Chương 435: 430. Reports - I

"Good, you are here too." Kivamus looked at the others and nodded.

"Let's start then." Once Feroy had taken a seat, the captain started explaining everything about the raid—how the scouts had been hiding in the trees for a week before the attack, how the attack itself had gone, as well as the aftermath where Joric had helped to convince all the slaves to return with them. They had also burned the cabins, walls, and barns there before returning, and right now there was nothing left at the place apart from piles of ashes and clay.

The bad news was that Torhan hadn't been present, and was probably in Kirnos at the time based on the rumors Levalas had heard there. Their return journey had also been peaceful enough apart from a boar attack, but that had been easily taken care of with so many guards present. It had also helped in feeding the refugees until they arrived here. However the captain also spoke about a troubling thing—there was a second compound owned by Torhan north of the one they had just razed to the ground.

"Are you sure about it?" Kivamus asked.

"What if those few bandits were just leaving to hunt in the north?" Feroy shook his head.

"No, I've talked with a clay miner who'd been to that compound a year ago. It exists for sure, and from what he described about the place, most likely it's used for processing Veydril, so it is going to be much better defended as well. Since our victory was overwhelming over the first compound, we had discussed if it was feasible to hit the second one as well, but we decided not to.

The forests get much denser north of that, and the miner said that the path is treacherous and we would need a guide—one of those men living at the second compound—just to find it. We decided it wasn't worth the risk and Tiranat was also basically undefended at the time."

"I think that was a good choice. But Veydril again, huh?" Kivamus muttered.

"I wonder why I never heard of it when I was living in Ulriga."

"Probably because you spent most of your time hiding in the library," Duvas snorted, "even if only to stay away from your brother. You didn't have any reason to look for drugs."

"Yeah, wine was more than enough for me at the time..." Kivamus grimaced, remembering the time when he had just arrived in this world, and had found that the original Kivamus had become a serious drunkard in the few months before that time. Feroy nodded.

"For the nobles who can afford it, they have wine and other spirits to relax. Veydril is how poor people cope with their lives, assuming they have the coin for it. Well, it's not that costly for a single hit, but it gets addictive if used often enough."

"But why haven't we heard anything about Veydril here?" Kivamus asked.

"You said it's common enough in Cinran, and that that retired knight was smuggling it to Ulriga. So why not Tiranat too?" Feroy shrugged.

"People in small villages like Tiranat and Kirnos are way too poor to afford it. And neither of these villages are big enough markets for the drug runners to target if they want decent profits. It will only risk getting their runners identified and reported to the Count. But a big town like Cinran with a population of 3000, and Ulriga with its 50, 000 people? Yeah, they have huge demand for stuff like Veydril, and it is easy for a drug runner to escape in those places if authorities go after them." Kivamus snorted.

Tiranat's small population had made it difficult to find enough workers for doing anything right from the time he had arrived here, but in a way it was also a blessing that it wasn't a big enough place for the drug runners to target. Yet. He didn't know how he would have managed everything if, apart from the other issues, he also had to deal with a drug addiction problem here.

"So what were you saying about the second compound?" Feroy explained, "From what the miner described about the men living at that compound, they are most likely mercenaries, not just common bandits. They would surely be keeping a few dozen slaves there to process the plant and make it into the drug, but it is going to be guarded by veteran mercenaries."

"Mercenaries...?" Kivamus muttered.

"Even if we wanted to, they are not going to be easy to deal with, are they?"

"No, they are not," Feroy agreed.

"That miner's estimate was there were around two dozen mercenaries at the second compound, but that was a year ago, so the number might have increased by now. It will probably become even better defended in the future once Torhan finds out about the first compound. It wasn't possible for us to attack that place without risking horrible losses on our side." This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Kivamus nodded.

"That was a good decision. You still did everything we had planned. We got 57 new workers, taking the population to above 650, and we managed to hit Torhan right where it hurts. Of course he might be getting even more profits from the drug, but losing that many slaves he had bought as well as his so-called treasure is not going to be easy for him to recover from.

