Til Kingdom Comes - The Banished Prince Vol 1: The Beginning

Push To The Limits

"Dear wives of the miners, I am a justified person and I do not meet out the punishment against those wrong-doers. However, you all knew about your husband and please tell us what you wish us to do with them?"

I played a part of being someone who listens to others for fair judgement, rather than making my own decisions and not being favoured for it. Besides, this involves the community and it is best for them to judge for themselves the way they deem fit.

"Sir, I wished for these men to not work as a miner anymore."

"Sir, I second to that. My husband can stay and be another form of help or resource around the village."

'Sir, instead of having them mining and gone for nearly a week, what if we suggest you buy the ores and coal from merchants as and when you need?"

"Yes sir, I heard that a sack was bought by you at 20c before. I could compensate you by making an extra sunshade that sells for 300c."

"My husband can go and make an extra 10 clay bricks for every sack of ores and coal you buy, Sir...!"

'Yes, my husband could help to weave and then make extras to cover the cost of the sacks of ores and coal that you may buy in the future."

"Sir, let them stay back in the village. They are able-bodied and could work harder than we ladies. They could work in the sawmill, woodcutter, felling trees, sawing the logs to size, carry them to the sawmill et cetera. This village deserves to have these men instead of them gallivanting in the mines and dilly-dally their time and not being here to entertain their wives."

The last sentence that was mentioned by the ladies drew waves of laughter among the citizens as well as the guests. They knew that mining would make the men gone for a week and during that week, the ladies would be like cats in heat and nowhere to release their pent-up desires. You get what I mean.

"Miners, you heard the verdict from your very wives, whom you care and love. This verdict is not meted out by me or any of the ministers but by the people whom you trusted most. Do you agree to the verdict and stand down from being a miner and do as what was told?"

The 6 miners looked at one another and then rushed a few steps forward before they threw themselves down, just like a commoner who had met with a royal on rounds. Literally sprawled on the ground...!

"Please pardon us for our insolence, My Lord. We beg of you for your leniency and we will be at your mercy."

"Your orders are our command and we would not let you down. Our minds were corrupted when we met other miners who did not understand how Our Lord governs the village."

"Please pardon us and let this be a lesson learnt for us and to all men who are present."

The 6 miners began to plead for their pardon and leniency as I began to order the right words in my head before I speak of them. "Alright, in this case, I would lift you off from being miners and from tomorrow onwards, you would report to either Industry Minister Ben or Public Works Frank for your work deployment."

"The secret that lies in my census is only known to Lady Heather and I and now since the secret is revealed, we have no choice but to push ourselves ahead once more to achieve even out greater goal."

"This village has been around for only about 3 months and we would like to see either these 3 options before everyone could be reimbursed for what its worth. Firstly, open up trade relations on 3, not 4 zones. Meaning we have trade relations with another 2 more merchants."

"Secondly, having opening up 3 trade zones, we need to hit a total of 100 gold coins of gross income monthly. Which means the merchants would be spending 100 gold coins for all our products."

"Thirdly, we would like to have at least 5,000 citizens before it becomes a kingdom, a kingdom as large as Darlington and as prosperous as it once used to be...!"

"Long live Gracehaven...!" I repeated this a few times and was joined by the citizens and also some of the enthusiastic guests of the Irish Travellers and soon everyone was chanting and cheering...! As there was still more than two feet of shadow's length left, everyone left the courtyard after arranging the benches.

The guests made themselves at home as the ladies offered to help out in the weavers' production area, clay bricks production area, building structures as well as baking and milling of grains, while the men tended to their livestock outside the perimeter.

The ladies even learnt about grains being infected by ergot and egotism that could spread on both humans and wildlife. They were wondering why the grains in the mill was being submerged in the water and those floating grains were immediately scooped up, selected and burnt.

They later learnt that these floating grains were actually empty or already being infected by diseases. They were thankful for the information and were in joy to help Crystal who was there manning the mill and her livestock.

The men of the Irish Travellers were making sure that their livestock does not wander around too close to the defensive structures and get impaled by accident and ends up being food later on.

The men from the Irish Travellers were confused when they were told to retrieve water for their livestock rather than letting them drink from the riverbank. Gwen answered them and asked one of the men to submerge his head underwater and what he saw astounded him.

The river underneath was laid with booby traps to snare any intruders and also wildlife that crosses the river...! "For those who wanted to swim should do so within the village. As you can see we place this marker here so that no one crosses them accidentally."

