From Londoner To Lord

Chapter 321 316. Ideas

Once the guard captain had exited the hall, Duvas looked at Kivamus with tiredness evident in his eyes. "I know you are doing your best to feed everyone, but I hate us being so low on food. It reminds me of the time just before you arrived, when the villagers were so close to starvation. We could barely feed a single meal to those living in the manor, so all I could do was watch when the remaining villagers just wasted away."

Kivamus sighed. "I know... That's why we started farming here, even though it won't help us for months. Now that Tiranat's population has started to increase, even if slowly, we really need to find ways to produce more food here."

Duvas gazed at the setting sun visible from the window open in the west. "I think instead of making more longhouses, you should get Taniok to make a few more mushroom barns in the south once he's done with the watchtowers and the sawmill. We don't have any shortage of space within the village walls, and only a few workers would be able to grow a lot more Rizako mushrooms to feed everyone."

"That is what I had planned earlier..." Kivamus shook his head, "But we couldn't even afford to wait long enough to let all the mushrooms mature in the first barn. We are already going to use those mushrooms to feed the villagers, which means we can't afford to wait long enough for those mushrooms to grow and replant them in a new barn instead of eating them right now. Once the sawmill is ready near the dam, Taniok will get a steady supply of a lot of planks with just a single apprentice working there, instead of him using all three of his apprentices to cut planks. Once it's working properly, we'll be able to construct new barns and longhouses much faster than we did last time."

He exhaled. "If we had a few more trained carpenters here, we could have done this even faster, but getting more craftsmen requires increasing the village's population, who will in turn require more food and housing, for which we will need more carpenters once again... There is no easy solution to this. I just hope our two hunting parties will be able to bring enough meat in a few days."

The majordomo nodded. "Let's hope so, since another merchant coming here in time is not in our hands." After a while, Duvas looked at him again. "There was something else I wanted to talk to you about. It's regarding the quality of the paper we are making here. You've said that it is very crumbly and rough right now."

Kivamus looked at him curiously and gave a nod. "Yeah, I've seen much better quality paper in the Ulriga Palace, but I just can't think of how to improve what we are making."

"Then you'll like this news. I had talked about it with the laborers who work to make paper, with the hope that they would do the sawdust pulp mixing and beating more properly, so the final quality of paper would improve. That hadn't really worked, but this afternoon one of those laborers told me that he wanted to try mixing something else in it. There is a bitter, starchy root of a weed found commonly here, which could do the trick of binding the sawdust fibers more properly, according to him."

"A starchy root?" Kivamus asked, immediately thinking of it as a possible food item. "Why doesn't everyone use it as food then?"

Duvas sighed. "It's just not suitable for human consumption. It immediately gives diarrhea to anyone who tries it, and trust me, some villagers still tried it more than enough times last autumn. Animals can usually digest it, so we occasionally feed them to our cows when we are low on hay - and to even the nodors, sheep and rabbits now. Anyway, the worker said that he had even tried boiling it last autumn to see if it could be eaten after that, but it didn't help at all and he still got sick after trying it. But he had noticed that it still seemed very starchy, and might help in improving the quality of paper."

"Hmm... I'm not sure if it'll help, but there is no harm in giving it a try. Why didn't he say it earlier? I didn't know about that root."

"Well," the majordomo shrugged, "the manor residents are more confident of speaking openly these days after your constant efforts for it, but the village workers are still hesitant to suggest new ideas. Anyway, all the workers know how precious that paper is, and to try this idea they'll have to do it with a whole batch. If it doesn't turn out well, it will ruin four or five sheets of paper at least - which'd cost us nearly a full gold coin based on the rates Pydaso bought it from us. That's ten days' wages for a laborer, so they were hesitant to even suggest it."

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"Never mind that. It's still a risk we have to take. If it works, we'll be able to sell the paper at a much higher price, so it'll be worth it. Tell him to try it with tomorrow's batch. He should try boiling a few of those roots, and reduce the water until only the starch is left. Then he should mix it in the slurry." He added, "You should still commend him for suggesting a good idea. If this idea works out as he hopes, we will even reward him. Hopefully it will give confidence to the other workers to give such suggestions without any fear."

