“Yeah, bringing the logs inside is a good idea,” Hudan agreed. “If we do this then it would be easy for our guards on the watchtowers to spot any bandits outside the walls since their field of view will remain clear.”
“Alright then,” Duvas gave a nod. “It will take time to bring all the logs inside, but it’s better to start early and to finish before the roads get safe to travel and risk of bandit attack increases. I will put workers on it today itself.” He continued, “Apart from that, I was also told that Darora has given all the pulleys to the dam construction site, so Yeden should be able to fix the second sluice gate by this evening with the help of some apprentices of the carpenter.”
“Good, good!” Kivamus nodded, as he saw Taniok and his apprentices climbing down the ladder on the watchtower.
“The frame of the first tower is complete, milord,” the old carpenter reported. “I’m going to start making the platform now. That should be done by evening, so tomorrow we can work on the parapets and the roof of the tower. So if there aren’t any major problems it should be completed by tomorrow evening.”
“That’s great,” Kivamus grinned. “Carry on then, we don’t have any time to waste.”
He looked at the guard captain. “We had decided that we would post some old and trusted villagers on top of the watchtower to keep an eye on the surroundings. Do you have any of them in mind for this?”
“Well, that was before we had decided to recruit women as guards,” Hudan replied, “but it’s also true that we are sending out hunting groups which are mostly made up of our guards, so we still can’t afford to put our guards on watch duty on the towers, whether men or women. As for your question, I had Feroy ask around in the village some time ago, and there are more than enough applicants for this. I will finalise a few of them after confirming them with Sir Duvas.”
“Of course, I’ll help you with that.” The majordomo looked at Kivamus. “Do you still want to pay them monthly wages?”
Kivamus nodded. “I do. These are the old men and women who can’t do any hard labour, so we are paying them anyway right now – even if it is in the form of food rations. For now even if we say we are paying them, nothing will change and we will just keep giving them the food grains. Eventually, when we start paying everyone in coins after a few weeks, then we can give a reasonable wage to them. If we don’t do this and stop giving the free meals, then most of them will just starve, since they don’t have any other way to earn money, apart from begging or stealing, and I don’t want that. But this way, by paying them a small amount, they will feel like they are valued in the village, which will make them want to work harder to spot any threats while using that coin to buy themselves food, making them feel self-sufficient.”
Hudan grinned. “The fact that this will leave our guards free to put them on duty at the gates is only a bonus.”
“It is,” Kivamus agreed. “Once we have more crossbows, we can even start giving these men some training in that, since they can use it just as well as the women guards do. Still, the first few weeks after the snow melts will be very dangerous for us, so we will somehow have to manage to post a woman guard with a crossbow on top of each tower. We simply don’t have enough of them to put them on duty in all three shifts, but we can still afford to do it at night when the danger of a raid is higher.”
“I’ll adjust the watch duty schedules for this,” Hudan replied. “Still, I wish we would get more crossbows soon. Or even more guards. With so many of them out on hunting trips, we are always short on guard these days.”
Kivamus thought about it. “You are not wrong. Apart from wherever we are posting our guards these days, we might also have to provide protection for Pydaso or other merchants when they go to Cinran. It’s true that the danger of bandit raids on the northern road is lower now, but it would still be a good idea to protect our valuable goods by making sure we provide the necessary protection ourselves. That means we’ll need more guards.”
“But we just can’t afford to take workers away from other tasks right now!” Duvas complained.
“I’m not saying that we need to do it right now,” Kivamus reassured him. “I realise that just as well as you, but hopefully we will start getting some immigrants soon, and at that point we can start to increase our number of guards proportionally.”
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“That… is a much better idea,” Duvas agreed, “but I don’t know if it would be a good idea to trust any immigrants enough to make them guards.”
Kivamus grinned. “Of course we are not going to hire the immigrants as our guards! We will still only hire those people who have been residents of Tiranat for many years, and to fill the job they are doing right now, we will put the immigrants in their place. This way we will still have trusted men or women as guards, while making sure the immigrants are utilised wherever they are needed.”
Hudan gave a smirk. “That’s a good idea, milord! I think…”
His words were interrupted with the sound of the northern gate opening close to them. Immediately, Hudan and the other guards took positions on all sides of him with their hands on the hilts of their swords, just in case. But the guards at gate duty knew what they were doing, and as the gates opened fully, Kivamus saw a group of four men wearing fur coats walking inside along with a pair of sledges, with butchered animals stacked on them. This must be the hunting group which had gone to the east in the hills.
However there was a surprising addition to their group. The last guard was also herding a pair of sheep ahead of him.
“Is that…?” Hudan muttered.
The leader of the hunting group nodded. “It is a sheep. They both are. We found them roaming between the hills in the east.”
“This is perfect!” Kivamus grinned. “The discovery that there are sheep living in those hills is even more important than the fact you brought two of them here. It’s still surprising that none of you found any sheep in those hills until winter was nearly over, but either way, this is very good!”
The guards in the hunting group beamed at the praise.
Kivamus continued, “Make sure to keep an eye out for more sheep in your future trips.” Looking at the fluffy animals, he added, “At this time they seem to have a lot of wool on their bodies, and if we can get enough of them we might be able to start making warm clothing for people. Alright, go on inside and take some good rest for a day before you leave again. You deserve it!”
The guards gave a quick bow at that, and started pulling the sledges ahead towards the manor.
Kivamus looked at the majordomo. “Shearing the sheep would be easy enough and can be done by any servant, but do we have anyone who can do any weaving from the wool?”
Duvas seemed to be thinking for a moment. “I don’t think so. Leah is very capable of sewing and mending clothes, but she is not a weaver.”
