Chương 183: 180. Midwinter

~ Kivamus ~ Kivamus tightened his fur coat around him. Again. Damn, it was so cold today! He should never have left the warmth of the manor hall! He was standing near the edge on the roof of the manor house with his hands on the wooden guardrails while looking around his domain. Consistent snowfall over the last month had made this place look like a winter wonderland, even though the snow gathered on the ground wasn't any more than five or six centimeters thick inside the manor.

All the trampling of the ground by so many people working all the day meant it was the same inside the village as well, but he had visited further ahead of the northern village wall a few days ago - which was ready except for the gates - where there must easily be fifteen centimeters of snow gathered in the places where people didn't walk over it.

It was afternoon right now, and while it was still as cloudy as every day, there was no wind today, so he had decided to go to the roof to get outside the manor hall where he had been spending most of his time for the past month, making him feel confined inside. He had no way to measure what temperature it was without any instrument available here, but he certainly hadn't felt this cold in London, ever.

He gazed at the inhabitants of the manor from the roof, who were working as diligently as possible even in this cold. He saw a servant using a new wooden wheelbarrow to transport some coal to a brazier burning near the stables. Those stables used to be open from one side, but he was glad that he had made the stables as well as the cattle shed closed from all sides using some planks.

A maid was drawing up some water from the well near the gates before she put that bucket on another waiting wheelbarrow, which already had another two full buckets, and then a waiting servant started pushing it to replenish the bigger barrels kept in the kitchens and the manor house. He was certainly glad that at least the previous baron had the wells dug deep enough that they didn't freeze in the winters, especially since they were kept covered when they weren't in use.

Towards the south-eastern area, he saw a group of guards practising mock battles with wooden swords. Nearby, the tall redhead Hyola and the other women guards were learning the basics under the tutelage of Kerel. Closer to the manor walls, Yufim - who was easily their best shot with an arrow - was instructing a few guards on how to hold the warbow in a better way. Kivamus gave a satisfied smile looking at that.

When they had started sending four hunting groups out of the village a few weeks ago, they didn't even have enough warbows to equip all of them. But Darora, the former stonecutter, had been just as good as he had expected, if not better. With the help of a couple of apprentices he had taken, he had already provided half a dozen new warbows for them, making it much easier to train other guards in their use.

Fedarus wood - which was strong enough to even make seaworthy ships in the shipyards of the capital Dorastiz - had thankfully turned out to be just as useful in making heavy warbows. With their new fletcher having already set up a workshop near the market square, there was no shortage of arrows either. However, he still wanted to equip his guards with crossbows, which would allow even women to be effective.

So after giving the designs of the iron parts of the crossbow to the blacksmith Cedoron, he had provided the crossbow designs to Darora a couple of weeks ago, and he could hardly wait until the new carpenter was back with the results. Looking outside of the walls of the manor, it was easy to see that the tall fedarus trees which had loomed right over it when he had arrived here, were quite far back from the walls now, with the area between them and the walls already clear of any trees.

It wasn't like he could easily measure the cleared area, but Pinoto - the foreman of the south - had given him an estimate that they had cleared nearly half the required area in the south for farming with the help of the log movers, which had made it much faster to remove the cut trees from the area. That cleared area still didn't include the extra land needed to feed the stonecutters they had brought to the village, but at least they were on the right path to start farming in spring.

The smaller branches were already being used as firewood wherever needed, but that also meant there were many growing piles of thick logs kept criss-crossed in various places at the edges of the village, to be used wherever needed. One of those piles was easily visible from here ahead of the eastern wall of the manor. Hopefully, it wouldn't be long before they could start making a dedicated training area there. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

With all the logs they were getting these days, they easily had a lot more logs kept ready now than they needed. While Fedarus wood didn't really need too much seasoning, keeping them in the open should dry them enough in only a few months that they could even make permanent structures from them, which would easily last decades, unlike the first longhouse they had built. As he gazed into the distance, he wondered how it was going in Ulriga.

