Feroy continued, "We have no idea of where the knight's true loyalty lies, and these days there aren't even any other guards who stay in the manor house to protect our lord." He shrugged. "Technically Hudan and I are both supposed to be here, but these days I've been staying out in the forests in the nights to scout any approaching bandits of Torhan, while Hudan keeps going out to check the guards again and again. That means the manor house is usually left without any guards, and if staying here, the knight would basically be free to do whatever he wants with no one to stop him. Are you sure we can't make him stay anywhere else?"

"What? Of course not!" Duvas stared at the ex-mercenary. "It's customary for anyone of noble birth to be given a room in the manor house here. At least that's how it was always done by the previous baron."

"He also didn't have to fear being assassinated by other nobles like Lord Kivamus," Feroy countered. "Even then, look where trusting other nobles got him!"

"We have no proof to say it was some other noble who killed the previous baron," Duvas sighed," but I see what you mean."

Feroy nodded. "After two assassination attempts of our lord, it would be tempting fate to allow an unknown armoured knight to stay within the manor house, especially in the night."

Kivamus thought about it and he had no reason to disagree. As much as he had trained with Hudan in the basics of sword fighting - and even if he was a lot fitter now than when he had arrived in this world - he simply wouldn't be any match for a knight in full plate armour if that man wanted to kill him. After looking at Syryne who was sitting nearby with a touch of anxiousness visible on her face when she heard about a knight of noble birth being able to visit the upper floor any time at night, Kivamus made his decision. They had to take some precautions here, just in case.

"What can we do about this?" he asked. "Just because the previous baron liked to do things in a certain way is not a good enough reason for me to keep doing the same thing."

The majordomo seemed to be thinking about it. "I agree that it's risky, but we just can't let the knight stay in the same room as our servants and other guards. It would be an easy way to make the knight furious at us, which would eventually mean the Count also gets angry at us, and we simply can't afford to do that right now."

"In that case," Feroy announced, "I will post a couple of other trusted guards here to shadow Lord Kivamus all day, so that he'd never be alone with the knight or any of the count's guards even if Hudan or I are not around for some reason. Right now we have enough guards in the manor to be able to do this easily, and at night, I'll sleep in the manor house as well, along with another guard until the tax collector has left the manor."

"But what about staying in the forests for scouting?" Duvas asked with a frown. "Your room is also too far away from that of Lord Kivamus to help him on time in case he needs it, because you had asked for it to be like that so your coming and going in the night wouldn't disturb him."

"Nothing else would matter if our lord is assassinated," the ex-mercenary said, "so I'll send another guard to the forests to keep an eye there." Feroy snorted. "And I'm not going to have a nice sleep in my room here. I'll post two trusted guards right outside the door of Lord Kivamus' room on the upper floor, which should be good enough since there aren't any other entrances to his room. I'll also make sure the windows are locked properly in his room when he goes to sleep, while I'll stay at the bottom of the stairwell every night." He smirked. "An armored knight or not, there is no way anyone can climb up the stairs if I don't want him to. I would prefer if Hudan stayed here as well, but one of us will usually have to stay outside the manor house to organise the guards quickly in case of a raid."

Duvas gave a slow nod. "That should work. We can't restrict the knight to his own room by posting a guard outside it, but this works better anyway. Even if the knight wants to go for a stroll or something in the night, he has no reason to go on the upper floor where the women and Lord Kivamus stay, and we'll just tell the knight that the roof is damaged, so that isn't an option either."

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"That's good!" Feroy added, "I'll also post another few guards to patrol around the manor house all night, so none of the other guards who have come with the tax collector can try to sneak inside in the cover of the night. We can't afford to provide this kind of security for Lord Kivamus permanently, but these days we have enough guards for it."

Kivamus shook his head after hearing the elaborate preparations being done to protect him, like he was a president or a prime minister of a whole country who was visiting an enemy nation on earth. He sighed. But this place wasn't located on the earth, was it? Even if it did sound a little excessive, it was better to be safe than sorry.

"I agree. Let those guards know that in exchange for pulling this extra duty, they'll get a couple of rest days after the tax collector has returned."

Duvas stared at him. "They are guards working for you and they are already being paid well for this. I don't think they need to be given anything else in exchange for doing what they are meant to do anyway. We can barely afford to pay that many men as it is..." he muttered in the end.

Kivamus shrugged. "I don't deny that, but forcing someone to do something means they are simply not going to perform at their best. But this way, they'll have something to look forward to in exchange for this extra watch duty, and that will give them a good reason to stay awake and alert all night."

"Well, that's true enough I guess," the majordomo agreed.

Kivamus glanced at the door, wondering when those people would arrive, when his eyes went to the shelf near the dining table where all his blueprint parchments were kept. "Shit! We forgot to remove those! We can't let any of them find out about these designs!"

He immediately got up and jogged to the shelf and started to pull all the parchment aside. "Syryne, Feroy, help me here!"

With the three of them working together, it didn't take very long for them to roll up all the parchments and papers which had something drawn on them. Kivamus glanced for a moment at the Tiranat-manufactured papers remaining on the shelf since they were still empty. "Actually, let's pick up those as well. There is no point in risking these people finding out about our capability to manufacture paper."

As he and the others began to roll up the remaining papers as well, he added, "In fact, Duvas, the servants who work to make paper every day should have returned by now, so after we're done here, go and tell them to bring all those sawdust mush buckets, paper moulds and deckles back inside the manor and store them somewhere out of sight. We won't be making any paper as long as the tax collector stays here."

The majordomo nodded in reply as he picked up the last sheet of paper.

"Where do we keep these?" Syryne asked with a bundle of rolls in her hands.

Kivamus immediately thought of offering his own room, since basically nobody else visited there, before he realised that it could be a problem in case he had to bring the tax collector there for them to talk alone and come to a solution about the shortage of gold for the tax.

While he was thinking about where to hide the papers, Syryne looked at him with worry. "Wait, the losuvil processing room is right in front of the empty rooms on the ground floor. Isn't that where the knight and tax collector will be staying? We need to hide it too!"

Being reminded of that room, Kivamus chided himself for not thinking about it earlier, but felt glad that he had others to help him here so he didn't have to do everything himself. Hearing about that room had also given him a solution. "That's true. So let's take all these parchments and papers in that room and lock it from outside. That'll keep all the blueprints and the losuvil medicine safe and away from their eyes. If anyone asks, we'll just say it's a storage room for damaged chairs, tables and such."

Duvas nodded from nearby. "That'll work. I will keep the keys with me at all times, just in case, but calling it a storage room should prevent anyone from getting suspicious. There has to be a storage room in any noble's manor house, after all."

"Good, then let's do this before they arrive."

With that, their small group began to carry all the parchments to that storage room, which could easily turn out to be a secret treasure trove for any visitors who found it. Feeling glad that they had thought of everything in time, they got to work.