LlNamun, saat kedua gerobak mereka berbelok di tikungan terakhir jalan hutan, Joric melihat hamparan luas ruang kosong di depan mereka yang berakhir di sebuah tembok tinggi di kejauhan. Untuk sesaat, ia bahkan mengira para penjaga telah berbohong kepadanya bahwa mereka berasal dari Tiranat dan entah bagaimana membawanya ke suatu tempat lain yang tak dikenal—bukan berarti ada permukiman besar lain di wilayah Reslinor Selatan ini, tetapi sulit dipercaya bahwa inilah desa miskin yang konon bahkan tidak dikelilingi tembok.Tapi kalau matanya tidak berbohong, ada tembok palisade kokoh yang membentang di kedua sisinya—jauh lebih tinggi daripada tembok-tembok di sekitar Kirnos—dan bahkan ada menara pengawas yang tinggi tepat di dalam tembok. Bahkan Kirnos pun tidak memilikinya! Ia bahkan melihat seorang pria tua yang tampak waspada sedang menyipitkan mata ke arah kereta-kereta dari atas menara, dengan busur yang tampak aneh di tangannya.Tak lama kemudian, mereka berhenti di dekat gerbang kayu yang kokoh, dan salah satu penjaga pergi untuk berbicara dengan penjaga gerbang melalui lubang intip kecil di dinding. Ia menduga gerobak-gerobak itu juga harus memberi suap di sini, seperti yang biasa dilakukan saat memasuki Kirnos, tetapi anehnya, hal seperti itu tidak terjadi. Seketika, sepasang penjaga bermantel bulu hangat—yang tampak siap dan siaga untuk melindungi desa asal mereka dari bahaya apa pun—telah membuka gerbang dan kedua gerobak mereka pun masuk.Saat itu Joric harus bertanya kepada seorang penjaga untuk memastikan bahwa ini memang Tiranat, dan ia memang mengatakan demikian, tetapi tetap saja sulit untuk benar-benar mempercayainya. Tempat ini sama sekali tidak tampak seperti permukiman kumuh dan tak berbenteng dengan penjaga-penjaga yang malas dan korup seperti dugaannya. Apakah ini benar-benar Tiranat?Begitu mereka melewati gerbang, masih ada ruang kosong di depan gubuk-gubuk pertama desa, yang tampak bobrok seperti yang ia duga dari desa miskin seperti Tiranat. Saat mereka berpindah-pindah di antara gubuk-gubuk itu, ia menjulurkan lehernya ke sana kemari, tetapi hampir tidak melihat siapa pun di sana. Apakah desa itu sekarang kosong? Ia telah bertanya kepada para penjaga tentang hal itu, tetapi mereka menertawakannya dan mengatakan bahwa penduduk desa sekarang tinggal di sebuah rumah yang sangat panjang, yang begitu besar sehingga lebih dari seratus orang dapat tinggal di sana dengan mudah. Rasanya agak sulit dipercaya, tetapi ia menerima bahwa para penjaga mungkin ingin membanggakan desa mereka sendiri.
Eventually, the group of slaves which had been following behind them had been told to wait outside what turned out to be another walled compound, but he had been taken inside along with the other guards. By this point he had been fearing that his end was near and the baron would immediately order him to be executed. However, the silver haired man who came out from the manor house ahead of them was… quite young – younger than even the young master Lanidas who was a greedy and lecherous wastrel at best. Then how could this young man named Kivamus possibly rule over a whole village? Huh… maybe he was also like Lanidas, and that’s why the local people had run away from the village.
However, the young baron had barely looked towards him while he talked with Feroy and a local guard who was nearly as big as Nokozal, along with another bald older man. That was weird though. Why would a baron come out just to meet a few guards returning from a journey? Baron Farodas would never do it in Kirnos just to meet some lowly guards. Before the young baron had sent them to eat, he had talked with the injured guards and told them that they would be taken care of, while also reassuring the guard who had lost his arm that his family would never go hungry in return for the service he had already provided to Tiranat. That… was unexpected. If such a thing had happened in Kirnos, their guard captain would have just gotten rid of the amputee guard and hired another one, instead of telling him that even his family would be taken care of!
As they had talked Joric’s heart had kept beating faster and faster, fearing once again that his end was coming near, but before long, Feroy had gone out to tell the escaped slaves where they would live, before entering the manor house to talk with the baron for a long time. In the meantime he had been told that a guard named Tesyb would be keeping an eye on him. He had been wondering where to go, when Tesyb had brought him to a wooden building called the servants’ hall, where he had been given warm, freshly baked bread along with some warm porridge and some newly roasted meat. Joric’s eyes had teared up seeing such a luxurious meal, after eating weeks old stale bread with some water in Torhan’s clay mine.
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However, Tesyb had told him to enjoy it, since he would also be living with the escaped slaves from tonight after another interrogation, and would have to earn his meals from tomorrow, probably by working as a coal miner or a woodcutter. Joric would have balked hearing about that a few months ago, but after working in a clay mine for the last few months, his body was already used to hard work. Anyway, he knew that he was a slave, and would remain so for the next three decades, so he had to work hard until then anyway. Now that this young baron was his owner from today, he had to follow their orders, even if it meant working in the coal mines.
As he had begun eating the delicious food, he had looked around to familiarise himself with his new surroundings. A few maids had been bringing more fresh bread for anyone who needed it. No, for anyone who wanted it. Some other off-duty guards who had been sitting nearby were asking about the journey and wondering how the guards had defeated the bandit group. He had even found out that the tall redhead wasn’t the only female guard in this village. For some reason, this baron had hired nearly a dozen women as guards, and many of them had been sitting near the male guards while eating, like they all were long time friends, without the guards resorting to any lechery. It was weird to see that after seeing the bandits at the clay mine doing exactly that with the female slaves. If anything, the whole servants’ hall’s atmosphere felt like it was the home of a happy, extended family which was meeting after a long time and enjoying their time together. Everything in this village felt… unusual, to say the least.
