The trip back to the barony was pleasant enough. The only problem was having to listen to Barak and his family express their gratitude over and over again. When Curtis said his family, he meant all of them—a total of 14 peasants. I almost felt like I had gotten too good of a deal.

As we rode into Kerisi, I was greeted by Headman Paul.

"My Lord, we have another bag of sugar done. I think my wife is getting better at making it. She also tried boiling it with fruit juice, and one batch hardened it and created this."

He handed me a cheesecloth with purple chunks wrapped up in it. I popped the smallest one in my mouth, and a moment later, I was smiling.

"What is this flavor?" I said excitedly.

"Miscum, My Lord."

Immediately, a memory of the original inhabitant of this body popped into my head. A berry that looked very similar to a blackberry or raspberry, only blue, popped into my head.

"Excellent work. Have you tried some yet?"

"After my last taste of sugar, I am hesitant, My Lord, but if you are looking for a second opinion, I will try."

After popping it in his mouth, his eyes went wide. "This- This is very good. The sweetness balances out the sourness of the berry."

"I know, and if we can make enough of it, we could make a lot of money."

"Next year, we are going to have to plant a lot of Pootba and see if we can cultivate the Miscum. My wife will be pleased to hear that you are happy with the results. It was very hard to get out of the pot."

"Well, tell her thank you very much from me. Return this to her, and you may share them with whomever you like."

I knew they had cranberries here, but I didn't know where they grew. Mom would make cranberry sauce every year for Thanksgiving. It was super easy: a little bit of water, cranberries, and a cup of sugar. I'm totally going to do that this year.

"Oh, My Lord, there were a few messages for you from Cofi while you were gone. Also, the young lady Kylie wanted to meet with you when you returned."

I really wanted to roll my eyes.

"Do we know what she has been up to?"

"I do not know. I imagine it is in the reports." Paul said.

"Good point." I grabbed the letters and began to read. One was a report on the village's happenings. Things had calmed down, and those families without fathers were being taken care of.

The second letter was a quick message about my friend Kylie. Apparently, she had been helping with the apple harvest preparations. She had gathered the few orphans left after the sentencing, and they had been repairing and making baskets.

That kind of made sense since the guy who was over the orchard was part of the conspiracy. But we were going to need more than one teenager and a bunch of kids to run it. I hoped Edward had a plan for that. Of course, now it would be Barak's problem.

Apparently, even though the community had taken care of the orphans, it was an added burden that most didn't want. Kylie was managing them, and the community chipped in to provide some things. She had also been given a home to house them all.

To say this shocked me would have been an understatement. I had always considered the girl irresponsible and self-centered.

"Well, it's a good thing that I am going down there to drop off our new headman."

"New headman?"

"Yes, let me introduce you to Barak. He was the headman of Pollman before Baron Plimgus acquired it. Apparently, he was not needed anymore, so I brought him with me to run Cofi."

We went over, and I introduced the two men. They seemed to get along, and their family situation seemed very similar. I was lucky to have snagged Barak.

I really wanted to head straight home, but I needed to get Barak and his family settled. Besides, I might deal with the Kylie issue as well.

When we arrived at Cofi, we found Edward at the headman's house. Talking with his girlfriend, Nancy, and Kylie. Barak's son Patrick stared at the headman's house. "This is a very large house for a headman. How many families lived here?"

"The only thing that lived here was a wolf dressed like a mar," I said.

"An interesting phrase, My Lord," he nodded in approval.

"I believe this should be sufficiently large for two of your families to live in."

"Certainly, My Lord. If necessary, we could probably fit three." Barak said.

"Let's see what is available first."

When Edward noticed me, he left the conversation and approached my group.

"My Lord, I am glad you have returned safely," he said with a bow. "I see that you have brought some new residents."

"Edward, my friend, you owe me a thank you. This is the old headman of the Polman village, Barak. He has agreed to take over for you here."

"I will thank you and the Endless One. I am not cut out for this. Welcome Hedman Barak. It is a pleasure to meet you."

Barak gave a nod. "Likewise, Steward Edward. Lord Amos told me you would be happy we arrived."

"Indeed I am. If you will give me but a moment with Lord Amos, I would be happy to show you around."

