“Crime does pay pretty well at times, just make sure not to get caught, or else…” - Saying attributed to the Masked Shadow, famous phantom thief circa 419 VA.

“This one isn’t too bad. You want her, Friede?” asked Reinhardt to Elfriede after they heard the captive former assassin’s story. Naturally, prior to the interrogation they had also asked for the relevant records off the city guards, and what the captured woman spoke was the truth. The kidnapping group had indeed… mellowed somewhat after her joining, as odd as it sounded. “She can pay off the bounty the usual way.”

“Normally I wouldn’t care as much, but my team does have a need for competent people at the moment, so she’s in luck. Sure. I’ll take her,” said Elfriede. By default, former assassins like the captured woman would be asked if they were interested in joining Elfriede’s team - who practically acted as assassins on the battlefield - when they joined the Company. With the current state of the team, having lost one-fifth of their members, she was in need of new people indeed.

“You can get up now,” said Elfriede as she nonchalantly sliced open the woman’s bindings with one slash of her weapon. On the other hand, Katja looked rather baffled that the mercenaries had so easily - and one-sidedly - decided to take her in, though when she considered the alternative of prison or worse, she just took herself as fortunate. “You’re mine from this day on, understood? You’ll work with no pay other than food and shelter until you’ve paid off your bounty in its entirety from the salary you’d normally get.”

“And after that?” asked the former assassin with some nervousness. She knew that if she was caught she’d have to pay the piper for her part in the crimes of the group, so she was prepared for that much at least. “What happens after the bounty is paid off?”

“Then you’d be just another member of the company, free to make your own decisions,” said Reinhardt as he shrugged, as if his answer was the most normal thing in the world. “You’d get your salary according to performance, up to you what you’d use it for, and if you so desire, you could even leave if that’s what you preferred. We’re a pretty relaxed bunch overall as long as you don’t cross us.”

“And what of the others?” asked Katja with the same nervousness still in her voice. While she was not that close to the others in the group, she couldn’t help but worry somewhat about their fates, as they had spent some years together after all.

“We’ve already turned in most of them to the Old Man. I heard that the one burly woman had multiple death warrants on her head for former crimes and would be executed, while the rest just faced jail times. It’s not like we have any use of people who can’t even deal with our kids, after all,” said Reinhardt nonchalantly. “As for your former leader… I’ll just say that he tried to touch what should not be touched and we’ll be turning in his head for the bounty tomorrow.”

“Oh,” said the one-eyed woman as she looked down and sighed.

Elfriede had Nina - who happened to pass nearby - take Katja over to the rest of their team, while she and Reinhardt went over to another small tent. There, Edwin Reasley, the head of the group, wanted dead or alive for dozens of kidnapping and murders over the past two decades, was similarly tied up to a post. His condition was notably worse than Katja’s was, though.

For one, the man had scores of small wounds all over his face, that had by now scabbed over, while one of his hands were missing two and a half fingers - courtesy of Erycea’s bite, they had heard - and there was a large, swollen bruise on both the side of his head and his left knee still. The man only looked half-aware as Reinhardt and Elfriede entered the tent, before he caught a good look at them and his eyes widened in obvious fear.

“I guess even a dog knows when it bit something it shouldn’t have,” commented Reinhardt dryly. Not that he felt any sort of pity for the man before him, considering that said man had tried to kidnap his daughters - and considering his track record - might have done even worse. As such, he felt perfectly calm as he turned around to look at Elfriede and nodded.

“He’s all yours, dear. Just keep in mind to not mess his face to the point that it’s unrecognizable, would you? We still need to trade his head in for the bounty,” he said with all the calmness of someone ordering dinner, rather than someone who had just condemned another to a gruesome, painful death. In contrast, Elfriede looked positively eager to get her hands on the man, and had already whipped out a large knife as she approached him.

The first muffled screams - the man was gagged - sounded shortly after Reinhardt left the tent, and he just shook his head as he thought about it. He ordered the others to not bother Elfriede for the time being, and went off towards the hill where the incident had taken place. There he saw the group of children already back at play and training as if nothing had happened at all.

The sight of the dozens of children swinging around weighted sticks - though some like Mischka’s grandchildren and Gustav swung around logs instead of sticks - as they diligently practiced made Reinhardt sigh and feel almost as if he didn’t deserve such wonderful kids. Even his younger adopted daughter, Alycea, could be seen amongst them, although with her small, youthful frame she had trouble even properly swinging the sort of weighted stick her sister used for training.

A smile came unbidden to his lips as he watched the children at their practice, one that grew wider when his daughters noticed his presence and ran over to him before they leapt straight into his embrace. As he lifted both girls - one on each arm - he couldn’t help but notice how Erycea had grown , already tall enough to nearly reach his chest when she stood straight up. In his memory he thought that not so long ago she was still that adorable ball of fur that barely reached his knees.

They grew up so fast.