From Londoner To Lord

120. Conjectures

"Shut up!" the bandit snapped at him. "I didn't ask for your opinion."

The fatso sniggered as he taunted Calubo, "Like you would know anything about the count's knights! You were only a manor guard in this pitiful little village, not a knight in the count's retinue!"

Immediately the other bandit started to laugh as well. "The count's knights coming to these forests in the middle of the night? And on the same day we are here? Don't make me laugh! So you are an idiot after all."

Calubo sighed. There went that plan of separating them. Trying to salvage his attempt to separate them, he said with a shrug, "The knights might still come... you can never know..."

"Yeah, I can!" the fatso boasted. "I have actually been to the count's mansion in Cinran - unlike you - so what would you know? Anyway, shut up now unless you want to get a beating."

Calubo didn't say anything after that. He had tried his best to separate them, hadn't he?

But he still felt guilty. It was his mistake of telling Nokozal that the manor guards might not leave the walls of the manor if a raid happened, and because of that, these bastards were going to raid Tiranat. They'd probably even burn the houses and kill many villagers during that attack. So he still felt responsible about it, since it had all started with his own mistake. And yet, there still wasn't anything he could do to help the village, damn it!

As the other bandit started telling the fatso about the feast in the village, with even more exaggeration than what the runt had told them, the fatso's stomach growled loudly.

"Dammit! I'm really hungry now!" The fatso grumbled again as he sat up straighter. "And being so hungry is already making me sleepy. Why did the chief have to put me on watch duty right now?"

The other bandit shrugged. "Doesn't matter, man. The chief said that we'd get to eat as much as we want after tonight! So just hold on for now."

The fatso grumbled something again, then settled down with his back to the tree again, while the other bandit continued his tale of the feast.

*******

~ Kivamus ~

~ Baron's Manor, Tiranat ~

Kivamus and others had just finished their own feast, and while Clarisa and Syryne cleared the wooden plates and cups from the long dining table, he moved to sit in front of the roaring fire in a comfortable armchair, with others following him as well. The feast was a rare change from their regular meals, and while they couldn't afford it frequently, it still made him happy that he was able to eat something like that in this world.

"That was a wonderful meal, Madam Helga," he praised the former innkeeper. Remembering the taste of the only sweet thing he had tasted in the past few weeks, he said, "I particularly liked the Toloraberry Pie! It's a pity that we won't be able to have more of it until after the winter, when those shrubs begin to give fruit again. But still, it was a delicious feast."

"Thank you, milord!" Madam Helga replied with a smile, as she picked up another empty plate from the table to take it away.

"I'd love to have more of the Rizako stew, though," Feroy said as he leaned back further on an armchair. He had returned to the manor an hour ago while looking a little edgy, but after seeing the feast in front of him, he had seemingly focused only on the food. The ex-mercenary added, "Nothing beats the taste of that!"

Madam Helga laughed. "You were the one who grabbed the cauldron of the Rizako stew for yourself, so you could soak up any leftover broth with bread! So you know that there isn't any more of it left, Feroy!"

Everyone laughed remembering that, while Feroy looked unabashed. He just shrugged. "What can I say, it was just that delicious."

"I am glad to hear that. And don't worry, you'll be the first one to eat the Rizako stew whenever I make it the next time, assuming we are able to replant the mushrooms again in new barns," Madam Helga replied, before she walked away with Clarisa with the empty plates in her hands.

Feroy grinned. "I can't wait!"

Kivamus smiled seeing the rare smile on the face of the ex-mercenary. It was good to see that everything was going so well.

"How is the meal for the villagers going?" he asked the majordomo.

Duvas replied, "The feast is nearly over now, and the villagers have started returning back. But there is still a small crowd remaining in front of the gates, mainly of those children who are still finishing their second helping of food, along with their families who are keeping an eye on them."

"Hmm... I am glad that we were able to provide the children something tasty," Kivamus said with a smile.

