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

"Misha? What do you mean by that?"

Misha put a finger in her mouth, asking them to be quiet, and the girls immediately pursed their lips.

Although they were in the bedroom, the insulation here was horrible. Heaving a deep breath, Misha took some items from her space.

One of the loopholes of slavery was that their spaces were unaffected. This was why Sarah managed to keep much of her money, because she transformed it into its physical form before the war ended.

This knowledge was not a secret, but not exactly widespread either. Those who figured it out tended to hide it, lest their 'masters' would order them to give what they saved.

Another was that the default mode of a slave was really just to follow the explicit orders of citizens. That was to say, as long as they didn't sign a detailed oath of non-betrayal or things like that, they wouldn't be bound by it.

It was just that in most cases, the slaves were either too scared, too tired, or too hopeless to do anything about their situation. Further, they were usually ordered around at all times. They simply didn't have the time nor the energy to have intelligent rebellious thoughts that could actually work.

This was understandable, especially when anyone around them could order them to stab themselves in the neck.

In the same vein, one could see that Alterra's requirement for slaves to sign oaths (because they were, technically, freed in a sense) had an unintended consequence to counter this loophole.

The girls looked at the item Misha took out. It was a green-brown bar that looked like frozen vomit.

The girls looked at it weirdly. "What is it?"

"It's medicine that will make it seem like you have a horrid allergic reaction. It would temporarily affect the skin, causing redness, and even the formation of some pus.

"We need to get this to everyone," she told them.

"You only have one?"

"It's like a soap, and it can work on whoever uses it."

This item actually came from Silvia. As for why Silvia even had such a thing in her space, it was related to a woman's foresight.

Althea made it herself, in fact. However, since it was a bit…unpalatable and could be considered a hidden weapon, she only sent it to women on her side entering aborigine territories.

Silvia bought a box-worth of the item on top of what Althea gave for free.

Although she was crossdressing now, she might be found out to be a woman eventually. No woman without status was safe in this world, and it was best to assume that she'd encounter people who'd want to take her away.

Rowan—bless his soul—was unfortunately not strong enough to handle every problem they'd encounter in a Town.

At the same time, although she didn't say anything, the amount of preparation she made Rowan both relieved and sad.

Rowan thought: If he was strong enough, how could she be so insecure?

This was not known to Misha and the others though. They were focused on their own problems.

"It is only cosmetic, don't worry, but I was warned it looks really horrible," Misha said. "Shall we try? No one can say anything outside," she said, reiterating. "If anyone did, then we might just be blowing our last chance to escape."

Yulia, Gina, and the other girls nodded, eyes filled with determination. The next auction was coming soon and perhaps this was truly the last chance for some of them! Even if the 'masters' would only choose 10, who was to say they wouldn't be included?

Even if they didn't, what about the next month? And the next?

Would they be passed around for the rest of their lives? What if visitors arrived, would they be forced to entertain them, too?!

Yulia decided to start. She broke the pellet as per instruction, wetting it a bit and rubbing the 'soap' on her arms. It really seemed like soap, except it was a little rough and had no pleasant scent to it.

It was a tense couple of moments until her skin started to redden, slowly getting a little swollen.

They gaped when they saw her arms turn from flesh color to red and violet. Soon, some pus on her skin formed in front of their eyes and soon the white bulges appeared like they were about to explode.

All stomachs tumbled in disgust.

If they hadn't seen so many disgusting things in the past year, they'd definitely vomit.

Women avoided anything that risked their appearances by instinct, but their lives had to come first. Even if it wasn't temporary, would it really be so bad to be found disgusting by those men?

Gina gulped and also took the morbid-looking soap and wet it a bit with her ability. She put a bit on her face and the area above her breast. The other girls saw this and also rubbed it on similar places.

They worried it'd be painful, but it was just a little uncomfortable and itchy. After some time, they barely noticed them there. They had gone through much much worse pain for this to bother them now.

Misha nodded when she saw their attitudes. She then took two more from her space and handed them a few pieces of the soap each.

"Now… it's time to spread it."

…

An hour later, Misha walked back to Hesso's abode. She had been granted relative freedom because of the favor, and no one dared to take Hesso's favorite woman, so she was safe.

She could not use her ability on people much stronger than she was. For example, the Lord. So she did her best to attach to Hesso and his cronies.

Although their levels were higher, it wasn't too far, so her ability had an effect. And, because they were brainless, self-absorbed idiots, her ability worked much better than it should, considering their level discrepancies.

When she got there, she saw that the event's place for the auction was being set up. Tomorrow was the long-awaited slave trade, but if all went well, that would be cancelled.

With that in mind, she headed back to greet Hesso and accompanied him to his room and in his own imagination, waiting for things to start.

A few hours later, people indeed rushed over to Hesso and the Lord.

"All the elementalist slaves have been infected by an unknown disease!!"