From Londoner To Lord

Chapter 366 360. Growing Quietly

The sun was low by the time Kivamus returned to the manor hall and had some late lunch. The light through the western windows had turned amber, spilling across the floor in uneven shapes. The air inside was still, faintly warm from the day, and quiet in a way that made every sound from outside—the creak of a wagon's wheel, the distant chatter of servants—feel sharper.

Duvas sat across from him, his ledger closed but resting on the side table, one hand idly tracing the well-worn cover. Kivamus had placed a guard outside the main door with strict orders not to let anyone in except Gorsazo. Feroy and Hudan were both away on their rounds; Madam Helga had gone with a few maids to check the mushroom barn, as usual in her after-lunch free time; Lucem and Clarisa were out collecting sawdust for the briquette makers, while Syrene was somewhere out in the manor, probably talking to her friend Leah again. That meant the manor house was empty other than the two of them.

Kivamus waited patiently, drumming his fingers lightly against the armrest. He wanted Gorsazo to be here before he began the impending discussion—the one about Earth. Duvas had earned his full trust, but the news would still come as a shock. Better to have someone who already knew about it present during the explanation to help steady things if needed.

Duvas broke the quiet first, after he opened the ledger and looked at it. "Milord, the coin we got from Pydaso this time has helped a great deal. We've managed to keep paying all the craftsmen without a gap. They are far too valuable and we can't risk any of them thinking about leaving the village if someone finds out about their new skills—like making crossbows—and makes them a good offer, so we can't afford to stop paying them. Losing even one of them would be too costly, so that had to come first."

The majordomo sighed, leaning back in his chair. "But the guards and the manor servants have already begun complaining. We'd promised them regular payment once winter ended, but it's already approaching late spring. And the merchant in Kirnos who sold us the smoked fish on credit—he's still waiting. We were supposed to pay him back weeks ago."

Kivamus nodded slowly. "I know... But like you'd said before, the mercenaries take priority. If we fail to pay them, we risk losing far more. We still have enough time until autumn—when we have to pay this year's taxes—but the mercenaries could arrive any time after two months from now."

He paused, thinking for a moment. "Thankfully, the revenue from acelos medicine should be able to cover it. If we can keep the sales steady, we'll be earning about four hundred gold every three weeks or so. Add to it the better quality paper we are selling now, and we're looking at an extra income of above six hundred gold every month. We don't even have to pay taxes on that, because officially, we're not producing anything like that here. Our coal sales are also improving every week, even if they are still barely a third of what we were selling last year, but this new source of tax-free gold will more than make up for it."

The majordomo smiled, rubbing his beard. "I'm just thankful that you somehow managed to create those things here, right when the village needed it the most. I guess you're going to tell me soon about how you know such extraordinary stuff, but either way, you've turned everything upside down here..." He shrugged. "I can't even imagine how you think of these things, but you've already changed our fortunes. It's still early days, and we have some debts to pay off first, but that surplus gold will save us in more ways than one. However, when winter comes, we'll be cut off from the north again. Three months with no trade routes open. Well, except for Kirnos, but we barely trade anything with them."

"I know," Kivamus said. "That's why we need to sell a good amount of everything before the northern road gets blocked."

"I have no doubt that you won't let the village people sit idle in those months, like it was common in the previous years," Duvas said, "which means once we start paying everyone—guards, servants, maids, all of them—we have to keep it going even in the winter. The village can't go back to bartering or weekly food rations after that. It'll undo everything we've built."

"That's true," Kivamus agreed. "So we have to save up enough gold by then to continue paying them over the winter, even without selling the medicine or coal in those months."

Duvas nodded grimly. "Then we'll need to start saving any surplus from medicine and paper right away."

"Exactly." Kivamus leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. "But even that won't be enough in the long-term. We need more ways to bring in gold. I've thought about selling the new machines we've made to other towns and cities—things like the seed-drills, wheelbarrows or log-movers—but they're far too bulky to transport. Even if I just sent out the designs instead and tried to charge a small fee for it, the moment another carpenter saw them in work, they'd just copy the idea and we'd earn nothing. Without any law to protect the original idea—something which is known as intellectual property rights—"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

He saw Duvas' confused expression, and added, "I'll explain it later. Anyway, without any strict law for protecting IP rights, whoever sees one of those things will just steal the idea for himself, and we wouldn't earn any gold from it anyway. At worst, it would only make the nearby nobles stronger and richer by increasing their people's efficiency. And right now, that's the last thing we need. Once we're more secure, maybe we'll hand out the ideas for the betterment of the kingdom. But not any time soon."

