~ Ustaimo ~

Damn it, his back was aching so much today... Ustaimo groaned as the wagon jolted on another pothole on the narrow dirt road passing between the dense forests of southern Reslinor. Damn that Zoricus! It was that bastard who had said that the carriage Ustaimo was planning to travel in was suddenly needed for another journey somewhere else, which meant the Count's mansion could only spare an open bed wagon for him - a wagon which was only meant to carry cargo! Not humans! Of course, the other carriages usually present in the mansion had also disappeared at the same time for some reason. No doubt another one of Zoricus' schemes.

As expected, the Count had readily agreed to his financier who had said that they needed that last carriage to fetch some other baron who wanted to visit Cinran. Ustaimo had no doubt that it was only an excuse made by Zoricus to make him travel on a wagon which would be a lot more exhausting and even back-breaking than a carriage - which was supposedly reserved only for those of noble birth. He cursed as the jolt from another pothole on the road made him wish he hadn't come on this journey at all.

Damn that good-for-nothing bastard! May he choke on his wine tonight! He grinned thinking of that vision. Wouldn't that be wonderful news to come back to after this journey?

He looked at the dense forest of Fedarus trees surrounding them on all sides, where new leaves had only recently started to grow again. It had been a few years since he had last travelled on this road, but he didn't remember the journey being so unbearable that time. Or maybe it really was, and it was his memory which was getting weak. Or perhaps he had just gotten older and his body wasn't capable of such long journeys anymore at this age.

He wondered how many such journeys he had taken in the past while working for the Count. Way too many, he decided after a while. Ustaimo sighed. He didn't know how long he could keep doing this...

He looked to the front and saw the single knight which had been given to him to escort the wagon riding easily on his horse in his full plate armour, although his helmet was hanging beside him for now. The young knight's visage didn't show any strains of travelling for nearly two days on such a road. Ustaimo shook his head. Ah, to be so young and fit... Two more guards wearing chainmail armor were sitting on the drivers' bench of the wagon, while another two of them were resting near him on the wagon bed, along with the teenage squire of the knight.

Ustaimo had no idea which of these guards were provided by Zoricus, so he hadn't been able to find himself to trust any of them. When he had left Cinran yesterday morning, the possibility that Zoricus might have planned an ambush on their return journey which of course wouldn't leave any survivors had been making him anxious with worry both for the tax gold as well as for his life. But then he had found out who the knight provided to them was, and that had eased his mind a lot.

This young man had turned out to be a distant relative of Count Ebirtas himself. Ustaimo had known the boy since he was young, and had no doubt of his upstanding character and his loyalty to the Count and the Knight Commander. It was very much possible that this young man was only sent to escort this wagon to keep him away and safe from any Binpaazi raids in the east, where most of the knights of Cinran were being sent these days. Either way, unless Zoricus' men among these guards slit this knight's throat when he was sleeping - which wouldn't end well for anyone - this young man should be able to protect the tax gold as well as Ustaimo's life on this journey. Well, as long as a whole pack of adzees didn't ambush them, or Goddess forbid, a bakkore! Ustaimo shuddered even thinking about those savage creatures.

Still, while this escort of six armed men - including a mounted knight - would easily be daunting for any bandits and wild beasts on the road if he were travelling to any barony in the domain of Count Cinran other than Tiranat and perhaps Kirnos, it simply wouldn't be the case for those two baronies.

In the northern barons' cases, they didn't skip any opportunity to provide the taxes on time to make sure the Count remained happy with them, and that's why Ustaimo rarely needed to travel to their villages. Otherwise, who knew, the Count might find himself a little too busy to provide help on time if another raid from Binpaaz threatened those baron's villages.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Apart from the barony located in the west of that greedy bastard Zoricus - who was probably richer than the Count these days - a barony could rarely afford to hire more than a couple of knights, usually those who weren't good enough even in their prime to have earned a grant of land for themselves, and had been retired from service by the Count or the Duke. Those one or two retired knights were simply not enough to protect a baron's village against even a minor Binpaazi raid - which could consist of at least a dozen mounted knights, if not more. That's why those barons always remained fully deferential to the Count and paid all their taxes before time. But that concept didn't apply in the far south of the kingdom, which consisted of the two most remote baronies in the whole kingdom of Reslinor.

