Resonance City

A few days passed since Blanc sparred with the battalion commanders.

Today, the town hall is busy preparing for an announcement from Blanc while the townspeople are heading towards the plaza.

Everyone always attends the announcements because whenever Blanc has one, it is always very important.

Currently, Blanc is in his office preparing his speech for the announcement.

There were two big things and a few small things that he needed to announce today.

After a few more minutes of preparation, he was ready.

Blanc walked out of his office and he was escorted by Helena and the battalion commanders as he headed towards the stage.

However, Leif was still nowhere to be found.

"Look! It's mayor Blanc!"

"Hey look that's General Helena! I heard that she is still undefeated up to this day!"

"Yeah! I heard that she easily defeated the enemy's general the last time someone invaded our town!"

"Don't forget the battalion commanders!"

"They're so cool! I'm gonna apply to join the military!"

"You? Quit dreaming! Maybe I have a chance, but you? No way."

Seeing them walk towards the stage, the newer citizens who had never seen Blanc, Helena, and the battalion commanders enthusiastically talked about their feats.

There were a lot of citizens who only settled into their town after the first battle against the northern nobles of Terravalle Kingdom.

They haven't seen their general and battalion commanders in action and only heard stories about their greatness so they were very excited to see them in person.

A few minutes later, Blanc went up the stage and the townspeople went quiet. They wondered what important announcement will Blanc announce today.

"Hello everyone, thank you for attending my announcement today. I am very happy to see so many of you in attendance today because this proves that you care about what's happening in our town."

"I have a few matters to announce today so let's start. First, I would like to announce that we have now met all requirements to call ourselves a city."

"We don't have any reason to hide our existence any longer so I want all of you to proudly say Resonance City whenever you go out of our city to visit your relatives from other places."

"Due to our rapid growth, many settlers are choosing to settle down in our city but unfortunately, we are almost at full capacity so I would like to take this chance to announce that I have assigned some of my trusted personnel to build two new villages around an hour away by foot from our city."

"The new settlers will be redirected to the new villages and if those new settlers are someone you know, please do tell them that Resonance City will ensure that they will get to live the same quality of life as the citizens inside the city."

"We will also make sure to dispatch enough men for the protection of the new villagers and we will make sure to build the necessary fortifications to protect the village from predators."

"Moving on, the next announcement is about our current batch of warrior trainees. I'd like to proudly say that all of them reached the required strength to be officially enlisted into our military. Congratulations to our new warriors!"

*POP* *POP* *POP* *POP* *POP* *POP*

Fireworks illuminated the evening sky as people clapped and cheered for the 1,500 new soldiers.

After a few minutes of celebration, Blanc continued on with his announcement.

"Since this batch of trainees have graduated. I would like to announce that the city is ready to accept a new batch of trainees."

"This time, we will be accepting three thousand trainees so if you think you have what it takes to be a warrior of our beloved Resonance City, please do apply at the city hall."

"We will be setting up a large recruitment fair that will last seven days for those who aspire to be a soldier of Resonance City."

The citizens were in an uproar after finding out that the city would be accepting three thousand new trainees.

Everyone knows that being a warrior is not only an honorable profession but it is also the profession with the highest pay out of all the possible occupations in Resonance City.

Seeing the citizens' enthusiastic response to his recruitment notice, Blanc was satisfied. 

They were about to engage in nation-level conflicts and they needed to enhance their military strength as soon as possible.

After the commotion stopped, Blanc continued his announcements.

"As much as I would like to only deliver positive news to all of you, I must not hide the negative ones in order for the city and its citizens to grow as one."

"Unfortunately, negotiations with the envoy of Dumont Dukedom have failed but If I would have the chance to do it all over again, I would still choose to fail the negotiations with the envoy."

"The envoy didn't treat us with even a little amount of respect. All they wanted was to loot each and every house of our citizens. In addition to this, they wanted an outrageous percentage of both our harvests and income."

"This is the same as sentencing our whole city to death so we had no choice but to go to war with them."

Blanc scanned the faces of the crowd after his war announcement. As expected, most of them were uneasy and scared, especially the citizens who just settled recently.

"However, fear not. The older citizens can testify that our soldiers are strong, our battalion commanders are mighty and our general is unmatched."

"We will make sure to put the citizens' safety as our top priority. I want you to be alert regarding news about the war but there is no need to stop with your daily work routine."

"Depending on their numbers, our army will either engage them on the plains or defend inside the city walls. Remain vigilant and wait for further announcements!"

"I, the city lord, will make sure that everyone will be safe and we will come out victorious!"

The faces of the citizens visibly eased up a bit after hearing the confidence of their city lord. 

Blanc stepped down from the stage after his announcement and everyone gradually dispersed.

Then, he immediately headed to the meeting room along with Helena and the battalion commanders.

Their informants reported that Duke Dumont's army was already marching towards their city and war was just around the corner so Blanc, Helena, and the battalion commanders quickly formulated a war strategy to deal with Duke Dumont's army.

"They dare invade us? They better be ready for the consequences!"