Chapter 6 — Rescue Princess

The chosen target for first contact was the Canary Kingdom, a medium-sized kingdom located the closest to the headquarters island.

Over the month, when thinking of how to make contact, Konrad thought of the common trope of rescuing the princess when her caravan is attacked by bandits that he often read in light novels back on Earth.

To achieve this exact scenario, he had sent spies in to locate the route the princess would be taking and had proved a large bandit group by assassinating the brother of the leader and leaving clues that the princess had ordered it. The route of the princess was also "coincidently" leaked to the bandit leader. Now, all there was left to do was wait for the attack.

Meanwhile, the bandit leader, Rattlesnake Jack, was approaching the princess's procession in a rage.

He roared as his eyes blazed with fury.

[Damn it all! Why in hell would you kill my brother?! Don't worry John, your murderers will join you soon. I'll avenge you if it's the last thing I do!]

He had always been fiercely protective of brother John, and now that he lay dead, there was nothing that could stop his vengeance. Of course, except for Konrad.

With him, Konrad had brought a heavily armed combined arms company consisting of 100 infantry, 5 Chieftain main battle tanks and 10 BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles. A flight of fighter jets and attack helicopters were also on standby. Konrad personally was sitting in an armoured car located in the middle of the formation.

Konrad's army was travelling some distance behind the princess's procession to remain hidden in the woodland and only started to close the distance when a scout reported that the fighting had started.

As they approached the carriage, a couple of dozen knights wearing shiny ornamental armour could be seen engaging a horde of bandits. There were also six wizards who were unleashing firepower equivalent to a soldier with a handgun. Fireballs and magic projectiles had already killed dozens of bandits.

Seeing this, the bandit leader waved his hand and a few ballistae hidden behind trees emerged from hiding and fired powerful metal bolts towards the wizards. Distracted by the bandit horde right in front of them, the wizards didn't notice the ballistae until it was too late.

Three wizards were skewered, the ballista bolts easily punching through the weak magic shields on their bodies. Their bodies were nailed to the ground as they spat out blood and slowly died in agony. That was the fatal flaw of the wizard, they had a high attack but a low defence. In other words, a glass cannon. The 3 remaining wizards instantly spent a large amount of mana to cast several fireballs rippling with heat to wipe out the ballistae, but the damage had already been done.

Normally in a battlefield, every wizard would be carefully protected by teams of soldiers with strong shields who would essentially act as meat shields to prevent this exact scenario from happening. However, no manpower could be spared as all the knights were engaging the ever-increasing horde of bandits.

The bandits were attacking the knights like crazed monsters with no regard for their lives! Rattlesnake Jack had promised that anyone who killed a knight would get 10 gold and whoever killed the princess would get 100 gold! Most of the bandits had never even seen a piece of gold before! If they got even 10 pieces, then they could buy a house far out in the country, raise a family, and retire for the rest of their lives! After all, they were all bandits due to desperation, their true goal was to save up enough money to retire peacefully.

While the knights were fighting bravely, they were getting tired and started to unwittingly show some flaws. The number of knights slowly started to get whittled away as they got overwhelmed by the horde of bandits and were forced to slowly shrink their formation to prevent bandits from getting through to the carriage.

The bandits who got the last kill on a knight would immediately run back to collect their reward and start running as far away as possible from the battlefield. They had already got their reward, there was no reason for them to stick around and wait for the eventual revenge of the kingdom. Seeing the boss carry out his promise, the bandits attacked with even more strength and excitement, each one trying to be the lucky person who dealt the finishing blow to a knight.

In the carriage, Princess Iris was nervously looking out the window of the carriage with her maid.

[Christina, do you think we'll be okay?]

The princess was a beautiful young girl with blond, silky hair. She normally looked cool and composed but this time her pretty face was covered with worry and anxiety.

A beautiful maid beside her comforted her with a gentle voice that trembled ever so slightly. Her tail that peaked through her skirt in addition to her animal ears gave away the maid's identity of an animal person.

[Don't worry princess, our brave knights will protect us]

Despite saying this, her face and tone showed her unconfidence. Her slightly pale look exposed that she knew that if help didn't come, they would soon be overwhelmed by the bloodthirsty bandits. Like the princess, she was desperately praying for a miracle.

Meanwhile, Konrad's army finally reached the convoy, which had now become a battlefield.

[Sir, over half of the knights have been wiped out by the bandits. Awaiting your orders!]

Konrad was satisfied with how much progress the bandits made. The more desperate the situation, the more rewards he could get and the more reliant the princess would be on him once he rescued them. He felt absolutely no phycological burden on the people indirectly killed by him. Why should he care?

Konrad calmly ordered through the radio in a loud and imposing voice.

[Engage!]

[Yes sir! All units engage the enemy! Remember, your enemy is the bandits! Try to avoid collateral damage to the knights as much as possible!]

The entire battalion emerged from the green woodland and instantly opened fire. The cannons on the tanks and infantry fighting vehicles shot out high-explosive rounds that blew apart tens of bandits at a time and flung their bodies around like bloody ragdolls. Shockwaves were left in their wake as the ear-splitting booms startled both the bandits and knights.

Rattlesnake Jack looked over, shocked at the power of the new army.

[What is that?! Did the kingdom send over all their ancestral mages? No, it can't be… they couldn't have known so fast.]

Infantry poured out of the BMP-3s and opened fire with their AK-104s. The combined firepower easily massacred the bandits.

Consumed with terror, the bandits routed and started fleeing the battlefield.

At this moment, the attack helicopters arrived slightly late. The helicopters were previously kept far back so their loud rotors would not alert the enemy. The gunners were clutching their joysticks in anticipation, their fingers on the trigger.

[Give 'em hell!]