Guild Mage: Apprentice

Kivamus frowned. "I don't know who is lying and who's not, so why don't you tell me your side too? Are you purposely giving her more tasks, perhaps because she used to be a slave in the past? And if you are damaging our limited supply of clothing just for a vendetta, I won't be pleased. It's not like we have a hoard of coins to buy new clothing whenever we want."

Madam Nerida shook her head furiously, her short graying hair moving behind her. "No, milord, I'd never do that! I always do my best to support all the maids. When you had arrived here and freed the slaves, I didn't go against your decision - even if I don't think it's right to free someone who had been sold as a slave without them working enough to pay their slave-debt. But I'd seen how the previous baron treated the slaves, and I didn't want any of them to be whipped anymore. So I still supported your decision!"

She glared at the young maid. "I just don't know how she could accuse me of this! The other maids have been told to gather any clothes which need mending in a pile on our floor in the servants hall. It's them who gather the damaged clothes from around the manor - I don't even do that myself! I have a lot of other things to take care of instead of ripping up mended clothing again!"

Kivamus took a minute to think about it. Both parties believed they were telling the truth, but Leah was still getting more work than she should have.

But before he said anything, Nerida looked into the distance for a moment and said, "But I can tell you that some of the other maids - especially those who have never been slaves - have been complaining that they have to work even in the nights, whether it's to cook food or to clean up, but they only get the same wages as Leah does, even though she only works during the daytime."

Leah immediately protested. "But I still complete all the tasks given to me by working harder during the daytime! I don't even get any free time to take breaks these days because of that!"

That made Kivamus think of another possible reason for the higher workload of Leah. "Could it be... that some of the other maids are jealous and are tearing up the repaired clothing and sheets again so Leah has to work more?"

"That..." Nerida paused. "That's possible..."

Duvas immediately reprimanded, "If it's really true, then that's completely unacceptable to me! These days we barely have any coin to spare even on essentials like food! If anyone is damaging our already limited inventory of clothes, then they have to be penalised for this."

Nerida added with a determined voice, "I will try to ask around with others to see if it is really happening. One of the maids will surely tell the truth in return for an extra day off from her duties." Then she looked at Leah. "I'm sorry, dear. I never thought it could be the work of other maids. But you accused me directly and that made me so mad that I didn't even stop to think about it. You know I hate it if anyone goes against my authority!"

Leah just shook her head in resignation. "I... I never thought that they could do it either but that's the only way it makes sense." She looked at her supervisor. "You had opposed me living outside the manor, so I blamed you without even thinking about it."

"I only did it because I was worried for your safety when living outside our walls..." Nerida muttered.

Leah looked down for a moment, but then she glared towards the direction of the servants hall. "The other maids have been my friends for years, for Goddess' sake! How could they do this to me?"

Kivamus didn't think that it was a big privilege to live outside the manor when most of the people in the village would have given up a lot to be allowed to live inside it, but it was possible that the other maids might have considered it unfair, and tried to make life harder for Leah.

Nerida looked at Kivamus again while bowing her head. "I'm sorry milord, I know you have a lot of things to do, and I've wasted your time with such a petty thing. I should have taken care of it myself instead of getting angry at Leah."

Kivamus waved off the apology, feeling glad that the situation seemed to have resolved by itself. "I'm just glad that you have a better idea of the motive now."

Duvas remarked, "When you have found who did this, bring those maids to me so I can note down their names. The cost of the damaged clothing will be deducted from their wages along with a fine. That should give them a lesson that nobody is to harm the manor's property."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Nerida nodded, while Leah just looked relieved and thanked them again. And with that both of the women exited the manor hall.

Kivamus gave a sigh. These were the kind of things for which he was glad that he had a capable majordomo to take care of things by himself.

He looked at Gorsazo, trying to change the topic. "How are your classes these days?"

"It's slow going, my lord," Gorsazo replied. "As I had expected, the children have taken to learning the alphabet faster than the adults, with some of the young ones showing signs of having a really good mind for this. It's going to take some time before they are ready to join advanced classes with Syryne. But I have to say, I didn't expect her to have such a sharp brain."