"As the borders expand, so does these markers and underwater snares. This was designed by His Majesty." Gwen simply explained the usage of these underwater booby traps as she used the honorific terms to regard me as the Majesty instead of a Lord that denotes just a noble.

The men thanked Gwen for the heads up and carried buckets of water to fill the water troughs and also to feed them with edible plants.

Within half a day, the families of the Irish Travellers were able to learn so much about the village and it was as though they felt connected and were able to fit in with the rest of the villagers as one.

=*=

We had a pleasant surprise that evening and that surprise consists of none other than Marcel and his two assistants. They had come in near dusk with an empty wagon except for 11 wicker bread baskets inside them.

"My brother... I have arrived. Hahaha... You really bullied me, you know...! All your bread had been wiped clean within a foot of a shadow's length. All 132 loaves of bread had been snapped up by the nobles...! And I am here to eat your loaves of bread tonight and possibly sleep with them around me too... Hahaha."

Marcel jumped from his wagon and straight rushed at me and clasped both of my shoulders. He cried out his enthusiasm as if he treats these bread as women and wanted to sleep with them...! What obsessive behaviour and hope those bread that he had slept with would not have holes in them instead...! Hahahaha.

"You really sold off those loaves of bread within a foot of a shadow? Golly... How much do you sell them for?" I asked since he told me that he would be selling them at a slight profit of 8c per loaf.

"Hahahaha. Those who bought the bread did not have anything for them to carry the loaves back so I sold the ornamental baskets, you know with the handles, at 1 silver each, just for them to carry the bread...! Hahahaha. I also sold them baby cots, accessories boxes as I flirted with those Ladies and the Lords. Hahaha. You know it's all sales talk and the power of persuasion...!"

Marcel remarked as he sat down with me at the dining table with Sir Blackie underneath it, gnawing at a whole roasted chicken he had brought from Corral. At first, the leader of the Irish Travellers thought the man before him was a shrill but after he asked the assistants who were with them, he found that these trios were indeed from Corral.

"Here, brother... These are the 12 gold coins I owned you. Hahahaha. Just imagine that your bread alone was really a hit among the nobles that they threatened to hit me if I don't bring more bread in the future... Hahaha. They knew the bread that came from here and the time needed to travel, so here I am... I wished to buy at least 2 dozen of the bread of each variety."

I was surprised that the money owed had been paid up totally by Marcel and I handed those coins to Heather and she struck off the amount of the invoice as" PAID". The money was set aside in a small basket where it stood for "TREASURY".

"One more thing, how much would you charge for a serf?" Marcel raised an important question as he mentioned about the working lowerclassmen in Corral. He mentioned that these serfs earn a minimum of 6c to 8c per day, depending on the work they are doing.

They usually buy the grains and flour from him at cost price and was wondering how he would be able to service the serfs since they too wanted to buy the loaf of bread when they heard that it weighs half a pounder each...!

A half-pounder bread could last a family of four for a complete meal...!

"What do you propose Marcel? I'm not sure how much you would be selling them for but I'm sure the price would be most affordable for them."

"That's true, my good brother. They can't be buying half a pound of bread for 2c if they could buy a pound of grain or flour themselves. A serf earns 6c would spend half of his earnings for the family. And that amount is exclusive of a dozen chicken eggs that sell for 2c on the marketplace."

"Oh..I won't know of the commodity prices out in the market out there. Sigh... You should bring at least a few hundred pounds of grains and flour when you are en-route, at least you do have something to sell and gain."

"Hahaha. It was decided on a spur of the moment. Furthermore, once we have the bread, we would make our way in first light, so in the meantime, I could stay here, couldn't I? My two assistants would be sleeping in one separate house together."

I looked over yonder and saw 4 rows of 12 houses the had been set up in the residential lots. Then I saw the 2 dangling carcasses of red deer that would be prepared for tonight's feast and then I looked at the eager faces of our guests as well as the empty baskets that were arranged at the side of the bakery.

"2 dozens loaves of bread for every variety that we have at 5c for fruits and vegetables and 8c for meat-filled ones? It's a darn deal... If our Baker agrees to the request. Let me call for them first."

I raised my hand and signalled for Jennings and Hereford who were manning the bakery to come forward. They came forth after wiping their flour-covered hands and presented themselves in front of us before we discuss the matter with the bakers.

"What could we be of service, My Lord."

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