“That reminds me,” Hudan commented, “Tesyb – who’s the son of the southern foreman Pinoto – mentioned something you might like. A few weeks ago, he was telling me about his sister Isuha, who works in Cinran as a seamstress. Wouldn’t she know more about sewing?”
Kivamus gave a slow nod. “More than Leah, for sure.”
He knew that they would have to diversify their income sources soon, otherwise Tiranat would never get enough funds to become prosperous and secure just by selling coal. Manufacturing clothes was a relatively easy task compared to some others, as proved by the first industrial revolution in northern Europe and England. He had already been working on some ideas for making those machines, but he still needed someone with more practical knowledge of the task to finalise the designs. This seemed like a good opportunity.
He looked at the guard captain. “You know what, we need this girl in Tiranat.” Regretting that there was no way for instant communication in this world, he added, “Whenever we send guards to Cinran the next time, make sure to send Tesyb with them.”
“As you wish,” Hudan nodded. “Although I already send him whenever there is a high threat of an attack, since he is one of our best swordsmen.”
“Yeah, you had mentioned that.” Kivamus added, “Before that next trip, tell Tesyb to inform his sister that I am offering her a permanent job here. She will be paid at least as much as what she is making as a seamstress in Cinran, and this way she would be able to live closer to her family.”
“I’m not sure whether she would agree to move to a small village like ours after living for so long in a town,” Hudan said, “but I’ll let Tesyb know about it. The rest is up to him.”
“That’s the best we can do for now anyway,” Kivamus muttered, wishing he had a way to just put a new job posting on the internet that he was looking for someone with experience in weaving, like back in London. Coming to the present, he added, “With her expertise we might just be able to move on to the next stage of making our village prosperous.”
He took another look at the watchtower, where Taniok and his apprentice had already climbed to the top and were hammering a plank on the crest of the watchtower. “Alright, let’s return for now.”
~ Hyola ~
It was late afternoon of the second day of their journey, and Feroy, who was sitting next to her in the front wagon, had just told her that they should be able to see the palisade wall of Kirnos just after the next bend in the road. Initially, Yufim had wanted to sit next to her, so that he could challenge her to see who shot more bandits in case they were ambushed, but Feroy had immediately denied it, and said there should be one archer or crossbow-woman in each wagon. That meant Feroy and her were sitting on the seat of the first wagon, with two other guards sitting on the oil cloth which was covering their cargo kept on the wagon bed. In the second wagon Yufim, Tesyb and another two guards were sitting in a similar arrangement.
Looking around the road, it was easy to see that the snow had mostly melted this far west from the Arakin mountains. As they reached closer and closer to their destination, she saw many farmers working in the nearby fields on both sides of the road. The sun was also visible ahead of them, and while it didn’t hold much warmth, she felt glad to see that the harsh winter was nearly over now. Just a couple months ago at the quarry, she was bracing herself to see a cold corpse of another stonecutter next to her when she woke up in the morning in one of those huts, knowing that at least some of them wouldn’t be lucky enough to see the spring again. However, being in Tiranat, that possibility had become so remote, that she simply didn’t have to worry about seeing her friends from the quarry dead from cold or hunger anymore.
Before they reached the bend in the road, Feroy ordered two guards from each wagon to get off and hide in the nearby forests, assuring them that he didn’t plan to stay inside the walls for the night, and that he would return to pick them up tonight. It wasn’t a good idea to enter this village with eight guards in tow, which would make the local guards feel threatened and they might be asked to turn over their weapons. Feroy also told her to give the crossbow and the quiver of bolts to one of the guards staying outside, so nobody would get a glimpse of it inside Kirnos. Once that was done, they started moving again.
Soon, their wagon reached the bend in the road, and she saw her first glimpse of Kirnos. After living in a shabby hut at the limestone quarry for most of her life, any place which was better than the poor conditions at the quarry should have looked great to her, and probably should have made her want to live here. However, after living in Tiranat for the past couple of months, and seeing how much their baron took care of everyone, she knew that no other place would ever feel like home to her other than Tiranat.
It did help that Tiranat had taller walls to protect the village compared to Kirnos, even though they were both made of logs. While she hadn’t done anything to help in building the wall, for some reason, knowing that Tiranat had better and stronger walls made her proud of her home village.
Before long, they had reached the gates, and Feroy had to bribe the guards before they allowed them to enter. As the wooden gates opened, the small caravan of two wagons went rumbling inside the dirt roads of the coastal village. However, Feroy raised a hand to stop the wagon when he saw a location where there wasn’t anyone nearby.
Calling Tesyb over, the ex-mercenary ordered, “Lead the wagons to the marketplace and park them where we had done it last time, and stay put right there. I’ll join you all within an hour.”
Hyola was confused. “Why are you leaving? Shouldn’t we try to sell coal now?”
Feroy nodded. “I’ll try to ask around but most likely, only the baron has enough gold these days to buy it in enough quantity for us to sell all our stock. I also need to take care of a side mission first, and I’ll need to ask around about how it’s going with the young master. He can’t be pleased to see us here again, so it would be better to get a lay of the land first.”
Now Hyola was confused about what was the side mission, but before she thought to ask about it, Feroy had already jogged into a side alley and was gone from her sight before long. Tesyb took the seat next to her in the front wagon this time, and touching the whip to the horses, he began moving their caravan ahead.
Soon, they had reached the marketplace of Kirnos, which had a cobblestone ground – just like in the dream where she had seen herself eating some freshly roasted meat sticks along with Calubo. Looking ahead towards the west, she also got her first glimpse of the largest expanse of water she had ever seen in her life. She really wanted to walk to the coast and touch that water, but Feroy had told them all to stay put where they were, so they kept waiting for a while.
