Chương 232: 229. New Arrivals

"There is nothing to worry about," the guard captain announced to the other guards.

"These people are hardly bandits, although they did have plans to steal food from the village if it came to the worst. I'll explain more later after I have informed Lord Kivamus about them. For now, take all of them to the jail in the manor, after taking whatever they have as their weapons. They will spend the night there. Also, keep an eye on them on the way, and make sure everyone stays with the group."

With that, the guard captain mounted his horse once again, and started riding towards the village, while Hyola moved to look at the new group. They only had a brazier burning nearby as well as the light of the burning torches in the hands of some guards, but it was still enough to tell the sorry state of the new arrivals. None of them seemed to have proper clothing, with rags and tattered clothes being the norm.

More than half of them were men with gaunt faces and haggard looks, some of them looking like they were barely older than teenagers, while some looked too old to be out in this weather. There were some women in the group too, looking just as underfed as others, while she was surprised to see even a few kids and children peeking fearfully from behind the adults." Hyola raised her eyebrows high. These were supposed to be bandits? Did they really think they could take on a whole village by themselves?

Most of them looked like they couldn't even lift a sword if they tried their best. Who were they? By now the guards had started collecting the weapons from the new arrivals, and Hyola realised that most of those weapons were shovels, sickles and trowels...? Didn't these people realise that they couldn't possibly fight against trained guards armed with proper swords with these... farming tools? What were they even thinking?

"Here, kiddo," she heard from her side, and turning around she found Kerel standing next to her, with all his limbs still attached to him. He had her crossbow and the quiver of bolts in his hands. He grinned.

"Seems like I didn't need it after all!" Hyola couldn't help but laugh seeing him hale and hearty.

"I'm glad to hear that!" she replied after taking her trusty crossbow from him and putting the sling around her shoulder. Once the guards had gathered anything that could pass for a weapon from the new arrivals, Feroy spoke from atop his horse.

"Come on, let's take them to the manor now." He pointed at a pair of guards, "You two will also join the watch duty at this gate for tonight - just in case there are real bandits out there - along with Kerel and Hyola who still have to finish their own watch duty here. I'll send someone to replace you two soon, so you all can have some rest too. It wasn't time for you two to be on duty, after all." Then the ex-mercenary looked at Hyola and Kerel.

"Well done, blowing the horn on time, and coming to call the other guards. Make sure nothing else enters the village tonight." Hyola nodded, and walked towards the gates, while followed by the others who would be on duty tonight. She gazed upwards at the sky and thanked the goddess for keeping everyone safe. She still didn't know what was going on with these new bandits, but Hudan would take care of it. Taking a deep breath while rubbing her arms, she readied herself for the watch duty.

While the excitement had passed without any problems, it was still going to be way too cold tonight...

~ Kivamus ~ ~ A few minutes ago ~ He had been waiting for a while now without any news, and by now even he had started getting anxious. Syryne had come into the manor hall earlier and had taken the kids to make them help in the kitchen where Madam helga was cooking dinner, so they wouldn't be thinking continuously about bandits coming to kill them.

Gorsazo and Duvas were sitting uneasily near the fireplace, while he had been pacing in the manor hall, since he was feeling too agitated to calmly sit in a place right now. Soon, the outer door opened and Tesyb walked inside wearing a fur coat.

"Milord, Hudan sent me to tell you that there is no danger to the village right now," the brawny guard reported. Immediately, there were sighs of relief from his former teacher and the old majordomo, while Kivamus nodded gratefully for the news.

"Why was the horn blown then?"

"There was indeed a group of people outside the south-western gate," Tesyb replied, "so Kerel was right in blowing the horn. That's why Hudan and other guards rode fast to that place, assuming they were bandits. Although there are women and even a few children in that group..." Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Duvas frowned.

"They aren't bandits then? Who else would be out there in this weather?" Tesyb scratched his head.

"Actually, they probably are bandits, kind of..." Now it was Kivamus' turn to raise his eyebrows.

"What are you talking about? Are they bandits or not? How could children be bandits anyway?" Once again the outer door opened and this time it was the guard captain who walked inside. Tesyb looked at Hudan gratefully.

