“Running a mercenary company is a lot like riding on a see-saw, honestly. Things constantly went up and down, all the time. At times you’d feel like you’re in the high heavens, your company strong, reputable, and respected, commanding top coins for pay. At other times, you’d feel like you were always one step away from the brink of dissolution and bankruptcy, and that was assuming your people didn’t stab you over one too many missing paychecks.

In short, it’s not for the faint of heart.” - Jonas Hawk-in-the-Woods, Former Captain of the famed White Company, circa 387 VA.

Later that evening, Reinhardt and Elfriede held a small birthday party for Erycea, with her group of friends as the guests. They allowed the children to just have fun and enjoy themselves, before he quietly snuck away once he was sure that their attention was occupied by the party. Not far from the clearing where they held the party, he found Lars awaiting him with a sheaf of papers in his hand.

“So how are things looking up?” asked Reinhardt. Lars had over the years grown into the role of their chief strategist and logistician, and recently Reinhardt had tasked him with watching over the new members of the company, recent inductees who still needed to go through training before they could be deemed battle-worthy alongside the rest of the Company.

While the past three years had been filled with a tentative peace - the Border faction had not been expansionists, while both the Central faction and the Bostvan faction took the chance to lick their wounds - there were still a bunch of skirmishes and small-scale action, and Reinhardt’s Free Lances were at the forefront of those engagements, where they excelled.

The past three years also saw a consolidation by the major factions in the civil war. Most of the smaller baronies, viscounties, and the likes had fallen under the umbrella of the larger factions. Of those, the Border faction - the three Duchies of Algenverr, Jonkver, and Dvergarder - reigned over the eastern borders of the nation.

As for the rest of the former kingdom, it was split by the other two major factions. The northern half was under the control of the Coalition of Central Duchies, as they termed themselves, while the southern half was under the forces led by former Duke Emil Bostvan, who had since proclaimed his faction’s right to the throne by virtue of the royal prince he had secreted away from the capital many years ago.

While the faction called themselves the legitimate successor to the Kingdom of Posuin and used that name, the others still called them the Bostvans more often than not. That the royal prince was married to one of the Duke’s younger daughters only made the rest consider that prince as little more than a figurehead, mouthpiece, and puppet for the Duke’s own ambitions.

Said ambitions caused the suffering of the smaller splinter states on the south, which soon fell one after another to the Duke’s forces. The Barony of Ohu which bordered Dvergarder in particular folded after a single week, since their own forces were already plagued with desertion and low morale. Reinhardt’s Free Lances had pretty much poached the population of the eastern half of the Barony, which in turn caused many of their soldiers whose family was taken to Dvergarder to desert and escape eastwards as well.

“The rookies will still need another few months of hard training, minimum,” reported Lars without an expression on his face. The last time the Free Lances had taken notable losses was during the battle in Jonkver three years ago, and the majority of their losses were newer rookies who lacked real battlefield experience. That caused Lars and Reinhardt to subject the new recruits that came later to harsher training to either weed out those unsuited for the battlefield early, or to at least prepare the rest better for the battles they would face in the future. “The recruitment is doing pretty well lately, though. We’re getting a steady trickle of new, willing recruits, particularly from the immigrants.”

“That’s good to hear at least. What’s the numbers like, counting them?” asked Reinhardt.

Typically, in wartime conditions like in the former Kingdom’s territory, mercenary companies were not allowed to recruit out of the populace of their employer’s land. Given the service offered by the companies under his employ, however, Duke Sandoval Utghwes had allowed the companies to do small-scale recruitment in his lands, which helped them make up for their losses from the battles.

Even so, not all the companies had stayed. While the Silver Eagles and the Hellraisers still worked under the Duke’s employment, the Janissaries had left to work for Duke Berthold Tovmund of Jonkver, which to be fair had Duke Utghwes’ blessings. The Spears of Ostvin on the other hand had left, as they were badly hurt by their losses and cited their inability to carry out the terms of their contract under their current condition. That the Duke had allowed them to leave with a sizable bonus had given the other mercenaries an even better impression of the man as an employer.

“Seven-fifty combat ready at the moment, Captain. If we include the trainees who could join the line within half a year, eight hundred and change. Nine hundred counting the expected number of newcomers that passed through the training on average by next year,” said Lars calmly as he recited the numbers out of his memory. “I’d say another year or two like this and we might well recover to a thousand strong once more. Then there’s the kids to consider too.”

Reinhardt couldn’t help but nod and sigh at the mention of the kids. The so-called “Junior Division” that he had at first thought to just be kids at play had over the years transformed into a group of children who worked themselves to the bone to such an extent that many of the adult mercenaries were shamed at the sight of them training and ended up training harder themselves. Several members of the group had already joined the Company formally, and every single one of them acquitted themselves admirably.

Ayrie had merely been the first of the group to join the Company, who had since honed her skills with actual experience on the field and had become one of the Company’s best scouts and assassins despite her young age. Then three of Mischka’s older grandchildren had joined as well in the past couple of years, each already taller and broader than Reinhardt himself despite their tender age. Needless to say they lived up to their lineage proudly.

He also noticed how the children - even the ones who already joined the Company - looked up to his daughter as their leader. The day Erycea was to join the Company proper, she would likely find herself at the head of a spirited and highly skilled group of youngsters who looked up to her. He only hoped that she would prove herself deserving of their trust by then.