He looked at Darora. "As long as you fix the plank edges cleanly enough to the inner sides of the parapet and the floor of the platform, this compartment will just seem like a part of the design of the watchtower, and any visitors would barely give a second glance to it. This way even if the tax collector or one of the knights climb up there to check the view from the top of the watchtower, they wouldn't find anything suspicious - other than the fact that a tower exists where it didn't before - while allowing the guards to have easy access to the crossbow whenever they need it. When those knights are away from the towers, the woman guards can easily take out the crossbows as needed, while being able to hide it easily in case one of the tax collector's men visits up there again."

Feroy grinned after a moment. "I really like this idea, milord! This is so much better than hiding our most important weapons away from the watchtowers right when we are going to need them the most. That compartment sounds like it will be big enough to hide two, and probably even three crossbows easily, along with a pair of bolt quivers, which will be useful when we are able to permanently post two guards there in the future."

"I agree with him," Hudan nodded. "Whenever the cover of that compartment is closed - with that height it will just seem like a simple bench made for sitting, which serves our purpose of hiding the real use of it."

Kivamus looked at the carpenter, not mentioning openly that that size of a compartment would also be just big enough to allow the guards to hide a pair of guns there - whenever they were able to manufacture them here in the future - in case another such visit happened by nobles from Cinran or other knights. "So what do you think? Can you do it?"

Darora thought for a moment before he grinned. "I always love a new challenge! Of course I can do it!"

"Perfect!" Kivamus smiled. "How long will it take you? I need it made on all the watchtowers as soon as possible."

The carpenter rubbed the back of his neck for a moment. "It's simple enough. I just need to nail a pair of planks of the right size there, which will hardly take any time as long as I have the materials ready. Hmm... I think Taniok should still have some extra planks left tonight, which he must have already cut to finish the roof of the fourth watchtower tomorrow. We'll probably have to saw them off again to cut them in the right size, but if he agrees to give them to me, I'll just need enough nails to make it, although I don't think Cedoron can make more of them right now."

"Taniok must have enough nails as well which he would have saved for building the roof," Kivamus replied. "You can use them. In fact, you should tell him and his apprentices to help you as well. Let him know that I said this is even more important than finishing the watchtower roof, so you both should work together to finish it faster."

"That will make it much easier!" Darora grinned. He glanced at the open window of the manor hall in the west. "It's still not completely dark, so I think we can get that compartment built on at least one watchtower by tonight, and then we'll finish up the remaining of them tomorrow morning as soon as it gets bright enough to work."

"That's excellent," Kivamus praised. "Even if the tax collector comes this evening, he and the others with him would be tired enough after the journey that they wouldn't want to go on any tour of the village or visit the watchtowers before having breakfast tomorrow. That should give you enough time to finish all of them."

"Of course, milord," Darora nodded. "I will do my best to finish them as fast as I can. The good thing is that with the sky already getting dark by now, and all the hustle and bustle from the villagers returning from work, nobody is going to care about a few men doing some simple repair work on the watchtowers, since those are still under construction anyway. Tomorrow morning we will be done with this before the villagers even notice us."

"That's great." Kivamus looked at Hudan. "You go with Darora to convince Taniok to work on this first. The old carpenter is a headstrong man and very proud of his work, so he wouldn't easily agree to stop making the roof or give up his raw materials and help Darora unless you confirm that the order came from me."

Hudan stood up from his chair. "As you wish, milord." He looked at the young carpenter. "Come on!"

With that, the guard captain and Darora exited the manor hall once again.

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Kivamus glanced at the majordomo who was still busy peering into the tax ledger, before looking at the ex-mercenary. "I just hope this visit goes well. We already know that we don't have the full amount of the tax, so we just have to hope the tax collector is flexible enough for this. Duvas has been trying to check again and again just to see if he can find something he missed which could reduce our tax liability, but that seems like a lost cause by now, since he would have found it already if there was such a way."

