“So, Rhydian. Any clues on which of my men should be the first to be educated?” Braydon had decided that it would be wise to ask the person most knowledgeable about his men and had made it a part of his day to go and ask him in between running around the villages to discuss with the village elders.

“Currently we still only have 5 units, and have yet to replenish their numbers after the war. The head of each unit and their second must be educated. I would also advise that anyone we want to assign as a scout be educated in case they need to send us letters rather than report in person.” Rhydian did bring up an important point. Here Braydon was thinking about increasing the number of men in his army but he had yet to replace the fallen, even if they were few in number, with fresh blood.

“For now that sounds reasonable. Whilst we currently only have Father Odom to teach them it would not be wise to overburden him. I have yet to find a scribe to take on the role. About growing the number of men we have, how many do you think we can reasonably expect including replacing those that we lost?” Braydon would love to have as many of his men better educated as possible but that was simply unfeasible with just Father Odom to teach them.

“Given the amount of refugees that we took in, it will not be a problem to replenish the score of men that we lost but I doubt that we could make more than two more units. Even that would be a push.” Rhydian did not have the exact numbers that Collin doubtlessly knew by heart but it was not hard to estimate how many subjects Braydon had. He owned several villages, not several cities.

“Then how about if we recruited one new unit and retrained an existing one to be archers. That way we would have two units of archers and four of spear infantry.” Braydon also recognised how hard of an ask finding an additional 200 young men would be with his current territory, 100 was much more manageable. Until his lands expanded he doubted that he would be able to levy any more men without it being very much a temporary levy, lest he not be able to collect taxes for lack of farmers in the field. He was rich but not so rich that he could do that for a long time.

“That would probably be easier to manage but only a month of training for 100 men to become archers will still be a challenge.” Rhydian had to point out.

“I heard ‘challenge’ and not ‘impossible’, that means that you are still going to do it?” Braydon knew that Rhydian would more than happily try to make something of whichever men he trained, regardless of time constraints. Considering the man’s definition of even decent, he doubted that he would be disappointed.

“When was that ever in doubt?” Rhydian smiled as he folded his arms and tried to not look interested in training some unsuspecting men.

“I thought so, anything else of note? More accurately, is there anything else that I should care about?” Braydon quickly changed his wording since he knew that Rhydian thought that plenty of things Braydon did not care for were of note.

“Does the number of bandits hanging around the border count?” Rhydian asked.

“Not unless there are far more than usual.” Braydon did not doubt that Rhydian would have that under control even if it was true.

“No, it seems that most have either had to go back to farming since a good portion of the nearby villagers either ran away or became bandits themselves. They have to eat somehow and it is not like there is much trade passing through. That or they have moved on to greener pastures.” Greener pastures in this case were likely Serheshi lands or somewhere closer to the fighting to try and pick up scraps.

“Then that is good, we just have to strike before there are none left or we will have to pretend that they still exist.” Braydon was not beyond pretending that some were still around to blame on the iron that would go missing. It was not like anybody would be able to check once he had already ‘solved the problem’.

“Has the first shipment already set off?” Rhydian asked. It would be during the second shipment that they would claim that it was stolen.

“Already on its way days ago. Even if I would love some more time to prepare, I would also not love for something unexpected to happen.” Braydon was almost tempted to claim the second shipment was stolen the day it set out but he would have to hold off for a couple days for it to reach Milmond and be checked before it was boarded onto a ship.

“Then I shall endeavour to have them in fighting shape by then. But I pray that we can recruit our additional men quickly so that I have the time to train them.” Rhydian said it like that but he was telling Braydon to get a move on.

“But of course, I am going around the villages today to speak to the elders about the school and the recruitment. I have already been to Midbury and Sutherford, you should have your victims within a few days.” Braydon classified anyone that was trained by Rhydian as a victim rather than anything more flattering.

“I will be ready for them.” Rhydian genuinely smiled.