"I think it's better if he tells you about it." The guard captain nodded.

"I'll explain everything to Lord Kivamus. You go and make sure there are no problems at the jail." Tesyb quickly nodded and exited the hall, before Kivamus looked at Hudan in confusion.

"Why would there be any problems at the jail?"

"It's better if I start from the beginning," the guard captain replied.

"When I rode to the south-western gate I saw that there was a small crowd of people with iron glinting in their hands. That's why I immediately assumed that they were bandits, so I rode out of the gates with some other guards to attack them." He continued, "However on reaching there I saw that those desperate people were far from the fearsome bandits I was expecting. They had farming tools in their hands instead of swords and spears, and none of them seemed like a killer.

Feroy agreed with me on that, and said that none of them could have killed anything in their lives, except perhaps an animal for their dinner."

"Okay..." Kivamus muttered.

"Then who are they?"

"I didn't have time to interrogate them too much, but Feroy is bringing them here so they can stay in the jail tonight, and he will ask them all the necessary questions." Hudan added, "I can still tell you that they came from the west, from somewhere near Kirnos."

"Oh, that's interesting," Kivamus said.

"Could they be immigrants?" He shook his head.

"No, that's not possible. You said they were on foot, so they couldn't have reached here this fast even if they left the same day when Feroy returned from Kirnos. Let's wait for him then." This time there was a longer delay before the outer door opened once again and the ex-mercenary walked inside. Looking at Kivamus, he smirked.

"Milord, you'll be happy to hear this news."

"Just tell us already!" Gorsazo grumbled.

"You are the third guard to come here in the past hour and we still don't know anything about who those people are!" Feroy shrugged.

"I had to make sure to get everything out of them before I came to report here." He took a seat near the fireplace before he continued, "They are a few families of farmers who had joined together for the journey, or at least they used to be farmers until a few months ago when Baron Farodas had dismissed all the farmers for the winter.

Usually, that wouldn't have been too much of a problem, since it happens every year, and just like the other locals, these people save in the summer months so they can buy food in the winter. But this year, the taxes had been increased by the baron of Kirnos, and when they couldn't pay it from their meager savings, their huts were seized by the baron's guards, and these people were thrown on the street."

The ex-mercenary continued, "Their story is similar enough to the man I met on the last day in Kirnos, which is why I know that they are likely telling the truth.

Anyway, they tried to make do with what little they had, while living in the space between other people's huts, but around a week ago, the young master Lanidas was visiting the locality and decided that he didn't want to keep those people who didn't pay taxes in his town, especially if they didn't have any hope of earning enough coin to pay the monthly taxes. These people were farmers and wouldn't start earning until the spring, which is why they were thrown out from the village.

Not knowing what to do, with the huge forests to the north of their village, and the barren wastelands in the south, one of their two remaining options was to pay enough coin to a visiting ship to travel to another place where they could find work, but without any coin in their pockets that option was out."

"That meant the only hope for them would have been to travel to the east," Kivamus muttered. Feroy nodded.

"Indeed. So, eventually a few of those families who knew each other from working on nearby farms joined together and decided to travel towards Tiranat, thinking maybe they would be able to find work in the coal mines here. This was a few days before I went to Kirnos, so I must have passed them on the way, but they had decided to hide inside the tree line whenever they saw anyone else on the road, which is why we didn't see them on the way."

He continued, "When they finally reached Tiranat in the evening after a long journey with barely anything to eat on the way, they were surprised to see tall palisade walls around the village, which was very different from what they had heard in stories from others who had visited Tiranat in the past. That's why they were hesitating before asking for a refuge here.

The guards at the south-western gate saw the farming tools in their hands - which they had stolen while escaping from Kirnos hoping it would make Tiranat more likely to take them in - and thought that those were weapons, which is why they blew the horn just in case."

"That was a good decision by Kerel," the guard captain commented.

"While this was basically a false alarm and there was no real danger to the village, it is better to be safe than sorry." Kivamus gave a nod after a moment of thought.

"You are right. So you have put them in jail for now?"