26 Planning for the future.

The next morning Katerina brought before Galahad a young, pale, black-haired girl no older than twelve summers. With her only defining feature, a heavy dose of freckles.

The girl bowed and said.

"Dame Katerina's attendant Maise Estar greets Sir Galahad"

Galahad first smiled and nodded, before he leaned over and whispered in a conspiratorial tone.

"Well met Maise, I hope you take good care of my wife, she can have a bit of an explosive personality at times."

Galahad then winked at Maise and gave her a cheeky smile.

Maise laughed.

Galahad then said.

"Now Maise will you please leave the room for a minute? I need to tell a secret to my wife."

Maise nodded and skirted out of the room.

After Miase left, Galahad sighed and said.

"So Katerina why did you pick such a young girl as your attendant?"

Katerina said in a factual tone.

"Well, for starters she is young enough to be moldable and as such, I can transform her into the perfect attendant. Secondly, she was one of the refugees by taking her in I show myself as a gracious woman that helps the downtrodden. Thirdly, she is a natural beauty as such when she grows up we can use her as a trading chip to secure an alliance or the loyalty of one of the big men in the fief."

Galahad nodded and said.

"This is indeed true in that case I have no objections."

Katerina gave a quick bow and said.

"Well, In that case, I will take my leave. I still have a long road before I get this girl trained up to my standards."

About an hour later Karlos entered the hall and gave a deep bow before saying.

"Good day Sire, I have come to ask you about your replacement leader for the Hunters. As you are well aware, Sir Ludwig now has other duties and his most trusted hunter Miss Telenia will soon accompany you in your task. As such we need a nonobvious replacement ."

Galahad nodded and said in agreement.

"Well yes, Karlos this is indeed true. So do you have anyone in mind?"

Karlos nodded and responded.

"Indeed I do. After consulting Ludwig he suggested three candidates Mister Jaron, Mister Iason, and Mister Velos. After privately meeting each of them I decided on Mister Velos. While he is of middling skill when it comes to hunting he has more leadership qualities than most of them and he seems to have a slightly better upbringing. But he is a recent arrival and as such is not as trustworthy as the others. "

Galahad nodded and said.

"Well, that is interesting, seems like an interesting fellow. But I would need to meet the man first before I decide on a course of action."

Karlos nodded and responded.

"Indeed Sire it is obviously a wise choice to first meet the person in question before you assign him such an important role. As such, I took the liberty to have him wait outside Sire."

Galahad gave an honest smile and said.

"Good job Karlos this is the exact type of time-saving measures I want to see. Please bring him inside."

Karlos bowed and said.

"I will do as you desire Sire."

After a couple of minutes give or take Karlos returned. He was accompanied by a man in his early thirties of average stature and a rather lanky build with dirty blonde hair and green eyes. His most striking feature was his rather ostentatious outfit. Quite dissimilar to most peasant hunters whose outfits were rather drab and dominated by browns. He's had some rather peculiar notes for starters he was wearing rather warm clothes for summer with the most impressive item a thick black horse leather jerkin with copper buttons purposely left open to show off the white fur adorning it's inside, Below the jerkin he had a beige Boreian tunic with flat brown shoulder guards to perhaps appear more stylish. Outside of that, he wore a green pair of trousers and a brown pair of shoes.

The man bowed deeply and said.

"It is a great honor to make acquaintance with the most honorable Sir Galahad. Your deeds have been known far and wide across the community."

Galahad gave a nod and said.

"Well met mister Velos I heard that you are rather good with managerial tasks and the way you talk and dress shows an element of higher upbringing. Have you perhaps ever served under other nobles or even wealthy bourgeois?"

Velos bowed deeply before responding.

"Indeed Sire as you might know I am one of the more recent arrives. I used to be from Persos a town in the duchy of Ribertan. I originally hail from an illustrious family of merchants. When the old duke died as we had more robust trade links with Boreia, as such, we supported Boreia on the matter of succession. Sadly my dear friend the lord of Persos Ipot Basol Argia was in the capital to take part in the council of lords. His wife which rather destained that her husband would stay in the company of low borns such as myself. She decided that they would side with Frankians and as I and my family publicly sided with the Boreians we were banished. Originally I had the vain hope that when Basol learned of the matter he would reverse the decision, but after the battle of Yargon, it became politically infeasible. At the time we still stayed relatively close to the border, but after the news reached us we traveled northwards trying to get in contact with our business partners. But most of them denied us even the faintest hint of hospitality as our relationships were based on mutual benefit and we provided them with none at this point. Eventually, I arrived in the dukedom of Norvick and from there we were gathered and send north to start a new life. At this point, most of my family were either kidnapped, dead or had settled down along the way."

Galahad nodded and said.

"While this makes sense in regards to your ability to speak Boreian like a native and your good manners and managerial ability. It makes me wonder on how exactly you became a Hunter and why you didn't reveal your skillset earlier."

Velos smiled bitterly and said.

"Well, some lords when they hear the word merchant they think free gold. As such their first action would be to levy me taxes on goods I don't have. In regards to my hunting ability, I was a close friend to Basol as such I would sometimes accompany him on his hunting excursions. This was enough for me to learn the basics. But I became a passable hunter after my recent odyssey where I was routinely forced to hunt for food for my and my family's survival."

Galahad sighed and said.

"Well, that makes sense, but your abilities make me conflicted, as I don't want to waste a man of your caliber in leading ten or so hunters. But alas my fief needs hunters and not traders right now."

