Hanover Province, Border City. Sunny weather.
A large crowd, mainly merchants and minor nobles, gathered in front of the square of Border City, staring intently at the huge stage ahead.
The backdrop of the stage consisted of five banners hanging down.
From left to right, the five banners were the flag of House Rohak, the flag of House Oka, the national flag of the Black Cross Kingdom, Anke’s personal Black Dragon flag, and the flag of House Bawley.
Mustafa checked the time, then shouted to the band.
“Play music.”
The band from House Oka immediately began playing the lively tune named “Colonel Bogey March” by Anke.
Following the rhythm of the music, Anke was the first to walk onto the stage from behind.
Immediately after, Count Oka and Vera walked side by side. Finally, Count Rohak and Count Bawley came on stage side by side.
Anke and the others stepped forward to the rhythm and gradually lined up from left to right: Count Rohak, Count Oka, Anke, Vera, and Count Bawley, corresponding to the arrangement of the hanging banners behind them.
Once in position, Anke and the others politely waved to the crowd below.
“Lord!”
“Lord!”
“Lord!”
The Imperial Guard Knights Anke had planted in the crowd led the cheers and applause.
The others didn’t understand, but could only follow the surrounding people in clapping.
Seeing that the timing was right, Mustafa below ordered the band to stop playing.
After the band stopped, Count Oka glanced at Anke to his right, then, as Anke had asked him to, pulled out a trumpet made of iron sheets from behind.
Count Oka put one end of the trumpet to his face and shouted loudly to the crowd below.
“Since King Frederick conquered the Duchy of Hanover and established the province! Hanover Province has had 51 lords! They were all bastards, beasts, swine, parasites! But this His Highness Anke is not a bastard, not a beast, not a swine, nor a parasite! Today, he will personally lead the troops to suppress the bandits! He is the great hero of Hanover Province!”
After finishing his lines, Count Oka glanced at Anke, who remained composed, then led the applause.
“Knights, please.”
After saying his lines, Count Oka passed by Anke and handed the trumpet to Vera.
Vera took the trumpet, but was still very hesitant because the speech Anke had assigned her was just too…
But since the trumpet was already in her hands, Vera had no choice but to grit her teeth and go on.
“The wind rises, clouds fly! Where are the brave men to march across the land?”
Vera took a deep breath and shouted into the trumpet.
“Bandits! They must be suppressed at all times! Not suppressing them is not an option!”
As soon as Vera finished speaking, applause rang out from below. The applause came from the merchants who had been robbed by bandits.
“Think about it! You take your family, leave the city, roasting meat, singing songs, and suddenly you get ambushed by bandits!”
Vera spoke while observing Anke’s expression, then continued.
“So! Days without bandits are good days!”
“Your Highness, please.”
After saying these words, Vera felt she wanted to turn into a Slime on the spot out of embarrassment and hide in some corner.
But when she handed the trumpet to Anke, she realized that Anke was like nothing had happened, his expression not embarrassed at all, but rather enjoying it.
Anke took the trumpet, cleared his throat, and said only two words.
“Move out!!!”
The ground trembled.
“Giddyup!”
“Giddyup!”
Hundreds of bandits on horseback galloped across the plain.
“Boss! Does that Fourth Prince of Border City really have a million gold coins in his hands?”
A subordinate controlled his horse and rode up to the chief, asking him.
“Of course! His Highness the First Prince said that the Fourth Prince had already borrowed several million gold coins from the two counts, and now he’s collecting money throughout the province to deal with us. You can say that no one in the entire province is richer than him!”
The chief said affirmatively, and took the opportunity to continue inciting the other bandits.
“The Fourth Prince has several million gold coins! Once we defeat the Fourth Prince and take Border City! Each of us will get over ten thousand gold coins! And the rest will be divided!”
“Boss, rest assured! We’ll definitely defeat the Fourth Prince and take Border City!”
“Defeat the Fourth Prince, take Border City!”
“Defeat the Fourth Prince, take Border City!”
Listening to the chief’s words, the bandits all felt as if they saw a mountain of gold beckoning them.
“Boss, after this battle, when I have money, I want to go back to my hometown and get married. Is that okay?”
The same subordinate who had spoken earlier asked again.
“Of course, kid! As long as you survive! I’ll personally give you a few hundred more gold coins!”
The chief laughed heartily. The subordinate’s words, like a stone thrown into water, caused a wave of resonance.
“What’s the bride like? Pretty?”
“Where are you from, kid?”
“I want to get married too. My mother is looking forward to me going back to start a family.”
All the bandits imagined what they would do after getting the money, completely disregarding whether they could actually get it.
And as the bandits rushed toward their dream gold mountain, Anke’s personally led bandit-suppression force also left Border City after the ceremony.
Because two days before departure, Anke had started receiving intelligence from various cities in Hanover Province, all reporting that they had found this bandit group and confirmed that they were charging at full speed in a certain direction.
Anke integrated all the intelligence and finally determined that the bandits’ target was likely Border City itself!
Although he wasn’t sure why the bandits were coming this way, Anke had confidence in eliminating this bandit group that was actively attacking.
Because unlike the restraint shown during the winter resistance against the barbarians, this time, in order to wipe out the bandits, Anke not only had Vera and all ten Imperial Guard Knights bring their Needle Guns, but also had the accompanying three hundred militiamen carry a large number of throwing explosives.
With weapons completely beyond this era, plus Vera, a White Dragon in human form, unless this bandit group had supernatural beings stronger than Vera, Anke couldn’t see how he could lose.
As for why he chose to fight outside the city instead of defending within Border City, it was for the same reason as building the new Border City: Anke didn’t want the battle to affect the workshops around Border City.
However, it wasn’t that he had no concerns at all.
After all, Anke couldn’t understand how this bandit group dared to set their sights on Border City directly.
Hadn’t they heard of his feats of defeating barbarians and hunting dragons? Or did they have some backup plan?
“Your Highness, are you worried that we might encounter trouble on the expedition?”
Vera noticed the worry and doubt on Anke’s face and stepped forward to ask him with concern.
“Yes. After all, I can’t figure out how bandits would dare to target Border City directly. Being bold enough to target a city, they’re definitely no ordinary bandits.”
“Maybe they’re just stupid? If they truly could take a city, they should go after richer cities, not Border City.”
Vera thought for a moment and gave her answer.
“You might be right, Vera. Maybe this bandit group is just a bit dumb.”
Anke said with a smile.