"We are ready to leave, milord," the merchant said. He added with a smile, "It's been really good doing business with you. I hope to come back right after the snow melts on the road after winter."

Kivamus smiled as well. "I will wait for your return. And don't forget to buy the maps!"

"I'll certainly try, milord, but no promises about it," Pydaso replied. "By your leave, we should depart now. And thank you, once again, for providing me with those guards for the journey."

Kivamus waved it off. "It's nothing."

Pydaso smiled. "Even so, having another two well armed men next to me on that road certainly reassures my mind. I'll make sure to reward them well for their help."

And with that, the merchant returned to the leading wagon, and with a quick whip on the horses, the small caravan lurched into motion. The creaking of wagon axles was the only sound they heard for a while as the wagons exited the manor gates one by one, and before long, all of them had turned into a nearby alley, moving away from their sights.

"So there goes the last caravan..." Gorsazo commented. "At least we were able to buy enough grain for the village to survive through the winter."

"That's true enough," Kivamus nodded, "but we'll still be short on wheat to complete the sowing in the full area that we are planning to farm. But yes, it's certainly a start."

He looked at the guard captain. "Did you find out about any guards who did their duties well enough to reward them with a medal?"

Hudan thought about it for a moment. "I think so. Calubo has to be one of them for sure, since he was the one who risked his life to escape from the bandits and gave us early warning about the raid. I don't know what would be the result if we hadn't gotten that warning in time. He also killed two of the bandits as well, just by himself. So if anyone should get a medal for bravery, it should be him."

"Alright," Kivamus said. "Who else?"

"Other than him," Hudan continued, "most of the other guards worked in pairs to kill the bandits, so I'm not sure if they would qualify for bravery if they had an advantage of two against one. However, having fought against Nokozal myself, I know how tough it would be for anyone to even survive against that huge bastard - not to mention defeating him. So, Tesyb can also be given a medal, since he managed to hold on against Nokozal by himself while protecting the merchant's family at the same time, until I reached there to help him."

"Okay, I think Tesyb deserves it for protecting the merchant's family. That makes two of them." Kivamus asked, "Didn't you mention that another two guards had gotten injured?"

"They did," Hudan replied, "although neither of their injuries are that serious. The losuvil paste was a lot of help for them yesterday, although I think there aren't many more leaves left now. But should even those men get rewarded?"

"We can certainly choose not to give them anything," Kivamus replied, "but I think it's a good idea to show some form of appreciation for those who have risked their lives for others and gotten injured in the process. See it like this, most likely they wouldn't have gotten wounded if they weren't working as a guard, would they?"

Hudan nodded slowly. "I can see the logic in that." He added, "Alright, that's two more guards then. Then should we give the same medal to them? Although, we don't even have any medals right now anyway. From what I know, the previous baron never gave any such thing to anyone here. Only those of a higher station than him, like the Count or even the Duke are the ones who usually give any kind of reward to their people."

"Well, I have no intention of following in the path of the previous baron, that's for sure." Kivamus looked at Gorsazo. "But before we decide on that, do you know if I am even allowed to give medals?"

"There are no rules against that from what I know," Gorsazo replied, "and I have read most of the books in the library in Ulriga Palace about the regulations for nobles. So there is nothing stopping you from rewarding someone who works for you. What you choose to call those rewards or medals is completely your choice, as long as you don't try to give the same name to those rewards as something which can only be awarded by the Duke or maybe the King."

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"That makes sense. Then it should be fine if I call them baron's medals." Kivamus added, "I think two types of medals would be good for now. We can give the Baron's Medal of Courage to those who have risked their lives in their service to the village and shown extraordinary bravery. Tesyb and Calubo would qualify for that." He continued, "Other than that, I will also make a Baron's Medal of Sacrifice for those who were injured while carrying out their duty. That can be given to the two other guards who were injured yesterday."

Planning to give a vague excuse, he looked at Gorsazo - who just gave a short nod, knowing that he was giving an excuse - and added, "This is the first time that I'm going to be giving any medals. But from what I have read in some obscure books, there is also another medal which is given to the families of those who have died in combat while on duty. But thankfully, we don't have to give that medal for now. And of course, there will also be a monetary reward in the form of coins to anyone who gets a medal."

Hudan seemed to be thinking about it for a moment before he replied. "I'm still not completely sure if preventing the guards from looting the bodies was a good idea or not, since it was difficult to explain it to them last night and most of them are still disgruntled about it. But if we are still going to give some reward - at least to those guards who have performed very well in their duties - I think that should mostly satisfy them."

He looked at Feroy with a smirk. "But based on the above three classifications, our resident vesorion wouldn't get any medal, would he?"

The ex-mercenary laughed. "I hardly got to do anything yesterday since you made me stay in the manor to defend, so I don't need any medals. But I would certainly love a mug of ale in the evening to compensate for that."

Kivamus laughed at that. "Of course, I think we will be fairly sure by tonight that the two bandits aren't going to attack again. And even if they do, the guards are ready for it by now, and they can take on the two bandits easily enough. So I think you should give the guards some good rest in turns, and that also includes both you and Hudan. And those who aren't on duty can certainly be allowed a mug of ale. But just a single mug for now, since we can't allow them to get completely wasted - just in case."

"Usually a single mug is good enough for most of us, you know?" Feroy commented. "Well, I'll go and see if Calubo is awake now." And with that, he walked back towards the servants' hall.

Kivamus looked at Gorsazo. "We still need to get those medals made by evening. Of course, we can only afford to give medals made of iron for now. So let's return to the manor hall and draw up a few simple designs on a piece of parchment. Then we'll send a servant to Cedoron and tell him to make a few of them by evening. That's when I'll distribute the medals too."

"Drawing has never been my strong suit," Gorsazo remarked with a laugh, "but I'm willing to give it a try."

At that moment, Duvas came walking towards them, likely because he was done with his tasks.

"By the way," Kivamus asked the guard captain, "what loot did we get from the bandits' bodies yesterday?"

"It was a decent haul," Hudan replied with a grin. "Including Sejkil's stuff, we got eight damaged fur coats and the same number of leather armors from the bandits - of course, most of them also have a few holes in them. Apart from that, we got six swords, two daggers and two heavy warbows - which can also work as hunting bows. Amongst the weapons, the warbows seem to be in a good condition to be put to use immediately, but most of the swords will need a good repair, while a couple of them might not be of any other use than scrap iron." He added, "And we already got three horses from them yesterday."

"So those lowlifes were good for something, after all..." Duvas muttered with a scoff. "Although most of that stuff seems to be already damaged."

"Even so," Kivamus asked with a frown, "how do those bandits have that many weapons anyway, especially those made from iron? Even our manor barely has more iron weapons than them." He added, "Iron doesn't come cheap at all, so I thought that most of them would be using sharpened sticks or repurposed tools as their makeshift weapons."

"I can't be completely sure about it, of course," Gorsazo replied, "but by now we have gotten enough hints that these bandits are in some way affiliated to Baron Zoricus, who is easily the richest baron in Count Cinran's domain. He might just be sponsoring them, possibly by giving them the damaged weapons from his own armory."

Kivamus nodded slowly. "It certainly could be. Anyway, those warbows would be very helpful for us to start hunting."

Looking at the guard captain, he said, "As for the swords and daggers, it's up to you to decide which of them are still usable - in which case you should still take them to Cedoron so he can repair them if possible. And just give him the ones which are too damaged, so he can reforge them into other tools."

He looked at Duvas. "But do we have anyone here who can repair the leather armor? It will need some decent stitching and some spare leather to make them usable again."