“Some traditions were kept in usage all the way to modern times for good reasons. Some might be just because it was common sense to keep them, whereas others remained in use simply because it made no sense whatsoever to abandon them. The various traditional preparation methods for potentially poisonous foodstuffs came to mind for an example of the latter.” - Garth Wainwrought, Dean of the Levain Institute for Higher Learning, Circa 688 FP.

“You sure drive a hard bargain, Edelstein. Take it,” said Guillaume du Riffons in a wistful tone as he pushed another pile of gold coins over the table towards Reinhardt. Reinhardt’s side of the table was already filled with many similar piles of the same coins, which consisted of various currencies common to the region. The coins had roughly the same overall size, weight, and gold content, which was something the nations that used them ensured and enforced to promote trade. “I hate owing a favor to someone. Can’t haggle properly when you owe someone.”

“It is how it is, du Riffons, no hard feelings,” said Reinhardt with a smirk as he scooped up the piles of coins to his side with one hand. The two of them had been haggling over Michel du Riffons’ ransom money, a time-honored tradition amongst mercenaries. Nobody wanted to pay more than they had to in order to ransom someone back, while similarly, the side with the captive would want to squeeze out every last coin they could.

Just because Reinhardt offered Guillaume to ransom him Michel’s companions at cost didn’t mean that the same applied to Michel himself, after all. On that occasion, the two mercenary leaders – one active, one retired – bared their fangs, both literal and metaphorical, and haggled in a manner that would have made an old housewife beam with envy.

Of course, the haggling was done in good humor, where neither side saw it as a chance to gain or save themselves a little extra bit of coin. In the end Reinhardt had the advantage since he already did Guillaume a huge favor by ransoming him Michel’s people – and their horses, or at least, the ones the Free Lances managed to catch along with them – at cost, on top of capturing Michel alive and mostly unhurt, at that.

Erycea left Michel with some bruises – including to his pride and ego – and a dislocated shoulder when she captured him back then, but none of the damage was permanent. Similarly, most of the other captives only had light injuries that had already healed by that point of time, since over a year had passed since their capture.

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In essence, Guillaume du Riffons ransomed not just his son, but also a loyal bunch of trained cavalrymen who would fight by his side to further supplement his daughter’s mercenary company. While in number they were less than half of the people who followed Michel during the schism – some of those had perished in the fighting while others chose to remain under Podovniy’s employ – it was akin to discarding the bad parts while keeping the best for the company.

After all, Reinhardt doubted that there would be any conflict between Michel and his sister. Michel had his chance and failed at it, so he would likely be subservient to his sister’s commands. His riders might be personally loyal to him, but that was fine, for as long as Michel himself was under control, his people would follow alongside him.

“I guess that concludes our deal,” said Reinhardt as he led Guillaume away from the table. Lars and Loren were still counting out the coins and writing it into their account books, since if there’s one thing Reinhardt and Lars strongly agreed on, it was that the Company needed to keep a thorough record of their income and expenses. Loren had been working with Lars in that regard, his position in the company more an accountant than a healer nowadays.

“You kept their equipment too, I reckon?” asked Guillaume. “I noticed that you included that in the calculations for the rest of them.”

“Yeah, we did. Some of them even saved up and had their gear upgraded by pops, actually. Pretty clever to use the chance to get themselves the good stuff,” praised Reinhardt. “I already had some people sent to retrieve their gear, so they should be here with them any moment no-” he then noticed some of his mercenaries coming over from the side. “Aha, speak of the bastards and they show up right away.”

Reinhardt and Guillaume watched as the mercenaries from the Free Lances called the captives by name and then brought out their equipment, which the captives immediately donned where they stood. One after the other, the captives put on their armor and weapons once more after a year of life in captivity, until all of them lined up in front of Guillaume in full equipment.

Then Reinhardt led the way to where the mercenaries had a stable built to keep the horses captured along with the captives back then. Of course, the horses were not exactly one to one in number. Some of the horses perished during the battle while the riders were captured alive, but in turn, over the one year that passed new foals and fillies had been born, and many of those had grown large enough to be ridden.

Naturally Reinhardt allowed the young horses to be trained, since they were considered part of the captives’ assets, which would be returned to them upon the arrival of their ransom. As such, Michel and his men actually had enough horses for each of them to ride one, and an excess of around a dozen horses on top of that.

The group left together with Guillaume and his escort the next day, after a bit of a sending away party hosted by the Free Lances. Over the past year there had been some friendships built between the mercenaries despite their difference in status, which was far from uncommon. They were all in the same boat, in the end, after all.