From Londoner To Lord

~ Calubo ~

~ Approaching Tiranat ~

After taking care of the archer, Calubo was running towards the village with the other guards in tow. It had taken him a while to look for the others in the darkness - since he couldn't make too much sound, just in case there was another bandit still there - but after they had reunited, they had decided to run to the village as fast as they could to help others there.

He couldn't help but remember the face of the dead archer with satisfaction. Hyola would have been overjoyed if she knew about this. But would it ever happen now? Would he even be able to see Hyola again?

Now that he was free from the bandits, they couldn't force him to go back to that quarry, and he also couldn't desert the village alone, if he ever wanted to work as a guard in the manor again. Maybe... maybe, if he requested the new baron to allow him to go and see Hyola again, would it be possible for him to see her again? He could ask the baron to grant him this boon as a reward for his help in giving them the warning about bandits' attack.

And if the baron really allowed this, he would even be able to take some food with him for her and the other stonecutters! But how much food could he even carry by himself? Maybe the baron would also allow him to use a horse? That way he could take much more grain than he could carry by himself. Of course, it's not like he had any coin with him to buy even a single meal at the alehouse.

But he could still ask the other guards to lend him some money. Perhaps he could even ask the baron for an advance on his wages? That should hopefully give him enough coin to buy a full sack of grain. That grain would go a long way in helping the stonecutters to survive the winter. He nodded to himself. Yes, that was the solution. And he had to do this.

As he started to become happy imagining the day when he would see Hyola's overjoyed face again at the good news, he realized that he had forgotten something. What would he do about the other bandits who were still there? That easily put a chill on his mood. Even if he gave all that grain to those bandits so they would feed the slaves more, it's not like they would give much of it to Hyola and the stonecutters.

As he approached the first houses of the village, he kept thinking about it. What if he approached the quarry secretly, and asked the stonecutters to overthrow those bandits' rule? But would those poorly fed people even be able to fight with those bandits, even with the advantage of numbers on their side?

Then... What if he asked Lord Kivamus for help in this? For him to send more guards with him to take some grain to the stonecutters and to kill the remaining bandits there. But... Why would the baron ever risk his guards for this? And Calubo was even hoping that the baron would give up his precious grain right before winter? He scoffed. No noble was that generous.

He shook his head. It didn't matter. Even if he had to go to the quarry alone, somehow he would make it work. He had to, or Hyola would be stuck with those bandits for all her life. But then he thought of another problem. Even if the stonecutters could somehow win against the bandits with his help, where would they even go after that? Especially in this winter, which would make it very difficult to travel anywhere - not to mention most of them had brands on their bodies clearly marking them as slaves, so escaping to a distant city and making a new life there wasn't really feasible either. And that was assuming they could even reach there through those dense forests full of dangerous wild beasts.

He sighed again. What other option did they even have? They certainly wouldn't be able to survive there in the snow, would they? With no nearby shrubs providing edible berries in the winter - and same for the fruit giving trees - what would they even eat there? Even his single sack of grain was unlikely to be enough to feed all the stonecutters for the winter.

But... What if there were even more bandits there now? Nokozal had been worried that Torhan's group might steal his slaves if he found out that the quarry was nearly undefended. What if that group had already taken Hyola and the others to Goddess knows where? What if...

He forcefully stopped his mind from racing further and thinking of even more problems. He couldn't afford to think about it right now. There were too many holes in his plan to take grain to the quarry. He would think about it when the current problems were dealt with. For now, he had to focus on the present.

As they reached the alley between the first two houses of the village, he spoke to the other guards, somehow trying to take his mind away from the image of Hyola hungry and freezing in the snow.

"There are four of us," he said, "so let's divide in two groups, and search for the other bandits." At the others' nod, he spoke to the first group, "You two will go towards the manor to help them - in case the bandits are already attacking there." He pointed to the remaining guard and himself. "The two of us will go into the village to search for them. We can't allow them to steal any grain or kill any villagers!"

Once others nodded in acceptance, he forced a grin on his face, even though he was certainly not feeling happy, "Let's kill those bastards!"

