From Londoner To Lord-Chapter 202 - 199. Departure

Duvas laughed. "It's just not possible to kill an adzee while trying to preserve its pelt. That beast would easily tear you into shreds in that case. Be assured, we will carefully salt it for the winter, and Pydaso or any other merchant would be glad to take it off our hands after that."

"That's certainly good to hear," Kivamus nodded. "But about the adzee meat, is it even edible?"

"Of course," Duvas snorted. "It's considered a delicacy in these parts of the kingdom. If this had happened near Cinran, a minor bidding war would have started between the nobles in the court of Count Cinran, just so they could brag to the other nobles that they just had some freshly butchered adzee meat as dinner!"

Kivamus laughed loudly hearing about the nobles' habits. "Well, that just means we can have it for ourselves for our dinner tonight! If that carcass is big enough, we might even be able to give a small portion of it to everyone in the manor." He chuckled, "It might even give them bragging rights in front of the rest of the villagers. "

Hudan agreed with a laugh. "If you really want to share it with everyone, then you don't have to worry about that meat not being enough. That adzee would easily weigh as much as six or seven grown men."

"Five to six hundred kg then..." Kivamus muttered. "That would still give us hundreds of kilograms of fresh meat. I don't think we can consume that much meat in a single meal. That reminds me, how is the smokehouse construction coming along?"

"Should be ready by now," Duvas replied. "I met with Taniok earlier in the day when I had gone to visit the northeast of the village, and he had assured me that it would be done by evening."

"That's very good!" Kivamus exclaimed. "It would prevent any wastage. For any leftover meat which we can't consume inside the manor for tonight's dinner, send it with a few servants to the smokehouse to preserve it for the future."

Duvas nodded, while Hudan gave a chuckle again. "Inaugurating our smokehouse by smoking an adzee meat inside it for the first time? I like it!" The guard captain added with a smirk, "Feroy is out on another patrol right now, but I can speak for him in that even he would love to brag about it to anyone who doesn't get that meat tonight!"

Everyone laughed at that, while Lucem looked like he was salivating at the thought of their upcoming meal.

After a moment, Hudan suggested, "I would recommend you to give a few medals to the guards. A baron's Medal of Courage would be good for Hyola, while a Baron's Medal of Sacrifice can be given to each of the two guards who had gotten seriously injured."

"I think that's a great idea," Kivamus agreed. "It's a good thing that we had gotten extra medals built from the blacksmith the first time. Those guards would be in a lot of pain for the night, so I'll distribute them tomorrow. That being said, I think we need another type of medal, this time for academic or scientific contributions to the progress of the village. I will talk with the blacksmith to have it built by tomorrow evening after I have sketched a design for it later today."

He had something like the Nobel prizes in his mind with this, even though the contributions might not be at that scale yet to anyone who would get this medal. It also didn't make much sense to make separate prizes for Physics, Chemistry and such, but he could certainly make a single medal for science. He continued, "We can simply call it The Baron's Medal of Science." He looked at Syryne with a grin. "Can you guess who would be the first recipient of that?"

For a moment, the young woman looked confused, before her eyes went wide. "Me? But I barely did anything! I just followed your instructions and your ideas!"

"It's true that I might have given the initial suggestions," Kivamus agreed, "but it was you who performed the whole preservation process so well and managed to create such a useful new medicine for us. You deserve the medal."

"But still..." Syryne looked at everyone's faces, and only found supportive smiles everywhere. Then she sighed and gave a huge smile too. "In that case I'll gladly accept it, milord!"

Immediately Lucem and Clarisa gathered around the young woman with wide eyes. "Are you really going to get a medal, big sis?"

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Kivamus looked at the small caravan behind him for a moment, before he had to mount his horse as well. It was early morning, and the sun had just risen above the Arakin mountains in the east. With the consistent snowfall over the last week, there were a few inches of snow gathered everywhere, but thankfully it had stopped for now which would make their journey easier.