Velos nodded and said.

"I feel deeply honored Sire, but I might have a solution to your quandary."

Galahad raised his eyebrow and said with interest.

"Go on."

Velos nodded and said.

"You see Sire in the south hunting is more of a sport rather than a means to procure food. As such the only people that really hunt are nobles. But many of said nobles like to have some fine archers in their retinues. As such, they needed a way to procure them. That was the birth of a class called Toxa, they are something between hunters and a proper warrior class and have a fair amount of prestige. Every year a set number of positions open, the number is mandated by the lord then any eligible man may enter the competition. Normally at least the top five contestants become hunters with the first and second becoming the units Dikitis and Voithos in that order. Perhaps it would be a wise idea to transform the Hunters into a similar body. That way the first new Dikitis coming the next year could become the new Huntmaster."

Galahad nodded and said.

"This is indeed a great idea. When do you think it would be the best time to have such a competition, and how do you suggest to compete?"

Velos expecting the subsequent questions answered straight away with glee.

"Middle Autumn will give the fief the biggest benefit since the animals are relatively harder to find and rather fat as they are preparing for winter. I would suggest that you judge them on four main axis and a supporting axis. Marksmanship through the medium of standing targets. Reflexes, and short term speed by having soldiers throw nondangerous projectiles and having them dodge them. Endurance and Survival skill by having them survive a week in the forest and finally Huntsmanship by ranking them based on the spoils they bring back from the previously mentioned expedition. The final axis is breeding the goal is to check their mannerism and knowledge. That last one is only important in separating the Doikitis and Voithos from the already accepted hunters or as a tie-breaker. Additionally, an oath similar to knights oath would be advisable. As those men are not quite nobles but not quite freemen either."

Galahad nodded and said.

"Indeed I like this idea. But I would like to expand upon it. By having each new huntsman take a young willing apprentice under his tutelage that way we can gain more skilled hunters or at least decent militia from the ones that fail the examination. For now, you will be the Leader of the Hunters as for your idea I will consider it carefully."

Velos bowed and said.

"I am in your debt my Liege."

Galahad nodded and said.

"Dismissed."

After Velos exited the hall Galahad looked towards Karlos and asked.

"What is your opinion in regard to his suggestion?"

Karlos sighed and responded.

"While it will definitely improve the fief's economic might short term and its military might long and short term I am rather reluctant on creating a new estate just like that."

Galahad raised his eyebrow and asked.

"What do you mean by estate?"

Karlos thought for a moment and said.

"It makes sense you don't really understand the term. After all, you grew up out here in the frontier. The term estate refers to a group of individuals or smaller groups that have similar goals. Most high ranking nobles will split them into three the nobility, the plebians, and the priests. But that is rather naive. The number of estates is actually nine. There are the merchants, the plebians, the craftsmen, the lower nobility, the upper nobility, the churches, the magoi, the mages, and the adjudicators. While your huntsmen might not be a true estate in regard to your fief they will act like one."

Galahad thought for a moment and responded.

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"I think improving my army takes precedence over the complication of the fief's internal politics, after all with the way things are progressing it is frankly unavoidable. Speaking of unavoidable we shall add the management of human waste in the list of issues. While for now, nature is taking care of it I don't want this city to by mired in human waste. Since I am building this settlement from the ground up we could perhaps start setting up an infrastructure structure to manage the waste?"

Karlos shook his head and responded.

"I am sorry Sire but such a thing can only be achieved in one way. The creation of a sewer system, Like in some olden cities in southern Frankia. In short, it is rather impractical for such a system to be set up."

Galahad thought for a moment and responded.

"What if we use carts to take away the night soil and use it in farms?"

Karlos smiled bitterly and responded.

"We have already tried that before in some of the southern counties in the hundred river valley. Since such counties are rather old they have a much more robust system of bureaucracy. Every time such an idea was tried it led to an increase in crop yield but it was coupled with an outbreak of disease. Eventually, the Magoi came to the conclusion that such a tactic could only be damaging for a fief long term."

Galahad nodded and said.

"Well that kinda ruins that plan but what if we first heated up the night soil as we do with water before using it?"

Karlos thought for a second and said.

"Well, it is such a weird idea, but it sort of makes sense. We could try it in a test field but how exactly do we do it?"

Galahad added.

"We take the night soil and heat it up below the point of burning and after we treat it we just use it."

Karlos thought for a while and said.

"Well, it is worth try and it will help us manage excrement. Do you have any other plans?"

Galahad thought for a while and said.

"Well, we could also after cooking it add the wood ash from the households in the mixture. As far as I know, wood ash in small quantities can be positive for crops so if we mixed it with the cleansed night soil it will be in an overall smaller percentage. Similar to how drinking wine mixed with water makes you less drunk"

Karlos nodded and said.

"Indeed sounds like a good idea. We can try it in a test field. But what about the rest of the excrement? Since for now, we are not going to use all of it."

Galahad smiled and simply said.

"Dump it in the forest."

Karlos nodded and added a subsequent question.

"My liege while it is true that if this works it will become a mainstay in the Kingdom don't you think all of these reforms are a bit radical?"

Galahad shook his head and responded.

"For a small realm like mine to grow only truly radical ideas can help me."

Karlos nodded and said.

"If that is all Sire I shall request my leave, I have a lot of work to take care off."

Galahad nodded and said.

"Dismissed."