The older man smiled. “Please, just Erickson is fine. No need to thank us, Sire. We both believe you have the character and skills to lead our people, or we wouldn’t have supported you. Thank you for risking your life to save ours.”
That shot a pang of guilt through me. Poor Jack did die saving their lives, not that it would do any good to tell them that.
“Well then, Erickson, why is Elder Hyde so angry all the time?” I asked him.
His smile vanished. “He… lost both of his daughters to a lecherous noble and has never been the same since.”
“Wow. That... is terrible. Your people have suffered a lot of indignities. We will need to work hard to ensure such atrocities never happen again. To accomplish that, I would like to name you the Prime Minister of Chadom.”
“I don’t know if I’m worthy of the position, Sire,” he said, hesitating. “I’m only an Elder because two passed away during the exodus.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Elder. I found out that you were a fairly successful merchant. So, will you?”
“If that is your desire,” he leaned in, “but the title of ‘Prime’ Minister could cause problems with other Elders. How about... Steward?”
“Steward it is, then.” I turned to the younger man. “Hunter Lothar, as the most experienced fighter among the Cha, I name you the acting General of our military.”
He bowed stiffly. “Thank you, Sire. Though we have no military, just eleven hunters, and two dozen apprentices.”
“We will work on expansion and training right away, not that you are in any shape for it. How did you get hurt so badly?” I said, pointing at his bandages.
“Brigands. Turns out they had a hideout this side of the Bog.”
“How many?”
“Only seven, but they were experienced killers. They ambushed one of our groups and we lost five good men before we managed to take them down.”
“That’s unfortunate. What did you find in their hideout?”
“Quite a haul. Barrels of booze, enough grain and preserved meat to last them a few months, and some coin.”
“Were they well equipped?”
“Yes.” He replied, with a worried expression.
“That's not good. That means they were not common bandits, but part of a larger group. One that might be big enough to threaten us, as we are right now. Tell every man from the age of eighteen to fifty to carry a big stick with them at all times and not let anyone else leave the settlement alone.”
“Already done, Sire.”
“Good.” I said, mirroring his subdued smile.
Enjoying the pleasant summer breeze and the drone of the river that snaked through the valley floor, we climbed onto a small hillock. My smile vanished at the view in front of me. Hundreds upon hundreds of well-used tents and decrepit lean-tos littered the valley floor, while emaciated people in drab smocks were going about on their business. I could sense their desperation from far away.
“How are the people surviving? What are they even eating?” I asked Erickson.
His brows knit in worry. “The grain, lentils and preserved meat we have left, supplemented by whatever we can scrounge from the land. We are heavily rationing what we have, but even then it won’t sustain us until the harvest.”
“Harvest?”
“A side effect of all the deaths that happened on the exodus. The survivors were left with some extra food. We sowed all the seeds we could spare, and they've begun shooting up like weeds,” he pointed to the fresh fields close to the river, with a spark of hope in his eyes.
Following his gaze, I could see a large carpet of brown, riddled with green spots; sprouts already peeking out of the recently tilled earth.
“This land is rather plentiful, with all kinds of mushrooms, tubers, wild nuts and game aplenty, if there were a couple dozen of us. At our current rate, we will probably wipe the valley clean within a few weeks. Maybe if we tighten our belts further…” he trailed away, hope and fear warring on his face.
“Easy hunting will dry up soon if we keep going at the current pace,” Lothar added.
“We need that meat if people are to do hard labor,” I stated.
“Hard labor?” Erickson asked, looking for an explanation.
“Yes. When starting from scratch, whether it is one man or thousands, the basic needs are the same; security, water, shelter, food, in that exact order. Water is not an issue, and it seems we have just enough food to not starve, at least for a few weeks, but providing secure shelter to this many people, many of whom are too old and too young to work or protect themselves, is going to be a big challenge.”
“It might not be as difficult as you imagine, Sire. Most of the children and elders didn’t survive the exodus,” Erickson said, his voice choked with grief. The poor man looked ten years older.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
I put a hand on his shoulder. “My apologies, Elder. Let’s make sure we never have to face such a tragedy again. How many people survived the exodus?”
“A little over three thousand.”
My eyebrows rose as far as they could. “Almost two thousand people dead?”
“Yes,” he whispered.
“My father’s work?” I asked, dreading the answer. Nobart was the closest county to us. Too much hatred between the Cha and Nobarans would make it difficult to conduct trade.
“No. It was mostly sickness.”
I let a sigh of relief, making sure to not let it show on my face. Sickness reminded me of something.
“I hope you are practicing water segregation?”
“Segregation?” Erickson asked.
