First Winter Christmas
1343 Words
"Hey, Marcel...! Come in and take a look. Quit having those wildest ideas on people having chicken leg as replacements and so on. I could read your thought bubble over your head as clear as day, my good old friend...!"
I hollered to Marcel as he picked himself up from the child's swing set and walked towards me as he patted his butt that was somehow gotten frozen.
"You sure it's not a chicken leg, right? I'm going to bite you regardless if you're a royal or not if you tell me it's not a chicken leg if it is...!" rebuked Marcel as he delivered a punch on my shoulder but quickly complained since he finds that it was as hard as a rock and felt like I was wearing armour underneath my tunic.
"It's true, my friend... It is a normal human leg, not two right legs but a perfectly left and right leg. You can bite me if you don't believe me..." I replied to him reassuringly.
"By the way, your daily workout regime had definitely worked well on you, innit? Your physique is better than anyone of the citizen here but as comparable as a gladiator I suppose."
"Grrr... Grr... You can melt any ladies you wished once you remove your tunic and flex those well-toned muscles, my friend...!"
"Hush Marcel... That bubble thought of yours is super dangerous and my wife is gonna wallop me with my workout equipment if she finds out. Besides, I don't have any intention to chase after anyone since I'm not done chasing after my wife...Hahaha...!"
"Alright...let me take a look first at Firestone..." lamented Marcel as he dragged his feet reluctantly when he entered the infirmary. When he saw that its a perfect pair of legs, Marcel can't help to exclaim, "You fooled me, Your Majesty... You told me it's a pair of chicken legs but it's a normal human leg after all...!"
Myself, "..."
Those around me were like, "..."
=*=
4 days later, on Christmas Eve... The militia invalids were sitting at the foremost after dinner and were waiting for us to ballot for who would be the one to be in the infirmary next after Firestone.
The militia invalids and the rest of the community discovered about Firestone's recovery with a new left leg and everyone was piqued and felt that Gracehaven was truly a land of blessings.
They heard and learnt about Chadwell's boy. From such tragic hardship, the family had gone through in their previous town, crossing a lot of hurdles before they finally had a fairly comfortable life in Gracehaven.
And now a new miracle was created in Gracehaven and the militia invalids had pledged their allegiance to us and be part of the militia even as a patrolman, before going under the blade, literally speaking.
Since Isabela was able to treat one patient at a time except for two that had a head injury, the others would need to regenerate a new limb or to rebuild the severed nerves to function their motor skills efficiently.
After her assessment, she would treat the ones with the head injuries first and the two invalids would be sent to the infirmary right after Boxing Day, 2 days prior to the announcement.
=*=
Christmas Eve in Gracehaven — it was a typical red, black and white all around as everyone donned the Colours and had several hand warmers inside their tunic and breeches to keep themselves warm.
The evening event was rather special as the ladies prepared steamed buns with various types of fillings such as spiced fish, curried venison and game meat, black pepper boar meat with carrots and lastly the bite-sized red and green beans sweet fillings.
There was a total of 6 types of steamed buns and everyone helped to make numerous fire on rocket stoves to steam those buns on 3 layered steamer baskets. In fact, all the dumplings were bite-sized and on that day after the last delivery was being made for the 15 towns, the bakery ceased operations for 2 days since the orders were tripled.
There were a variety of pies being baked as well such as blueberry, strawberry, redberry, pears, peaches, apples and pineapple. They were baked on a 10" pan and it was quite a joyous occasion.
Numerous sets of firework were being set up and would be lit when the clock strikes at midnight later on.
Log cakes and biscuits were being brought out from the Gracehaven's General Store as part of the celebration and the tables were truly decked with goodies of all kinds despite the light snow that was intermittently falling.
But no snow would stop such a joyous occasion at all...!
There was no need for any roast meat since the meat could now be found inside the steamed buns instead. Besides, it's bite-sized and with the joyous mood, a few pops would never suffice.
Laughter and joy were all around as nearly everyone partakes in the joyous festive mood.
Marcel jogged to me and handed me his final sales report just before the end of the year. I brought it along with me and sat down inside the conference hall of the domain.
It shows that we had already received payment for all the Standing Iceboxes that had been sent according to orders after the initial advertisement that was made in the taverns and in the Merchant Association.
The Chilled Copper Tuns turned out to be a favourite as each tavern orders at least 3 of the Tuns to be installed to serve their variety of ales to their customers.
If they have 10 types of ales, beers and wine, they would like to have 10 of these Tuns and Chilled drinks even on a chilly evening is still a welcome indeed...!
The orders for the Standing Iceboxes were very steady. By end of the year, they still have about close to 2,000 of Standing ice boxes to be delivered to the 15 towns. Once delivery and transaction had been approved, the payment would be made directly with the Bank to the delivery men.
"I guess the community would be expecting an early salary for this month then, innit? How about this, we would release their salary on Boxing Day and then resume operations for the weaver materials production area to rush the Standing Iceboxes."
"Well, it doesn't make any difference to them if they were paid today or even on New Years Day... As everyone knew the money they gotten from this Treasury goes back to it once they purchase their necessities around town. Hahaha..."
I was quite surprised when I heard that and I can't help but called the domain helper and asked her some general questions about her salary and where it goes and how it got circulated.
True to what Marcel had said, the domain helper even remarked she doesn't mind it a bit, and consider that the salary she got was used as a means of trade or transaction. Besides, it is better than using a token system.
The prices around town were rather cheap too compared to other towns and furthermore, they knew that I wasn't a black-hearted person and to seek fame and wealth but was to build a rather peaceful community and slowly raise it to kingdom level in years to come.
I nodded my head and scratch at it with my forefinger and looked kind like a jester as I thought that the citizens never knew about the plans after all.
Luckily, the domain helper informed me that she managed to save at least 2 to 3 silvers a month from her salary and she was thankful to us for it for she could never even save these even within a year if she worked elsewhere.
Well...an approximate 60 gold coins of monthly output won't really burn Gracehaven to the ground especially when it earns at least 7 fold every month just based on the transaction on bread excluding cookies and cakes...!
Money money come to Daddy...!!!
- Writer