Taking a few steps away from the rest of the crowd, Edward said, "My Lord, I need you to speak with Kylie and see if you can convince her to stay."

Of all the things I expected to hear, that was not one of them. "Edward, why would I want her to stay? I have been wracking my brain trying to find a way to get her to leave."

"I don't know what conflict you had in the past, but she has been a big help. She told us she was leaving after she finished talking with you today. So, could you please try to get her to stay?"

"We'll see. It is not so much that I had a conflict with her as that I think she likes to stir up trouble," I said.

"Well, I have had quite the opposite experience with her."

I sighed. It is probably just me or my title, then. Or she can read me like a book. As I approached the two young women, Nancy broke off her conversation and left to go see the headman and his family. As I approached Kylie, our eyes met briefly before she dropped her gaze. This was very unusual for Kylie, and it made me think she was up to something.

"My Lord," She said with a bow. "I wanted to apologize before I left."

I wanted to say something, but I was so surprised that I couldn't find any words.

"I wanted so badly to be right. To prove that you were just like everyone else. I was rude to you and did everything I could to make you lash out at me so that I could convince myself that you were a bad person. But you never retaliated. I went to the sentencing of the headman the other day, not even knowing what it was all about, but I was hoping you would show that you were unfair to those beneath you. But only the families of the accused seemed unhappy.

"I figured that I needed to find out what was really going on, so I came to Cofi and visited Karr. Do you know what I found out? Everybody loves you. Well, not everybody. Some people call you a Marsh Lover, but that is just because you executed their friends."

I wanted to interrupt her and defend myself, but she continued.

"But even they know you did the right thing. So now I am stuck knowing that you are a good person. I stayed because I wanted to make up for being terrible to you."

She kept her head down as I thought about what she said. Her sister explained that she had become bitter, but I think I finally figured out what was going on. She was sabotaging all her relationships. She knew what buttons to push and kept doing it until people rejected her. Then, she would have proof that the world was a cruel place and people were intolerant of others. Maybe that wasn't exactly it, but it had to be close.

"So tell me about the kids."

"What?" She said in surprise.

"Tell me about the kids. They say that you have been helping with them."

"Well, um, ok…" She said hesitantly. "There is Jamie. He is the oldest. He is nine and really rambunctious. Well, they are all rambunctious, but he has the rest of them beat. He can't sit still for even a second, so I have to have him doing errands for me. Sue is seven, and she is really the opposite of her brother. She has a little stick and grass doll that she carries everywhere with her. She has a few friends in the village that she used to play with, but I think her friend's parents are keeping them away from her now."

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I could see a little anger in her eyes at that.

"The twins are eight and are never apart. Those boys are also my biggest helpers. I swear they do twice as much work as any of the rest of them. We have a few toddlers who take a lot of work to handle, but Chelsi helps a lot with them. She is twelve and comes from one of the families whose dad is in the labor camp now. We have Miri, who is six months old and spends some of her time with Dorothy, to be nursed."

There was a long pause as I tried to figure out what to say next. "So… what now? I hear you are going back to the Cove Village."

"Yes, I thought that would be best. My sister is probably worried."

If I asked her to stay directly, would she? She does seem to care about the children.

"I try not to hold grudges, and I will not hold our best interactions against you. Thank you so much, Kylie, for helping with the kids. I am sure it was good for them to feel all together. They will probably miss you a lot."

"I'll miss them too."

"Edward asked me to convince you to stay. He says you have been a big help. I would be happy to hire you if you would be willing to take care of the children."

Kylie looked torn. "I… I can't. I have to get back to work."

"Black Powder?" I asked in disappointment.

She didn't say anything. I was unhappy about it, but she wasn't even one of my subjects.

"Ok, that's understandable. Again, thank you for your help. Could you do me one last favor before you leave? You know these kids better than anyone else here. Could you help me find good homes for them?

"But what if nobody will take them?"

"You are in charge. I will write a letter authorizing you to find suitable homes for the kids. I trust you won't just drop them off randomly. It should only take a couple of days, and I will give you ten copper to trade for anything you need.

"But nobody here uses copper."

"Yeah, but it won't catch on if nobody starts it."

She gave me a look that told me she wasn't buying it.