“Making sure people don’t bathe or wash their clothes upstream from where they take it for drinking,”
“Of course. The first thing we did after settling was dig latrines.”
I smiled faintly. People here might not know about germs, but it didn’t mean they couldn’t figure out cause and effect.
“That’s good. How many of our people are of prime working age, and how many are men and women?”
I needed to know the number of people to know how many I could assign for my plans. Assuming a third of the people were of prime working age, I could probably safely appropriate the full time labor of ten percent, which would be around a hundred people; for extracting minerals, building fortifications, workshops, etc. That would not be enough for any grand plan, but the rest of the people needed to focus on procuring food until we either had plenty of it in our stores or I raised their productivity somehow.
“...uh, I don't know.” Erickson shrank, avoiding eye contact. “We had thousands join us during the exodus, and then many left this world on the way.”
I exhaled. “I’m sorry to pick on your wounds, Elder, especially when they are so fresh, but a census must be done as soon as possible.” I said sympathetically. “The people are our most important resource. We need a registry that lists every person's name, their age, their skills and experience. I also want accurate records of everything we currently consume, have in store and produce; food, tools, weapons, medicine, clothes, timber, metal, stone and money,” I said, trying to remember all the common resources that would be listed in a city building game. “Also, how much we need versus how much we can produce.”
“I understand, Sire,” Erickson replied, “but we don't have a lot of parchment.”
“What about paper?”
“Paper?” he asked, with clearly no idea what it was.
“A cheaper alternative to parchment.”
I sighed. It was sobering to think how paper, something one could buy for pretty much nothing in modern times, could be a rare item. I remembered it could be from finely chopped plant pulp, by mixing it with lye solution, cooking it, ideally in a pressure cooker, then filtering the slurry through a thin cloth to produce sheets. Even without knowing the finer details, someone experienced in working with fibers should be able to make a serviceable product.
“Bring me a rope-maker and a carpenter and I will teach them how to make it. But before that, let's take a look around.”
“You're not fully recovered, Sire,” Erickson said, concern evident on his face.
“No, but I'm well enough to walk a bit without puking my guts out. Besides, I'll have you two with me if I have to be carried back. Have the hunters surveyed the land, Lothar?”
“A bit,” he said, concerned, “but they’ve been too busy hunting to provide food for the people. We've been teaching many youngsters to fill our ranks, but it takes years to become really good with a bow.”
“Why not build some crossbows, then? They're easy to learn and the limited range and rate of fire shouldn't be an issue in the dense forest, right?”
“I... didn't think of that,” he admitted sheepishly.
“They should help with food and defense. Speaking of defense, we need to map this valley as soon as we can,” I said, looking around. The massive valley was flanked by tall mountains on either side, which melted into heavily forested hills. They converged quite far away, while a stream large enough to be called a river snaked through the valley. It was, unfortunately, too turbulent to be navigable. Speaking of water bodies…
“How far away is the sea?” I asked Erickson.
“Five kilometers or so downstream.”
That was fortunate. The worst case scenario would have been that we were so deep inland that people had never seen the sea. The sea was a, well, a sea of opportunities. We could harvest our own salt from sea water and the ash from the plants that grew next to it was an excellent flux for metal and glass-making. If any birds had permanent nesting spots nearby, we would have guano for fertilizer and gunpowder.
Also, once the people were prosperous enough, we could establish a port city and trade with the rest of the world. It also meant that pirates could land there, launch raids and capture us.
Also, food, lots of it swimming in the sea water.
“Sire?” Erickson asked.
“Sorry, I was lost in all the opportunities a port city can open up, but let’s focus on the present. We can't be living like this,” I said, looking at the forest of tents. “At least not without a nearby safe place to go to in times of danger. Are there any large caves with small mouths around?”
“We haven't found any.”
“So where were you planning on building a stronghold?”
“This valley is quite secure. We have found only two paths that lead to the interior and both are being watched day and night.”
I steadied my breath and fought back a rebuke.
“Elder, this is a fairly large valley and there are only three thousand of us. We can't effectively defend an area this big and protect our people. We need a smaller, easily defensible structure. In absence of a natural one, we will have to build our own fortification.”
“Finally!” Lothar exclaimed. “I’ve been trying to convince them about the need of one, but they would not budge.”
“We were tired from months of walking and not knowing whether we will live to see the next day or not. The people needed some rest.” Erickson said defensively.
“I hope they’ve had enough of it then, because I have a lot of work for them to do.” I added.
The moment I was alone, I focused on the blue ? icon blinking in my peripheral vision.
“Finally!” I hissed, as I mentally clicked upon it:
I locked my fingers and stretched out my arms. “Time to get to work.”
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