“People die, and new people are born to take their place, such is the way of nature.” - Old folk saying.

After a few days of rest at Bærengant, the convoy headed northwards to Zephirous where the rest of the Company was stationed. Fortunately nothing unexpected happened in the month or so that Reinhardt and the others had been away for, other than increasing rumors about the Ezramite to their north intensifying their military buildup.

The first thing Reinhardt did upon his arrival was to check with Lars on whether anything needed his presence or attention, but fortunately, no such thing happened. As such, he instead planned out the escort with which he’d deliver Astra back to her parents. The Company’s platoon leaders had another meeting that very evening, a rather brief one mostly to discuss that matter.

In the end, Reinhardt decided to entrust the task of escorting Astra back to Erycea, who would bring her entire platoon on top of Alvaro’s, Soledad’s, and Grünhildr’s platoons. Salicia and Grünhildr themselves would also accompany the group, which was set up in case another fool looked for trouble while they crossed through Lavianey to the north.

Reinhardt estimated that the group should be back in a month or thereabouts. A few of the flying scouts volunteered to come along to facilitate easy communication between the convoy and the main body, while Ze’phane naturally also went along as she too would return to Levain to take up her duties once more. Chances were that the Caroman Marshals would send people to meet them at the border anyway.

They held a small feast to celebrate the successful mission later that night, where some acquaintances and friends from Zephirous came to join them as well. Varsha had retired from her position as Mayor by then, her post taken up by her protege, Annelise, who she brought along when she visited the mercenary camp that night. For a lady of her age Varsha was certainly still hale and hearty, and happily joined the boozehounds at the table as they drank down hard liquor as if it was water.

Annelise on the other hand was more reserved. She got married five years ago, before the Free Lances headed to Levain, and had just given birth to her second child months ago. Annelise even brought her infant daughter along, quickly finding herself in a circle of fellow young mothers amongst the mercenaries, who also brought their kids along as well.

Stolen novel; please report.

After all, given the year of relative peace and easy work that was their last year in Levain, it was no surprise that some of the mercenaries decided to tie the knot, or just have children while there was some downtime. It was nothing unusual, and Reinhardt himself was used to such a thing. He knew of at least a couple dozen children born to or by his mercenaries just in the past year.

One of those was a daughter between Kari and Rubor, which was still an infant of a few months as well, having been born just a month or so before they left Levain. Kari was holding her infant daughter and chatting happily with Annelise, though she took care to keep her baby a distance away from Annelise’s. Kari’s child was half-therian after all and could pose some danger to a human baby as a result.

Astra and Ze’phane went around and thanked everyone they met for the escort through the Forest of Despair. Astra was already walking normally again, something the girl took only a couple weeks to get used to once more. She stumbled and nearly fell quite often early on, but once she regained the feeling in her leg, her body remembered how things were supposed to go and things went smoothly from there.

The celebration went well past the midnight and only really ended when the last few people fell asleep – most of them drunk as a skunk – where they sat. It was not exactly an unusual sight for the mercenaries, and the cooks made sure that they cooked up some foods that were good for dealing with hangovers the next morning, as those would certainly be on demand.

It was not until the next afternoon that the escort group led by Erycea left Zephirous together with Astra and Ze’phane, retracing the company’s route back towards the Republic of Caroma. While Erycea’s group left, Reinhardt worked together with Lars to sort out the various job offers posted on the guild in Zephirous, only to find nothing that were to their liking.

Fortunately the Free Lances made it pretty rich off the job in Levain, and their coffers were plenty to sustain them even if they were to take a break for the following year or two, so neither of them were particularly worried about that. The company’s good financial conditions meant that the Free Lances had the freedom to wait until a fitting job offer arrived rather than having to scramble from one job to another even if it wasn't particularly suitable for them. Far too many smaller mercenary groups had to do the latter.

A month flew past almost unnoticed, and Erycea’s group returned from their escort mission with the rest of their pay from the Caroman Marshals. The group returned unscathed, and had only fought two small skirmishes against some uppity warlords in Lavianey who tried their luck against the group only to be quickly dissuaded by some violence.

They also confirmed that Ezram had initiated their assault on the former Lavianey region just shortly after the group crossed the border on their way back. The Ezramites didn’t seem interested in hiring mercenaries, however, so they left them be and just returned to Zephirous to report.

Other than the ongoing conflict to their north, most conflicts that were still happening at the time were small-scale, as the larger states and nations mostly kept a tentative peace. That made for rather boring times for the mercenaries, but it couldn’t be helped.