Kivamus took a deep breath, cursing their current financial situation. "Of course we can afford it," he bluffed to the merchant, "but we would prefer to buy it on credit this time, since we have some other important expenses right now. You said you visit Tiranat twice every month, right? So if you agree to this, we can pay you the overdue amount the next time you visit."

"I... I'm not sure if I can risk that, milord," Trevalo muttered. "I need that gold to buy other commodities for my next trading journey to the north of Cinran."

"Well, you will still be staying here for a couple of days at least, right?" Kivamus asked. "Just think about it. If you agree, we will give you a much better deal on coal this time, and you will have a favourable say in our future dealings as well. In fact, we have a lot of coal to sell right now, so you can even return back sooner than usual. Getting a good deal on coal would still mean you'll make good profit on it, doesn't it?"

Trevalo gave a slow nod. "I can't promise anything, milord, but I'll consider it."

"That's good enough," Kivamus replied, hoping for the best. "You must be tired after the journey so you can go and rest now. Make sure to come here on time tomorrow morning to make the trade with Duvas."

"Of course, milord," Trevalo replied, before he left after giving another deep bow.

Once the merchant was out of earshot, Kivamus looked at Duvas. "What do you think? Can we get it on credit?"

Duvas sighed. "I can hardly give an answer to that any more than you can. Although I hadn't thought he would even consider it, since he never compromises on payments. But I think hearing your family name might have led to some calculations in his mind. Getting the favor of someone from the Ralokaar dynasty is something most traders can only dream of."

Kivamus snorted as they began to walk back towards the manor house. "Getting my favour is one thing, but he isn't getting the favour of my brothers for giving a good deal to us, that's for sure. Still, as long as the facade works that I am still an important part of the Duke's family, it's good for us anyway."

Duvas nodded. "If he agrees to this, and that is a big if, it will easily take care of getting all the seeds we need for sowing, and we should still leave some wheat to feed the village for another week or so. That will help a lot until the next merchant arrives."

"That's true," Kivamus agreed, "but we still need to think of a way to pay the tax collector. He won't take coal, and we can't sell him the medicine, the paper or the crossbows. That reminds me, what about the adzee pelt? We still have it, right?"

Duvas gave a nod. "Of course. I've been waiting for Pydaso, since he is the one who would have the necessary contacts to sell a rare item like that. It's not like he can just put it on sale in the market square, since no common person would have the gold to buy it. I even thought of offering it to Ustaimo, but he has already said that he will only take gold and won't take anything else in exchange." He added, "We do have some more furs as well, but again, Trevalo doesn't deal in them. So we have to wait for Pydaso or one of the other merchants I know of who might be willing to buy it."

Kivamus exhaled. "Let's just hope our friendly merchant comes in time to help us..."

***

It was early afternoon of the next day, and Kivamus was sitting inside the manor hall, with the young merchant Trevalo negotiating with the majordomo nearby. Ustaimo had kept himself busy with the tax ledger near the open window, with fresh spring breeze coming inside from there. The knight had returned late from the alehouse last night, but thankfully he hadn't caused any incident out there. So far. That's probably why Tuilas hadn't even left his room yet, probably still sleeping off the drinking from last night.

Before long, Trevalo stood up, and walking close to him, he gave a deep bow. "We have reached an agreement, milord. I hope you will keep me in mind for future deals."

Kivamus glanced at the majordomo, who gave him a subtle nod. "Of course, Trevalo." He called up one of the guards standing nearby. "Go with him to the coal barns, and tell the servants to transfer the wheat sacks to our grain storage and start loading up his wagons with coal. Send some other guard here in the meantime."

With that, the young merchant exited the hall along with the guard, before Kivamus walked towards the majordomo and sat next to him, speaking in hushed voices. "Did he really agree then? How much did he give us on credit?"

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Duvas gave a relieved nod. "All of it. We will get 30 sacks of wheat today, but I had to agree to sell the coal at a discounted price. For six wagonloads we had expected above 70 gold, but we only received 62 this time, which basically serves as an interest on the wheat he gave us on credit."