Kivamus agreed with a nod. Syryne had taken to the ways of scientific thinking he had taught her like a duck to water, and she had already been doing comprehensive experiments to preserve losuvil leaves after they had gotten that big haul of it from the eastern hills. Not knowing too much about biology, he had given her full freedom for that with only a few ideas here and there, and he couldn't wait to hear the results.

"What about the two kids here?" he asked his former teacher.

"Lucem is probably going to be a lost cause," Gorsazo responded with a laugh. "Believe me, I am trying, and he'll still learn enough to write his own name and read numbers in due time, but his interest simply doesn't lie in education, it seems. Not for now anyway." He added, "That being said, Clarisa - our young maid, as well as Maisy - one of the orphans who had been adopted by a village merchant seem to be doing quite well. I have big hopes for them in the future."

Kivamus nodded with satisfaction. These were only green shoots at the moment, but he knew the future of Tiranat would be better because of this. It was certainly a good idea to educate everyone in the village, even if there were going to be no returns on that investment for a long time.

He looked at the majordomo. "How is the progress with the second longhouse?"

"It will be ready any day now," Duvas replied. "Taniok is working hard as always, and by now the construction workers have a much better idea of how to work with wood and logs, so the carpenter doesn't have to supervise every single thing himself. His apprentice has also been working eagerly, and we already have five wooden wheelbarrows completed - and are getting a new one nearly every week - bringing the total to eight by now including the iron ones."

He added, "That has allowed us to provide them to most of the places where there is work going, and the workers are more than thankful for them. Apart from that, you already know that he has also been providing new sledges and stretchers to our hunters as needed, once he had replaced the shafts for the spears with better quality wood. I've been told that those spears have been very helpful in hunting."

"That's good to hear," Kivamus agreed.

The majordomo continued, "But we have a decision to make about where to put the carpenter to work after the second longhouse is completed. The mushrooms we had started growing in a temporary shed in the south are doing well under the care of madam Helga, but there are only a small number of them there. A single bad spell of frost can kill all of them, not to mention we simply aren't getting enough mushrooms from that shed to feed even a single person."

Duvas explained, "While our food stores are holding for now, we already know that we will be short on wheat to use as seeds in the spring, by which time the prices would be astronomical. So it would be a good idea to make a barn for mushroom farming in the south soon if we want to start getting a regular supply of them in a few weeks. That will allow us to conserve more wheat to use as seeds later. That's one project where we can put Taniok, but on the other hand, while the new village walls are nearly ready now, they still have gaps where we plan to make the gates." He added, "Taniok is the only one who can work with the construction of the buildings or the gates, so we have to decide which of these projects he is going to work on."

Gorsazo nodded. "That's true. Darora is also an expert in working with wood, but he has only worked to make warbows and other small and intricate stuff in the past and has no experience in construction of buildings. The makeshift huts he had made at the quarry hardly count for this, so we just can't trust him to make any big structures safely."

Kivamus already knew the risk of not completing the village walls, but he didn't want to hear Feroy's rebuke for being so careless with the safety of the village again. "Before anything else, we have to ensure that the village is safe from any other bandit raids in the future. We all know that Nokozal's group wasn't the only one living in these forests, and we have been lucky that Tiranat has only gotten two raids in the past few months. But as the winter proceeds further, the shortage of food will be felt everywhere, making them even more desperate to attack us to steal food."

He continued, "So once the second longhouse is built, tell Taniok to immediately start working on the gates. We had planned to make three gates, so it will take a few weeks for him to finish all of them. But that has to be our first priority. Once he's done with that, he can start working on the new barn in the south of the village for the mushrooms. Even if we might be short on seeds later, at least we have enough food now to feed everyone in the winter, so preventing any deaths from a raid is a higher concern at the moment."

"That's what I was thinking too," Duvas replied, "so I'll let him know about it." He added after a moment, "But there is another thing we need to address soon. We are likely going to have a problem of coal shortage in the near future."