"Certainly," Gorsazo said with a nod. "The winter months were already difficult for commoners even in Ulriga - where it didn't snow that much - but here in Tiranat, they would be much more severe and with a lot of snowfall. So the rare experience of eating in a feast would be something that will keep the villagers' morale high, instead of them just trying to survive the bleak winter days."

Kivamus nodded. "That's true enough."

Hudan stood up from his armchair. "I should go and take a look again at the feast, to make sure that everything is going well."

Before Kivamus agreed to him, Feroy interrupted with a serious expression, "Wait here for a moment, Hudan. I have something I need to talk about."

"What is it?" Kivamus asked curiously.

"I didn't mention it earlier while we were eating since I didn't want to spoil the mood," Feroy said, "but you all still need to know about it." He added with a shrug, "You can certainly call me paranoid, but I am usually right about such things."

Hudan's expression became serious as he retook his seat. "What are you talking about?"

"I've been feeling that something is off since the past few days, you know?" the ex-mercenary began, "and after what I found out today, I don't think I was wrong."

Duvas looked concerned, while Kivamus and others listened carefully.

Feroy continued, "I asked around with the guards who were on watch duty in the previous few days - including those who went to patrol around the village in the night - but they hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary. So, earlier in the evening, I took a look around the village myself, but I didn't find anything unusual either."

"I told you there was nothing," Hudan said with a frown. "I asked them exactly the same thing earlier and got the same answer. So why are you still worried about it?"

Feroy raised one of his hands to placate Hudan. "Just hear me out." He continued, "Something still didn't feel right to me, so just before I came here for the dinner, I went outside to where the feast was being held. I thought that it was a good opportunity for me to ask around, since all the villagers had gathered in the same place. Otherwise it would be too difficult to go from house to house and look for those people whom I wanted to ask about it, you know?"

At Kivamus' nod, the ex-mercenary continued, "So I searched for those villagers who were cutting the trees - since they are the ones who are working the farthest from the village, and if there was anything suspicious in the forest around us, they would be the first ones to know about it." He added, "There were a lot of people who work as woodcutters away from the village, but for each direction of the village, I made sure to find someone who has been working in that direction, and then asked them if they had seen anything unusual."

"Alright," Kivamus nodded. "So did you find anything?"

"I think so, but there isn't anything I can say for sure, you know?" Feroy explained.

"That's okay," Kivamus reassured him. "Just tell us what you found."

Feroy nodded. "In the evening, one of the villagers who was in the group which is working to build the village walls in the north, had gone further away in that direction to relieve himself, and he thought that he saw someone further ahead in the forests. But it was just him at the time, so he wasn't very sure about it."

Hudan frowned on hearing that. "Then why didn't he report it to a guard? I would have sent a few men to check it out immediately if he had told us. It's already been a few hours since then, so we wouldn't find anything even if I did send guards now."

"I asked him that as well," Feroy replied. "But he told me that it was already getting dark by that time, so he thought it might be just shadows of a branch moving from the wind, or maybe it was just some other laborer who had gone further ahead. So he didn't think it was worth mentioning it to anyone."

"But he still should have gone further ahead and taken a look himself," Gorsazo said. "At least he could have made sure that it wasn't someone he didn't recognize."

Feroy nodded. "He probably should have, but like I told you, he was alone at that time. And people in the village don't like to go too far into the forest alone, especially in the dark."

Kivamus wasn't sure what it meant, and if it was something to be really concerned about, so he gestured to Feroy to keep speaking. "Carry on."

The ex-mercenary nodded. "Having said that, it wouldn't normally be much cause for concern, since it could just have been some wild animals there. Or like that laborer thought, it might be another villager who had gone further ahead, or maybe it was just some branches moving from the wind. We simply can't be sure about it."

Feroy continued, "However, I have just been back from three separate journeys with the caravan and travelled through those same forests. While Hudan said earlier that it was just my nerves which were making me too paranoid, but I don't think so. Not anymore."

"Could it be possible that the news about the caravan got out while you were in Cinran?" Kivamus asked.