[h2]Arkadios[/h2]

"I believe, on top of being a Prince, he is a Field Marshall," Arkadios said, though without sounding completely certain about himself.

As it happened, Arkadios was right.  When Mitteland was established as a Kingdom within the Empire, just over 200 years ago, it had no established aristocracy and the people who were entitled were, for the most part its military leaders.  While this was initially a source of contempt for the Kingdom's established neighbours, over the following century, the Mittelandische Noble classes began to see this as a source of pride.  They were not some decadent aristocracy, their class existed because of their martial brilliance.  With the Haltians bordering them to the West, the Mittelanders began to see themselves as the guardians of humanity against another Elgafolk resurgence (sometimes referring to themselves as the 'Haltischewacht', a name which had persisted to this day though the animosity towards their Western neighbours had long since faded).  The Mittelandische nobility (the men, at any rate), were often austere soldiers who studied the art of war as if it were a holy text.  The Upper Echelons of the Mittelandische military were stacked with nobles and their sons.  It was no meritocracy, but at least they took the job seriously.  Prince Maximilian was a Field Marshall, one possibly promoted before his time, but that was what was expected of a Prince in this country.

The story about Carter drew a grunt from Arkadios, he folded his arms, "There was always something a bit off about that man.  He was at the meeting with Colonel Swaigers," he paused, sighed, rubbed his temple, before continuing in his usual, quiet, collected tone, "I suppose he had been planning this for a while.  You can't take the gold while we were airborne and he must have realised it was likely to get unloaded and moved to a more secure location over the next few days. This was his best opportunity to steal what part of the reserve he could carry.  I suppose this is the problem of the group we arrived with; it is a collection of all manner of people who fled Inbur ahead of the Communalists.  We do not know the reasons they all fled and we don't have long-established relationships to judge trustworthiness with."