Kuzunalis

FLTL Ch 77. Yard To Meter

Taniok answered, "There is a marker in front of most temples of the goddess - or at least those temples which are made from stone whose walls would last a long time - which tells us the length of a yard. However, the local temple here is only a wooden building, so there was no point in adding such a marker on it when we were constructing it in the past. So, to get a proper length of a yard for use in the future, I had bought a straight wooden stick in Cinran, and after comparing it to ...

FLTL Ch 76. Groma

"This tool is called a groma," Kivamus replied.

Gorsazo had tilted his head a little, while he observed him with a frown, but didn't say anything.

Kivamus added, "Ideally we should use pointed pieces of iron instead of these round stones, for it to be more accurate. In our case here, where you only need to make a single building at a time, you can make these strings from which the stones are hanging to be a little longer, so that they nearly touch the ground. That way, you ...

FLTL Ch 75. Perpendicular Lines

A/N: Here is a second bonus chapter! (Patrons are now 14 chapters ahead of Royalroad.)

(I have added a drawing at the bottom, which you can take a look at while reading the chapter.)

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~ Kivamus ~

~ Baron's Manor, Tiranat ~

The next day around dawn, Kivamus was standing outside the manor house with others while looking at the caravan getting ready to leave. Even without any wind, the air was chilly, and the warmth of the flickeri...

FLTL Ch 74. Raiding Plans

Calubo gave a reluctant nod, but didn't say anything while he ate what little remained of the meat.

Soon, he heard some heated voices from the bandits. They seemed to be arguing furiously amongst them, their voices raised in a fierce debate about something. Nokozal, a huge grizzled man with a scar that ran from his temple to his chin and a big beard which was starting to get streaks of gray in it, seemed to be staring at the fire, while the other bandits bickered agitatedly.

FLTL Ch 73. Recollections

"What would he even sell right now to earn more gold?" Hyola snorted. "We have only been trying to remove the water from the quarry for the past month, and haven't actually been able to cut any stone. So he doesn't even have any limestone to sell right now, even if there was any demand for it these days."

"And guess what?" she added sarcastically, "It doesn't even cost anything to him to keep the stonecutters here even if we aren't doing any mining, since it's not like they have ...

FLTL Ch 72. Quarry

The guard captain announced, "Those recruits who had been selected to escort the caravan last time will stay here this time, and the rest of the new guards will accompany the caravan on the second trip."

Tesyb was upset to hear that now he wouldn't be able to tell Isuha about his father becoming a foreman, but the guard captain looked at him and spoke again.

"Tesyb and Yufim, the two of you will go this time as well since you both are decent enough in your own fields of com...

FLTL Ch 71. Unseasoned Logs

Taniok gave a thoughtful nod. "I realize that, milord. Ideally, we should have left the logs to season them for at least a year, so that they would dry properly and thus they'd last much longer. But we don't have that kind of time right now, so we'll just have to use the unseasoned logs themselves for the construction of longhouses. Of course, everything will still be done after debarking the logs, which prevents insects and bugs hiding under the bark, along with preventing moisture under the...

FLTL Ch 70. New Ideas

A few hours later, around noon, when Kivamus was talking with others, a servant entered the manor hall.

"Milord, the unloading of wagons has been completed," the servant announced excitedly. "We are going to load coal into the wagons now."

"That's very good, well done!" Kivamus said.

"Thank you, milord!" the servant said happily. "Also, the carpenter Taniok is here to talk about something."

"Let him inside," Kivamus ordered.

Taniok entered inside the hall,...

FLTL Ch 69. Spearheads

The young servant continued, "He said that while the spearheads wouldn't be top notch, since he would be focusing on quantity, they would still work well enough." Seeing Kivamus nod at that, he continued, "He also mentioned that based on what you had told him earlier, something about uh... special-zation, or uh... speciali-zition or something." He scratched the side of his head for a moment. "I'm sorry, milord, I can't remember the word properly. He said that he'll put one worker just ...

FLTL Ch 68. The Icy Breath Of Winter

Hudan looked surprised for a moment, before he said, "There is nothing to worry about, my lord. He never drinks when on duty - you can trust Feroy about that. I have known him for years now, and he is a responsible person - at least when he needs to be. Yesterday's drinking was more of an exception, after a week of abstinence."

"That's good to hear," Kivamus said. "I was worried that he'd be like that even when we were entrusting him with the safety of the caravan."

"Don't worry, ...