******
It had been close to an hour since the ex-mercenary had gone away, and by now she was starting to get worried if something had happened to him. To distract her mind, she asked about that side mission from Tesyb, who explained that Lord Kivamus wanted to get more immigrants, so they would get more workers in Tiranat. That’s why Feroy was spreading rumours about the good conditions there, while also helping out anyone who was sick with their unique medicine powder.
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As she thought about it, she suddenly saw a commotion near the southern entrance of the marketplace. Immediately, Tesyb looked at the guards. “That must be the bastard Lanidas, son of the Baron of Kirnos. Make sure to bow deeply to him when he reaches here.”
Hyola and the other guards nodded, while she wished Feroy would arrive soon, since none of the others would be able to deal with a noble, nor they had any experience in it. Just as she was thinking about it, she saw the man quickly jogging towards them, making her sigh in relief.
Reaching there, Feroy whispered, “The news is both good and bad. I’ve heard many rumours of some slaves leaving Kirnos to do some work in the fields, but never to be seen again. Most likely they must have started travelling east towards Tiranat. It will take time for them to arrive there on foot, but it means our tactic is working. These slaves were people living inside the walls, but as that news travels around, many people who must be living in nearby farms in the winter – likely very cold and starving by now – would also start moving east soon, including slaves and free people.”
Hyola wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to bring more people to Tiranat. What would that many people even do in that village? Did they even have enough food to feed all of them, or enough jobs so they can earn that food without begging? She had no idea, but she trusted Lord Kivamus, and he must know what he was doing. That meant she would do her best to support his orders.
She looked at the ex-mercenary. “Lord Kivamus wants both men and women to move to Tiranat, right?” Getting a nod in reply, she added, “Then I’ll help you with this. You are a man, so however well you talk to the locals, many local women here simply wouldn’t trust anything you say – especially those who are living alone. So when you are going to spread the news again, tell me what to say, and I’ll try to talk to them. This way we should be able to get some women to move to Tiranat as well.”
Feroy looked at her for a moment, before he nodded. “That’s a good idea.” Jerking his head towards the commotion in the marketplace, he added, “The bad news is that the young master doesn’t seem to be happy these days, as you can guess. His thugs – I mean his guards – are doing their best to extort as much coin as they can from the locals and the merchants these days, and nobody is happy about that.”
Soon, they saw a group of five men slowly riding on horses taking a look in the marketplace. Along with four guards wearing fur coats, the portly Lanidas was sitting on the leading horse in luxurious looking clothes with an ornately decorated sword on his side. As the group turned towards them, Lanidas raised a hand to stop his guards, before looking down at them.
Immediately, Feroy, Hyola and the other guards gave a deep bow to him, while Yufim needed to be bopped on the head once before he bowed as well.
“You…” the young master glared at Feroy. “So you are back again! Don’t think you can fool me again!” Then he looked at their group and his eyes got stuck at Hyola. “Oh, what is this I am seeing… a woman in a guard’s armor! Hah! None of you can be stupid enough to think that she can fight equally against a swordsman…”
Lanidas squinted at the ex-mercenary for a moment before his eyes went wide. “Oh, you must have brought her to keep you warm at night!” Then he nodded while grinning. “It was smart giving her a leather armour like you all, so nobody would suspect anything. Makes others think that she is a guard, while only you all know the truth.”
Hyola was only seeing red by now. How dare he say that she was only here to warm the bed of guards! Let this bastard meet her in single combat if he dared, and she would put him in his place easily enough! She had barely taken a step towards that bastard in her anger, before Tesyb held her arm in an iron grip and pulled her back. She gritted her teeth in frustration, but Tesyb looked her in the eyes and just shook his head.
That moment was enough to make her remember what she had been thinking of doing… This was a highborn noble, not just another bandit of Nokozal. Even her trying to threaten this bastard – no matter how much he deserved it – would make his guards kill her on the spot. She took a deep breath to calm her mind and bring her anger under control, instead of just throwing her dagger at this bastard’s neck.
This was how a commoner’s life was. Especially that of a woman. It wasn’t like she didn’t know it already. She had heard more than enough stories from others in Tiranat about how their previous baron treated everyone, including beating young maids and what not. She had to keep in mind that not every noble was kind and benevolent like Lord Kivamus. This world was full of bastards like this, who thought they were better than others just because they were born in a noble’s house. She exhaled again, although her fists were still clenched.
Thankfully, her reaction seemed to have gone unnoticed by the young master, who had been looking at Feroy until now, before he turned to leer at her, staring at her from her head to her toes, making her blood boil again.
Lanidas licked his lips. “Perhaps I should sample the goods as well…”
Hyola had never wanted to kill anyone more than she did right now. Her hand slowly inched towards the dagger hidden on her side, and as her fingers touched the cold metal, she took a deep breath and glared at the young bastard.
At the same time, Tesyb must have noticed her hand, and with an easy expertise, he moved a single step towards Hyola while making sure her leg got hit by his own, making her stumble and nearly fall to the ground.
She glared at him, as he supported her from her shoulder, like someone who was just trying to help someone up. Moving his head close to her ear, Tesyb hissed in a barely audible voice, “Calm down, you idiot! Or you will get all of us killed right here! Just ignore whatever that bastard says, it doesn’t harm you to listen to his nonsense. Be assured, no matter what he says, we won’t let him lay a hand on you! That’s a promise.”
With a single look at his eyes, she knew that he meant it. She took a deep breath, and gave a curt nod. This wasn’t the limestone quarry, and these men weren’t like the bandits who lived there, with every man looking out only for himself. Tesyb was a trusted guard of Lord Kivamus. As were the other guards. These were her partners and her comrades. She knew she could trust them.
