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

Thank You

"Hehe, don't you worry, my Lord. We have the 6 men earlier, am I right? These 6 men would assist us in kneading these flour into the dough. It does need a pair of hands from time to time to knead it. Besides, it won't hurt us to work extra hours just to meet the demands of our merchant, won't we?" replied Hereford since this is a good time to 'bully' her husband.

Besides after kneading, the dough would be set to raise a little while and then quickly molded into the shape it was required.

Making loaf bread was the simplest especially the flavoured ones. The water could be substituted with milk and as for other flavours, it would be mixed directly during the kneading.

"Oh all right then, you may work the extra hours but make sure you have to take some time off in the morning then. At least the men from the sawmills would be able to work with more company of the citizens too."

I replied as the two ladies excused themselves and began to look for the other miners' wives to collaborate.

"It seems people are willing to sacrifice for this young Lord. The longer we stay here the more things we find out about this Lord's character." thought the leader of the Irish Travellers. It seems that his trip here is not a waste of time either.

The bakers had found the wives of the miners and in one voice, they had decided to let the men help to knead the flour as the ladies could only knead 3 pound per time and these men, with a little bit of guidance, could knead at least 3 pounds of flour every time.

They decided that a dining table be set in front of the bakery so the 6 men could perform the task after their dinner. They would set aside hot milk instead of hot water to make the milky loaves of bread, some salt and animal fat. In this way, the men would be able to help out making the first batch of the 100 loaves of milky bread for the working serfs.

Once the 6 ladies had decided, they continued to prepare for dinner and after which, they need my assistance to announce to the men concerned to assist in the bakery. I agreed at the ladies consent and sat while discussing other related matters with Marcel and the leader of the Irish Travellers.

"The way of your governance has astounded me, sir Lord. This is the first time I ever sat at the same table and observe how things are run between the settlers and its leader. Even in terms of disagreement and dispute, you put the next best person in the picture to solve the matter amicably."

"Not only does this affect the results but it also turned these men into meek lambs. I thought that it would create a bit of unrest but turns out otherwise. It is as though Sir Lord represents a big boss in handling their work, and the payment was food on the tables, education for the children, work and satisfaction for the men and women, clothes on their backs and a nice comfortable house to live in."

'What else could they have asked for? At the end of the day, if sir Lord got a 100 gold per month in generated sales or even 5,000 citizens in a kingdom, everyone would be reimbursed 2 silver a month per person...!"

"Frankly... *AHEM* I would also love to receive 2 silvers a month if I am 20 years younger. Too bad I am at this age but unable to do much but set an example for the young generation to follow." in a way, the leader somehow show his interest of being a settler but he finds that he can't contribute much to the community here due to age and his inexperience.

"Well, you could be a referral to us for the families that would be interested to be a settler. They could still rear livestock and share the load with Crystal here. Besides, we intend to have a few dairy cows and a bull but we don't know how to acquire them."

"Furthermore, Marcel here does not have the proper livestock wagon to ferry them across here." I confided with the leader of the Irish Travellers and sort of hinted that this village needs a few dairy cows to increase the output of milk and cheese.

The leader of the Irish Travellers looked at me and smiled with a slight twinkle in his eyes with the crow's feet.

During dinner, the leader of the Irish Travellers mentioned that dinner should be eaten together and so the citizens ditched the dining tables and sat on the ground instead and had brought the mats from their houses so everyone can sit on the ground comfortably with their shoes off, of course.

Everyone was seated in the floor, including Marcel and I and had no problems adjusting to the environment as and when it needed. It was a change for Marcel who was used to at least sitting on a log but he soon gets accustomed to it. As for me, any way could be possible as long as I am comfortable with it. In the end, I sat cross-legged like an Indian and it suits me just fine.

"Hero... 'B' is bread. 'C' is cheese. 'D' is delicious! ..." a familiar voice rang out among the children who were eating together in the group and when we locked eyes, the boy gave me his widest smile he could and showed what he had learnt in class as well as outside class.

"That Chadwell boy is remarkable. Not only did he learnt how to talk after he got his hearing, but he seems to be the brightest boy in his age group. He had learnt all the alphabets and also could recognise and form words from every item." Heather remarked as he ate his bread which is actually the right combination with the broth he is eating but he truly enjoys what was before him.

