"How dare you!" Sir Tuilas snarled as he stood up, his hand already on the pommel of the sword tied at his waist. "I'll have your whole family line drawn up and quartered for challenging a noble from the Count's family! Lowlifes like you fall against my sword every other day!"

The two guards standing in the hall had jogged nearby in case the matter escalated, while Feroy had stood up as well and was glaring at the knight. But Hudan - who easily towered over everyone in the hall - put his bulk between the ex-mercenary and the knight, and pushed them away from each other. The guard captain glared at Feroy, who looked ready to taunt the knight again. "Be quiet!"

Gorsazo and Duvas had already moved to stand in front of Kivamus by this time with the guards accompanying them with their swords out, while Ustaimo was unsuccessfully trying to pull Tuilas back.

Kivamus was surprised to see Feroy acting like a hothead for the first time, while Tuilas was acting just as he had expected from a noble in this world.

"Enough!" He roared in a voice loud enough to make everyone stop in their places, and took a step towards the duo. "Feroy, move back right now! Tuilas, get your hand away from your sword immediately or I'll have you chained and thrown in prison for trying to attack a higher noble. Hudan, make sure they stay away from each other."

As Hudan moved Feroy away, the ex-mercenary seemed to be smirking for some reason, while Tuilas jerked his hands away from his sword like it was poisonous and sputtered, "But... but... I never tried to attack you! I only wanted to put this rogue in his place!"

"You still tried to pull your sword out just a few feet away from me," Kivamus declared. "From what I know, that's something which makes you deserve a punishment in any noble's court. I'm sure the Count will agree with me on this. Get your anger in control, and go and take a nap or something in your room. I'm trying to give you an easy way out, but this is my last warning to you."

"But! I... I didn't even..." The knight tried again, before he exhaled and gave a nod.

Kivamus looked at the tax collector. "I have been lenient with Tuilas' crude behaviour so far, but trying to attack my guard is crossing the line. Take him to his room, and make sure he calms down before coming out. We'll talk more about the taxes later in the evening after everyone has had time to cool down a little."

"As you wish, milord," Ustaimo nodded, before gently pushing the knight towards the inner door. Hudan ordered one of the guards to follow them and guard his room. Tuilas turned back with a scowl at Feroy before he and the tax collector went out of the hall accompanied by the guard. The other guard was told to exit the hall as well and to man that door from the other side.

Seeing that the matter had ended for the moment without any bloodshed, Kivamus glared at Feroy after the door had closed. "What the heck were you trying to do by goading the knight? How could you not know that trying to threaten him would be a bad idea? Just be glad that he accepted my bluff. You know that the Count has no reason to favor us over his nephew."

The ex-mercenary - whose face looked nothing like a man who was willing to fight to the death just a few moments ago - grinned as he took a seat. "I knew exactly how he would behave if I said that."

Duvas looked annoyed, as he sat on an armchair along with the others. "Then why did you even do that? Couldn't you see that we were trying to negotiate to lower the taxes?"

Feroy smirked. "Two reasons." He continued in a low voice to make sure nobody else could hear them, "Firstly, I don't know all the details, but I have a good idea that after you talked with Pydaso for hours with nobody else in the room, you would have earned enough gold by now to pay the taxes, by selling..." He glanced at the inner door. "that stuff. Even then, from what the guards following Tuilas have reported to me about his ways, I have no doubt that he was already looking for a reason to try to take slaves, preferably some of them female ones he has been eyeing in the manor - whether you can pay the taxes or not."

The ex-mercenary added, "Even if he couldn't find an official reason to do that because you had paid all the taxes, he might have still tried to kidnap the women when leaving the village - expecting that nobody would be willing to stand up to a knight of noble lineage - especially one who's a nephew of the Count. But now?" Feroy snorted. "He saw how a commoner like me and the other guards were willing to fight with him as equals. That will give him enough reason in his mind to doubt whether he can get away with taking a few slaves by force, especially after he finally realizes just how many guards we have in the manor right now. Trust me, he'll notice it from now on."

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Kivamus frowned at Duvas. "Is that something normal? I know the nobles of this kingdom don't blink an eye about keeping slaves, but could Tuilas really have tried to take them by force?"

