Chương 254: 250. The First Watchtower

Kivamus grinned at Taniok and raised a hand in acknowledgement. Before he climbed, he had to wait for a couple of workers to climb down the ladder, until eventually it was only the bald carpenter standing on top of the tower. Then just as he walked closer to the ladder, Hudan put up a hand to stop him from climbing.

"I'll go first, milord," the guard captain instructed.

"I need to make sure all the ladder rungs are secure enough before you climb on it. If they can take my weight without breaking, then they shouldn't pose any problem for you." Kivamus waved him on to go first, but the old carpenter frowned at the guard captain.

"Don't doubt my craftsmanship so easily, lad! I can guarantee that it won't break. I always do my job properly!" Hudan snorted as he began to climb.

"So let me do my job properly as well. It's my duty to verify it's safe before I let Lord Kivamus come here." Taniok huffed at that but didn't say anything. Despite his gigantic frame, Hudan's body was pure muscle, and he easily climbed over the ladder and reached the top of the tower, before he called out to him that it was safe. Kivamus looked at Duvas for a moment, who gave him an encouraging nod, before he began to climb as well.

This wasn't the first construction project in the village, but it was still the highest one, and after the palisade walls, it was the most important thing to ensure the safety of the village. As he climbed, he was glad about his recent workouts and training with the guards in the past few months, since they had toned his body well enough that it wasn't difficult to climb the ladder at all, unlike when he had just arrived in this world - when it might simply have been impossible with his flabby body.

It didn't take him long until he reached near the top, when Hudan moved a hand towards him and helped him to the top. Walking towards the parapet in the front, he just gazed at the surroundings for a long minute. The snow cover was heavier outside the village walls, and the closest trees of the forest were more than five hundred meters away, giving them a clear line of sight for a good distance.

The northern road going towards Cinran was easy to recognise despite the snow cover, because of the wagons and all the workers - who were digging fire clay, building the dam, and mining coal - who passed through this road, before it bent towards the east somewhere around eight hundred meters away from the village walls.

He looked all around the surroundings of the village, including the vast amount of land sitting empty there just waiting to be utilised, making him feel a whole lot of satisfaction for his plans in the future. When he used to live in London in his past life, the company where he worked was looking to expand its office space, because they had hired too many people in recent years and didn't have enough space to put them to work.

But because of the astronomical prices of acquiring that office space in the downtown area, the company had always kept postponing it. However, today, in this new world, the situation had completely reversed itself. While he was always short on workers and skilled craftsmen in Tiranat, he wasn't going to be short on land for a long, long time. He walked towards the opposite side of the platform on the watchtower, towards the village, and gazed downwards over the parapet.

"Duvas, can you climb the ladder as well? You will love the view from here." The majordomo hesitated for a moment before he sighed.

"Wouldn't I love to... But I can't, milord. Not anymore. My body just doesn't have the strength these days for me to climb a ladder safely." Kivamus gave an understanding nod, before remembering that Duvas was pushing sixty years of age by now. While the majordomo was more than capable of climbing the stairs in the manor house, pulling his own body weight to climb a vertical ladder seemed to be too much for him. If only they had a lift here...

But then again, if they had the technology to make a good quality lift here, then they probably wouldn't even need to rely on a wooden watchtower to protect the village in the first place. Walking back towards the northern side, he looked at the carpenter.

"Well done, Taniok. You always make sure to come through on your promises." Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. The old carpenter rubbed his bald head in embarrassment.

"I'm just doing my job, milord." Kivamus smiled.

"That's true, but you are still doing it quite well. Anyway, there is barely an hour of sunlight left today, so you won't be able to do much before it gets dark, but from tomorrow you should start working on the watchtower near the south-west gate of the village. We open the village gates in these two directions every day, so it's important that we can give them some added cover with a watchtower as soon as possible."

"Of course," the carpenter nodded.

"I'll still use the remaining daylight today to transfer more construction materials there."

"That's a good idea," Kivamus praised. Hudan glanced at him.

"This watchtower is going to be very helpful for us. I have already shortlisted a few aged men from the village who have also been cleared by sir Duvas for their trustworthiness. Today, I'll make a schedule for their watch duty, so that one of them is here all times of the day, in two of the three shifts every day."

"Why only in two shifts?"

"Oh, in the night shift, when the danger of a raid is higher, I'll put a woman guard with a crossbow up here. During the day, the older men will still serve as our extra eyes to give us a warning in case of an attack, but no bandit is foolish enough to attack a walled village in daytime, so most likely these older men are only going to warn us about wild beast attacks." He added, "Those beasts aren't going to attack us with a plan in advance, so we can deal with them even without a crossbow-woman up here.

But if it's a bandit raid, they will be smart enough to wait for the cover of the night before rushing towards the gates, which is why a trained crossbow-woman will be helpful to cut down their numbers before they reach the walls."

"The bandits will still be able to see that we have a watchtower here while staying in the forest cover," Kivamus commented, "so they wouldn't be stupid enough to attack from this direction..."

"Of course," the guard captain nodded.

"If an attack happens before all the watchtowers are completed, it will likely happen from a direction where we don't have a tower. Hopefully this situation will only last a few weeks until all the towers are built, but after that, from wherever a raid happens - especially in the night - these women will be able to take out a few bandits easily enough.

It will be even more effective for the first few months, since the bandits wouldn't expect that we have something like a crossbow, which is usually only found in Fort Aragosa with the Duke's army." Hudan added, "I'll also make sure the guardswomen do some target practice from up here, since they only have experience of shooting from a level ground until now."

"True enough," Kivamus agreed.

"Order the fletcher to make a few hundred more bolts, so there is no shortage of them for practice. Keep the iron tipped ones in reserve, for use in case of a real attack, but for regular target practice, the women shouldn't hesitate in using bolts." Hudan nodded.

"We already have a small stockpile of bolts but I'll give another order to the fletcher for this. When we have enough of them, we can even put a quiver or two up here all the time, so that a guard doesn't have to worry about running out of bolts in case of a raid."

"That's a good idea," Kivamus said.

"Those fully wooden bolts don't cost us anything apart from the wages of the fletcher, so they can use it freely enough." Thinking more about it, he added, "Starting tomorrow, you should also begin training those older watchmen in the usage of crossbows.

Unlike the guardswomen, they won't be allowed to take away the crossbow to their homes, but in case we aren't able to send a trained female guard to help them in shooting, or during the daytime when they are here alone and a wild beast attacks us, they should still be able to support our swordsmen from up here using the crossbow."

"I was already thinking of that," Hudan replied.

"I'll make sure they have a good idea of how to use them."

"One thing is still bugging me though," Kivamus muttered.

"Will these older men even be able to climb the ladder safely? Duvas didn't even want to try it." Hudan chuckled.

"There is no worry about that. I am only shortlisting those men who still look strong enough to climb a ladder. That's why I only said that it's a shortlist for now, since I'll finalise them only after they have proven that they can climb on this watchtower by themselves. I'll take those tests tomorrow, and then I'll select the best ones as the watchmen."

"Good, good," Kivamus smiled, grateful that the guard captain had thought of everything. Soon, he began to climb down from the watchtower along with the other two men. Taniok quickly took his leave along with his apprentices and began using a few hand carts, a couple of wheelbarrows as well as the horse pulled log-mover, to start moving the leftover construction material to the southwestern gate.

Hudan was talking with the guards on gate duty, to put one of them up on the watchtower for tonight until he brought the older men to replace them from tomorrow. In the meantime Kivamus looked at the majordomo.

"Was Yeden able to install the second sluice gate in the dam yesterday?"