70 – Security Concerns

Lars joined me for lunch. Not in the vampire way – sadly, since my taste buds still remembered the amazing richness of Maximilian’s blood – but just for normal food.

Our guests had declined my repeated invitation again, as expected. I couldn’t muster the energy to be annoyed about it, right now.

As we busily devoured the cook’s creation, we talked. It began as a review of my previous performance, but quickly diverted to other topics.

“I’d like to learn blind fighting,” I let my trainer know. He grunted in response, since he wasn’t done chewing yet.

“I assume you don’t mean fighting in the dark? Since you apparently don’t have any issues on that front,” came his answer once he’d swallowed.

“That is correct. As you know, my eyes have always been… sensitive, which hasn’t been helped by the strengthening magic, unfortunately. At least my dark vision is much better than normal to make up for it. But…”

“Most fights you would be involved in aren’t going to be in a dark room,” Lars finished my thought after I let the sentence trail off. “And enemies won’t let a weakness like this go.”

“Exactly! So at least learning some basic things I can do while blinded would be very helpful. My hearing and other senses are also better, that should help.”

“Hmm.” Lars’ mouth was full again, so he took a moment to answer. “How about we start off with some training in a ‘normally’ lit room? Since that’s the most likely scenario anyway, but you won’t be entirely blind. And then we can go from there.”

“Sounds good. This evening?”

“As you wish, Lord Steelheart.” There wasn’t any humor in his voice, but a friendly twinkle in his eyes let me know he wasn’t being totally formal.

The room descended into hungry silence for a few minutes.

“There’s another important topic I’ve wanted to bring up for a while now,” I finally said. Lars’ head raised from his plate to show his interest.

“It’s about the security situation.” Recognition lit up the knight’s eyes at my words. “Frankly speaking, it’s terrible.”

I got a non-committal grunt in reply, so I continued.

“You might not know this – which is part of the problem – but I’ve been sneaking out of my room every night recently to visit the tree. Along the way, I’ve evaded the guards patrolling the grounds countless times. It wasn’t hard in the slightest. Those men are basically blind beyond the light shed by their lanterns. And that’s just the start.”

I had his undivided attention now, the remaining food momentarily forgotten.

“Speaking in a broader manner, the number of our men-at-arms isn’t enough. The town’s security is even more pathetic than the manor grounds. We don’t patrol the road leading towards the kingdom proper. Not good, considering we just had guests attacked on the road – though admittedly that happened outside my territory, it’s still a problem. And every winter, we risk losing people.”

“I agree with your concerns,” Lars said. He appeared a bit resigned. “This is the way it has been for years now. I’d like to change things, but that’s not up to me.” The gaze he fixed me with was full of deep meanings.

I sighed. “I’ll admit I’m at least partially responsible for this mess, with my… disinterested ruling style so far. That’s why I bring this up, so we can discuss and effect changes.”

“What are you proposing?” Lars obviously had ideas of his own, but didn’t voice them yet.

“I was thinking to issue general training to the town’s residents, forming a militia force for emergencies. In addition, recruiting some more guards, so our numbers are higher. It would be up to you to deal with the particular training plans, since you have more expertise in that area.”

“Not a bad idea,” Lars nodded. “Though our relatively low amount of soldiers isn’t for lack of want. The recruitment has been open all this time, but none have volunteered. We get a few men each year and that’s it. Forty guards was about where it stayed over time.”

“I didn’t know that.” I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. My assumption had been this number was intentional. It was kind of paradoxical, Kalin had been annoyed by the low number of men under him, but hadn’t ever involved himself in the recruiting process.

“As to the militia training,” the knight continued, “starting such a thing now will see low results due to the ongoing winter preparations and harvest. Or, if you force the issue, it will create discontent and waste precious resources the people need to not starve or freeze in the coming months.”

“I’m aware. I was thinking more like early winter? When everyone is out of work anyways, with the forest too dangerous for most, they might appreciate an opportunity to earn a little money. It will be late in terms of preparing for hostile beasts, but that’s unavoidable. I hope that I’ll be able to fill in the gaps a little myself.”

“Hmm.” Lars pondered a moment. “That could work. I agree that the people will be more friendly to the idea if there’s nothing else useful to do. Are you sure about creating a militia? That idea is far from your previous opinion on the matter.”

