No, That’s wrong. He angrily spat out and threw his former thought aside, You think they’re the same as yourself? When have the nobles ever treated you as if you were of the same species as themselves? He asked himself mockingly.

The only goal of their trip is to snatch Border Town away from us and bring the Northern Slope Mine back under their control. More importantly, they even intend to drive His Royal Highness out of the western territory, as a member of the First Army I cannot simply allow this.

During yesterday’s pre-war lecture, His Royal Highness had made it clear that Timothy Wimbledon, the brother of His Royal Highness, had conspired against the throne and in the end even killed his own father King Wimbledon III for it. Originally these happenings between the royalty and aristocracy, hadn’t mattered that much to him — Is there any difference for me if the King was to change?

But now that Duke Ryan wanted to grasp this opportunity to take His Highness’s territory away, this he now found totally unacceptable!

When he thought about it, just how had his life been before His Highness had come to Border Town? If he was remembering correctly, the former Lord was actually a Count who had rarely shown himself. The acquisition of the furs was done by his personal guards who often used their weapons to lower the prices. And when the Months of the Demons arrived they would all flee to live in the slums of Longsong Stronghold and end up suffering during that whole time.

But today, under His Highness’ control the life in Border Town had become better and better, with changes being visible for everyone to see. Van’er thought, for example, when the miners had achieved a higher output they would also receive a higher payment. And even after His Highness put this black machine into the North Slope Mine, the additional output had still counted for the miner’s work. Whether it was when building the walls, or mining gravel everyone was paid on time. During this whole winter, there wasn’t even one person who had frozen or starved to death.

Of course, the biggest change was the implementation of the militia — no, now it’s called the First Army.

Having them guarding the town, we commoners don’t need to huddle together in these wooden sheds begging for others to give us food. If the Prince isn’t here any longer, would the Duke still allow for the First Army to keep on existing?

Van’er took another deep breath and wiped his palms against his clothes. No, he certainly would not allow it. The nobles of the stronghold don’t care for the lives of us commoners, it is exactly as His Highness had said before: Only an army composed of the commoners will be willing to fight for the lives of other commoners.

Van’er raised his head so that he could keep the left part of the sky inside his field of view, there in the distant he could see a small black dot circling around, when one was only taking a casual look, anyone would think it was actually just a large bird. But in truth, it was the artillery intelligence commander — Lightning, who was using the trees growing on both sides of the road as cover while constantly observing the enemy’s movements. When she flew back, Van’er also noticed that as long as she did not take the initiative to fly over open areas, the people on the ground would only be able to see tree branches if they were to look upwards, so it was nearly impossible for them to detect that there was a witch that was flying over their heads.

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