78. The Manor House 14

When the sun came up over the edge of the capitol Novum was already sitting in the dining area of the inn that he was staying in finishing up his breakfast. He drained the last of the coffee out of his cup and walked out of the inn and lit a smoke he had rolled earlier. As he stood there and smoked a large group of wagons and carriages started appearing in front of him.

Crystal was with the three carriages that held the kids. When she got out several younger sisters from the church got out as well. "Baron, I took the liberty of hiring these sisters to assist us in getting the kids to the manor. There are a few young ones and they can be a handful. They will come back with the carriages when we arrive at the manor."

"Great thinking Crystal. I was so confident that the town could take care of them that I did not think about getting them there. If any of them want to stay on in a permanent position tell them that they are more than welcome."

"I will pass along your message."

Melissa walked up beside him. "Good morning baron. I have finalized everything with the inn staff as well as the holding lot. We are free to leave when you are ready."

"Thank you Melissa. I do not remember giving you coins for that."

"I used what I had on me and I planned on placing receipts in the treasury and getting my coin back when we got there. I am sorry if that is not the way that you do things."

"It is fine Melissa. As I said this is all new to me and I did not think about it. That is perfectly acceptable. Once everything is settled I will get you a bag of coin for the capitol since we are at the point to buy more things on credit in the village and then bring the money along later."

About that time the other three ladies showed up to join Crystal and Melissa. They all gave him a bow. "Good morning Baron. We are ready to go."

Novum gave out a whistle and Noctis seemed to appear out of the crowd. Without hesitation he stepped up on the huge horse. "Then let's head to the town and get everyone settled."

The half a dozen wagons and three carriages as well as the livestock made this caravan stick out and a lot of people took notice of them. Some of the attention was not as nice as look at those villages go it was quickly noticed by Topaz. She rode up beside the Baron and Melissa. "Good morning, Baron. Something that you need to be aware of, is that there was a spotter from one of the less friendly guilds watching us leave. They call themselves a guild but that are just a bandit group that is more organized than most. I expect that we will have trouble by tomorrow morning. That is about their range."

"Thanks Topaz. Topaz this is Melissa, Melissa this is Topaz. The spymaster for my manor. Melissa is my head steward and in the event that you need something or have information and I am not available she is the next person to get the information."

"I am not sure that I have earned the title of spymaster yet but thank you and noted that Miss Melissa is the new head Steward and has full rights to my information. It is nice to meet you Melissa. If you have need of my services or is something comes to you from a noble channel please let me know so that I can assist you. After the Baron you are my number two priority."

"Thank you Topaz. It seems that the rumor that the Baron has surrounded himself with powerful and capable people regardless of them being male or female. All that matters is their capabilities. It is refreshing to see."

"Well don't let his gentle demeaner fool you. You think he is capably as a leader then you should see him fight. That calm and composed look goes away and well everything that stands against him gets destroyed. And then he is back to nice, calm and thinking as soon the threat is removed. It is scary and amazing at the same time. Well as long as he is pointed at the enemy."

"Don't exaggerate things Topaz. The vampires were not that tough to start with. You guys could have easily taken them without me."

"I think that you guys are a little ahead of me in combat but I will try and keep up with you in the event that I need to be involved at a fight. Honestly I hope that I never have to fight but I have trained in case something ever happens."

"Baron if you need me give a yell. I am going to be around looking over everyone so that I have an idea of who has been added to the group. Plus a few of the little ones have some potential."

"Make sure that you" do not take one that is to young. And it has to be voluntary."

"I am not going to kidnap an orphan and make them a spy. I will make sure that they are willing and able before any training takes place."

"That is all that I ask for." Novum gave her a nod as she rode off. "I also need to introduce you to two of themages that are also going to be working on the manor. One is defensive minded and the other is all offense."

"That is good to know. I will spend what little extra time I get training with them. I am more of a balanced mage as I did not concentrate on either. Honestly, don't tell my father but I have a few more spells for enchanting that I should. I like to tinker with artifacts."

"I will get you a small shop set up in the manor so that you can tinker when you have time. I am gong to try and keep your duties under control so that you can enjoy life. It is not all about the work."

They got up to the two mages that were riding together and after a round of introductions they girls started talking magic and suddenly Novum was in way over his head. He slowed Noctis and fell back closer to the knight that was riding with the kids.

"Greetings Baron. It is an honor that you are letting me accompany you and the children to your town. Thank you for this opportunity."

"They need protection and you need adventure. You do not seem to be the type of knight that is content with just staying at the temple. You seem to be a knight that was built for action."

"I will admit that I want to take the fight to evil and not wait for evil to come to me. Even this short trip is an adventure to me and I an going to enjoy it."

"Then apply to the church to become a wandering knight."

"The situation with that is my family would not be happy with that choice. My father has some influence in the area and even the church and they have denied my request, twice."

"Then I will have to think about it and try to find a way that you can go and travel and do your job fighting evil without you breaking your word to the church or your family."

"That is going to be a lot harder than you think. Even though you are a noble, I work for the church and do not take orders from nobility. This prevents nobles abusing their power and taking advantage of the church's knights."

"What about the church taking advantage of its knights? They are supposed to support you in your training and supporting your growth and development in your faith. Yet they are limiting you based on nepotism. That is not the way that the church is supposed to behave but this the way that people behave."

"So the people in the church are using their positions to assist my dad in order to gain his favor and limiting my growth through it."

"Maybe and maybe not. Listen I am not going to tell you that church is good or bad but I had to fight a few of them that were crooked when I first got here. Again it is not that the church is bad but a few people in the church as greedy. Not necessarily bad but greedy. So next time you apply you need make sure that they are aware of your situation and talk to the head of the knights if they deny it."

"That way I can figure out who the real problem is and not get the wrong people in trouble. Thank you Baron. This has been bugging me more than I realized until I started talking about it."

"It is fine. Actually that reason that I came over here was to warn you that we were spotted by a group of bandits as we left the capitol and based on what I have learned they will probably try to attack us this evening. This is typical behavior of this group of bandits so you and the guards around the kids need to be on high alert. They might target the kids in order to ransom them."

"They will not get close to the kids. That I will swear to you."