Feroy nodded, before glancing at an inner door which opened at the same time, from which Syryne entered the hall.

Kivamus looked at the young woman. "How was today's lesson? Where is Gorsazo?"

"Oh, he went to talk with Ma in the kitchen. Today I learned about something which is called trigonometry!" Syryne replied enthusiastically. "It seems very complex, and I don't think I have much interest in anything which has too much to do with numbers, but like you told me earlier, learning something new is never a waste, so I'll still try to learn as much as I can."

"Good," Kivamus smiled, knowing that her interests lay more with things to do with nature and biology instead of mathematics and physics, but he was still glad that she was at least giving it a try. He had good hopes for her becoming an excellent biologist in the future, but hopefully they would soon find someone who was interested in other subjects as well.

Gorsazo had already mentioned a few bright prospects in his class in the longhouse blocks, including Clarisa - their young maid, as well as Maisy - who was an adopted daughter of a village merchant named Kigeir, but those kids were only beginning the long journey of education right now, and it would take years before they were ready to learn more advanced topics. Well, laying the foundations of scientific thinking and proper education in the village was still a good start.

The outer door of the manor hall opened once again, and this time it was a guard who entered inside while looking like he had just run a marathon. This didn't look good.

"What is it?" Kivamus asked urgently.

"Milord, the... the tax..." The guard put his hands on his knees to take a few deep breaths before he stood up. "The tax collector is here. Tesyb told me to run here as fast as I could to tell you."

Duvas put down his quill and looked at the guard, while Feroy stood up in anticipation.

"Who else is with him?" Kivamus asked the question which had been floating in his mind.

"There was only a single wagon where four guards were sitting along with an older man - who must be the tax collector from what you've told us in the past. But, there was also an armored knight riding a horse in front of them!"

Duvas frowned. "Only one knight, you mean?"

The guard nodded. "Yeah. We closed the gates after the group entered the village, and there was only one man in plate armor. The rest of the guards were wearing chainmail armor."

"Alright, you can go back to your post now," Kivamus said and waving him away, he looked at the majordomo. "Didn't you say there were at least two knights with the tax collector usually, whenever he visited Tiranat in the past?"

Duvas nodded. "This is the first time I'm hearing Ustaimo visiting with only one knight to accompany him. I can't think of any good reason for Count providing him with just a single knight as an escort on that northern road, especially when he expects to take back such a big amount of gold with him."

"Well, I guess we'll find out soon enough," Kivamus muttered. "Where would these people stay anyway?"

"Usually the knights were each given a full room to themselves here in the manor house," the majordomo explained. "The same goes for Ustaimo. The rest of their guards were sent to the servants' hall to stay with our own guards."

Kivamus nodded, feeling glad for the first time that the manor house had more than enough rooms for this. On the upper floor, apart from where he stayed in what was easily the biggest room of the manor house, there were three other rooms. One of those was occupied by Madam Helga and the young maid Clarisa, the second one he had given to Syryne, while Lucem had also been lucky enough to get his own room.

On the ground floor there were six rooms in total, apart from the manor hall and the kitchen. One of those was occupied by Duvas, while they had turned another room into a study room for Syryne, who had gladly accepted the couple of books about the history of the kingdom which had been kept in his own room so she could practice some reading.

The makeshift laboratory where Losuvil leaves were processed to make the powdered reddish medicine had used up the biggest room of the ground floor, while Hudan and Feroy had also been allotted a room together - although they were rarely present there these days - which left two rooms empty. That should be just enough for the solitary knight and the tax collector this time.

While Kivamus had been thinking about the layout of the manor house, Feroy seemed to be lost in thoughts as well.

The ex-mercenary looked at the majordomo. "The tax collector sounds old enough and he wouldn't be of any threat to anyone, but I'm not sure if letting an unknown armed man within the manor house and so close to Lord Kivamus is a good idea."