with a friendly expression.

"Wow, good brother, that sounds so envious!" Silvia, er, Silvio said as she stood between them, taking attention away from Rowan. "Have you seen these women? Are they beautiful?!"

The men looked at Silvio for a moment. They had scowls on their faces at first, but they saw his 'genuine admiration and curiosity', so their moods lifted immediately.

Discussions about beautiful women had a way of diffusing tension.

"Most of them are! So watery, so beautiful. Not like women we have here."

"Heard they were Migrators."

"Ah, been a while, yeah?"

"I was a kid when the previous batch came in," another said. "Though I heard they all died within a year."

They chatted like this for a bit, though it was mostly Silvia who did the talking.

They basically confirmed that the elementalists here were mostly Terrans, at least all elementalist slaves were. They chatted until they didn't get any more useful information, excusing themselves.

She wrapped an arm around Rowan's shoulder like a brother, saying goodbye to the aborigines.

Her smile disappeared as she dragged Rowan out of the restaurant. "I'm angry too," she said. "But we have to keep a low profile."

Rowan paused and nodded. He also felt ashamed. If he had made a scene, what would have happened to Silvia?

Seeing that the man was remorseful, Silvia smiled, teasingly rubbing his ears—he was sensitive there—before taking it away before they blew their cover.

"Now, let's go to the next one," she said with a sing-song voice, leaving him alone as he stood stiffly, still affected by her touch.

Rowan's eyes darkened as he looked at the woman.

She'd suffer quite a bit later that night for sure.

…

In order not to stand out too much by staying too long in one place, they shifted pubs and restaurants every two or three hours.

The next one was a pub. They settled on one of the wall-mounted tables there, their backs facing the others, appearing like two lonely men just drinking with their own thoughts.

At first, what they gathered was nothing interesting. Just some random gossip about whose kid got into trouble, who got injured during the latest mob, and so on.

It was only about an hour later that they captured something interesting.

"Did you hear how Master Hesso brought a beautiful water elementalist to a party? He made her dance so sensually, it was amazing!"

"Eh? You were invited?"

"Of course not," he said. "I heard from a friend of a friend."

"Ehhh…"

"Anyway, our lord is really amazing to get so many elementalist slaves! If I had the money, I'd have joined the auction, too!"

"He-he, I'm afraid only Voumi Town had ever done an auction with exclusively Elementalist slaves, right? I feel a bit proud."

"Now the target is to get some as well! Don't we citizens get a discount? HAHA!"

They listened a bit more and found out that the Lord held an auction of Elementalists. It was a week ago and a hundred were taken!

Their stomachs fell, listening more. They were lucky that one of the gossipers actually knew what he was talking about, his source being a legitimate servant in the Lord's palace.

Apparently, those poor Terrans were sold in stronger towns and cities, all at a large distance from this place. The Lord, for his safety and practicality, did not invite anyone within a thousand kilometers from this place.

They were now too far for Alterra to help and—as reluctant as they were to admit — were as good as lost now.

No matter how good the Elders' hearts were, they would never send their people to missions that were too risky. Every Alterran agreed to this. One could be kind (and it was good to be kind), but only if it didn't hurt them.

Going out so far from their own region would definitely hurt them.

It felt heavy, but they could only hope their brethren's masters were decent, and that they'd live decent lives wherever they ended up.

The only comfort was that they were known elementalists regardless if they had awakened already. This meant that anyone with a brain would at least feed and shelter them, hoping to make them useful somehow.

The spying couple stayed there for another two hours, gathering a little more information. Most were just gossip, about who was secretly banging their wives, who was losing a lot of money in gambling, and the like.

Just as they were about to move on to the next restaurant, another group of mercenaries entered the pub.

Some looked at them guardedly, while some were indifferent.

They were curious about this, or whether this particular mercenary team was in conflict with another, so they sat back down.

"Sigh, what a tiring trip," one said, settling down on a table not too far from them. "This place aint that special. What do you expect from a lower-level Town, I guess?"

"Ah, it's your first time here right?"

This made the couple look at each other. So these people were not from here? They must be well-known for the locals to react this way though.

The next words though, were what made the two flinch.

"Where did you say Guia was?"