It was the afternoon of the next day when a servant came running with the news that the caravan had returned from Kirnos. Immediately, Kivamus and Hudan exited the manor hall to visit the new arrivals, with Duvas following behind them.

Reaching close towards the gate, he saw that the pair of wagons had just been brought to an empty shed where a group of servants had already started loading up the smoked fish barrels on wheelbarrows, while some of the guards were supporting a man who seemed to have trouble walking because of a leg wound. Tesyb was helping the man whose cut-off arm was bound in thick bandages to climb down from the wagon. At the same time, Nurobo came running towards the group, reassuring the injured men that he would take care of him. There was also an unknown man with cropped black hair with downcast eyes who was looking around at everyone with a tinge of fear.

As Kivamus reached next to them, Feroy, the redhead Hyola, and the other guards immediately bowed to him.

"It is my fault, milord," the ex-mercenary apologised. "I should have done better to make sure nobody got hurt."

Hyola glanced at the wounded guards before looking back at him. "No, it is on me. If only I had been of more help to everyone... I don't deserve to be a guard."

Tesyb was just gazing downwards, along with the other guards who had returned.

Kivamus took a deep breath. "Stand straight you all. None of you are at fault. I know you all must have done everything you could have. Torhan and that bastard Nokozal are the ones who caused this, not you. And those bastards will get exactly what is coming to them, one way or another."

"But..." Hyola protested.

Kivamus raised a hand to stop her. "No buts! It is not your fault. I'm just glad that everyone is alive. Now you all have been through a difficult journey and must be tired, so just take some rest for today. Feroy, you stay back here for a moment. Hyola, go and meet with Madam Nerida in the servants hall and tell her to start distributing food for every returning guard."

"Of course, milord!" The redhead immediately jogged towards the servant hall.

"Nurobo, you already have some experience in treating injured guards, so make sure to do everything you can for them. Tesyb, you go and help the injured guards to an empty sleeping spot in the servant hall. There will be food waiting for you all there. Eat well and get some good rest. Duvas will also send Syryne with some more Losuvil powder for anyone who needs it."

One by one, the guards started trudging towards the servant hall, with the injured ones being supported by others. Behind them, the servants were hard at work and had already removed most of the barrels from the wagons, while the grooms had unhitched the horses and were taking them to the stables for some water and hay.

"Where are those refugees you brought?" He asked the ex-mercenary. Looking at his arm which had a bandage wrapped around it, he added, "Are you injured too?"

"It's just a few scratches, milord," Feroy replied. He pointed at the man who looked out of place between the guards, "Apart from Joric here, who was recently enslaved by Torhan, the rest of the slaves are waiting outside the manor walls. I didn't want to bring them inside since we don't know anything about them, and the jail here is already full from the escaped farmers who had come here in the past."

Kivamus felt that there was a story behind Joric, but skipped asking about it for now. "We have decided to house them in those huts in the village which are in better condition. It would be good for them to see a familiar face again, so go towards the market square with Duvas and he will show you which of the huts to accommodate them in. Madam Nerida should have made some food for them as well, so they can just eat and rest for today. Tell them that from tomorrow, apart from those who are sick or injured, they are expected to start working at whichever place suits them best based on their skills, and we'll start giving them weekly rations in return so they can cook their own food in their huts for now."

Feroy nodded. "I'll return right after showing them to the huts. Hudan, keep an eye on Joric. He's harmless, but we still need to ask him more questions first."

Hudan walked towards the former slave named Joric, and put his giant hand on his shoulder, making the man stumble from the weight.

As the ex-mercenary jogged towards the gates along with Duvas, Kivamus looked at the barrels of smoked fish being transferred to the food storage barn. This was still unpaid food, but at least they had managed to buy enough of it that they should be able to sow the majority of the cleared land with the seeds they already had. The temperature was already rising and around half of the snow had melted by now, which meant it would only be less than a week before all of it had turned into water, making the ground muddy everywhere. Well, even more than it already was.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

At least all the seed drills were ready by now, so they should be able to complete the sowing with a fraction of the number of people which would be needed if doing it manually. While they had already tested it once, he really wanted to see them in in action soon. If everything went well, then this would be the last year when Tiranat was so desperate for buying food from outside. He didn't think that they would be able to go on without buying any wheat at all from Cinran, especially if new immigrants kept arriving in Tiranat as was planned, but it should still be able to cover the majority of their food grain requirements. Leaving that for later, he turned towards the manor hall to wait there for Feroy. There was something even more important to consider before food security.

