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

The trio ate happily, with Winona praising Harold’s food to the heavens, making the old man blush in embarrassment.

”If you live with me, you can have meals like this every day,” Althea said with a smile, and Winona’s spoon paused midway as she whipped her head to look at her.

Some tears lined up the blonde’s eyes, making the other two flinch. Bitterly, she threw back a rhetorical question. ”You think I don’t want to??”

”...”

Althea sheepishly rubbed her nose, knowing this was a prelude to a rant. Absent-mindedly, Althea took a bite at the last viand, not noticing Harold’s nervous stare.

”I would’ve run to you when things happened! It was just that—” Winona paused, looking at Althea who was gaping as she ate a dish.

She waved her hand in front of the auburn-haired woman. ”Hey, Althea. What’s wrong?”

Althea ignored her and continued to chew, taking another bite to confirm there really was a difference to the other dishes.

She paused and used her ability to analyze it.

[Harold’s Pie (E): +1 Health every 3 seconds, lasts for 1 minute]

She blinked and raised her head to look at Harold, who was smiling in response.

”You…”

”I just triggered the Occupation, just today in fact.”

Althea’s eyes brightened. She had always wondered when he’d trigger it—after all, he had been cooking so much and using a variety of novel ingredients.

Before, when she asked the NPCs why this was so, they said triggering an occupation was half-dependent on talent.

Harold not activating despite all the resources and innovation likely had to do with lesser talent.

In the same vein, the fact that Harold triggered it now meant that he had worked very, very, hard.

She felt quite proud.

She was also very curious. ”What skill did you get?”

”The active skill is a similar identifying skill to your first skill. I can identify up to level 10 for some mana.

”I also activated a passive skill. With it, there is a 20% chance of making food with special effects, like this one.”

Althea nodded. It was not as good as Cooke who had a much larger passive and could offer the special-effect food in restaurants, but it was more than enough for a small team.

”Congratulations,” She said, eyes warm. ”I’m proud of you.”

”Thank you.” Harold smiled, genuinely happy for this growth of his skills. This was primarily because it felt like his importance to the team increased.

Winona looked at their interaction with complex emotions. She could see Harold was sincerely trying to serve Althea as some sort of housekeeper, and Althea in turn genuinely liked the old man and treated him as a confidante.

To create rapport in a month meant they probably went through life and death together.

To be honest, she was a little jealous. Before, other than her family, only she was close to Althea like this.

Winona’s family was very rich—the largest Energy company in the continent, in fact. It was why she was thrown into a major she didn’t like and grew up with too many restrictions.

Then… she met Althea. She was two whole years younger than her, but she was so beautiful, sassy, and passionate in what she did.

She was also the only person around her age who didn’t feel intimidated nor did she ever ingratiate herself to her.

At the time, her gut had told her it would do her good to befriend this woman. So she did. Or, at least she tried.

The thing was, even if Althea looked gentle and mild-mannered, she was notoriously difficult to open up.

It took her months of shameless pestering and bribes (using exotic plants and seeds) to get the other girl’s heart. It took even longer to be publicly acknowledged as her ’best friend’.

She remembered how happy she was when Althea didn’t deny the relationship when some random stranger assumed. At the time, Winona felt like she finally earned herself a true friend. Similarly, there was no one else who was truly close to Althea outside her home.

Being the only person close to her other than her family had been a point of pride.

But now she saw a group of people getting closer to her heart, just because they happened to have migrated near her.

Althea seemed to have sensed her friend’s change of mood. She didn’t know what it was about, but her hand held the other’s automatically anyway.

”Shall we move to the living area?” She asked, pulling the latter back to the present.

”Hmm…” Winona smiled and followed her friend to the sofa.

They sat on the comfortable rugs with their backs resting on the sofa’s apron. They gently placed the kids on their designated rug delineated by stuffed toys.

The two babies laughed happily as they were placed in a familiar place, resuming the game of ’who-rolled-better’.

The two women chuckled, with Winona still assisting little Pepper to win (Girl Power, she said).

”They’re only a week old right? I didn’t know they could roll at this age.” She said, giggling when Meatball rolled on his stomach showing off his cute wiggling butt.

”Normal babies don’t.”

”What?”

”It’s… we’re not sure either,” Althea said, helping up the baby to get on his side. He blinked wondering why the view suddenly changed.

From what she got from the NPCs, it just had to do with a little jackpot of good genes.

Instead of dwelling on mysteries, she turned her head to Winona, who was now gently poking the soft flab of the two children.

She just couldn’t take her hands off the flabby little ones.

”What happened to you?”

At the question, Winona sighed exaggeratedly, body softening in ’weakness’. She then hugged Althea, asking for comfort. ”Oh gosh, I don’t know where to begin!

She said so, but she ranted on anyway. ”It’s a looongg story! I tell you, it was so horrible!” She began and her words that must’ve been 200 words per minute.

And Althea just quietly listened in—just like she always did.