“It’s all but impossible to tell when a conflict will break out. As such, the best that a military commander can do is to keep their soldiers prepared for such an eventuality at any and every moment.” - Liang Shi-zu, famed strategist from the Huan Confederation.

Meanwhile, back in Levain, the mood was on a high note.

Morale improved greatly amongst the militia, both active and reserves, and even amongst the populace after the dazzling performance by the first batch of trainees against the elites from Caroma. That was an expected and intended effect to be fair, as it was the main reason that Levain’s leadership had asked for such an exchange in the first place: To provide their soldiers with a much needed boost in confidence and morale.

Of course, the inside story that only a select few – Reinhardt happened to be in the loop – knew about was the fact that Estelle and Bernd had originally asked the Caromans to take it easy on their militia so as not to crush the newfound confidence the soldiers had. Their expectation was for their soldiers to give a “decent” fight and take an understandable loss against the experienced Caromans, a lesson that would drive them to reach greater heights.

Other than Reinhardt, none of them had expected their soldiers to be able to hold their own against veteran soldiers with many years of experience behind them like that.

Reinhardt naturally knew that it was partly due to his own Company’s specialization in irregular warfare and small-unit tactics – things that inadvertently dyed those they trained – that helped the Levain militia perform so well against the Caromans. For all their skill and discipline, the Caromans were still primarily trained for large-scale battles, whereas small-unit actions were not their forte.

Naturally, Reinhardt had not declined the extra monetary bonus the Levain City Council paid his Company for their “beyond satisfactory” work either.

It was a bit strenuous for the Company to continue the training on their own – the second batch had the rest of Levain’s active militia as well as a large portion of the reserves as the trainees, totaling around a hundred thousand people – but the five hundred first batch trainees left behind were those who did the best at teaching others. Besides that, many of the younger mercenaries had also gained some knack for it and could help with the training, so it was manageable for the time being.

All in all, the campaign was not intended to last that long. Estelle had informed Reinhardt that if things went well, the army should return by springtime. In the meantime, Reinhardt continued the training of the militia, though he had split the group into two halves and alternated training them by the week to make up for the lack of trainers. They had far more help from the first batch trainees before this after all.

The campaign itself was a bit of a surprise since Levain had mostly maintained a passive, defensive stance throughout the civil war. That said, from a more pragmatic point of view, Reinhardt could see the obvious benefits of hitting an enemy when they were down. That said enemy launched the first attack – even if that ended disastrously – also gave them better justification to counterattack, to boot.

As for the Caromans’ participation, they and the Southern Coalition clashed on a semi-regular basis, and were allied to Levain on top of that. As such, they would fulfill both their responsibilities as an ally and strike an enemy of theirs at the same time. Reinhardt knew that around the time the combined army made their assault from the south, the Caromans would have sent another army from the north – where their border with the Southern Coalition lay – to truly exploit the situation.

Given the fact that nearly half of the Southern Coalition’s best soldiers had been burnt to death on the plains just months ago, it was impossible for them to have recovered from the loss. As such, Reinhardt predicted that the First Lords of the Southern Coalition would gather up their best remaining troops to themselves and hunker down like a turtle hiding inside its shell.

That would naturally leave most of the northern regions of the Southern Coalition open for the joint force from Levain and Caroma to do whatever they wished. If anything, Reinhardt didn’t expect there to be difficult battles in the south. The main reason it would take a while was that arranging for the migration of thousands of people took a lot of time.

At least, as long as there was no interference from other parties.

Even there Levain had done their preparations, however. Both Anduille and Podovniy still reeled from the effects of the drought they suffered, so it was judged that the chances of their making a move was low at best. Sevras-Galastine to the south was a powerful contender, but neither Levain nor Caroma shared any border with them, so if anything, if the duchy chose to benefit from the situation, it would be at the Southern Coalition’s expense.

However, while the logic behind the planning was indeed sound, the world sometimes did not function in logical ways.

As a result, the situation soon developed in a direction none of them had predicted. An event that would later be recorded in the history books as the largest armed conflict to take place between the splinters of the former Clangeddin Empire, as it involved most of them all at the same time. A conflict later known as the “Decimation of the Lords”.

A massive armed conflict over benefits and sovereignty over the remnant pieces of the dead Empire, fought by those who either called themselves its successors wanting to reforge the Empire anew, as well as those who were simply tired of being ruled by others, wishing to decide their lives on their own. Their wills and desires clashed on the field of battle, their blood shed for their beliefs, their lives sacrificed in the fight for their respective goals.

And amidst that brewing conflict, a certain mercenary company was caught up and played a role in the direction the fighting took.