Duvas, who had always seed quite religious to him, looked even more angry now and started to retort back, but Kivamus raised his voice and spoke over him, "Well, what do you propose then? Should we keep those watchtowers empty? Or should we not make those watchtowers at all? Because as you very well know, we need all the able-bodied n to keep working as laborers to finish those longhouses and the village walls soon, and then we’d need them to work as farrs from the next year, so we can’t afford to recruit any more n to work as guards."
He tilted his head as he stared at Duvas. "Or, you know... we can just put the guards on twenty-hour shifts or sothing! Although we might not be able to properly man all the gates and the watchtowers even when using insanely long shifts, which still wouldn’t work anyway - since that will make the guards so tired that they wouldn’t be able to fight any bandits in the first place!"
Duvas crossed his arms, and looked away. "I don’t know the solution, or I would have suggested it myself! But that doesn’t an that we should force won to fight against bandits and risk their lives!"
Kivamus nodded. "Exactly. Neither of us wants the won to risk their lives. But what do you think will happen if the bandits co on another raid here? I have no idea how many bandits are in these forests, but the news would certainly get around that we lost many guards in that ambush on the previous baron, and we also couldn’t defend the village in the previous raid. That leaves the door wide open for many more raids in the village. There will certainly be bandit attacks here in the future, you can be sure of that!"
He added with sarcasm, "There is always an option to hire a few dozen more n as guards, which would an the longhouses would be finished even later, leaving a few people to freeze in the winter. And in that case, the village walls might not be finished for months - and without village walls, the bandits would easily be able to raid us again and burn half the village while they run away. Is that what you prefer?"
Duvas gazed away again and didn’t give an answer.
"No, don’t just look away now!" Kivamus asked the majordomo again, "Tell , what do you think will happen if the bandits raid again? Since we do not have enough guards, we cannot possibly protect the whole village as it stands right now. So if the bandits do co here, and we keep the remaining guards just to protect the manor like the last ti, what would happen to those won?"
He added heatedly, "By now, the bandits would also know that we can’t afford to go out of the manor to fight them - based on their wonderful experience last ti when they raided the village without any repercussions at all. So do you think this ti those bandits would politely ask the won in the village to hand over their coins and stored grain and then they’d leave with a thank you? Or would they kidnap those won and children and take them away to sell them as slaves in Cinran, or maybe so fate even worse? Tell which is the more likely outco."
Duvas gave a deep sigh. "I don’t know, my Lord, I don’t know! I do realize that we can’t protect the whole village if we are raided by bandits right now. And I know just as well what would happen to any won who are kidnapped by them. But... but to ask the won to fight for us...? It is completely unheard of... Even Gorsazo has never heard of won being forced to fight as guards anywhere. How am I supposed to agree to such a bizarre thing?"
"I understand where you are coming from," Kivamus said after taking a deep breath to calm himself, "but desperate tis call for desperate asures. I wouldn’t suggest this if we had any other option, but we cannot keep half the workforce idle just because they are won - especially when doing that risks their lives just as much as not asking them to fight, in case a bandit raid does happen soon in the future."
"I do understand our situation... my lord," Duvas muttered after a while. "And like I have told you in the past, I will follow your decisions and orders, even if they go against what I stand for." He sighed. "But I still have to say... I don’t like it one bit."
"That’s alright, Duvas," Kivamus said, with his expression hardened. "Sotis, there are things in life that we might not prefer to do... but we still need to do them if they are necessary enough."
Gorsazo still wasn’t saying anything, so he didn’t ask him again, knowing by now that he wouldn’t get any support from him in this matter. He gave so ti to Duvas to co around to the idea, while he looked at the guard captain. "What do you think, Hudan? You have been very quiet so far."
Hudan grunted, "I know just as well as others here that won don’t work as guards or in armies anywhere, and for good reason. And if you had asked this question before I t Feroy, I would have given you the sa answer as others. But talking with him in the past few years has opened my eyes to what happens to those won who are kidnapped by bandits or rcenaries. I would rather not speak of such things here, but it is usually a fate much worse than death, let say that much," he answered with a grimace. "That was the kind of behavior which made Feroy start to loathe those rcenaries and forced him to leave that life behind."
