Chương 436: 431. Reports - II

"Let him try!" Hudan grinned and punched a fist into his other hand.

"We now have a strong palisade wall and six watchtowers, which Kirnos has no idea about! Actually, Torhan might have told the baron about it, since he does know about the walls, but it won't change a thing! I've also been waiting to meet with that young master Lanidas for a while after he misbehaved with Hyola. Let him come here to lead his men and I'll show him exactly what it means to deal with Tiranat!" Kivamus chuckled at the captain's confidence.

"As good a sight as it would be to see it, you know we are not in any position to resist an attack by Kirnos. They must have, what, 40 to 50 guards?" Feroy nodded.

"At least. Could be a couple dozen more, but it's somewhere around that. The baron will also have to leave some of them back there to keep order in the village, but he can still bring around 40 to 50 men here for a short campaign if he wants to. That is apart from whomever Torhan brings. He doesn't have many bandits left working under him now, after we killed them in his raid here and our own counter raid, but he can call upon those mercenaries from the second compound.

We could be looking at a force of 60 to 70 well-armed and well-trained men led by those mercenaries if it is a full scale attack, since these will be the baron's guards and not bandits. So we are in no position to defeat them without taking unacceptable losses on our side."

"Exactly," Kivamus agreed.

"We have a hundred guards now, which sounds like a lot on paper, but nearly half of them don't have any experience of a real battle and used to be laborers or miners just a few weeks ago. Even if we manage to train them to our usual standards soon, the crossbow women can only help in the defense from the watchtowers, so it will still be our 60 swordsmen against their 70, and that's the best case for us.

However, a dozen of our guards would be out escorting Pydaso and Trevalo, while we also have to start sending hunting parties again within a few days. We have to provide protection to the new encampment in the east as well, which will occupy more guards, leaving even fewer to defend the village." He continued, "So if Kirnos does attack us with their full strength, we will be at a huge disadvantage in numbers against 70 swordsmen.

The Kirnosi guards will be at least somewhat better trained than the bandits we have dealt with so far, while the mercenaries will be veterans. That's not going to be pleasant for us. It helps that we have around 30 crossbows now, but we still don't have a working scorpion in case Kirnos also brings a few knights. So let's not start thinking about picking a battle with Kirnos, alright?

We will just have to try our best to defuse the situation if it comes to that, since I don't want our village's progress to slow down because of any reason. My estimate is that by the time winter is here, we will be more than capable of dealing with any attack from Kirnos at their full strength, but until then, it's better not to give them any reason to attack us." Hudan shrugged with a grin.

"What? I'm not doing anything! But if that young master comes here, and threatens you or the village, then I won't hesitate to rub his nose into the ground." Kivamus laughed.

"I'll count on you for that. But let's not start thinking about any other battles now. Summer is already here and the mercenaries will arrive in around two months for their yearly tribute. We have already decided to pay them, but we need to be alert during that time, just in case."

"We will be," Hudan nodded.

"You can count on us for that. Now that I'm back here, I will not stop until all the new recruits can take on at least Tesyb or Kerel equally in a one-on-one battle. I met with Nesser earlier, and he said the new guards have already started behaving with discipline. Just give him a few weeks and he will bring them up to speed." Kivamus nodded.

"It was a good decision to keep him on as an instructor even after he got burnt. You have many other responsibilities, so he is doing well as a full-time instructor for recruits. But enough talking about problems." He grinned.

"Tell us what you brought from the west!" Duvas smirked at the two guard leaders.

"You both mentioned treasure?" Feroy looked at Hudan, and they both reached to their sides and brought out a small pouch each and kept it on the wooden table in the middle. Both of the pouches clinked with a sound very, very pleasant to Kivamus' ears.

"Is that...?" Duvas asked as he reached towards the first pouch. Feroy nodded with a grin.

"Yup. We didn't have a good chance to make a proper count on the way with all those refugees near us, but I do have an estimate. We also divided the loot into half between the two of us, just in case we were ambushed." If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Duvas picked up one of the pouches, while Kivamus took the other one. He opened the string tying it and looked inside. It was full of... gold coins.

