"They are back! Open the gates, they are back!!"
"Hold! Don't open the gate until they arrive close! Until they return and switch you out, you are still on duty! Don't let your guard down!!"

The village defence force is finally back. They aren't pretending to be guards of a merchant, so the operation should be successfully finished. I don't really know if they fully wiped out all the bandits but they should have at least destroyed the bandit base.

It looks like they incurred casualties too. I guess it can't be helped in an operation that large.

"Friendly at the gate!!"
"The surroundings are clear! No movement in all directions!"
"Open the gates!! Someone go and inform the village chief of their return!"
"Yes, Sir!"

We are becoming very familiar with the procedures as the village defence force. It's scary how routines will make people become more and more polished in skills. This should last a few more days. We can't send these people back on the job after returning from a region wide operation right away. We would need to let them celebrate their success, grieve the fallen and some well deserved rest.

I can already see some sad faces on the current guard duty. It seems the faces they want to see aren't showing up from the village defenders that returned. I would say they should have already anticipated the possibility but it is another matter to accept the outcome.

"Hold it steady! I know what you are thinking but in honour of those who returned, we need to fulfil our current duty to let them rest peacefully. I will shuffle the next set of guard duty. Those who have lost family may be excused. I'm sure everyone understands."
"Yes, sir!"

Hmm, It looks like my turn for the next guard duty will come sooner than intended. I guess it really can't be helped in this situation.

This isn't a forced conscription, so when the village defenders that returned are ready, they will relieve us of our post and continue their duty. They are the ones who volunteered to be part of the defence force.

"Welcome back, How was the feeling of being a leader?"
"Heavy. I can't help but feel a new found respect for the captain."
"You do know that he is training you to be the next captain, right?"
"Of course I know. Everyone in the team knows about it. Anyway it's good to be back."
"You seem eager to be back on duty?"

They did rest for some time when they returned but if I went to do something at the same scale of the operation they went to, I would want a few weeks off.

Isn't their recovery a bit too fast? They paid their respects on the first few days. They celebrated after that for two days straight. Finally, they slept for a day. Six days went by like that and they are already ready to go back to work?

"We can't sit still. We were banned by the captain from doing training when we went back. We volunteered to be part of the village defence force because we want to protect the village. After the grand operation, we noticed how well the other people performed and we don't want to lose to them, so we are excited for the training. The captain seemed to be able to sense that, so he banned us from training. It seems that he has something in planned."
"Yeah, He asked me for some new training equipment. It looks like you are all in for a hellish experience."
"Good! We won't lose to those city and town guards. Hahaha....wait. What kind of training equipment did the captain ask for?"
"Hehehe, the captain asked me to keep it a secret, so you can just anticipate what's to come. Don't worry. It shouldn't be something that you people from the defence force couldn't handle."
"Ah, I should have asked for a few more days off."
"Well, I'm returning the duty of protecting the village to you. Work hard!"
"...Thanks."

Hmm, He seems more worried now than when they left for the region-wide operation.

"So can you tell me what happened at the operation?"

They haven't really told anyone about what occurred during the operation. They kept silent when we were mourning for those that have fallen.

During the celebration, no one wanted to bring up what happened because it might put a damper on things. Finally, no one could disturb them during their rest.

"Well, it's a bit complicated. We weren't fully aware of the whole plan, but I can tell you what happened on our end. There was a lot of scheming and planning on both sides, so I'm not clear on everything.
"That's fine, I already heard the plan from the village chief. If they have other layers of the plan then it wouldn't be passed to too many people."

Especially not to our village, we are near the corner, and the number of people we sent wasn't that much. Even if the village chief is seemingly well connected, the information won't be passed to us who are continuously besieged by bandits. It's too risky. Though, if he had an inkling of the second plan or not is still to be decided. That old man is quite smart after all.

"Not much really happened on the way to the town. We acted like guards for the merchant, defeated a few bandits that showed up then left the region. The merchant gave us a location and told us to arrive there after two days. We parted ways and made our way to the place marked on the map. The merchants group and the guards went someplace else, so I'm not sure if they were still part of the operation or left our region to wait until after the operation."

I'm not really interested in what the merchant group is doing. They already did their part, and I don't think those greedy bastards would take part in a dangerous event like this.

"When we arrived at the location, a supervisor of the operation told us the general thing on what to do when something happens."
"Supervisor?"
"Yeah, we were shown some symbols and some passphrases to identify a supervisor at the town."

I guess they would need people to coordinate things.

"Anyway, we were given simple instructions and a direction to proceed to. We just walked towards the direction and killed bandits that we encountered. The groups nearest to our location never asked for help, so things were smooth until we arrived at the bandit base."

