"Sir Duvas is mostly right, milord," Calubo replied. "A day after I had left Tiranat for Cinran through the northern road, a group of bandits surrounded me in the forest and..."

And then the former guard launched into a tale explaining everything that had happened to him for the past two months, including his life as a slave in a limestone quarry somewhere in the forests, along with another two dozen slaves there who barely got anything to eat these days. The limestone quarry was run by someone called Nokozal, who saw himself as a minor lord, but was most likely only a bandit who had contacts in high places in Cinran. And that was the one thing in that tale which concerned Kivamus more than anything else - that the quarry was owned by a baron in Cinran. Calubo hadn't been able to find out who that baron was, but that a noble was supporting banditry like this was very concerning.

Another thing that stood out to him was that it was a limestone quarry! And limestone was a very important ingredient of cement, using which he could make concrete! Concrete meant much stronger walls to defend the village. It meant much better insulated houses than the wooden shacks that most of the villagers now lived in. Concrete would also allow him to make taller buildings, which could house a lot more people. And not just that, it meant... No, stop! This wasn't the time to get lost in daydreams!

He had to focus on the present. But the fact that there was a limestone quarry located only a few days' journey by horse was something that was making him giddy with excitement! A few days' horse journey meant that it would only be a few hundred kilometers away at most, but there was also the fact that they didn't have any modern transportation methods here. If they had a rail line connecting the quarry with a cement factory here, they could get a steady supply of limestone to make concrete, but this wasn't modern earth.

Here, the best they could do was to haul it through the treacherous terrain of the dense forests using horse drawn wagons... but in the beginning, their demands of limestone wouldn't be that high, would they? Just a dozen wagon loads of limestone per month might be more than enough for their needs. That meant... No, stop! He chided himself for getting lost in his thoughts again. He had to focus on the bandits hiding outside the village right now!

He took a deep breath to calm his racing mind. The most pressing thing was that Calubo had told them that he had escaped after slashing the throat of a bandit, and that there were nearly a dozen bandits hiding in the forests to raid the village tonight.

He looked back at Calubo. "You said there are less than a dozen bandits?"

The ex-guard nodded. "There are fourteen bandits in total in that group, but four of them had stayed back at the quarry to keep an eye on the stonecutters. And out of the ten bandits who came along with me, I've already killed one. That means there should be nine of them outside the village now."

As Kivamus thought about it for a moment, Calubo seemed to get impatient. "We have to do something about it, milord," the ex-guard pleaded, "or those bandits will kill a lot of the villagers! It won't be long before they find out that I've escaped, and once they do find it out, they won't waste another moment before attacking us!"

He continued agitatedly, "They are ruthless bastards, and they wouldn't hesitate for a moment in killing even a defenseless woman, or running away with them and their children as slaves. We have to send the guards to ambush them before that happens!"

Gorsazo said, "But if there are just nine of those bandits, would they even be able to storm the manor walls? We could just pick them off as they try to climb the walls."

"No, we can't!" Calubo shook his head vigorously. "We won't be able to do that since they aren't going to attack the manor at all! They believe that in case of an attack, the manor guards will stay inside the manor instead of going after them, just like it happened in the previous bandit raid on Tiranat."

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Duvas grimaced on hearing about the previous raid, but didn't say anything.

Calubo continued, "That means they are only going to attack the houses of villagers, hoping to steal grain and capture a few slaves, while staying clear of the manor."

Hudan looked at Kivamus for his decision. "What should we do with this story, milord?"

Before Kivamus could reply, Calubo interrupted him angrily. "It's not a story, milord! I'm not lying about any of it! Nokozal might be running towards the village right now!" Seeing the frown on Duvas' face, Calubo took a deep breath, and continued, "I apologize for shouting, milord. But we have to do something about the bandits before they attack, or they might set the village on fire when escaping, and we won't be able to do anything about them at that time!"

Kivamus nodded. "I hear you, Calubo. And I don't think you are lying, but you've been out of the manor for months, so I still can't trust you completely either." He looked at the guard captain. "For now, hand him over to another guard outside, and come back here so we can discuss this."

Hudan nodded, and took the ex-guard outside of the manor hall. And before long, he returned back and closed the outer door.

Kivamus looked at the majordomo. "Among all of us here, you are the person who seems to know Calubo the best. So, do you trust him, Duvas?"

"Without any doubt, milord," Duvas replied with a nod. "He used to be a guard here, for Goddess' sake!"

"Yeah... but it's been more than two months since then, so how do you know he hasn't changed his loyalties by now?" Feroy asked.

"We can't know anything for sure," Duvas replied, "but I've known him for more than a decade, and I know his character. One of our other guards, Nurobo, is his cousin - which means he has family here. And I don't think he can ever take up arms against his cousin or the other guards."

Feroy nodded. "But I'll still prefer to lock him up for now. Just in case, you know?" He explained, "I don't think he's lying either, and I have a knack for catching lies, but we still can't be completely sure that he won't just open the back-door of the manor for that Nokozal, while we are out chasing shadows in the forests. We just can't take that risk."

"It won't work, Feroy," the guard captain remarked. "If he's telling the truth, and we decide to go after the bandits, we'll need him with us to show where they are hiding, otherwise we'd never find them in the night just by ourselves. And since he'll be right next to us, he can't open the eastern door of the manor either. So that'll take care of your concern as well."

"That's true enough," Feroy shrugged, "but how do you know he'll not just lead us into an ambush there?"

Hudan grimaced. "You are right, and we won't know if there is an ambush until we are already there, but I still say that this is a good opportunity to get rid of those bandits. If we wait too long and allow them to attack the village, who knows how many people they'll kill, and Goddess forbid, if they put the new longhouse block on fire... we simply wouldn't be able to house all the villagers properly for the winter."

The guard captain exhaled loudly before adding, "And yet, I certainly don't want to lead the guards into an ambush, not to mention it will leave the manor and the village nearly defenseless while most of the trained guards are out..."

"If you just give me some time with Calubo alone," Feroy suggested with a shrug, "I'll make sure to find out every single thing he knows."

"We just don't have time for you to interrogate him," Hudan replied with a frown. "Those bandits would have found out by now that one of them is dead, which means they could attack at any moment. We have to take care of defending the village first. And if it turns out that it was all a lie, you can interrogate Calubo tomorrow."

Kivamus was also thinking about the situation, and he still wasn't sure whether to trust Calubo or not. On one hand, the ex-guard might be lying completely and simply wanted to take the guards into an ambush - in which case it would be better to stay put here and focus on defending the manor. But on the other hand, and he was leaning towards this option by now, Calubo might be speaking the truth, which meant that it would be a good idea to go and attack the bandits without any civilians nearby, before they raided the village. But before he made up his mind, his former teacher Gorsazo interrupted them.

"Weren't you all hearing Calubo properly?" Gorsazo asked.

"What do you mean by that?" Kivamus asked with a frown.