From Londoner To Lord

By the time the bandits moved under those shrubs, Calubo hated them enough that he really wanted the bandits to be crushed by the village guards, but he had also seen the reality of the caravan's defense earlier.

Even though that ruse of presenting untrained villagers as seasoned guards had worked - and it had to be a ploy by the new baron of Tiranat, whoever it was, since only the baron had the authority to do such a thing - and the bandits had left the caravan alone on the road, but now that Nokozal had come here to the village with everyone to raid it, he didn't know what would happen to the village now. Those coal miners might be able to hold their own in a brawl in an alehouse, but they would be cut down immediately by these ruthless bandits. He couldn't see a way out of it right now, but he had to hope that the goddess would take care of the village.

********

It was around noon now, and soon they heard the crunching of leaves nearby. Immediately all of them got alert with their swords ready, while still hiding under the shrubs, but after they heard a series of bird whistles, the bandits relaxed, and started to get out from their hiding spots. Calubo was allowed to get up as well, and he saw that it was the runt, with his horse tied a little distance away.

Nokozal and others gathered together to see what the runt had found.

Coming closer, the runt reported with a frown, "Something isn't right, milord. But I don't understand any of it..."

"What do you mean?" Nokozal asked.

The runt continued with an agitated voice, "I don't understand what's wrong with the village. The weather is nearly freezing here, but instead of staying inside their homes - or what's left of it anyway after Torhan's raid - the villagers are out running around the village doing only goddess knows what!"

The runt added, "They seem to be out of their houses throughout the day - logging trees, cutting branches, digging trenches, and Goddess knows what else! And all that activity is not just in the north either. They are doing that in the south as well, at the same scale, while some men are also cutting trees in the east and the west of the village. All around the village there is someone doing something!"

The runt continued after Nokozal's nod, "In the day and a half that I've been here, I have never seen any area around the village in any direction being empty during the day. So there is no way we can approach the village in daytime without being seen by someone."

"I noticed that too. But it doesn't matter," Nokozal said. "I plan to attack around midnight anyway, since that's when their defenses will be at their lowest. Carry on."

The runt nodded. "It is true that in the night we would have a better chance, but there is something weird with that as well. Two nights ago when I arrived here, I didn't see anyone outside the village throughout the night - that was the day the caravan reached here. But yesterday night, I saw regular patrols by a pair of guards all around the village throughout the night!"

"What?" Nokozal snapped. "I told you to be careful that you were not seen by anyone! How could you be so careless!"

The runt shook his head immediately. "No, milord! I wasn't seen by anyone. I'm sure of it! I never even went close to the village during the day."

Nokozal growled, "So how do you explain that they started patrolling around the village the day after you arrived here?"

"That's just one of the weird things with the village, milord," the runt replied. "Other than that, I had thought that most of the men would be away from the village working in the coal mines during the daytime - which I heard to be located in the east when I came here a few years ago - which would have meant that it would be better to raid the village in the day, when barely any able-bodied men would be there to defend their houses. But the men don't go towards the coal mines at all! It's like they have given up on mining any coal! It doesn't make any sense!"

"What are you talking about? Why would they give up on coal mining?" The fatso asked while rubbing his belly which was already making sounds in protest of not getting anything to eat recently.

"I have no damn idea! But didn't you see it while coming here?" The runt asked while gesturing towards the village. "It's like those villagers have gone mad, since they are willingly staying outside their homes in this freezing weather! It's not like their village was flooded like our shacks in the quarry were!"

"That doesn't make any sense..." Nokozal frowned. "Their baron is already dead, so who is even ordering them to do this? Because I know no sane man would go out in this village unless he was ordered to do so by a noble."

"But it's true, milord!" The runt protested. "I have looked at the village from all around it by now, so I know what I'm talking about. Nothing makes sense in the village right now!"

Nokozal didn't reply for a while, as he started pacing back-and-forth while stroking his long beard.

Another bandit suggested, "We really should wait for a few days so that we can scout them further, milord."

The runt suggested, "What if... what if we just waited for the caravan to return back to Cinran?"

"But why would it even go back?" the other bandit asked. "Lord Nokozal told us that the village couldn't have enough money to hire mercenaries, so those had to be the village guards escorting the caravan. Which means they have no reason to go back now."

"I understand that..." the runt added, "but I told you that I have been to this village in the past. And as you saw it's only a small village. There is no way they could afford to buy eight wagons for the village, which means the caravan certainly should have had at least a few wagons which came from Cinran. That means at least those wagons would still have to return back, wouldn't they?"

The other bandit nodded. "Right! So can't we just raid that smaller caravan? If the swordsmen we saw with the caravan were the village guards, they wouldn't accompany the caravan back, would they?"

The runt looked excited now. "That's true! We should still easily be able to kill or capture the few men which would accompany that smaller caravan. We can just ambush them and steal food from those wagons, without having to risk our lives in raiding the village!"

"Are you both idiots or just cowards?" Nokozal growled. "Why do you think those wagons would have food? The village wouldn't have sent a caravan to buy so much grain from Cinran in the first place if they had enough food to sell it there! Everyone knows about the coal mines here, so those wagons will just take coal with them to sell in Cinran - if you are right and they do go back, which is still not certain."

The runt looked red in his face with embarrassment, but he added, "Then we can just steal that coal!"

"And what would we do with that coal?" Nokozal asked with a glare. "What use would it be to us when we can just burn firewood in the quarry? It's not like we have any shortage of it there."

"Then..." the runt suggested, "then... we can sell that coal and those horses in Cinran! Yes, that's exactly what we should do! This way we wouldn't have to fight with a dozen swordsmen of the village, if not more!"

"Shut up!" Nokozal barked. "We don't have any use for coal ourselves and I can't fence that amount of coal anyway. It's not like it is stolen jewelry which I can easily take in my pockets to sell to my contacts in Cinran!"

As the runt began to say something in protest, Nokozal glared at him again. "I told you all that we can't afford to wait here for too long! If Torhan got any hint that my quarry is unprotected, then all my slaves would be stolen by him for sure. And we really need that food! So we have to attack the village anyway! That's the end of this discussion."

The fatso nodded, "I agree that we do have to attack, but you saw that there were people all around the village. How will we approach the village without being seen?"

Nokozal didn't say anything in reply as he began to pace back-and-forth again. After some time, he said, "It doesn't matter. Those villagers still have to go inside their homes for the night. And we already plan to attack around midnight, so the villagers spotting us won't be a problem. The plan remains the same."

"But what about the patrols by guards?" The fatso asked. "They patrol at night too."

Nokozal stopped his pacing. "It's just two men, and there are ten of us. We'll send them to the Goddess if they come in front of us when we go to raid."

He looked back at the runt. "You go back to what you were doing and keep an eye around the village. Then join us here a few hours after night has fallen to tell us if anything else has changed. We will attack soon after that."

The runt asked doubtfully, "But can we even afford to fight that many guards? You saw there were more than a dozen swordsmen just to escort the caravan! That means the village might have even more of them!"

"Stop being a coward!" Nokozal barked. "It doesn't matter how many guards there are in the village, since they would all be hiding inside the manor walls, just like it happened in the previous raid. So they wouldn't be a threat to us as long as we stay clear of the manor."

As the runt began to protest again, Nokozal snarled, "Now shut up. Not one more word about this, or I will have you flayed for being a coward!"

The runt immediately became quiet after that, but he still looked doubtful.

Nokozal glared at all the other bandits. "Is there anyone else here who wants us to keep waiting?"