Chương 347: 343. Circumstances

Late in the next morning, Kivamus stood near the manor gate, watching as Duvas oversaw three sacks of grain being loaded onto a wagon bound for the southern farms. The three hunting groups had already left early, and after buying wheat from the merchant, for the first time in weeks, there was enough food to last at least ten days. That gave them some breathing room - not much, but enough. He crossed his arms, thinking about the merchants.

Their visits were still irregular - probably the lingering effect of the bandit threat on the northern roa d last autumn; trade had dropped almost completely back then. However, before the bandits had ambushed and killed the previous baron on that road, merchants had come often enough to buy nearly 500 gold worth of coal every month - at the then prices. Spring had brought improvement, and at least some merchants had started coming now, but it wasn't back to normal yet.

He hoped it would normalize completely in the near future. Right now, he was walking on a gravel path in the manor, checking on the vegetable patches planted all around the courtyard, when a servant came running from the gate. The man was flushed and breathless.

"Milord! Another merchant has arrived. It's Trevalo!" Kivamus exhaled slowly, then smiled.

"Good," he said, more to himself than the servant. Maybe this was the start of things returning to normal. If Pydaso returned soon as well - and he was already overdue to come back - they might even have some luck to work with for once. Two reliable merchants coming regularly had already brought some stability back in Tiranat—and if the smaller traders followed, the village could start breathing again. But for now, he'd take any good news, and Trevalo's arrival was exactly that.

However, it wasn't as though he had any shortage of problems to deal with. Torhan was still alive somewhere, likely plotting revenge for the bandits they'd wiped out, though Kivamus figured he simply couldn't come again for at least a couple of months. Then there was the looming issue of the southern mercenaries—a threat that sat like a weight in the back of his mind. And there were other problems as well.

The families living in that temporary encampment in the north—those belonging to the desperate men who had attacked the village a few weeks ago—needed to be brought in soon, before someone else preyed on them or those men decided that they needed to take matters in their own hands again. Joric, the former slave, had also been begging to have his own family brought here from Kirnos, but that would be difficult, for more than one reason. Still, at least Trevalo was here.

If he'd brought enough grain, the sowing could finally be completed, and there might even be a small stockpile left for a few weeks of rations. The village would probably be able to return to three meals a day after this. That was something. He started walking again, making his usual circuit through the manor grounds. The weather was still pleasant, though the air had begun to dry up, which meant the summer heat wasn't far off. That meant they'd soon need to arrange proper irrigation for the farms.

For that, he wanted to start a canal from the reservoir at the dam to carry water down to the fields—a difficult project which would require them to dig through the treacherous and uneven terrain of the eastern hills. It would need careful planning and a lot of man-days of work.

Making an aqueduct directly from the reservoir would also work for this, and that would even allow them to run a waterwheel somewhere in the aqueduct's path, but they didn't have cement to make it with concrete, and it would need way too many planks or hollowed half-trunks if made from wood, even if the Fedarus wood was highly water resistant. That meant it had to be a canal.

The new water well they had planned to dig near the farms would help for now, but the canal was something that was required soon, especially if they increased the farming area from the next year, which was basically a given. He also wanted to get a proper road built from the village to the dam. The current path was a mess—half-filled potholes, puddles everywhere, loose stones on the hills, and uneven slopes that slowed down wagons.

A proper road - even if just an evenly laid out dirt road covered by gravel - would make coal transport much faster and a lot safer. Then there were the mines themselves. He'd need to fix the tunnel mouths going inside those hills before the thunderstorm season started in late summer, or they'd flood again like last year. The coal miners had already reported that some water had still pooled near the entrances after the recent rains. That had been easy enough to clear with buckets but it had still wasted time.

He also needed to think about increasing the productivity of coal mining by improving their tools, or rather, by finding a way to reduce their dependence on raw manpower. He didn't yet know what could be done about it, but there had to be ways to improve it even without access to advanced technology like steam engines. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. At least the reservoir behind the dam was already full.

