Chương 345: 341. Mercenaries - II

"I told you that you wouldn't like it, my lord," Duvas said quietly.

"You've been dealing with enough as it is, since the very moment you arrived here. The assassination attempts, the constant raids, the pre-winter food shortages, the grain caravans... All of it. And then all the new projects you've started—the longhouses, the seed drills, the crossbows, the wheelbarrows, the compasses… You've been active every waking moment just trying to keep this place alive. I didn't want to add one more worry on top of that. Even then, I did try to tell you about it in the past. Twice.

But I just couldn't find the courage to burden you with it at the time since I believed we had enough time to prepare before the tribute was due. Forgive me, milord, I was only trying to help you..." Kiva mus took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. Getting angry at the majordomo - who was only trying to take on more responsibilities himself, so he wouldn't have to burden him with it - wasn't going to help anyone here.

"Never again, Duvas. This is the last time you have intentionally hidden something from me." The majordomo nodded slowly.

"It won't happen again, milord. Trust me. But with summer getting closer, we do have to start thinking about how to handle it." Hudan's jaw tightened.

"How long before that bastard Velonox comes here?"

"Two, maybe three more months," Duvas said.

"He'll likely send scouts first. Then a small group will arrive, expecting us to pay them the tribute, like every year." Kivamus began pacing near the table, the boards creaking under his boots.

"And if we can't? What then? You said there are over a hundred of them. We can't possibly take on a hundred trained men! Even with our new wall, we'd be wiped out." Duvas nodded heavily.

"That's why the deal was made in the first place. Years ago, we didn't even have this many guards. There was no wall, no proper defense. If we can't fight them today with 40 guards, our crossbows and a village wall with watchtowers, then we certainly couldn't have fought them in the past when we had less than 20 guards and no wall to protect the women and children. The village wouldn't have lasted a day against them. We had no choice but to accept their demands."

Kivamus stopped walking and turned sharply toward him.

"But this is madness!" he said.

"You're saying we've just been paying them every year, like it's normal?" The majordomo just gave a reluctant nod. Hudan leaned forward, the chair creaking under his bulk.

"Did the previous baron ever ask for help from the Count? Cinran has more than enough knights. They could've dealt with those mercenaries. That's why we even pay them the taxes, for Goddess' sake!" Duvas let out a bitter laugh.

"We tried, Hudan. We tried... The count just wouldn't believe us. Said he'd heard rumors of bandits in these forests, but not of mercenaries, and certainly not of such a large group. He simply dismissed us! We had no proof to show the Count their strength, since Velonox rarely sends more than a handful of his men to collect the tribute. Even if more of those mercenaries had come, as they occasionally do, it wouldn't have mattered unless the Count came here himself to see it. And he never would."

Kivamus nearly blurted out to take their photographs as a proof, before he shook his head. What was he even thinking... The majordomo rubbed his temple.

"Back then, Count Ebirtas had just inherited his title after his brother's death in that riding accident. He was busy securing his own position in Cinran. That's why I also spoke with Sir Makanas, the Knight Commander of the town. He admitted that he'd fought those mercenaries during the last war, but he said they should've gone back to Girnalica afterward. He refused to send help—said he needed all his men to guard the eastern border against Binpaaz." Hudan nodded slightly.

"That sounds like Sir Makanas... He obeys his superiors' orders, no matter what, even if he gave a different cause for it." Feroy scratched his short brown beard.

"There might be another reason behind them not wanting to help Tiranat. From what Sir Duvas told us about those mercenaries, and from what I know about them as well, they don't just hail from Girnalica, they are basically the standing army of that country, even if unofficially. So at the time, the Count and the Knight Commander might have thought that attacking those mercenaries just to help a small village like ours could reignite another war right after it had ended in the wake of years of destruction everywhere.

I was a teenager back then, but from what I remember, Cinran's walls had been reduced to rubble by the time the war had ended, and Lord Ebirtas wouldn't have wanted another war right after that, especially if his own position as a Count wasn't secure." Kivamus gave a slow nod.

"It's certainly possible. Why risk a new war just to help an obscure village which didn't even exist during the war and had only been founded recently. They had been managing just fine without Tiranat's coal until then, so risking a new war just for some extra coal might not have been worth it in their eyes." The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Whatever the reason may have been for the Count refusing to help us, the previous baron had no choice," Duvas went on.

"Either pay Velonox's men or see the village burned. And you know as well as I do that Tiranat couldn't have survived fighting with them. Apart from that, the previous baron was only a minor noble before he had been made the ruler of this village, so losing Tiranat would have meant losing all these lands and the new lofty position he had just been granted.

