Building a Safe Zone with My Harem In The Post-Apocalyptic World-Chapter 55: Home

"Ah, so Henry and the rest were deliberately guiding us to the Devourer’s nest..."

"How dare he? We took care of him. We protected him!"

"I can’t believe such a kind-hearted boy could do something like this..."

"Kind-hearted my ass! He kicked and punched us! He wanted to sacrifice us for their own salvation!"

"He and his men were despicable. I’m glad he’s dead!"

Those were the reactions after Gideon revealed the truth. Some of their own members had been willing to sacrifice the others and even hurt them, blinded by their desperate need to survive and by Henry’s strange, almost unnatural charm.

"But Scions of the Lord, you said?" the youngest among them asked. "I thought they were just a myth."

"Why would you think that?" Gideon asked, his curiosity clear.

He needed as much information as possible. Henry’s last words were still echoing in his mind. He had said there were many of them, and that they would return to haunt him. That meant they were real, just as real as the Freebound or any other traveler faction.

The more Gideon thought about it, the more unsettled he became. It felt as if Henry had deliberately allowed himself to be killed. But why would he do that? Once he died, everything should have ended with him.

He narrowed his eyes, remembering Henry’s words about the truth of the world.

’There had to be a clue hidden in them.’

From what Gideon understood, Henry had allowed people to be devoured by the aberrant so he could control it. That was his current assumption, but he could not shake the feeling that there was something more beneath the surface.

"There’s almost no information about them," the young man replied. "They’re treated like a myth. No one has ever seen one."

"Or maybe no one who saw them lived to tell the story."

Daphne’s voice came from the entrance as she stepped into the tent.

The Freebound had set up two separate tents. One was for the wounded who required treatment, some of them in critical condition, though there was little that could truly be done for them. The other was a larger tent that sheltered the surviving travelers.

Gideon had been discussing the situation here, both to gather information and to build trust with them.

The moment he saw Daphne’s heavy expression, he knew something had happened to her grandfather.

Silence settled over the tent after her words. The possibility was terrifying, and it did not feel impossible. After all, everyone who had followed Henry was now dead.

"But it’s also possible that information about them is extremely limited," Gideon said, forcing himself back to a more rational line of thought. "Communication devices in this world are nearly extinct, aren’t they?"

Several of them nodded.

After everything that had happened, the world was no longer what it used to be.

However, not Daphne.

She sat down on the floor and continued, "I already felt something was weird about him. My grandpa also told me not to get close to him."

She let out a quiet sigh. "I should have been more vocal about it."

Gideon placed his hand gently on her shoulder. "Don’t blame yourself. Everyone knows you did your best, and you warned them about him. That was enough."

"Yes, I know..." Her voice was low, and the guilt still lingered on her face.

’This might not be about the traveler faction. Maybe it is about her grandpa,’ he thought.

The others tried to cheer her up. They praised her for looking so cool as she used her power to protect the wounded. They told her they were proud of her, adding more words of encouragement until a small smile finally appeared on her lips.

Once the mood had steadied, Gideon decided to speak directly.

"Since your leader is deceased, what are you planning to do now?"

The atmosphere grew heavier.

Most of them were still of working age, though not particularly young. Excluding the wounded, there were only about thirty-five survivors left. It was not a large number to keep moving forward and protecting one another, especially when more than half of their original members were already dead.

Listening to them made Gideon regret everything. Not for the one who had thrown them to their deaths, but for the rest. If he had arrived sooner, perhaps this would not have happened.

"I think it will be difficult for us to keep moving," one of them said. It was the older man with gray hair and blue eyes, Mattheo, the one closest to their former leader.

"After the Henry incident, we are reluctant to accept new members as well."

He smiled faintly. "So this might be the last time we are together like this. I am glad I got to know all of you as family."

Perhaps Mattheo believed he would only become a burden, and the other elderly members might have thought the same. The younger ones, however, didn’t agree. They still wanted to move forward. Even after everything life had taken from them, that stubborn spark remained.

Gideon cleared his throat. "What if you come with me?"

The tent fell silent.

"I have a place that is perfect for you to stay," he added with a grin.

They exchanged glances. Gideon was their hero. He had protected them. If they followed him, they would finally have somewhere to settle. The reason they had kept moving all this time was not only to avoid attracting powerful aberrants by staying too long in one place.

They were also searching for something like their own nirvana, a place unreachable by aberrants, somewhere they could finally call home.

In the end, they agreed. They wanted to see what kind of place their hero was offering.

The transport of the third batch went smoothly. They separated the travelers into small teams of five and sent them toward Gideon’s Safe Zone using military trucks. Delilah, Jade, Kiliana, and Gideon oversaw the transfers to ensure everything remained secure.

Two groups departed at a time, each fifteen minutes apart. Once the first two groups arrived at the Cinders of Dusk, the remaining ones would follow. The critically wounded stayed behind at Climber Rift until their condition stabilized.

The fourth group, which Gideon personally escorted, encountered a minor issue when a cluster of juvenile Geysermire Crabs attacked their truck.

He defeated them easily, but the encounter served as a warning. Even with their small numbers, they were beginning to attract attention.

’Was choosing this place a mistake?’ The thought kept circling in his mind.

However, when everyone finally arrived, their doubts seemed to fade.

The sky was slowly turning orange. The sun burned a deep red as it descended, casting warm light across the horizon. It was beautiful, the same dusk Gideon had witnessed the first time he came here.

And as they stood there in silence, watching the sky, they all seemed to agree.

This could truly become their home.