Chương 462: 456. Negotiation - I

Kivamus smirked a little.

"Nah. Not scorpions. Those are only a temporary solution. I'm talking about a different thing- let's leave the names for when we are ready for it.. I can't for sure say if we'll be able to build it within a year, but I'll still try. And whenever it's ready, dealing with knights will become child's play." He paused.

"Actually, it'll literally become child's play if we hand that weapon to a child, since even he can kill a knight with it." Hudan just stared at him.

"I know that's not a good idea for so many reasons," Kivamus said.

"Still, you get what I mean." Duvas chuckled under his breath. He knew exactly what Kivamus meant. Hudan still looked thoroughly unconvinced.

"You mean you know of a weapon that would let a child kill a knight?" He barked out a laugh.

"Surely you're joking, milord." Kivamus only shrugged.

"You don't have to believe me yet. You'll see when it's ready." That made Hudan grin.

"Yeah, well, I can't wait for that." Then Kivamus looked toward Duvas again.

"Were there any problems with meal distribution in the longhouse blocks? Now that people are getting paid, but still don't have much choice in what they eat?" The majordomo sighed.

"People are rarely satisfied. Nothing serious happened, but I did hear complaints through the supervisors." He adjusted the ledger under his arm before continuing.

"Some wanted more meat, saying it had been weeks since they last got any. Others wanted something sweet, like the toloraberry pies Madam Helga makes." Kivamus nodded slowly.

"The meat problem should take care of itself within a week. We've already sent out five hunting groups. The pies will have to wait, though. The hunters can only bring enough honey right now to make a few pies every week, and we can't even give more than a bite or two of that to the manor residents. But we've already put a lot of beehives around the farms, so by winter we should be getting a good amount of honey here."

"I know," Duvas said.

"And I already explained that to the supervisors so they could pass it on. But people are still unhappy about half their wages being cut when they can't choose what they want to eat." He glanced toward the village beyond the manor wall.

"That has also increased the questions about the tenement blocks, where they'll get full wages and can buy and eat whatever they want. On the brighter side, this also means the merchants in the market square have started doing good business already. I think we may even go above the revenue we expected from them in taxes. It's still a small amount, around 30 to 40 gold, but more is always better." Kivamus nodded.

"That's helpful. And that's just how people are. Once they get used to one thing, they start wanting something better. Better living conditions. Better food. Better work conditions." Hudan snorted.

"I say they should be grateful for what they're getting. A lot of them were slaves only a few weeks or months ago. There they had nothing. Now they have a roof over their heads and food in their bellies, and they're still dissatisfied? Greedy bastards." Kivamus shook his head.

"No. That's not how we should look at it." Hudan quieted.

"This habit people have," Kivamus said, "of getting dissatisfied with their current circumstances—that's what leads them to ask for change. And that's what leads to progress." He leaned back in the chair a little.

"For now, we're the ones providing everything to the village. But that same mindset will mean that before long, the villagers themselves will start thinking of ways to improve their own lives. Or they'll suggest improvements in their own work. One person's small improvement doesn't look like much. But when many people keep doing that, day after day, it adds up." He looked at Hudan directly.

"That is how we get the kind of change I want to see here. That is how we get more researchers and inventors in the village, which will make it easier for me to give them a basic idea and let them build on it themselves." Hudan thought about that for a moment.

"I guess that makes sense when you put it like that. I hadn't thought of it that way." Then he gave a short grin.

"But I don't have the kind of mind you do." Kivamus chuckled.

"It's not about that. We just need to do our best in whatever our own work is." He pointed lightly toward him.

"You're already doing exactly what I mean. I tell you the basic ideas, and then you keep coming up with new ways to train the guards better. That's the same kind of thing." Hudan listened without interrupting. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"I can't expect you to invent another medicine like Syrene did," Kivamus said.

"That's her work. Your work is different. For you, it's enough to train the guards as well as you can and make the village stronger and more defensible in any way you can think of. That's all I ask." Hudan grinned more broadly at that.

"Yeah, I can do that much for sure." Duvas had been watching the servants and maids moving between their chores in the yard. Now he looked back toward Kivamus.

"About the tenement blocks," he said, "I have to admit, this was another idea of yours I didn't fully believe in." Kivamus looked at him with some interest.

"I mean," Duvas went on, "until last autumn, people here just built simple shacks from branches and lived in them for free. Even now they can live in the longhouse blocks without paying anything. So I didn't think there would be any real demand for a kind of housing where people have to pay rent to live there." He gave a small shrug.

"But I suppose Tiranat really has changed in many ways." Kivamus nodded.

"It has. That reminds me, I need to get back to work. I want the blueprint finished within a few days, so the longhouse construction team can start on it as soon as they're done with the fourth block. The other construction team will be tied up with the barracks for at least another month."

"I'll take my leave too," Hudan said, glancing toward the gate guards again.