Joric had been told to rest after that, before he had seen the guards getting out of the servants hall one by one to go to some event. Being curious about it, he had asked for permission to come, and one of the guards had told him to follow along. So he had followed the guards to an empty area just outside the gates of the baron’s manor, where a small crowd of villagers was already gathered. That was where he was standing right now.
While the crowd wasn’t that big, there were still enough people here that it looked like the village wasn’t really abandoned, after all. In fact, he overheard some of the villagers telling about their day to their friends and families. Most of them seemed to have returned from the coal mines, as expected, while some of them had been cutting trees to clear the forests for some reason.Beberapa orang lainnya konon sedang mengerjakan menara pengawas baru, sementara yang lain tampaknya sedang membangun sesuatu yang disebut bendungan, istilah baru untuk Joric. Beberapa dari mereka sedang membuat semacam kubus serbuk gergaji, sementara ada seorang perempuan yang sedang membuat… kertas? Tapi kenapa? Selain mereka, ada juga yang sedang magang sebagai tukang kayu, pandai besi, dan bahkan pembuat anak panah. Mendengar begitu banyak peluang kerja cukup mengejutkannya. Bukankah ini seharusnya hanya desa pertambangan batu bara? Tak ada satu pun hal tentang desa ini yang masuk akal baginya.Untuk saat ini, ia berdiri di samping para penjaga, yang telah membuat lingkaran longgar di sekeliling sepasang bangku yang disambung menjadi panggung tinggi tepat di luar gerbang. Kerumunan penduduk desa berdiri di luar lingkaran itu, dan tampak menunggu dengan penuh harap. Apa yang akan terjadi di sini?Ia menunggu di sana sebentar, menyadari bahwa hari sudah senja, meskipun matahari belum terbenam, yang berarti masih ada cukup cahaya untuk melihat sekeliling dengan jelas. Tak lama kemudian, ia melihat Baron Tiranat berambut perak berjalan menuju gerbang, diikuti oleh pengawal raksasa itu dan juga pria tua itu. Tak lama kemudian, Joric terkejut melihat sang baron naik ke bangku dan mulai memberikan pidato untuk memuji kerja keras dan pengorbanan para pengawal yang telah pergi ke Kirnos. Bagaimana mungkin? Bagaimana mungkin seorang bangsawan memuji rakyat jelata? Hal seperti itu tidak akan pernah terjadi di Kirnos! Hah! Sulit membayangkan tuan muda memuji pengawalnya!Pidato yang merinci bagaimana para penjaga berhasil mengalahkan dan membunuh sekelompok bandit yang kuat tidak berlangsung lama, dan semua penjaga, dan yang mengejutkan, bahkan penduduk desa yang berkumpul, bertepuk tangan dan bersorak keras untuk sang baron setelahnya. Aneh juga melihatnya. Bagaimana penduduk desa bisa begitu mendukung seorang bangsawan? Setahu dia, semua bangsawan adalah bajingan rakus yang hanya memikirkan diri sendiri, dan tidak peduli dengan rakyat jelata. Lalu bagaimana mungkin penduduk desa bersorak untuk seorang tiran seperti itu…? Tidak ada yang masuk akal di sini!Sumber konten ini adalah NoveI(F)ire.net
When the crowd had calmed down a little, the baron started something else which surprised him once again. The older man next to him offered a small piece of metal tied around a thin rope to the baron, who called out the names of the guards who had gone on the trip to Kirnos. Joric couldn’t understand any reason for this, so he tapped the shoulder of a guard standing nearby.
“What’s the baron doing? What is that square piece of metal for?”
The guard gazed at him from up to down for a moment. “Ya look like you’re new here. The baron is givin’ medals to the guards for their bravery. He is giving the Baron’s Medal of Sacrifice to the three guards who got injured in the line of duty, while the rest ‘f the five guards will get Baron’s Medal of Courage for risking their lives for the village.”
Joric frowned while glancing at the baron putting a medal around the neck of another guard. He wasn’t really sure what these medals were meant to do, but he had heard from someone in the past that there were some prizes given by the Count and the Duke to their knights and the people who had pleased them, although they were supposedly made of gold and silver. He looked at the guard again with confusion. “But what’s the point of these medals anyway? It’s not even made of gold!”
The guard glared at him. “Are ya kidding me? Wearing a medal marks you as someone who is the best of the best! All the guards hope to get a medal from the baron one day! Of course, those who get a medal also get around a month’s wages as a bonus, not that they would even need it anymore…” He grinned. “All they need to do is to take a seat in an alehouse or tavern and start telling their stories to get enough free meals and ale for themselves for a long, long time.”
Joric nodded slowly. As a former merchant, he could certainly understand that getting some extra gold would be a good incentive for any guard to do better, but he still couldn’t really understand the charm of getting a medal.
As the baron called out the name of another guard before putting a medal around his neck, all the guards started cheering loudly for him, including the man standing next to him.
The guard who had got a medal gave a huge grin and jumped down from the bench, when the man standing next to Joric looked at him from up to down. “Ya know what? Ya look like you got some good muscles on ya. Why don’t ya join up as a guard? I’m not sure ’bout it, but I think even the former slaves can join up as a guard.”
“Haha, no, no…” Joric shook his head vehemently. “I feel like I’d wet my pants whenever I see a man with a sword running towards me. Fighting is not for me.” Suddenly, his brain realized something the guard had said which didn’t make sense. “Wait! What do you mean by the former slaves? Did the baron free some of his slaves recently?”
The guard looked at him like he was a naive child. “Oh, I forgot you’re new here. There is no slavery allowed in Tiranat.”
Joric nodded, remembering how nobles were always so greedy. “So the baron keeps all the slaves in the village for himself? He doesn’t even allow the local merchants and craftsmen to own slaves?”