"Fine. I will tell the new headman that you are responsible for the orphans and that he is to assist you. So, what do you say? Can you stay for a few days and help the kids find homes."

She was silent for a minute but then nodded. "Ok, I guess I owe you that much."

"You don't owe me anything, Kylie. I'm serious about that."

"Alright, Lord Amos, you have a deal."

I spent about an hour with my steward and new headman and then decided it was time to head back to Bicman. I left Edward there to make sure everything went smoothly, but he would be back to overseeing all the various projects we had going on.

When we got back to Bicman, it was dusk, and I was exhausted. As we drove through town, I saw the partially assembled reaper. I really wanted to stop and see how things were going with it, but then I would be bothering people when they were on their way to get the rest of the things they needed to get done before all the light was gone.

These people didn't waste daylight when they had it, and they didn't waste fuel at night. Most of them didn't have the fuel to waste. It was a weird concept for me that I had to get used to. No light at night meant nothing really to do. Sure, I went camping in Scouts, and it was similar, but here, there were no flashlights. I had been here for about four months, and it was still weird to me.

So, instead, I let the carriage roll through the village and head up the hill. When we got to the Manor, I immediately crashed into bed. I was out like a light in no time and fully intended to be lazy the next day.

That didn't happen, though. My early morning schedule was known to my staff, and there was a knock on my door half a bell past dawn.

"Come in," I grumbled.

"My Lord, sorry to disturb you," Benjamin said as he saw that I was still in bed.

"It's fine. I was just being lazy. What's going on."

"I have the monthly reports, My Lord. With the new laborers, numbers are up across the board. There has been a 20% increase in tree harvesting and a 12% increase in copper and limestone. The rest are smaller increments that can be left with you. We are, however, using a lot more, so it is balancing out. If your fields do well next year, we will do as you say and shift the jobs around to compensate.

"We had a total of twenty-eight deaths this month. 83% were infants or children under ten. 35% of those were newborns and those that did not survive their first 6 months. Matching that against the number of children born means we had a 40% mortality rate, as you call it. That is down 5% from last month, but I will need more long-term information to determine if we are making the progress you want.

"It is common knowledge that healthy, well-fed women conceive healthier children, so I think your determination to feed your people more will help. I know that you have said that you want to lower it down to 10%, but I just don't see how we could do that. Children dying is just how things are."

I was frustrated. I knew nothing about health and wellness. Well, I knew a lot more than these people, but that didn't mean I could do anything about it. I wasn't a doctor who could diagnose problems and give solutions. I didn't have penicillin or aspirin. I knew you couldn't eat moldy bread, but could you put it on an infection?

"I know my people try to stay clean, but can we get them more soap? I asked Marshandra about this, but she said we wouldn't have enough lard to make some so that people could use it on their hands before meals and wash with soap every day."

"That would be an extremely large amount of soap. I heard of places where they mix the ash with clay to scrub their bodies, but that is a lot of effort. Would it really make a difference?" Benjamin said

"I think so. What about giving just the kids daily baths with soap since the younger ones are more susceptible to disease?" I replied.

"And you think this would lower the rate of death?" He asked skeptically.

"If it saves lives, it is worth a shot."

"Do you want me to assign someone to work on a cheap clay soap?"

"Also cleaner water. I know our people are good about not crapping near our water, but I think we should collect the night soil and put it even father away. Make sure all drinking water is filtered through cloth and boiled. Even if it takes several years, I want our child mortality rate down below 20%."

"As you wish, My Lord."

"Thank you, Benjamin, for your hard work. Still no news from your father?"

"No, but that may be a good thing. If there were any urgent problems, he would have said something. He should get the letter we sent with John, and hopefully, we will get a response."

"Anything else?"

"No, My Lord, Except that they are starting to work on your bath house on the other side of the river. It should take a month to complete. I like your idea of draining the waste into the swamp."

"If it works well, we will be building one in each village."

"That will be a lot of concrete, My Lord. Could we use stone and mortar for now on the others? It may take longer, but it will save on the concrete until we get production up."

"If that is what it takes, clean people are healthy people. If we have a lower mortality rate, we don't need to worry about not having enough people. I would rather have our own people whom I am educating than have to bring in others whom I would have to integrate. In ten years, I want to have the healthiest and most well-educated people in the world. I want to build a system that every barony in Falmoren will emulate."