That boy never forgets how he went hungry for days at a stretch and had to share even a slice of bread with his sister. But now he got more than enough to eat that he would remain full throughout the day and night.

All because of the Hero in front of him that gave him such comfort, hope and solace before. If he is not a 3 year-old-boy, he would have done a greater service to serve his hero.

After we had dinner, there was nothing to recap for the day except for the announcement made for the 6 miners. They were to report to the bakers to help knead the dough to make the bread to fulfil the orders of their Lord's merchant.

"Remember men, don't be too hasty and listen to the bakers. We won't want to waste a single pound of flour and do as being told as to not make a single mistake. The bakers would like to fulfil the orders as well as making steamed buns for tomorrow breakfast and lunch." I concluded the nightly conference.

Marcel does not want to rest early and decided to watch how the men knead the dough and the ladies bake the bread. He watched in wonder until he fell asleep on the dining table opposite the bakery. It was quite late when his assistants woke him up and sent him to the temporary accommodation where he plopped down to sleep on the floor surrounded by pillows.

The Irish Travellers had been accommodated with the houses so they do not have to spend the night in the open or under the stars. They settled down comfortably in the houses allocated to them and they made sure they removed their shoes and washed their feet before entering the house. It seems like a crude practice and soon they knew why as all the citizens do the same too before heading barefooted inside.

The engineers in the night shift began to perform their duties after being aroused from their sleep to have dinner and attend the nightly conference. The day shift had cleared the place up before handing over the duties, all logs had been cut into the desired lengths and were placed near the sawmill.

Now the night shift sawmill operators would just need to saw these logs into planks and then trim all planks off the bark sides to equal 1 foot in width and 5 feet in length. The work that seemed monotonous to others was well received by the engineers. They knew that these planks would be used to make the domain and the balances would be used to trade.

Each day, the engineers that manned the sawmill would record their output of at least 35 bases and 35 middle logs which could produce 24 to 28 planks per log. That amount alone would average 1,700 planks per shift and the night would be about 25 base and 25 middle logs which generally averages a general output of 3,000 planks on daily dawn to dawn cycle.

Frankly, the construction of domain would require only a few thousand pieces of planks but they have more than enough and the day operations don't seem to stop felling trees. Tomorrow would be the fourth day and once it hits the fifth day, the forested area would be much clearer than before.

At 5c per plank, a few thousand planks wouldn't hurt to be sold off and to generate income for the treasury. They would wait for the balance after building the domain before they could release it for Marcel.

As for the bakers that night, with the help of the 6 men, they had met their targets of 200 loaves of bread for the working serf and were teaching the men how to make a single pound of flour into 8 pieces plaid loaves of bread.

So instead of making 4 different varieties of plaid bread, the bakers had made a total of 8 different varieties instead...! Each variety comes in more than 200 loaves and there was a total of more than 1,600 plaid loaves of bread altogether...!

Unknown to me, the bakers had intended to push their limit and see if they could achieve the target intended and also to ensure the men would be put to good use...!

Indeed it takes a man to knead continuously, especially when they had used up 25 pounds of flour per person. If we did not order additional flour the other day, the 450 pounds would be barely enough...!

When Marcel woke up in the morning, he was greeted with the great scent of freshly baked loaves of bread. He dreamt that he was surrounded with bread and he nearly bit in the pillows he was lying on...

When we freshened up to get prepared with breakfast, we saw baskets upon baskets set aside on the countertop of the bakery and when I peered into the baskets, the bakers informed me that there was a total of 1,600 loaves of plaid bread and 200 loaves of bread for the working serfs.

"My God... You finally managed to pull it off and produce extras, even...! Thank you so much for your support...!" I lauded their achievements and their sacrifices and noted of the new orders into the sales invoice.

"No, my Lord. We should be the one thanking you. What we have done now is just a small fraction of what you had given to us unselfishly. We had prepared the dough for the steamed buns and once we prepare them for steaming, we would like to be excused after the morning meeting and then be up by midday."

"Sure... Take your time to rest. You had exceeded the expectations of our dear friend, Marcel. I am sure he is more than indebted to you and towards the bakery of Gracehaven."

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