[@Zarkun][@Sanguine Rose]

Nolan looked down at Ria and for the first time that she knew him, his cold dead expression had morphed into one of complete confusion; his brow was arched and he just had a look in his eyes that tried to figure out the mental gymnastics that she went through to suggest putting him in any position of power. In any freelance work when hired by another group, it was typical to be under the orders of someone else as long it was within the agreed arrangement. Mercenaries ran a tight ship and hierarchy was the lifeblood within any respectable group, so to go as far as to suggest putting an outsider like Nolan in any position to command a platoon was absurd. It's also why one doesn't hire many freelance mercs at the same time; there were many egos. It would have led to everything falling into shambles, but it looked like things were set on that course anyway. 

The suspicious glare from that one soldier did not escape from Nolan's notice, which was returned with Nolan's own icy stare. Of course, the one that was leading this mission was the one that was distrustful of guild mages. It was not as if the tension between him and the guards was already palpable already. It was as if this mission was preordained to be an absolute shitshow. At this point, he would not even wonder how it was going to get worse because it just would. 

[color=00746b]"Well, we better play nice. That's why you brought me here anyway,"[/color] said Nolan to Ria before he walked over to the Corporal and the three other soldiers with that usual resting bitch face of his, casually glancing them over not to size them up, but to get a read of what he was working with. They had the kind of faces that screamed that they would be killed the moment things went wrong. His focus shifted back to the one in charge of the platoon.

[color=00746b]"Nolan, A-Class Mage of Rising Star. I look forward to working [i]with[/i] you,"[/color] said the young mage, placing heavy emphasis that he was working with the Corporal rather than working under him. He held his hand out for a handshake towards the Corporal who was no doubt giving him the evil eye at this point. It wasn't Nolan trying to make nice, it was a power move. If the corporal refused to shake his hand, then he looked like he was uncooperative in front of his superior and made Nolan look like the bigger man in the situation, but if he did shake the mage's hand then he shook the hand of someone that he hated very much and was forced to treat him as an equal. It was only a win-win situation for Nolan.