"The experienced guards are on duty at the village gates, so we've put new recruits at the manor gates for now. I need to bring them up to speed. We've been hearing adzee howls more often these days, and I want everyone to stay alert."

"Go on then," Kivamus said.

"I'll come with you," Duvas added.

"I need to do more work on the expense ledger. I want to make sure there aren't any mistakes in the calculations."

"Alright then." Kivamus stood up from the chair, and the three of them started back toward the manor house.

When the merchant Trevalo returned to Tiranat in the evening, nearly four weeks had passed since he had left for Ulriga. Kivamus met him in the manor hall that evening, after the day's work had mostly settled outside. The hall still held a little of the day's warmth, though the air coming through the shutters had turned cooler. The smell of lamp oil mixed with old wood and the faint dust that always seemed to cling to the manor no matter how often the servants swept it.

Trevalo looked worn from the road and river, but not defeated. His cloak had travel creases in it, and there was a darker line of dust around the hem. He had the tired look of a man who had spent too many days counting costs and bargaining with people who wanted more coin than they deserved. But his eyes were alert, and when he took his seat across from Kivamus and Duvas, there was a certain steadiness in him. That alone told Kivamus the journey had not been wasted.

Duvas sat beside Kivamus with a few papers already laid out in front of him. His inkpot was uncorked, his reed pen resting across the top of it. Tesyb stood in one corner of the hall with another guard, both quiet and watchful. Their presence was not threatening, but it was deliberate. Trevalo was trusted more than most merchants by now, but he was still an outsider, and there were matters discussed in the manor these days that could not be treated carelessly.

Trevalo glanced once toward the guards, then back to Kivamus. If he noticed the reason for their presence, he did not comment on it.

"Well," Kivamus said, leaning back slightly in his chair, "you've been gone long enough that I was starting to wonder whether Ulriga had decided to keep you." Trevalo gave a tired laugh and rubbed one hand across his chin.

"Ulriga would keep anyone if there was profit in it, my lord. Thankfully, I came back before they could think of a fee for letting me leave." Duvas let out a quiet snort. Kivamus smiled a little.

"Then tell us. How did it go?" Trevalo straightened, and the joking edge faded from his face.

"Better than I had expected in some ways, harder in others. The route itself works. That is the most important thing." Kivamus nodded for him to continue.

"As planned, I first took the wagons from Tiranat to Cinran. The road took three days with the wagons, and there was no major trouble. Once I reached Cinran, I went looking for a sailboat merchant who could carry bulk cargo downriver to Ulriga." Trevalo's mouth tightened.

"The first captain I spoke to gave me a price so high I almost thought he had mistaken coal for silver." Kivamus's brows drew together.

"That bad?"

"Worse than bad. He knew it was a bulk cargo and decided that meant he could charge whatever he liked. Coal is heavy, dirty, and inconvenient for a clean sailboat that would rather carry sacks of flour, cloth, or jars of oil. Or even people. He was still willing to transport it, but only if I paid enough to make the inconvenience worth his while." Duvas tapped one finger lightly on the table.

"That would eat into the price too much."

"It would," Trevalo said.

"So I asked around. Dock workers, stablemen, warehouse clerks, anyone who knew the river trade. Eventually, I found a raft captain." Kivamus looked at him more closely.

"A raft captain?"

"Yes, my lord. A proper river raft, not some loose bundle of logs. Built for carrying heavy cargo, guided by men who know that stretch of river well. He told me he had already transported coal along that route in the past, and his price was much more reasonable." Trevalo continued, "The river between Cinran and Ulriga is as safe as a river route can be. There are still delays and accidents if men are careless, of course, but it is not like taking wagons through forest roads.

And for coal, a raft does the work just as well as a sailboat, for a lower price. Better, even, in some ways. A sailboat captain complains if the cargo blackens his deck. A raft captain expects it." Kivamus considered that for a moment. He had imagined a small river sailboat when Trevalo first described the plan weeks ago, but a raft made sense. Coal did not need a fine hold. It needed a flat surface, a crew that knew the current, and enough stability to keep the cargo from spilling into the water.

"That was a good decision," Kivamus said.

"No point paying for a cleaner method when the cargo doesn't need it." Trevalo seemed relieved by the approval, though he covered it quickly with a nod.

"That was my thought as well. Once I had settled with the raft captain, I went with him to Ulriga. It is a large city, my lord. Larger than I remembered from my younger days, and busy enough that a man could spend half a day crossing from one part of it to another if the streets were crowded. And because it is the duchy's capital and a coastal city, the trade there is far greater than in Cinran." Kivamus listened carefully.

He obviously knew Ulriga was important, but hearing it described from someone who had just returned from there made the distance feel more practical. Not a faraway name on a map where the original Kivamus used to live, but a place with docks, merchants, warehouses, and people willing to buy what Tiranat could produce.