"The merchant said that he got the iron ingots for cheap since hardly anybody is buying them in Cinran these days," Duvas explained. "He said that he had heard rumors that there was a good demand for iron in Tiranat so he wanted to make some profit on it. As for the wheat, its prices are so high that he wasn't sure if we would want to buy much of it."

"Damn it!" Kivamus cursed. "Did he bring any wheat at all?"

"He came with two wagons," the majordomo reported, "with the cargo space of one and a half wagons used for iron. All he has brought for food is seven sacks of wheat."

Kivamus sighed. "Better than nothing, I guess. It will provide... uh just under six more days of food for the whole village at two meals a day." He shook his head. "I really miss the times before the winter when we were able to send Pydaso to Cinran with customized orders."

"No, we can't risk sending a dozen guards to Cinran right now!" Hudan objected. "Torhan might raid us any day now. It'll be all for nothing if he burns the whole village to the ground this time because we didn't have enough guards to deal with him."

"I agree," Duvas commented, "not that we have any excess gold to buy that much wheat right now, unlike before the winter. Sending Pydaso to sell the medicine in Ulriga was far more important anyway. We really would have been bankrupt at this time after paying the taxes if he hadn't put an advanced order for acelos tablets from us."

Kivamus exhaled loudly. "You're right... So how much gold do we have right now? Can we even buy the iron and wheat from this new merchant?"

Duvas scratched his short beard. "After paying the taxes, we had just above 162 gold left. We have already promised to pay the remaining 94 gold to Trevalo when he returns in around 10 days, but we can buy everything from this new merchant with the remaining amount. Although we will have to postpone paying the smoked fish merchant of Kirnos for now."

"That's fine, Feroy didn't agree on a definite time for paying him anyway."

"Still, are you sure you want to buy all the iron ingots?" Duvas asked. "We can save that gold to buy food instead..."

"From whom exactly?" Kivamus countered. "It's not like we have access to a huge marketplace of wheat here in Tiranat even if we had the gold." Or any online marketplace, he muttered under his breath. "With Pydaso away, we have to depend on the merchants coming here. Like hudan said, we can't even risk sending a caravan to Cinran under Feroy's lead, since we need all the guards here right now."

Thinking about the various ways iron would help them in the future, he shrugged. "You also know that the price of iron might not remain this low for very long in case Binpaaz further escalates their raids, so it's a good idea to stock up on it whenever we can. Saving gold for wheat would be helpful, but only if we can actually buy it." He made some mental calculations. "We'll need to pay this merchant around 36 gold for all his wheat, and just above 41 gold for all the iron at its currently low prices, instead of the 71 gold we'd have to pay at its usual prices. By fully emptying his cargo space, we can also sell two full wagonloads of coal to him, which will earn us above 20 gold, so we should be able to manage it."

"Then I'll make the trade tomorrow morning," the majordomo gave a slow nod. "His prices might be a little different from the previous merchants, but I think your calculations should be correct enough, so we'll have to pay him a net amount of around 54 gold for everything he's brought. After repaying Trevalo, that will leave just enough gold for us to continue paying the craftsmen. For now at least."

"It's far from ideal, but we'll have to manage it. Once we've paid Trevalo all the dues, he should agree to sell us more wheat on credit once again, although we'll have to give him a good deal on coal once again. Hopefully he'll bring wheat in all six of his wagons next time, which will easily feed the whole village for more than a month."

Duvas gave a slow nod. "Let's hope so. Trevalo won't come for another 10 days, so even adding these seven sacks of wheat to our remaining food stores will only allow us to feed the whole village for around less than two weeks. This is cutting it too close."

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"That's only if no other trader comes until then, but that's unlikely. Even a single merchant coming with a full wagonload of wheat will tide us over this time." Kivamus added, "Still, you are right, and I don't like it either. Not sending hunters out to supplement our diet with meat is already hurting us. Did you talk with Madam Helga about the current state of the Rizako mushrooms? I think we might need to use them before we'd planned."

Duvas nodded. "I already told her to use them as food. She wanted another week to let them grow fully, but we can't afford to wait that long, so she agreed to start picking out the ripe ones from tomorrow."

"That will help to extend our food stores by another day or two," Kivamus agreed, "but it's still only a small supplement to the diet, especially since we couldn't give them time to grow into that mushroom barn fully."

"Then shouldn't we start sending hunters out now?" the majordomo asked. "It's been two weeks since we got the news of a possible raid by Torhan, but it seems like it's not going to happen at all and we were worrying unnecessarily."

Kivamus took a deep breath, thinking about it. "I don't think Feroy was completely wrong in anticipating it. That former slave Joric also agreed that Torhan behaved like a highborn noble and wouldn't let his men get wiped out by us without trying to take revenge, but you may also be right... Still, I don't want to send hunters out now only for us to be raided right after it." He looked at the guard captain. "What do you think?"

"In my opinion," Hudan shrugged, "I would prefer every single guard to stay in the village. It's my job to make sure Tiranat is always well defended, and we can never have enough guards for it. But letting people start to starve in two weeks if no new merchant comes by then is also not an option. I think we can start by sending a single hunting group out to the east, preferably by using the two village hunters, and only two of our guards."

"It will help, but a single group can hardly bring enough meat by themselves..." Kivamus muttered. "Okay, let's do this then. If there is no sight of any bandits by tonight, send that first hunting group out in the morning. Assuming tomorrow night also stays quiet, send another hunting group the next morning. Make sure not to send our best archers or the strongest swordsmen. We still need them here to deal with the bandits."

Duvas looked at the guard captain. "Can you still defend the village with the remaining men?"

Hudan nodded. "We recruited six new guards recently but I don't think they are ready to fight against trained bandits yet. So I can send two of them in each hunting group, coupled with a village hunter and a trained guard with past experience in hunting. This way we'll only be losing two experienced guards, but we'll be able to send out two fairly balanced hunting parties."

"That's a better idea than what I suggested," Kivamus praised. "Two hunting groups might just be enough to help us through this time. So, will the remaining guards be enough for defence?"

Hudan shrugged. "Even with these six guards out, we still have around two dozen male guards, apart from the dozen crossbow women. It's not ideal, but with five watchtowers already built, I think we should be able to get a warning of a raid in good time for us to deal with them. We also have at least one crossbow in every watchtower now, which will help to thin out the bandits before they reach the walls. It helps that the full moon was just a few days ago, so there is enough light in the night these days for the guards to spot any approaching bandits in the cleared area outside the walls easily."

"Hmm... Torhan seems like a crafty bastard, or he wouldn't have reached where he is today. I think he might very well wait until the next new moon," Kivamus suggested, "but we'll have to manage. These two hunting groups should return in four to five days so the meat they bring will help us a lot. I really don't want to start butchering our animals here unless we really have to. The sheep and rabbits we have gotten have to be preserved for the future."

"I agree. However, now that the snow has melted," Duvas began, "it's not going to be easy to drag the animals over the forest terrain, since they can't use the sledge properly. We'll have to give a wheelbarrow or two to each of the hunting parties."

"Do it," Kivamus ordered. "We have enough of them right now for Taniok to manage the watchtower construction without them."

Hudan stood up. "Then I'll go and select the guards and tell them to be ready to leave in the morning. I'll also have to send word to the two village hunters."

"Go on then..." Kivamus gave a nod. "These hunting groups and the mushrooms are going to be vital for us in the coming days."

"Of course," Hudan agreed. "I'll make sure to tell the hunters about the importance of getting enough meat and in time." With that, the brawny man walked towards the outer doors.