Chapter CXI – No woman can manage two captives.

5th of Autumn 5859
Castle Casamonu, Casamonu

John Brown had once again made himself busy in his office. There was a whole lot more work to do now that he was managing a whole lot more people: wages, food, the military… As it turns out, managing a state was a whole lot more complex than managing a warband.

At least things seemed to be going well in the Republic. Mayor Bilal, the former foreman of Libertycave, had sent a report on how the reclamation of the copper mines were going. The copperworkers had set up a whole new smelting complex just to process the copper from abandoned mines up in Mount Curry. The craftsmen of Azdavay were content with the flow of copper, and they had already sent their first shipments of copperwork to Zon’guldac to restart trade.

Brown turned the page, to a report on Casamonu by Rabanowicz. It was a very detailed breakdown of the city’s food stocks and estimated production. For now, as agriculture had been disrupted for a while and this year’s harvest had been insufficient due to that, Casamonu was surviving on food taken from the granaries of the surrounding villages (the food stocks of Casamonu city had been eradicated during the siege). Thankfully, with expanded production from the Homesteading Act and emancipation of the serfs, it seemed that agricultural production would catch up by next year and a Casamonu-wide famine would be avoided.

On the last page was a report on the army of the Republic. The League of Gileadites had recovered back to a thousand men, while the National Guard in Casamonu and Libertycave had gone up to a hundred members each. Both of the National Guard units had been called up to work on infrastructure, with the Casamonu branch working on repairing the Zon’guldac-Casamonu highway while the Libertycave branch worked on constructing a new highway from Libertycave to Casamonu. Brown hoped that, with dwarven trade, the army would finally be able to get equipment better than that used in ancient times. Pure copper equipment had proven brittle with the humid air of Casamonu causing spears and helmets to rust away. Brown didn’t feel comfortable going on another military campaign until they at least had spears that wouldn’t bend or rust at a moment’s notice.

With that, Brown closed the pile of papers and leaned back on the chair. His old spine was aching from sitting and reading for so long. He was about to get up and stretch his legs when he heard a knock on the door. “Please, come in.”

“Old man, I’m back, and I’ve got a surprise gift for you.” Ayomide entered the room, dragging in the intruder she had caught on the highway.

Brown jumped up from his seat in surprise. “Young lady, pray tell, who is this?”

“I don’t know. He and his friend were scouting our camp. They shot at me and then ran away, so I caught one of them in hopes of finding out. Unfortunately, it seems that our guest has swallowed his tongue, for I have heard no word come out of his mouth.” replied Ayomide. The captive, in turn, glared at her.

“Of course, he hasn’t spoken! Do you treat your guests like this?” Brown gestured at the man’s bound hands and feet. “No man would speak if they were treated like this.”

Ayomide sighed, closing her eyes and summoning all her patience. “…old man, he’d have killed me if his arrow landed. He’s a prisoner of war, not your friend coming over for tea.”

“Tea? Yes, that is an excellent idea. Sit down, young man. Young lady, unbind him and get us some tea please.” Brown sat back down, clearing his desk of papers in preparation for tea time.

The old man really has lost the plot, thought Ayomide as she let the captive free of his bindings. The captive looked around, unsure what to do, before he decided to take the free seat offered by Brown. Soon Ayomide came back with three cups of tilia tea, and she took a seat for herself. She was sipping her tea while side-eyeing the captive.

“Excuse me for the lack of preparations. I wasn’t expecting guests today.” Brown sipped his tea for a bit before clearing his throat. “Ahem, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is John Brown, presently the Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Gemeinplatz. Who might you be, young man?”

The “young man” in question, who was about twenty years older than Ayomide, broke his silence by reluctantly drinking his share of the tea. Then, after another long bout of silence, he finally broke his silence proper “I am Chevik, of the Karabush Host. That is all I will say.”

“The Karabush Host?” Brown looked at Ayomide, a local of Gemeinplatz, for help.

“Oh, the hosts?” blurted Ayomide “Uhm… I don’t know much about them. I did host a lot of customers in the café, but I’m guessing Chevik here is a different sort of host. I did hear Vaiz mention them once though. I passed by him on the way to here.”

