“Nobody is above a little bit of petty revenge when the situation allows it.” - Old folk saying.
The Free Lances made good time – at least when one considered that the whole caravan carried around five thousand people in total – on their journey southwards into Knallzog, before they turned west towards the wastelands between the Dwarven Kingdom and Posuin. It only took the caravan roughly a week to reach the wastelands from Zephirous, which was about as fast as what most carriages would be able to manage.
Miriam and her dozen escorts rode together with the caravan throughout the journey. She could have probably saved up a day or two if she rode out together with her group ahead of them, but the convenience, comfort, and safety of the caravan won her over. Besides, it was not like a day or two would affect the situation much, given what she last knew of it.
“Was this the region you almost ran afoul of some bandits on your way over?” Miriam heard Reinhardt ask all of a sudden. In response, she took a look around the area and compared it with what she remembered. It had only been a month or so since the incident, so she still recalled it pretty well, all considered. The region definitely matched what she could remember.
“This should be the place, yeah,” she replied with a nod. “I doubt those bandits would show up, though, we have far too many people for them to even risk attacking.”
“Oh, they don’t need to come out,” said Reinhardt with a smirk. “Hannah, take three others of yours and find me where those bandits make their lair. Report back with their numbers as well if you can get a good look safely,” she heard Reinhardt speak, apparently to thin air. “They should be in the vicinity of this region, but likely further west. It was still patrolled pretty well further east from here.”
His words were definitely conveyed, though, as mere moments later four avian therians took off from one of the wagons further in the middle of the caravan and flew into the clear sky on their majestic wings. The four of them split up into pairs and flew towards the north-west and south-west respectively, where the bandits Miriam almost ran into were likely present.
Nothing happened while the caravan rode on leisurely for the next two hours or so, until Miriam noticed how Reinhardt seemed to be listening to something she wasn’t privy to. Sure enough, a moment later the mercenary captain barked out several commands.
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“Aly, I want you and Astrid to take your platoons out, your target is a bandit encampment north-west of our location, towards the outskirts of the Forest of Despair. They’re hidden in a small ravine, around a hundred or so bandits,” commanded Reinhardt. “Hannah will show you the way, she’ll find you, so no worries about getting lost. No mercy for the bandits, bring along any captives you find, though. Catch up by tonight.”
Miriam realized that Reinhardt must have been using some sort of artifact to communicate through long distances as mere moments after he gave out his commands – to the empty air, in her eyes – several wagons which carried Alycea’s and Astrid’s platoons peeled out from the caravan and headed towards the north-west.
Even with the two platoons and their wagons headed their own way, the rest of the caravan just continued on their trek unbothered. Eventually, they settled down to rest for the night and the wagons formed circles as they stopped. It was just around the time when dinner was about to be served when the fliers returned, followed by the two platoons that went off on their own a few minutes later.
The mercenaries under Alycea’s and Astrid’s lead who went off to deal with the bandits were in pretty high spirits. A few had fresh bandages on their bodies, but as far as Miriam could tell, none of them seemed to be injured badly. Some of them led a few rather emaciated men and women over to be seated and had the company’s support staff serve them some hot food, while the rest settled down to eat as well.
Reinhardt had just sent out some of his people to wipe out the local bandits on a whim, it seemed.
“Those two had the newest platoons, so I figure getting them warmed up a bit for the battles to come wouldn’t be a bad idea,” said Reinhardt when Miriam looked at him questioningly. “A bunch of bandits make for a good warm-up that’s low in risk, and besides, never hurts to get on the good side of the locals anyway, especially for mercs like us,” he added.
“Oh, she’s here already,” noted Reinhardt as he noticed Alycea approaching. “How did things go over there, Aly?”
“Nothing unexpected, really. They didn’t exactly give us much of a fight. A couple tried to hold their captives as hostages, but we made it clear to them in no uncertain terms how we deal with those types,” said Alycea rather nonchalantly. “Around thirty or so captives, probably villagers from near the Posuin border by their looks.”
“We’ll hand them over in Dvergarder in that case, then,” said Reinhardt with a nod. Since the captives were humans, it was far more likely for them to be from Posuin than Knallzog. While Knallzog also had many human citizens, their pioneering groups which were reclaiming the wasteland were predominantly dwarves.
“What do you mean by making it clear in no uncertain terms?” asked Miriam with some curiosity. She only ever worked with the mercenaries in battlefield situations so she never saw them deal with a hostage situation before.
“Why, by having our marksmen put a bolt in between their eyes, of course,” said Alycea just as nonchalantly as before. The mercenaries had a hardline stance with hostage takers… and plenty of expert marksmen. Those marksmen did not hesitate and a distance of ten meters was nothing more than a joke to them.