Sixty-seven surrendered mercenaries were huddled together eating in the open courtyard in front of the manor castle. The meal was simple — two slices of black bread and a bowl of meat soup. The soup came from a large barrel, and anyone who finished his bowl could ladle out more for himself.
When
Josk introduced them. "The older one is Hosky, and the golden-bearded fellow behind him is
Hosky and Jim stepped up and bowed to Lorist and Josk. Lorist waved them off. "Never mind that. You two, come into the castle with me. We need to discuss what to do with the rest of you mercenaries."
Inside the castle Lorist found a nearby room and brought the two mercenaries in. Once everyone was seated, he didn't bother with pleasantries and got straight to the point. "Although you mercenaries surrendered voluntarily, I've been going back and forth about what to do with you. Killing you would be unethical, but letting you go means wasting manpower to keep watch on you. After all, every one of you has awakened
The two mercenaries' faces flushed red, but they had nothing to say — because everything Lorist said was the truth.
"I can't kill you, but releasing you doesn't sit well with me either. Who's to say that the moment I let you go, within two days you wouldn't be hired by our enemies and we'd face each other across a battlefield again? Wouldn't that just be asking for trouble? And I don't have the men to keep you locked up. After much thought, I think the best solution is to hire you myself…" Lorist said.
The two mercenary leaders looked up in surprise. "My lord — you want to hire us?"
"Yes." Lorist nodded. "But don't worry. I'm not hiring you to go after your former employers. I doubt you'd have the face for it, and you wouldn't want to anyway. If I forced you, you'd just go through the motions, and I'd have to worry about you turning on us."
The two mercenary leaders lowered their heads in embarrassment — Lorist had clearly hit the mark. The older one, Hosky, had more experience. He quickly looked up and asked, "My lord, what would you have us do?"
"Someone, bring me a map of the territory," Lorist called out.
Lorist spread the map on the table and beckoned the two mercenary leaders over. "This is our family's manor castle, and this is Northwild Town. We're planning to build a new town here — at Poplar Flats, where there's a small river. As you probably know, the Northland is constantly troubled by mountain barbarians. Those savages love coming down from the mountains to raid. To keep them from attacking our new town while it's under construction, I intend to set up a military outpost here, at the pass where two mountain ridges converge, as the first line of defense."
"What I'm hiring you for is to hold this outpost. Of course, I won't ask the impossible of you. If the mountain barbarians come in force, hold the fortress and light the wolf-smoke signal to call us, and we'll send reinforcements. If they come in small numbers, wipe them out. With Silver and Black Iron Combat Force ranks, dealing with those savages should be more than enough. Naturally, I won't have you work for nothing. For every mountain barbarian captured alive, we'll pay a bounty of one Gold Forde. If they're dead, the reward is fifty imperial silver coins."
The two mercenary leaders exchanged glances. Hosky asked, "Can we go check the terrain at the pass first? And my lord, what kind of outpost are you planning to build?"
"Of course you can check the terrain. You can even decide where to place the outpost. As for the design — don't worry, we won't cut any corners. It has to be sturdy and durable. The hundred barrels of rubber-vine sap that came with the caravan — I'm planning to use them in the construction of this outpost," Lorist said.
"Very well, we'll take the job," Hosky said. "But my lord, how will our pay be calculated?"
Lorist smiled. "Don't worry — I'm more generous than Viscount
Hosky and Jim leapt up from their chairs. "My lord, we are at your service!"
"Good. In that case I'll have someone draw up the contract. Once it's signed, you two take the mercenaries to Poplar Flats and set up camp. I'll send someone to guide you, and supplies will follow," Lorist said.
"But — but, my lord, we need weapons and equipment… and horses…" Hosky stammered.
Lorist slapped his own forehead. How had he forgotten? These mercenaries were his prisoners. Everything they had besides the clothes on their backs had been confiscated. "Tell you what — once you sign the contract, you can go and pick out weapons you're handy with. On top of that I'll provide thirty sets of chain mail, fifty sets of leather armor, fifty mounts, and four large wagons. All of it goes on your tab — you can pay it off with spoils and prisoners. As for clothing, bedding, tents, and other supplies, those are on the house. How does that sound?"
Hosky and Jim were overjoyed. They bowed deeply to Lorist. "My lord, your kindness and generosity are like the sun in the sky, warming the bodies and souls of us lowly mercenaries —"
"Get lost! If you can't flatter properly, keep your mouths shut. Do you think I can't tell you just rewrote a few lines from the Sigwa Hymn and slapped them on me? Steward Hansk, come take these two fools away. Working out the contracts with the rest of the mercenaries is your responsibility. Once they're signed, have Steward Sper issue their weapons and equipment…"
After the two mercenary leaders left, Lorist breathed a sigh of relief. "Finally, one thing dealt with. Come on, Josk — I'll take you to see old Steward Kreis."
