"King Aethelbald Stahlfaust the IIIrd was widely considered as the wisest king in Knallzog's relatively short history - for a dwarven realm - that his birthday remained a celebrated holiday for the kingdom even now.

Once an unassuming second prince on whom little expectations were placed, he rose up to the challenge and proved himself capable when his older sister, the then crown princess, fell in love with a human and eloped with her lover, never to be seen again." - Floren Jonqvist, Historian from Levain, circa 586 FP.

"They're here! South, due southeast, around two, maybe three hours away!" Reinhardt heard the shrill shout from above. It had been three days since the Silver Maiden's unexpected visit, and right on schedule, the main force they awaited had arrived.

The shout itself had come from Hannah, who had taken to the air once again and flexed her wings as she flew around the ruins, to "keep watch" supposedly. Reinhardt knew the therian girl just wished to be flying again, though, and accepted the excuse with a smile.

It was an understandable thing. Her wings had been so badly hurt she had dreaded that she would never be able to fly again, only to have them restored to perfect shape in what were mere moments. Many of the badly injured still shared that sense of marvel with her.

Even Elfriede confided to him in private that she too marvelled at the healing the Silver Maiden had dispensed so freely and swiftly. Apparently she had once taken a bad injury to her chest when she was much younger, and it had left scars in her lungs, one that made it so she had to use her magic to aid her breathing to even match what a normal person could do.

She had supported herself that way for nearly two decades, and apparently, when the Silver Maiden healed her more recent injuries, she had also removed the internal scarring from her old ones. It was the first time Elfriede took a deep breath freely and unaided by magic since that day many years ago.

Reinhardt also quickly found out the hard way that because she no longer needed to devote part of her magic to supporting her breathing all the time, she had more mana to spare for more combative uses. Something he found out after he was trounced more thoroughly than usual during their regular spars the past three days.

Other than how she used her magic for perception in place of her eyes, Elfriede mostly relied on one other trick with her magic, where she manipulated the wind to create a constant tailwind that followed her every movement when she wished it to be so. She moved just that tiny bit faster, her movements freer and swifter under the support of her magic, that it would throw off anyone who was already used to her usual speed and rhythm.

She would also use it at the worst possible moments for her opponents more often than not, or otherwise use it in an irregular pattern that left her opponents guessing. Back then she had not been able to do it much, or for long. A limitation lifted with the healing of her old injuries. Reinhardt had been the first "victim" of that improvement.

The arrival of the main force that had set out from Knallgant, the capital of Knallzog, was expected. Even so, that Hannah noticed them long before the dwarven lookouts - on the top of the bell tower, since the towers on the walls were not spared in the collapse - who kept an eye out with their spyglasses.

Then again, the therian girl was not only on a higher vantage point, but her eyes alone easily rivaled the finest of spyglasses. An enviable trait to have in a scout, to say the least. Her recovery was a boon in many ways for the Free Lances.

"They're finally here, eh lad?" asked Graf Angus Harscape as he suddenly came next to Reinhardt. The Graf's wounded eye had been healed by the Silver Maiden, but he chose to keep the scar over the eye as a reminder, yet another scar on his wizened visage. "A bit ahead of schedule too. They must've hurried them up by quite a bit to get here so soon."

"How do you think the invasion will continue, going forward, uncle?" asked Reinhardt in turn to the Graf. They mustered a force of close to three thousand once more now, three hundred of his, another six hundred under Barnaby, and two thousand regulars under the Graf. Barely one-fifth of the original expedition, yet not an ignorable amount either. "Think they'll have room for us?"

"There's too few of us left to be given heavy responsibility in the coming fights," stated the old dwarf with a shake of his head. "That said, we'd at least serve as reserves. Your irregulars might be employed as scouts going forward, and depending on whether whoever is in charge is willing to listen or not… what tidbits your wife can offer might fetch you a pretty sum."

"Any idea who's actually in charge?" he asked with some concern. The brief messages exchanged prior to the siege said that the crown prince himself would lead the main force. Reinhardt was familiar with how politics usually went though, and would not be surprised to see a veteran general holding the actual reins and the prince being a mere figurehead instead.

"We won't know till they're here, lad. I know that old fart McBaine's part of the group, but if the prince's as competent as what I've heard…'' said the Graf in a consoling tone. Graf Lloyd McBaine of Meergant was notorious for his dislike of mercenaries, and his long time rivalry with Graf Harscape himself. He was also one of the most veteran military men in the kingdom. "We will see."

"Let's just hope for the best then," said Reinhardt in return with a slight frown. "And plan... For the worst."