Is this why they wanted to be back in training so badly? The defence force beside them never asked for help and they, I assume, are having trouble fighting the bandits. There is also the possibility that the other groups have more numbers. Enough people that they could rotate who's fighting and who's resting.

"A team was already there watching the bandit base but not everyone had arrived, so we set up base and waited until everyone arrived."

The bandits would have noticed them at that point though. If I were part of them then I would assemble every bandit and forcefully break through the side where the other groups haven't shown up. I'll just have to make some obstructions to slow down the enemy on the sides and those near the exit point. The enemy behind would have to get through the bandit base, so I don't need to worry about them.

From how they waited at the bandit base while the enemies quietly assembled to surround them, it looks like they are waiting for them to jump into the pit they dug. No matter how quietly and covertly they made their stations while observing the bandit base, I refuse to believe that bandits that live in the wilds under constant dangers from both the army and their fellow bandits would fail to notice the danger they are in.

"We assembled various siege weapons and once everyone was ready, we attacked the bandit base. The attack was very smooth and way too easy. We occupied the walls and started the assault on their base. However, we got attacked by the siege weapons we made. There was a group left behind to operate them while we attacked the base. We made some mobile walls, so no one was firing catapults at our backs. There are others who built them and left behind a team to operate it and give them support at the charge, it seems that most of the people left behind are traitors. The inside of the base was empty and all of the buildings collapsed. The walls were barely standing because of our assault, and the constant rain of rocks made it hard to rebuild. We hid and made fortification wherever we could."

It really was a trap. The base was empty, so the bandits should have used an escape tunnel to make it out quietly. They can't have taken the siege weapons quietly because even if the defence forces left a team to operate them, they should have left some guards to protect them. They bandits must have someone on the defence force that helped them.

"We were pelted every day and just continued to hide until we found a chance. The supervisors were killed and we can't reach the siege weapons. The bandits surrounded us and kept the rocks raining without stopping. There was a nominal leader who was elected to lead everyone. We learned that a lot of merchant groups turned on us and are helping the bandits attack us. We not only have to fight the bandits, we also have to fight the merchants along with their guards."

The bandits still need supplies and some necessities. They can't get everything they need from raiding all the time. There are some times where they can't make successful raids, so they would need to deal with merchants for those. They also need to sell some of the loot that they don't need.

Those merchants' interest and profit would be in danger if the bandits in our region were wiped out, so they betrayed them. Even if the bandits take over our region, the bandits won't harm the merchants and the merchants could still make a profit from the other regions. The bandits could attack the nearby region and still sell their loot to the merchants, to be resold at the other regions.

"After some time, the bandits were almost out of ammunition, so they started to charge us. The acting leader at that time organised some people to ambush the bandits in different parts of the ruined bandit base, while the rest gathered at the centre of the base. We were part of the centre group. Our job is to make as much noise as possible to grab the attention of the bandits. We made some simple defences to make it easier for us to repel them, while those people hiding in the ruins will take out smaller groups and join us at the centre to perform a pincer attack on the bandits."
"That was actually clever."
"Yeah, we didn't have a lot of things to do while waiting for a chance to counterattack, so it was already planned in case the bandits charged. Anyway, the weird part starts here. We were delaying time and preserving our strength as we waited for the ambush team to come back when the bandits suddenly started to panic. They were saying things like another group surrounding the base. We thought it was another one of their plans, so we ignored it and just held our ground. It turns out that there was a second army sent by the nearby region to follow us while we attacked the bandit base."
"The nearby region sent in a team? What happens to their own regions though. Do they have enough to spare to send to our region?"
"I was told that the army sent was partly from the cities and towns near the border of our region but the majority belonged to the army from the capital. The army from the capital now has some time to clean up the bandits that spilled their way into our continent from the dragon's road. The fight became easy after that and after making sure we killed the remaining bandits, we took some time to rest and recuperate before we went back to each of our homes. The people who planned this actually knew that those merchants were about to betray us, so it was part of the plan to send a secondary force to deal with the bandits. The only ones who knew were the people who planned it and the army people from the capital."

Hmm, I don't think there are other ways that this could be done. It does work and they wiped out the bandits and traitors in our region but the losses are quite the number too.

It did work in the end, so I can't complain much. I'm not even part of the people that have been sent to fight.

I guess the good thing is that our region is free from bandits from now on. It is back to business with me. I'll try to see if my wares could be sold to the nearby regions. Our region will enter a period of peace, so demand for my kind of products will slow down a bit. I need a new market and customer base.

This is a good opportunity to step out of my home turf. Travel will be easier now that bandits are gone. I don't have to be a postman for the village either, so I can leave for a period of time without that vague responsibility I have to fulfil because our village is under constant state of alarm.