“More often than not, losing a war could very well result in the end of a nation, even if the war itself did not end with irreparable losses. The concessions and tributes that a losing nation typically had to pay, on top of the ransom, were often enough to drive a nation to the brink of bankruptcy or worse.” - From a lecture by Garth Wainwrought, Professor of Socioeconomy from the Levain Institute for Higher Learning.

“These prices for ransom are relatively standard, and are acceptable,” stated Marquis Viktor Esvant of Podovniy as he perused the sheet of parchment Estelle handed to him with the ransom he would have to pay to get his people back. The Marquis already considered leaving some of the more troublesome and rebellious of his subjects in the tender care of the Levainians rather than ransom them.

Surely they would understand that everybody needed to sacrifice for the March’s sake.

“That said, I noticed that quite a few names are missing from this list. May I inquire as to the reason why this is so?” asked the Marquis as he continued on. The man was a shrewd politician himself, as was often the case with men in his position. While he might not be able to gain an upper hand in the negotiations, the man was not one to be taken lightly regardless.

“We took count of the people we caught, as well as their names and identities, but we also took our time to identify those who were less… fortunate during the battle,” replied Estelle diplomatically. “The missing names are the ones who were either nowhere to be found, or had unfortunately perished during the battle. For what it’s worth, we won’t charge you a ransom to take back their corpses.”

“How very kind of you,” replied the Marquis sarcastically. There had been more than a few such passive-aggressive jibes from both sides throughout the negotiations so far, which was unsurprising given the relative animosity between them. If anything, without such allowances tempers might have flared and gotten the better of the negotiators. “What about Knight du Riffons? I recall seeing him alive and in captivity, but he was not in the list either.”

“That is a rather special case, and you will have to consult with Captain Edelstein on that matter,” replied Estelle as she passed the baton. Reinhardt just shrugged, as he had expected the matter to come up eventually. It was impossible to hide Michel du Riffons’ capture after all, as there had been many witnesses to the event.

“Very well then. Captain?” asked the Marquis with a raised eyebrow.

“When it comes to young du Riffons, he was a bit of a… special case. I am well acquainted with his father, you see. Even fought alongside senior du Riffons on several occasions,” explained Reinhardt without preamble. “When he heard that us Free Lances were taking up a job in the former Empire’s territory, he asked us to spare his son if we ran into each other in battle and could afford to, and that he would ransom him off in such a case.”

“I see, Captain. So you captured young du Riffons and planned to take him back to his father based on your promise?” asked the Marquis, to which Reinhardt nodded. “Is there nothing I could offer that might change your mind? I found young du Riffons to be quite promising myself, and would be willing to offer a suitable ransom for his release.”

“Apologies, Your Grace. It’s not about the money,” replied Reinhardt with a shake of his head. “I have given my word, and in our line of work, breaking our word is simply not done, at least not by those who planned to remain in business. After all, our reputations are generally only as good as our word, and those who break their promises would soon find themselves targets of suspicion and distrust.”

“Fine, I guess that is an understandable point of view,” replied the Marquis with a shake of his head. “In that case why are some of his captured subordinates on the list of people to be ransomed though?”

“We allowed Michel’s subordinates to make their own choice, that is, whether they would rather take their chance with the March or with Michel’s father. Those who chose to accompany him, we have excluded from the ransom list,” said Reinhardt simply. “The ones there are the ones who made the choice to rely on you, Marquis.”

The Marquis was visibly annoyed by Reinhardt’s words, because they had placed him in an unenviable position. On the one hand, those subordinates of Michel du Riffons who chose to rely on Podovniy were nowhere near as valuable as their commander, but on the other hand, if he were to leave them to rot in Levain’s care, it would be a rather bad look for him.

While the Marquis himself might not care that much about how people viewed him in private, appearances must be kept for someone in his position, and as such, he was obligated to do something for the people that toiled, labored, and risked their lives for him. He would at least ransom part of the group, Reinhardt expected.

That in turn meant a good bit of extra profit for his coffers.

As it was, Podovniy would be hard-pressed to pay reparations for the damages Levain suffered from the invasion, on top of paying the ransom for their captured people. That was none of Reinhardt’s business, though. The Marquis made a gamble when he launched the invasion against Levain, and now that he lost that gamble, it was time for him to pay the price.

After all, every action had its consequences, which was a lesson that far too many people in the world seemed to forget. All too often people short-sightedly fixated themselves on the profits, and thus forgot about the risks inherent to any undertaking. Failure loomed behind in the shadow of any action, after all.