“Plays and stories often emphasized the importance of reinforcements, often having them ride to the rescue at the last moment possible. Take it from me, those reinforcements would have never wanted to arrive at the last possible moment if they weren’t forced to do so by circumstances.

The burden of responsibility that came with leading a force meant to reinforce another was never a small one, and any commander worth their salt would have favored arriving as soon as possible instead. Of course, it was still better to arrive late than arrive dead, though.” - Gregorian Aurelius Secundus, famed general and later Second Emperor of the Elmaiya Empire.

“I must admit that what your forces had done was a very effective and pleasant way to welcome us back into the fold, Madam Edelstein,” praised Marshal Publius Cornelius as he led part of his troops to enter the fort a short while after the Podovnians had retreated. The fort itself was not large enough to hold all of the troops he and Estelle led as reinforcements, but it sufficed to serve as a base nonetheless.

The fort had enough room to house ten thousand of the reinforcement’s soldiers, at least once the rubble and corpses had been cleared, as the Free Lances had made quite a mess of the place in their fight to capture it. Their audacious attack had resulted in surprisingly minimal casualties to the mercenaries, while close to a thousand Podovnian soldiers lost their lives in the process.

Of course, it helped that the mercenaries spearheaded their charge using their best warriors, and that the fort itself was severely undermanned at the time.

The result of the battle between the Podovnians and the reinforcements had also gone in the favor of the reinforcements, with them trading barely a thousand casualties to nearly five thousand of their enemies. The majority of the Podovnian casualties fell when they were retreating back to their main camp, as the Caromans made full use of their cavalry to harry the enemy soldiers most of the way back.

“It was… quite an audacious move to do, storming a fort directly, I mean,” added Marshal Anni-Al-Bagh Barca with a smile from her husband’s side. The bulky female Marshall had evidently been leading her troop in person like usual, given the still-wet blood splatters on her armor. “We do owe you one, though. Had that battle lasted another three, four hours, we might have been the ones forced to retreat, and that would have been ugly.”

“It’s her idea, actually,” said Elfriede as she nonchalantly pointed towards Alycea with her thumb. “We had originally planned to hit them from the flank once they were focused on you, but she got the bright idea to take their fort instead. Rein thought it was a risk worth taking and gave his approval, and you already know the end result.”

“In that case, our thanks, Miss Edelstein,” said Publius as he gave a slight bow to show his gratitude to Alycea, who looked more than a little nervous to have the Marshal directly thanking her in person. “Your idea likely spared a couple thousand of my men, and also saved us the trouble of having to force the enemy out from this fort. For that, we owe you a debt of gratitude.”

What Publius said were simple facts. Had the fort been manned in full by the retreating Podovnian soldiers, it would be another obstacle his troops had to deal with before they could affect the ongoing battle for Levain itself. Trying to take even such a fort would have been costly had the place been properly manned by prepared defenders, so Alycea’s bold strike had indeed spared him the trouble.

“The place is for you and the Chairwoman to use as you see fit, Marshal,” said Elfriede as she noticed Estelle’s approach towards the group through her senses. “We already built our bases, hidden deep in the forests, and we’ll keep in touch by messengers on the regular, so you can simply pass on any messages you have for us to them.”

“Much appreciated, Madam, and thank you again,” said the Caroman Marshal. “The Captain isn’t around?”

“Rein’s keeping watch over their siege engines with the rest of our troops, in case they got distracted enough to show an opening. Aly was the one in charge of this mission, actually,” said Elfriede, once again causing Alycea to fidget and blush with some embarrassment. “She did pretty nicely, even if I do say so myself.”

“I could definitely concur with that assessment,” said the Marshal with a bark of laughter. “Her call, while risky, removed an asset from the enemies and took it for our own use and badly demoralized the enemies who were fighting. That’s taking down two birds with one stone, all right. My compliments to the captain! He sure taught his girls well!”

“And mine as well,” added Estelle who finally reached them. She had been further in the back of the army’s formation since she wasn’t much of a fighter herself, so she arrived a bit later compared to the Marshals, who were closer to the front. “Please notify the captain that I will approve an additional bonus for this feat of arms.”

“Much obliged, Madam Chairwoman. A pleasure to be working with you,” replied Elfriede with a smile on her face. “If you don’t mind, we’ll take our people back to rest? The enemy has retreated and your people have taken over the fort, so there should not be any more need for us today, at least.”

“Certainly, Madam Edelstein, and thank you, once again.”

It was only after most of the mercenaries had departed from the fort – the volunteers had stayed, as they were to be merged with the reinforcements, with the rest to be sent over after the mercenaries returned to base – that Erycea and Elfriede patted Alycea’s back and congratulated her warmly. They congratulated her not as fellow members of the company, but as her family.

A congratulations on a job well done.