FLTL Ch 67. Safety In Anonymity

Feroy gave a shrug. "It wouldn't really make a difference, I’d say. We are also using the three wagons from Pydas along with the horses to pull them. If we decided to do everything ourselves, we would need to rent at least three more wagons from Cinran. And that is unlikely - believe me, I asked around a lot in the town. And even if we were able to get enough wagons, we'd have to pay for them and their horses which would also raise our cost. And like I told earlier, the grain prices ...

FLTL Ch 66. Shortfall

A/N: Make sure to take a look at the map, to better understand what is mentioned in this chapter.

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Feroy took a big gulp of ale from his mug, and gave a contented sigh. "Ahhhh... that hits the spot." He began, "Not everything, milord. But we got most of what we wanted." He explained, "We weren't able to secure another wagon on such a short notice, you know? But we've still brought fifty-seven sacks o...

FLTL Ch 65. Return

A/N: Do you guys sometimes listen to music while reading? You can try listening to any of the medieval fantasy tunes by Brandon Fiechter while reading this story. There is a particularly good album by them on Spotify/Youtube called 'Inns and Villages' which really sets the mood for medieval scenes. Give it a try while you read! And enjoy!

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~ Kivamus ~

~ Baron's Manor ~

Kivamus was sitting in the manor hall in the evening, along with Duvas an...

FLTL Ch 64. A Clash With Beasts

Immediately another guard ran towards him and slapped him on his back. "Wake up, you moron! Don't freeze now, or you will be dead within a moment."

Tesyb shook his head to clear his mind, and put his sword in front of him, while staying in the cover of the wagons and became ready to fight the approaching boar. He thanked the Goddess that this one was also a young boar. It was charging into the empty space between two wagons, while the remaining guards were standing within the circle of ...

FLTL Ch 63. Night Watch Duty

Kivamus pointed at the newly cleared area around them. "Ahead of that will be the first longhouse block, which will take twenty-five meters of space. Then there will be another road of ten meters width, and after that, the second longhouse block will take another twenty-five meters. That is a total of seventy meters. Now, the new village walls will be a hundred yards, that is, around ninety meters away from the rest of the village. That gives us enough space for another ten meters for the per...

FLTL Ch 62. Longhouse Blocks

A/N: If you want you can see the simple drawing I've attached below for help in visualizing the designs mentioned in the chapter. You don't really need it, but it might still be helpful.

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"Indeed, my lord." Yeden pointed further ahead of the workers who were cutting trees, and said, "You can see them digging there. But instead of making individual holes for every single stake of the wall, I've told them to make a narrow trench, where we can stack the logs one ...

FLTL Ch 61. Ecological Reserve

Pinoto continued, "After we move the logs away from the stump, we could simply burn them to clear the area faster."

"That may be a good idea," Kivamus said. He added after a moment of thought, "Okay, you can do that, but be sure that you have removed any other flammable wood away from the stumps before putting them on fire. I don't want to see a forest fire in the south."

Pinoto gave a nod. "Leave that to me, milord. I have done that in the past, when I used to work as a farmer. A...

FLTL Ch 60. Isuha

The shop owner shook his head immediately. "No, as you can see, I'm the only one who works here. But you might want to ask in the other seamstress' shop, a few doors ahead in the alley."

Nodding his thanks, Tesyb hurried outside, this time with a spring in his steps. Before long, he saw another similar sign on the wooden walls of a two story building. Entering inside, he found a small, cramped shop, with bolts of cloth and unfinished garments kept everywhere. This time he saw an old wom...

FLTL Ch 59. Cinran Market

The guard captain explained, "In case of a bandit raid, it would make it much easier for us to respond if we had wide, straight roads in the village. In that case we could even ride on horses to that location, in order to quickly overwhelm the bandits with numbers in each place they are attacking, since they would be spread-out throughout the village for plundering."

"That is true as well," Kivamus said with a nod. "Let's also keep a standard width for all the new roads. I think a width...

FLTL Ch 58. Expansion

~ Kivamus ~

~ Baron's Manor, Tiranat ~

The next day, after Kivamus and others had finished the breakfast of freshly baked bread along with eggs which they got from the small chicken coop inside the manor, Hudan entered the manor hall.

"My Lord, there is something I would like to talk with you about," the guard captain said.

"Take a seat," Kivamus said, while moving to the more comfortable armchairs near the fire. "What is it?"

Hudan took a seat as well, ne...

FLTL Ch 57. Machetes

A/N: Enjoy the extra long chapter today!

