Unbeknownst to him, a great funeral was being held in the Nyhem cathedral.
But Claus Rotstein had no plans on solemn mourning, he was finally back to the city, finally back from seven long years of war.

The Steel fist was marching along the road, closing on the city gates.
Claus Rotstein had ordered the company to wear full parade dress today, banners held high and weapons and armour polished to a shine. Halberds, maces or crossbows held proudly over the troops shoulders, marching with proud steps with satisfying simultaneous thuds.

Drummers were keeping the pace, flutists and trumpeters played a happy tune and the proceeding was a cheery one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9ilEh38-rQ (Ignore the visuals)

Claus had sent scouts to the city to warn the guards of the Steel fists arrival, so the gates were held open, but the banners were only half raised.
As the company entered the city with smiles on their faces, the guards and then the locals gave them saddened or even at times disgusted looks.
But the men gave them no heed, as the commander had told this was a joyous moment. We were finally all the way home, finally able to live of our hard earnings.
The entire main street was forcefully conquered by the happy parade, people had to move out of the way in shock.

Claus however noticed something was amiss, he was at the center of the column with only two honor guards beside him.
-"Keep going to where we planned, i'll soon be back." Claus told the one on his right before leaving the proceeding the same way.
He got a few confused looks but the men kept marching.

Claus got out of the way of the column and then stopped in an crossing street where an old couple had stopped to look, as the tall fully plate clad man jogged up to them they visibly panicked slightly while staring at the mercenary.

-"G-day, what's all the sour faces about?" Claus Rotstein asked bluntly, receiving only silent gasps for air.
He waited for a while, grunted and then gave up. He was just leaving when a voice loudly spoke to him.

-"You lack respect, you should not be here!" As Claus met the owner of the voice eyes he was surprised to see a woman, wearing a apron and a head wrap.
-"I and my men walk wherever i please, and no one has the right to deny me or my men that privilege, unless you pay well." Claus responded strongly in an irritated manner.
He hadn't marched for a month straight to have some commoner speak to him like that, and the woman realized she had made him angry and left with a worried look.
But she turned and spoke.
-"The king is dead, and your joyous parade here is what people aren't happy about." She spoke with disgust, then left.

-"Great, worst timing yet." Claus said out loud with a frown.
He then jogged ahead so he could meet up at the city square as he had told his men. When he arrived the men were almost finished forming nice square formations lining up with the town criers stage.
Claus briefly stopped to adjust his helm plume, then proudly walked along the center of the massive display on a path left open between the troops.
He waved, smiled and mounted the town criers stage and gazed upon his troops whom now finished their massive formation. A few civilians had come to watch the spectacle and encircled the scene.

Banners gently moved in the wind, black was prominent but with several others mixed in here and there, not least in the mens personal uniforms.
-"Gentlemen, friends. We have finally arrived to our destination. We have marched home from seven years of war!" Claus words were met with a cheer at the last sentence. He spoke further.
-"The time has come to celebrate our victory, we will remember our fallen brothers, our triumphs and defeats, and mostly that we don't need to have these damn blisters on our feet anymore!" Met with another cheer in the end.
-"Apparently old Roddy died, so when you are out there tonight..... drink another for him. NOW WE CELEBRATE!!!" This last was met with a massive cheer and several hats and shoes were thrown into the air.

The crowd quickly dispersed, men were at this very moment taking over entire establishments and already beginning to order several pints of ale , mead and good foods.

Claus Rotstein stood still for a while, watching his soldiers properly happy for the first time in a long while. They earned this he thought.
And no stupid king was going to ruin this for them, alive or dead.
Not like they could anyway, the troops had scattered completely. It would take him hours now to rally them up. He just laughed hard at the last fact.
He watched some city watchmen over the street, he almost felt sorry for them the workload that just arrived..... almost.

Now it was time to celebrate, Claus entered one of the finer dining halls in the city, albeit just barging in bringing two heavily armed bodyguards and just sitting down at a table was not how the place ran things, they realized it would be foolish to try to stop them.
Especially the butler whom were in charge of showing people to their tables got to know this first hand, as he was about to stand in their way Claus just gave him a deathly glare, supported with a snarl from one of his men.

The three sat down, ordered fine food and drinks and had a jolly good time, so good in fact all the others left. This didn't deter Claus Rotstein, no, he ordered the music to play, the maids to serve their drinks and the servers to bring their foods.
He made sure the owners knew he wasn't poor by leaving a large sack of money at the table.... or they would at least know the noisy undesirable could pay for the feast. Since this was not in the least fine manners.

Claus cared not, he and his two good friends were having a jolly time, bringing in some bard from the street to get the party going. The normally fine dining establishment was turned into a dancing and drinking hall for the evening, much to their owners dismay.
Later after getting bored of the butlers constant whining, the now large gathering of people left for a drinking hall, where several squads of men were already in full swing, met their commander with a cheer as he entered the room, one fell to the floor snoring, already drunk.
Claus saw the same woman from earlier hard at work serving drinks, he smiled wryly at her and then threw her a gold coin.
She was clearly not amused.

The streets were a mayhem, mourning people were insulted by the constant cheers of hundreds of drunk men and women.

Claus knew he was in so much trouble later, but didn't care.