He continued, "Since we arrived in Tiranat and I saw the state of the village, I started to think of ways to protect the manor and the village better. And knowing all that Feroy has told , the concept of asking won to fight as guards had certainly co to my mind in the recent weeks. So I do believe that as unusual as it may be, it is a better fate for won to die fighting with bandits while trying to protect their families and ho than to be captured by them."
The guard captain continued, "But I still never ntioned hiring won as guards to you, because the practical reasons which prevent them from working as warriors in the first place still stand true. The fact remains that even a moderately trained bandit can simply overpower won with brute force, so the vast majority of won cannot work as swordsn or even spearn. The sa stands for bows. While I have seen a woman I knew shoot an arrow accurately enough in the past, but most often, won don’t have the imnse physical power needed to pull the string of a warbow - especially the poorly fed won in this village."
Kivamus nodded. "I do realize that, but that doesn’t an that they would be completely useless in the defense of the village. That’s why I even thought of making watchtowers - so that we could employ won as guards. They wouldn’t have to fight face-to-face with any bandits if they are standing on top of the watchtowers. And I am not asking you to start training them in swordsmanship, since that is not what we need right now anyway. But if we could make sothing which allows won to shoot just as well as any man, and then place them on those watchtowers, then we could easily increase our guard force without slowing down the construction of longhouses and the walls."
The first thing that ca in his mind after that was guns - which could be operated by won just as well as any man, but he realized that making such advanced things in Tiranat wouldn’t be feasible anyti soon. However, if they could get even a few crossbows made in the village, those would still work just as well for them. However, an even more important outco would be to get the villagers into the mindset that won can work just as well as n in basically everything. And that mindset would be very, very important for any future progress of this village.
Hudan looked at him curiously. "What do you an by that, my Lord? How could the won in this village suddenly beco as strong as n to pull the string of those warbows? It’s a different fact that while we have around half a dozen lighter hunting bows, we only have two heavy warbows - which we have provided to the caravan. Even so, I can’t see any way that it would be possible for won to use them here." He continued, "But more importantly, even if we had so incredible way to do that, the families of the won here wouldn’t allow them to fight and risk their lives in the first place."
"That’s... very concerning..." Kivamus muttered. "But don’t the villagers realize the risks if the bandits co and we are not able to fight them off? What if they kidnap the won? No family would prefer that, would they?"
Duvas answered this ti with a sigh. "The thing is, my Lord, that the locals here are not habitual of raids. Before the grain prices rose so high over the past two years, we didn’t have that big of a bandit problem here. But in the past year, a lot of people have lost their livelihood in the whole duchy of Ulriga, and not knowing of any other way to feed themselves, many have turned to banditry. There is also the fact that while the villagers did lose a lot of coins and stored grains in the recent raid, nobody was kidnapped or killed, since the bandits probably didn’t realize how short on trained guards we were at that ti."
He continued, "Thankfully, you arrived here soon after that raid, and now we are actively trying to do our best to protect the village, because as you said earlier, the next raid wouldn’t be so forgiving for the villagers. But from the villagers’ perspective, they likely would not realize the danger of people being kidnapped or killed, until it has already happened here."
"That does make sense," Kivamus said. "But we cannot take the risk of letting people die or won getting kidnapped before the villagers co to their senses."
Duvas added with a grimace, "Truthfully, even I hadn’t thought about it that much before you opened my eyes to the risks. But now I do think that it would be better to do our best to protect the village, even if we have to ask won to fight, instead of letting the bandits kidnap them. However it would take so really good convincing to the villagers for them to allow the won in their families to work as guards."
Kivamus nodded, feeling glad that the majordomo was coming around to the idea. "I understand that. But even so, there would still be a few won in the village who would be willing to beco guards so that they could earn good wages by themselves - maybe those who don’t have anyone else in their family, or those whose male family mbers are injured or sick - where the won would be the only bread earners in that family. You should ask them first, and see if they are willing to join as guards."
Duvas gave a slow nod, as if he had to swallow a bitter pill - sothing necessary but completely unpalatable. "I will try to make them understand the risks of not doing that. It won’t be easy, but they already know that I try my best to help the villagers - even when the previous baron was here, so if such an unusual idea is coming from - instead of from Hudan or other guards, it would lend it so more weight. Hopefully, we would be able to get so good candidates for Hudan to recruit."
He asked after a mont, "We are only paying the workers and guards in grain right now, which costs only around half of their usual wages, but when we do return to paying them in coins, it would be very costly if we recruit too many guards. So how many won do you plan to recruit?"
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