'Til Kingdom Comes - The Banished Prince Vol 2: Here Comes The Witches

Guess Who Is Back In Town

It had a week since the arrival of the Priests and Priestesses and by then Marcel had returned once again to Gracehaven, bringing with him all kinds of good news, especially for the economic infrastructure of Gracehaven.

"So, Your Majesty, I overheard that you have a new group that came in a while back and were now helping the community by making new private privvy and bath within their lot? How great could that be? Who are these people? It seemed that they are like a new bunch of intellectual people to me."

"Marcel, my friend... Yup. They are sure a bunch of intelligent people that would make Gracehaven through a journey of better living conditions. These people were misunderstood and misinterpreted before for some years but when they finally come here, the citizens of Gracehaven finally realised their potential."

"Just like the nomads who were previously known as having no ability to settle down and have their own homes, these group of people were like God's Children and their appearance here has made a significant impact to the citizens of Gracehaven."

After we had exchanged our usual pleasantries, we both headed down to the Gracehaven's Greasy Spoon where Marcel ordered two pieces of Crispy, Fluffy and Light Pan-Fried flatbread with fillings of seasoned fish, onions, egg and chilli that was diced up, served with a generous amount of lightly curried vegetables.

"You know Your Majesty, how I wished I could bring this back to Corral where everyone can enjoy this wondrous piece of pan-fried flatbread with all the goodness within. You really make me miss Gracehaven and I can't concentrate on my affairs back then and all I could think of is Gracehaven, Gracehaven and more Gracehaven. Hahaha."

I laughed at Marcel when I saw him tuck in the two pieces of flatbread that were presented to him. The plate of pan-fried flatbread before him was piping hot. Steam was still emitting from the freshly pan-fried bread and it was squarish and about ½ inch thick.

When the plate of freshly pan-fried flatbread was presented before Marcel, he can't help but place his stubby nose close to it and took a deep whiff as he pushed his wavy locks of hair away from his face. After taking a deep whiff, he licked his lips and from the looks of it, he was already salivating at the corners of his mouth...!

"This never failed me every time... Its really fortunate to make it exclusive here in Gracehaven and one thing for sure, eating spicy food during autumn and soon winter would keep the body warm, you know."

Marcel tore the sides of the flatbread and blew on his fingers as it was still piping hot and he quickly transfers it to his saucer of curry vegetables. He cared not much of the vegetables as he knew that the taste of the curry accentuated with the seasoned fish fillings that he was having right now.

After letting it soak for a few breaths, he dipped out the torn piece of the flatbread and immediately brought it up to his mouth. The curry dribbled past his lips and down to his chin and he just wiped it away with the palm of his hands and wiped it off on his breeches.

He closed his eyes and it became crescent showed as he slowly munched the piece that was in his mouth. That taste created an orgasmic gastronomical trip for his tongue as the taste and texture of the flatbread dipped in the curry was bounding inside his mouth and teeth.

"Why don't you pour your curry into the flatbread instead? Most of the people here does that and they find that it's much nicer that way."

"Oh...! Is that so...? Let me try. I go and get another plate to separate one for pouring and one for dipping and see what big difference it made."

Marcel stood up and took another clay plate and set one piece of the flatbread on to it and he scooped half of the curry contents into it. After smoothing out the gravy and lathering it, he began to tear the pieces apart and stuffed them in his mouth.

Indeed...! He found that it makes a huge difference than dipping the flatbread inside the gravy and he lapped the pieces up. He signalled to the Strongbow boy and pointed two fingers and simply said, "2 game meat with chilli, please."

"Coming right up...!" the boy replied happily as he loved to see people eat and finish up the food. Not a single wastage was seen ever since Gracehaven's Greasy Spoon was established.

"HAH... What you said earlier was true, Your Majesty. Pouring the gravy on this flatbread is better than dipping it. The gravy was absorbed into the bread and it could be slurped down in seconds... Hahaha. Now I need quads not seconds for the servings today."

Marcel let out a belch and quickly covered his mouth and was afraid that I may take offence but I laughed at him instead. "You sure you are able to finish 4 flatbread, my friend? It seems that you had not eaten for a week since you left here. Hahaha."

"Hmm...I haven't eaten the whole day of last night just enough for me to store my tank with all the glorious food from GraceHaven. I was afraid that I would miss out having these foods...!" Marcel confessed as he downed another piece of flatbread that had been drowned in a sea of gravy.

"There would be a surprise coming up very soon." I signalled to the Strongbow girl and showed up 2 fingers and then closed my fist as if I was holding the handle of a mug.

