From Londoner To Lord

After he found it out, Kivamus had immediately told Helga to talk with the supervisor of the block so they could prepare a warm meal for around two dozen people, since the guards would be eating in the manor anyway. Once she had become busy arranging that, he decided to take Duvas, Feroy and another guard with him to see the conditions inside the longhouse since he was here anyway and they had some free time.

Once he entered the inner doors from the courtyard, the villagers who had been resting there after finishing today's work as well as the daily classes from Gorsazo, immediately stood up and greeted him, making him happy to see the smile on their faces.

As he walked from the right section of the block to the middle one, he realized that conditions were quite cramped inside, with all the bunks already occupied by the villagers and their meager belongings, while most of the empty space on the wooden floor was also occupied by those people who had wanted to stay here instead of in their damaged huts.

Once he reached the left section, he found that as he had ordered, the bunks at the end of the section were completely empty. Duvas told him that a few of the villagers had been complaining about them being forced to sleep on the floor while there were still empty bunks there, but a single glare from Feroy was enough to shut them up. Even so, Kivamus took a minute to reassure them that there was a good reason for that.

Once he was satisfied that the stonecutters would have enough places to sleep, he entered the courtyard again and moved towards the outer gates. Reaching there, he noticed that it looked way too dark and unwelcoming.

"This just won't do." The stonecutters would already be feeling anxious about leaving everything they had known behind them, so he wanted to welcome them personally to reassure them that they would be taken care of. Not to mention, he was already starting to feel cold here after having trudged here from his manor in the continuously falling snow, even though he was wearing a fur coat unlike most other people. If nothing else, it should be a little brighter here, at least for tonight.

He looked at a guard who was standing nearby and called him over. "Go and bring a couple of braziers here, and put them next to the gates. There should be enough of them inside the building."

"At once, milord!" the guard immediately ran inside to fulfil the task.

Then he sent another guard to bring some firewood from outside the block, since he wanted some brightly burning flames to welcome the new arrivals, instead of presenting them with the dull glow of burning coal.

Before long, two burning braziers had been kept just inside the gates, with lively yellow flames flickering above them. Kivamus nodded. This did look better.

Soon, Helga came and reported that the kitchens had been started again with the help of a few volunteers and there would be a warm meal waiting for the stonecutters when they arrived here, before she returned to the kitchen to supervise the process.

He walked closer to one of the braziers along with Duvas and Feroy, with the remaining guards moving closer to the other one. Now they just had to wait. It shouldn't be long before the stonecutters arrived here. But the snow hadn't stopped falling at all, so as he put his hands close to the fire, he still hoped that they wouldn't have to wait here for too long.

*******

~ Hyola ~

She had kept praying to the goddess to save their lives, but she had also been looking around to get any idea of where they were being taken. The snow was still falling continuously, and she felt like she was already losing any feeling in her hands by now, even though all the slaves were huddled together on the wagon for some shared warmth. Were they going to freeze to death before they even reached wherever they were going?

But soon, despite the falling snow, she saw some kind of light a short distance ahead of them. She tried to squint to see clearly and as the wagon moved further, she realised that the light was coming from the front of a wooden building - which was huge! It was easily bigger than any other building she had seen in her life. Once the wagons reached closer, she saw that it was only a single storey building, but she still couldn't see the left or right ends of the building in the falling snow in this darkness.

What was this place? Was it some kind of a jail? That was the only thing that she could think of which needed to be this big from the stories she had heard from the older slaves. But why had they all been brought here? Oh... Goddess save them! The baron really wanted them as slaves, then! Was that why he was bringing them to this jail so they couldn't escape?

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The other slaves had also started muttering about it by now, while some of them were whispering that this was the last chance they had to escape, before they were sentenced to another life of slavery at best, or execution at worst.

Immediately, she stood up on the wagon bed, and was thinking about jumping over the side to escape, along with some others who had also stood up probably thinking the same thing, but she hesitated as she saw some kind of a long ditch which the wagon was crossing at the time. Why was there a ditch here? Was it to bury their dead bodies after the guards had killed them? Then was it not a jail but an execution place for them?

She was so scared now that she didn't know what to do. At the same time, the wagon drivers kept telling them to sit down or they would fall over, but none of the slaves were listening, while some of the older slaves had even started weeping in fear.

She was still trying to build her courage to jump outside the wagon, but then the wagons turned to the right, and she saw the entrance of the huge building right in front of them. This was the place which she had seen lit up from afar - the reason being the roaring fires burning in a couple of braziers kept just inside the gates. For a moment she thought which idiot had decided to waste firewood like that and was burning these braziers out in the open?

Looking at those burning flames made her shiver once again, but then she remembered that she wasn't at the quarry anymore where everyone had to make sure to preserve everything to make it last as long as possible. This was a whole village where hundreds of people must be living. What was a small amount of firewood for these people, especially since the village seemed to be already surrounded by forest?

There were also a few horses tied nearby - like they didn't even value the horses, if they had left them standing here in the snow. But Tiranat certainly didn't seem like a rich village to her based on the conditions of the huts she had seen earlier. Nothing made sense to her anymore.

Once the wagons slowed down in front of the gates, she noticed that there were many guards standing there, probably to make sure none of them could escape from this jail. One of them raised his hands and spoke towards the wagon drivers, "Alright, stop the wagon right there!"

With a small jerk, the wagon finally slowed to a stop, marking an end to their long journey from the quarry. But by now, Hyola was already expecting the worst, and she could only hope that it wouldn't be an end to their journey on this world as well.

Soon, the guards started telling the stonecutters to climb down from the wagons, and she realized that she had missed her chance to escape earlier due to her hesitation. If she tried to run now, those huge guards looked like that would capture her in a moment, especially with the horses nearby ready to chase them down.

She sighed. She really should have jumped earlier. She didn't know how long she would have survived inside the forests in this cold, but it probably would still be longer than the life she and the other slaves had remaining here, right?

Why had she even supported Calubo and the other guards when they were trying to gather free slaves for the bastard who ruled over this village! How could Calubo do this to her and the others?

As she climbed down along with the other stonecutters who were looking around fearfully, she noticed an impeccably dressed young man with short length silver hair exiting the gates. He was wearing a fur coat while being accompanied by a much older balding man with a short white beard as well as a middle aged older woman.

She realized that the younger man must be the baron of this village. Did that mean he was the bastard who had brought them here? But why would he be standing outside here in the cold? Nobles like him should be sitting in their warm mansions in this weather while drinking their expensive wines. Why was he here then?

Maybe he was here to see if he had obtained any good slaves amongst them? Or perhaps this bastard was going to demand her and the two other younger women amongst them to accompany him back to his manor, like most nobles were supposed to do? For them to become his newest playthings?

No! She would never agree to it! She pledged to herself that she wouldn't let something like that happen to her or the other women. It was her fault that they had fallen into the honeyed words of the guard captain, so it was her duty to protect the honor of the women here. She had never taken the life of a person before, but she believed the goddess would only help someone who knew how to help themselves.

She gently moved her hand to the side of her right leg, where she had hidden a sharp shiv of iron under her leggings, after she had found it broken away from one of the picks at the quarry a few months ago. It had always been her last resort in case a bandit got too drunk and tried to get handsy with her, but it hadn't been needed at the quarry since she and the other women knew not to go too far away from the other slaves for their own safety. But it seemed like tonight would be the night when she finally got to use it.

Finally, she felt the reassuring coldness of the shiv under her fingers and tensed her muscles while glaring at the young silver-haired bastard who was called The Baron of Tiranat.