“Sometimes, the dice rolls just right.” - Old folk saying.
“I know you’re all glad to see me around again, but maybe give me a bit of room, perhaps?” said Salicia as she attempted to squirm her way out – ineffectually – of the tight hugs from her three friends that left her with no room to move about. “I swear, if I still needed to breathe you all would have suffocated me already by hugging me this tightly!”
“Sure, I guess,” said Elfriede in her usual nonchalant way, although there was a noticeable smile on her features as she drew back. Reinhardt did the same, and laid a hand on Elfriede’s shoulder as a show of support as he too nodded and drew back, which left Grünhildr, who did not seem keen on giving up her embrace at all.
“Nope,” stated the burly woman bluntly as she squeezed Salicia within her arms all the tighter. “If I let you go you might disappear on me again. I’m not taking those chances,” she added as she clung closer to Salicia with her whole body. “Ya bloody cunt! Do you know how I felt when I thought you were dead and gone and that I would never see you smile in my arms when I wake up in the morning ever again!? Do you!?!?”
“Urk- I get you, all right? I’m sorry something like that had to happen at all, love… I really do. It’s not like I wanted to die, you know!?” replied Salicia as she squirmed some more under Grünhildr’s tight embrace, which looked like it could have cracked some bones with the force the burly woman applied. “Also can you please ease up on me a bit. I might be unliving now but I still feel pain and I’m pretty sure you cracked a couple of my ribs just now.”
“Oh,” noted Grünhildr rather shyly as she let go of Salicia with some surprise and a rather sheepish look on her face. “Sorry about that.”
“Whew, damn. If I still needed to breathe it would be a pain with several broken ribs,” countered Salicia half in jest. The one-eyed woman had taken well to her changed nature of existence, which was at least better than those who could not get used to it, Reinhardt thought. Then again, mercenaries in general had rather happy-go-lucky outlooks on life, so they would adapt to such changes better than most.
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That, and being literally unkillable would be a big advantage for people in their line of work.
The Free Lances themselves had cases of their members turning Unliving before, though it was before Reinhardt’s time. They did not have such luck back in Theodinaz, while there were two cases of it happening before then, one during the first captain’s leadership and a second under his aunt Ingrid’s, and he had learned about them as well.
During those cases, though, neither of the risen members ended up staying with the Company for long. The one from the first captain’s time chose to retire from mercenary life after he became unliving, while the one from aunt Ingrid’s time stayed another two decades before she too, chose to retire. As such the Company did not exactly have any special provisions or rules about unliving members.
“So, should we leave you two to catch up first? We still got a few hours before we have to depart,” asked Reinhardt with a somewhat amused look at the couple that he also considered friends to himself. Given this development he was quite certain that he would not need to delve into some of the less desirable plans on how to rearrange his mercenaries, since chances were very high that both Grünhildr and Salicia would be coming with them as usual.
“Depart? Did the battle end already?” asked Salicia in surprise. Being literally dead for the past few days, she naturally had no idea about the development of the situation on the battlefield, and thus didn’t even know that the battle had concluded the day she died as the Imperials escaped that very night. “What happened? I assume we at least managed to hold since I noticed that I’m in the same tent as before, which meant we weren’t pushed back. Doubt you’d have the leeway to handle my corpse so nicely if we were pushed back anyway.”
“Arguably, we could say that the battle ended the evening you died,” replied Reinhardt to her question. “The entire enemy force fled in the middle of that same night, and we only found out the next morning, when it was too late to rush after them. We’ve been spending the rest of the week tidying up and preparing to advance further into what used to be Gestis territory, with today being the date of departure, so I’d say you chose a good day to come back,” he added with an amused chuckle. “Another day later, both you and Grün would have run after us to catch up from wherever you were when that happens.”
“Har de har har, very funny,” countered Salicia with a straight face. “Did I get that archer of theirs? I can’t tell for sure whether my last shot landed or not.”
“We couldn’t be sure, to be honest. One of their generals resisted to the last and we could never get to your target, even if we ended up taking down the general that blocked us. Nestor and Uncle Angus both said that they lost nobody to that archer, though, so either you two took out each other with your final shots…” said Reinhardt, leaving his words hanging for a bit. “Or else…”
“Or else I at least managed to injure him with my last arrow badly enough to make him unable to do his thing,” said Salicia as she finished the thought. “The brief glimpse I had of him through my portal before his arrow got me did make me think that he failed to notice my last shot, so that is most likely the case, I guess.”
“One way or another I still owe you a bonus from Nestor for that,” added Reinhardt with another amused chuckle to the one-eyed woman.