So he decided to pay them and remain a poor baron - but still a baron - instead of not paying them and having to go back to Cirnan as a nobody - who also lost his village." The majordomo continued, "After a few years of the war's end, the situation had calmed down everywhere, so Sir Makanas wouldn't have been able to claim that he still had to send his knights to defend the border against Binpaaz.

But by that time we had already made a deal with Velonox, and going back on it and attacking them using the few knights Cinran might have given to help us wouldn't have ended well for Tiranat, and probably even for Cinran. Velonox's men - of course, including the other Girnalican mercenary groups as well as the Binpaazi - were the ones who had reduced Cinran's walls to rubble after all."

"Even if you had asked them for help later," Feroy said, "I don't think Lord Ebirtas would have sent knights here. By then he would have been secure in Cinran and enjoying his new life as a Count after living in the shadow of his brother all his life. Risking the start of a new war wouldn't be something he would have wanted." Kivamus stared at the floor for a long moment before sitting back down. His tone was low with disbelief as he spoke.

"I knew Count Ebirtas didn't care about anything outside Cinran and his luxuries, but this is…" He shook his head.

"Regardless of the futility of trying to ask him for help, we barely managed to pay the taxes this year, even with the help of my savings. Yeah, we basically had to pay the taxes twice, but still... How did you even afford to pay Velonox in the previous years?" The candles flickered in the still air, and for a while the only sound was the faint rasp of the fire dying in the hearth. Duvas cleared his throat.

"You remember when I told you about our expenses and income in the past?" Kivamus nodded.

"Yes. You'd told me that outside the winter months when the northern road is closed, Tiranat's monthly income was around 500 gold, and the expenses were about 440 to 450 gold. The rest went to the previous baron as profit." Duvas shook his head slowly.

"It wasn't quite like that. Most of that so-called profit went to pay off the mercenaries. So the previous baron didn't really get to spend that fifty gold every month." Kivamus frowned, leaning back slightly in surprise.

"I wasn't sure, but I had been wondering how he even managed to spend that much coin in Cinran. Fifty gold is a big amount to spend every month, even in Ulriga, and Cinran doesn't have nearly as many luxuries as that place. So this was the reason…"

"It was," Duvas said quietly.

"Still, we have to start thinking about paying them again. Assuming they don't try to increase the tribute, we'll still need to pay 400 gold by the end of summer. Although they might try to increase it this time..." Kivamus let out a breath, rubbing the back of his neck.

"There's no way I can see us paying that. If we can sell enough losuvil powder as acelos medicine, it might be possible—but I wanted to use that money to improve the village, not hand it over to mercenaries. And now you've given me another problem that will take nearly everything we earn." He turned to look at Feroy, who was sitting across the table.

"Is there really no way we can fight them?" Feroy shook his head at once.

"There's no chance. Not with what we have right now. Our forty guards include fewer than thirty swordsmen. And these mercenaries—Velonox's group and the others—they're not like the bandits living in the north and west of us. You have to understand, these men aren't ex-farmers and laborers who turned to crime out of desperation. They are soldiers, the vanguard of Girnalica's army. Taking over or burning down a small village like ours would be nothing to them.

In fact, that's probably why no bandit groups ever go south. That territory belongs to the mercenaries." He rested his arms on the table.

"These mercenaries aren't just strong—they're ruthless. The bandits we've fought, most of them used to be farmers or miners before they turned to this life. They still remember what it's like to be poor, so even when they raid, they usually avoid killing civilians unless it's necessary. They're after loot, not slaughter. Even Torhan, for all his cruelty of setting the houses on fire just before winter, didn't kill villagers for no reason once he got what he wanted in that raid." Feroy exhaled.

"But mercenaries are just different. I've fought beside men like them. They don't care who they kill. For them, killing is as normal as breathing, even if they also want to plunder in case of a war or take tributes in peacetime. If this Velonox ever decides to attack us, his people won't try to storm the gates to get inside, like the bandits did to loot grain and gold.

The mercenaries will start by setting the walls and towers on fire, and if they get inside—or rather, when they get inside—they'll likely kill a quarter of the people here just to set an example. That's how they make sure no one ever thinks about refusing to pay them their tribute again." Kivamus shook his head, trying to get that gory image out of his mind. He stared into the distance for a few moments before speaking again.

"What about our crossbows? Wouldn't they help us against them in a battle? Surely those weapons can work just as well against mercenaries as they did against bandits. Or do these mercenaries have plate armor like the knights do?"