“Be wary if someone agrees to your first offer. Either you have made a very poor offer that grossly benefits them or you are about to be played for a fool.” - Old merchant’s saying.

“Should we adjourn to the guild for the negotiations, Viscount Adenauer?” asked Reinhardt after a moment of surprised silence between the pair of father and daughter.

“Oh! Uh, certainly… mister?” asked the nobleman after some surprise. Now that Reinhardt had time to take a closer look he somewhat doubted his previous assumption of the man being in his sixties – mostly based off Salicia being around his own age – as he looked far too well preserved for that. In fact, if the man claimed to be the same as Reinhardt at forty-one, he would have believed him. “And please, no need for titles. I’m no longer a Viscount these days.”

“This is our Boss, pops, Captain of the Free Lances,” said Salicia as she introduced him to her father.

“Reinhardt Edelstein of the Free Lances, at your service, Mister Adenauer,” said Reinhardt right afterwards.

“Right, right, my apologies, Captain Edelstein,” said the nobleman as he schooled his face back to project a calm attitude rather than his flustered surprise from before. He also straightened the set of his tunic the way one might straighten a jacket, probably a habit, Reinhardt thought. “Pardon my discourtesy just now. I had not expected to meet my youngest daughter here, much less in your employ.”

“As a father, it’s an understandable reaction,” replied Reinhardt with a nod. “Shall we?”

“Let us, then, yes. Business first,” replied the nobleman.

The five of them then crossed the street towards the mercenary’s guild, where Reinhardt requested to borrow one of their negotiation rooms. Those rooms were just that, places that had been kept secure from outside listeners by various means, meant to be used for negotiations with clients. Reinhardt did not miss how Bernd Adenauer spent the entire short trip from the inn to the room talking enthusiastically with Salicia and Grünhildr, every bit the picture of a parent who had not seen their children for ages.

“Now, then, Mister Adenauer. The guild guarantees that whatever we said here will not reach another ear,” said Reinhardt as he sat on a long couch on one side of a small table. Elfriede sat beside him while Salicia and Grünhildr took up positions, standing to their sides. Salicia’s father occupied a smaller seat across the table from them. “Shall we begin with your offer?”

“Certainly, Captain Edelstein,” replied Bernd Adenauer as he nodded his head calmly. He brought up a roll of parchment – the good sort which was almost white and very even, Reinhardt noted – from his storage artifact and unrolled it before them, before sliding it over for their perusal. “Noted in this document are the tasks required by the Free City of Levain from your Company as well as the remuneration we are capable of offering for those services.”

“Let’s see…” said Reinhardt as he brought the parchment closer to read. The script was written in legible, but tiny characters, the sign of an experienced scribe at work, so even with his good eyesight he preferred reading it closer to make sure he had not mistaken anything. The first thing he looked at was naturally the job offered by the Free City’s council, as they called themselves.

The listed job description looked simple enough but also contained an unexpected request within. The garrison duty and participation in defensive battles were pretty much the norm for the sort of contract offered, but what was less normal was the additional clause that requests their help with training soldiers with numbers stated to be in the tens of thousands.

“You want us to help train your soldiers?” he asked to the nobleman just to be sure.

“Precisely so, Captain Edelstein. If you would allow me to explain?” asked the nobleman in turn, as he raised the pair of glasses he wore, probably another habitual tic of his. “At the moment the Free City of Levain happened to possess a large number of soldiers, but the majority of it were just peasant militia. They lack proper training in matters of warfare, and we require people who could teach them the necessary skills for that purpose.”

“And you lack such people in your City?” asked Reinhardt with some obvious incredulity.

“Let us just say that those qualified to train people present in our city might be… unsuitable for political reasons,” replied the nobleman without missing a beat. “For that reason, the council eventually approved the hiring of a neutral force to do the work for us. We required mercenaries that are documented as reliable and capable of such a task, and after some time sifting out those in our vicinity, we decided upon your Company.”

“Oh? Do elaborate on your reasoning there, if you would, Mister Adenauer.”

“For reliability, I do not need to say much, I believe. The Free Lances have a long history and reputation spanning centuries back for always completing their missions or at least trying their very best to do so,” replied Salicia’s father, to which Reinhardt gave a nod of acknowledgement. “As for why we believe you would be capable of training our people for us… well, your results speak for itself.

“Go on.”

“As per reports I have read myself, Captain, your unit was down to barely over three hundred combatants a little over a decade ago. Now you boast of numbers nearly quadruple that, and while some of that increase came from assimilating other, smaller Companies, quite a lot came from new members that you literally trained from scratch, was that not the case?” asked Bernd with a smile on his face. “In fact if my information is not wrong your Company seems to be well on its way to reinforce itself to somewhere around two thousand strong if not more, with all the new recruits you took in.”

“You are well-informed, Mister Adenauer,” replied Reinhardt with a grin on his face. “We can accept a training mission, but first, let us talk of the remunerations in more detail, shall we?”

“But of course, Captain Edelstein. That is why I have been sent here in person, after all.”