“Given the size of the world, you would normally not expect to meet people you know all that often. However, once you start traveling around, you will realize how you keep meeting such people every now and then, at times out of nowhere. The world is actually a small place, when you think of it that way.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

The mercenary caravan reached the border between Dvergarder and Knallzog a few days after the minor incident with the bandits. Technically, Miriam no longer needed to accompany them at that point and could directly return to Jonkver instead, but she stuck with the mercenaries a while more to help arrange things for the captives they found in the bandit stronghold. That sort of job was something she, as a local, was better suited for than the mercenaries.

As for further negotiations on the contract, Reinhardt found himself once more facing Sandoval Utghwes, the former Duke of Dvergarder. The man had retired from his position and handed things down to his daughter Andrea a few years ago, and was enjoying his retired life when news of the conflict further west reached him.

While the man was retired and now in his sixties, he was all too aware that such a conflict – especially if it was truly an invasion from beyond the seas – had the potential to engulf his beloved Duchy in it as well, so he volunteered his assistance to his daughter, the current Duchess. Given his familiarity with mercenaries as he was the one who employed them on a larger scale during the Posuin civil war, Duchess Andrea tasked her father to help her as a liaison with the mercenaries they were hiring in the present, to watch out for the bad eggs amongst them and to negotiate their contracts until both parties were satisfied.

All of which were tasks the old former Duke took on with gusto.

Reinhardt certainly didn’t mind having to negotiate the finer points of the contract – which Miriam was not given the authority to agree on – with the old retired Duke, as he knew Saldoval Utghwes to be a fair employer. The two of them met at the negotiation table, each with their respective aides, while the Caravan rested outside Dvergarder city and Miriam helped the captives they rescued settle down.

If one wanted to say that the negotiation between the veteran mercenary Captain who headed a storied Company with centuries of history and the retired former Duke was friendly, the way the two haggled and bargained as if they wanted to eat the other party down to the bone would put that illusion to rest instantly. Yet at the same time, neither side held any true animosity for the other, and the vicious negotiations were just the result of two pragmatic and profit-oriented people taking on each other on a field they both excelled at.

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To compare such negotiations with battles between armies was an apt comparison, though instead of blood spilled, it was benefits and coins that each party bled out of the others. Numbers replaced the soldiers of the battlefields and represented each other’s assets, where both sides attempted to maneuver to a position where they had the advantage over the other.

The negotiations lasted three whole days before Reinhardt and Sandoval signed a contract the two had hashed out to their mutual satisfaction. Both sides took their respective pounds of meat and made their compromises until they realized that they would not be able to get any better out of the other party. With the contract’s signing, the Free Lances was once more formally employed by the Coalition of Border Duchies of Posuin.

At the present time, there was little for them to do, as the battlefield was further west, in the territory of the Central Duchies and the Bostvan faction. Given the formerly hostile relationship between those factions and the Border Duchies, there was likely no chance that they would even ask for help unless they were desperate.

Instead, the Border Duchies ramped up their defenses and recruited mercenaries in order to prepare for what they saw as an eventuality. Whoever these invaders were, they possessed enough military force to directly crush one of the Central Duchies within a short two months – even if it could be argued that Wanarua was caught off-guard – and were making their way further east despite the heavy resistance they faced.

In fact, what information the Border Duchies managed to discern from the other factions indicated that both the Central Duchies and the Bostvan faction were on the backfoot, with the invaders having the advantage over them. While the Border Duchies successfully defeated those very same factions during the civil war, it was mostly when they were fighting on defense, something their region specialized in. If they were on the attack it was doubtful that they would manage such success against the same opponents.

Nestor’s campaign against Kolitschei near the end of the Free Lances’ employment period back then was an exception to the rule and the one time the Border Duchies actually went on the offensive. They won partly because their enemies were facing internal discord, and partly because they caught their foes off-guard.

On the other hand, the unknown invaders reportedly brought a large enough military force to overwhelm both the Centrals and the Bostvans through sheer numbers alone. As if that wasn’t enough, the way they waged warfare was clearly different from what passed as common sense in the continent, and that different method of warfare caused many of the early losses due to the surprise factor.

Both the Centrals and the Bostvans adapted their tactics to match their foes as quickly as they could, but all that had done so far was to slow down the speed at which the foreign invaders encroached upon their territory. Both factions were constantly on the backfoot and the Border Duchies judged that they might cry out for help before too long.

Which was why they prepared their own military, for when that moment arrived.