From Londoner To Lord

Chapter 358 - 352. Goodwill

Hudan nodded. "It's fine with me as well. As long as Kerel and I are here, we'll still have two leaders to command the guards in case of an attack even if Feroy and Tesyb are out of the village."

"Good," Kivamus said. He looked at the ex-mercenary again. "Then I need you to leave for Cinran tomorrow and spread the word about Tiranat. Let the common people know that we need more workers and labourers. If you meet any craftsmen—carpenters, blacksmiths, or anyone with usable skills we need—tell them they'll be very welcome here."

"Will do," Feroy said simply.

Hudan leaned forward. "By the way, should we give him some losuvil powder as well? To hand out to those who need it in Cinran or nearby places? It helped a lot in spreading a good image about the village. We've already attracted many refugees from Kirnos because of it."

Duvas shook his head. "We could earn a lot of gold by selling that medicine instead. We need that coin right now. We simply aren't in a position to afford too much charity."

"No. This is an investment in the village's future. It'll only be a small amount compared to what we can earn from acelos tablets, so we can afford it to spread some goodwill about Tiranat." Kivamus thought for a moment. "But if Feroy goes with Trevalo, he won't be able to move around freely. Trevalo will have a strict schedule from now on. It'll be difficult for Feroy to go off on his own without delaying the caravan or drawing attention from Trevalo and his wagon drivers."

Feroy scratched his short beard. "I think I have a better idea. There's no real need for me to travel with the caravan tomorrow, you know? I can just go on my own with another guard, although in that case we'll need two separate horses so we can travel wherever and whenever we need to. This way, we won't have to follow Trevalo's schedule and we can visit any villages or farms that look like they're in a tough situation, and tell people about Tiranat wanting more workers."

Kivamus nodded. "That'll work much better. Who do you want to take with you?"

Hudan began, "We're already sending a third of our swordsmen out of the village for the protection of Trevalo and Pydaso, so we can't spare any more of them. Feroy won't be protecting a caravan, so most likely, he won't need to fight bandits either. I think we should send a female guard with him this time."

Kivamus nodded again. "Good idea. I think Hyola is ready for this. She already has some experience from when she went to Kirnos with the guards. Hyola has also been the leader of the female guards here and she has done well in training others with a crossbow and making them more disciplined, but this will give a chance to the other guardswomen like Isomi and Savomi to take more leadership. The next two or three months should be relatively safe for the village, so I think this can work."

Hudan gave a nod in agreement. "In that case, we'll tell Hyola to be ready to leave by tomorrow." He looked at Feroy. "Will two of you be enough? What if you run into bandits anyway?"

"It's not ideal, but then no situation is ever perfect, you know?" Feroy shrugged. "We can't afford to send any more guards away from the village anyway. Although it would help if we had crossbows with us..."

Kivamus thought for a while. Giving them two crossbows would leave only four of them for the watchtowers, with six of them already out with the hunters. But another one would be finished today, which would leave just a single tower without one of them. That should be manageable. "You should each take a crossbow," he said. "We can't afford to risk your safety."

Feroy smirked. "That will make it much easier for us. We can hang the crossbows on the sides of the saddles and cover them with some rough cloth. As long as we don't let anyone get too close to the horses, nobody will notice them, and we can reach them quickly if needed."

Kivamus leaned back in his chair, resting his elbows on the armrests. "Good. Assuming you both load the crossbows each morning, you'll be able to shoot once immediately, and then again if you get even a short notice to reload. That means you both could take down four attackers before they even get close. Two people—including a woman—taking out four men at a distance will be enough to scare off even a group twice their size. That should keep you both safe enough. Thankfully, we also have enough gold right now to give some of it to you, in case you need to stay in an inn or buy some food for someone desperate. It'll earn goodwill, and might convince more people to move here. Trevalo's already bringing us more wheat on credit, so food for the villagers isn't a problem right now."

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Feroy snorted. "We don't need an inn! We aren't lazy merchants or pampered nobles going out for a leisure trip. We'll be just fine sleeping in the forest or in the open fields. Trust me, I've lived more than a decade in forests—no one's getting close without me noticing. We'll save the gold and use it to help out more people instead."

"That's up to you," Kivamus said, giving a faint smile. "Along with that food and the losuvil powder, we'll hopefully encourage more people to come here."

