Chương 154: 151. Sketching

Kivamus nodded slowly.

"That makes sense. Let them know that until Hudan and the others return, they should keep the hunting trips short and should target to return by evening or early night. That will also allow them to properly warm up their bodies indoors after enduring the cold throughout the day, since they would get a proper fireplace burning with coal here, unlike in the forest where they might not even be able to light a fire for various reasons."

He continued, "And once we are able to provide them with fur coats - by which time we'll also try to get some sledges made - they can go deeper into the forest on longer trips, along with the sledges to try to hunt and bring back bigger game."

"I'll tell them about this," Feroy replied with a nod.

"By that time they would also have some experience of hunting in coordination with the guards, and hopefully, by then they should be able to start catching bigger animals like any isolated wolves or moose. Once they've found a sizable prey, the archers can wound the beasts from afar, then the other guards would move in to make the kill on the wounded beast."

"That's a good plan," Kivamus commented. He looked at others.

"Once we are able to send more hunting parties in the coming weeks, along with raising a good number of rabbits by the summer months, we should regularly start getting a good amount of meat from them. And at that point, we should get enough fur from them that we might be able to provide proper winter clothing to everyone by the next winter. Maybe we could even sell the best quality furs to any visiting merchants or directly to the Cinran's market to get some extra gold."

"I always like hearing about a new source of revenue," Duvas remarked with a grin.

"And since the process of making winter coats from fur is much less complicated than making new clothing from wool, Leah should be able to sew up that fur by herself."

"That's true enough," Kivamus observed, "but when it comes to making new clothing, getting that much wool is a much bigger problem. Even If we don't have the proper tools or knowhow to make woolen fabric from it, we can just put that wool directly between two layers of cotton or linen clothing and sew them up to make a decent woolen coat. That would still be much better than the clothing villagers wear these days."

"I understand that," Duvas replied.

"But either way, hopefully we will be able to get some extra gold in the future from these projects." Kivamus nodded.

"That being said, with eight guards out on the rescue mission, as well as those who'll go on the hunting trips, we will be a little short on guards again until Hudan and the others return. So getting a few more women to join up as guards soon would be very helpful for us. So I wanted to ask if there is any progress in recruiting any more women, apart from the two we've already hired?" Duvas gave a reluctant shake of his head.

"Not really, my lord. I have already made a few announcements in the village square about this, but they are still reluctant to join us." Kivamus nodded as he watched Madam Helga take away the cutlery from the long dining table. And that gave him an idea.

"You know what, so far only men have made the announcement to recruit women, whether it was done by the guards or you. But that's not likely to work - as we have already seen, since you can't give the perspective of women. So I want you to take a few women with you when you go to the market square to make the announcement next time. And they should give their views about this."

He continued, "Madam Helga can tell about the risks and hazards of living in a dangerous place from her own experience, while Madam Nerida can tell them about the perks and benefits of living inside the manor. Whatever our current financial insufficiencies might be, life inside the manor would still be much more comfortable and safer for the women of the village - especially those who are living alone. And another time, you should take a couple of younger women from the manor to speak at the market square.

Even the sisters whom we have already recruited can tell about the training they are going through, the kind of meals they regularly get here and how they are treated in the manor, as well as what they like and dislike about working as the only female guards." Finally, he added, "Hopefully that should give some motivation to the other woman to join us as guards." Duvas nodded.

"I still say that recruiting female guards might just be a pointless undertaking at best, but I'll do as you say."

"Don't worry about that," Kivamus said with a smile, "you will come around to my viewpoint when we start making crossbows here, which are going to make women just as effective guards as men." Duvas snorted.

"I'll believe it when I see it." If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

It had been four days since Hudan and the other guards had left for the quarry, and so far there was no news from them. But Kivamus had expected that it would easily take more than a week for them to return, so hopefully, there was no need to worry about them for now. The snow had been falling continuously since then, and by now small patches of snow had started to gather on the ground as well. While it wasn't quite a winter wonderland outside, it did mean that it was biting cold all the time.

