From Londoner To Lord

"He was using the words us and we when referring to the villagers and guards, instead of they and them." Gorsazo continued, "So I think that unless it's all a very elaborate act by Calubo - which isn't very likely - it means that Calubo still considers himself a part of the village, and maybe he even thinks of himself as a guard of the manor." He added with a shrug, "This is certainly not a definite proof, but I too think that he can be trusted."

Kivamus thought about it for a moment, and nodded to himself. "Alright then. There is certainly a risk of leaving the village nearly defenseless if our guards go out to attack those bandits in the forest, but like Hudan said earlier, we just can't take the risk of the bandits putting the villagers' houses or even the new longhouse block on fire." He continued, "And most of us are already thinking that Calubo is not lying, so let's trust him for now. That means we have to send the guards to get rid of those bandits. We can't allow them to steal our precious grain stores right before the winter."

Hudan nodded confidently. "I support this decision, my lord. I will gather the guards immediately."

"No, wait," Kivamus interrupted him. "Now that we have decided to trust Calubo for now, bring him back inside." He explained, "Since you'll have to take him with you anyway, we should ask him more about the bandits before we go to attack them. It would be much better than going in blindly without knowing what to expect."

"That's a good idea, milord," Hudan said, and exited the hall through the outer door. Before long, he was back with Calubo again.

Looking at the ex-guard, Feroy said, "We have decided to trust you for now, but in case we find even a single lie in your story, be sure that you wouldn't live to see another day."

"That's enough, Feroy," Kivamus reprimanded him.

Feroy shrugged. "Just speaking the truth, milord."

"You can untie his hands now," Kivamus gestured to Hudan. It was true that there was a small risk in untying the hands of the ex-guard, but they had to do that anyway later on, apart from giving him a sword when they took him to attack the bandits. So this was a good opportunity for him to gauge Calubo, and in case his intentions were not pure, Hudan and Feroy wouldn't waste a moment in cutting him down, especially since the ex guard was still unarmed.

The guard captain nodded, and began to undo the ropes.

Kivamus looked back at Calubo. "I have decided to send our guards to attack the bandits, but we need more information from you. What can you tell us about them?"

Once Hudan had untied the ropes, Calubo rubbed his now-reddish looking wrists for a moment, before he started speaking. "Like I told you milord, there were ten bandits which came here, but one of them is dead now." He added, "While two of them were archers, the rest of them seemed to be good with swords. At this point, I believe they would have found out that I've escaped and killed one of them, so they must be fully alert by now. That means we wouldn't get an element of surprise when attacking them."

On Kivamus' nod, Calubo continued while gesturing towards the guard captain, "Their leader, Nokozal, is a huge man of the same size as him. Before coming here, his plan was to ambush the caravan on its return journey from Cinran, but he was only expecting half the number of guards that the caravan had." He frowned for a moment. "I'm not sure if I should say this openly, but I'm pretty sure that I saw a few coal miners who were posing as swordsmen in that caravan..."

Kivamus was surprised for a moment, before he realized that Calubo had worked as a guard here for many years, so he would obviously have seen the coal miners enough times to recognize them easily. He looked at Gorsazo, who gave him a knowing smile. Kivamus chuckled as well. "So you were right after all," he said to his former mentor.

Looking back at the confused ex-guard, he explained, "Since you had already found out that the caravan looking so well defended was only a ruse to prevent an ambush on it, that means you had a good chance to tell the bandits about the reality of the caravan's defense, if you had decided to betray us and changed your side to them."

"I would never betray the village!" Calubo exclaimed. "This is my home!"

Kivamus smiled. "Yes, but we couldn't be sure about this earlier. However, the caravan has returned safely, which means you had kept your mouth shut for the safety of the village. That gives us another reason to trust you now."

Calubo breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, milord."

"Alright, carry on then."

Calubo nodded. "When Nokozal saw that he couldn't attack the caravan successfully - without losing most of his men anyway - he kept saying that he wouldn't leave empty-handed. That's why he decided to raid the village in the night. And that attack can begin at any moment!"

"We shouldn't waste any more time, milord," Hudan said urgently. "We need to attack those bandits before they raid the village."

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"That's true," Kivamus agreed. "You go and select your best men for this, and report back as soon as you can."

Hudan nodded and exited the outer doors of the manor hall.

Kivamus asked the former guard, "You mentioned the previous raid on the village. Are these the same bandits who attacked the village that time?"

Calubo shook his head reluctantly. "No. I've heard that there are a lot of bandits and outlaws hiding in those forests apart from Nokozal's group, even though most of them are just common people who are hunting and gathering in the forest to survive after they couldn't find work anywhere, or those who are running away from their debts. However, there is at least one other sizable bandit group that I know of, which is said to be organized quite well."

He continued, "I've only heard them mentioned as Torhan's group, and Nokozal said that they were the ones who raided the village earlier. From what I know, that is a much bigger and better armed group, compared to barely a dozen men of Nokozal. From what I've heard, there might easily be two or three dozen bandits in that group, if not more. However, they usually operate far away from this area, so we only have to worry about Nokozal's group for now."

"It is still alarming to hear that they might have three dozen bandits..." Gorsazo muttered with a frown. "I know the Count of Cinran doesn't focus too much on these lands, but still, how did a bandit group even grow to that big a size without anybody finding out about them."

Calubo hesitated for a moment, before he said, "Actually... I don't think it's right to say that nobody knows about them."

"What do you mean by that?" Kivamus asked.

"Like I said earlier, they operate quite far away from here," Calubo replied, "near the western coast of Cilaria, somewhere north of the Kirnos village. And from what I heard, they run a clay mine there using slaves..."

"Right..." Kivamus muttered, "and they have to sell that clay somewhere. And the only obvious place seems to be Kirnos, which means the Baron of Kirnos must certainly know about them, assuming he's not outright supporting them."

Gorsazo nodded. "He might even have known about the raid on Tiranat by that group of bandits in advance. And maybe... I probably shouldn't say this, but although Kirnos would have all year access to fishing - being located on the coast - these days food is hard to come by anywhere... That means, he might even have supported or helped the raid on Tiranat for a share of the spoils."

Kivamus shook his head slowly in exasperation. The medieval politics of this world was as dirty and cutthroat as he had expected it to be. Some baron in Cinran was supporting Nokozal's group of bandits to get limestone at dirt cheap rates using slave labour, and most likely, the Baron of Kirnos was also supporting a group of bandits to get clay for cheap - and of course, he was also using slave labour for that, even if indirectly. He knew that profits reigned supreme nearly everywhere, but this was on top of some noble who was already trying to assassinate him. He exhaled loudly. This world was certainly not going to be easy to survive in.

He was probably lucky that he came into this world - however that had happened - not long before winter. And since the winter would slow down travel everywhere, he would get a short respite from the ruthless medieval politics, but once spring came, and the snow melted from the roads... he didn't even want to think about it.

Wait, wait, it's a clay mine! And Nokozal ran a limestone quarry! Along with the coal available abundantly here, he had most of the materials to make cement! How did he not make the connection earlier?