"The gates are the greatest weaknesses of the walled city model of fortification. Once the gates were breached and the enemies managed to enter, the battle was usually decided then and there.

There were rarely other endings to such a situation, save the rare occasions where the defenders succeeded in holding the gate against the enemy." - Xaliburnus the Conqueror, First Emperor and Founder of the Elmaiya Empire.

"All right. We probably dithered here long enough," said Reinhardt as he stood up, took one last pull from his pipe, and dumped the dregs and ashes on the floor. "You… Lars. Come with us. Time to see if you can make yourself useful, starting now. The rest of you, behave yourself and stay here… if you like to keep breathing."

Together with Elfriede, Reinhardt brought Lars with him as they left the room. Outside, many of his troops and the remaining thugs milled about, rather relaxed since they were guarding the third floor of the building.

"Nicole! There's the prisoners you all got earlier in the building. I want you and… Karenina's people here to watch over them in the meantime," said Reinhardt. He stuttered a bit before Elfriede whispered her old friend's name to him. "Treat them well if they behave themselves, but if any stepped out of line, you know what to do."

Nicole nodded solemnly, as she looked towards Nina and exchanged looks, then headed to the building with Nina's remaining thugs following after them. For Reinhardt's own part, he assigned part of the Free Lances to remain in the building and stay on guard, as he selected their sixty or so best fighters and left the gatehouse.

Outside he brought Mischka's group of warriors along with him, which gave him a force of a hundred strong, composed of only the best fighters in his company. Elfriede and Ylisera were with him, as were Salicia and Grünhildr.

They marched through the city streets. It was dawn by then, as the sun's first ray began to brighten the day. The fighting had mostly ended. At most he saw dwarven infantrymen as they besieged some if the towers atop the gates, where a few stubborn soldiers had hunkered down.

Near the walls, they saw a pile of spears as people that looked like conscripted townspeople lined up neatly, disarmed themselves as they tossed their weapons to the growing pile, and then were let go.

That generous allowance for the conscripts who surrendered to return to their homes had broken the defender's back soon after the breach, as the remaining soldiers proved unable to stop them, and were quickly overwhelmed by the dwarves when they tried to.

The fact that the dwarves kept their promise probably won them quite a bit of goodwill from the city's residents, Reinhardt thought. He noticed how many families peeked from their houses or from the nearby alleyways at the marching soldiers and mercenaries. They were nervous, wary, and yet also hopeful all at the same time.

As they neared the center of the city, Reinhardt finally caught wind of distant sounds of fighting that still raged. The noble district - as Elfriede told him - had seen better days, unlike the mostly untouched poorer districts they had passed through.

Here and there, he saw how some of the mansions burned. Some others had people - all locals, many dressed in rags - who ran in and out as they absconded with items from the mansions, at times even peeling off decorative filigree and the likes.

It was not as if the dwarves were unaware of such happenings. Some of their soldiers were present in the area. They just watched it all happen, an implicit approval that made the crowd go even wilder.

They had not even bothered to stop the crowd when they dragged out a richly dressed obese man out from one of the mansions, stripped him naked in the middle of the street, spat and stomped on him, then doused him in lamp oil and set him afire.

From Elfriede he received a brief context to the situation. The man burned alive was one of the richest merchants in town. His main product was prostitutes and trained slaves, and those were often poorer children who were abducted young and indoctrinated into their roles, many of which died along the way. It was no real surprise that the locals hated his guts enough to burn him alive.

Apparently, the dwarves were content to allow the townspeople to sort things out amongst themselves. They turned a blind eye to the looting of the noble district, as well as the occasional lynching that took place. Reinhardt ordered the Lances to do the same. It was none of their business.

Finally, after a while they reached the dwarven army. The majority of their heavy infantry formed a shieldwall all around the citadel in the center of the city, while marksmen behind the shields exchanged fire with the soldiers who defended the Citadel's walls.

There Reinhardt sought out the Crown Prince, and quickly received his direction from an officer at the back. The Crown Prince stood at the back lines, where he watched the siege on the citadel, along with his advisors and commanders. He noticed Reinhardt as he approached together with Elfriede.

"Captain Edelstein! My compliments! Mrs. Edelstein's help has saved us valuable time and lives, and shall be noted as a first class contribution!" said the Crown Prince as he approached. The other commanders around him also gave Reinhardt and Elfriede appreciative nods. "Now, I know for mercenaries like you, you won't care much for medals and such, so I took the liberty of converting the award into something more… substantial. The three thousand gold coins shall be paid at the end of the campaign."

"Our thanks for your praise and the generosity, your Highness," said Reinhardt and Elfriede both as they gave a slight bow to the Crown Prince, who was clearly in a good mood. "Anything we can do to help with the siege?"

"I don't think so," said the Crown Prince as he glanced at where several massive golems used a gigantic ram to strike the citadel's gate over and over. The defenders scrambled every thing they had, threw large stones and poured boiling oil, but the golems just ignored those and kept working. "Unless you know something we don't?"

"May I speak, sir?" asked Lars with some trepidation from behind Reinhardt.

"Oh, who is that? I had not seen him before," asked the Crown Prince as he spotted Lars.

"A local collaborator, your Highness," explained Reinhardt simply as he turned to face Lars. "And go ahead. I brought you here in case you could prove yourself useful, after all."