She looked at Lanidas. Despite how much she wanted to kill this flabby excuse of a noble, a single glance behind him reminded her that his guards were right there, and if she even tried to kill this bastard, no matter how much he deserved it, that would be her last action in this world. There was another fact that Feroy had told her to give the crossbow to the guards staying outside the walls before they had entered inside Kirnos, so that nobody here would guess that they possessed something which was usually only found with the Duke’s army. That meant she only had a pair of daggers with her right now, and it would be difficult to kill this bastard with them anyway.
She exhaled once again. It wasn’t her responsibility to get rid of people like these from the world. The Goddess would be watching from the heavens, and she would make sure he got what he deserved. More importantly, trying to kill him would mean she would never be able to meet Calubo again, and that was something she could never accept.
It took all her will power and some more, but somehow, Hyola kept herself in control instead of killing this young master right where he stood. Or sat on the horse. Whatever.
Barely a few moments had passed while all these thoughts ran through her head. Right now she was being helped by Tesyb to stand up, when he spoke loudly, “Don’t just go falling down so easily. You are embarrassing us!”
Hyola knew he didn’t mean it, and was only trying to take attention away from her, so she kept her mouth shut instead of retorting back.
In the meantime, Feroy had taken a step towards the baron with his head bowed low. “She is still new, milord,” he spoke towards the young master. “It will be a long time before she becomes a capable guard like the rest of us.”
Huh… what? Hyola looked at the ex-mercenary in surprise, but kept her mouth shut for now. What was he even saying? It was like he wanted the young master to think that she wasn’t really a guard!
Lanidas looked at him again and laughed loudly. “You’re smarter than I thought, aren’t ya? Eh… it’s alright, you don’t need to admit it. I guess I’ll leave her with you for now.”
Feroy grinned while looking up at the young master. “You are so kind and understanding, milord!” He continued, “I am only here to make sure there is no shortage of coal in Kirnos in the winter. There shouldn’t be shortcomings in your comfort level at the manor because of the winter, you know?” He shrugged. “Us commoners can survive anywhere, no matter whether it is too cold or too hot, but for important nobles like you, who have the responsibility of taking care of such a big village like Kirnos, it is the duty of us commoners to make sure of your comfort.”
Lanidas stared at them for a moment before grinning. “At least you know your place! And yes, it is indeed your duty to make sure that your betters always remain comfortable. It’s a pity that my father’s decision of tripling the entry taxes for any merchant coming from outside Kirnos is still there, or I would have given you a discount on it.”
Hyola barely managed not to show surprise on her face. She knew that Feroy was basically an expert in manipulating people, but this was something else. She had been scared that angering the son of a baron in the last trip must mean that he must be ready to whip them or something this time, before she had gotten angry at what the young master had implied about her presence here, but somehow Feroy had managed to flatter the young master well enough that he was grinning and talking about giving them discounts! She still had to talk to the ex-mercenary later about why he didn’t make it completely clear that she really was a guard.
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Even so, she had been told by Feroy earlier that he had found out that the tripling of taxes was something that the young master had done by himself to earn some extra coin on the side, with his father likely not knowing anything about it. That meant right now Lanidas was lying through his teeth saying that it was his father’s decision.
She took a deep breath to calm herself so she wouldn’t get angry at this young bastard again. So this is how most nobles were! Even a nest of poisonous vipers could be trusted more than them!
Feroy smiled at the young master. “You are indeed so kind, milord. A discount on the taxes would have helped me a lot!”
Lanidas shrugged. “The baron’s decision is out of my hands, but you know what, I will still ask father to buy all your coal once again.”
“Oh, you are generous, milord!” Feroy grinned with a bow. “I’ll take all my full stock of coal to the manor immediately. I was thinking of selling it to some merchants here, but who cares about them when the nobility need it more! My first priority is to make sure that the manor doesn’t have any shortage of coal.”
The young master smirked. “That’s exactly how it should be.” Then he bent a little lower, while still sitting on his horse, and spoke in a low voice, “You’ve come from the east, right? Probably passing through Tiranat?” Once Feroy nodded, he asked, “What’s this I am hearing that some locals of Kirnos – especially some slaves – haven’t been seen in the past few days? I’ve heard rumours that they are looking to run away, maybe to that good-for-nothing village of Tiranat. You wouldn’t know anything about it would you?”
“I’m just a small merchant, milord,” Feroy gave a shrug. “I only stay at a place long enough to make my sales and buy goods for the next journey. Hmm… It must only be a wild rumour. Why would anyone from Kirnos – whether a free man or a slave – even think about running away from here? Especially to that pitiful village? They won’t find a more generous Lord than you anywhere else, will they?”
Lanidas laughed loudly at that, his pot belly jiggling along with him. “You are right, of course. It must only be a rumour that the slaves are escaping to Tiranat. But I still have heard reports of some slaves not turning up for duty, so maybe they are thinking of running away into the forests and hiding there, now that the snow has mostly melted.” He waved his hands. “Eh… No matter, they can’t run away from me. When my guards find them, oh… I will enjoy that day!” The young master sat straighter and looked around at the marketplace for a moment. “I’ll be leaving now. Make sure to get the coal to the manor by tonight.”
“Of course, milord,” Feroy bowed again. “I’ll leave for the manor immediately.”
The young master gave a nod, and spurred his horse and started moving ahead, his retinue of guards following close behind him.
Once all of them were out of earshot, Hyola looked at the ex-mercenary. “Why would the young master help us to sell the coal? I thought he would disallow it completely.”
Feroy gazed at the retreating back of the noble. “Don’t trust a single word coming out of his mouth. He knows very well that his father’s manor must be running low on coal by now, so they are going to buy it from us anyway, since we are the only source of coal in this place. Lanidas said that to make us grateful to him by letting us think that he is the reason we are able to sell our coal when it was going to happen anyway, since his Father is the one who decides whether to allow or disallow a sale in his manor.”