His brothers in this world had succeeded in sending him away from the city, but his sister Astela should have returned back to the palace by now after visiting her sick friend. Would his brothers do the same to her and send her away once again? Or would they be doing their best to get her married to another noble for their own political gains, no matter what her wishes were? Apart from Gorsazo, she was the only one who had cared for the original Kivamus as family, despite being nearly two years younger than him.

He just hoped she would be okay in that pit of vipers called the Ulriga Palace which had been his home in this world before he was sent to Tiranat. He sighed. But what could he even do about that from here? It wasn't like he had a phone to call her in this medieval world. While he was lost in thoughts, he heard the creaking sound of the door of the stairwell opening behind him. Gorsazo walked outside, rubbing his hands together while blowing on them.

"So this is where you are! I was searching for you all inside the manor house. There is something that needs your attention." Kivamus nodded.

"Yeah, let's go back then. It's so damn cold that I was already thinking of returning." With that, they entered the stairwell and it didn't take long for them to reach the manor hall on the ground floor, where a fire was burning brightly in the fireplace. Before anything he walked close to the fire and after taking off his gloves, he put his hands as close to them as he dared, giving a sigh as he felt the warmth.

Once he had taken a seat near the fire, with Gorsazo doing the same, he looked around and saw that Leah - the village blacksmith's girlfriend - was standing nearby, with a furious looking madam Nerida also there arguing with the majordomo. It was a rare sight to see either woman inside the manor hall, so he curiously looked at Duvas. The majordomo hesitated.

"Uh... I think it's better if you listen to it directly from her," he said while gesturing to the young maid.

"What is it, Leah?" Kivamus asked her. Leah looked warily at madam Nerida for a moment, who was staring back at the maid indignantly, then the young maid turned towards him.

"Milord, I'm really sorry for taking your busy time, but it is too much! I just can't take it anymore!" Then she looked uncertainly towards the majordomo and Gorsazo, before frowning at Nerida again. Kivamus realized that it must be a sensitive matter, but other than the two women, only Duvas and Gorsazo were inside the hall, and he trusted them implicitly, so he didn't see any reason to send any of them out.

"Madam Nerida, would you mind stepping outside for a moment? I'll talk with you soon after I've heard her side." Nerida huffed, and exited the outer door, still looking angry. Kivamus looked back at the maid.

"You can speak freely here, Leah." The young maid took a deep breath, building her courage, and then started talking.

"It started soon after you allowed me to live outside the manor. You might know that my tasks mainly include sewing and repairing clothes, and you had told me that it was fine for me to live outside as long as I did all the work I was asked for during the day. And I have! But... but my workload has kept increasing, because Madam Nerida was giving me more and more clothes to repair."

"Alright," Kivamus said with a frown.

"Go on." Leah continued with a nod, "At first I thought there were just a lot of damaged clothes to repair. Everyone has been working hard these days, so I thought that all the clothing must be getting torn or frayed sooner than usual, but it just never ends! For the last few weeks, it's become so much that even after working for all the daylight hours, I've to stay back and keep sewing clothes and sheets even in the light of a brazier, but it still never ends!"

She raised her hands in frustration as she continued, "I didn't know what to think about it, but yesterday I saw that I had been given the same cloth to mend which I had sewn just a day ago! It's like someone was tearing those clothes again and again just to give more work to me!" She glanced at the outer door for a moment.

"It's like Madam Nerida wants to punish me for leaving the manor! I know she was never supportive of that decision, but this is too much, milord!" Kivamus gave a sigh.

"Alright, Leah, I think I understand what you are saying. But I need to hear her opinion as well. Why don't you tell Madam Nerida to come inside, so I can talk with her as well." Leah nodded, and soon she was back with her supervisor. Nerida looked angrily at the maid before gazing at Kivamus.

"Has she already filled your head with lies, milord?"