From Londoner To Lord

"Not at this point," Kivamus answered. "With three-fourths of the dam already completed, by now our six wagons have already helped in stocking up enough extra material by the eastern stream that the remaining four wagons should be able to bring up the rest of the construction material without too many problems. It's not ideal, but we'll make do somehow."

The guard captain remarked, "This will still leave a short on guards to defend the village. That's why I keep saying that we really should try to dig a trench around the wall as soon as we can and put some sharpened stakes in them. That will at least reduce the number of approaches which any raiding horseman can take to reach the walls."

"I realise that, Hudan, I really do, but you know that we are already short of labourers everywhere. For now you will have to do your best to defend the village with the palisade wall only. Once we get some workers free from other important projects, and it certainly won't happen anytime soon, then I'll put some of them to start digging the trench."

Hudan gave a confident nod. "We'll protect the village. No matter what."

*******

~ Ustaimo ~

~ Count Ebirtas' Mansion, Cinran ~

Ustaimo blinked his eyes a few times to see what he was writing with a quill more clearly, but it didn't work. Realising that he really should take a break now after taking care of the balances of Count Ebirtas' treasury for the last few hours, he slowly stood up and closed the tax ledger he had been scribbling on and stretched his arms above him, but it just made his joints creak like they had seen way too much work.

He did realize that he wasn't young anymore, having already seen nearly fifty winters by now, but with his creaking joints along with his blurry eyesight, he might just have to look for a new line of work soon. Well, it wasn't like there was any family who depended on him, so he could just join the temple of the goddess if he was let go, but until then he would still do his best to take care of the accounts, just like he always had.

Ustaimo slowly trudged to the window in the modest second story room which had been his office in the Count's mansion for a few decades by now. The single burning brazier in a corner of the room was already a luxury for someone like him who came from a very low social class, but he still wanted to breathe the fresh air right now so he opened the windows wide to get some fresh air inside.

Even though it was late afternoon right now, a freezing gust of air immediately made him shiver. There was still a thin layer of snow covering everything in sight, but at least it hadn't snowed for nearly ten days by now. The snow should start melting any day now, starting to make the muddy roads going out from Cinran become traversable again. That meant he would soon have to start going on trips to all the baronies in the domain of Count Ebirtas, although he certainly wasn't looking to the upcoming carriage rides for that which made his bones ache, even more so in this cold weather.

That being said, he might just make do with a single trip to the south until the weather had become warmer. Apart from the pitiful barony of Tiranat, all the other barons in the domain of count Cinran had already paid their taxes on time in the previous autumn, but with the previous baron of that village murdered on the road by bandits around that time, the Count had thankfully allowed him to postpone the trip until after the winter. After all, there was no point in taking that much gold from that village as the taxes only to lose it on the way to bandits. Not to mention he might also lose his life if that happened, and he was in no hurry to meet the goddess so soon.

Regardless of how he usually felt about nobles, Ustaimo felt a lot of sympathy for the young son of the Duke of Ulriga who had been made the new baron of Tiranat. His name was uh... Kivamus, if he remembered correctly. Still, surviving in such a poor, desolate village would be a difficult challenge even for a commoner like himself with all the dangerous wild beasts and bandits living in the southern forests of Reslinor - not to mention that newly-made baron wouldn't get anything like the luxury he must be used to when he lived in the Palace of Ulriga. He didn't even want to imagine how such a pampered son of the Duke would survive in such a place.

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Ah, well... From what he knew about nobles, that guy might just give up this adventure before long and return to Ulriga, even though he was the third in line to become the next Duke. That meant life was never going to be easy for him, whether he lived between his power hungry brothers in the palace, or in the wretched village of Tiranat. Not that it really mattered to Ustaimo. He would just keep doing the tasks he was given by the Count, and for now that meant collecting the long overdue taxes from that village.

Now that the snow was going to start melting soon, he couldn't postpone that trip any longer. He knew that it snowed more heavily in Tiranat, especially on the southern road passing near the Arakin Mountains, so it should still be around two weeks before the road going south to that pitiful village became traversable again after remaining blocked for the whole winter due to heavy snow. That meant he had to start preparing for that trip soon, which is why he was spending so long working every day to make sure that all the accounts of the Count were already up-to-date before he left.

Tying the sash around his plain grey robes, he left the room which served as his office, and began walking towards the meeting hall of the Count. Lord Ebirtas should have just finished with today's court, which meant there should be enough time for him to talk to the Count. Hopefully, that money-grubbing fat bastard Zoricus wouldn't be there. Even the simple sight of that greedy glutton made him feel queasy. He had no doubt that Zoricus already had his eyes on the seat of the count, and if he got a chance he wouldn't hesitate to murder Count Ebirtas to take his place.

Ustaimo snorted. It wasn't like the count hadn't probably done that exact same thing to capture power in the past, although no proof was ever found. Well, it probably didn't matter too much to a commoner like Ustaimo anyway. Noble politics would remain just as bloodthirsty as always, no matter how bad or how good the current times were, and he would just keep doing the work he was given and keep his head down. That was the only way for commoners to survive in this harsh world. It was another thing that Zoricus already knew about Ustaimo's dislike for him, and would probably let him go the moment he came into power. Hmm... Perhaps he should resign before it even came to that.

Ustaimo blinked his eyes. What was he even thinking right now... Perhaps he really was too tired today. He shook his head to bring himself to the present, removing the thoughts of cutthroat gluttons and fratricidal counts from his mind.

After walking through a few corridors and down a staircase, he reached an ornately decorated door and gave a nod at the guards flanking the door, one of whom entered the hall to ask if the count was free to meet him. Before long, the guard returned and waved him inside.

Giving him a thankful nod, Ustaimo entered the overly embellished hall. He had visited this hall countless times by now and yet the luxurious room made him stop to take a look every single time, which is exactly what the Count wanted for any visitors. There were a series of ornate paintings hanging on all the walls, some of them depicting Count Ebirtas as an overly fit young man in all his glory, riding a horse with a blazing sword in hand, while others showed the mighty stone walls of Cinran which protected the town even while surrounded by enemies. Even getting a single of these paintings made must have cost a fortune, but there were nearly a dozen of them here by now because of the Count's wishes.

A carafe of what was probably some very expensive wine was kept on the table, with a servant waiting nearby to pour it in anyone's glass which got empty. The rugs on the wooden floor included bears, wolves, and even adzee pelts, the last of which were so costly that he didn't even want to think about the price which the Count must have paid to acquire them. Not that Ustaimo didn't already know all that, having added those expenses into his ledger in the previous years, despite telling the Count repeatedly that they needed to scale down some expenses or they would keep going into debt further and further.

Despite that, the Count had always lived under the shadow of his older brother for most of his life - who was supposed to become the count instead of him after their father's death - so Count Ebirtas had left no stone unturned to acquire all these luxuries after he had become the Count after that incident instead of his brother around two decades ago. That's why the Count kept telling him that all these ornately decorated braziers, the paintings and the rugs, the bowls of freshly cut fruits and cured meats, and the luxurious furnishings should always be there to remind any visitors of the power of the person who owned this mansion, which is why he kept spending so much on these luxuries despite already being in debt.