“Oh…” Tesyb muttered from nearby.
Feroy shrugged. “The important point is what will be the selling price of coal this time. It was easy to see in Lanidas’ eyes that he remembers very well the scolding he got from his father last time for making a deal to buy it at double the usual price, so this time he will do his best to make us sell at as low a price as we can in order to make up to his father for his mistake. Of course, I’ll still try to sell at a similar price as last time.”
“But I didn’t notice that in his expression at all…” Hyola wondered. “I thought he looked happy when talking to you…”
“That’s a highborn noble for you,” the ex-mercenary chuckled. “Their mouth says one thing, their face says another thing – if you know how to look for it – and often, they mean something completely different from both of those things. To recognise what it is, you need a good deal of experience dealing with all kinds of people to guess what that could be. It’s your first time dealing with a noble, so it would be difficult to find the hidden meaning behind their words, but you will learn in time.”
“I guess so…” Hyola muttered before glaring at Feroy, “But why didn’t you correct that bastard fully, when he said that I wasn’t really a guard?”
The ex-mercenary tilted his head. “I did say to him that you were a guard, although a new one – which you are.”
“Yeah, but when he said that he would leave me here with you, he didn’t seem to think that I was a guard at all! He thought that you were just pretending that I was a guard!”
Feroy exhaled. “Look around us, Hyola. We are not in Tiranat. What do you think would have happened if I kept insisting that you were a guard? At the very best he might have asked you to prove it by having a sword fighting duel with one of his guards, which you had no chance of winning. Even if you didn’t get heavily injured in that, it would only have proved to him that you are not a guard, since we don’t want anyone here to know about our crossbows, and that’s where you specialize.”
“Anyway, one thing you should learn from today is that you should never correct a noble’s assumptions.” He added, “Lord Kivamus is an exception, and he has told us many times to give him our true opinions, but if you are dealing with any other noble, no matter if you are right or wrong, you simply don’t go and correct him, or it will be your hide on the line. If you are right and he is wrong, he will lose face in front of his people and will somehow find a way to punish you for making him look bad, and if you are wrong, then he could simply put you in jail for lying to a noble. This is even more important when we are acting as merchants.”
Feroy shrugged, “That’s why I didn’t correct him even when he thought I was only a merchant passing through Tiranat. As long as he doesn’t think that we are residents from Tiranat itself, he is more likely to keep buying our coal, otherwise there might be some more calculations going in his mind before deciding to trade with someone belonging from a neighbouring barony like Tiranat, which is a natural competitor of Kirnos just by its presence there.”
“I didn’t think about any of that…” Hyola muttered.
“Like I said, you are new, and you’ll learn in time. For now we need to leave for the manor.” Feroy glanced at all of them for a moment before frowning. “Where the heck is Yufim?”
Everyone looked around for him, before Hyola pointed to a clothing shop nearby, just inside a small alley exiting the market place. “There, he is talking to a local woman.”
Feroy exhaled loudly. “Bring him here right now!”
“That moron… I told him to stay close to everyone!” Tesyb muttered, before jogging towards the blonde archer.
Hyola looked where Yufim was standing, and saw that the woman he was talking to seemed to be crying. What was wrong with this idiot? How could he make a woman cry within moments of meeting her?
Soon Tesyb had dragged the archer towards them.
Feroy frowned at him. “Can’t you follow even simple orders? I told you to stay together with others!”
“I didn’t even want to go!” Yufim protested, “but I saw that she was crying… So I had to go and ask her what’s wrong!” The archer grinned. “I think you’ll be interested in the news I found out.”
“We’ll see,” Feroy muttered. “What did you learn?”
“The woman… she was married until recently,” the archer explained, “she still is, actually. But a couple of months ago, her husband sold himself into slavery so he could pay off the debt he had taken to feed his family and buy that clothing shop from the baron, who obviously owns everything here.”
“At least the guy had the guts to sell himself into slavery instead of selling his wife or children,” Feroy commented. “Still, as sad as it is, this is quite a common occurrence everywhere. Let’s go.”
“Wait, wait!” Yufim held up a hand. “Hear me out first. The husband of the woman sold himself to someone who owns a big clay mine up in the north – a clay mine which is owned by someone named Torhan.”
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“Wait, what? That bastard Torhan actually owns the clay mine?” Feroy rubbed his small beard. “I thought he’d just be a bandit doing the dirty tasks of someone, like Nokozal was running the limestone quarry owned by Baron Zoricus.”
“No, no,” the archer shook his head. “I didn’t find out much else, because the woman herself doesn’t know that much, but according to her, it’s well-known that Torhan is a landowner, and owns those clay mines. I thought you’d have found out about it when you went to talk to the locals earlier…”
“Hmm…” Feroy muttered. “No, nobody took his name. I think the locals are way too scared of him.” He thought out loud, “But… they shouldn’t be that scared of a bandit living that far away when they are staying safe inside a walled village… Hmm… that means this Torhan guy is well connected to the baron… Earlier I thought that the local baron only tolerated the presence of this bandit so Kirnos could keep getting clay, which they can make into pottery and sell to the visiting ships to earn gold, but it seems like their relationship goes deeper than that. I’d ask around more, but I don’t think we’ll find out anything if people are that scared of him.”
The ex-mercenary looked around for a moment. “Well, that’s a worry for later. I’ll let Lord Kivamus know about it when we return to Tiranat. For now, let’s leave for the baron’s manor to sell the coal, and then we’ll exit Kirnos from the eastern gate. We’ll have to camp somewhere in the forests for tonight, then tomorrow morning we’ll circle around to the north to meet the merchant who smokes fishes up there. Tesyb, you remember the way to the manor of Baron Farodas, right?”
Tesyb gave a nod.
