“There were generally three kinds of employers when it came to dealing with mercenaries. Those who quibbled and tried to haggle for every copper they could. Those who paid exactly as the contract said, no more and no less. And then there were those who went above and beyond and rewarded their hired killers with ample coins and other amenities out of either satisfaction or gratitude.

Three guesses which sort us money soldiers like to flock to, and the first two doesn’t count.” - Teac “Whiteburn” Edwards, veteran mercenary.

“A pleasure to see you again, captain. I presume the bandits left in our Duchy has been thoroughly eradicated by now?”

It had been half a week later, as Reinhardt brought his mercenaries back to the small town of Salver, roughly in between the two forts to the west and Jonkver to the east. The small town had been their forward base of operations of late, and their employers also often met them there for convenience rather than call for the mercenaries to come all the way to Jonkver.

Said employer in this case came in the form of Werner Tovmund, the Heir to the Duchy and eldest son of Duke Berthold Tovmund. Unlike most of the nobility of the border duchies who tend to be rugged and built strong due to years of physical training, Werner looked every part the scholar he was, pale, rather slim of build, with the immaculately groomed mustache and monocle further selling the part.

Unlike all his contemporaries - like say, Nestor Ambroglio da Nunez and Andrea Utghwes - he had not trained to be a knight since young, as his passions leaned more towards scholarly pursuits, and being the Duke’s only child and heir, his parents had allowed him to pursue those passions. As a result, while he was skilled in governance and economics, situations like the current ongoing civil war stymied him somewhat.

Old age and the excessive stresses caused by the conflict had caused Duke Berthold Tovmund to be ill and bedridden of late, so Werner had taken over the day-to-day ruling of the Duchy in his stead. Fortunately, given his lack of interest in military matters, the Duke had groomed some of his cousins to help deal with such matters as well, which allowed Werner himself to focus on governance.

“All the ones that had not fled with their tails between their legs are taken care of, Your Grace,” said Reinhardt politely with a nod to the young heir. The old Duke had gotten his sole child late in life, and even now Werner was still in his mid-twenties, a few years the junior of his fellows in the other border duchies. “I believe they would know better than to return anytime soon.”

“Good to hear,” said the heir with a nod of his head. While he lacked relevant military skills, his presence in the forward base had helped to ensure that the mercenaries - both the Lances and the Hellraisers, who were building defenses not far from Salver - were well-supplied and the building materials for the defenses came smoothly without delay. Given the conditions even the scholarly man knew that it was best to prepare for war since it was likely to rear its ugly head again in the near future. “In that case I shall not take up more of your time. I’ve passed the payment to Miriam, so you can collect it from her as usual.”

“Thank you, Your Grace,” said Reinhardt with another polite nod. While Werner was not as close to the mercenaries like Andrea Utghwes was, the man knew that they were necessary and had treated them well, so he had no reason to complain.

A quick stroll through the town brought Reinhardt to the building that had been co-opted by the Duchy authorities as their command post, which used to serve as the town hall before. There he found Miriam Levan-Tovmund, cousin to the heir, and acting commander of the Duchy’s armed forces. Unlike her cousin, she was more of a typical border noble, who had trained for war from childhood and led from the front, which was how Reinhardt had met her the first time when he rescued her from captivity after all.

The young woman looked similar to when Reinhardt had helped her out five years ago, with her dark brown tresses framing her stern face. If anything, Reinhardt thought she had a couple more scars compared to back then. He also noted how the woman had kept the large scar over her right eye - the same eye she had lost when he rescued her back then - even after she had the eye healed, a practice more commonly seen amongst mercenaries than nobles.

“Captain Edelstein?” asked Miriam as she noticed his presence. To be fair, it was hard to not notice Reinhardt’s presence since the rest of the staff in the command post was human, and his over two meter tall beastly figure was unmistakable, even if he was nowhere as imposing as some of his own mercenaries. “Back so soon from the job?”

“Yeah, we split up and hit all of them at the same time, rather than risk some of them escaping the net and warning the others,” he replied casually as he returned her welcoming nod. As the acting commander of Jonkver’s military forces, Miriam had also often liaised with the mercenaries, both their own hired bands and the ones on loan from Dvergarder. “Met the Young Duke earlier and he told me to head straight to you for the pay?”

“Certainly,” said Miriam as she searched around her storage for a moment before she pulled out a bag of coins and tossed it over to Reinhardt. Despite how Jonkver had employed several mercenary bands recently, the bands they employed were meant more to supplement their battle lines, and had little experience with rounding up bandits in the woods, one reason the Lances got the lucrative job. “Your efficiency really made me wish I could poach your Company off Andrea’s hands, honestly.”

“Thanks for the compliment, ma’am, but we still got some years left in our contract,” said Reinhardt with a smile as he easily caught the bag of coins in one of his paw-like hands. A quick weighing of the bag in his hand told him of the rough amount the bag likely contained, not that the border duchies had ever cheated on their payments so far anyway, and he happily kept it in his own storage. “Pleasure doing business with you.”