“Rumors were always worth paying attention to, especially when they might lead to new information. Sometimes it could be hard to distinguish the truth from the cow dung, however, so you still have to learn to discern between them first.” - Geriola Haenswo, intelligence agent for Dvergarder, circa 402 VA.

“Did you hear the rumors, Boss?” asked Lars around a couple weeks after Erycea returned from escorting Astra and Ze’phane to Caroma. Although there had been many efforts by the dwarves of Knallzog to teach the former Theodinaz locals in other languages in the past couple decades, not everyone in the territory was capable of conversing in common or dwarven. Many older people had a hard time learning new languages at their age, so it was still more convenient to have a local like Lars take care of the rumor-sifting while they were in former Theodinaz territory.

“Which one?” asked Reinhardt with some curiosity. He had paid attention to the talk in the mercenary’s guild as well as the job offers placed there, but so far there had been nothing that truly caught his attention. Most of the job offers were smaller ones as the biggest conflicts died down of late, which wasn’t too unusual.

“The one saying that there were some odd invaders far west, around Wanarua and Bostvan territory at the edge of the continent,” explained Lars. “Hard to tell whether it was actually a case of actual invaders from like, beyond the sea or more just some pirates going wild, though. They did have a pirate problem on that side of Alcidea.”

“Could be either, to be honest. The designs for the weapons Ery and Friede used were from a book and some examples we got off the Theodinaz treasury, supposedly from some land far off over the ocean. They cut off contact with Alcidea centuries ago, supposedly, so it wouldn't be too strange if they turned out to still be around and kicking,” noted Reinhardt as the talk reminded him of some tidbits from the past. “Then again, more likely it’s just some pirates. Doubt they’d call for mercs like us just for that.”

“The dukes from the borderlands were pretty good employers, though I guess we wouldn’t get much more than garrison contracts from them nowadays. Things pretty much died out over there since we left and they called for a truce,” noted Lars. The current situation on Posuin was an uneasy truce between the Central faction that held the north and north-west of the former kingdom, former Duke Emil Bostvan’s faction – which called themselves the legitimate ruler of the Kingdom – to the south and south-west, and the border Duchies which held the east.

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While the factions still had skirmishes amongst themselves, they pretty much kept up the uneasy peace between them, and no large-scale military engagements happened in the past seven or so years, which allowed the former kingdom some time to rebuild. The people started to focus more on their livelihoods once more instead of worrying over the ongoing war.

Of course, it was merely a tentative peace, one that could be broken at any moment should any of the factions felt it to be an appropriate time to do so.

Reinhardt actually liked working with the young Duke of Algenverr and the Young Duchess of Dvergarder as they had been honest employers who paid well, but since there had not been a suitable offer, he wouldn’t bring his company there. Maybe if things remained quiet for another year or so, then the garrison duty might be a better choice than nothing, but for the time being the Free Lances had the capital to be picky with their contracts.

Neither had he forgotten about the prisoners he took along with him out of Levain, namely Michel du Riffons and those of his people who chose to follow him to the bitter end. He already sent a messenger to contact old Guillaume du Riffons, but given his location – last he knew, the former knight’s company was employed by Algenverr – it might be a while before Guillaume could reach Zephirous.

Even if Old Guillaume could detach himself from his work – unlikely, given that he’d likely need some of his mercenaries to help him carry Michel and his group over – it would have taken the old man at least a couple months to reach Zephirous from Algenverr, given that he had to take a circuitous route around. As such Reinhardt did not expect the old man to arrive anytime before at least another couple of weeks.

Of course, Michel and his people were not treated badly. They were not even shackled or tied up and were free to walk around certain areas of the mercenary encampment, just not allowed to leave it. The Free Lances kept them well-fed and allowed them to train and exercise, though the captives were not allowed the use of any actual weapons.

It was an odd sight to some, but between the two groups, there were little hard feelings to be had despite how they had literally tried to kill each other just a year before. Both sides were mercenaries working for their respective employers, so they were just doing what they did normally. The losers took their loss with some grace and aplomb, and besides, the fate of being ransomed back to his old man was probably a better outcome for Michel anyway.

Even Michel himself doubted that Podovniy would be able to remain stable for long after the disastrous loss they had in Levain, so he was thankful that he got a chance to make a clean break before it was too late.

He had gone there to chase after benefits and dreams, and now that those same things were in jeopardy, he knew better than to force his men to keep up the pursuit. Perhaps his father had been right all along, in that ambitions just get you killed when you’re in the mercenary business. At least he learned that lesson before he lost far too much.