“Save their asses and the ladies in town might well reward you with them.” - Gorbrand Honiss, Veteran Mercenary.

It took a while to finish dealing with the Podovnians, and it was only near sunset that the defeated soldiers – minus their officers and nobles, who were taken as hostages – were allowed to return to their camp, where they saw the scorched walls on the south side and realized that the camp was mostly undamaged. Some even beat themselves up for falling to the trick and being partly responsible for the loss.

By the time the Podovnians returned to their camp, their Anduillean compatriots – though at the moment it was doubtful that the defeated soldiers shared that sentiment overmuch – had already ceased their attack on Levain and fully retreated to their camp. They had received news of the Podovnian defeat and clearly decided that to continue the battle was no longer in their best interest.

In fact, the Anduilleans had already sent a delegation to Levain city under a flag of truce before either the Caromans, the Levainians, or the Podovnians returned from the southern battlefield.

Both the Caromans and the Levainian forces wrapped up the last of the situation in the south, then marched towards Levain City with their prisoners in tow. The sight of the ring of rubble where the seventh wall used to stand still remained a rather shocking sight, even if they knew it was done on purpose, and the armies marched towards the west of the city, where those inside already made a makeshift bridge over the rubble for them to use to enter.

The choice of using the west gate to enter the city was partly a precaution in case the remaining Anduilleans decided that they still wanted to fight more, but it proved to be an unneeded caution in the end.

Once the armies marched through the city’s west gate – the Levainian army with Estelle in front, followed by the Caromans behind them – they were greeted by raucous cheers from the city’s populace, who had gathered by the sides of the main road just to greet the returning army. Many parents even brought their small children on their shoulders so that they could join in the cheering as well.

Given the length of the army column, it took a long while before the cheering eventually subsided, by which point Estelle, the Caroman Marshals, and some of their officers – Reinhardt included – already reached the city’s council chamber, where they took a short break in preparation to meet with the Anduillean delegation in a short while.

They had also taken the captive Podovnian officers and nobles with them. Despite being prisoners, they were treated decently, though they were kept disarmed and under guard. The Marquis himself and high-ranking generals like Simeon Durant received better treatment, since the council would meet with them as well later in the evening, to discuss a closure to the battle.

“So how is Astra doing, Marshal?” Reinhardt asked the Caroman Marshals while they rested and had a quick dinner after refreshing themselves. For all the intimidation factor that would come into play by going into a negotiation while still drenched in the blood of one’s enemies, it was sadly considered inappropriate by the local custom.

“There is no danger to her life, though her leg is pretty bad off. Our army healers might not be able to recover it properly, so it would probably fall to our best healers back in the Republic to do it,” replied Publius with a sigh. The Marshal was naturally aware of the risks of battle, but he still considered himself as having failed to protect his own daughter, given her injury.

“You might want to try your luck with the Unliving if your best healers at home can’t deal with it,” suggested Reinhardt kindly. “Me and mine were… visited by the Silver Maiden back in Theodinaz, over a decade ago. Many of us had injuries that I never even thought was possible to heal at all, but she took care of us, thousands of people, all in one single night. Something like Astra’s Injury should pose no challenge to a healer of her caliber.”

“Definitely be polite and bring appropriate gifts if you were to look for her, though,” added Elfriede as she helped herself to some good wine. Out of the people in the room at the moment she looked the most beaten up as she had many wounds on her body that were wrapped up under bandages, even if they were just light flesh wounds. “I’ve felt how that woman moved back then, when she healed me. Trust me when I say that she definitely knows her way around a battle. She moves the way a veteran does.”

“Thanks for the advice,” replied Anni with a nod as she vented her frustrations by tearing some meat right off the bone with her teeth. That they won the battle in the end but couldn’t avoid having their child become one of the casualties must have thoroughly frustrated the female Marshal, given her more brusque than usual demeanor that night. “We’ll consider pursuing that course of action if our best healers back home proves inadequate.”

“Good to see you all get along like before,” noted Estelle as she nodded along while watching the mercenaries interact with the Caroman Marshals. She recalled how they drank and smoked together during the display they set up back before the entire invasion mess started and just shook her head at their antics. It was good that her allies got along well, at least. “Think we’ve let the Anduilleans and our prisoners stew long enough? I plan to rip them off everything I can get for this mess they forced us into.”

“Don’t think you can get that much off the Anduilleans,” noted Anni with a shake of her head. “Some concessions in exchange for the prisoners, maybe. Otherwise, they’ve still got most of their army and seem willing to withdraw peacefully. Podovniy, on the other hand…”

“We also received word from Aldenstadt,” added Reinhardt. “They’ve pretty much routed the force that was left there to corral them, and had several thousand more captives to add to the negotiations.”