So with our population having exploded, I assumed that we were looking at one heck of a winter prep season, but to my surprise that wasn’t the case. For starters, Joe and my old buddies having joined us meant we had a whole lot of extra hands. Then there were the storage cellars and preservation pots, which were already helping us to store food over long periods. All our fields were coming along real swell, and we’d received literal caravan loads’ worth of food from Eldan and Peijin, who’d come to celebrate the opening of our new temple.
All of the above meant that we already had plenty of food to spare, and though Alna and the twins had spent last year busy in the forest foraging, this year they were more relaxed about it. In fact, it felt like their visits to the forest were more just a way to unwind. It also helped that the twins had spent the year carefully cultivating the forest—berries, nuts, and mushrooms were practically growing out of the rocks.
All the extra food in the forest meant more food for the local wildlife, which in turn boosted their numbers and made them plump and good for hunting. We could expect good hauls across the board. To top it all off, the especially tasty mushrooms the girls had discovered were also ready for gathering.
Yep, Alna and the twins were just itching to reap the rewards of their hard work. I really wanted to see the forest myself, but on the first day of our winter prep I had my breakfast, hopped on Balers, and headed in the opposite direction.
I was headed for the western border station.
I had two reasons for heading west. The first was that we had all the extra helping hands in Iluk now. It wasn’t “in fashion” for a duke to get their hands dirty, I was told—at least not when it wasn’t necessary. The second reason was that the mine was now in working order, and Narvant wanted me to inspect it myself.
The mine was north of the western border station and about halfway up a mountain. Cavekin had already started working there and amassed a pretty considerable amount of ore, from what I’d heard. It was good stuff, and all the cavekin were pretty happy about it. They wanted me to visit and see it with my own eyes.
“We’re doing our darndest here at the mines,” they’d said, more or less. “We want you to see the ore we’ve mined, and check out the tools we’re planning to make with it, and just see all the hard work we’re doing.”
It was only natural for the cavekin to feel that way, and it was important for a domain lord to see and acknowledge the work of their subjects. That was why I tried not to think about how much I wanted to go to the forest.
I figured that while I was up that way, I could also see the fields they’d been working on at the station and get a feel for the harvest they were looking at. All in all, it was going to take at least a full day’s work to check on everything, so the forest would have to wait at least a day or two.
All the same, I was admittedly pretty curious about the mines, and so I set my mind to just enjoying the day ahead of me. Balers was mighty pleased to be heading out for the day, and there was a cool fall breeze in the air. It felt really nice, and I honestly couldn’t complain about what the day had in store for me.
I let Balers set the pace and we galloped along the road to the border station before turning down the road to the mine. The cavekin had built the road themselves, and it was a sturdy piece of work—just what you’d expect of master craftsmen. It wasn’t as wide as the main road, but you could ride a single cart over it just fine. As Balers and I followed that road, I noticed the stone walls on either side of us. They weren’t especially tall, but they were thick—the kind you’d expect of a castle.
Ah, so they’re for dealing with monsters, then.
Monsters weren’t uncommon in the northern mountains, so if you were building a mine up this way then you wanted to make sure you were prepared for any unwanted visitors. I’d left all the construction and defenses to Narvant and his cavekin because they’d requested it.
They even made sure the road to the mine is well protected.
As we ventured farther north, the grass turned into rocky earth, and the walls grew thicker...but they still stayed pretty low. It made me scratch my head for a while, but then I figured they were low to accommodate the short stature of the cavekin. Maybe the low walls were fine for them and they’d just fight monsters off with spears and whatnot. But then I noticed some ballistae set up inside the walls.
“W-Wow, so they’re going to fight monsters off with these?” I muttered. “But from what I can see, they’re not complete... Maybe they’re still getting all the parts ready for them?”
A cavekin happened to be working on the other side of the wall and heard me talking to myself, and he peeked up from it. I hadn’t known he was there—he really scared me for a second.
“Nah, we make the ballistae like that on purpose,” he said, answering my question. “We bring out the other ballista parts when we need to use them. That way we don’t have to worry about bandits or whatnot using them against us.”
“Oh, okay. They look like they’ve got some kick to them too, but just how powerful are they?” I asked.
“They’ll pierce an earth dragon shell without issue,” replied the cavekin. “We’ve got some with your usual firing mechanisms and some with the magical stone type. Those magical stone types have some crazy stopping power, let me tell you. And I know what you’re thinking—how do you fire them with magical stones, right? Well, it works pretty much the same as the magical stone furnace, but if it’s the deets you’re after, talk to the boss.”
The cavekin even knew what question I had in mind while he was speaking, and he answered it before I said a single word.
“Thanks,” I said. “I’ll ask Narvant then.”
I had Balers walk on, and we passed more ballistae on either side along the road. It felt a lot like a walkway at a fort or stronghold.
The road got steeper and started leading us up the rocky mountain. On the sides of the road were little stone fortifications that reminded me of small hills. They were nothing like the towers and forts you found in the kingdom, and they were different from the border station too. The best way I could put it is that they were more rugged.
The fortifications looked a lot like rocks had just been thrown together before the insides were hollowed. In fact, if they hadn’t had ballistae on the top of them I never would have guessed that they were fortifications at all. I mean, I assumed they were tough as nails because it was the cavekin who’d built them, but all the same they were quite the sight. And they weren’t just by the sides of the road either—some of them were built at a distance.