"You have big dreams, My Lord."

"And a big appetite. Let me do my morning exercises and daily beating with the sword. I wish I could stick with the spear."

"You are not just a common knight. You are a noble. So, your mastery of the sword is a reflection of your station. You must know how to fight with both, but a sword is a weapon you will need in society."

I had previously asked Draves about dueling to settle disputes, and he looked at me like I was crazy. So, at least, I was sure that I wouldn't be killed because I accidentally insulted someone. Any major disputes were handled in court. The fights between nobles were for prestige and were with blunted weapons. Plenty of injuries but rarely any deaths.

"Ok, I get it. I am off, Benjamin. Have a good day." It wasn't until I was almost at the training field that I realized I hadn't talked to him about Barak. Oh, well. We will get to that later. He probably had been informed already.

After breakfast, I decided to head into the village to see how the projects were going. As I approached the reaper, I found a few men arguing about something.

"So what is going on?" I said as I approached.

"It is the tension on the belt that is causing it to snap. We think we can solve the problem with an extra gear, but we have a few different ways to place it. It would help to have that Sanders guy here," one of the guys I had picked up from Vaspar said.

I looked it over, but although I knew how gears and pullies worked, I was no engineer. I wasn't sure how to deal with weight and tension. "Sorry, men, I wish I knew more about this stuff, but I don't."

"My Lord," another man said. "I fear we may not have it done by harvest time."

"Hey, I am impressed with what has happened this far. To tell the truth, I am surprised by how far you have come. Things like this can take years sometimes." I said encouragingly.

"We wouldn't be nearly this far along if Sanders hadn't shown up."

"Well, I am sure you guys can do it. Good work so far."

"My Lord, have you seen the road they are making in Melnon?"

"I know they were trying to do something with concrete. Did they get it to work?"

"I was up there yesterday helping to bring one of these blades down, and they had a section of about thirty meters made of slabs of concrete. The strangest road I ever saw, My Lord. They said they were going to run it all the way through their village," said the first man.

That should be interesting. I hope they don't use too much or we won't have enough for the baths.

"Anything else happening?"

"Other than all the women folk going crazy over those brushes you made, it has been quiet."

"I figured they would be a hit," I said with a smile.

"I would say so. None of the women needed one before, and now, all of them need one. They want them more than those fancy skirts."

Dang, I should have made John give me a few gold for the one I gave him.

"Well, men, good luck with the project. I am off to find out what else is going on.

It wasn't long before I found myself at Mikel's place.

"My Lord, It is good to see you." said one of the new boys outside Mikel's place, "You should go in and see the dresser being made for you. Two of the drawers are done."

The older boy slapped him upside the head. "It was supposed to be a surprise."

"What, Lord Amos was the one who asked for it. Why would he be surprised by something he asked for?"

Before the boys could get into more of an argument, I interrupted. "Thank you, boys. I will go in and see Mikel now. Is there anything you need?"

"No, My Lord." The eldest said, at the same time as the younger one said, "A paper airplane."

For which he got a slap upside the head.

"What was that for? The other kids said they were amazing."

"He meant for work, you dolt."

"I would be happy to make you a paper airplane. Next time I come to the village, I will bring some of Emily's paper." I couldn't imagine what these kids would think if I only had a rubberband propeller plane.

What if I made one of those propellers on a stick—the ones you rub between your palms to make them fly? Could I make a proper propeller? I totally have to try.

"My Lord, Have you come to see your dresser," Mikel said as I stepped into his shop. The smell of wood and glue permeated the air.

"Yes, one of your helpers out there said I should come see."

"We have two of the four drawers done, and the last two should be done in a couple of days. I know you won't mind, but I found a better way to slide the drawer along the rails."

I pulled out one of the drawers, and it came out smoothly. "Good work, Mikel. How are your other projects?"

"Not too bad now that I have help. I really hope that all the effort we put into the reaper pays off."

"You and me both, my friend. I have to say I'm excited for harvest time. I can't wait to see how much we bring in."

"I have heard that your subjects are trying to figure out how to thresh the wheat with another invention. I can't imagine how they would do that."

"Neither can I, Mikel."

Especially since I had no idea what threshing was.