After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World novel Chapter 708

Baltimore could tell that they didn’t know anything else about these Elders—these men would’ve jumped at the chance to show off otherwise.

It seemed like this place was really more difficult than any other territories they faced. In fact, in previous wars, they never found the need to truly prepare beforehand.

No matter. It would be a refreshing change of pace to find the occasional challenge.

At the very least, the people here could tell his men were not particularly friendly. He wondered how they could take action so quickly. They just arrived, did they not?

At this, the memory of that guy separating from them came to mind. Did they send a message? How? Aether letters—assuming they had such a good thing—didn’t have such a large scope.

Anyway, he’ll find out soon enough. Baltimore’s expression didn’t change. "What else?"

"Milord… this territory… is really much more than I expected," Tacky said. "The food is amazing, the arrangements, facilities, and many more."

"The streets are so… clean." They were just so used to the status quo of dirty streets that seeing Alterra’s streets was almost… imbalancing.

"They even have a bathhouse and Training Hall."

Speaking of which, just the thought that this place would become theirs soon made his blood boil with excitement.

"They have complete facilities sir, they had a village center, farms, and factories that produce all these goods themselves."

They couldn’t enter the area without almost getting into a skirmish with the guards though.

"Have you seen everything?"

"No, it’s tightly guarded," Seto said, "Don’t worry milord, these are the places we’ll definitely be looting during the war."

"There are also other buildings unfamiliar to me," Ero said, "There are so-called libraries, schools, and hospitals, though we could not enter them for now."

Baltimore narrowed his eyes. Were these among their manual constructions?

Speaking of those, there was plenty of manual construction in this territory. He would also have to figure out their methodology of building—maybe he could sell the technology to the cities and towns for a high price.

Anyway, moving away from these topics, Baltimore asked the reason they went to this area in the first place. "Any news about the goblins?"

"No sign of them, milord."

Baltimore frowned, making them flinch, and he looked at the others.

Immediately, the others nodded and told him their own findings. "It seems that they never even landed in this place."

This wasn’t difficult to figure out because they simply asked the locals where the goblins were. They were either really curious or were really unaware of the creatures.

Someone even thought goblins were referring to children and pointed at the kids playing after that school thing they had.

Ero thought he had a lead then, but after fruitless hours and investigations, he really wanted to throw the chair at the informant’s face.

"They must’ve sold it early."

"The Mercenary Team—they went by Terran Mercenary Team now—are doing very well here. I assume they sold the goblins for a good amount."

Baltimore frowned, wondering if Garan and the others encountered the space stone. Regardless, he’d need to talk to him to know where the goblins were sold.

"What else? We went here to get those goblins, and you’re telling me you have nothing?"

Seto and the others flinched at this. Treck cleared his throat. "I haven’t checked deeply yet. I will resume tomorrow."

How could he admit he got distracted by the food?

Looking at them so useless like this, Baltimore felt his temper rising. "What did you find out after so long, then?!"

They flinched in fear, but they really couldn’t be blamed. Even if Alterra didn’t explicitly tell the people to withhold information, there was word of mouth that enemies were coming.

People here were surprisingly silent even when offered some money.

If they were allowed to destroy property, then they’d have punched a wall through there. But it wasn’t the time to gather too much attention to themselves.

That could happen later.

...

"Damn, they had some magic anti-bug magic tool." Chris breathed out, sweating profusely as he reported his findings to the captain.

They were currently at his home, with several people listening to what he had to say. "They investigated, and they will find out more, especially about our military might later on."

They wanted to try feeding the incorrect information but it was too easy to find out, not unless they put a gag order or make everyone swear under oath.

Not only would that not be worth it, but it would just alarm the enemies even more.

"They’re really blatant though," Eagle said, reading over all the reports sent by the citizens to the Guard Station.

Because paper wasn’t such a common consumable yet, the ’report papers’ were small pieces of paper smaller than a palm. At this time, Eagle was reading them one by one.

Suspicious activity, attempted bribery, Suspicious activity, Suspicious activity again, being an ugly ass…

"..."

Althea and the others didn’t know what Eagle was looking at, but they were more concerned about when they would move.

"It must be the Voice Blocker," Althea said. Otto gave her a few of those, but she didn’t sell in the contribution store. If anything, she’d rather use it as a reward for the higher ups in the territory.

Anyway, it was clear a war was inevitable. But what else could they do… but just become stronger?

She took out her aether letter, sending a message directed to the Research Center.

/Perfect those weapons. We have until tomorrow./