Chương 411: 406. Spoils - II

Hudan didn't have to think long before he shook his head.

"Those days are far behind me. It's been more than a decade since I trained as a squire, and by now I'm more used to moving around in the freedom of a leather armor to even consider wearing plate. You should keep it for someone else." Duvas frowned.

"Whoever we give it to, I'm not sure it's a good idea to do something that obvious like putting someone in plate armor, which would obviously have been stolen. With how difficult it was for us to pay taxes last time, even the count would know we can't afford to buy new plate armor. And whoever we give the armor to will have no previous history as a knight, which means he couldn't have brought the armor with himself, like the older knight who lived here in the past did." Kivamus looked at the ex-mercenary.

"Can someone find out if it is stolen?" Feroy shrugged.

"It depends. Every armorer who makes something as valuable and noticeable as plate armor puts their initials or a symbol on the inside of the armor, usually accompanied by the name of its owner. But it's not like any random person can ask a knight to take off his armor so he can check who owns it. Plate armor is usually passed down to a son when a knight retires, so the name of its current owner will often not meet the name inscribed on the inside."

He continued, "Anyway, if there's someone wearing plate armor in Tiranat, that means you as a baron made him a knight. That means it would have to be someone of a similar or higher station than the new knight who could ask details about anything like that." Feroy paused.

"We don't get visits from nearby barons, while the count has way too many other problems these days—his debt to Zoricus, the Binpaazi raids and his drunkard son amongst them—to worry about something like this even if he hears about it. Although Sir Tuilas—his nephew, who accompanied the tax collector—will surely ask about it if he comes again in the autumn." Kivamus thought about it.

Other than Hudan—who wasn't interested in wearing it anyway—there was no one else in the village who had any former training of how to move around and fight in heavy plate armor. He looked at the others.

"Let's just keep the armor in storage for now. No one else knows how to use it properly anyway. Hudan could teach any chosen person about it, but we have other priorities right now. But I'm sure we can find some good use for it in the future. If nothing else, it will serve as a template for... Leave it for later." He looked at Feroy.

"You did really well here. Far better than my expectations. Bringing 18 liberated slaves, with four more coming soon, is going to add to our workforce noticeably, and that's apart from all the loot you brought. Plate armor won't help us immediately, but that gold is going to be immensely useful." Feroy shrugged.

"Just doing my job... You don't know how happy the slaves were when they finally saw the walls of Tiranat. We even brought their ownership papers from the knight's farmhouse, and they burned it themselves the moment they entered the village, as proof of my promise that they'd be living as free men in Tiranat."

"Where are the slaves now?" Duvas asked.

"We had no idea you'd be coming with so many slaves, or I'd have made some preparations for them."

"The guards are helping them settle in the jail room here in the manor," Feroy replied.

"I know the longhouses are stuffed far beyond capacity, so this was the only place that'd keep them dry in this rain, while also ensuring there'd be other guards here to keep an eye on them for the next few days."

"That'll work. I'll talk with Madam Nerida to get them some warm food," Duvas said. Feroy looked at Kivamus.

"When's the third block going to be finished, though? When I left, the construction was barely starting, and now it looks nearly ready to use. The sawmills are working well, I guess." If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Kivamus nodded.

"It won't be long now. The builders are working on the roof now, so just a few more days and the outer structure will be complete. Half of them have already started making bunks, so let's say 4 or 5 more days and then the third block will be ready to use. We can house nearly 250 people here, so it'll take care of most of the overcrowding in the first two blocks. It's already helping, though." Feroy looked at him in confusion.

Duvas explained, "You must've seen this is a two-story block, and the builders are making the roof of the upper floor now. That means the lower floor is already livable and covered from rain. We don't have enough bunks built there yet, but when the rains started a few days ago, we had no choice but to shift those people who'd been living in the open courtyards of the first two blocks to some other location. This was the only place that could hold enough people, even though they're only living on the floor now."

"Oh," Feroy said.

"I didn't know it was ready to use, or I would've told the slaves to be shifted there instead."

"No, this is better," Kivamus said.

"When slaves arrive in small groups, then it's fine to let them live with the others immediately, but it's never a good idea to do the same for such large groups. We'll let them stay in the jail room for a few more days, and then shift them to the third block when it's ready." He looked at Feroy curiously.

"Are there any good craftsmen in the group?" Feroy paused.

"Not exactly, but there's a guy who used to be a wainwright's apprentice in the past. You know the knight was smuggling drugs through his farm, so he tried his best to limit contact with the outside world. So last year he bought a slave from Cinran who used to be a wainwright's apprentice there, so he could get his wagons or carts repaired in-house. I had a chat with him on the way, and found that the man has never built a full wagon yet, but he's worked on all parts of it when he was training with his master.

So I think he can do the work of a wainwright here if provided with all the proper tools. He didn't have much at the farmhouse apart from some simple repairing tools." Kivamus looked at the majordomo, who grinned.

"Then we'll provide him all the tools he needs. Darora is a master craftsman, and he can provide whatever this wainwright needs. Finally! We can make wagons here!" Duvas nodded.

"I think this is the best way for us, even if he's not that experienced. Wainwrights often make enough coin to live a good life in towns and cities, so it would have taken a long time before one of them decided to move to a village like Tiranat willingly. In the meantime, Trevalo's six wagons have been helping us a lot, but he'll be returning in a few weeks, and then every project depending on those wagons will slow down. But now…" The majordomo smiled.

"I'll meet with Darora tomorrow and take the wainwright with me so they can decide how it'll work. Wagons take a long time to build, especially when starting from scratch like this, without even proper tools to help, but once everything's ready, we could start getting one or two new wagons every month."

"Then we've got to give all the supplies and apprentices that this wainwright needs," Kivamus said.

"Our coal output is increasing regularly with the arrival of more slaves and refugees every week, so we really do need more wagons to transport it." He looked at Feroy.

"How was Hyola on the tour?" The ex-mercenary shrugged.

"She's too much of a hothead right now to do something as sensitive as spreading rumors without letting the authorities find out about us. Although she still behaved much better than I expected, apart from that time. But then again, you can't expect anyone with morals to stay idle when those guards were taking that woman away. So I agree with what she did, but it could've been a serious problem if there were more guards. There were other ways to go about it, like making proper plans before killing the guards.

I think it'll be a good idea not to take her on the rumor-spreading missions for now." Kivamus nodded slowly.

"That's okay. I was already thinking of changing who goes with you. From the next time, take a different male and female guard on each of your weekly trips. That'll give them experience of what you're doing, so they can do it by themselves in the future. In a group of three you will still be fairly mobile, and having two other guards with you will help you to get out of trouble in a pinch.

And like I said earlier, I'm planning to increase the scale of bringing slaves and spreading rumors in the future, so many more such squads of guards will need to be out of Tiranat for that—we've named them liberation squads. So you can train any suitable guards in this when you take them with you, so they can do everything by themselves in the future without you overseeing them. We can't afford for you to stay out of the village for such long times anyway.

So once you've trained a few such teams, they'll do it by themselves, and I'll have you here as an advisor unless you're needed elsewhere."

"Fine with me," Feroy said.

"What about me going to Kirnos as a merchant? Didn't you want to start a regular trading caravan from here to that village?"