The guard laughed loudly. “No, I meant there are no slaves in Tiranat at all. Even Lord Kivamus doesn’t own any slaves, and he has told everyone clearly that he will punish anyone who tries to buy, trade or own a human being. Believe it or not, everyone is free here, and everyone earns a wage… or at least some food in return for their work. Did you see that tall redhead Hyola who just got a Baron’s Medal of Courage? She used to be a slave working under that bandit Nokozal in the past. But now she is a regular guard here and respected by everyone for her skills with a crossbow.”
“Wait, what? Hyola used to be a slave?” Joric couldn’t even think about how the rugged woman could have been owned by Nokozal. “I never could have imagined it…”
“Hah…” the guard chuckled. “You have a lot to learn about life in Tiranat.” Newest update provided by n0velfire.net
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“But… but what if someone has a big debt to pay? Wouldn’t the baron have to take the person as a slave in that case?”
The guard shrugged. “I’m way too low in the food chain to know all the details, but all I know is that the baron will never allow slavery here. I think if someone had a big enough debt, they would just have to pay for it by working harder. And not by selling themselves or their children.”
Joric was thinking about how difficult life had been for him in the past few months, so he tried to imagine how pleasant life could have been here in Tiranat. He wished he had been born in this village…
“You better not wish that,” the guard retorted, making Joric realise that he had spoken it out loud. “Life was never easy for us people before Lord Kivamus arrived here. It hasn’t even been half a year since then, but he has already changed this village in so many ways, making it better than it ever was.”
“I can see that…” Joric muttered, while he thought about the implications of what he had just found out.
The guard turned around to cheer for the next one who was going to get a medal, while Joric’s mind was working furiously. If there were no slaves allowed in this village, did that mean he was also a free man? Until now he had been thinking that his ownership would just be transferred to this baron now, instead of Torhan, and he would still have to complete his duty for the coming three decades before he got free and got a chance to see his family. But now…? Assuming he really was free, all kinds of possibilities were open to him now. If he didn’t have to live here as a slave, could he return to his family once again?
No, that would never work. The guards in Kirnos would hand him over to Torhan immediately. Perhaps he could just visit his home secretly to meet them? What if he found a way to bring his family here? He hadn’t even been here for a day, but he could already tell that life in this village was going to be a lot better for his family in so many ways.
He had to think more about this and soon. If Nokozal had realised that he had run away at the beginning of the fight, and told Torhan about that, what if that bastard took it out on his family? No, the Baron of Kirnos was as greedy as any other noble, but he was still fair – unlike his son. So Lord Farodas wouldn’t allow Torhan to take his family as slaves in exchange, now that he had escaped. Right? Right…?
No! He had to stop thinking about the bad outcomes, and plan a way to help his family. Maybe he could even petition Lord Kivamus for his help? No, that would be asking too much, not that the baron would ever agree to that anyway. If the baron had really made him a free man here, that was already more than he could ever have wished. He didn’t even remember when was the last time he felt so much hope for getting to live a good life in the future, maybe even with his family right next to him in this unusual village.
As he watched the next guard climb on the bench to get a medal, his mind just couldn’t stop working, wishing he would find a way to reunite with his family. This time… in Tiranat.
******
~ Levalas ~
~ Count Ebirtas’ Mansion, Cinran ~
Levalas gratefully took the bucket of water which a maid had just pulled out of the well, and thanked her. Pouring some water from the bucket onto his grimy hands, he washed them as well as he could, before using some water to wash his face as well. Working as a groom for the horses was dirty work, and he had to try to make himself a little more presentable before he would be allowed to enter the Count’s mansion to visit that fat bastard Zoricus.
The last few months of the winter had been mostly peaceful for him, with Zoricus only ordering him to take the usual monthly kickbacks from the merchants of the town, instead of ordering him to do another assassination or something. Some of the merchants had even begged him to give them some extra time just yesterday, claiming that they were barely able to sell anything these days in the marketplace, but as much as he disliked acting like an attack dog of the fat bastard, it’s not like he had any other choice of work available for him. Unless he found a more powerful benefactor whom the fat bastard couldn’t touch, Zoricus would make sure he never got out of his clutches, one way or another.
So Levalas had simply shrugged and told them frankly that unless they gave the monthly bribes to the baron, Zoricus would just send someone to kidnap a member of the merchant family for a ransom. Simply put, Zoricus would get his money, one way or another, so it was better if the merchant just gave it peacefully. That being said, he had already handed over all of this month’s kickbacks from the merchants to the fat bastard just yesterday, so he didn’t know why he had been called to see the baron once again.
He stood up straight and after drying his hands and face with a somewhat clean cloth he found nearby, he turned around and started walking towards the mansion of the Count of Cinran. The sun had already dipped below the walls of the mansion, nearly ready to set by now, which meant the fat bastard should have been busy fulfilling his insatiable appetite of anything greasy that he could find, instead of calling Levalas to meet him at this hour. That’s why he was getting a foreboding feeling that this time it wouldn’t be something pleasant which the baron would ask from him.
Levalas wished there was a way for him to escape this pitiful life, having had more than enough of doing the dirty work of the gluttonous baron. That was why he had even dared to take an assassination mission on the new baron of Tiranat before the winter, not that he had any idea at the time that Baron Kivamus was actually a Ralokaar, a son of the Duke. But despite failing in it, he had still continued to serve Zoricus after that – even with his heart saying that if he continued on this path the Goddess would make sure he wound end up in the deepest pits of hell – just because he still hoped that one day he would be able to scrounge up enough coin to buy a passage on a ship going far away from Cilaria… and yet, here he was, even today. It was like the goddess didn’t want him to leave Southern Reslinor at all!
Soon, he reached the outer door of the elaborate mansion, and thankfully he didn’t have to introduce himself, since the guards recognised him by now as a regular visitor to Baron Zoricus. Giving the guards a nod of thanks, he walked through the wooden floored corridor, with paintings hanging on both sides, until he reached the door he was dreading. Another pair of guards standing there gave him entry after verifying who he was, and he entered the room.
