“An easy way to tell how long a mercenary has been in the business is to look for how they act prior to a battle. Old veterans would be ambivalent, battles to them just a regular thing they do to earn their paychecks. The newer ones would usually be excited, likely ones who had not yet been to their first real battle, or nervous, those who had been to battles before but had yet become accustomed to it.” - Commonly said mercenary words of wisdom.

“Hey Lars, got a moment?”

Lars turned around to see a trio of women approaching him. He recognized all three of them, fellow former citizens of the Holy Kingdom who joined the Company on their way out from there. Karenina and Cassiopea - though both of them hated being referred to by their full name - were both former thugs and assassins for the Crime Lord of Zephirous, now the city’s mayor, while Kari was formerly a servant and cook for a brothel in Norouz.

“What can I do for you, ladies?” he asked as they got closer. Over the five years, Lars had integrated himself and his little group of followers into the mercenary Company, earning their trust and respect for the most part. Even though a few still eyed him with dislike, they offered him grudging respect regardless and admitted that he had what it takes to be made Lieutenant like he was now.

“Heard we’re marching to war?” asked Cassie - as Cassiopea preferred to be called - with a tilt of her head. All three women were part of Elfriede’s crew these days, responsible for risky headhunting strikes and assassination of enemy officers when they were in combat. Needless to say, with the lack of combat missions the Company took these past five years, they had not had much chance to flex their muscles. “Friede’s still getting a debriefing with the boss.”

Elfriede had not joined the meeting with the Duke earlier, as she was training Erycea like usual. These days, she had mostly gravitated away from command matters, and left it to the other, newer lieutenants, like Lars or the former commanders of the smaller companies that joined them. In her own words, she had no business commanding more than a small group anyway.

“Pretty much, yeah,” admitted Lars with a nod. The news was no secret anyway, and the only reason these three had not heard of it yet was because their direct superior had not come along to the meeting with the Duke. “I guess it’s what you three had been waiting for, huh?”

“Pretty much. We joined up because peace doesn’t jibe well with us to begin with,” replied Karenina with a shrug of her shoulders. The rationale was the same reason why quite a few of the former thugs and criminals from Zephirous had signed up for the mercenary life, as they found a legitimate, peaceful life not fitting well with them. “A little bit of actual work and some jerks who could use a couple of extra assholes stabbed into them would be nice.”

“What she said, pretty much,” said Cassie with a nod. To their other side, Kari simply gave a grim nod as well. The younger girl had joined the company along with her brother back at Norouz, and where her brother had been placed under Salicia’s command as an archer, she had actively sought out a more dangerous assignment under Elfriede instead.

According to her brother Alva, Kari used to be a kind, cheerful girl despite their poor living, but she had changed after the mess that happened in Norouz. Lars could sympathize, as he knew that the girl had been violated repeatedly back then, and had ended up pregnant with a child whose father she had no clue on, since whoever they were, they were most likely dead by then.

Fortunately, she had people who not only sympathized with her - some of them even had similar pasts - but also took good care of her amongst the mercenaries’ followers and dependents. The child she had was born safely, and grew up into a fine and healthy little girl. Kari herself however, still seemed affected by the past and while she cared for her child well enough, still sought out the dangerous work despite her brother’s counsel.

“We’d be marching by the weekend, so we still got a few days to prep up,” said Lars with a nod to the women. He had already given the orders to prepare for departure to his group, which had grown from less than twenty to a good sixty-seven, as most of the volunteers from the Holy Kingdom back then had been placed under him due to the language barrier issues they had. Many of them still worked under him, though some had split off to other units as well. “I’d assume the Lady Boss will tell you as much as soon as she’s back off the debriefing.”

“Gotcha, thanks, man!” said Karenina with a nod before the three women turned around walked back the way they came. He could tell that they were itching for a real, proper fight, partly because Arne - Cassie’s on-again-off-again paramour - was part of his crew and had often told him as much during nights when they were drinking together.

He was honestly somewhat baffled at how their relationship went so far. The couple had two children already - one before they joined the Free Lances, one after -, yet they still fought like cats and dogs and broke off all the time, only to reunite a few days or weeks later. Neither seemed averse to the other seeing or even being intimate with other people either. In the end, Lars just shook his head at their antics, leaving their lives for them to live.

Lars shook his head to clear his mind, as he went back to poring over the sheets of paper on his desk. They were mundane matters, logistical things like their stock of food and metals, spare weapons and armor, arrows and bolts, and other various little things needed to make the Company run smoothly. He had been helping out with the company’s logistics these past four years, since the old man who used to run the accounting for them passed away in his sleep after a night of heavy drinking.