“Could you fetch him, young lady?”

Ayomide went out the room, and as quickly as she left she was back. “He was standing right outside the room.”

Vaiz humbly bowed his head. “At your service, captain. I saw our guest while he was being transported, and I was quite curious as to who he was.”

“Apparently, he’s from the ‘Karabush Host’. Do you have any idea what that is, Mr. Vaiz?”

“Oh, the nomads!” Vaiz snapped his fingers “My early years in the Temple were spent doing missionary work in the borderlands. I was blessed to have gotten the chance to meet so many different faces. I-”

Vaiz was about to open his mouth again when Ayomide stopped him “Vaiz, please, stop reminiscing and answer the question.”

“Excuse me.” Vaiz looked intently at Chevik “Judging from his garments, he’s definitely telling the truth. There are various hosts on the borders of Gemeinplatz who are tasked with protecting the borderlands from raids and attacks. I’m guessing that this Karabush Host must be situated around the city of Karabush, which is to the northeast of Casamonu. They’re part of a federation of three city-states under vassalage of the Empire.”

“I see.” Brown leaned forward and rested his arms on the table. It seemed that things weren’t going to get any easier “How much of a threat do you think these hosts could be?”

“The hosts are nominally under control of the Empire, but from my time with them, they usually act under orders of the local lords or their own hetman. They’ll be as much of a threat as the lord of Karabush allows them to be, which…”

Ayomide interjected “I don’t know anything about the lord of Karabush, but I assume that he isn’t going to look too warmly on what we’re doing here.”

“…yes, we might have quite the hard time if Karabush sic their host on us. I had the opportunity to see how these hosts conduct warfare, and I will state bluntly that their way of fighting is far from honorable. They’ll raid Casamonu to the ground, and then retreat back on their horses to come back another day. I don’t know much of military matters captain, but I don’t think the League will be able to catch up with a band of experienced nomads.”

“That indeed would not be possible. Our cavalry is still fresh and inexperienced.” Brown hummed and erred while racking his brain. Suddenly, he spoke up “You’ve stated that there were other hosts, right? Casamonu is right on the border of the Empire from what I’ve seen on the maps. Shouldn’t there a Casamonu Host?”

“Yes captain, the Casamonu Host is where I spent most of my time back then. However, they’re situated on the other side of Mount Curry, far from the city. From what I heard back then, one of the previous counts of Casamonu had a dispute with their hetman, demanding that the host give up some fertile land around the city, and they were forced out of their land.”

“I see, I see… I should have asked about this much earlier.” Brown got up with gusto “Then, I believe that it’s time that we right some wrongs and let them back in. Vaiz, I believe you’ll be suitable for this task. Get together a delegation, maybe with some copperware as gifts, and tell them that we’re open to them coming back home.”

Chevik seemed shocked, judging from him almost getting up from his seat and opening his mouth. He sat back down after Ayomide shot him a deadly glance.

“Understood, captain. I’ll leave after I’ve finished a few bits of work related to the schools.” Vaiz humbly bowed again and left the room, leaving Brown and Ayomide alone with Chevik.

“Are you sure about this, old man?” suddenly asked Ayomide.

“Hm? What’s wrong, young lady?”

“I mean, look at this man and his scruffy face. These guys are nomads, you know, the uncivilized folk who run around the place and do whatever. I don’t feel secure having them around Casamonu.”

Brown raised a brow “Young lady, do you not see the irony in calling somebody else ‘uncivilized’? They’re the children of our Heavenly Father, the same as all of us. Them not living a settled life doesn’t change that.”

“Whatever you say old man.” Ayomide cusped her tea cup. It had gotten lukewarm while all the conversation had gone on. “I’ll take my leave then, to get the National Guard ready for cavalry attacks. By the way, what will we do with our guest?”

“Mister Chevik can stay with us until we can conduct diplomacy with his host.” Brown finished his lukewarm tea. “Karabush, it seems, will be our next destination.”