Hudan interrupted, "But do we even have enough of that acelos medicine to give him? Don't we have to prepare two hundred tablets for Pydaso within two days?"

Kivamus nodded. "We do, but it's not like Feroy has to leave right away, and Syryne's already processing another batch of it, just in case. The powder from the first batch should be ready to press into tablets tomorrow or the day after. She didn't measure the leaves to make exactly two hundred tablets, so we'll likely have a little extra. Whatever's left after we give enough for Pydaso can go to Feroy. And if it's not enough, he can wait a few more days. The next batch should be ready soon after."

Feroy shrugged. "Better to wait, then. I'd also suggest taking the losuvil powder directly to those people, instead of me taking the acelos tablets. Like you'd said earlier, we can't afford to let anyone know that we make those tablets here, so if I distribute them in and near Cinran, the local nobles or merchants will surely hear about it, and it won't take them long to find out that the real source is Tiranat. But if we just distribute the losuvil powder, it'd still heal the sick just as fast, but it wouldn't be the same thing as the acelos medicine being sold in Ulriga."

The ex-mercenary shrugged. "Sure, anyone sharp enough could link these two miraculous medicines appearing in southern Reslinor at the same time, but there would still be a reasonable doubt, which should be enough for now. Eventually, the news would surely get out about us being the source, but by then we should be in a better position to resist any nobles' demands to hand over the secret recipe." He added, "Even with the losuvil powder healing a sick family member, people will think that it's a blessing from the goddess herself. That kind of thing spreads fast—people will start believing Tiranat's some miracle place. It'll make them more likely to move here."

"It does make sense," Kivamus said. "Then it's settled. Trevalo will leave tomorrow with Tesyb and the guards. We'll wait to produce 200 tablets for Pydaso's order first, then we'll give you the remaining powder from the first batch directly, and more from the second batch if needed. You and Hyola can take them to Cinran. Duvas will give you some gold to buy food or to hand out to those who truly need it. Even then, make sure to tell the curious ones that we don't make the powder here. We just buy it from a hermit priest who lives somewhere in the southern forests. Probably even somewhere in Girnalica. We only buy it from a travelling merchant. That'll give them hope that they can heal their injured people here, without any of them getting greedy and pointing us out as the source."

"Of course, I'll make sure of it." Feroy stood, pushing his chair back. "I'll tell Hyola, then. She'll be happy to hear she's being trusted with something this sensitive."

Hudan laughed. "Well, if we'd sent any other female guard instead of her, she'd have come storming in here to complain to the baron with fury." He stood as well. "Anyway, I should go too. The guards' training is about to start, and I still need to start looking for the next recruits. We don't need more women right now, not until we have enough crossbows. But I'll need to hire the men soon to start training them with swords so they can hold their own by the time mercenaries arrive."

"Go on then," Kivamus said. "Let me know when you have found some good candidates."

With a nod, Hudan and Feroy left the hall, the sound of their boots fading once they exited the door.

Duvas looked toward Kivamus. "If this goes well, we should start getting refugees from Cinran and its surrounding areas too. It'll probably take time for them to make up their minds—so maybe a month for the first of 'em to start arriving—but it'll help us a lot."

Kivamus shook his head slowly. "It'll help with labor, yes. We can even start increasing our coal production that way, albeit slower than we really need to. But there's no guarantee that even a single person amongst the refugees will be a craftsman. That's who we really need." He stood and began pacing near the table. "We can't rely on manual work forever... Darora and his apprentices are doing what they can, but even if we got another carpenter or two, it wouldn't make a drastic change. And that's what we need here."

He paused, rubbing his forehead as he thought aloud. "I think I'll have to postpone working on the blueprints for the cloth-making machines. The new trade route to Ulriga will take time to set up, and until we can buy cotton or flax from there at a good price, there's no point rushing those plans. We'll also need to wait until we can gather enough gold to buy the raw materials once they're available, but that won't happen any time soon with the mercenaries' tribute due within three months, and the annual tax three to four months after that. I can't finalize the blueprints without a skilled seamstress' or weaver's input, anyway." He let out a slow breath. "Leah only does some basic sewing work for the manor residents, so we need someone a lot more experienced. Hopefully Isuha will come along with Tesyb soon. Until then, that plan'll have to wait."

Duvas kept his arms folded. "That's up to you. But do you even have something in mind for that drastic change you want?"

Kivamus grinned. "I do!"