I couldn’t for the life of me remember Kalin’s stand. It was obviously not something he considered much.

“You… ahem. You once said it was too large a risk.”

“Ah.” That made some sense. Kalin himself had been weak and frail, not to mention unpopular, so the thought of an armed peasant uprising wasn’t too far-fetched in his mind. Which became much more likely if said peasants had combat training and weapons. Not that such a thing was truly expected, the retribution would be swift and brutal. But by then it would be too late for the only person Kalin Steelheart cared about, Kalin Steelheart.

“It’s fine. I’m stronger now. I also believe any discontent among the populace will be reduced when they see my efforts to protect them. Dare I say I’ve changed for the better?”

“That may be so, but do the townspeople know that?”

“Not yet, I’m afraid. But this militia training is the perfect opportunity to show some of that change. How about providing a hearty meal alongside some coin? I’m sure it will make people more receptive to attending. Aside from the increased safety learning how to fight will bring their families.”

We discussed some possibilities for a while, the remains of our food left waiting. The conclusion we settled on was that Lars would prepare some guards as trainers. He couldn’t effectively instruct over a hundred people by himself. With over a thousand residents, who knew how many of them would attend?

There were still about two months left until all the winter preparations were more or less complete, so he could take his time and be thorough.

If the number of attendees was unexpectedly low, then the people selected as trainers would still have benefited from Lars’ increased tutelage. It was a win for us, either way. For now, we had to wait.

As to the security problem of the manor and town… this was a problem without an easy answer. Leaving aside the numbers-based issues that made far-ranging patrols difficult, it wasn’t like we could just give the guards night vision, nor was lighting up the manor’s entire surroundings very practical. It was quite a large building, all things considered.

The main issue, as I saw it – from my non-standard perspective – was that the guards also needed sleep. This was the main factor behind the limited amount of sentries and patrols. Also, anyone who was up and about at night would be less useful during the day. Any sleep they missed would have to be made up for, after all.

Short of turning every one of the men into a vampire, that problem also didn’t have an easy fix. This ‘option’, if it could even be called that, would bring with it countless new issues of much larger magnitude, so I discarded the thought after a second of consideration.

That didn’t mean my vampire abilities wouldn’t come in handy. If the thing to fix was night-time surveillance, my familiars were more than capable of helping out. While not nearly up to my standard, the rats’ dark vision was pretty good compared to a human. The bats could cheat with echolocation, though their eyes were also surprisingly decent.

Having these mostly nocturnal creatures look for intruders brought a complication – they also needed to eat, with night being their time to hunt or forage. This could be circumvented by us humans – and ‘humans’ – providing them with food, which in turn put a strain on our supplies.

Not a large one, my familiars numbered less than forty total, all of them small animals, but not nothing, either.

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After some more consideration, not all thirty-nine of them – twenty-two rats and seventeen bats – needed to be active at the same time.

I had already worked out a system of observation with the rats, which I’d used to spot the demon hunters – and later our guests – before they arrived. Something similar wouldn’t be too hard to arrange with the bats. Due to their flying vantage point, a few of them should be able to cover a good bit of area.

Something to arrange this night.

With some of the security gaps closed – or at least tightened up a bit – we still discussed further training for the guards. No sense in neglecting our fighting forces.

For this purpose, I considered the attic to be perfect. Just like how I wanted to train fighting in light, the guards needed some for darkness. Aside from the attic, some night exercises outside were also proposed. These had the advantage that I could actually participate myself, unlike most other outdoor activities.

Additionally, Lars asked my permission to hold training sessions for the guards near the tree. I hadn’t really considered this matter, partly because I already half expected him to just do it, after I gave him permission to train there himself, but I wasn’t opposed. Rather, I was in favor. The increased mana exposure wouldn’t turn them into knights on its own, far from it, but it would nonetheless be helpful.

If only to improve their blood quality a little, at worst. Which would in turn boost my power.

I considered asking Lars to try and create some actual knight apprentices, but decided against it for now. The main issue really was a simple lack of resources for nurturing them. Talent could reduce that burden, but we equally didn’t have the means to meaningfully test for that. Hopefully, there would be at least one or two outliers revealed among the men. Ones who took to the increased mana especially well, with time and exposure.