“Good. Lead both of the wagons there. I’ll join you at the manor once I have talked with this merchant and told him that we want to buy smoked fish from him outside these walls to avoid the taxes once again.”
“What if we reach the manor before you return?” Hyola asked. “I don’t think any of us can deal with the young master or the baron as well as you can.”
“In that case just wait outside the gates for me. I’ll try to be quick. Go now. It’s already evening, and we don’t have any time to waste if we want to find a good place to camp in the forests.”
With that, the ex-mercenary started walking with fast steps towards the northern gate, where he said the smoked-fish merchant had a storage barn, while Tesyb joined Hyola in the front wagon, and they started moving on the cobblestone road going south towards the baron’s manor.
*******
~ Kivamus ~
He was once again standing near the northern gate with some other people from the manor, while looking at the watchtower. It was evening right now, and today had been noticeably warmer than yesterday, so he felt that snow should start melting any day now. While that was good news in many ways, since they would be able to start sowing wheat and take the first step towards becoming self-sufficient in food, while merchants would also start coming and the manor would be able to start earning at least some revenue after that, it also meant that the threat of bandit attacks would become high once again. Soon, the guards might not even be able to continue hunting at the current rate by sending out four hunting groups, or they would be leaving the village basically defenceless due to a shortage of guards.
One good news was that out of the targeted twelve seed drills he had commissioned to be crafted by the carpenter, ten were already done, which meant it would only be a few more days before Darora could start working on the fourth crossbow. Hopefully they would be able to make a few more of them before any bandit raid happened. Of course it would be even better if no raid happened at all, but that was probably just wishful thinking on his part.
With the grain prices continuing to increase throughout the winter everywhere, as well as a general slowdown of economy because of everyone tightening their belts for the coming year – mainly because of a series of bad harvest in the past few years – it meant that many more people would have left their lives in the towns and cities, and would be roaming around the countryside or in the forests in search of easy money or food. That meant more and more bandits in the kingdom, especially in the southern parts of it where Tiranat was located.
Still, there probably wasn’t any point in worrying about it. All he could do was to try his best to make sure everyone in the village was safe and protected.
Before long, while he was still lost in his thoughts, he suddenly noticed that the constant sound of hammering on the watchtower had stopped.
Finally! The moment for which he had been waiting for nearly an hour seemed to have arrived! Looking towards the top of the tower, he saw Taniok leaning over the parapet, and grinning at him.
“That was the very last nail, milord!” the old carpenter boasted. “The first watch tower is complete now! Come on up. You should take a look from the top.”
Kivamus grinned at Taniok and raised a hand in acknowledgement. Before he climbed, he had to wait for a couple of workers to climb down the ladder, until eventually it was only the bald carpenter standing on top of the tower. Then just as he walked closer to the ladder, Hudan put up a hand to stop him from climbing.
“I’ll go first, milord,” the guard captain instructed. “I need to make sure all the ladder rungs are secure enough before you climb on it. If they can take my weight without breaking, then they shouldn’t pose any problem for you.”
Kivamus waved him on to go first, but the old carpenter frowned at the guard captain. “Don’t doubt my craftsmanship so easily, lad! I can guarantee that it won’t break. I always do my job properly!”
Hudan snorted as he began to climb. “So let me do my job properly as well. It’s my duty to verify it’s safe before I let Lord Kivamus come here.”
Taniok huffed at that but didn’t say anything.
Despite his gigantic frame, Hudan’s body was pure muscle, and he easily climbed over the ladder and reached the top of the tower, before he called out to him that it was safe.
Kivamus looked at Duvas for a moment, who gave him an encouraging nod, before he began to climb as well. This wasn’t the first construction project in the village, but it was still the highest one, and after the palisade walls, it was the most important thing to ensure the safety of the village. As he climbed, he was glad about his recent workouts and training with the guards in the past few months, since they had toned his body well enough that it wasn’t difficult to climb the ladder at all, unlike when he had just arrived in this world – when it might simply have been impossible with his flabby body.
It didn’t take him long until he reached near the top, when Hudan moved a hand towards him and helped him to the top. Walking towards the parapet in the front, he just gazed at the surroundings for a long minute. The snow cover was heavier outside the village walls, and the closest trees of the forest were more than five hundred meters away, giving them a clear line of sight for a good distance. The northern road going towards Cinran was easy to recognise despite the snow cover, because of the wagons and all the workers – who were digging fire clay, building the dam, and mining coal – who passed through this road, before it bent towards the east somewhere around eight hundred meters away from the village walls.
He looked all around the surroundings of the village, including the vast amount of land sitting empty there just waiting to be utilised, making him feel a whole lot of satisfaction for his plans in the future. When he used to live in London in his past life, the company where he worked was looking to expand its office space, because they had hired too many people in recent years and didn’t have enough space to put them to work. But because of the astronomical prices of acquiring that office space in the downtown area, the company had always kept postponing it. However, today, in this new world, the situation had completely reversed itself. While he was always short on workers and skilled craftsmen in Tiranat, he wasn’t going to be short on land for a long, long time.
He walked towards the opposite side of the platform on the watchtower, towards the village, and gazed downwards over the parapet. “Duvas, can you climb the ladder as well? You will love the view from here.”
The majordomo hesitated for a moment before he sighed. “Wouldn’t I love to… But I can’t, milord. Not anymore. My body just doesn’t have the strength these days for me to climb a ladder safely.”
Kivamus gave an understanding nod, before remembering that Duvas was pushing sixty years of age by now. While the majordomo was more than capable of climbing the stairs in the manor house, pulling his own body weight to climb a vertical ladder seemed to be too much for him. If only they had a lift here… But then again, if they had the technology to make a good quality lift here, then they probably wouldn’t even need to rely on a wooden watchtower to protect the village in the first place.