As expected, Zoricus had a mountainload of food kept in front of him on the table, with the man busy eating with both of his hands, one after another. Like the food would fly away if he wasted time in stuffing it into his mouth! A servant was standing nearby with a carafe of wine, ready to fill the wine glass on the table when it emptied. The other servants and grooms in the mansion, including Levalas himself had never eaten such a luxurious meal – knowing they were lowly commoners – and yet, seeing this bastard eat such a huge amount of food without a worry, when some people inside Cinran were nearly starving these days was making him angry. The fact that he hadn’t eaten anything since the morning wasn’t helping either.
The baron glanced at him, and gestured to him to wait with a hand dripping with gravy, as he chewed on a slice of delicious looking meat. Levalas had to wait for quite a while, before Zoricus began with a smirk, “You are on time for once, Levalo.”
Levalas simmered inside on hearing himself being called by the commoner’s name Levalo, but kept his mouth shut for now. The baron still held all the power here, and saying something to anger the fat bastard wouldn’t end well for him.
“Now listen, the Count is going to send his tax collector with some knights and guards to Tiranat in a day or two. You will join the group as a guard as well.” Just as Levalas opened his mouth to protest, Zoricus lifted his hand to stop him. “Don’t worry, I’ve talked with the knight commander,” he added with a smirk, “and he gratefully agreed that I could send one of my guards to ease the load on his men. That will be you.”
Levalas was already getting a bad feeling about this, but waited for the baron to finish.
Zoricus smiled dangerously, and pointed at him. “You probably understand what you need to do already, but I’ll still spell it out for you. Make sure that this wannabe baron of that coal mining village doesn’t live in this world any longer than he has to. That means he needs to die as soon as you can manage it after reaching there.” He glared at Levalas. “Do not miss your task this time, or it really won’t end well for you!” Chapters first released on novel[f]ire.net
Levalas gulped and gave an uncertain nod, not trusting himself to speak. What was wrong with this bastard? Ordering people to be killed without any remorse! Then again, this was Zoricus, and a single person’s life was hardly a moment’s thought for him.
But how was he supposed to kill a damned son of the Duke! And right in his own home! It was a different fact when Zoricus had told him that a young man would be travelling alone on the southern road with just an older attendant, without telling him who that man was. Levalas had still hesitated, but it was just another job at that time. However, now that he knew that Baron Kivamus was a son of the Duke of Ulriga, it was a completely different matter altogether!
How could he kill Baron Kivamus and expect to live long in this world? Not that it would be easy at all, now that the new baron has had the whole winter to settle in. If anything, it was more likely that Baron Kivamus had much better connections in Ulriga than Zoricus, and Levalas would probably have had more chances of earning enough coin to escape from Cilaria by working under him. Hah… Like any noble would ever agree to employ someone who tried to kill them!
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Apart from all that, he still kept thinking about the fact that Baron Kivamus had spared his life when no other noble would have. It had haunted his mind the whole winter, and by now he was fairly sure that it wasn’t because of any preplanned calculations. Most likely, Baron Kivamus was just a really kind and benevolent person – maybe even far too benevolent than he should be – as weird as it sounded for a noble to be.
Why couldn’t he have met Baron Kivamus before meeting this fat bastard? Maybe his life would have been much better in that case, and he wouldn’t even be thinking of escaping from Cilaria if that was true…
Interrupting his thoughts, Zoricus continued with a full mouth after taking another bite of meat, “Once you have killed that boy Kivamus – and make sure nobody finds out how he died – then the knights who have gone with you would have no choice other than to take command of the barony and hold down the fort – rather, the village.” He grinned. “Just to maintain order, of course. Then you should suggest one of the knights to send a guard back here after that to ask for help from the Count, and offer yourself as the messenger. By that time I’ll have talked with the Count and will be ready to leave for Tiranat with my own guards as soon as I get the word of your success. There needs to be a noble there to run a barony, after all!”
“Why would the Count even agree to give you the command of Tiranat?” Levalas blurted out before he could stop himself.
Zoricus grinned. “Why? I’ll convince him, of course! With Binpaazi knights getting more and more daring these days, we can’t afford to leave any barony without a baron for long. Of course, even without me saying anything, the Count wouldn’t want to wait too long this time, which might give another chance to the Duke to send one of his own people as the baron, which would further erode the power of the Count in his men’s eyes, and Ebirtas doesn’t want that anymore than I would.” He smirked. “If everything goes well, I’ll add another barony to my land holdings, and you will finally get the hundred gold you were promised in return for this.”
Levalas wanted to deny this job immediately, throwing back the promise of that coin back at this bastard’s face, but if he really could get a hundred gold, he really might be able to leave Cilaria… But could he even trust this bastard?
Instead of Zoricus rewarding him with gold for something this sensitive – which could make the fat bastard’s influence fall sharply if any other nobles found out about it and with the Count even having to punish him heavily in that case – it felt more likely that Zoricus would have already arranged to have him killed by one of the knights or another guard in some kind of accident after he had killed that baron.
It simply meant that most likely, he wasn’t ever going to see that hundred gold in his hands, whether he succeeded or not.
“Now leave!” Zoricus ordered before glaring at him. “Do not fail this time!”
Levalas kept his mouth shut and gave a nod, still not knowing what he was going to do, and exited the room. He had a lot to think about.
******
~ Ustaimo ~
~ Count Ebirtas’ Mansion, Cinran ~
Ustaimo looked up from the ledger he had been working on, and stretched his hands in front of him, the cracking sound coming from his fingers and wrist reminding him of his age again. Well, at least he was done with all the tax accounting he had been working diligently on for the past two weeks. If only Tiranat would pay the overdue tax soon, everything would be right in his world, which mostly revolved around making sure all the zeros and decimals were in the right places in that ledger.
