Now that the most imminent challenges had passed, Braydon needed to refill his garrison. He had a year’s worth of cash on hand and could find ways to earn it back later. But he could no longer put off having no men under his command. It would be one thing to have no offensive capability, plenty of nobles were in that situation. But it was quite another to not even have defensive capabilities, doubly so if he couldn’t even defend a castle.

For this reason, he had gone to find Rhydian and Corban, the most knowledgeable people about the state of the manpower shortage. And where else would he find them in the late morning other than finishing drilling what little troops he did have. After waiting for them to finish, he flagged the men down.

“Is there anything we can do for you, Sire.” Rhydian asked.

“I was wondering if you two had any bright ideas on how to boost our numbers. Whilst you have been doing a brilliant job of making these men an effective fighting force, I am sure you’re aware of how precious few we have. Now that we have money, we should be thinking of how to fill the garrison.” Both men nodded, having spoken of the matter before. The difference now being that they had the ability to do something about it.

“Well, there is always the possibility of hiring mercenaries, they are expensive but effective. The problem is that you would not be able to hire many in these parts.” Corban pointed out. But Rhydian shook his head, disagreeing.

“We cannot use mercenaries right now. Whilst they make good body guards, they are not so reliable for normal garrison work, plus it would take more of them than we have the ability to hire right now.” Upon hearing Rhydian’s counterargument, both Brayond and Corban nodded.

“How viable do you think hiring amongst my subjects would be?” Braydon asked, curious for their opinions on this.

“From my experience, you’ll want second sons. First sons tend to inherit and thus help out on the farm, an all round more valuable commodity for the peasantry. It’s also limited by the number of people you have, so they might not be quite enough to fill up the garrison, but those that are there will snap at the opportunity, being a member of the garrison pays well after all.” Corban responded, he had the most experience with maintaining a garrison of all of them. Rhydian was better at training the men than the logistics of it all.

“We have about 250 people after the deserters cleared out the southern village, that would leave us with about 70 or so young men. It just depends on how many of them are second sons. Not quite so many I presume, not if we include age requirements for joining.” Braydon did some adding up in his head, trying to figure out if that would be enough to refill the garrison.

“That might not be quite enough men, Sire. I, also, advise finding some way of refilling the southern village. Though that might not be quite my area of expertise.”

“Well at least we have a rough plan for now, I’ll leave it to you two to start recruiting in Midbury and the northern village. Meanwhile, I need to find a way to gain more subjects.” As Braydon started to rub his scar and think about the subject, a pleasant voice interrupted his thinking.

“I may have a solution to that.” It was Nela having come down from the keep upon seeing them gathering in the bailey.

“Do tell, I do not think that I would be able to come up with one in a short amount of time.” Braydon was happy to use other people’s skills where he could. Even if he could do it, he did not see the need in wasting so much time.

“Considering the tough time that Baron Abel and Baron Walker are putting each other’s peasantry through, I do not think it would be hard to convince them to come to us. And once they are in our land, it’s not like they will be able to do anything to us. We have a castle blocking the way. If one of them tried to attack us, the other two would do them the courtesy of taking their land.” Now this was an idea he liked.

“And how would we tell them this? I do not think the Barons would be so kind as to let our lord walk into their villages and beseech their people to leave their lands.” Rhydian asked a valid question. Braydon might be safe behind his castle walls, but he would have no such luck if he tried something in the middle of their territory.

“That is where our trip to Wathamalin will come into play. It is one thing to be preaching in the streets. But if we happen to be passing through and talking about it, it is not our fault if rumours start spreading. After all, news gets around a village awfully quickly.” The men all shuddered at the ruthlessness behind the sweet smile they were being shown. Now they understood why Braydon never tried to go against her if he did not need to. Nela saw how spooked they were causing her smile to only get sweeter.

Braydon was once again on the road with Nela, who had become something of a traveling companion for him. She was so good at dealing with people that he dare not visit other nobles or those he wanted to get onside without her. He was not going to admit that he could not stand the boredom of several hours sitting in a carriage alone, the driver was not great conversation. He had tried to go on horseback, something he found far more interest in but he had been denied by both Rhydian and Colin. Something about keeping up noble decorum, Braydon didn’t care, all he heard were excuses. He had not seen much dignity in the scheming of the nobility, so why did he have to keep up the pretense.

The difference was that this time Mireille was with them. After a month of resting her wounds had healed significantly. It would still take several more months to get back to some degree of normalcy, but it was enough that she could do simple tasks with her left arm. Braydon had asked if she had anything she particularly wanted to do. Of course she didn’t, she was an amnesiac. At this, Nela had jumped onto the idea of making the girl her protégé, even if there were less than ten years between their ages. Braydon had no qualms so long as Mirelle was happy, and she had grown quite attached to Nela after being looked after by her for a month.

This time they would be headed for Wathamalin, to try and locate the rumoured prospector. And they would be stopping by the villages in Baron Abel’s land on the way there, for a nice ‘stroll and conversation’ with the people. Of course they would be coming back through Baron Walker’s land to do the same. The round trip would take them into the afternoon of the next day, so they would be staying in Wathamalin overnight.

“We are almost at the first village, Sire.” Gerald had ridden his horse up to the side of the carriage to inform them. Braydon had almost forgotten that his knight-cum-bodyguard was with them. Bringing his mood down a little when he remembered that he had not been allowed to ride a horse when Gerald had.

“Thank you, Gerald. Well, Nela, shall we go have a conversation with some future subjects?” She giggled at his eagerness to take a swipe at Baron Abel. Not that she herself was not eager to do the same thing. Nela would have great fun with this, she liked talking to people anyway.