Walking back towards the northern side, he looked at the carpenter. “Well done, Taniok. You always make sure to come through on your promises.”
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The old carpenter rubbed his bald head in embarrassment. “I’m just doing my job, milord.”
Kivamus smiled. “That’s true, but you are still doing it quite well. Anyway, there is barely an hour of sunlight left today, so you won’t be able to do much before it gets dark, but from tomorrow you should start working on the watchtower near the south-west gate of the village. We open the village gates in these two directions every day, so it’s important that we can give them some added cover with a watchtower as soon as possible.”
“Of course,” the carpenter nodded. “I’ll still use the remaining daylight today to transfer more construction materials there.”
“That’s a good idea,” Kivamus praised.
Hudan glanced at him. “This watchtower is going to be very helpful for us. I have already shortlisted a few aged men from the village who have also been cleared by sir Duvas for their trustworthiness. Today, I’ll make a schedule for their watch duty, so that one of them is here all times of the day, in two of the three shifts every day.”
“Why only in two shifts?”
“Oh, in the night shift, when the danger of a raid is higher, I’ll put a woman guard with a crossbow up here. During the day, the older men will still serve as our extra eyes to give us a warning in case of an attack, but no bandit is foolish enough to attack a walled village in daytime, so most likely these older men are only going to warn us about wild beast attacks.” He added, “Those beasts aren’t going to attack us with a plan in advance, so we can deal with them even without a crossbow-woman up here. But if it’s a bandit raid, they will be smart enough to wait for the cover of the night before rushing towards the gates, which is why a trained crossbow-woman will be helpful to cut down their numbers before they reach the walls.”
“The bandits will still be able to see that we have a watchtower here while staying in the forest cover,” Kivamus commented, “so they wouldn’t be stupid enough to attack from this direction…”
“Of course,” the guard captain nodded. “If an attack happens before all the watchtowers are completed, it will likely happen from a direction where we don’t have a tower. Hopefully this situation will only last a few weeks until all the towers are built, but after that, from wherever a raid happens – especially in the night – these women will be able to take out a few bandits easily enough. It will be even more effective for the first few months, since the bandits wouldn’t expect that we have something like a crossbow, which is usually only found in Fort Aragosa with the Duke’s army.” Hudan added, “I’ll also make sure the women guards do some target practice from up here, since they only have experience of shooting from a level ground until now.”
“True enough,” Kivamus agreed. “Order the fletcher to make a few hundred more bolts, so there is no shortage of them for practice. Keep the iron tipped ones in reserve, for use in case of a real attack, but for regular target practice, the women shouldn’t hesitate in using bolts.”
Hudan nodded. “We already have a small stockpile of bolts but I’ll give another order to the fletcher for this. When we have enough of them, we can even put a quiver or two up here all the time, so that a guard doesn’t have to worry about running out of bolts in case of a raid.”
“That’s a good idea,” Kivamus said. “Those fully wooden bolts don’t cost us anything apart from the wages of the fletcher, so they can use it freely enough.” Thinking more about it, he added, “From tomorrow, you should also start training those older watchmen in the usage of crossbows. Unlike the women guards, they won’t be allowed to take away the crossbow to their homes, but in case we aren’t able to send a trained female guard to help them in shooting, or during the daytime when they are here alone and a wild beast attacks us, they should still be able to support our swordsmen from up here using the crossbow.”
“I was already thinking of that,” Hudan replied. “I’ll make sure they have a good idea of how to use them.”
“One thing is still bugging me though,” Kivamus muttered. “Will these older men even be able to climb the ladder safely? Duvas didn’t even want to try it.”
Hudan chuckled. “There is no worry about that. I am only shortlisting those men who still look strong enough to climb a ladder. That’s why I only said that it’s a shortlist for now, since I’ll finalise them only after they have proven that they can climb on this watchtower by themselves. I’ll take those tests tomorrow, and then I’ll select the best ones as the watchmen.”
“Good, good,” Kivamus smiled, grateful that the guard captain had thought of everything.
Soon, he began to climb down from the watchtower along with the other two men. Taniok quickly took his leave along with his apprentices and began using a few hand carts, a couple of wheelbarrows as well as the log-mover which was being pulled by a pair of horses, to start moving the leftover construction material to the southwestern gate. Hudan was talking with the guards on gate duty, to put one of them up on the watchtower for tonight until he brought the older men to replace them from tomorrow.
In the meantime Kivamus looked at the majordomo. “Was Yeden able to install the second sluice gate in the dam yesterday?”
“Uh… no. There were some problems with the fitting,” Duvas shook his head. “The wooden panels of the sluice gate were a little bigger than they should have been, since one of the new apprentices of Darora hadn’t measured it properly. So they had to bring them back from the construction site yesterday, and today Darora will modify them himself to make sure they fit. I think it should still be done by this evening.” He added, “One good thing is that Yeden, the foreman of the dam site, didn’t waste any time and used those workers who were supposed to install the gate to complete more of the dam structure. I think it should only take another two or three days at most until the dam is fully completed.”
“That’s really good!” Kivamus grinned. “Snow would start melting any time now, so the completion of the dam by then would help a lot to catch all the meltwater. What about the last mineshaft? Is it cleared of water?”
“Hmm… It should be done by today, I think.” Duvas continued, “Should we bring the water wheel back to the village after that? Since it will be some time before we can install it in front of the dam.”
“No, tell the workers to send it to the dam when all the water has been removed. There is no point in bringing it to the village and taking it back in the east to the dam in a few days. It’s not like there is a risk of anyone stealing the waterwheel or something. Just send it there, and I’ll go with Darora to the dam in a few days after he has built all the seed drills, to talk about how we can install the water wheel there and if there are any modifications needed before that.”
