“The practice of giving bounties to wanted criminals is an age-old institution. At times, when the hand of justice was stymied, you’d be surprised what some people’s greed might be capable of. Of course, generally bounty hunters rarely lived that long, due to the perils of the occupation, which might even cause the criminals to put their own bounties on the hunters’ heads if they become famous enough. Still, for some, the potential profits outweighed the risks in their mind

Unless you’re *the* Bounty Hunter, that is, in which case nobody sane would even try to mess with you.” - Leopold Kuhlen-Nistra, Former bounty hunter, presently the Guard Captain of Jonkver, circa 520 VA.

When Goran - nominally with the Company as an armorer, which he was good at, though prior to that he and his sister had been independent mercenaries themselves - nimbly leapt down the last five meters or so to the ground from the tree he was perched on, he was pleased to see that the situation had indeed been handled acceptably.

He, along with Dacia and Norul - a Half-Orcish man who worked as a fletcher for the company - had stayed up on the tree all day just in case the children’s worries turned out to be reality, which was not unlikely, given how serious and sharp those children in question were. Hogarth had wanted to accompany them, but finally relented when he realized it would mean climbing and staying up on the tree’s canopy, a height of well over ten meters from the ground.

Out of the seven intruders, all but one were already secured by the time they reached the ground. The one that remained unsecured being the lanky one that tried to run, who still struggled wildly - probably due to pain more than anything - and thus was left alone until he calmed down a bit. Goran himself was the one who hurled the javelin that pierced the man’s calf, though he was probably more pained by the arrow Norul landed right on his butt.

Instead, Goran walked along with Dacia with a pair of daggers in his hand just in case the intruders tried to struggle more. The one Erycea had knocked out - and left with dozens of glass shards embedded all over his face - was out cold, and given how the girl already hog-tied the man skillfully, with the ropes that bound his arms tied further to the ones that bound his legs, which made him curl up almost like a shrimp, the man was unlikely to cause any issues even if he woke up. The sight of how little Alycea stood watch as her older sister tied the man up with the stick in her hand raised high for a blow brought a chuckle to him.

The three who attempted to head straight for Erycea together with that man, were also taken care of pretty well. Vladislav - already nearly a head taller than even Goran himself despite his youth - had a very submissive looking man tied up tightly. When Goran considered how the man’s scratched-up face was also wet with saliva from when the young therian must have threatened to literally chew his face off, the armorer also sympathized and understood why the man submitted right away.

Probably the most troublesome one was a somewhat short, brawny woman who still struggled despite how she had a wooden stick through her belly and was held in place by Tasha and Vera, both of whom were an entire size larger than she was. It was not until Dacia prodded the woman with her short spear that she finally saw the writing on the wall and submitted, as Tasha secured her arms behind her back while Vera tied the woman up.

The other woman who was caught by Gustav looked at Goran with a pleading look, and Goran struggled not to laugh out loud when he saw the woman’s predicament. While Gustav had handily overpowered the woman, he was terribly unskilled when it came to ropes and knots. Since the younger children were not much help either - though they brought him the ropes - in that matter, he resorted to tying up the woman so haphazardly she was almost twisted into a ball in the process.

Further away, the chubby man was all bruised up and submitted readily when the children stopped beating him up and tied his arms behind his back. The way the man looked at the others who were in worse condition and shivered made Goran feel that he likely would pose no problems either.

He could tell that these men and women were probably kidnappers, given how they tried to go for Erycea and seemed wary of using lethal means. Reinhardt was pretty well known in the Duchy by now since therians of his kind were beyond rare in Western Alcidea, so it would not have been difficult to connect the dots when one looked at Erycea, and the child of a mercenary captain was the sort of target daring kidnappers might well go for.

They probably had not expected that the kids were not playing at being soldiers, but were sincerely training from a young age instead. As adults tend to look down upon children, they paid the price, doubly so since they apparently had not noticed Mischka’s grandchildren, who usually stayed on the other side of the hill where there was more room. Gustav they probably dismissed as a threat due to his shortness as well.

What they did not know came back to bite them in the rear, as any one of Mischka’s grandkids could already give even experienced human mercenaries a run for their money in hand to hand combat despite their tender ages, their sheer size and power granting them a massive advantage in that field. Gustav was the same, despite his deceptively short stature.

Goran helped the children secure the screaming lanky man together, and oversaw how the last member of the group, the scarred woman, sighed dejectedly and just offered her hands to be tied up without resisting. From what the children told him, that woman seemed paralyzed into inaction throughout the whole mess, and had surrendered as soon as the others were caught and the lanky one turned and ran.

Given how Goran found a multitude of knives, blades, and concealed weapons on the woman’s body, he quickly realized that there must be more to the story behind her inaction, as she was the only one amongst the group who carried blades, the others only armed with cudgels and blackjacks at most. That, combined with the vague feel Goran could sense from the woman, the feel of someone who had killed many times, made him wonder what her story was about.