'Til Kingdom Comes - The Banished Prince Vol 3: The Prophecy

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After the new residents had gotten their census taken for the induction of temporary residency and stored inside the journals, dinner had been prepared as tables were soon arranged within the town square and the outdoor dining area for the residents to have their late supper together.

"Please enjoy your late night supper. Don't mind about us, we need to take a look at the new statistics for the moment. By the way, where's Gregory? Could you send your child up to our domain once you had your meal? I have someone you need to meet later on."

I remarked to the general public since I wasn't able to find Gregory among the seas of new faces. I could just relay the message through and then went back to the domain and carried the sheets of paper that contained all the biostatistics.

"There are 84 household families in this batch. 168 are adults and 12 of them are pregnant and would be checked by Old Kayla and some of the midwives later on."

"There are also 168 children and teenagers ranging from the ages of 4 and above right till 13 years old. The young ones could go to school and receive their mandatory early childhood program to learn how to read and write."

"There's a mix of one child family and three or more children per household. Judging from these statistics, 156 adults could be put to work while the remaining 12 pregnant ladies would be put on light duty."

"As for the children, they can choose to go to school to educate themselves at a later stage or work in the fields to help their parents. At the present moment, we have more than enough bricklayers and builders so the rest would be deployed accordingly."

"Ben would be handling the matters pretty soon while Frank and I would help around as much as possible."

"Right after that, Frank would address the general public about the dos and don't before they were ushered to their respective home. Do you wish to have Priestess Isabela around later to meet you as well as Gregory's family?"

I thanked Gwen for her assistance and then she went off to get Priestess Isabela to come over since I would need her to take a look at the boy.

Besides, the Dutchman (the one who threaded an arrow through the hoops on the last archery competition, Robin van Persie) had already gone for his treatment and had been doing very well since his leg that was left as a stump had now grown into an identical pair of a handsome leg he had ever had in his life.

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"Hello everyone, I do hope all of you had already taken your late supper. Please forgive us for providing your meals at such a late hour but this thing couldn't be avoided at all and I do hope you all had your fill."

My voice travelled far and wide since Priestess Anastasia was assisting me at the side to amplify my voice throughout.

"It is already past 9 in the evening and as you can see, there are a lot of womenfolk walking up and down the streets while wearing the same set of tabard."

"These womenfolk are the workforce behind the beauty and health care products that we are currently supplying to 15 cities till the end of this year and the end of the next year."

"I believe that you had already understood some of the economic infrastructures of this town so far since you had already arrived here earlier."

"Alright, let me address some of the important things they would be expected from us and also from all of you. Do you have any questions to work in the fields will end of the Autumn season?"

I asked the first questions and although there were some murmurs, there wasn't anyone who would be rejecting our questions, at this point in time.

"Alright, I take it that everyone would not kind working in the fields till end of Autumn that would be somewhere by mid-December, roughly less than 3 months from now."

"Listen up, the wages that we pay to our farmers or labourers would be 8 silvers a month. However, today is 21st September and there's still about 9 days before the end of the month so normally your Austin Powerless would not pay you a single penny for not even completing a month's work right?"

A few murmurs were heard and then someone in the crowd echoed that Austin Powers would not pay for an incomplete month at all.

"How sad is the truth...! However here is different from what you had imagined. You would be paid a prorate of a month's salary of 8 silvers and you would be paid 2 silvers till the end of this month and would be getting the full payment on the following month."

"Please take note that the exchange rate here is much different from the outside. A shilling or silver is 100 coppers or pennies. A gold coin is worth 50 silvers or shillings. What you are getting here is much more compared to the outside so let it be for now. This is our town and this is our exchange rate."

Thunderous waves of cheers erupted from the crowd before us as they had confirmed once again about our monetary exchange within this town.

"Take note that if you worked not in the fields or contributed to the economic infrastructure like a gong farmer, general worker or delivery guys and so on, your salary would be at 6nsikvers a month."

"Only those who worked the fields, cultivating and Harvesting as well as drying, husking, milling and storing the grains would be paid 8 silver. Militiamen would be paid at 10 silvers monthly. Do you get all that?"

There was a smattering of Ayes from the group before us and I asked them if they get what I was trying to convey and this time a solid single voice boomed across the town square.

"Hahaha. That's more like it. We need more liveliness when you answer our questions. Hahaha." I laughed at my own joke and then cleaned my throat as I moved to the next topic.

"Alright, I've done talking now and I will pass this conference to Old Kayla, Minister for Health." I motioned to Old Kayla and as she spoke, her voice got projected and every single word was clear and crisp.