“I’ll let them know.” The majordomo looked at the retreating workers for a moment. “What do you want to do about the labourers who are digging clay? I think they have already dug enough of it that we should be able to complete the dam with it without them digging more clay.”
“They are the former limestone cutters, right?” Without waiting for a reply, Kivamus added, “There is no point in sending them to mine coal, since they have no experience in it.” He thought about it for a moment, before he continued, “There are around two dozen of them working there. From tomorrow, leave half a dozen of them to continue to dig clay, and send the rest of them to the south to make the fields ready for sowing by removing small stones and such. That doesn’t take any specialised skill so they can do it just as well as anyone. The clay we will slowly gather even at that lower rate of digging is going to be helpful to us in the future.”
Duvas nodded. “Pinoto has more than enough experience in farming and will guide them through it. That being said, I have already started sending more and more labourers to mine coal as we approached the targeted area of forest clearing, and we just reached that target as well but there are still a lot of them working there, like you wanted. Just over a hundred as of today, I think, including women. I think we should have around a week to ten days before most of the snow has melted, so do you want me to send them to mine coal as well?”
“Hmm… we do need as much coal as we can mine to sell and pay the tax with that income, but I am worried that if enough immigrants and refugees come here, we might get a food shortage once again later this year.”
After thinking about it for a while, Kivamus began, “Leave around fifty labourers in the south to continue clearing the forests, including the farmers who came here from Kirnos, and send the remaining workers to mine coal. That should still give us around forty workers who have good experience in cutting trees as well as around a dozen farmers who can help in the simpler tasks. In fact, tell Pinoto to select the best performers among the workers who have been cutting trees in the past few months and only keep them in the south. These people should keep cutting trees and removing them from the fields right until the moment we have completed sowing the seeds. This should help to maximise the area we are farming.”
“That’s… a good idea.” The majordomo added, “It might mean we might become even more short on seeds than we already are, but I guess we’ll have to deal with it somehow, especially if the merchants bring some wheat right after the snow has melted.”
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“That would be helpful for sure.” Kivamus looked at the guard captain and the other guards. “Come on, let’s return now.”
Hudan nodded, and with that they started trudging back over the snow covered ground towards the manor.
******
~ Joric ~
It had been four days since he had been sent to this desolate road in the middle of nowhere along with the other bandits. Four damned days! But there was still no sight of any caravan coming or going! Well, he could admit that they had reached this location after dark on the first day, so perhaps he shouldn’t be counting that day here, but damn it! What was he supposed to do if these bastards really told him to fight some guards of a caravan! Every passing day was making him more and more nervous that it would be his last day in this world…
He looked around himself for a moment. It was approaching evening by now, and the whole day he and the other bandits had been hiding behind some trees some distance away from the dirt road going east from Kirnos. While the snow had fully melted here – which meant it was actually possible to see where the road was instead of everything just being covered by snow – it also meant that the ground had become muddy from the melted snow, and there wasn’t a clean or dry place to sit anywhere. Or even to sleep at night.
He had certainly become more than habitual of getting his whole body dirty and covered by mud after mining clay everyday in the past few months, and knew he would probably never see the dry and comfortable indoors of his shop and home. But still… At least Torhan’s compound had covered huts for the slaves to sleep, which remained dry inside, but here, he just had to try to sleep by sitting next to a tree, while resting his back on the rough bark. After doing the same thing for three nights, and that was after walking for nearly two days on foot, he already felt more exhausted than he had ever been in his life.
Apart from him, there were eight bandits here in total, including the giant Nokozal and his lackey, along with the bald and brawny deputy of Torhan. Most of them were hiding away from the road behind one tree or another, while one of them was always some distance away in the west, staying close to the road to keep an eye in case a caravan was approaching. Not that anything had approached here yet. Nothing at all! In fact, they were far enough away from the village of Kirnos that there weren’t even any farmers or their farms in sight anywhere. But that was something that the deputy had decided himself, so that nobody would be nearby when they eventually attacked a caravan and looted it.
Thinking about Kirnos reminded him that when their group was looking for a good place for an ambush, as they travelled with two men on each horses, while he had walked all the way from the clay mine, they had passed not far away from the palisade walls of Kirnos, and the deputy had sent one of the bandits inside the village for a few hours, probably to get some information about any visiting caravans.
While near the walls, Joric had barely controlled himself instead of running away to his home. Knowing that his adorable daughter and his beautiful wife were barely a ten minute walk away from him and still being unable to go and meet them had been gut-wrenching for him. The other bandits had gotten down from their horses to give them some rest while they waited for that bandit to return, and had walked towards a copse of trees.
At that time he had started walking slower than others, hoping no one would notice and if he got enough distance from others he would be able to run away, but one of the bandits had seen him lagging behind, and quickly used the pommel of his sword to clobber his head. The splitting headache and the temporary blindness he had gotten from that, along with a strict warning that the next time they would just cut an arm from him had cowed him down thoroughly.
Of course, the bandits had also tied his hands together after that to make it difficult for him to run away, but Joric hadn’t found the courage to try it again anyway. Not that he didn’t want to, but he knew that if he was caught trying to run away again, he really would become an amputee, and his utility as a slave would diminish sharply at the clay mine. That would mean the penny pinching bastard Torhan might just decide that the cost of feeding him was more than what he gained from his work, so the day he returned to the clay mine again might just become the last day for him in this world. So he had tried to control his urge to try running away again, and kept following the bandits with his heart shattered in pieces while thinking about his family.
Eventually that bandit had returned from Kirnos with a grin, and told something in hushed voices to the deputy and the giant. They had started travelling east once again after that, and the deputy had found a good and desolate place just after a bend in the road to make an ambush.