It had been a week since he had given the medals to the guards as well as Syryne in another simple ceremony outside the manor gates. He had also explained the details of the water wheel design to Darora on the same day, and the talented carpenter had done outstandingly in the previous week. It meant that the young carpenter hadn't been able to work on the second crossbow until now, but he should be starting that work from tomorrow after everyone returned from their upcoming day trip today.

The blacksmith had come through as well, and he had already provided the first safety lamp which would be extremely helpful for them today. It had taken him more than a few tries with many wasted attempts, but eventually, Cedoron had been able to build the oil lamp which resembled what he had drawn in the sketches. In the absence of any crude oil, animal-based oils will have to do as its fuel, but it should still do the task. Once the safety lamp had been tested inside a mineshaft today, he planned to give orders to Cedoron to start forging half a dozen such lamps in total.

Behind the band of six horses including his own - where Hudan and five other guards had already mounted their rides while they waited for him - there were two wagons filled to the brim with ready-to-assemble parts for the water wheel, along with a few wheelbarrows and a couple of carts to easily move the parts wherever needed. This reverse-overshot waterwheel certainly hadn't been tested yet - apart from connecting all the parts late yesterday evening to check that they fit properly - but he was confident that it would work just as they had planned.

With Taniok's apprentice having already provided a dozen more shafts for the spears, he was again working on making more wheelbarrows these days, which meant there was no shortage of them in the village.

A pair of horses would be pulling each wagon, while a dozen workers including Darora would be walking behind them to the coal mines in the east to install the water wheel there. Two of the four nodors they had in the manor were also coming with them so that they could pull the smaller carts after loading them with a few parts, as closer to the entrance of the mines as possible, and hopefully even inside the mineshafts, since the horses and the much bigger wagons wouldn't be able to do that in the cramped spaces.

Most of the fur coats they had in the manor were being worn by those who would be going to the mines today, since it could get quite windy on the narrow passages between the hills, even if it would again become quite warmer inside the mineshafts.

Duvas would be staying at the manor to oversee everything, while Feroy would be in charge of all the guards until Hudan returned back. Gorsazo would soon be starting to tutor Syryne for her individual classes he gave every morning, while Lucem had kept asking if he could go to the coal mines as well, but a single scolding from his mother had been enough to make him join his sister for her tutoring classes, even if he didn't have much hope of understanding there anything yet.

Giving a satisfied exhale, Kivamus mounted his own horse, and gave a nod to Hudan. The guard captain immediately ordered everyone to start moving, and with that their small caravan of two wagons, a pair of nodors and ten horses started to move towards the gates of the manor.

Before long, they reached the newly built longhouse blocks in the north, where there was a lot of activity as usual. A stream of people were entering and exiting the gates of both the blocks, with a small gaggle of children running with steaming wooden bowls in their hands, which must contain some freshly cooked porridge from the kitchen to give to the labourers who were working farther in the north.

There was also a thin plume of smoke coming from further ahead in the north east, which is where the first smokehouse of the village was already in operation. Apart from the manor servants who were tasked with working there, there was also a guard posted there at all times to prevent any stealing of the large quantity of meat being smoked there. With four hunting groups in operation once again after the threat of the adzees had passed, they were getting a good amount of meat every day now, which is why that smoke house was going to be vital in their attempts to minimise the usage of wheat to preserve it to use as seeds after the winter. It still wasn't going to be enough at the current rate, but at least they were on the right path now.

Soon, they reached the northern wall of the village, and he watched with quite a lot of satisfaction as the guards at watch duty saluted him and Hudan both - which was something new that the guard captain was teaching them on his suggestion - before they opened the newly built gates in the former northern gap. After the second long house had been completed around a week ago, Taniok had been working hard as well, and he had just finished this gate two days ago.

These days the old carpenter was working to build the gates in the southern gap of the walls, which would only leave the gap in the south-west, which would be his last task before he could start building the barn in the south for growing mushrooms at a larger scale. Only then could they start constructing the watchtowers inside the walls. ƒreewebɳovel.com

He shook his head. So much work to do but so few skilled craftsmen in the village...