《Free Lances》Side Story 34 - Pride Begets Downfall

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“Overconfidence is one of the biggest reason why so many young adventurers and mercenaries never return from a mission.” - Harida Ferndale, former guildmaster of Knallgant Adventurer’s Guild branch, circa 209 FP.

How the three women ended up joining hands with the Free Lances Mercenary Company was a story that took place around two years after Elfriede joined their group.

At the time, the trio happened to be in Ostenbruck, a city in the far east of Knallzog, as they had just finished a mission that took them near the city. Since they happened to be in town, they perused the local guild branch to see if there were any requests that suited them, and found just the sort of mission they usually undertook.

It was a typical request, all considered. The daughter of a local rich merchant discreetly placed a hit on her own father. A quick background check with the local information dealers confirmed that the rich merchant in question was indeed known to be a local tyrant, often doing whatever he pleased to people who fell into his hands.

The man was also clever enough to always keep his less savory activities to be plausibly deniable, however, and had generously bribed the local constables to not look too closely as well, so as a result, he got away with it for decades already. Naturally, the three of them had not thought too much of it and accepted the request.

While the assassination itself took place flawlessly – Salicia simply used her magic to place an arrow through the merchant’s brain from three hundred meters away while he was in a carriage leaving town – it turned out that they had thought too well of their employer. The night after the three collected their pay from the guild, they were suddenly beset by masked assailants on their way out of the town.

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Had Elfriede not noticed some of the hidden assailants and warned them, forcing the ambush to be executed prematurely, the three might well have died that very night.

As it was, while they managed to fight their way through the ambush, Salicia was badly injured, to the point that Grünhildr had to carry her on her back while they escaped. The three women managed to gain a distance from their assailants thanks to Elfriede helping them navigate the dark night like it was day, but they were put in a dilemma.

Namely that Salicia’s injury was quite deep and needed treatment immediately. If they were to merely make a run for the gates, they would likely escape, true, but it would likely also cost them Salicia’s life. It was during that run when by happenstance, they approached a large tavern where a pennant was flown next to the place’s sign.

It was not uncommon for a larger mercenary company to fly their banner by the sign when they booked a tavern for their own use, in a way serving as a warning for others that the tavern was booked for the night. Grünhildr recognized the black-on-white banner, however, as those of the Free Lances, the same Company her great-grandfather once served with, and betting it all on a keepsake from him, they barged into the tavern.

When they barged in, the surprised mercenaries naturally held them at swordpoint almost immediately, though they gave Grünhildr the leeway to fish out the token her great-grandfather gave her. He had said that if she needed help and the Free Lances were around, she could probably use it to get some aid, so she gambled entirely on that.

Fortunately, at the sight of the token, an elderly dwarven woman called for the swords to be lowered and asked Grünhildr where she got the token, nodding sagely when she learned that Grünhildr was Abeldt’s great-granddaughter. The old dwarf quickly called for an old healer from the Company to treat Salicia, while she made Grünhildr sit down and tell her tale.

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The dwarven woman only raised an eyebrow when Elfriede said she wanted to go out to lead their pursuers to a false trail, but nodded and let her off, though she did send a couple of the mercenaries that looked like scouts after her a moment later. All the while, Grünhildr related their story to the woman, who she soon learnt was Ingrid Edelstein, the Captain of the Company itself.

By the time Elfriede returned – unharmed, other than the few injuries she had received during the ambush itself – an hour later, Ingrid had already learned of the whole story. Salicia’s injury was also treated by their healer, though it would leave a large scar on her back. The dwarven woman had agreed to shelter the three of them for the time being, on the condition that they work for her for the duration of a mission that would take them further east.

After a quick talk, the three of them agreed to the condition, especially as Ingrid offered them help finding out who tried to have them killed. The three had some fame, but that was mostly in the north, where they usually operated. This far east, they were far from their home ground. The Free Lances, on the other hand, had more connections all over, partly from being a thousand-strong mercenary company with a long history.

By the time the three returned back to Ostenbruck a month later after working with the Free Lances, they agreed that they quite liked the additional safety – and camaraderie – offered by working for the Company, so when Ingrid asked them if they did not wish to stay on with the company, the three had accepted the offer after only a short deliberation between themselves.

As a bonus, they also learned by then that the one behind the attackers who tried to have them killed that night was their own employer, the daughter of the rich merchant they took out. As such, over their weeklong stay in town on the way back, the three made a point to not only eradicate the band that attacked them down to the last man, but they also took the chance to publicly unveil all the crimes the rich merchant’s family was responsible for in a way that was not ignorable by any means.

They were not in town to watch the aftermath, but did receive news some months later that the merchant’s daughter that hired them and then tried to kill them fell completely destitute after the family’s assets were confiscated, then ran afoul of the criminal elements of the city over debts, and was supposedly sold to a whorehouse as a result.

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