“When turmoil brewed, chances were that those who liked to profit from it would have gathered nearby at the first sign.” - Old mercenary saying.

“Yo, Edelstein! Finally found you!” called out a voice to Reinhardt one evening.

It had been roughly a month after the assassination attempt on the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince himself – along with Graf Angus Harscape – had left Zephirous for Knallgant two weeks ago, apparently satisfied with the amount of information they had to condemn the Crown Prince’s Uncle with. Reinhardt himself was just walking the streets with Elfriede, Erycea, and Alycea after having a good meal together that evening.

He turned around to see that it was an old acquaintance that greeted him. For a human in his mid-fifties, Ser Guillaume du Riffons was still a healthy and robust individual, and looked younger than his age given how he had a penchant for keeping a clean-shaven face. The only thing that truly betrayed his age was how the hair at his temples and sides had started to gray already.

The old mercenary was clad in an outfit that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a merchant or well-to-do farmer, just a neat tunic clasped at the waist with a leather belt and long pants, and his cheerful look combined with how he came openly indicated that he meant no harm. It was a mercenary tradition to come and announce themselves openly when meeting another under civil conditions.

“Ser du Riffons, to what do I owe the pleasure?” asked Reinhardt with a nod at the older human. He had to look down a bit on the older man, not out of arrogance or distaste, but simply because Guillaume du Riffons was shorter than even Elfriede was, and Reinhardt already stood a good head taller than her. “Oh, hi there, Will. Didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Captain Edelstein, Madam Edelstein,” greeted Wilhelmina du Riffons, Ser Guillaume’s younger daughter, who was a decade or so older than Erycea and had now inherited half of his former mercenary company. Reinhardt had heard that the Silver Falcons – what the half under Wilhelmina chose to rename themselves to – had been in Knallzog for rest and recuperation as well, but had not met them there previously. The younger woman had also developed some friendship with Erycea during the time the companies worked together. “Hi there, Ery, Aly.”

“Heya, Will.”

“Big sister Will.”

Unlike Reinhardt, who was adopted into the mercenary life by people for whom being a mercenary was family business, Ser Guillaume du Riffons’ family was once at the post of minor nobility in the Clangeddin Empire. While the rumor mills stated that he left after the civil strife caused by the Bounty Hunter’s very public killing of the last Emperor started, he had actually left the Empire a good while before that.

In fact, Ser du Riffons left the Empire in his late twenties, when Wilhelmina was still a suckling toddler. His family had been embroiled in some shadowy conflicts behind the scenes and ended up on the losing end. That had resulted in his father’s execution and the confiscation of the family property, though Guillaume was fortunate to have been sent away – with a sizable portion of the family fortune – prior to those happenings.

With his own knightly training – he was a member of the Empire’s elite guards prior to the escape – and the fortune he had with him, he had started what became the Silver Eagles mercenary company. His old connections allowed him to draw some retired or disgruntled former knights to his banner, and with his fortune he managed to properly equip his then meager forces, turning them into a group of elites to be reckoned with despite their small numbers.

It was with his efforts that the group had grown to its thousand-strong size over the decades, all without compromising on quality, so it must have stung the old man some to see it split when he handed it down to his children. Then again, Reinhardt thought that an old fox like Ser Guillaume should have expected such a split, especially given how the vast majority of the older members of the company remained under Wilhelmina’s banner, with the youths being the ones who primarily followed Michel’s.

Reinhardt felt that the old knight had likely foreseen the impossibility to have his two children lead the company together and chose to let each of them have their own way instead, hence the company’s split. Given how he himself stayed with Wilhelmina, it was obvious which path the old knight felt was better, or at least, which of his children he favored more.

“What brought you here, Ser du Riffons?” Reinhardt used the old knight’s title partly to offer some respect as the older former captain was his senior in the line of work after all, and the old knight had also been magnanimous enough to help the Free Lances from time to time while the companies worked together in Posuin. “I did hear that the Falcons were having some downtime in Knallzog, but didn’t think you headed this far north.”

“Oh, the bulk of our forces are still at Logdstadt. I just took this girl here on a vacation so she would finally take a damned break, already!” said the retired mercenary as he elbowed his daughter playfully in the ribs. She in turn gave him a slightly annoyed look and a resigned sigh. “I swear if I didn’t personally drag her to have some rest this girl would’ve worked herself to death trying to run everything on her own!”

“It’s a feeling I can relate with,” remarked Elfriede with a rare smile on her face. “We almost had the same problem with this musclehead here. He beat himself silly worrying about all the logistics and tactics back then after the mess we fell into. To be fair, we didn’t exactly have many who were proficient in those fields back then either, so it was mostly him trying to keep things working,” she continued even as Reinhardt playfully swatted at the back of her head, which she calmly ducked under. “Fortunately we got our hands on Lars pretty soon after.”