He slowly walked to the window and opened it, and welcomed the fresh gust of air inside. Now that all the snow had already melted, the air didn’t have that bite in it anymore. Taking a few deep breaths, he turned around and started walking towards the meeting hall of Count Ebirtas. With all the accounting in his tax ledger completed, and the snow fully melted by now, the southern road to Tiranat would be open once again. That meant it was time for a trip, as much as he disliked travelling anywhere outside Cinran. He wasn’t young anymore, and all his joints ached after sitting in a bumpy carriage for days at a time.
Thinking about Tiranat reminded Ustaimo of the previous baron of the village, who came every autumn with the taxes due by his village. That was better for Ustaimo since he didn’t have to waste time travelling there. But alas, that man was dead now, for reasons better not spoken out loud, and this new baron of Tiranat didn’t seem inclined to come to CInran to pay the taxes, or he already would have. That meant Ustaimo really did have to travel to Tiranat now.
He walked down a flight of stairs and kept moving through the corridors until he reached the meeting hall of the count. Noticing him, the guard immediately opened the door, and he entered inside.
“Oh, Ustaimo! Come on in,” Count Ebirtas gestured towards one of the chairs next to the table.
At the moment only the knight commander was sitting next to him, with the rest of the chairs empty for now. Ustaimo thanked the Goddess that that bastard Zoricus wasn’t here. Just looking at his grubby face was usually enough to make his blood boil.
“I’ve taken care of all the accounts in the taxation ledger,” Ustaimo reported as he took a seat, “and only the barony of Tiranat’s tax is overdue as of now.”
“Good, good,” the elderly count nodded. “We were just talking about that. Your escorts are ready and you can leave tomorrow morning.”
“Thank you, my lord.” Looking at the knight commander, Ustaimo added, “I hope you have given more knights to accompany me this time. We all know the fate of the previous baron of Tiranat, and nobody wants a repeat of that when travelling on the Southern road.”
The knight commander – who was sitting in his full armour with only his helmet not in place, being kept on the table in front of him – winced at that. “That won’t be possible this time. We simply cannot afford to send any knights away from Cinran right now if there is any chance we can manage without that. For tomorrow, you will leave with one knight along with four other guards – three swordsmen and an archer. That should be enough to protect the gold you’ll bring back.”
“What? No!” Ustaimo protested, feeling a sudden pang of fear for a journey which was going to be much more dangerous now than what he had thought earlier. “That’s not enough at all! Even if you don’t give me more knights than usual, at least give me the usual two knights whom I take with me when travelling anywhere outside Cinran for collecting taxes! You know that a single knight will hardly be enough protection when I’m going to be carrying more than a thousand gold…!”
Count Ebirtas grimaced. “You already know that there was another raid by Binpaaz on the eastern farms a few days ago, and this time they put a few orchards on fire and damaged our wheat crops – trampling their horses all over the newly sown fields. Yesterday, we had to dispatch another group of knights to the border to protect the farmers. We really don’t have enough reserve knights here to send with you without weakening Cinran’s defenses.”
“But… this doesn’t feel right…” Ustaimo complained again. “A single knight and just four other guards… on that dangerous road going south through the forests.”
The knight commander gave a small smile. “You might not know this, but we probably wouldn’t even have been able to give you even that many guards. Thankfully, Baron Zoricus offered to help, and has provided us one of his own guards to accompany you. That’s the only reason you have four other guards going along with you.” Chapters first released on novelfire(.)net
Ustaimo frowned. “Lord Zoricus offered to help me…? That can’t be right…”
Count Ebirtas laughed loudly. “There you go thinking he’s a bad person once again. He’s not. Zoricus is the only reason my domain is still standing. I simply wouldn’t be able to run Cinran without all the help he has been providing, whether in terms of guards or in gold.”
If only you knew what he wanted in exchange for that… Ustaimo thought with a grimace, but didn’t say it out loud. Whatever else Zoricus may be, he was still a noble, and was easily the favourite vassal of the elderly count. Saying anything against the fat bastard openly, especially without any solid proof would only lead to his own undoing, and that was something he couldn’t risk. He just had to keep his head down, and keep following the Count’s orders in order to secure his own survival.
He gave a nod looking at the count. “I’ll leave early tomorrow morning.”
“Good!” Ebirtas nodded in return. “Make sure to collect all the overdue taxes. If they can’t pay it, bring something else in return, whether coal or slaves. Preferably slaves, now that winter is nearly over and we don’t have that big a need for coal anymore.”
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“Of course, my lord,” Ustaimo agreed. “I’ll make sure of it.”
He gave a quick bow, and turned around to walk towards the door. While he wasn’t able to say it openly to the Count, something didn’t feel right here. He still couldn’t put his finger on exactly what it was, but Zoricus offering to send guards to protect the wagons going to Tiranat for taxes was giving him a bad feeling. Even though he didn’t have any proof of it, Ustaimo was fairly sure that the fat bastard was the one behind the demise of the previous baron of Tiranat as well as had a hand in looting all that tax gold of the poor barony – which didn’t even have a wall surrounding the village for Goddess’ sake! That’s why he couldn’t understand why Zoricus would offer to send better protection for tomorrow.
As he exited the door and started walking back towards the room which doubled as his workplace as well as his sleeping quarters, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. He had no idea what was going to happen on this trip, and if he would even return alive from it, which is why he had to keep his eyes peeled and ears open for anything which didn’t feel right. If it came to the worst, he knew that he should be able to count on the knight coming with him, since they only worked on the orders of the knight commander, and would never do any favours for the fat bastard – above board or otherwise. Zoricus’ own guards, on the other hand, simply couldn’t be trusted with anything.
As he reached the staircase, he gave a sigh. Maybe he was just thinking too much and seeing dangers when there were none. It was very much possible that Zoricus just wanted Cinran to keep standing by helping to collect all its taxes, if only so the town would still be here for the day when the fat bastard got a chance to take over. That might mean that the fat baron really did want to help.