Kivamus shook his head. "A merchant will always remain a merchant, calculating his profits before anything else. That discount stings but at least we have 60 more gold to pay Ustaimo, and now we can complete the sowing in the fields. It may hurt us right now to give that discount, but after the first harvest, Tiranat will be in a much stronger position."

"I certainly hope so," Duvas said with a nod. "I still think that we..."

The outer door of the hall opened again and interrupted the majordomo, before a servant walked inside.

"Milord, another merchant has arrived!" He reported excitedly. "I think this is the same guy who visited us before the winter."

"What?" Kivamus stood up in surprise. "Is it really Pydaso?"

"I only heard about it from a guard returning after the end of his watch duty, and he was the one who saw the merchant entering the northeastern gates, but I think so."

Kivamus blinked in amazement. Were the fortunes really turning for this village now? They hadn't gotten a visit from even a single merchant till yesterday, and he had started to get worried that the merchants still considered the northern road too dangerous to travel. But after the arrival of Trevalo last evening, Pydaso was also here today! Awesome!

However, for some reason it felt to him like this was the calm before a storm, since Tiranat had always seemed to attract trouble of one kind or another since the time he had arrived in this world, but he'd take this win for now. Trading with two merchants might just mean they would be able to deal with the taxman after all.

As he glanced at Ustaimo, a wide smile broke out on Kivamus' face before he started laughing loudly in delight, with the majordomo joining him, which made the tax collector look at them in surprise.

Kivamus looked at the servant. "Run to Pydaso and tell him to come here as soon as he can." He paused for a moment. Now that the village had a wall surrounding it, it wouldn't really be that risky for the merchant to park his wagons even in the market square - unlike before the winter - but he wanted to show the portly merchant that he still had their favor. They had a lot of deals to make with him, after all. He added, "Let him know that he can keep his wagon inside the manor again."

The servant nodded before he jogged to the door.

"What was that about?" Ustaimo asked in confusion.

Kivamus wondered how much he could tell the tax collector. By now Ustaimo knew a lot about the village's situation, and had become quite favourable to them, but perhaps it wasn't a good idea to tell everything just yet. "He is just a merchant we know well. His arrival at this time could mean that we really might be able to pay your tax on time. Hopefully."

"Is that so?" Ustaimo asked with a smile. "I am happy for you, milord. And for Tiranat."

Duvas glanced at the inner door, which was still closed at the moment and interrupted Kivamus, before whispering in his ear, "I think we should find a way to get the knight out of the manor house while we talk with Pydaso - maybe along with Ustaimo. We can't let Sir Tuilas stumble into this room while we are talking about the medicine and such things."

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Kivamus whispered back. He thought of sending the pair to the south to visit the farms, which would take long enough that they should be done dealing with Pydaso by that time, but that would also disclose the existence of seed drills, and he wasn't yet ready to tell others about it. While it would be a good idea to eventually spread the knowhow of those machines throughout the kingdom, so that the crop yields could increase and people wouldn't have to starve anymore, but revealing it at this time would make others ask difficult questions about its origin, and he couldn't give those answers without revealing everything. Not to mention, it could also start a thorough scrutiny of everything happening in Tiranat, and at the moment, the village simply wasn't in a position to rebuff that kind of scrutiny if it turned hostile.

For now, it was best to keep the knowledge of the presence of those seed drills limited to the farmers. He recalled that after the first day of usage of seed drills in the farms, he and the southern foreman Pinoto had decided to keep the drills in the fields overnight, since nobody had any reason to steal the wooden contraptions anyway. This way, the farmers wouldn't have to haul them back back-and-forth from the manor every day, which would have meant carrying less seeds on that single free wagon for sowing, while their wagons were busy hauling coal from the coal mines. That would have led to the farmers making more trips to carry enough seed every day, wasting their valuable sowing time. He snorted at the serendipity of that chance decision, which meant that basically no other villagers knew about the machine to gossip about it and the knight and his other guards also hadn't seen those drills in the manor.

He looked at the tax collector. "Ustaimo, why don't you go and take another round of the village? After reviewing the tax ledger continuously for so long, a good walk to stretch your legs can only be helpful at your age. Perhaps you can visit the market square again, or maybe you can climb on one of the new watchtowers to see the view from there."

"What?" The tax collector looked at him in confusion. "You mean right now?"