"Well, we don't have a tanner in the village," the majordomo replied, "since there was never enough animal hide for them to tan into leather - mainly because the previous baron never allowed hunting at a large scale here. But Leah has some experience in repairing our armors when they got damaged in the past. While there wouldn't be much spare leather here, I think she might still be able to stitch together five or six decent armors from the eight damaged ones that we have." He added, "Repairing the fur coats would be easier, since even patching them would allow them to keep a person warm enough."

Kivamus nodded. "Okay, that's good. Tell Madam Nerida not to give her the usual sewing or repairing tasks for now, so she can focus on repairing the armors fully. Even with six new leather armors we still won't have enough of them to properly equip all the new guards, but they will still help a lot."

He looked and Hudan and continued, "As for the fur coats, we already have a few of them in the manor house for our use, so two of the repaired ones can be used by you and Feroy, and you can give the rest of them to those guards who go on patrols in the village, since they will have to stay in the open for hours at a time, and they won't even be able to use the braziers during that time - unlike our guards on gate duties."

"The guards and I will certainly be very thankful for that," Hudan commented, "but are you sure you don't want to keep them for yourself? Perhaps as spares?"

Kivamus laughed. "What will I even do with them? I already have a fur coat for my own use, and just hanging more of them in my room isn't going to make me any warmer. You can keep them in the servants hall and every night you should allot them to those guards who are going on patrols."

Hudan gave a grateful nod.

"That reminds me," Kivamus continued, "when I visited the servants' hall yesterday, I noticed that there just weren't enough sleeping places for all the servants and the guards now."

"It's not really a problem," Hudan said with a shrug, "since at least half of them are on duty somewhere at any particular moment, so there isn't usually any shortage of sleeping space there."

"Perhaps," Kivamus commented. "But we have already started trying to recruit women as guards who will need even more sleeping spaces - even if they are staying on the upper floor with the maids for now. And regardless of that, I believe it would be a good idea in the future to accommodate the guards separately from the servants, since they need to have a lot of camaraderie in each other to be able to trust another guard enough that they would allow them to watch their backs in the middle of a battle."

"Is there really a need to spend our limited coin on making another building though?" Duvas asked.

"Actually, I can see the point in that," Hudan observed. "When I was training with other squires in Cinran to become a knight, our living quarters were also separate from the other manual servants of the knights." He nodded. "So I think it would be a good idea. It would also allow Feroy and I to stay with the other guards all the time to keep an eye on them and to keep them on their toes for any sudden attack on the village."

"Exactly. So in the future," Kivamus continued, "we will make a new barracks in the manor where only the guards will stay. Of course, we will have to make it a two story building, unlike the longhouses, so the male guards can stay on the ground floor, while the female guards can stay on the upper floor."

"But it would cost us a lot to hire the carpenter for that," Duvas observed, "not to mention the cost of the materials for a two story building. And it might take even longer than building a longhouse if you want to make it a two floor building."

"That's true," Kivamus replied, "but like Hudan said, all our guards are still able to stay in the servant hall for now, so it's not like we have any hurry to complete the barracks."

He didn't say it openly, but Kivamus knew that apart from the Baron who had already tried to kill him, his brothers still might not be satisfied after sending him to a remote village in the middle of nowhere. And if they decide to do something to rectify their error, the two dozen guards he had would stand no chance against the Duke's army. But hopefully, they wouldn't think of doing anything like that until the time came closer for succession to the Duke's position by one of the three brothers.

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Their father - who was also his own father in this world - was getting old and got sick occasionally, but he didn't think that the Duke was going to die in the next few years. But when it did happen eventually... only his brothers themselves would know what they must surely be planning to capture the Duke's seat.

Thinking about his brothers made him wonder how his newfound sister was doing. Astela was the only one who supported him against their older brothers, and it had been months since he had heard from her. But it was also true that without any modern communication methods in this world, that was likely a normal duration to talk with people who didn't live in the same city. But hopefully, she was doing okay these days.

Coming back to the present, he looked at others and tried to present the future threats to himself without openly giving his own reasons behind this. He began, "In the future, keeping in mind all the threats against the village, who knows, maybe we'll need to recruit even more guards, so we can just make another two story building after that, and then we could shift the male guards to one building and women to the other, which will double our capacity of housing in the barracks."

Duvas raised his eyebrows. "I don't see how we could afford to recruit any more guards, or why we would even need dozens of guards, but yes, we can leave that decision for the future."

"Of course, I'm not planning to hire more guards any time soon." Kivamus added, "We have already designated the location in the east of the manor between the manor walls and the new village walls as a dedicated training area for the guards. So when the village walls are complete, we can start building a barracks at the same location."

Hudan nodded. "Keeping the barracks within the training ground would be a good idea as well." He added with a smirk, "None of the guards would be able to slack off after that."

Kivamus laughed. "Of course, that's for sure."

He looked around the manor for a moment, and smiled when he saw the servants and maids going about their daily tasks with enthusiasm even in this near freezing weather. With their food stores in the barn having more wheat and vegetables than they have had in months, if not years, they seemed reassured that they weren't going to starve any time soon, and that had worked wonders for their morale.

But it was only a small start. There was still a lot he could do, and would do, to make their lives better.

He looked back at the others, while clutching his fur coat tighter around him. "Well, let's return back to the manor hall. I miss the warmth of the fireplace, and we still need to design those medals."

With a nod, Gorsazo and Duvas started following him towards the manor house, while Hudan walked over to the guards to talk about something.

*******

Kivamus was sitting in the manor hall near the fireplace while waiting for Feroy and Calubo to discuss whatever the previously lost guard wanted to talk about. The fire was cracking on one end of the hall, while Madam Helga and Syryne were clearing up the cutlery and utensils from the long dining table on the other side.

Earlier, they had taken a simple breakfast of freshly baked bread and some leftover stew from yesterday, apart from a couple of fried eggs for them. Then he and Gorsazo had drawn up a few designs for the two types of medals with some inputs from Duvas as well, and eventually they had settled on a simple design which would be easy enough for the blacksmith to make and yet something which would look unique and make the guards proud when they received them.

After that, they had sent a servant to Cedoron along with those designs on a parchment, and told him to let the blacksmith know that he needed to make half a dozen of each type of medal in total - just to have some more of them handy for the future, since it would barely use up any iron - although two of each type of medals were needed by evening.

Before long, the servant had returned back and reported that the blacksmith had looked confused in the beginning that the baron wanted him to waste some iron and his precious time which could be used to forge more hinges, hammers and iron nails. But Cedoron had agreed nonetheless, and promised to send a worker back with those medals by evening.

Soon, the door of the manor hall opened and Feroy walked inside while accompanied by Calubo. The ex-mercenary took a seat while the former guard remained standing.

"What did you want to talk about?" Kivamus asked the former guard.

Calubo hesitated for a moment, then took a deep breath and began speaking. "Milord, I want to thank you for freeing me from those bandits and for getting rid of them - or at least, most of them, since that huge bastard Nokozal and the runt are still alive. The time I spent as their slave was very difficult for me, and I'm glad that those dead bandits would never be able to kidnap anyone again."

Kivamus shrugged. "There is no need to thank me. I am only doing what I need to do to protect the village. And you are the one who escaped and freed yourself from those bandits. I did nothing to help you in that, so you don't need to thank me for that either."

Calubo gazed at him carefully for a moment, then gave a nod. "As you want, milord. But..." he hesitated again. "But I would like to ask a favor from you."