…
That evening in the study, Lorist and Josk sipped the family's treasured wine while discussing some of the problems facing the family. Of course, Lorist couldn't help but grumble — a number of practices that were perfectly normal in
"I really can't wrap my head around it sometimes. The family has fallen to this state, and yet it still clings to tradition with a death grip. You saw it yourself when we visited the old steward today — he actually scolded me for giving so many servants and hired workers the chance to learn how to awaken their Combat Force. He said the family used to reward loyal servants and hired workers by having someone teach them to awaken their Combat Force and then elevating their status. What I'm doing — treating all servants and hired workers equally and teaching them all to awaken their Combat Force — is, in his eyes, nothing short of overturning tradition. Honestly, I wish even the maids could awaken Combat Force. How else are we supposed to strengthen the family? Every year, rewarding two or three servants and hired workers with Combat Force awakening lessons, with no guarantee they'd even succeed — what the hell was the point of that…"
Lorist seemed to have had a bit too much to drink; his language was getting coarse.
A knock came at the door. Lorist said, "Come in."
Pat entered. "My lord, Steward Sper and Steward Hansk are here."
Lorist rubbed his face hard to sober up. "Show them in."
Lorist hadn't expected the two stewards to come and protest. The reason? Because that day Lorist had generously allotted thirty sets of chain mail to the mercenaries, and it pained the two stewards to see it.
"My lord, iron armor is extremely precious in the Northland. Many families keep theirs stored away and rarely take them out. Even though we have a hundred and seventy sets, giving thirty to those mercenaries all at once is far too generous — utterly wasteful. My lord, couldn't you perhaps get those chain mail sets back?" Steward Sper said, his face full of reluctance.
Lorist and Josk exchanged a glance and burst out laughing. Lorist in particular laughed so hard he doubled over, leaving both stewards bewildered.
After finally catching his breath, Lorist said, "Enough — this matter is settled. Don't bring it up again. Steward Sper, you need to understand: this type of iron armor is actually the most basic equipment. If you went to the castle construction site over at Morgan Hills, you'd see that the guards there wear two sets of iron armor — chain mail underneath and more chain mail over that. To our family, what's precious is the lives of these guards, not the armor."
"Oh, and by the way — all of this iron armor is manufactured by us, because we have an armorer master. The only thing troubling us right now is that we haven't yet found iron ore within the family's territory. Otherwise our armor production would be endless. We could fill every one of your warehouses within a year, and the problem you'd have then would be not having enough people to wear it all."
Stewards Sper and Hansk stared at each other in shock. They had never dreamed that this iron armor was being produced in-house, or that the family actually had an armorer master of its own. It was completely beyond their expectations — truly wonderful news.
"Oh, right — Steward Sper, how many suits of iron armor did our family have before?" Lorist asked.
"My lord, the family warehouse has seventeen suits of iron armor in storage. Two of them are full suits of knight's plate, the personal armor of the late master and the Eldest Young Master. In addition there are four sets of lamellar armor, seven sets of chain mail, two sets of scale armor, one suit of plate, and one set of chain mail." Steward Sper rattled off the numbers and types from memory without a moment's hesitation.
"All right. Tomorrow, bring me six sets of chain mail and two sets of scale armor. My eight personal guards need new equipment too. The six Bronze-rank guards get chain mail with leather armor over it. Mos and Adi — the two Black Iron-rank ones — get the scale armor. Also, Steward Sper, notify Knight
Steward Sper bowed his head. "Very well, my lord. I'll see to it as you've instructed."
Lorist nodded and turned to Josk. "Tomorrow you're coming with me to Northwild Town in the carriage. I need to push them to send those people over as quickly as possible — no stalling or making excuses. The longer we wait, the more chances something could go wrong," Lorist mused, stroking his chin.
"My lord, isn't handing all these weapons and equipment over to the Northwild Town garrison a bit too generous?" Steward Hansk asked.
"It's the only way to put them at ease. Think of it like fishing — you need bait. These weapons and equipment are the bait to lure the garrison in. Once they've swallowed it, we'll have plenty of ways to handle them. For now we just have to be patient. Don't worry — when the time comes, I'll make them pay back every last bit of these benefits with interest. Besides, our family soldiers are all equipped with iron armor now. These leather sets are useless to us, so we might as well use them to smooth things over with the garrison," Lorist said.
"All right, my lord. As you wish."
…