“Where possible, always take care of potential problems ahead of time, so one could work undisturbed.” - Renatus Guis-vellanz, Vice Commander of the Danton’s Demons Mercenary Company.

“I believe you understand where the source of my confidence came from, now,” said Reinhardt with a smirk as the battle neared its end in the distance. Ze’phane gave an appreciative whistle as she saw the fight turn into a one-sided massacre, and Bernd Adenauer at Reinhardt’s other side also gave a nod of appreciation at the sight.

“A good way to showcase your capabilities, indeed,” admitted the half-orc with a nod even as the fighting died down. Far below they could see the way councilor de Kars and his group went from cheers to angry shouts and commands to a quiet resignation over time as the table turned against their representatives, which contrasted greatly to the way Reinhardt had stood at ease throughout the match.

“There goes pretty much all credibility de Kars has, as well. I doubt the man has thick enough skin to stay in the council after this,” noted Bernd Adenauer with another appreciative nod. “All in two days, too. You certainly work fast, Captain Edelstein.”

“We simply delivered what was asked of us, councilor Adenauer,” replied Reinhardt with a slight nod, though he did not bother to hide the toothy grin on his face either. “When an opportunity comes to take down two birds with one stone, we wouldn’t be worth our price as mercenaries if we did not make the best use out of it.”

“Well said, Captain,” noted the former nobleman with a nod. “With these demonstrations, there should be minimal resistance to whatever training plan you have in mind for the militia. They had all seen the results, after all.”

“That’s the intention, councilor,” replied Reinhardt with a smirk as he walked towards where the rest of the councilors gathered.

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Sure enough, by the next morning, the Free Lances already started to train the city’s militia in their way. The city had an abundance of militiamen, so it was easy enough to make a schedule so that they would spend five days of the week in training, one day on duty, while the final day was reserved as a rest day, on a rotating schedule so as to allow even training to all the militia members.

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Under Reinhardt’s suggestion, the city council also announced a call for the reserve members of the militia to join the training on a voluntary basis. That call alone practically doubled the number of people who joined the training, as many of the reserve militiamen heeded the call and volunteered. Fortunately, the company was prepared for such numbers.

Reinhardt had roughly half of the company take turns in helping Dacia and the others who were part of the group responsible for training newcomers. They alternated on a weekly basis, so as to give the company members something to do, while the rest maintained their combat readiness. After the demonstration of the duels, the militiamen were quite obedient even when subjected to hard training.

Of course, Reinhardt also set it up so the younger members of the company were distributed somewhat evenly between the halves, so their presence could motivate and provoke the militiamen into working harder. Nobody liked being shown up by youngsters half their age, after all, and many of the younger members of the company were even younger than that.

While the regular members of the militia were mostly subjected to training that were aimed to improve their strength and stamina, discipline, and combat methods, those who served as the officers had extra portions of training reserved for them. They also had to learn more about commanding soldiers, inciting morale, and so on, notwithstanding various ways to make use of the terrain to their advantage.

Since a large number of the militia were locals who had little to no military background – most of the better ones were former city guards – there was quite a lot that they could learn from the Free Lances.

Reinhardt had conjectured that the main reason Levain managed to win its independence was partly due to high morale and overwhelming numbers in the past. The way the city was setup meant that it was rather vulnerable to attacks from the inside, and indeed that was how the locals managed to rebel against the nobles at the time.

After they gained control of the city, given the seven solid layers of walls and their large numbers, it would be difficult for any outside force to take the city. Even at best case, they would only manage to do so after taking grievous losses themselves, which was likely one reason none of their neighbors made any serious push so far.

Since Levain annexed the independent lands around it, however, its lands now reached a good bit further from the city itself, and in the past couple of years skirmishes with its neighbors had increased in both quantity and intensity. The militia that Levain relied on was not particularly skilled at field combat, however, even if their numbers remained most formidable.

That was something Reinhardt planned to change.

Other than the militia, the Free Lances also worked with Ze’phane – who had been teaching the locals plenty about horsemanship – to form a cavalry unit for the Free City’s use. The locals taught by the half-orc had become good riders over the past couple of years, but they still have minimal experience fighting on horseback or with cavalry tactics.

Soledad and Anatoli, along with the rest of their cavalry platoon, became the solution to that problem.

The couple worked together with Ze’phane to coach the locals until they could muster a passable cavalry unit. So far, the locals had numbers – two thousand cavalrymen was a lot in that day and age, much less in the hands of a single power – and horsemanship taken care of. They started training with spears and javelins, both the couple and Ze’phane agreeing that they were best trained as light cavalry.

After all, the Free City did not exactly have the funds to gear so many heavy cavalrymen and maintain them.