Kane walked out of the Mayor's house. He seemed very interested in the news and Kane was glad he talked to Lo about the mage apprentices. Lo even mentioned the idea of joining the Iron Rose Kingdom and Luth did not seem against it.
Kane did have much to do until his troops arrived. He sent his honor guard to scout the bandit clan but besides that, he was not very busy.
Kane spent his days shopping and getting to know the townspeople. He was even on a first-name basis with a lot of them.
Of course, he would make sure to drink and sing at the tavern with Jag. This was probably Kane's favorite part of his time at Crazus Town.
It had been pleasant but peace and relaxation cannot last forever. When one is to be a conqueror they must always be ready to pick up a blade and go to war.
"BAWOOOOOO!"
The sound of warning came from a horn in one of the guard towers. Louds shouts could be heard and the town's guards came rushing to the gate.
Kane saw Luth, his family, Vern, Lo, and a group of guards head over.
"Kane it has been reported that 200 men in red plate armor are in front of the gate. They ride a strange assortment of beasts as well as horses. Are these your men?" asked Luth.
"Yes, I should have said earlier. We do not have many horses so we tamed several of the beasts of the forest to ride," said Kane.
"That's very impressive," said Lo.
The others also had expressions of bewilderment.
Kane would get horses later on as only some of his troops would ride beasts while the rest could ride horses. That was all for a later time.
Vern shouted at the guards to let the troops in. The citizens all looked a bit worried and got out of the way. It was a good thing they did as a wave of red came rushing in.
The ferocious force was very impressive and the people of Crazus Town had mixed faces full of fear and amazement.
"These troops look terrifying" commented Yea.
"They will definitely be able to defeat the bandits," said Luth.
"Ladies and gentlemen let me introduce you to the Crimson Crusaders. They used to be just men of the woods barely making a living. Now they have gone through the fire and risen to be a proper army. They fight not just for themselves anymore but for a bigger purpose. They protect, they attack, but most importantly they have a knack for killing bandits. After all, they used to be but mere bandits and no one knows how to kill a bandit better than another bandit. I promise you though that they will help your people and so will I" said Kane.
The group looked shocked beyond measure. The force in front of them was already too much for them but now after learning they used to be bandits it pushed their minds over the line.
That was just the beginning though.
Before the Mayor or anyone else could comment one of the Crusaders came down from his mount and walked over to Kane.
This man was taller than many of the others and his armor seemed more beaten up. Another difference was that the man had a fur cloak on his armor as well.
This man was Dallin. He knelt down in front of Kane.
"Greetings my lord. I am here at your summons to bring these bandits to the afterlife. I have a grudge to settle as well with Cleaver so I am very happy to personally bring his head to you."
The Crazus group seemed to vomit blood at this. So did the townspeople who were listening. Who knew that this merchant was actually the king.
"W...wait! Sir Kane, who are you?" Luth was the first to recover.
Kane turned behind him to look the group in the eyes.
"Let me introduce myself again. I am Kane the Conqueror, King of the Iron Rose, Emperor of the Deus Beli Empire. I swear on my life to protect you and defeat this bandit clan. I hope that you will forgive me for my deception but I wanted to get to know you all personally before revealing myself. I am glad I did. The people of Crazus Town are kind and generous. I would gladly raise my blade for them any day. If there is no need for my blade then I would happily raise my glass to Crazus Town and drink and sing with all its people."
It was as if the people could not react and their brain cells were fried. The silence was the only thing in the air.
"Looks like it was a lot for them to take in haha," thought Kane.