*******

~ Kivamus ~

~ On the roof of the manor house ~

Kivamus had been waiting on the roof for a while, but there still wasn't any news. He had started pacing from one side of the roof to the other, hoping someone just told him what was happening outside, but there was nothing. Such moments were the ones when he really missed his life on earth.

As he reached towards the side where Yufim was waiting with a bow, he saw a servant running towards the manor house from the direction of the main gates in the west. As the servant reached towards the door, he called out to him, knowing that the door was barred from the inside.

"Up here! Is there any news?" he asked. Hearing his voice, Gorsazo also came to stand next to him.

The panting servant looked upwards, searching for the source of the voice, and then quickly found him. "Milord, Hudan and the other guards are back from the forests."

"Oh, that's really good to hear. But how do you know that?"

"I just saw one of them running in front of the manor gates," the servant reported. "Feroy asked them about it and then told me to give the news to you."

"Well, did they find the bandits there?" Gorsazo asked worriedly.

"Not really, milord." The servant added, "There was only one of the archers of the bandits there, keeping an eye on the body of the dead bandit. So Hudan left four guards there to take care of him, and then entered the village with the rest of the guards to find the rest of the bandits."

"So that means four of the guards are still outside?" Kivamus asked with a frown.

"I think so, milord," the servant replied with an uncertain voice.

Kivamus nodded. "Well, you should go back to the gates now. And let me know if there is any other news."

"Of course, milord," the servant said and jogged back towards the gates.

Turning around, Kivamus walked towards a brazier which a servant had brought to the roof some time ago. It wouldn't do too much to protect them from the cold in the open, but at least they had a way to warm up their hands. He had even told the other guards to carry the brazier to their positions in turns for heating.

As he put his hands next to the smoldering fire, he looked at Gorsazo. "What do you think about this? I don't like it that our guards had to divide again."

"Well, at least it wasn't an ambush there," Gorsazo observed with a relieved voice. "We didn't know for sure where Calubo would have taken our guards."

"No, Duvas said that he trusted him, so I wasn't too worried about it." Kivamus added, "But now that Hudan is already here, let's hope for the best results."

Gorsazo nodded. "I just hope that the bandits don't find a way to put fire to the houses in frustration, if they find out that they can't steal any grain outside the manor."

Kivamus gave a nod but didn't say anything. He didn't even want to think about such a thing happening in the village. Before long, he returned back to his pacing, hoping he got some good news soon.

*******

~ Maisy ~

~ Hiding behind Leif ~

~ A short while ago ~

Maisy had been clutching Elsie with fear for a while, but she still had no idea if they would survive for long, or if they would be taken away by the bandits to be sold as slaves. Their younger brothers had been holding Mr Kigeir's wife for some time, while she was trying to wake up the still passed out merchant. Leif still hadn't left his place standing watchfully in front of them, and for Elsie and her, he seemed like the only one protecting them from the huge and scary bandits.

When the two guards had come right at the moment the bandit was going to kill Leif, she had been overjoyed for a while, thinking that everything would be fine now. Their younger brother had even started cheering for the guard, but it hadn't taken long for the huge bandit to start winning the sword fight. The young guard had even looked very scared after falling down on the ground. The other guard wasn't doing too well either in his fight with the other bandit.

That worried Maisy a lot. If even this guard died, what would happen to them? There wasn't anybody else to protect her and others here. Would the bandits really take her and Elsie away tonight? Experience more tales on empire

Then she saw the guard stand up, and start to fight with the bandit again. She became really excited for a moment, hoping the guard would kill the bandit, but before long, the bandit managed to make him fall again with a huge kick, and the guard also lost his sword! But instead of killing him immediately, the bandit began to speak about something, but Maisy wasn't listening to him.

She was looking intensely at the guard, who was trying to get a hold of his sword which had fallen a little away from him. She really hoped he got it, even though the huge bandit had kept his boot on the guard's chest. For a moment she thought of going there and helping him to get the sword. But would the guard be able to win even with his sword in his hands? And she was still too scared to go near that huge bandit!

But before she made up her mind, the bandit held his sword in both of his hands, and began to bring it downwards, trying to kill the guard! Was this it, then? Would she and Elsie be taken by the bandits after all? Would the bandits win even though two guards had come to fight with them?