From Londoner To Lord

Duvas replied with a rare smile, "No, my lord, there is also something else. A few laborers had found a single honeycomb a few days ago, further inside the surrounding forests in the east when one of them had wandered too far, and until now we hadn't disturbed it. But Madam Helga ordered a few servants to get some honey from it, and she will use it to make something sweet using those berries, as a dessert of some kind. I think it's called a Toloraberry Pie."

He added, "There won't be much of it, since it was only a single honeycomb and we have left most of it intact for the future, but it will still give everyone something sweet for a change - even if everyone only gets a single bite of it."

"Oh, that's still wonderful!" Kivamus said with a smile. "I can't wait for it!"

It had been a long time since he had tasted anything sweet, apart from the few dried fruits which he had found to be remaining in the manor from the personal stores of the previous baron. He had shared them with others in the manor house, and it had been weeks since then. He really couldn't wait for the Toloraberry Pie.

Duvas continued, "We also needed to invite the villagers for this feast, so I had told a few servants to announce the news in the market square of the village. However, since this is the kind of news which spreads like wildfire, the villagers have already started gathering outside the gates. The food is also going to be ready soon and the feast will start within an hour."

"It's good to hear that everything is going well," Kivamus replied.

As he reached the servants' hall, he noticed something immediately. In the open area outside, a constant wind was blowing, making it feel even colder than it already was, but as he entered inside, the atmosphere felt completely different. Inside the servants' hall, he saw the full hustle and bustle of the ongoing preparations for tonight's feast. All the maids and servants of the manor seemed to be doing one thing or another, while even the off duty guards were helping them wherever needed.

The left side of the servants' hall, which had the beddings for the male servants and guards, was completely empty right now, since everyone was busy doing something. A few braziers were lit nearby within the hall to keep the air warm and to allow those who were coming from outside to heat up their bodies, while the number of fires already burning inside the kitchen for cooking were more than enough to keep it balmy there.

He walked towards the right where the kitchen was located, after taking a moment to warm up his hands from a brazier. Once he entered inside, the maids and servants immediately paused their work and began to stand up in respect, but he gestured to them to keep going. "No, no, just carry on, and don't mind me. I'm only here to take a look."

With quick nods, everyone returned to what they were doing. He took a moment to see everything which was happening inside the kitchen. Some of the maids were busy on one side of the kitchen while peeling potatoes, chopping onions, and even some carrots to put into stews, while the other maids were cooking a variety of food in huge cauldrons on the other side of the kitchen.

There seemed to be a vegetable soup, a meat stew, and some fish recipe as well. He also saw chopped up mushrooms kept on a slab on one side, probably in preparation of making the much vaunted Rizako stew of Madam Helga - even though he had heard it would only be limited to those living in the manor house. Apart from that, there were also some potatoes being boiled in a corner.

A few servants were kneading the wheat flour into dough, while others were taking that dough to the clay oven outside through the back door in the kitchen to make fresh bread for everyone. Some eggs from the small chicken coup in the manor, along with a jug of milk from their two cows were also kept on one side, for use wherever needed.

Since they didn't have cauldrons big enough to prepare food for all the villagers in a single batch, other off-duty guards and servants were transferring the already prepared food into wooden buckets and putting it into carts to get ready to transport them outside the gates of the manor. That would also empty the cauldrons so the maids could make another batch of food for the villagers.

Madam Nerida was busy in supervising the maids and ensuring that everything was done as smoothly and efficiently as possible, while Madam Helga had a spoon in her hand and she kept taking a sip from every pot and cauldron, and added local herbs where needed to ensure that the taste was to her likings.

Satisfied that everything was going well, he turned to return outside. On the way, he saw a servant pulling their only wheelbarrow towards the kitchen of the servants hall, on which a sack of flour was loaded - likely bringing it back from the miller in the village. The servant looked happy while working, probably because he was the one who had gotten to use the wheelbarrow today. While the initial excitement of getting to use the wheelbarrow had mostly calmed down among the residents of the manor, they still seemed to be drawing straws to be the one who gets to use it.