Kivamus shrugged. "As many new ideas as I come up with, it simply can't compare to every person thinking innovatively about what they're doing. That is what will help Tiranat to keep progressing in the long term."

Duvas nodded. "I'll go to the east of the manor tomorrow morning, and will tell him about it. The idea of a reward will certainly motivate him to give it a good try. That reminds me," he snorted, "Hudan has been sending any guards who haven't been doing well in their training to beat the sawdust slurry for the day - to help out the workers there, and also as a kind of punishment to motivate the guards to do better. However, after we had recruited the six new guards, they were the ones who were usually sent to do it. But right now they must be jumping in joy to join the hunting parties, just to get away from beating the pulp."

Kivamus laughed. "I'm sure they are, not that they will find hunting for animals in the forests to be any easier..."

***

~ Ustaimo ~

Ustaimo gave a sigh of relief as their wagon finally entered the gates of Cinran. The knight was still riding his horse in front of them, while his squire and the two guards were sitting near him on the wagon. He smiled broadly seeing the usual hustle and bustle of the town. As interesting as Tiranat had seemed to him, this was home.

However, it hadn't been an easy journey for them while returning from Tiranat. With two fewer guards coming back with them, the constant risk of being attacked and the tax gold being stolen had prevented him from sleeping properly in the night. The ratty old blanket he'd brought with him to serve as a bedding on the journey had hardly provided any comfort on the bumpy ground under the wagon which had been his bed for the last three nights.

Before long, they started moving on the cobblestone road of the affluent section of the town, and soon, the huge stone mansion of Count Ebirtas of Cinran was looming in front of him. Once they entered inside, the two guards jumped over the wagons, and started walking towards their barracks after a nod to him. The knight also climbed down from his horse and handed it to his squire to take it to the stables, before he started walking to his own accommodations.

Ustaimo called out to him. "Sir Tuilas! Let's report to the Count first. We can rest after that."

The knight grimaced, looking at his heavily muddied armor. They had to deal with a wild boar's attack on the road near what used to be an inn in the past, and its after-effects had left the knights' usually shiny armor not so shiny. "Fine. I'll come with you."

Ustaimo confirmed that the satchel with all the gold was still secure under his tunic, and started walking with the knight to the meeting room of the Count.

Soon, they were shown inside the door by the guards, who closed the door after them.

Count Ebirtas was sitting at the head of the ornate table with his head supported on one of his hands while looking at a map spread on it. Sir Makanas, the knight commander, was leaning over the table next to him, pointing at something on the map, while the gluttonous baron Zoricus was sitting on the other side of the table, munching on something as usual, but he frowned when his eyes went to Ustaimo.

The Count looked up once he noticed their entrance, before he glanced at the muddy armor of the knight, making him wrinkle his nose in disgust. "What happened to you! Couldn't you have... taken a bath or something before coming here and assaulting my nose?"

Sir Tuilas grimaced. "I'm sorry, uncle. It was a boar we found on the road... Ustaimo told me to report to you as soon as we arrived, or I wouldn't have come without bathing first."

"Forget it! Just stay off my rugs..." the Count ordered with a scowl. "You both are still late... I thought you might be dead with the gold lost with you."

Ustaimo shook his head, "We are only late by a day, milord. It's usually a three day journey to that village anyway. We were still pushing the horses hard, so we only took two days to reach Tiranat from here, but while returning, our wagon broke a wheel on that sorry excuse of a road. We wasted a few hours trying to repair it, but when it didn't work, we had to send a guard on horseback to call for another wagon from your mansion. It was already dark by the time it arrived, so we had to stay out another night and only reached here just now."

"It's fine," the count waved it off. "I'm just glad you are back safely."

However, the pot-bellied Zoricus was still looking at them with a frown. "Any, uh... major news from Tiranat?"