He also saw a few gold rings with gems encrusted in them, but most of it was the dull yellow coins which ran this world. He hefted the pouch in his hand, trying to estimate the weight, but gave up and looked at Feroy.

"How much is it? Tell me! I'm getting impatient." Feroy grinned and looked at the captain.

"You want to do the honors?" Hudan shrugged.

"The total is somewhere around..." He looked at the others with a beaming smile.

"Come on!" Duvas snorted.

"Tell us already!" The captain chuckled.

"Apart from the gold rings and the gems, we stole around 900 gold from that bastard."

"900 gold?" Kivamus exclaimed.

"That's a lot more than I was expecting..." Duvas nodded.

"Including the rings, which we probably can't sell anyway outside of the black market, it will be about 1000 gold! That is... that is beyond any of our expectations... I was thinking that I would consider this counter raid fully successful if you just managed to loot 500 gold from Torhan, because of all the associated risks with it, but you brought far more!"

"You don't know the half of it," Feroy snorted.

"The bastard had hidden everything under an active latrine ditch! That's why none of the slaves ever found out about it."

"That's... Wow!" Kivamus shook his head in wonder.

"This guy really likes his gold, that's for sure." He looked at the pouch in his hand, and got a sudden urge to throw it away, then he shook his head. No, this gold was buried under a layer of mud, so it was clean enough... Right? Feroy noticed his expression and laughed.

"Don't worry, we cleaned it as well as we could with a bar of soap we had taken with us, and burned the cloth it had been wrapped in. That pouch is our own. I did have to promise the men who did the digging an extra share for their trouble. We'll need to divide some of that amount equally amongst all six of them." Kivamus nodded.

"That's fine by me. I can't even imagine what the guards went through to get this gold. They deserve the bonus. Let's say, three gold coins for each of the guards?"

"It works," Hudan agreed.

"That's nearly a month's extra wages. They'll be more than satisfied with it." Kivamus looked at Duvas to give the order but the majordomo was still looking at the pouch, probably contemplating where that gold had been before now.

"Forget it..." Duvas sighed loudly.

"I guess gold is gold, even if it was buried right under shit." Kivamus laughed seeing the majordomo curse openly. He looked at Feroy.

"If this is just the savings from that clay mine, Torhan surely has some more gold kept in Kirnos, and some at the second compound. He's far richer than I thought. If the other two stashes are anything like this, he would have saved nearly 3000 gold by now, not that we can take it. That is a huge amount. I didn't have that much in savings as a Duke's son when I came here..." Feroy nodded.

"Yeah, but for you that was a small amount saved in the last year or so. But it took Torhan all his life to save that much. Either way, we liberated 57 slaves and more than 900 gold coins and those rings from him without taking any losses on our side. We also got three wagons, six horses, the swords and leather armor from the bandits, as well as a few good bows and spears. I say that's a win, even if we couldn't hit the second compound."

"It is a huge win indeed," Kivamus agreed with satisfaction.

"It helps that there were no major injuries. The village has thankfully been safe in the time you all were out, but there was an adzee sighting in the eastern hills two days ago, and we are hearing their howls more often now which means another pack has come roaming nearby. We might get hit by another adzee attack in the coming days. But it should be easier to deal with all the guards present." He looked at the captain.

"But you have to send half a dozen guards to protect the diggers who are making the new road and canal to the dam. Having a couple of crossbows but no trained men is not going to protect them if an adzee comes sniffing. Let's say another half dozen men at the dam site. The coal miners can protect themselves with their huge numbers and with the protection of the mineshafts.

I've been told that adzees like to stay away from large human populations, so they will likely skip the mines once they see how many people are there." Hudan nodded.

"I'll take care of it before those workers leave tomorrow. We had already planned to start patrolling around the farms, so we can also start that from tomorrow. That will be easy enough to manage since the off-duty guards have agreed to sit and rest at the treeline around the farms instead of sitting here in their resting time. It gives them a reason to get out of the village while also helping out. I will still have to put a few men for patrols around the farm during the night but it will not occupy many guards.

We also have to send hunting groups out from tomorrow, since you said the smoked meat stores are nearly empty. But are you sure about mixing up women and men in those groups?"