The majordomo shrugged. "I don't know about him in particular, but occasionally some nobles are known to take slaves by force, especially when they think they can get away with it. Even if they still have to pay the slave price to their families later on, by then it's too late for the slave who would be condemned to a life of servitude for most of his or her life." He shook his head reluctantly. "Assuming the previous Baron of Tiranat ruled here today, and Tuilas forcefully tried to take a woman as his slave, someone from the manor would certainly have alerted the baron about it, but for nobles, gold is often far more important than the life of a commoner. In that case, it's quite possible that unless it was a personal slave of the baron, he would have just shrugged and sent a note to pay the slave's price in full."

"Isn't the baron meant to have a higher station than a knight?" Hudan asked in confusion.

"Of course, but this particular knight is a nephew of the Count," the majordomo replied, "and has a lot more leeway than most other knights. The previous baron wouldn't have wanted to embarrass the Count by claiming that his nephew had stolen a slave. Most likely, he would have just demanded a higher payment for keeping his mouth shut about it, which would have kept the knight happy, and the baron away from the ire of the Count."

Kivamus shook his head in disgust. Is this how the powerful nobility behaved? Was the life of a commoner nothing more than a stack of gold in their eyes? Trying to put that thought away from his mind, he looked at Feroy. "You said two reasons. What's the other reason?"

The ex-mercenary shrugged. "It's just to give you a better bargaining position, milord. Although you have clearly told the knight that you won't give him slaves to pay off any shortfall in taxes, but now that you also hold the power of complaining to the Count that he pulled his sword in front of you, he would be more inclined to give you an extension to pay the taxes to keep you quiet."

"The Count has absolutely no reason to favor us over his own nephew..." Kivamus repeated.

Duvas was rubbing his short white beard. "Actually, Feroy might be right here. With Binpaaz getting more and more daring in the east, the Count needs the support of all the barons under him - just in case the raids become more serious. I know that there is no love lost between you and the Count, since he would always see you as a case of the Duke overextending his authority by appointing you directly, but easily forgiving his nephew who pulled his sword in front of his barons is also not a good option for him, whether he likes you or not. It would make the other barons and nobles under him feel resentful, which isn't something the Count wants with a possible war on the horizon."

"That really does make sense..." Kivamus looked at Feroy in wonder. "Sometimes... I'm just surprised by how far ahead you think. I guess I should learn not to second-guess you by now."

The ex-mercenary grinned. "I'm just doing my best to help the village, you know?"

Hudan snorted. "Sometimes I wonder just who you are... Hah! Doesn't matter, I guess. I'm just glad you're on our side."

"Should we really try to use this to postpone some of the taxes?" Duvas asked.

Kivamus thought about it for a while. "I don't think it's a good idea. Most likely, as a nephew of the count, Tuilas has been sent here to keep him away and safe from any Binpaazi raids in the east, which means he is the one who is likely going to come here to take the taxes for the next few years at least, until either a new war breaks out or the raids fizzle out into nothing. That's why threatening Tuilas isn't going to help us in the future, especially when we don't even know if the Count will punish him at all just based on my word against his. That being said, now that we can fully pay the taxes, I want to get it done and send Ustaimo and the knight away from Tiranat so they won't have any reason to visit us again until the autumn - when we have to pay this year's taxes."

He shrugged, "Saving some gold would certainly have been nice, but we would have to pay the remaining amount within a few weeks anyway, since the extension isn't likely going to be long, if we even get it. So, whether we pay the full taxes now and pay the merchants in a few weeks, or we save some gold from the taxes to pay the merchants right now and pay the remaining tax within a few weeks, is basically the same thing for us, since we would have to pay all the gold we owe within the coming month anyway. However, we have more important things which we need to keep hidden from the knight and the count, which would be difficult if they have to visit Tiranat again to take the remaining tax."

He glanced at the inner door to confirm that it was still closed, and continued in a lower voice, "Like the medicine and the paper, which we can't afford for Tuilas to find out about and report to the count. The same goes for crossbows and the scorpions which I plan to build - both of which are likely illegal for anyone outside Fort Aragosa to have - apart from some other things in the future. That's why it's better to pay them in full tonight, so they can leave tomorrow morning and we can get back to our normal lives until late autumn. We have far too much to lose if they find out about these things just to get a few weeks of extension on the tax."

"I agree with you," Duvas nodded. "Once Pydaso gives us the gold in the evening, we'll pay everything we owe to Ustaimo."