Truthfully, while he knew how helpful that wheelbarrow would be, he hadn't expected that it would become such a sought after thing amongst the people here. But he was glad to know that it had worked out this way. Cedoron should be providing more wheelbarrows to them in the coming days, which should be quite helpful for transporting goods as well as for the morale of the servants here.

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Sometime later, while he was sitting in the manor hall with others, a servant entered the hall.

"Milord, all the preparations for the feast are complete," the servant reported. "You can start the feast now."

Kivamus nodded, and the servant returned back.

"Do I need to say that it is open now?" he asked as he stood up, others rising with him.

Duvas nodded. "At the very least, my Lord. It would be even better if you gave a speech to the villagers, even if only a short one."

"A speech...?" Kivamus repeated as he exited the manor hall and started walking towards the gates of the manor. How was he going to give a speech! While he had more than enough experience of leading his small engineering team in the company he worked at, he had never been good with speaking in public. He asked again, "Do I really have to?"

Duvas shrugged. "You don't need to, of course. But it would be good for the villagers to hear from their new baron for the first time. So far, while many of them have seen you when you have visited the forested areas that we are clearing, I believe it would help everyone's morale if you said something to them as well."

"But what will I even say to them?" Kivamus asked. "You know that I was a bookworm before I came here and I spent most of my time in the library of the Ulriga Palace. I have no experience in talking to so many people at once, or in giving speeches..."

"Don't worry too much about it, my lord," Gorsazo reassured him. "Those aren't power hungry nobles standing outside, waiting to pounce the moment they see a weakness. They are just common people - your people - and they just want to see and listen to something from their baron, no matter what it is."

He added, "If you don't know what to say, you can just talk about what you have done for the villagers so far. It would be good to tell them the updates about the progress of the longhouse blocks, as well as the fact that we have been able to buy enough grain to feed everyone over the winter. It wouldn't just be a rumor if the baron himself was telling them about that."

Kivamus gave a hesitant nod as he reached the gates of the manor, the clamor of the villagers rising in volume. He still wasn't sure how he was going to give a speech in front of so many people, but it was also true that he wasn't just a common person on modern earth anymore. He was a noble now, and his people looked up to him. So he had to act like a noble as well, as strange as it fell to him.

Reaching outside, he realized how crowded it was there, even though the guards were doing their best to organize the crowd. He saw that the area right outside the gates had been barricaded by a rope, with the villagers standing outside it in mostly haphazard lines, with wooden plates and bowls in their hands, while the servants and maids were ready to serve them from the huge buckets of a variety of foodstuffs which they had brought here in carts.

He saw that there was a small wooden bench kept near the gates which was surrounded by guards, and that's where Duvas was pointing him to go. But as soon as the crowd realized that he had come outside, they all started looking at him, making him feel even more nervous.

Hesitatingly, he climbed on the bench and gazed at the veritable sea of humanity looking back at him. It seemed that most if not all of the villagers were already here. And he had to give a speech in front of all of them...

He shook his head to clear his mind. He had to do this. At least there was a consolation that the villagers were not expecting a long speech, based on the hungry looks they kept giving the buckets of food.

Trying to calm his nerves again, he raised his hands above him, making a hush fall on the crowd. Swallowing once again, and after clearing his throat, he steeled himself and started to speak in the loudest voice he could muster. "My dear villagers. It hasn't been long since I arrived here, and yet it feels like we have been together for ages. When I arrived here a month ago, I realized how poor the situation of the village was. But it wasn't your fault at all. Because of the whims and greediness of nobles, you and your children didn't even have enough to eat!"

Seeing that many of the villagers gave nods at that, he continued, "But no more! That situation will never be repeated here as long as I am the baron of this village!"

Immediately the villagers started cheering happily. After giving them a moment, he raised his hands again to silence the crowd. "I know you all must still be worried that the village has a new baron. You must be thinking about how he will turn out to be? Will he care for us? Or will he do his best to empty our pockets of the little coin we have?"