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In the morning after, your army, having dealt with the dead, moves off from the battlefield, leaving the graves to be reclaimed by wilderness once more. Your prisoners in tow, you continue along the road northwards in your march towards the city of Panergo. With the sheer damage you had done to the mercenary army, it is very unlikely they would attempt yet another attack, or even a raid; you suspect they'll be marching east to rejoin with whatever larger forces are assembling to throw out this invasion force of yours. Just to be sure, however, you'll not bother with foraging; thankfully, you have enough supplies, acquired from Beria in the Kindom of Santula, to reach the city.
As you continue your journey, you begin to have a talk with Hugues - this time, about the prisoners you're holding. Although not many by themselves, and none of them noblemen or men of wealth you doubt they will be the only ones you will gather through the length of this war.
"And how will they be ransomed? If these men even held money on themselves, it was certainly taken when they were stripped of their belongings."
"I'd not worry about it, sire; these are mercenaries. Such men almost always have 'agreements' for the ransoming of themselves should they be captured ready, whether with the company itself or with another trustworthy man. We will most likely be approached by them, sooner or later."
Without much else to discuss, you continue on with your journey. In the following two days, hardly much happens - as you had suspected, no attack or raid befalls you. You wonder if the enemy could have, rather than fled entirely, retreated to the walls of Panergo. As the city's image in the distance becomes ever closer, however, you reckon you shall find out soon enough.
The final stretch to Panergo is a quiet one; the villages by the roadside are abandoned. No trade wagons travel by, no peasants tend to the fields. It seems they expected your arrival. A, your maid Joan claims the gates of the city are shut, and men stand upon their walls. Do they truly intend to force you down to a siege? To do so would be most bothersome to you. You must find out a way to avoid such a bothersome scenario.
CHOOSE YOUR OPTION
>Send out a messenger to their city walls to demand their surrender
>Go out to deliver the message yourself
>Breach an entry into their wall with your culverin as a warning before you bother with demands
>[Write-in]