This was to inform all the pregnant mothers to report to the hospital tomorrow after breakfast to have a checkup and to make a note on the delivery due dates et cetera.

After informing the resident before her, she passed the conference to Ben, the Minister for Trade and Manpower.

"My name is Ben and I am the Minister for Trade and Manpower. Since I have a figure of 150 over adults who would be working in the fields from tomorrow onwards, I would like to have the statistics of those who wanted to work instead of going to school to study."

"Practically, the school would start by Springtime so there are quite a few months to earn some coins for the family. There won't be any work to be done during the winter season since it would be frosty and the ground would be hard so what we would do community service instead."

"For community services, I would hand the conference to Frank, Minister of Public Works. We have 2 and a half months before Winter so we need to collect data on which household would be letting their children work during Autumn. So now I hand the conference over to Frank."

"Hello...I'm Frank, Minister for Public Works. For community service, we would like to talk on hygiene around the homes and practices that need to be adhered with closely."

"Please take note that no faeces or solid waste would be thrown inside the river. The river is the source of life and we should be respecting it well."

"There's a receptacle outside the kitchen area so put your rubbish inside the receptacle in a proper manner. Our Town Council officers would be collecting the rubbish to turn them into pig feed over at the Northern side of the production area."

"The outhouses are all fitted with a temperature-controlled water system inside the vat. So once after you had used the commode, please flush it sown with the water."

"The water inside the vat is safe for drinking too so it would be water for your shower and cooking and drinking too. Please keep the water inside the vat and outhouse clean because you would not be using it alone as there would be  your friends, neighbours, relatives and family members who would be using them as well."

"Only cooking should be done outdoors and there's a cute outdoor dining table for each house. No rearing of animals inside the thatched house except for some small furry pets not bigger than a rabbit or a cat."

"If you are not sure, you can ask the Town Council officers who would be in rounds after 5 in the evening or you can ask your neighbours who had been here before you. Phew... Seems that I got a lot of things to say this time, eh? Hahaha."

Frank laughed as he passed the conference over to Gwen next.

"Hello, folks... I am Gwen and I am the one who whipped Austin's ass until he was left powerless. Hahaha. Alright, you all can see the crop fields growing beside your home and the golden yellow wheat would be replaced by sweetcorn alternately."

"At least there would be baby corns and corn with ears when it's time to be harvested. Also, the crops would be rotated according to the Granary who would be in charge of distributing the grains."

"If its soybean then it would be soybean or even barley if the guys at the Granary said so. However, no matter how tempting for one to work in the fields to take a few corns ears back to your homes, please pray to God that you won't be caught doing so at all by me...!"

"Others toil hard in the fields, I did too when I was pioneering the first few seasons here along with the other senior members of the town. No one steals and no one bites the hand that feeds you."

"You would either be whipped 100 lashes and be a reformed citizen or you would be banished from this town forever."

"So, please... I am here to remind everyone, don't be tempted to steal anything that's seemed to be freely available for you. Do you understand?!"

"YES GWEN...!" the residents before us answered in a single voice since they all knew the wrath of a woman especially if one was armed with a whip...!

"I now hand over the conference back to Ben as he would be taking down the names of the household who would be letting their children work on the fields."

"Remember, if you and your wife worked in the fields till the end of the month, both of you would get 2 silvers each. Then if your children worked in the fields too or being deployed somewhere else, they too would be getting the 2 silvers each."

"Everyone here is equal and there's no such thing as being paid lesser for lesser work done. Do you understand what I am trying to say? "

"YES, YOUR MAJESTY..." came the responding answer as the pioneers looked at each other as this scene reminded us on our regular nightly conference that we were used to hold.

But since we have expanded our boundaries, we seemed to have lesser contact with our community and only sees everyone when they got involved with the weekly games held in Macleod Coliseum.

I clapped my hands together that signalled the end of the conference as throngs of residents went over to Ben to register themselves as general workers for the time being together with their children.

Even the young ones would be helping their parents in the fields as they would be able to dig up the earth to remove rocks and pebbles or other roots after the farmer had dispersed the seeds through the manual grain seeder.

After getting the statistics, it was given to me and its time to go ahead for the planning of the reimbursement. As coins make the whole world go round, we ended up paying a total of 500 silvers for 250 new residents as they had registered with Ben to work on the fields in the following day.

After we had settled the payment, Gregory and his family soon entered the domain and were attended by Old Kayla and Priestess Isabela.