"Uh... no. There were some problems with the fitting," Duvas shook his head. "The wooden panels of the sluice gate were a little bigger than they should have been, since one of the new apprentices of Darora hadn't measured it properly. So they had to bring them back from the construction site yesterday, and today Darora will modify them himself to make sure they fit. I think it should still be done by this evening." He added, "One good thing is that Yeden, the foreman of the dam site, didn't waste any time and used those workers who were supposed to install the gate to complete more of the dam structure. I think it should only take another two or three days at most until the dam is fully completed."

"That's really good!" Kivamus grinned. "Snow would start melting any time now, so the completion of the dam by then would help a lot to catch all the meltwater. What about the last mineshaft? Is it cleared of water?"

"Hmm... It should be done by today, I think." Duvas continued, "Should we bring the water wheel back to the village after that? Since it will be some time before we can install it in front of the dam."

"No, tell the workers to send it to the dam when all the water has been removed. There is no point in bringing it to the village and taking it back in the east to the dam in a few days. It's not like there is a risk of anyone stealing the waterwheel or something. Just send it there, and I'll go with Darora to the dam in a few days after he has built all the seed drills, to talk about how we can install the water wheel there and if there are any modifications needed before that."

"I'll let them know." The majordomo looked at the retreating workers for a moment. "What do you want to do about the labourers who are digging clay? I think they have already dug enough of it that we should be able to complete the dam with it without them digging more clay."

"They are the former limestone cutters, right?" Without waiting for a reply, Kivamus added, "There is no point in sending them to mine coal, since they have no experience in it." He thought about it for a moment, before he continued, "There are around two dozen of them working there. From tomorrow, leave half a dozen of them to continue to dig clay, and send the rest of them to the south to make the fields ready for sowing by removing small stones and such. That doesn't take any specialised skill so they can do it just as well as anyone. The clay we will slowly gather even at that lower rate of digging is going to be helpful to us in the future."

Duvas nodded. "Pinoto has more than enough experience in farming and will guide them through it. That being said, I have already started sending more and more labourers to mine coal as we approached the targeted area of forest clearing, and we just reached that target as well but there are still a lot of them working there, like you wanted. Just over a hundred as of today, I think, including women. I think we should have around a week to ten days before most of the snow has melted, so do you want me to send them to mine coal as well?"

"Hmm... we do need as much coal as we can mine to sell and pay the tax with that income, but I am worried that if enough immigrants and refugees come here, we might get a food shortage once again later this year."

After thinking about it for a while, Kivamus began, "Leave around fifty labourers in the south to continue clearing the forests, including the farmers who came here from Kirnos, and send the remaining workers to mine coal. That should still give us around forty workers who have good experience in cutting trees as well as around a dozen farmers who can help in the simpler tasks. In fact, tell Pinoto to select the best performers among the workers who have been cutting trees in the past few months and only keep them in the south. These people should keep cutting trees and removing them from the fields right until the moment we have completed sowing the seeds. This should help to maximise the area we are farming."

"That's... a good idea." The majordomo added, "It might mean we might become even more short on seeds than we already are, but I guess we'll have to deal with it somehow, especially if the merchants bring some wheat right after the snow has melted."

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"That would be helpful for sure." Kivamus looked at the guard captain and the other guards. "Come on, let's return now."

Hudan nodded, and with that they started trudging back over the snow covered ground towards the manor.

******

~ Joric ~

It had been four days since he had been sent to this desolate road in the middle of nowhere along with the other bandits. Four damned days! But there was still no sight of any caravan coming or going! Well, he could admit that they had reached this location after dark on the first day, so perhaps he shouldn't be counting that day here, but damn it! What was he supposed to do if these bastards really told him to fight some guards of a caravan! Every passing day was making him more and more nervous that it would be his last day in this world...

He looked around himself for a moment. It was approaching evening by now, and the whole day he and the other bandits had been hiding behind some trees some distance away from the dirt road going east from Kirnos. While the snow had fully melted here - which meant it was actually possible to see where the road was instead of everything just being covered by snow - it also meant that the ground had become muddy from the melted snow, and there wasn't a clean or dry place to sit anywhere. Or even to sleep at night.

He had certainly become more than habitual of getting his whole body dirty and covered by mud after mining clay everyday in the past few months, and knew he would probably never see the dry and comfortable indoors of his shop and home. But still... At least Torhan's compound had covered huts for the slaves to sleep, which remained dry inside, but here, he just had to try to sleep by sitting next to a tree, while resting his back on the rough bark. After doing the same thing for three nights, and that was after walking for nearly two days on foot, he already felt more exhausted than he had ever been in his life.

Apart from him, there were eight bandits here in total, including the giant Nokozal and his lackey, along with the bald and brawny deputy of Torhan. Most of them were hiding away from the road behind one tree or another, while one of them was always some distance away in the west, staying close to the road to keep an eye in case a caravan was approaching. Not that anything had approached here yet. Nothing at all! In fact, they were far enough away from the village of Kirnos that there weren't even any farmers or their farms in sight anywhere. But that was something that the deputy had decided himself, so that nobody would be nearby when they eventually attacked a caravan and looted it.

Thinking about Kirnos reminded him that when their group was looking for a good place for an ambush, as they travelled with two men on each horses, while he had walked all the way from the clay mine, they had passed not far away from the palisade walls of Kirnos, and the deputy had sent one of the bandits inside the village for a few hours, probably to get some information about any visiting caravans.

While near the walls, Joric had barely controlled himself instead of running away to his home. Knowing that his adorable daughter and his beautiful wife were barely a ten minute walk away from him and still being unable to go and meet them had been gut-wrenching for him. The other bandits had gotten down from their horses to give them some rest while they waited for that bandit to return, and had walked towards a copse of trees.

At that time he had started walking slower than others, hoping no one would notice and if he got enough distance from others he would be able to run away, but one of the bandits had seen him lagging behind, and quickly used the pommel of his sword to clobber his head. The splitting headache and the temporary blindness he had gotten from that, along with a strict warning that the next time they would just cut an arm from him had cowed him down thoroughly.

Of course, the bandits had also tied his hands together after that to make it difficult for him to run away, but Joric hadn't found the courage to try it again anyway. Not that he didn't want to, but he knew that if he was caught trying to run away again, he really would become an amputee, and his utility as a slave would diminish sharply at the clay mine. That would mean the penny pinching bastard Torhan might just decide that the cost of feeding him was more than what he gained from his work, so the day he returned to the clay mine again might just become the last day for him in this world. So he had tried to control his urge to try running away again, and kept following the bandits with his heart shattered in pieces while thinking about his family.

Eventually that bandit had returned from Kirnos with a grin, and told something in hushed voices to the deputy and the giant. They had started travelling east once again after that, and the deputy had found a good and desolate place just after a bend in the road to make an ambush.