“Aah…” he groaned. His head hurt just thinking about it after working so much for the last two weeks. He didn’t know what was true and what was not about this new guard arrangement. So he would just have to play it by ear and pray that the Goddess kept him alive. That was his best hope at the moment.
Reaching his room, he thought about how long it would take. Three days to reach Tiranat – two if they really pushed it – then a full day to check their revenue ledger to find out the correct amount of taxes, and around three more days to return to Cinran. Add another day or two, just in case Tiranat didn’t have enough gold and he had to find an alternative way to recoup the taxes. Yeah, better to pack for a journey of at least a week. Glancing at the mostly empty room which barely held any belongings which he could call his own, he got to work, not looking forward to the upcoming bumpy carriage ride even a little. May the Goddess save his back from being broken on that bone-jarring road.
******
~ Kivamus ~
It had been a week since the return of the caravan from Kirnos, and he couldn’t have been more glad to see all the progress in the village in the last week. He was walking on the narrow path made from gravel which connected the manor house to the gates and all the buildings in the manor, while the rest of the ground was way too muddy to walk easily. It was morning right now, although the sun had already risen above the Arakin Mountain Range in the east.
Earlier in the morning, he had been standing on top of the manor house and the whole surroundings of the village were easily visible from there, including the newly made watchtowers, making the village feel more secure than it ever had. The third watchtower had been completed in the southeast a couple of days ago by the old carpenter Taniok and his apprentices, while the fourth one in the northwest was already under construction. While their primary purpose for clearing the forest around them was to ensure a good line of sight as well as to clear enough land for farming, he was quite thankful that by now they had gathered so many Fedarus logs that they wouldn’t have a shortage of them for a few years at the very least.
With the logs having been kept criss-crossed in various piles while leaving some free space between them, the initially felled logs had already started to become seasoned by now, which is the only reason they were strong enough to construct watchtowers from them. Another good thing was that all the stockpiles of logs had already been transferred inside the walls, which meant any bandits wouldn’t be able to simply put them on fire and make a makeshift pyre to distract the guards in case of a raid. Although all these stockpiles were taking a lot of space – not that they had much of a need of that empty space between the village and the walls at the moment – it had also made it much easier to take the logs to wherever they were needed for construction, while also freeing more space in the south for farming which was earlier occupied by these logs.
They had also managed to hire enough older men to keep an eye on the surroundings from those watchtowers in the daytime, while the female guards did all the watching in the night time. Once the fourth watchtower was also completed in a few more days, they would have a decent way to keep an eye all around the walls. He had also planned to make at least two more watchtowers in the middle of the northern and the southern walls – which were longer than the other two ones – so that the whole surrounding area outside the village could be covered by the watchmen.
Darora had been busy as well, and by yesterday he had handed over two new crossbows, bringing their total number to six. That meant now they had enough of them to keep a crossbow on each of the three watchtowers, while also having three extra ones for the watchtowers which hadn’t been built yet. Now that all the seed drills had already been built, Darora had been ordered to keep working to make more crossbows, although the carpenter had told them that he was running out of parts, and would probably only be able to make one more of it from the parts he already had.
The reason for it was that Cedoron had to stop working on the crossbow parts for the moment since he had nearly run out of iron ingots, and the small stock he still had remaining had to be prioritised to repair any coal mining or woodcutting tools which got broken in the coming days. Now that all the snow had melted in the surroundings of the village, hopefully, a merchant would bring a good stock of iron ingots soon, although they would still have to think of a way to find money to buy them, since they certainly didn’t have their coffers overflowing with gold these days.
Hudan had also managed to recruit the six guards which had been made reserve guards before the winter, and all of them had happily agreed to join up as new guards. Kerel, Hudan and even Tesyb were giving the new recruits some brutal training in the mornings and evenings, just to bring them up to speed as soon as possible. Yufim and Nurobo had managed to entice some more guards and even a few servants to get some archery training, and they were taking an hour in the mornings and evenings to train them personally, as long as they weren’t on watch duty themselves. It won’t really make those men excellent archers or anything approaching that, but now that they did have some extra warbows in the manor which were being used by the hunting groups until now, it would be good to have some people who at least had a basic idea of using a bow.
Three of the hunting groups had already returned from their longer trips yesterday, and two of them had brought a good haul of meat with them this time, giving the smokehouse workers a lot more to do, while the third group had also managed to find a couple more sheep and had reported that the snow had nearly melted even in those hills. That meant the losuvil vines should also start putting out new leaves any day now, so the hunters should be able to start bringing some leaves regularly after a couple of weeks. The fourth hunting group, which had been the last one out of the village, had also entered the manor in the morning with a good haul of meat. That meant while they didn’t really have any extra meat to fill up their food stores, at least they shouldn’t be short on it to feed the village for the coming week.
The guards who had been lightly injured on the Kirnos trip had healed well by now with the help of the losuvil powder, although it was nearly used up by now. On the other hand, the man who had his arm cut-off simply wouldn’t be able to work as a swordsman anymore. However, that guard was someone they could implicitly trust, so after some discussion with Hudan and Feroy, Kivamus had decided not to let him go and had kept him on as a guard, although he would only be posted at the manor gates from now on.
Now that the village had a strong palisade wall surrounding it, the primary use of the manor gates was to prevent any unwanted entry by the local villagers, which meant that the disabled guard wouldn’t have any problem in working here, unlike the guards being posted at the village gates who would have to fight against wild beasts like adzees or bears, and even bandits in case of a raid. This way, they could continue to post the stronger guards at the village gates, while also having a trustworthy man at the manor gates.
Kivamus had promised in the past that the family of any guard who became unable to work anymore due to a disability or lost his life while on duty would be taken care of, which is why that guard’s young wife – who was the only one in his family – would be due to get half the regular wages of a guard without having to work for it in case the man couldn’t earn any coin. But the guard hadn’t been let go and would continue to earn his regular wages for now, so they wouldn’t need to spend any coin for it in this case.