******

After a while, Feroy entered the manor hall and took a seat. "I've put the refugees into the shacks like you asked. A few servants are already taking a cartload of porridge to the market square to feed them."

"It's good to hear that they are settled in, but we seem to have a bigger worry right now." Kivamus looked at Hudan and Duvas who were sitting nearby, before returning his gaze to the ex-mercenary. "Our scout told us that it were Torhan's men who ambushed you."

Feroy nodded. "They were. Apart from Nokozal who escaped at the end of the fight, we couldn't keep any of those men alive for questioning, but Joric - the man you saw outside - has confirmed that they were all bandits working under Torhan."

"What's this man's story anyway?" Hudan asked.

The ex-mercenary explained how the man had sold himself into slavery to make sure his family would stay safe, and that he had been forced by the bandits to participate in the ambush and had begged them after the battle to take him with them.

"Hmm..." Kivamus nodded. "He doesn't sound like a bandit, like you said. Still, make sure to find out everything he knows about Torhan."

"Of course, I'll keep grilling him until I find out everything," Feroy agreed, "but from what he already told me on the way, it doesn't look good for us. Torhan isn't a small-time bandit like Nokozal or others. This man is smart, and has good connections in Kirnos, likely with Baron Farodas there. Although he does seem to have an ongoing rivalry with Lanidas, son of the baron. Based on what Joric says, Torhan basically runs a small village by himself around the clay mines. Including the men we already killed, he used to have more than twenty-five bandits working for him. That doesn't count the fifty or more slaves working under him."

"That sounds bad for us, especially if this Torhan decides that he wants revenge on us for killing all his men..." Hudan muttered.

"How would he even find out that all his men were killed?" Duvas asked. "Dead men tell no tales, after all."

"You are forgetting that that giant bastard Nokozal is still alive," Kivamus answered, "and we can be pretty sure he is going to run back to his new sponsor Torhan. Still," he asked while looking at Feroy, "unless Nokozal recognised you and the other guards, would Torhan even know it was us?"

"Oh, he recognised us alright," Feroy snorted. "Tesyb fought with him one on one for a while, just like he had done when Nokozal had raided us, and the giant also recognised Hyola from the limestone quarry. I have no doubt that Torhan is going to find out exactly who killed his men."

"Of course he will..." Kivamus muttered. What else was he expecting with the way everything was going in this world since he had arrived...

"Why are we even arguing about it like this?" Hudan frowned. "Shouldn't there be a way for us to complain to the higher authorities like the Count or the Duke? We shouldn't have to worry about a Goddess-damned bandit group wanting revenge on us just for trying to protect our people from them!"

"If it were some other bandit group," Feroy answered, "they would be happy just to know that there are no knights here to go after them to wipe them out. But in Torhan's case, he seems to have the second largest fighting force in this region of southern Reslinor after the baron of Kirnos, and with that power comes the ego and the capability to want revenge."

"You are also forgetting where you are, Hudan," Duvas remarked. "This is not Cinran or Ulriga where the rule of law is the mightiest. Frankly, as long as they keep getting taxes from us and Kirnos on time, they won't give a copper about what happens to us, forget about sending their valuable knights to keep an eye on the roads here. If anything, Zoricus might even prefer it if we are overrun by bandits and Lord Kivamus is killed by them, not to mention his brothers in Ulriga would be more than happy to hear that news."

"It's not just that..." the majordomo continued with a frown. "We have no way to be sure about it, but it kind of sounds like Torhan could be an illegitimate son of Baron Farodas... I can think of no other reason why the crafty old baron of Kirnos would allow such a strong bandit group to exist so close to his village and even allow his men entry in his village, unless there were familial ties between them. That would also explain why the young master Lanidas doesn't have good relations with Torhan, unlike his father, since the young master would be seeing the bandit leader as a rival for his inheritance of the barony."

Hudan smirked. "So this Torhan might actually be a bastard then..."