"They didn't have an exact count," Feroy replied, "but there should be somewhere around twenty of their family members living there in total. Mostly women, children and the elderly, with a few men who had stayed back to protect them from any wild beasts while the rest of them had come to raid us." He shrugged, "When I asked them to tell us their location, they balked at that, thinking we wanted to kill their families in revenge, even though I explained that we would be willing to provide them food and shelter in return for anyone who is physically capable doing a suitable job in the village."

Hudan frowned. "Did they even believe that? I wouldn't trust any noble making promises to feed my family in return for giving them their location like that."

Feroy snorted. "Neither would I, but these men know that without any outside help their families would likely die in the future anyway - either by starvation or by wild beasts attacking their encampment - since most of their able-bodied men are either dead or sitting in our jail. For now they haven't had any chance to talk with the other villagers since they have been kept locked in the jail, but I'm sure they might come around in a couple of days if we allow the recent immigrants to talk to them there."

Kivamus nodded. "Good idea. Tell the farmers who had come from Kirnos as well as the limestone cutters to meet with these people, but don't let any of them leave the jail yet. It's not like we can send out our men to escort their families here anyway, with Torhan's raid coming soon in the future. If they do give us their encampment's location, we'll see what we can do for their families after the raid. Well, you both can return now. Tell the guards who had gone to patrol in the night to take some good rest for today. They deserve it. We have more than enough guards here right now to rotate the watch duties easily to give these men some rest."

"Of course, I'll make sure of it," Hudan replied. "I'm also putting double guards on the watchtowers from today in each shift - one woman guard along with an older village watchman - until we have dealt with Torhan. Last night we were lucky that there was enough moonlight to spot the bandits early, but the moon is in a waning phase right now, and a moonless night will come within a week, so we need all the help we can get to spot any approaching bandits in the nights."

"That's good thinking," Kivamus praised him, when he remembered something and looked at the majordomo. "Has the plowing of the fields been completed by now?"

Duvas nodded. "I met with Pinoto last evening, and he told me that they needed another day to plow the remaining fields. You also haven't told the loggers to stop cutting trees, so they keep expanding the farm area every day, even if by a small amount, which means more land to plow.

"That's true but don't tell them to stop until we complete the sowing to maximise the area we are farming. In any case, I think we can start a trial run of sowing today. Pinoto can leave the remaining plowing to the workers who will know how to finish it by now."

Kivamus gazed at the sunlight coming through the open window. "I think the time is an hour after noon right now, so let's tell some servants to take out a couple of the seed drills and a pair of wheat sacks and take them to the south. Pinoto can select the best farmers after their lunch hour, and we can let them give the seed drills a try and explain to them how it works. We might not get much done today, since they will need to learn how to use it properly, but from tomorrow they can start doing it at a full scale."

Duvas stood up from his chair. "Let me tell them right now so we can leave soon."

Hudan walked to the outer door as well before looking at Kivamus. "I'll get the guards ready to escort you. We just can't take any chances with your safety these days. Who knows if Torhan already has scouts here..."

"Sure," Kivamus nodded, letting both of them leave. He looked at the ex-mercenary. "You should just go and get some sleep now. I know that you aren't going to stop scouting the hills at night, so you need to get rest whenever you can."

Feroy snorted. "Trust me, milord, after living in the forests for more than a decade, my body has adapted to work on very low sleep, so I'll be fine. Still, since a raid might be coming any day, I'll take a short nap for now."

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"Good. We need everyone to be at their best to deal with this."

After the ex-mercenary exited the hall, Kivamus stood up and stretched his arms above his head. Finally, it was time to surprise the farmers with the advantages of technology. The seed drills were the only reason they could even continue mining coal at the same time with their limited workforce, otherwise they might have had to stop mining completely to finish the sowing in time. But with a dozen seed drills ready now, they only need enough horses and a couple of men with each drill to lift the sacks and load the drills with seeds. Maybe a few more men to load and drive a wagon to transport the wheat sacks from the manor hall to the farms in the south. This meant they only needed less than thirty men in total at this rate, instead of more than a hundred farmers which they might have needed otherwise if they did it manually, like in the rest of Reslinor Kingdom.

He walked outside the manor hall as well, looking at the servants stacking up two seed drills on a wagon, along with some wheat sacks. There were only a pair of horses remaining in the stable today though. They would be enough to pull the single wagon, but he and the others would have to walk to the farms on foot for today.

Before long, the guard captain walked towards him with a dozen armed men in tow, apart from a pair of crossbow-women. All the guards were wearing well-used leather armour over their tunics along with leather boots and gauntlets. Each of the men had their hands ready near their swords, with their shields tied behind their backs, while half of them were also holding a spear in their free hand, in case they had to deal with a wild beast like an adzee.

Both of the women had their crossbows hanging on their waist, with their strings already nocked - although without a bolt for now to prevent any accidents, apart from having a long dagger in their sheaths tied on their other waists. By now, nearly all of these guards had seen some combat or blood shed in front of them - both of enemies and friends - and they all looked ready to fight to the death to protect their village.

"Whoa..." Kivamus raised his eyebrows at the guard captain. "You look like you are going to attack a neighbouring kingdom with them."

Hudan laughed heartily. "Better safe than sorry, milord. I wanted to take even more of them, and every single guard had already volunteered for this when they found out that I wanted men to escort you - even those who were supposed to be resting in their off duty time - but Feroy said that too many men could also become a problem if we needed to take you away from the farms in a hurry. Although we can still use a horse to bring you to within the village walls quickly in case there is any danger to your life."

Kivamus grinned. "Well, I don't think even an adzee will want to come close to us today."

Soon, Duvas walked towards them, and pointed at a wagon which was being hitched to the horses. "The servants have already loaded the wagon. We are ready to go."

Kivamus looked up at the gentle sunshine and the mild weather of the early spring. "Looks like a perfect day for a walk. Let's go."

*****

Kivamus was standing at the area where the newly created fields started, along with Duvas and Pinoto. Hudan was standing nearby with a few other men, while the rest of the guards had spread around to make a loose protective circle around him. A pair of them had also been given horns and told to walk further away to spot any approaching danger quickly as their scouts.

Once the lunch hour was over, most of the ex-farmers - no, current farmers as of today - who had been resting nearby had left to continue plowing the fields but Kivamus had told the southern foremen Pinoto to hold back a few of them. Then he told them to start unloading the seed drills and the wheat sacks from the wagon, and before long, the first seed drill had been put at the start of the plowed area, and the farmers began to hitch a horse to it as pointed out by Kivamus.

Pinoto looked at the machine dubiously. "Is this iron and wood contraption really going to do the task of dozens of farmers? I know that I was present when you gave it a trial in the manor after these were built, but we just checked if the machine moved properly at that time."

Kivamus chuckled. "Don't worry, you will be surprised. I've already checked the seeding mechanism along with the carpenter Darora, and it worked fine - at least in the manor."

Pinoto shook his head in wonder while glancing at the drill, before he looked at the vast amount of plowed land in front of them, at the far end of which some labourers were still plowing the remaining land with the help of horses. It had taken nearly two weeks to plow all that land, which had given enough time to the farmers to do the required irrigating and the initial weeding of the fields.

A small group of people was also visible far ahead of them in the south, being busy in cutting more trees and transporting them away using the log-mover. "This farm is big," the ex-farmer began, "but I have worked on even bigger farms in the past, so I have a good idea of how many people it takes to work a field this size. You had told me that the village needed 110 hectares of farmland to feed the village for the next year, right?"