Chapter 1514: Felipe
First of all, the people here naturally just looked down on women and their capabilities.
Even the Terran women who had awakened elements weren’t really treated with reverence. Rather, they were treated as attractive targets to procreate with.
Not to mention, Mirei was extremely meek and had low self-esteem. She had been extremely sheltered her whole life. He had an idea about this with how long he had observed her, but actually living with her showed that.
Fortunately, because of her need for his affection and approval, she willingly took on the womanly duties, even if she wasn’t very good at them. Anyway, Restaurant food wasn’t great either, so his tastebuds adjusted accordingly.
She was the daughter of one of the company’s higher-ups and was immediately trained to be useful as soon as they saw her potential. She grew up past her 30s, and she had yet to build a true relationship with anyone.
Although Felipe was in his early 40s, he was muscular and a little handsome. Not to mention, he had the aura of a capable leader whom people, especially women, tended to flock towards. It was inevitable for the mild-mannered genius to fall for such a rescuer.
She had fallen for him as soon as he helped her out back in Terran, and he always knew an opportunity when he saw it.
After gathering supplies and money, they found a nice hotel to spend the last few hours in Terran. There, he took her body and heart, completely bounding her to him—completely for use, all in the name of "love".
Then the migration happened and they knew that they had prepared the best they could with their guns and their money, with him gathering 980 gold by sweeping through every place they could pass by without getting killed by those damned upgraded zombies that surrounded them.
They lost a third of their people in the first hour. They were slapped with the fact that their guns could only do so much, and the damned monsters were too fast and too strong for them to handle without any injuries.
Later, they found and settled in the first Terran village they encountered.
It was then that he discovered out through the Lord’s bragging that he missed something important just because he lacked a couple of gold—a Lord Token!
This meant that he could’ve owned his own territory!
He simmered on that for a long time, and it was made worse and worse by the day because of the current Lord’s incompetence. The man was weak and cowardly, and it was humiliating to be dependent on him.
At the same time, they couldn’t do much because of the rules, and he swore he grinded a few millimeters of teeth because of his anger.
In the end, he vented by pushing that Lord during a beast tide attack, thinking he could steal it somehow.
Sadly, no such thing happened. The territory disintegrated, instead.
He didn’t feel bad at the thousands of people he displaced, nor did he feel guilty seeing the thousands of people who were suddenly completely vulnerable to monsters. He was just regretful he lost the token.
He almost kicked the woman out of the group, too. After all, her attachment was getting annoying, and it wasn’t like there weren’t other women willing to bed him.
But then he got injured in a beast mob. It was then that the woman said she awakened an [Appraisal] skill and could tell which plants to use to aid healing. She made a paste of sorts and he realized that his wounds really did get better.
With that, he found out that this woman’s talents could be useful even in this alien place and encouraged her to explore.
He would even give her various plants and flowers to study, though she misunderstood it as a sign of affection, making her fall for him even more.
Anyway, what remained of his group retained their guns, leaving a few in their spaces. They used Class E weapons instead, realizing that the guns were not useful against the beasts anymore.
Even without guns, however, his team was strong, and their show of power made the refugees follow after them.
They eventually found another territory further north where there were more flat lands.
The Lord here was even worse than the previous one. He was not just a wimp, but he was an idiot too. But that was fine because it meant Felipe could control him easily.
Although Felipe did not hold a token (yet), the Lord asked him for advice on everything and relied on him to fight off the monsters.
The people also looked for him first when encountering various concerns. With their remaining guns and their stockpile of blades, they managed to train and establish themselves as powerhouses.
Then, their first war came, and they overwhelmed the Terrans who attacked.
Using their guns, they destroyed the enemy momentum and—considering most people were still reluctant to kill fellow humans at this time— they defeated them with small losses.
He also learned from the new captures that the token was detached from the Lord’s body at this time, and this meant he could take it!
He saw it! It was his chance!
And like this, he killed the Lord and took his token, finally becoming a Lord himself! He could create buildings at the click of a few fingers, and he could create rules that people would follow.
The power was...intoxicating.
They also integrated the new slaves, and they realized they had absolute power over them. Just by this, Felipe knew he was liking this place more and more!
He also got Mirei to explore... her expertise and gave her all the resources she needed. Soon, she created the prototype version of what would eventually be called the White Happiness.
He could already see himself controlling some key people with it.
Soon, they started to experiment on people too. First, it was a few slaves, then it would be other people with actual money.
For the next few weeks, they lived with relative peace. Because the village was already developed by the previous Lord, this meant that Felipe still had a lot of money to further develop the place, and he added more and more sentries to guard his territory.
The war that came after that was incredibly easy because of this, and it gave them the false impression that they were the strongest in the area.
Then the Protection Period ended.
Like many Terran territories, they struggled. The aborigines crushed them, and most of them became slaves. He was lucky and had escaped that fate, but the village was taken over regardless.
He had to kneel down and willingly give away the token he worked so hard to get!
The aborigines... were brutal, to say the least. During the war, he lost many of his men, and during the next few months, he lost them all.
He quickly allied themselves with them, using the drugs he marketed as ’happy powder’, which was the same as sugar but much more expensive.
Eventually, he climbed his way up from the subsidiary village to the Town they were attached to, Flaret Town.
And so... here he was. With his wits, he even climbed up, becoming the Town Lord’s adviser when it came to this business. He earned them huge amounts of money in the past few months, and it only increased his prestige even more.
He had a few thousand in his wallet now, though he believed he deserved a lot more.
But—remembering the poor state of that damned lord—he reckoned it wouldn’t be too late to get what he deserved.
A Lord Token. This time, it would be a Town’s.