“Lord Werner,” Frenssen said early one morning, “you have visitors from the capital.”
“I have what now?”
We only just sent off the first two groups of adventurers the day before: one in the morning, and one in the afternoon. I wasn’t expecting any visitors quite so soon.
“You have visitors,” Frenssen repeated. “The Iron Hammer just arrived alongside supplies sent from the capital, and it seems they would like to speak with you.”
Given the timing, they had probably just missed the adventurers I had sent. Still, I was a bit surprised to hear that name. I mean, adventurers could be anywhere, but I wasn’t expecting to find the Iron Hammer here in Anheim. I had to accept the supplies anyway, so I decided to meet with them for a change of pace. There was something I wanted to check, anyway. With that in mind, I stepped outside the manor and decided to make a detour to survey the supplies.
The second supply group brought plenty. It consisted of forty percent lumber, twenty percent provisions, and twenty percent metal, along with various other items that were more of a waste of space. I confirmed the shipment and had Sir Holzdeppe and some of the civil officials direct them to our storage area.
Foodstuffs and weapons were certainly useful during a siege, but lumber and metal could prove surprisingly handy as well. If the gate was about to be compromised, it had to be fortified with nails and lumber. Even in the confines of a town, wood and metal could also be used to repair weapons, armor, and horse tack, or to fashion arrowheads and spear hafts. You needed lumber to cook food and melt iron as well. Of course, we needed to be able to light bonfires too.
When castle towns broke under siege, even when sufficiently garrisoned and provisioned, the culprit was, surprisingly often, a lack of lumber for making repairs. Though in this case, I had another use for it in mind as well.
I was looking over the supplies with all that in mind when Sir Holzdeppe approached. “All the supplies were safely delivered this time, but what are we going to use the catapults for? They are quite small, but they’re typically used to attack castles, not defend them.”
“There’s plenty we can use them for.”
I had heard of instances where those under siege launched loads of gravel from the walls to cause a rain of pebbles to fall on the attacking army. Humans would find it intolerable, and while the use I had in mind was probably atypical, we couldn’t win against a swarm of demonic beings in an open battle—especially one where a Demon Commander was present—with just the men under me alone. I needed my volunteer force to use the catapults to help defend the town.
But unlike bows or swords, catapults weren’t often put into use, meaning few people had worked with them before. Of course, I had never seen one put into action in my previous life either if you exclude instances I had seen on television. It seemed worth trying to use them in a real battle.
“There should be more lumber on its way, so make sure we have a proper place to store it.”
“Understood. And how should I deal with the other matter?”
“Throw him in the dungeon for now. I’ll meet with him later.”
“Understood.”
After giving those orders, I headed not for the governance hall but the local lord’s manor. I supposed I’d have to speak with the head of the Carpenters’ Guild to process the lumber. Given the poor economic conditions of the town, handing the Carpenters’ Guild some work would, I supposed, improve their opinion to me to neutral, if not favorable. I should be able to at least get enough time from them to convince them to lend aid.
I also had to talk with the head of the Blacksmiths’ Guild, since they were the ones who could process the metal. Maybe I should tell them I’m building a fort to keep an eye on the border. The need for surveillance, at least, was true enough. My order would be complicated, so I wanted to pay them a visit myself; however, if I did, Sir Behnke would say I was being too hasty. This was difficult.
As I pondered all this, I found my way to the local lord’s manor. It now served as my private residence, so it was typical that I meet personal guests, rather than political guests, here. This was also where I would meet any guests traveling undercover.
It seemed like calling the house of the deputy the “local lord’s manor” was a custom in this world. I guessed all the average person really needed to know was that it was the building some higher-up lived in, so I tried to ignore it.
The manor was built to house the deputy along with their family, so it was too big for just me. In addition to some of my men, like Neurath and Schünzel, I also had some of the refugees I hired as servants living here, and because of that, I managed to fill up some of the rooms. This was all because I received some complaints that seeing the lights off in the windows of my residence was depressing.
For nobles, it wasn’t rare to keep rooms lit even when no one was inside, and ignoring the risk of fire, it was effective at staving off any intruders. Still, that felt wasteful to me, so if I was keeping rooms lighted, I at least wanted people using them too.
Many of the servants had jobs like “safe keeper” or “chef” that were self-explanatory even just with knowledge from my old world, but there were also some jobs like candleman or distiller that were harder to figure out.
The candleman was in charge of managing the types and numbers of candles in our possession. Lighting them or putting them out was a job for lower servants like maids.
For one, candles weren’t manufactured in this world. Cheaper ones let out copious amounts of smoke, so they needed to be used outside, and smaller ones with little smoke were used for guests. Someone had to keep track of which ones to use when and where, and given how many types there were, it constituted its own profession. Some made from beast fat smelled beyond rancid, so you didn’t want to use that in the wrong place. On the other hand, candles made from the fat of famous demonic beasts were a top-class item too expensive for the average citizen, so they could become targets for theft.
Now, given the existence of magic lamps, this all might sound strange. But candles could be much cheaper than the magic stones used in magic lamps, making them a necessity if I wanted my servants to have light to work by. They also were single use, so lighting an expensive candle and putting it in a magnificent silver candlestand could appeal to nobles. I wouldn’t deny that they could be a prop for such theatrics, but you also couldn’t forget that a single one of those props could feed a common family for days.
The distiller, put simply, worked in the wine cellar, but a detailed account of their job would be lengthy, so I’ll keep it short. Basically, glass is expensive in this world, so wine is usually stored in barrels. However, wooden barrels can sometimes leave too much of a barrel smell in the wine, so the person in charge manages not just the temperature and humidity, but also the fermenting process and aroma of the wine, transferring it into glass bottles when the time is right. To put it in terms of my old world, he was basically distiller plus sommelier.
A second round of fermentation once the wine was transferred into bottles usually didn’t happen in this world…at least I didn’t think it did. It wasn’t like I knew the process inside out.
Incidentally, wine bottles weren’t just old; in other areas, they were often recycled. One reason was that glass was expensive, but also, any bottle could do if it was only being used as storage. During parties, you could just use a decanter. Needing to be aware of that was just another reason the distiller was an important job here.
As I thought all that over, I found some familiar adventurers drinking tea deep in the room. They were the five members of the Iron Hammer, and I was glad to see they were doing all right.
“Hey,” I said. “Long time no see.”
“If it isn’t the viscount! Congrats on your appointment as deputy.”
“Enough of that, you morons,” I responded on reflex. I was silent for a moment, and then we were grinning at each other. Thank god we could chat so casually. I hoped Mazel was doing all right.
“Your name’s been getting dragged through the mud back at the capital. They’re calling you the Wastrel Viscount and the In-Debt Deputy.”
“It’s true after all.” Or rather, it’d be more correct to say I needed people to think that was the truth. I couldn’t tell them that though.
They say that where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Since I did have to borrow money to employ Goecke and his men, there were definitely some flames. Now, I just had to let things be so those flames could grow into a conflagration.
No matter how much the crown prince or Duke Seyfert tried to keep their support for me discreet, the shipments they were sending me were fuel aplenty for the rumors about them giving me special treatment.