The miners had even said they'd seen small fish spawning there—proof that the stream water had settled into a stable ecosystem. But it would take months, perhaps until winter, before the fish were ready to be used as food sustainably, but that was something to look forward to. Grain storage was another issue. Harvest season was still far away, but he'd need new warehouses before then.

Since its existence, Tiranat had only been buying what they needed to feed the village for that particular month, and their sole grain barn in the manor as well as the two village merchants' own shop-storage had been more than enough for that. Until now, they didn't have to care too much about grain rotting or being eaten by rats, because every sack of grain would be used up within a few weeks of buying it, and the village would just buy new grain in the next month.

But for the first time this autumn, they would get a year's worth of grain at the same time. At least 600 to 700 sacks, on the conservative side. Probably more. Hopefully more. That would require making new storage warehouses of good quality, preferably outside the manor to avoid congesting the place. It would also have to be built on small stilts, with proper protection from moisture and rats. That was another thing on their to-do list.

He also wanted to make new longhouse blocks soon—the ones already built were far too overcrowded already. Clearing the rubble and the remains of the burned shacks had finally begun in the village center, which would free up space for construction, but he just didn't have enough craftsmen to do it quickly. Their skilled workforce was already stretched thin, making crossbows, scorpions, safety lamps, mining tools, farming tools or making the triphammer, the sawmill and so on.

Well, the sawmill would help a lot in speeding-up the construction once it was ready, but the point still stood. He sighed and rubbed his forehead. He still had to pay the smoked-fish merchant in Kirnos and find a way to get a regular trade going with him to get access to another source of food. And then there was that plan he'd basically shelved for now—calling in prospectors from the north to look for metal veins in the southern forests and the mountain ranges there.

That idea looked far less promising at this point. As he had found out yesterday, those forests were crawling with mercenaries, and greedy ones at that. If there had been any precious metals or any good veins of ore there, those men would have found and claimed them long ago, and the nearby towns or cities would have known about a new source of ore there.

As it stood, most likely the mercenaries hadn't found anything, and it would be a wasted effort to send prospectors there, especially knowing that the previous baron had already tried it in the past. Still, he might try sending a small scouting party one day—but not anytime soon. They were already consuming a lot of iron in the village, but it was only a small fraction of what they would need in the coming months and years.

So even if there were no iron or other metal mines in the southern forests, he still needed to find a regular source of iron - cheap iron. That meant directly buying the ore, and smelting it here to make ingots. So, instead of wasting their precious gold on prospectors, he wanted to gain access to the iron mines of Perika, on the far side of the Nisador range.

That was a known factor, and those iron mines had been very productive in the past, which meant trying to purchase iron ore from there would be far more efficient than sending prospectors to stumble around in the southern forests, which likely didn't even have anything. But that meant passing through Kirnos, which in turn meant dealing with Baron Farodas—and paying his border taxes and custom duties. He might not even allow it easily, if only to prevent a rival barony from getting stronger.

He exhaled deeply, forcing himself to stop worrying. He knew he couldn't keep thinking through a dozen problems at once. He had to focus on one thing at a time. Trevalo had arrived. That was what mattered today. If he could buy all the grain the young merchant had brought—even on credit—that would keep the village stable for a while longer. He took another deep breath and turned back toward the manor hall. Duvas would be bringing Trevalo in soon enough. It was time to talk business.

The manor hall was quiet except for the soft crackle of a few candles kept on the side table. Duvas sat across from Kivamus, a ledger open beside him, while the young merchant Trevalo rested his hands on his knees, looking tired but content. Two guards stood by the wall, silent and watchful, as they always did when someone from outside visited - especially when Hudan and Feroy were out on other tasks - instead of leaving Kivamus and the majordomo alone. Kivamus leaned forward slightly.

"Trevalo, you own six wagons, and I clearly remember that the last time you visited here, I told you to bring as much food as you could. So why did you bring only four wagons worth of wheat with the remaining two wagons empty?"