One side effect of this may be pushing Torhan closer to Kirnos—because the clay supplies to the village will nearly stop until they can restart it, which will take months at least—although that was already true because their baron still seems to care for his illegitimate son."

"I say let them unite," Hudan grunted.

"It will be easier to take out our enemies if they are bunched together." Kivamus snorted.

"Kirnos is hardly our enemy, but you're still right. Torhan was already hiding in Kirnos this time from what Levalas said, and he's unlikely to be staying in just a random house there. Most likely he's a guest right inside the baron's manor." Duvas exhaled.

"There are a lot of legal implications in our counter raid, since we attacked someone who legally owned that land and all those slaves. So it would have been better if Torhan had been killed as well. But now that he is alive, he will easily connect that raid to us, since there is no one else in this region who has the ability and the desire to steal slaves and his gold, apart from Kirnos, which he knows wouldn't be the culprit here.

That means Baron Farodas will also know within a couple of weeks that we have stolen Torhan's slaves, and then it wouldn't take him long to connect that with the disappearance of slaves in and around Kirnos." Kivamus nodded slowly.

"I know, and killing Torhan would have made it much easier, but we can't help it now. Kirnos would have found out about us stealing slaves at some point anyway, but even now it's not like they have any certain proof for it which they can use in the court of Count Cinran."

"It wouldn't stop Kirnos from trying it anyway," Duvas said.

"They might even visit our village and demand us to show the ownership papers of those slaves, which we don't have."

"Hmm..." Kivamus muttered.

"They can demand all they want," Hudan growled.

"We don't need to show them shit. Baron Farodas is not a superior noble of Lord Kivamus. He has no right to order us to do anything."

"No, he doesn't need to order us anything," Feroy shrugged.

"All he has to do is send someone here in the guise of being a merchant trading for coal—probably one of Torhan's men—and then look around the village to see if they recognize one of the slaves from the clay mine." Kivamus frowned.

"We don't get any merchants from Kirnos, so it would make it obvious what they are trying to do if someone does come from there. We wouldn't have any real reason to deny them entry, but even if they see someone they recognize, they wouldn't get any proof. It's not like they can snap a pic and show it to the count!" Duvas snorted while the two guards looked confused, probably thinking the word to be one of his idiosyncrasies, where he had a habit of using unknown words sometimes. Kivamus waved it off.

"I mean it's not like they can call the count down here to show that those slaves were theirs, and even then it will be their word against ours." Duvas nodded after a moment.

"That makes sense. The count is already busy with paying his loans to Zoricus and dealing with Binpaazi raids in the east. He has no time to deal with petty rivalries of his barons." Hudan grinned.

"That's it then? I didn't know it was going to be that easy to steal slaves, and without having any backlash at all. Levalas had heard rumors in Kirnos that people have noticed the disappearance of slaves and even some commoners, but their most likely assumption is that a merchant ship is docking some way away from the village and the slaves are escaping there for a better life.

Some people think that the slaves just ran away into the forest into the wilderness to live alone, while others say that mercenaries kidnapped them. There were a few rumors about the slaves having run to Tiranat, but those didn't seem credible to the locals. So it seems we are safe for now, especially if there is no proof that we have stolen the slaves!" Feroy snorted.

"What gave you the idea that it's going to be that easy? Baron Farodas cannot take any actions against us legally using Cinran's help, but it doesn't mean he can't do it himself. If Torhan manages to charm his father into believing his claims, then the relations between us and Kirnos are only going to get worse. In the worst case, Baron Farodas might send his own guards to attack us and steal those slaves back.

Including the former slaves who've come here from the farmhouses near Kirnos, as well as those from within that village and the ones we brought today from the clay mine, it's hundreds of men and women. That's a lot of hands to do the regular tasks like farming and mining which generate a lot of revenue for Kirnos. I think if Baron Farodas believes his bastard son's claims, he will surely send someone here to find more information, and then he might take some action himself."