From Londoner To Lord

The ex-mercenary gave them a summary of the trip including the fact that most of the fish was on credit as well as about meeting the young master Lanidas who was the only son of baron Farodas, and how he had tripled the taxes for them. However, everyone had a good laugh at the way the ex-mercenary had managed to make the young master pay double the price for the coal, before Feroy told them about the price of the smoked fish which they still needed to pay.

Duvas winced. "Even after the discount which that merchant gave you, it is still nearly seventy gold per wagon! Although the coal you managed to sell at those inflated prices would help, we still need to pay around ninety gold to that merchant on the next trip." He glared at Feroy. "I don't think that you should have made that deal to buy on credit without asking us..."

"Even I wasn't sure about whether to do that," Feroy said with a shrug, "but the young master Lanidas seemed to be quite angry with us, especially after the scolding he got from his father. "I think if we go to Kirnos again, he will probably demand such a high tax that we might as well not go there at all. That's why I thought it's better to buy as much fish as I could this time, since there might not be another trip this winter."

The majordomo looked like he was going to scold the ex-mercenary again, before Kivamus intervened. "It's alright, Duvas. Since that merchant trusted Feroy enough to provide the fish on credit, it means he is willing to wait a month or two to get the payment. That means we don't have to pay the remaining amount before the tax collector arrives."

"That's true enough," Duvas grumbled, "but we'll still have to pay that ninety-five gold in the future."

"That we do," Kivamus agreed, "especially since that merchant seems brave enough to be willing to go against the orders of the nobles of Kirnos, which will be very helpful to us in the future in case we need to buy fish regularly from there." He looked at the ex-mercenary again. "Why is that baron increasing the taxes so much anyway? He has to know that the people of Kirnos will rebel against him if it continues like this."

"I heard some rumours that Count Cinran has increased the taxes he levies on his barons from a fifth of their total revenue until last year," Feroy said, "to a fourth of the revenue now. I really can't say how much truth is in these rumours, but it seems like a good reason for the baron to increase his taxes as well, so that he can pay the higher taxes to the Count."

Duvas shoulders had hunched down like he had the weight of the whole world on his shoulders after hearing that their taxes might be increased further. "We are probably not going to have enough gold even to pay the taxes we already owe to the Count at the previous rates, but if he has really increased the tax rates like this, then..."

Kivamus took a deep breath to not let this news overwhelm his mind, and did a rough calculation of how much extra taxes they would need to pay if these rumours were true. "I remember that we had to pay around 100 gold per month as taxes at the previous rates of twenty percent, which had totalled to around 950 gold for the whole year. If the taxes have really increased to twenty five percent of our revenue now, that would mean an extra 25 gold per month, or around 250 to 300 gold for the whole year." He sighed, "This might just make us bankrupt..."

He gazed at Duvas who was looking downwards in resignation, while Hudan and Feroy had downcast expressions as well. However, instead of that scene depressing him as well, it somehow strengthened his resolve to do better for them. He was their leader now, and it was his duty to make sure anyone serving under him didn't feel mentally defeated, especially when it wasn't even confirmed news yet.

"We will deal with it somehow," he assured them while looking into their eyes. "Trust me on this. We still have around a month before the tax collector arrives, and we will somehow make a deal with him to let us survive. It is hardly to the Count's advantage to make us bankrupt, which would mean the villagers might start migrating elsewhere and Tiranat would cease to exist. We will deal with it one way or another, when the time comes for it. It might very well be that this is only a rumour, so don't lose hope just yet, okay?"

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Seeing that his words had managed to give some confidence to others, he tried changing the topic. "For now, what is indeed confirmed is that this smoked fish will help us a lot to reduce the consumption of wheat for sowing."

He made some mental calculations about how much fish a single wagon could carry based on how much grain was carried by Pydaso on it. "At a rough estimate, I believe those two wagons of smoked fish can feed our whole village of around 375 people for at least a week on an exclusively fish diet. If we keep two meals - including breakfast - of vegetables and wheat which we have in storage and the meat which the hunters are bringing, and only provide fish as the dinner to keep a varied diet, it will last us for nearly two weeks."

"I agree," Duvas said after taking a deep breath, "but would it even save enough grain that we won't have to buy it anymore for sowing?"

Kivamus thought about it for a moment. "We used to spend an average of just under one and a half sacks of wheat to feed the whole village for a day before the stonecutters arrived, so now it should still be around one and a half sacks per day, or around ten sacks per week. That's how much wheat will be saved by including this smoked fish in the diet. However, that consumption of wheat was before we started sending out hunters. Right now it should be around seven to eight sacks of wheat consumed per week for the whole village, which means the same amount of smoked fish will last a few days more when supplemented by the meat brought by hunters."

Duvas gave a thoughtful nod. "We had estimated that we would need to buy at least ten sacks of wheat after the winter to complete the sowing, although it could probably rise up to twenty sacks. So you are probably right that it was a good decision to buy this fish, especially since most of it is on credit. If there aren't any big problems like a damaging bandit raid or a fire, we might just be able to make do with the grain we already have in the stores."

"Exactly!" Kivamus agreed. "In case we are able to send Feroy on another trip, he would be able to buy more smoked fish which would make it certain that we won't need to buy any more wheat to complete the sowing. However, unless the merchant is willing to extend us another credit until the spring when we will start earning again by selling coal, it would still cost us a lot of gold, which would defeat the purpose of not buying wheat."

Feroy began, "I think I might be able to convince him to provide another two wagon loads of fish on credit, but it would require us to pay for at least what we already owe him."

"Let's think about it when we are ready to send you on another trip," Kivamus suggested, "which will be only when we can spare more guards in the future to defend the caravan. How did your other mission go?"

"That was actually not that difficult," the ex-mercenary replied with a grin. "With how much Baron Farodas is charging as taxes from the local merchants, fishermen and the farmers, even those who are well off are disgruntled against him. Those who didn't have much to begin with, including those who were homeless, had lost any hope of their lives getting better in the future, so they were quite enthusiastic to think that there might be good opportunities to find work in Tiranat."

The ex-mercenary continued, "I'd provided the losuvil powder to any locals in Kirnos who looked sick, and even some food to those who looked like they hadn't eaten in days or if their children looked hungry, so there is already some goodwill for Tiranat in their minds." He shrugged, "Even so, travelling in winter is not easy, so I don't think we are going to get any immigrants before the snow melts. But after that? I think you might be pleasantly surprised."

Kivamus grinned hearing that there was a good chance of Tiranat's workforce expanding in the future. "I can't wait for that day!"

Hudan looked at the ex-mercenary. "Well, you must be quite hungry by now, so let's get you something to eat, including some of the adzee meat which we saved for you and the other guards who had gone with you." Looking at Kivamus with questioning eyes, he added, "I think we can even spare some ale for Feroy since he missed it on New Year's Eve."

Once Kivamus gave a nod in permission, Feroy beamed on hearing about ale. "That would help a lot to unwind! Tesyb and the other guards also deserve some of it, you know?"

"Of course, I was already thinking of that," Hudan said before he smirked, "or did you think you would also get to drink their shares of the ale?"

The ex-mercenary laughed at that. "I never said that!" Then he looked seriously at Kivamus. "Before I leave for the meal, I heard something else In Kirnos which you might find very interesting."

"What is it?" Kivamus asked curiously.