“It’s always best to be in a situation where friend and foe are easily distinguished.” - Old mercenary saying.

“Greetings, my fellow Councillors,” said Bernd Adenauer as he stood at a dais set in the center of the room. The building was set up so that the speaker would address the rest from a position where all of them could hear his words clearly, a clever bit of architecture, that. “I had just returned from Knallzog with the mercenary company we had agreed to hire as per the meeting four months ago. With me is Captain Reinhardt Edelstein of the Free Lances.”

Reinhardt tuned out some of the former nobleman’s later words as he mostly gave a slightly embellished account of his company’s history to the other councilors as well as his impressions from the training program the mercenaries used for their own trainees. Instead, he took the time when the attention wasn’t on him to observe the other members of the council.

At a glance, there seemed to be around sixty or so of the councilors present. Much like he expected from a formerly imperial city, they came from all sorts of races – there were even a couple who had obvious orcish or goblin ancestry amongst them, despite members of those two races still relatively rarely found outside the northern areas they called home – and from all walks of life.

Out of those, there were a few – not more than five as best as he could tell – that stood out like a sore thumb, with the finery they insisted on wearing and the general demeanor with which they looked down upon others. Reinhardt mentally noted those as likely part of the troublesome nobles that Bernd had mentioned along the trip. Targets for either defamation or elimination, where convenient, though ones he would need to take care to ensure that he did it the right way.

After all, it wouldn’t do for the civilians to learn of a building rift amongst their own councilors. On the other hand, they would be far more understanding if someone acted out of line and paid the price for it, instead. As such, Reinhardt noted to himself to keep a lookout on possible scenarios that could lead to such an impression where the chance presented itself.

As for the other councilors, the majority of them were middle-aged or older, and from the looks of it, likely just part of the general populace who has had enough of being ignored by those above them. Many showed signs of their former occupations to the point that he could make educated guesses about them, and they generally showed notable interest and concern at what Bernd said.

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Around a dozen members had the sort of posture and gruff look of military men. They were likely in the council as representatives of the militia and had fought in the battles prior to this, with other military backgrounds before that. It was the sort of subtle thing that a fellow soldier could just tell when they met another, as it wasn’t that obvious a tell to most others.

Out of those, one in particular attracted Reinhardt’s attention. Not because she was a woman – there were probably slightly more women than men amongst the councilors, though notably the ones he pegged as nobles were all male – but because of her youth. The girl must have been like twenty five or so at most, which really stood out in contrast to the rest of the council, and was easily the youngest out of those present.

It was not like she was one of those who looked younger than her age either – those with elvish heritage tend to be guilty of that, like how Bernd Adenauer looked like a forty-something at his age, and how his daughter Salicia didn’t look a whiff over twenty at forty – as she lacked the telltale characteristics that would denote heritage from a long-lived race.

Reinhardt could tell that the woman was most likely a purebred human, and more surprisingly, he noticed many amongst the councilors at times glance towards her, as if to gauge her response. He also noticed how the nobles only showed disdain at the times where their eyes looked towards that woman. Definitely something to ask about after this meeting was done.

There were murmurs amongst the councilors after Bernd Adenauer finished his speech, and Reinhardt could tell that while there was still a general air of uncertainty laced with a bit of skepticism, most of the councilors looked hopeful, including the young woman he noticed. Of course, things wouldn’t just end quietly like that, as shortly after the speech was concluded, one of the councilors Reinhardt pegged as a former noble asked for the right to address the assembled council.

“I still remain unconvinced that we would not be better off saving the money and making use of my house’s esteemed knights to train our peasants,” rambled the man, to the obvious annoyance of many amongst the councilors. “How are we supposed to know if these mercenaries are any good anyway? Training does not show results that fast, and by the time it does they could have made out with our money if they were mere charlatans!”

Reinhardt poked at Bernd – who was near him – and quietly asked him if it was fine for him to interrupt the ranting noble, since the matter involves him. Bernd replied back that it was not how things were normally done, but considering the subject matter, it wouldn’t exactly be inappropriate either. That was all the permission he needed.

Garnering the room’s attention was easy enough, as Reinhardt could make quite a loud noise just by slapping one of his hands on the wooden wall of the council chamber.

“Now, now, I could care less if you just want to vent over what you feel is a misuse of the town budget or whatever, but when you’re slandering my company, that’s another matter,” he said once he had the attention of the councilors. Many looked surprised at his interruption, while others had looks of schadenfreude on their face, especially those that looked to be from the militia. “Don’t you nobles have this liking for duels? We could arrange for one to demonstrate that we’re worth our money, anytime.”

“Unless you’re too craven for one, that is,” he added viciously.