Still, that incident had already demotivated many guards, so when the news spread that there might be an imminent raid on the village – by the same bandit group which had burnt half the village the last time – it had dispirited the atmosphere inside the manor. Many of the guards here were those who had lost their houses and savings during that raid, so there had been an inherent fear in the mind of everyone since last week. What if the bandits did the same this time? What if they killed other guards or their families?
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The rumours about an impending raid had also spread in the village, and even the labourers seemed tense these days. Every guard had also had to remain fully alert since that news, and after a week of the continuous tension of remaining ready for an attack at any time had begun to show in their strained smiles and laughter which ended too early. After the first few days of remaining on continuous alert without much rest, they all had looked ready to snap.
However, the decision to hold back the hunting groups within the village for now, as well as to hire those six reserve guards had been a very good one, even though their coffers would pay dearly for it when the time came to pay everyone directly in coins. This text is hosted at NoveI★Fire.net
With all the guards from Kirnos’ trip already back, along with all of the four hunting groups which were mostly made up of manor guards also present here, it was easy to see that the village had come long way in the past few months from the time of the first raid here and had more than enough trained and ready guards to protect the village.
More importantly, it also meant that for the first time everyone was actually able to see and realize that unlike the time of the previous raid by Torhan, there was no shortage of guards anymore, nor were they the same frail men as in that time. Their training regime over the past few months had meant that every single guard had a fit and muscular body, even including Nurobo who had lost most of his belly fat by now. Unlike the time before he arrived here, when the guards only stayed huddled inside the manor most of the time, by now all of them had gotten some fighting experience, whether that was while accompanying a caravan to Cinran or Kirnos, or when fighting that adzee at the northern gate, or even while they went on hunting.
All the guards – including both men and women – walked more confidently now with full trust in their skills with a sword, a bow or a crossbow, and weren’t afraid anymore of venturing outside the manor walls in the night. There were regular patrols by mounted guards inside the village walls – ready to bring the news of any attack to the manor – where even the off-duty guards had been ordered to remain ready to move out at a moment’s notice. While some of them had initially protested about it, they had still followed the orders, since everyone realised the consequences of not being ready to defend their homes if bandits attacked. The burnt remains of houses near the market square were readily available proof of it.
However, in the past few days, as more and more guards had returned from the hunting trips and had stayed back instead of going for the another hunting trip, it had meant that for the very first time the manor had a surplus of guards to put on watch duty, and this had allowed Hudan to give full off-days to the guards so they could rest for the whole day, instead of working at least one shift every day which had been the norm until now.
It was a slow process but eventually that time to rest had taken the edge off from the fear of another bandit raid on the horizon, and slowly this extra rest time along with the visible evidence of the presence of so many guards to the village had managed to lift the morale of everyone in the past few days. By now they looked ready to take on whatever was thrown at them, whether from wild beasts or bandits.
Kivamus looked to the left and saw a group of off-duty guards, both male and female, laughing together at a joke near the door of the servants’ hall. Some of the guards and maids were talking together in another group near the well, while a few of them were bringing out some horses from the stables along with Hudan, which was the reason he was walking towards them.
There was no definite date on when an attack would happen, or if it would happen at all, so apart from holding the hunters back, they couldn’t afford to stop any of the other work in the village. With the dam already complete and the reservoir approaching its full capacity by now, it was time to install the water wheel in its place. That was why he had decided to visit the dam today along with Darora, despite Hudan’s warnings against leaving the manor, although the guard captain had eventually agreed to it, as long as they took enough guards with them. After all, there was no shortage of guards at the moment, and they could afford to take enough of them with them today, including some crossbow-women.
As Kivamus waited for the guard captain to bring the horses, he looked around at the ground which was muddy everywhere, now that the snow had fully melted, and was glad that there was at least some gravel put inside the manor connecting the manor house to the gates and the other buildings. Maybe he should see if the whole ground could be covered with gravel in the future.
There were only a small number of horses present in the stable today, since most of them – along with the small number of nodors they had – were being used diligently by Pinoto and the refugee farmers from Kirnos to plough the fields and get them ready for sowing. Another fifty woodcutters had continued felling trees in the south to maximise the sown area as much as they could.
The half a dozen paper makers working in the east of the manor had continued making new sheets and by now they had a small stack of paper ready to sell to the merchants to generate some more gold. With most of the labourers working to mine coal again, their coal barn already had a small stock of it ready to sell, although it still wasn’t a big amount. More importantly, they didn’t know how much of a demand of coal there would be at this point, since everyone in southern Reslinor would be prioritising buying food instead of coal, now that winter was nearly over. Of course, visiting merchants continued to buy coal even in the summer, with blacksmiths’ forges and bloomeries in Cinran and Ulriga being their regular customers, but that demand would likely be lower this year with the food prices so high. Still, he would get a good idea about that when the first travelling merchant came from the north.
The new mushroom barn they had made in the south of the village was being managed well by Madam Helga, and she had recently replanted the first crop of it to cover a larger area of the barn using more sawdust and old logs as the base. Yesterday, she had mentioned that after the next growth cycle of the Rizako mushrooms in around a month, she would replant a new crop once again, and by that time she would be able to cover the full area of the barn. That meant any new mushrooms grown after that could finally be used to feed the villagers, which would add another source of food and protein in their diets.
Before long, he saw the guard captain walking towards him, with other guards bringing the last two horses available in the manor out from the stables. They couldn’t afford to keep horses idle at this time to maximise the ploughed area before sowing, so they were using nearly all of them in the south. That meant it would be a much longer journey today sitting on a wagon.
Soon, the guards hitched the horses to a wagon, and two of them took places on the bench which made the driver’s seat.
Hudan glanced at the wagon for a moment. “We are ready to leave, my lord. Darora will meet us on the way.”