But so far the light amount of snow gathered on the ground wasn't enough to stop any of the construction process or the clearing of forests. This was Kivamus' first winter in Tiranat, but from what he had learned from the others, it was rare for more than a few inches of snow to gather in this village, except for the years with particularly harsh winters which deposited a lot more snow than usual. Hopefully, this wouldn't be one of those years.

Being motivated by the personal viewpoints of their female guards and the older women from the manor, they had also gotten two more women as recruits. They had also been allotted to live in the upper floor of the servants' hall along with the other maids, where Isomi and Savomi were living as well, and Kerel had slowly started to include them in running and other basic physical exercises and stretches.

The hunting parties had been going out every day, but so far they hadn't been very successful in catching anything sizable. But the small game which they had been bringing in was still a noticeable improvement over the past. Apart from a small amount of meat which they kept for their own use in the manor, most of it was now being added to the stew which was provided to the elderly villagers and the children as free meals every evening.

By now, the hunters had also brought two rabbits which they had been able to catch alive, and they had given it to the maids to keep safely within the manor. It was only a start, but if they were able to catch more of them, they should hopefully be able to start raising rabbits here. That was the good news. The bad news was that Feroy still hadn't heard anything about who had entered the manor in the dark and killed Sejkil - even if by accident.

Whoever the culprits were, they were keeping completely silent instead of bragging about how they had taken revenge against the bandit. But hopefully, Feroy would be able to get some hints in the future from the ample time he spent in the market square and the alehouse of the village. Apart from that, another undesirable news was that the hunters who had been going to the east of the village hadn't sighted any losuvil vines or any sheep in that region so far.

But there was still hope for the future, since they had barely covered a small area, and there was a lot of ground to cover in that direction. Kivamus regularly joined the guards in the mornings for some running and light training as well, though he didn't stay there nearly as long as the guards themselves. He had also noticed that the four guards whose blunders had caused Sejkil's death to happen were being run ragged every day in the training.

Right now, it was approaching evening but there was still some time before it got fully dark. And for the past few hours Kivamus had been alone inside the manor hall, which had become his makeshift office in recent weeks. He was leaning over the long dining table, which also doubled as a workbench for him, while sketching on a piece of parchment.

Along with the fireplace burning on one side of the hall, a few more braziers had been kept in the corners of the large room, to make it warmer, as well as to give some more light inside for him to work. Today, he was working on another iteration of a blueprint for the seed drills he wanted to get built here. Once he was done with the sketch, he stood up straight, and gazed at the diagram again, but he still didn't feel satisfied with it.

It was only a rudimentary design, which he had sketched keeping in mind the capabilities of the local craftsmen, and it should be able to do the task it was meant for. But after gazing at the diagram for a few minutes, he shook his head. Something still felt missing to him in the sketch. Giving a loud exhale, he dragged the used parchment to one side to a slowly growing pile, and pulled up a new one to start from scratch.

Right at that moment, the outer door of the manor hall opened and Duvas walked inside with a huge grin.

"There is good news, my lord," the majordomo reported.

"The construction of the first longhouse block is finished."

"What?" Kivamus said with surprise.

"That's wonderful!"

"It certainly is," Duvas agreed with a smile.

"A laborer had just come running to the manor to report it. He told me that Taniok has nailed the last of the bunks to the walls, and with the other things already completed there, the longhouse block is now ready to move in."

"This is certainly good news!" Kivamus echoed.

"We should go and take a look at it."

"As you wish," Duvas said with a nod.

"I'll tell Feroy to gather a few guards to accompany us." Kivamus nodded.

"Tell Gorsazo to come with us as well. I think he had gone to talk with Madam Helga again." The majordomo nodded.

"I'll send a servant to fetch him."

"Okay, then. I'll meet you at the gates soon," Kivamus said before Duvas exited the outer door. Kivamus took another look at the parchment where he had just started sketching another design for the seed drill. Eh, it could wait. The longhouse block was the first major project they had embarked on after his arrival in the village, so he was very excited to see it. He picked up his fur coat where he had draped it above a chair, and tightened it firmly around him. And with that, he exited the outer door as well.

The longhouse block awaited him.