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"Indeed," Kivamus agreed. "Take a look at it."

Yeden took the machete in his hands, and after taking a few steps back, he tried to swing it vertically downwards a few times, as if cutting an imaginary branch. However, his movements were noticeably different from Hudan, who was earlier trying to slash it in a slanted way, like he was trying to attack an imaginary person with it. Each man's profession seemed to have a dis...

FLTL Ch 56. Losuvil Vines

"No, my Lord. Any planks in those houses would already be damaged enough in the fires that we can't use them again," Duvas replied.

"No, that's not what I meant," Kivamus said. "We already have more than enough wood here. But what about iron nails? Those should have survived the burning of the houses."

"They would only have survived if iron nails were used there in the first place," Duvas told him. "Since there was no hurry when those houses were being built in the past, only wood...

FLTL Ch 55. Journey

[Note: I have consolidated some of the earlier chapters to make all chapters above 2000 words. This will only affect the new readers of the story. For you all, it doesn't affect anything other than a one time change in the serial numbers of chapters.]

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Nurobo had stood up on the seat and seemed to be looking around the area carefully. "Doesn't really matter now. We've nearly reached the inn anyway." He pointed ahead, a little towards the right side. "The inn i...

FLTL Ch 54. Axes

Kivamus nodded. "Bring him here."

Soon, Cedoron walked towards them. After a quick bow, he said, "I have brought the axes I have made today." When Kivamus gazed at his empty hands, he explained, "I can't show them to you because I was asked to give the axes to another servant here. The guards refused to allow me to approach you with an axe in my hands."

"That's alright," Kivamus said. "So how many axes did you manage to make today?"

"I brought five axes, my Lord," Cedoron re...

FLTL Chapter 53. Seed Drill

Kivamus gave a nod to Gorsazo, hiding his smile. It felt a little bad to him to deceive Gorsazo like this, but it had to be done to lay the foundation for inventing any such machines in the future.

He began to sketch a rough diagram in the dirt by using a pointed wooden stick, which he found lying nearby. "Basically, it is a wooden frame with a small box for storing the seeds and a series of tubes, each with a small opening at the bottom," he described. "Preferably, the field should be ...

FLTL Chapter 52. Yields

The ex-farmer walked a little ahead and bent down to the ground near the trees. Picking up a small amount of dirt in his hand, he crushed it, watching it carefully. With a nod to himself, he got up and walked a little farther away and repeated the same thing in a few other places. Then he looked around, and seeing a wooden bucket filled with water, which one of the laborers must have brought there from the village well for drinking, he walked towards it.

As Kivamus watched, Pinoto pour...

FLTL Chapter 51. Pinoto

Pinoto, a gaunt figure with eyes that held the weariness of a life spent in struggle, bowed deeply. "Forgive me, milord," he began, "I was unable to report to the manor yesterday. Weakness had kept me confined to my home."

Kivamus placed a reassuring hand on the man's shoulder. "Don't worry about it," he replied. "Besides, I was busy with other things yesterday, so I probably would have sent you back anyway if you'd come. How are you feeling now?"

Pinoto's gaunt face relaxed sligh...

FLTL Chapter 50. Yeden

Emerging from the last cluster of houses, they reached the edge of the village, and saw the sprawling expanse of towering trees that stretched as far as the eye could see. The tree line itself was not far away from the houses. Most of the leaves had turned red and orange, making the ground seem colorful with the fallen leaves, while the trees themselves only had a small number of leaves still remaining.

This was where the group of villagers sent to the north were working, their axes bit...

FLTL Chapter 49. Excursion

"Cedoron is a hard worker, my Lord." Duvas replied. "He came here soon after the caravan had left the manor, before the villagers had even started gathering outside. I already sent two men and a woman to assist him at his smithy."

"Good," Kivamus said. "Tell the servants to gather all the available shovels - we should have more than enough of them kept for use in the coal mines, along with the ones we bought from Pydas yesterday. We'll divide the workers into two groups for now - one fo...

FLTL Chapter 48. Log Mover

Immediately, a servant summoned by Hudan, darted off into the crowd in search of Taniok, the village carpenter.

Kivamus told others to walk a little further away from the gates and the growing noise of the crowd, where they could talk more easily. He watched as the servant disappeared into the throng, his gaze lingering on the towering trees that ringed the village. Their heights, he estimated, easily surpassed thirty meters. At a first glance, they looked similar to the tall redwood t...