“Just what the hell are you people?”
Among the routed bandits, the leader watched his men fall one after another, his pupils trembling wildly.
“His Highness’s orders—not a single bandit is to escape!”
Vera loaded a bullet into her musket’s chamber as she commanded the Imperial Guard Knights behind her.
“Yes!”
The Imperial Guard Knights answered in unison, then, just like Vera, they pursued on horseback while raising their muskets to shoot at the fleeing bandits.
Under the volley from Vera and the other knights, the bandits fell like wheat beneath a scythe, dropping in droves.
“Charge back! If we don’t take out those knights with the strange weapons, none of us will escape.”
The bandit leader, snapping out of his daze, called out to the nearest few men.
“Right!”
The men thought it over and agreed that their leader was right.
So these bandits, following their leader, charged back at Vera and the others.
“You go after the rest of the fleeing bandits. Leave these ones to me.”
Vera recognized that the man leading the charge toward her was likely the bandit leader.
After issuing her orders to the nearby Imperial Guard Knights, she swapped her musket for the flag lance hanging by her saddle, then charged straight at the bandit leader and his men.
The Imperial Guard Knights knew Vera’s prowess. Without a single question, they silently obeyed and pursued the fleeing bandits.
“A woman?”
The bandit leader, eyeing the female knight approaching him, felt a flicker of doubt.
But he didn’t dare let his guard down. Gripping his weapon, he lunged at Vera with all his might.
“Are you the leader of these bandits?”
Vera caught the spear thrust toward her with one hand, completely unfazed as she questioned him.
“Wha—? How?!”
The bandit leader stared at Vera in shock.
“Then I suppose you are.”
As if talking to herself, Vera tightened her grip on the bandit leader’s spear and wrenched it from his hands.
Then she swung the shaft of her flag lance across his body, knocking him off his horse.
“Kill her!”
“Hurry! Protect the boss!”
The few men who had followed the bandit leader saw him knocked down and immediately rushed to surround Vera.
Vera paid them no mind. She simply gripped her flag lance and traced a circle in the air with its tip, and in an instant, the bandits were separated from their heads, their bodies left in pieces.
“Aaahhh—!”
The bandit leader, knocked to the ground, drew his waist blade and screamed as he swung at Vera.
But Vera didn’t even give him a glance. She simply took the spear she had just taken from him and hurled it back at the bandit leader.
With Vera’s immense strength behind it, the spear let out a sonic boom the moment it left her hand.
It then pierced precisely through both of the bandit leader’s arms that were holding the sword, pinning him to the ground like a painting nailed to a wall.
“Vera! How is it?”
Anke ran over with his squad, not even pausing to catch his breath before asking her.
“Just as Your Highness anticipated. This should be the bandit leader, or at least a chieftain. I’ll leave him to you. The Imperial Guard Knights and I will go after the ones that slipped through.”
Vera pointed with her flag lance at the bandit leader, who was pinned to the ground by his own spear through both arms, screaming in agony.
“Hiss…”
The militiamen who had come with Anke drew sharp breaths at the sight of the bandit leader’s wretched state, and their eyes toward Vera filled with a newfound awe.
“Good. Be careful.”
Anke nodded and cautioned Vera.
“I understand, Your Highness.”
Vera hung the flag lance back on the side of her saddle, picked up her musket, and continued her pursuit of the fleeing bandits.
The operation to hunt down the fleeing bandits continued until the afternoon before it finally ended.
After fighting for nearly the entire day, the militiamen’s spirits and stamina appeared still abundant on the surface, but in truth, they had reached their limits.
So for the subsequent cleanup of the battlefield, Anke only had the men lead the bandits’ horses back.
The rest of the strenuous work— handling the corpses and stripping armor— was scheduled for the next day, allowing the militiamen time to recover.
And because this was a great victory where only a few of their own had suffered minor injuries, the atmosphere in the camp that night was exceptionally lively.
To reward the militiamen, Anke even brought out the small store of wine they had in the baggage train, letting everyone share it— each person getting a small wooden cupful.
The militiamen praised the grenadiers’ strength, marveling at how they could hurl hand grenades weighing two jin and a half (two kilograms) so accurately and quickly among the bandits.
The grenadiers, in turn, thanked the militiamen for their bravery, for holding the line when the enemy cavalry closed in, protecting everyone.
Except for the two Imperial Guard Knights on sentry duty, the rest gathered around the campfire, bragging to each other about how they had used their muskets in actual combat for the first time today— how many bullets each had fired and how many bandits they had killed.
“None of you beat me. I used seventy-five bullets and took out thirteen bandits!”
Imperial Guard Knight Zha Ke stood up, boasting to his comrades.
“Zha Ke, you can only brag among us. Do you dare compare yourself with the Chief Knight?”
Imperial Guard Knight Jack, spotting Vera walking behind Zha Ke, took a small sip of wine from his cup and used his eyes to urge Zha Ke on.
“We-well, how can I compare with the Chief? Her marksmanship—shoot an apple falling from a tree, and by the time it hits the ground, it’d have dozens more holes,” Zha Ke muttered.
“Dozens of holes? Wouldn’t it already be applesauce? Zha Ke, you’re drunk, aren’t you? You’re talking nonsense.”
One Imperial Guard Knight said, and everyone burst into laughter. For a moment, the air was filled with a sweet and sour laughter like wine.
‘They’re laughing so happily… If everyone were still here, would they be this happy too?’
Vera walked past, listening to the laughter of the Imperial Guard Knights, but her heart was heavy.
On the other side of the camp, a different scene unfolded.
Faced with Anke’s coercion and persuasion, the bandit leader remained uncooperative, not uttering a single word, leaving Anke with no way to proceed.
“Has Your Highness not gotten any results yet?”
Vera asked Anke.
“No, this one is impervious to everything. Vera, do you have any magic that can make someone tell the truth?”
Anke shook his head, then looked at Vera with a pleading gaze.
“No.”
Vera denied it outright.
“Well then, it seems we’ll have to bring him back to Border City like this. I have a feeling there’s a big secret behind this guy.”
Anke said to Vera.
The next day, Anke led the militiamen to gather the bandits’ corpses, strip off their armor and weapons, keep a few bodies to take back as proof, and burn the rest.
They essentially cleaned up the previous day’s battlefield.
Afterward, Anke had someone send word of the successful bandit suppression back ahead, while he himself led the main force, loaded with spoils, slowly making their way back to Border City.