Chương 224: 221. Taniok And Darora

"It wasn't Madam Nerida's fault after all," the majordomo replied with a shake of his head.

"It was another maid who was jealous of Leah for being able to live outside the manor and with the man she likes, so she was tearing up any recently repaired clothes or sheets so Leah would have to work even more." He looked at Kivamus.

"Don't worry, I've taken care of it. The maid has been warned that if such a thing was ever repeated she would be let go from the manor, and apart from the food and lodging, she also wouldn't get any wages for two months as a fine. Madam Nerida also went a step further and is giving a lot more work to her as a punishment." Kiva mus chuckled thinking about the strictness of Madam Nerida.

"I have no doubt that she can keep all the maids in line in the future." He and the others kept walking around the manor and he saw with satisfaction that their cattle, along with the couple of nodors, and the chickens they had were safely indoors in this snow. The rabbits which the hunters had been bringing in had also been kept safe in an enclosure inside the cattle barn.

The horses did have to work during the day to pull the log movers, but they too had a warm place to rest in the night after their stables had been enclosed by planks, just like the cattle barn. He turned towards the main gates of the manor, and saw with pride that the on-duty guards looked attentive in their watch.

Their decision to pair one man and one woman at each of the watch shifts at the manor gates had worked well and that was what had allowed them to send Feroy out at the same time when they were regularly sending four hunting groups to hunt. As he was turning to return to the manor house, he saw the two carpenters entering the gates. Being curious about them, he stopped for a moment and waited for them to catch up to see what news they had brought.

"Milord," Darora reported with excitement after reaching there as he removed something from the satchel on his side.

"The second crossbow is ready! Here it is!" Hudan took the offered weapon, and turned it around in his muscular hands, making the crossbow look like a small toy in front of his giant frame.

"Finally! Have you tested it?"

"Only a little," Darora replied, "but I don't think there would be any problems. After the experience of making the first one, this time I know where it could have gotten problems like the trigger getting stuck sometimes in the first one, so I have made sure that those things won't repeat in this one."

"That's great! I'll give it to the women guards to test right now," the guard captain replied.

"When will we get the next one?" Kivamus chuckled at his excitement and looked at the young carpenter for the answer. Darora shrugged.

"Can't say yet, but it should be even faster this time, likely in less than a week."

"Perfect!" Hudan exclaimed.

"I can't wait to get another one!" Kivamus looked at the older carpenter.

"What did you want to talk about Taniok?"

"The south-eastern gate in the village walls was just completed," the balding carpenter replied with pride.

"I'll start working on the last gate in the south-west from tomorrow."

"Nice, nice!" Kivamus grinned.

"This means that now we can finally skip putting any guards on the south-eastern gate in the nights," Hudan suggested, "like we are already doing with the northern gate. That will ease up the workload on them. It's true that earlier we had planned to bar the south eastern gates from the inside permanently until we could afford to hire more guards, but by posting women on watch duties there it is feasible to still keep it open - at least in the daytime.

Once the third gate is also ready, we can do the same there, and that will finally allow me to change the guards' shifts from twelve hours back to eight hours, even while sending four hunting groups out at the same time." Kivamus nodded and looked at the older carpenter.

"It should take less than a week, right?"

"At most," Taniok boasted.

"That's good to hear," Kivamus praised.

"I can't wait to finally announce to everyone that Tiranat is a fortified village, even if it'll still be protected by a palisade wall only." He looked at the young carpenter.

"Keep working on the third crossbow for now. I have another thing that I want you to start crafting soon, but I am still tinkering with its design in the sketches." You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"Of course, I'll do as you say," Darora replied.

"Oh, before I forget, I also found out that all the water in the third mineshaft was also removed by this afternoon, and the labourers have shifted the water wheel to the fourth mineshaft in the evening. It really was a good idea to make it easy to disassemble, in that... modular design." Duvas shook his head in wonder.

"I also didn't expect that it would be so easy to shift the water wheel and to remove the water from the mines so fast! Three mineshafts are ready to start digging coal already! I expected that to take weeks!"

"It's true that it is happening at a good pace," Kivamus agreed, "but we still don't have enough workers to start mining coal without pulling more workers from forest clearing in the south." Duvas nodded.

"Yeah, we have already shifted two dozen men from there for digging clay. Although by using sawdust briquettes, coal consumption has slowed down noticeably, so we can probably wait for another week or two before we really need to start mining coal, otherwise we would start scraping the bottom of the last coal barn."

"Let's wait until then," Kivamus said.

"We'll decide what to do after another week."

It was the evening of the next day, and Kivamus was making the final touches on the sketches for the next machine he needed to be built. Looking at the last few empty parchment left on the shelf near the long dining table which doubled as his working area, he really needed this machine built soon so he could continue sketching. Duvas was warming his hands near the fireplace, while Gorsazo had gone to teach the classes in the longhouse block.

With the snowfall continuing since the last few days, the amount of gathered snow on the ground had started to increase once again, and there was already a few inches of snow even inside the manor, which meant the snow would probably be half a foot deep outside the village in the forests. That would make the hunters' task more difficult, especially those groups which had to go in the east, since the snowfall would be much heavier between the hills.

Hopefully the sledges the carpenters had built for them would be helpful for them to continue bringing in the animals they had hunted. The outer door opened and Hudan walked inside while he also saw Feroy standing just outside the door. The ex-mercenary brushed up the snow from his fur coat, before he made a beeline towards the fireplace, and took a moment to warm up his body.

"You are right on time," Kivamus commented as he folded up the parchment until he needed to explain it to Darora later.

"So how did it go? Any problems on the way?"

"There was a big scare yesterday on our way back when the guards and I had camped for the night on the side of the road," Feroy answered after taking a seat in an armchair near the fireplace.

"We thought it might be an ambush from the nearby sounds, which is why all the guards remained awake all night. So we kept waiting with our swords and spears ready for anything to happen but nothing happened. I think it was probably some wild beasts in the forest on the sides of the road to Kirnos."

The ex-mercenary continued, "However, I have also confirmed that Torhan's bandits are regular visitors in Kirnos, so it's possible that despite our precautions, the news of our purchase might have gotten out to them and they might have sent a few scouts to keep an eye on us." Hudan frowned.

"So our earlier suspicions of a connection between Torhan and Kirnos were true after all..." Kivamus nodded.

"With how bloodthirsty those bandits are after they put half of Tiranat on fire in the first raid without caring who might be burned inside, it's not hard to believe that they might have been scouting the caravan to plan an ambush."

"That's what I think too," Feroy agreed, "but since they couldn't have known about our visit to Kirnos in advance, most likely they just didn't have enough armed men in Kirnos to safely ambush the four of us."

"That's certainly possible," Hudan said.

"It also means we can't send you there again without much better protection. Just four guards would simply not be enough to protect a caravan against Torhan's bandits, especially if they are anticipating you." Kivamus began, "We'll have to think seriously about that in case we are ready to send another caravan to Kirnos. For now, tell us how this trip went."

"It was both good and bad," Feroy replied with a grimace. Duvas raised his eyebrows.

"What does that mean?"

"The good news is that I've brought two full wagon loads of smoked fish," the ex-mercenary replied.

"The servants have already started transferring the barrels into the kitchens and the store room there." Kivamus raised his eyebrows.

"That's... better than I expected. So that means you are able to sell both wagon loads of coal?" Then he frowned and added without waiting for a reply, "No, the numbers still don't add up... You shouldn't have had enough gold to buy that much fish even after selling all the coal." Feroy grimaced.

"That's where the bad news comes in..."