“It is best not to leave matters unresolved, doubly so when it pertains to warfare.” - Saying attributed to Xaliburnus the Conqueror, First Emperor of the Elmaiya Empire.

Sure enough, around three days after the negotiations with the Marquis, Reinhardt and his mercenaries found themselves tasked with watching over the Podovnian army as they retreated towards their lands’ border with Levain far in the east. The remnants of the Podovnian army – maybe around half the strength of their original numbers – looked down and dejected as they marched, more than a few cursing out loud into the air at times to relieve their frustrations.

They were “escorted” by a ten thousand strong force led by Bernd Adenauer, who were mostly there to make sure that the Podovnians behaved. Of course, the Podovnians were mostly disarmed and unarmored, the Marquis having pawned a good portion of their equipment to pay off part of the ransom that he paid up front. That rendered them mostly harmless even if they tried to do anything stupid.

However, the Levainians were not taking their chances. It was why other than Bernd’s ten thousand, Reinhardt and his company were also sent out to help with watching over the Podovnians, while a different group watched the Anduilleans’ retreat to the north.

Reinhardt’s group didn’t march out in the open like Bernd’s did, though. Instead, they marched through the forest on the sides of the road, a task they have proven to be very apt with many times in the past weeks. In fact, Reinhardt purposely told some of his people who were the most agile and comfortable in the forest to purposely allow glimpses of themselves to be seen from the road, to give the retreating Podovnian a scary feeling of always being under some hidden predator’s eyes.

They would look to the side and only see gleaming eyes in the dark forest, or a distant silhouette moving swiftly through the trees, or hear the rustling of leaves from someone’s passage. At other times they might discover some wild animals instead and breathed sighs of relief, but Reinhardt took even that away from them by sending Lili, Rózsa, and a couple other shapeshifter druids to tease the Podovnians.

The Podovnian soldiers would see them appear in their animal forms and sigh in relief, only for them to shapeshift back and waggle their finger in front of the poor soldier’s face before disappearing once more inside the forest. After several such incidents, the Podovnians ended up even more paranoid and on edge, often jumping at every perceived noise and movement from the woods.

It made for some good amusement for his mercenaries, at least, and helped lift their morale, though morale was already riding a high anyway with the promise of bonuses and all that.

All considered, it was just a bit of petty revenge from Levain – Estelle had asked Reinhardt if he had a way to make the Podovnians’ journey back be as unpleasant as possible without actually harming them and he had delivered – to their enemies.

The Podovnian army stopped briefly at Aldenstadt, where they picked up another few thousand captive soldiers. Around a tenth of the force they left to surround the city was dead, while nearly half had fled to deities know where, which left the ones that surrendered and were taken captive instead. The rank and file soldiers were allowed to leave with the rest of the Podovnian army, but the officers were not as fortunate, barring the few the Marquis actually already ransomed early on.

Estelle had blatantly said to the Marquis’s face that every hostage they kept would cost him money for their living expenses while in captivity, unless the Marquis disliked that particular hostage, in which case the Levainians would use them for hard labor and he wouldn’t have to pay for their accommodations. The Marquis had folded and named the few he would prefer never grace his March ever again.

Which spared Levain the issue of having to play host to some “hostages” that their side never intended to ransom.

Fortunately, the Podovnians behaved throughout the journey back. There were some brawls amongst themselves and even against the Levainian soldiers Bernd led, but they were minor issues, something both sides expected and decided to turn a blind eye on as long as it did not turn serious. As nobody died or got crippled, those brawls never turned serious in their eyes.

The group escorted the retreating Podovnians – Reinhardt having reintegrated Grünhildr’s platoon during their stop at Aldenstadt – until they were two days away from the border between Levain and Podovniy. There they allowed the Podovnians to go the rest of the way on their own, though with a note that they would still be watched even then.

Reinhardt made sure those words were true by having his company’s fliers keep watch over the Podovnians until they crossed the border and returned to their own homeland two days later. In the meantime, his forces and Bernd’s were stationed where they had sent off the Podovnians just in case. The location was close enough so that the fliers could deliver reports on a regular basis, and also allowed for a fast reaction from their side.

Their task done, the groups returned to Aldenstadt, where they rested for a few days, then continued their journey back to Levain. Reinhardt kept his flying scouts busy while they rested in Aldenstadt, and they kept track of the Podovnians to ensure that there was no foul play being orchestrated somewhere. Only after a week of watching did he give them leave to rest up and travel back to Levain ahead of the rest.

Needless to say, permission to leave early and rest up was something the fliers were all too happy to accept. It was a week’s trek through the roads for the armies involved to reach Levain from Aldenstadt, but for the fliers, they could cover that distance in a single day. Fortunately the Podovnians had undone the traps Reinhardt set up on the road on their way in, which saved them time as they did not have to clean them up after the war.