While Kirnos had always been there to provide a good port to import iron ore and some other rare goods from the free cities located in the southern wastelands of Cilaria - at least until the previous war ended - and to trans-ship them north to Ulriga and beyond, Tiranat didn't even exist two decades ago. That region was located in the middle of the vast southern forests of Cilaria, and it had always been considered far too dangerous for humans to live. It was a regular hunting ground of wolves, bears, the terrifying flying monsters called bakkores, as well as other apex predators like adzees.

That meant these forests had always been the refuge of outlaws, bandits and mercenaries from all over the kingdom, making it a far too treacherous place to live. Only the most daring of hunters and mercenaries would take the risk to venture there, whether to hunt for exotic adzee pelts or to catch a runaway outlaw or slave with a particularly high bounty. That's how it had been for most of his life spent living near Cinran, until two decades ago.

Honest people had only started to live in this region when prospectors had basically found a mountain load of coal veins in that area just after the previous war ended, otherwise nobody in their right mind would ever want to live in or even visit the region where this isolated village was founded. That's why he always felt a chill in his bones when he was ordered to go to Tiranat. He just never knew if he would return to Cinran in one piece after any such journey.

Ustaimo shook his head, trying not to think of the image of an adzee snacking on his old bones. There was no point in unnerving himself even more than he already was. The good thing was that he only had to visit this village once in a few years at most.

Even so, he was looking forward to meeting this son of the Duke who had become the new Baron of Tiranat. He had no idea of the circumstances under which the Duke of Ulriga would have sent his own son somewhere so far away from his home and in a place where such pampered nobles wouldn't want to live more than a few hours at a time.

Still, he realized that the relations between this boy Kivamus and his family couldn't be too great if he had been exiled there. If anything, Ustaimo felt sympathy for him. It must not have been easy for this young man to survive the harsh winter near the mountains in this destitute village after living for all his life in the luxury of the Ulriga Palace. Not to mention, Ustaimo had a good idea that Zoricus must already be thinking of a way to get rid of this new baron after he had likely done the same for the previous one. That bastard's greed had no limits.

He gave another sigh. Well, it wasn't like this was anything new. Nobles' politics were always like that. As long as he kept his head low and performed all the tasks given to him by the Count on time, he should live to see another day.

Coming back to the present, he glanced at the tall fedarus trees surrounding them on all sides. The sun was quite low in the sky now, peeking between the trees on his right. That meant sunset wasn't far away and he certainly wasn't looking forward to staying another night in these dangerous forests, not to mention it seemed like his back would kill him if he had to sleep one more night on the bumpy ground under the wagon.

Still, it wasn't like the accommodations were going to be luxurious even in Tiranat, nor was he used to any kind of luxury. He had lived on bare minimum of necessities for most of his life, but after going through the back breaking journey for the past two days, what he wouldn't give to be allowed to sleep for a night in one of the opulent beds where the nobles slept in...

He sighed. Ah, well, it probably didn't matter. He was born a commoner, and would die a commoner. There was no point in wishing for things which the goddess didn't want for him. For now, all he wanted was to reach Tiranat before dark. The howls he had heard when sleeping under the wagon yesterday still scared him, so at least staying inside the walls of the baron's manor in that poor village would mean he should be safe until he had to return.

As a sudden gust of wind made him shiver, although only a little, he felt glad that it wasn't that cold anymore. The winter was already over and while the early spring air often held a chill in it, it was no comparison to the icy gales of the winter.

Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted when he saw the knight craning his neck upwards, while standing up in his stirrups. What was the problem? Was there a wolf pack ahead of them? Or Goddess-forbid, an adzee pack?