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Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 224
🕑 Added 2025-04-30 13:35:58 +0000 UTCDuring the couple of days of travel to inspect the pioneering villages, there were no incidents. The mercenary scout reported signs of goblins in the area, but with the size of the caravan, they were not bold or stupid enough to attack. So if the mercenaries play their cards right, they are in for an easy job of goblin clearing when their escort job is done.
When we reached the first pioneering village, we found that they were, for the most part, living out of tents with a rudimentary wall erected to keep wild animals away. Aside from that, proper houses were in the process of being built, but more importantly, the fields surrounding the pioneer village had acres of land plowed by their oxen, and hardy crops like rye and oats were sown for the newly cultivated land. It was going to take some time and further cultivation of the land before the land was capable of growing wheat and other crops efficiently.
Fortunately for this first pioneer village, they were situated on grasslands, so they did not have to deal with any tree stumps and only a minimal amount of rocks. Therefore, they were likely ahead of the other pioneer villages that had to contend with such impediments.
After offloading people and supplies and taking on additional passengers to hitch a ride to other pioneer villages, we were off again.
We spent a few more days going from village to village to resupply and check on their progress, and found, for the most part, everyone was doing fine. They may be sleeping rough until their houses are built, but they are safe.
But that did not mean we did not meet anything nasty along the way. On our travels, we cleared out a couple of small tribes of goblins and kobolds who had taken up residence in old dilapidated structures and caves. Easy stuff.
But there was one thing that the mercenary scout found that worried us. Some distance from the main road, the scout discovered the half-eaten corpses of two wolves, with numerous blood traces leading off in different directions. All around them, on the trees and ground, were claw marks that were much too large and had the wrong number of digits to belong to a bear. Then there were the bite marks. All of us who inspected the wolf corpses were unable to recognize the bite marks, leaving us all at a loss for what had killed the wolves.
From what the scene told the scout, something much bigger than a bear fought with a pack of wolves and won. The worst part was that, besides the tracks of the struggle, or the lack of sufficient tracks, led him to believe that the thing that attacked the wolves could fly.
And seeing that the pioneers were armed with, at best, bows and arrows for hunting, it did not bode well if this supposed flying beast got a taste for man’s blood. The walls would be useless against a flying beast, and the pioneers would be easy pickings for this beast until they got their houses built or had an underground shelter.
Seeing this as a potential problem, Dad sent one of the knights to ride swiftly back to the nearest town to request professional trackers and hunters to ascertain what we were dealing with and potentially eliminate it before it kills the pioneers.
As we continued our journey, we came upon the closest of the two new iron mines that Dad commissioned to be built.
Much like the pioneers who established their farms, all the miners and their families were living in tents. However, unlike other pioneer villages that typically had around five to ten families, the new mining village boasted many more residents. At the last count, there were twenty families who chose to migrate here, along with around ten men who came alone to work as miners.
When we checked on their progress, we found that they had made it less than twenty meters into the new mine. Their slow progress was understandable since the miners were operating at half capacity, as the other half was busy building the walls and houses.
While the village was being resupplied, we asked the mine’s foreman, who turned out to be the de facto village chief, if there was any trouble. Fortunately, besides some wildlife that was curious about their new neighbors, there was no trouble to be had.
Once everything was settled with the mining village, we proceeded to the main objective of our journey: the new town of Duhof that Sir Hammel was establishing, which would serve as the heart of this new region.
It was by far the largest planned pioneering project in the region, designed to be constructed on both sides of a river that flows through relatively flat grassland and has the largest population.
In addition to the craftsmen, artisans, merchants, vendors, and service establishments that came to set up shop, there were nearly a hundred farming families to whom my family had leased land for farming.
When we reached Duhof, we found that everything was much more developed. The walls, although made of wood, appeared much more professionally constructed, and all the buildings were nearly complete.
This was primarily due to our decision to hire a builder’s guild to assist in planning and constructing the town. Given that this town served as the administration center for the region, we opted to invest a bit more to get it operational as quickly as possible.
As a result of the builder’s guild concentrating on construction, this enabled the farmers to focus on their fields, allowing them to progress further than other pioneer farms in raising crops.
After passing through the gates of Duhof, we split off from the caravan to make our way to the town center. There was a two-story manor being built, with markings for a stone wall to be constructed later, and in front of that construction stood a large tent with a line of people waiting at its entrance.
When we entered the tent, we saw a stressed-looking Sir Hammel listening to the petition of one of the town’s people while a scribe next to him was taking notes.
The moment he saw us enter, he locked eyes with Dad before dismissing the petitioner. When the tent only had me, Dad, Sir Hammel, and his scribe, Sir Hammel came over and hugged Dad, “Alden! You are here! Please save me, man was not made to sit behind a desk and hear people complain all day! I do not know how you do it, but please choose someone else!”
