After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World novel Chapter 383

Later that night, Althea finally had the time to check her luck for hiring aborgines.

Territory-related things were effective distractions from the worry of potentially destroyed friendships.

Of course, another distraction (Garan) offered to ’help’, but she put a hold on it for a while. She was determined to do something productive for the territory today.

She pecked on his lips as he reluctantly watched her go. She pinched his cheek, "It’s only half an hour."

He frowned and his face didn’t change, it didn’t help that he was a bit drunk and was thus a lot more pouty. She found it adorable and placed a few more pecks on his lips. His eyes darkened but he was holding the babies in both hands—to move to the crib, apparently—so he couldn’t pull her to him.

She knew this and chuckled, before turning to look at the babies snoozing peacefully in the comfort of their father’s warmth.

She giggled and placed soft kisses on their chubby cheeks, before placing another one on her husband’s.

"I’ll be back soon," she said, whispering, "You can have me however you want tonight."

…

Before Garan could do anything, she teleported to the Village Center’s third floor.

She stood in front of the teleportation circle and paid the fees. As always, the activity didn’t start very positively.

The first four weren’t useful to hire—one was a mere labor worker, and another was a beast poop cleaner. The other two were women with that occupation again.

Why were there so many?

She didn’t haven’t much hope for the last one.

Since the first batch, decent hires had become rare. She really wanted to become a town, so the options for hiring wouldn’t be so limited.

With low expectations, her delicate fingers pressed the generate button once again, and a portly man appeared on her ’screen’.

[Name: Tronie Woods

Level: D

Abilities: Construction Materials Expert

Wage: 15 gold/mo]

"...!!"

Of course, she hired him.

She watched with a little excitement as another old man appeared on the circle, surprised to see her (a reaction which now she found to likely be because she was a woman), and bowed down respectfully as soon as he caught himself.

She nodded. "Have a seat," she told him as she went up to the cupboards to get some snacks. She was half-expecting no decent options today so she didn’t bother preparing beforehand.

Tronie awkwardly followed instructions, body language oozing with tenseness and apprehension. It was like he was waiting for some punishment or something.

Althea pursed her lips, wondering what was going on in this aborigine’s head this time, but she shrugged and simply took out a box of cookies and arranged a couple on the plate.

She also heated some water via a fire-powered portable stove made of metal and Youli stone Eugene and the others had developed.

Interestingly, every sound the utensils and equipment created made the new aborigine flinch.

Tronie’s head was indeed running wild. His previous territory had an eccentric lord. He didn’t dare look up to see what was making all that noise.

’Am I going to die? Or tortured, maybe?’

’Nonono,’ He shook his head, ’Lords aren’t allowed to make us do what we don’t want to do,’ he chanted. It was why he spent so much getting hired through the Chancery of Appointments instead of going through direct channels.

How to escape?

Is he really going to die?

No, right?

His wild thoughts were abruptly stopped when a whiff of Elvendell entered his nose, followed by a gentle tap of the food platter.

"Here, have some snacks and drinks," the lord said, "Be careful of the tea, it’s a little hot."

Tronie couldn’t help but gape at the beautiful and steaming brown cup. He gulped, thinking no matter what he thought, he ought to follow the Lord’s order.

So, very tentatively, he raised his hand to get a piece, letting it enter his mouth with dramatically small movements.

A bite was all that was needed to remove all his tension.

…

A couple of minutes after taking in all the pastries on the plate, the aborigine’s soul finally returned to earth.

"Welcome back," Althea said, making the man flinch and almost kneel down to beg when he realized he had spaced out IN FRONT OF THE LORD!

Goodness elves!