He sat back, eyes drifting toward the open window. "It's true that unlike the acelos medicine and the paper, we're not exactly trying to hide those machines—it's not really practical anyway—so news about them will eventually get out. But that's fine. By the time anyone understands how much they matter and how effective these simple things are, we'll have strengthened our village even more and will already be far ahead of others for it to matter."

"What about the seed drills?" Duvas asked. "We still have no real experience of how effective they are, but if it works like what you've told us, it could help increase grain production everywhere and decrease its prices, which would help us a lot to feed our ever-growing population when we have to buy wheat next year."

"Maybe..." Kivamus gave a slow nod. "I'd even been thinking about it earlier, but I decided not to, since the earlier logic still stands. Think of it this way. It's already too late to matter in this sowing season, but let's say we give the designs of seed drills to everyone in the coming months, so they all have time to make enough drills by the following sowing season in the next spring. Then, in the next year's harvest season, the grain production of Zoricus and other nearby nobles will increase by a lot, and the new supply will cause a glut in the market, thus plummeting the wheat prices. That sounds good for everyone, right? But it's very unlikely to work like that."

He continued, "Now that those nobles have seen that the wheat prices can go this high, what do you think their next step would be? Knowing what we do about Zoricus, based on Levalas' information, and the fact that he controls a lot of the Cinran's markets, he'll either stockpile it in new warehouses, leaving only a small supply in the market, which'll cause the prices to increase to previous levels again, and if it doesn't work, he'll probably even burn the surplus, to the same effect. It's not like he wants to help feed the poor. He only wants to line his own pockets with more and more gold, like he's been doing until now. Same for the other nobles. Most likely, the situation wouldn't change for the better even if we freely spread out the designs for seed drills, for one reason or another."

Duvas sighed. "I think you're right in saying that..."

"That's why once the sowing is completed in a few days, we'll put the drills in an empty barn in the manor until we need them again, so nobody easily finds out how we managed to sow such a large area with just a few dozen farmers." Kivamus shrugged. "Like I said earlier, it'll happen eventually anyway, since it's not possible to hide our whole farmlands from any spies of the nobles who notice those new machines at work, nor can we stop the farmers or the villagers from gossiping with any visiting merchants, but we can't let it happen this early. It's far too risky right now."

He added, "If word spreads around too soon, it'll only make us a target, highlighting that our village is making those revolutionary machines. If they find out about them, they could also realize that we are the ones making the medicine, the crossbows, the scorpion and so on. Barons like Zoricus and Farodas—and even Count Ebirtas—will never want to see a rival village getting stronger under their noses. They'll surely think of a plausible reason to march on us if they found out about even one of those things, and if that does happen, we simply can't stop them with our current strength. Not yet anyway."

Duvas gave a slow nod, his voice quieter now. "So we keep our heads low and keep working to strengthen our defense."

"Exactly," Kivamus said. "If everything goes well, and if we keep getting more refugees, craftsmen and immigrants, then in another year or so, we'll be strong enough to defend ourselves from any nearby nobles who want to harm us. Most likely, by that time, nothing short of the Duke's army in Fort Aragosa or a foreign military force could threaten Tiranat. Until then, we grow quietly and keep building our strength."

The majordomo sighed, closing his ledger at last. "Then let's at least make sure we start paying the people soon, before they lose faith. They've earned it."

Kivamus gave a nod, folding his hands on his lap as he spoke. "Just wait a few more weeks," he said quietly. "Once Pydaso returns next time, we'll have the gold from another advance order. He'll also know a lot more about that Ulrigan trader's intentions—whether he plans to keep the source secret or not. If all goes well, that gold, along with what we'll earn from coal until then will give us enough of a cushion. After that, we can finally start paying everyone. Just tell them to hold on a little longer."

Duvas nodded, though his expression showed more strain than relief. Before he could reply, the door opened.