"Some idiots treat their own people so badly that they'd cheer when invaders took over the city. When it reached that point, all the invaders needed to do was just to be at least halfway decent people and they'd have the people pacified with minimal effort." - Farina Herencia Leandros, famed general from the Posuin Kingdom, known for conquering ten cities in one year, circa 237 VA.

By the morning of the next day, Reinhardt woke up in a proper bed for once - "borrowed" from some of the buildings inside the citadel - and was about to stretch and yawn, yet found himself unable to do either.

His left hand was somewhat numb, which was no surprise as Elfriede had used it as a pillow all night long. Her lithe form still clung tightly to his side, with one of her arms draped over his chest and a leg over his own.

Yet what really made him unable to stir was the warm lump of fur on his stomach. His little daughter must have walked over to their bed last night and curled up to sleep on top of him, as she was wont to do from time to time.

It had been a tiresome two days, where neither of them got any sleep at all. The assault at night continued straight to the city's occupation, without time for breaks in between.

Yesterday, shortly after he had delivered the noble captives - another four hundred gold pieces worth - he had excused himself. The Crown Prince was kind enough to allow his men to take one of the barracks in the citadel to use as a resting place.

The battle in the citadel had been dogged and brutal, yet once the gate was breached, there was little the defenders managed to do against the rush of dwarven heavy infantrymen. By the time the fighting ended, maybe a few hundred dwarves lay dead, with twice that number injured.

Not a single one of the defenders had asked for quarter, so none were given.

With a sigh, Reinhardt rested his head back down on the bed and closed his eyes. Since he couldn't exactly budge in his current situation, with both his wife and child sleeping on him, he might as well get some extra rest.

There was no emergency at the moment anyway.

******************************

He woke up late that day, when Ery stirred and gave a cute yawn as she sat up on his belly. Elfriede was similarly awakened by the noise, and they took their time getting out of bed.

They were given the room that had belonged to one of the count's officers it seemed, as it had quite a few amenities he normally wouldn't have expected in an army barracks. They took full advantage of those amenities and freshened up before they changed into fresh clothes and went out.

Ery they had asked to wait for them though, and neither Reinhardt nor Elfriede went out unarmored. The city might have been occupied, but there was no telling if some individuals might have chosen to wage their own resistance to the occupiers.

The Crown Prince and his commanders were occupied, as they were apparently in a meeting with Varsha's people to discuss the city's governance. Most of the dwarven army were resting, with roughly a quarter of their number on patrols as they kept the city's order.

Reinhardt thought that the patrols might not have been that needed, after all.

While most of the city's remaining inhabitants - still more than enough men and women, children and eldery to outnumber the occupiers by three to one or so - still looked at the dwarves with fear, a few had started to look at them with gratitude and respect instead.

One of the first things the Crown Prince had done after the fighting ended was to open the food warehouses and distribute a lot of their contents to the poor citizens. It was a move that no doubt won some hearts, as many of the poorer folk rarely if ever got to eat their fill.

Other than that, he also ordered the army to set up field kitchens all over the place, and many of the poor citizens lined up, some with disbelief in their eyes as piping hot food were freely distributed amongst them in abundance.

Thin, malnourished children got to eat until their stomachs were contented for probably the first time in their lives. Many of the parents who had young children had bowed and thanked the dwarves sincerely. Reinhardt might not speak their tongue, but their body language and tone of voice already said a lot.

That the Crown Prince had prohibited any pillaging or raping also helped calm the townspeople down. Such activities were commonplace amongst victorious armies of the continent, with the dwarves of Knallzog being one of the few nations who held their military to higher professional standards.

As mercenaries based in the same country, both the Lances and the Brewers also adopted such professionalism and had made it a core of their own standards. As such, the inhabitants of Zefirous were mostly left unharmed even after occupation.

Those few whose houses were pillaged or were summarily lynched in the streets, only had their own fellow townspeople to blame. Townspeople whose resentment had long built up against them, given a chance to act freely against them at long last.

For an occupied city, life mostly continued normally. Other than the presence of dwarves who kept guard, or the occasional cavalrymen on patrol, there was little that hinted at a battle that just took place a mere day ago. He even saw how some young children ran along a group of patrolling cavalrymen and tried to touch their steed's wool, or stood in awe as a rhinoceros passed by.

The region itself was in a horrible state. The working adult population was reduced to less than half of what it used to be, probably closer to a third. On the other hand, there was an abundance of children present, as the too young children from the many villages had been brought to Zefirous, and were now cared for by many townspeople who sympathized with them.

Perhaps if Knallzog were to bring some of their own people to help repopulate the land, then after another generation the region might return to how it used to be, Reinhardt thought.