Kivamus nodded and climbed on the wagon bed first and sat on a folded piece of burlap cloth which was the only piece of cushioning they could afford for now. Hudan followed behind him and sat in front of him directly on the wagon bed, while two other swordsmen as well as two crossbow-women climbed on the wagon after them. That meant for the first time there were seven guards accompanying him, including the female guards.
Looking at everyone’s serious expressions in light of the impending raid, coupled with the fact that he was sitting on a wagon instead of riding a horse as usual, for a moment he felt like he was going to a distant medieval war along with some battle hardened soldiers instead of just going to visit the nearby dam, before he remembered that most of the people in this world – including his guards – travelled exactly like this when they went on trading journeys to Kirnos or Cinran. They simply didn’t have enough horses for everyone to ride on them, after all.
“Let’s go!” he ordered, and the wagon lurched into motion
******
Kivamus was standing on top of the dam, looking at the vast amount of water gathered in the upstream reservoir, which was nearly two-thirds full at the time. The weather was still a little chilly, but with the sun up in the sky, it didn’t really feel cold. The sound of water falling through the small gap in the dam near the eastern bank was also giving a musical background to this serene natural scene.
Quite a few trout-like fish were easily visible here as well, which were called Sorjun fish by the locals, many of which were already using the fish ladder on the eastern side of the dam to travel downstream from the reservoir to the stream going further. From what he had gathered from the locals, these fish went upstream to lay eggs before the winter, while every spring those of them which had grown big enough in the past year or two swam downstream. Such a newly created huge water body like the reservoir would certainly cause some changes in their habitats, but getting availability of more water would only help them to breed more. It would likely take at least a few months before enough fish started living in this reservoir for them to begin fishing regularly, but they were certainly on the right track.
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Soon, he saw Darora walking towards him.
“I just checked the measurements again, and the foundations for the waterwheel were built correctly,” the carpenter reported. “The foreman Yeden did well here although I don’t see him here today.”
“He is supervising cutting of trees in the south of the village these days, now that Pinoto is busy overseeing the ploughing of the new fields,” Kivamus replied. “Yeden even managed to cover all the sides of the reservoir with clay in time, but right now we need him in the south to motivate the workers to clear as much of the forest as they can before the sowing is done.” He gazed at the wooden foundation by leaning towards the downstream side of the dam. “What do you think about this?”
Darora shrugged. “I have never seen a water wheel working in combination with a dam, but what you have mentioned sounds simple enough since we already have the water wheel parts. I should be able to install it here by the evening, I think. The tricky part is connecting the log-axle to it. We are using a sturdy core of a log cut from a Fedarus trunk for it, and fedarus wood is well known to be used to make ships in the capital, so I know it wouldn’t rot with water either. But we will have to use another ball bearing from the wagon axle which we had liberated from the limestone quarry to give support to the log-axle on the side of the bank.”
“I am just glad we didn’t need to buy new bearings for this,” Kivamus agreed, feeling happy that at least that expense was spared. “The supporting frame for the axle was already built on the bank by Yeden’s workers, so you will just have to be careful while fixing the axle on both sides, and make sure it can rotate freely with the motion of the water wheel. We can’t risk any problems after the water starts flowing from the sluice gates.”
“I’ll double check it myself,” Darora nodded. “Still, I am thankful that you decided to postpone making the gears for the axle on the bank for later. Even after I saw your blueprint for that, it still looks complex enough that I’ll need more than a few tries to get it right.”
Kivamus shrugged. “Making the gears will need a good amount of iron-cladding, and it’ll only be useful when we are able to make the trip hammer – which will also need iron-cladding – as well as a new sawmill here, but we can’t build any of that until we buy a lot more iron for Cedoron to forge the required parts, which will take at least week after the merchants arrive with new ingots. For now, just make sure that the axle rotates freely. If that is done without any problems, installing the gears on the axle can be done at any point in the future, without a deadline of the reservoir getting full in a couple of days.”
Once the carpenter gave a nod in understanding, Kivamus continued, “Once you’ve made sure that everything works well here, in the near future you will have to build another water wheel at the closest point of the stream to the village, which should be somewhere downstream of here, and that will be used to lift the water from this stream to a new canal which will take the water to the farms, although that is only needed after we have dug that canal – which will take a while. In the future, we will also install another water wheel under the second sluice gate as well, but that will only be useful once we are using the first one at full capacity, which will again take some time. For now, just make sure to install the first water wheel and the axle by evening, then return to making the next crossbow from tomorrow.”
Darora nodded. “As you wish, milord. I think two or three more days should be enough to finish the next crossbow, but after that I won’t have enough parts to make more of them.”
“That’s okay,” Kivamus said. “The fields in the south should be ready to start sowing by then, so after that you will be needed there anyway to make sure any problems in the seed drills are taken care of immediately.”
“I’ll get to work then,” Darora said before walking off to start installing the water wheel in front of the first sluice gate – this time permanently – instead of keeping it modular to shift to another mineshift like they were doing until now.
Kivamus glanced once more at the surroundings, and saw no snow in sight, apart from at the peaks of the Arakin mountains in the east. The guards were waiting on the western bank of the river, keeping an eye around the place, while Hudan was the only one who had accompanied him to the top of the dam. A few workers were standing on the eastern bank of the river to patch up the small gap in the dam as the water level kept rising, while the carpenter and his apprentice had already reached the location where they had to install the waterwheel. For original chapters go to n0velfire.net
“Let’s return now,” Kivamus ordered, and the guard captain started walking along with him, although he had been looking a little fidgety for a while.
“What is it?” Kivamus asked curiously, having never seen the guard captain hesitate in something before, after making sure that nobody else was in earshot.
Hudan glanced at the guards once, before shaking his head. “It’s… it’s nothing, milord.”
Kivamus looked around and noticed the relaxed posture of the other guards. It didn’t seem like they were in any danger, but he was still getting worried about it. “Come on, out with it. Whatever it is, we’ll find a solution.”