Was a hundred-strong force sneaking toward them?
Chris felt he might have underestimated the draw of Prince Chris Lin's name. How long had it even been?
Not even a month had passed. Isaac, who had gone to get saltpeter, still hadn't returned, and their weapons production had barely begun. They had only made a few Crouching Tiger Cannons and a few hundred flintlocks.
All in all, Chris was still in the base-building phase.
He had originally figured Bich Town was so remote that nobody would bother him for a while. Even if someone did, it should have been at least six months down the line.
That was the conclusion Chris had reached after interrogating prisoners of war and questioning the local townspeople.
The civil war raging across Bagnia was a chaotic affair. The prisoners all said that, with support from the Bohemian Empire, the Restoration Army had already taken half the kingdom's territory.
Of all the land in the Kingdom of Bagnia, the north belonged to the Restoration Army, while the south was controlled by the Republic.
Bich Town was remote, nestled in the border mountains near El Province of the Bohemian Empire. A little farther south lay the Retalia Empire.
Judging by its position on the map, it was convenient for smuggling. The trouble was getting through those uninhabited mountains.
According to the prisoners' statements, Bichi Town currently lay between the battle lines of the Restoration Army and the Republic's forces.
But the town was far too remote, with poor transport links and difficult mountain roads. It had neither grain nor mineral deposits. In the past, the only local product that had kept the town fed was stone sold elsewhere.
So much so that the Republic of Bagnia, which had originally controlled Bich Town, had abandoned it of its