By this time, Marcel was full to the brim as he tapped his bulging tummy and burped a few times. Staying in Gracehaven has its perks and one of the perks would be this — dining without a care in the world.

When the mugs of ale came, it looked pretty normal but Marcel would be in for a delightful surprise. He took the mug and clinked it as took a big swig when his eyes became wide as big as egg yolks. He nearly spat the contents of his at me as he swallowed it.

As he had taken a big mouthful, some of the contents were spurted out back into the mug and after he had slowly let the ale slither down his throat in trickles, he can't help but let out a loud sigh of satisfaction and wiped his lips with the back of his hand.

"By Golly...! Its winter time already? My God... This ale is truly refreshing. It is chilled like it was winter time and it tastes great even. How did you do that?"

"Actually it wasn't me nor Strongbow. It was one of the Priestesses. She has a special ability that could turn this ale to be chilled by using what she called an ice copper tun. The tun had a layer of ice surrounding the insides and helped to chill the ale to a very nice cooling temperature."

"Here, I got something to show you," I called for our domain assistant to retrieve the Ice-box and he returned within a short moment. I explained to Marcel about the usage of this ice-box that could prevent spoilage and could be fashioned in this manner.

He opened it up and soon a wave of coolness hits his face. He saw the hen that we had placed inside, wasn't cackling anymore as it died due to low oxygen and hypothermia, definitely. (hope the RSPCA doesn't chase after me for the cruelty to animals...!)

"You don't have to put the chicken in this way, but you could dress it. You can store meat, vegetables and all sort of perishables in them but best if one could have separate ice-box for each category. We won't want our meat smelled like fish and our vegetables smelled like pork, am I right?"

"Quite right, Your Majesty... Do you want to market this, Ice-box to the masses?" Marcel pondered as he rubbed his chin and then took a sip from his chilled ale and let out a huge satisfied sigh...

Since Marcel was made as a Trade Minister here in Gracehaven, he no longer requires to pay any upfront for the merchandise anymore. He could procure the items based on the orders he would be collecting from the other delivery or merchants that he had deployed to all the 15 towns.

In this way, he only concentrates in Corral, which was his main headquarters after all. Besides giving him such leeway in dealing such business proved more profitable in this manner for him.

"If I were to market it, I would set the price at 40 silvers each. Then you could resell them at 2 gold each. Besides a household would require one to have at least 3 of these Ice-box, don't you think?"

"One for meat and poultry, another for fish and the other fruits and vegetables. The usage of this ice-box would eliminate spoilage and make food storage to be much longer."

I suggested and Marcel was thinking of enticing people to get these Ice-boxes when he had a spark of an idea. He signalled me to finish the ale and follow him and I got the domain assistant to bring back the Ice-Box.

I followed Marcel after settling the payment (Yes, even royals and board members pay their food at Gracehaven's Greasy Spoon. There's no special treatment and that's only considered fair.) to the wicker basket production area and since the production was a bit slow right now, there were only a few ladies working there.

I waved at the ladies working there and they continued their work like as if I wasn't there at all. It is not that I want to be treated as an invisible object, but I don't think they would be stopping their work and to bow at me incessantly would make work more productive. Staying neutral would be fine by me.

Marcel took 5 wicker baskets and stacked them together. It was already at a height of 8 feet high and I was wondering what he has in his mind.

"Your Majesty, instead of selling individual pieces, why not we sell them at a set like this? We could replace this with swinging doors, and maybe this part could be the frozen section, while this section here would be chilled. What do you think of it?"

5 boxes each selling at 40 silvers would amount to 200 silvers or 4 gold coins. But for Marcel's sake, we discussed and brought the price to 3 gold and he could sell it for 5 gold instead. In this way, he earns a profit of 2 gold coins per Ice-box.

There would be 1 door and 1 drawer instead of so many drawers. The top door would have a compartment for frozen items. Top layer for meat and poultry and the bottom one for fish. Then the centre one would be used to store certain foods like jugs of ale, milk, beer or cheese, bread and the like.

The bottom drawer would be for fruits and vegetables. 15 towns, 1 icebox each to be displayed and decked with foodstuff in the Conglomerates of Merchants Union. All orders through first come first served and be listed out accordingly in an order form.

"I like the idea, my good friend. Let's bring these boxes down to the conference hall and we can discuss this matter. At the meantime, let me introduce you to the Priests and Priestesses of the Engineering Guild."

I ushered Marcel and gotten the ladies to bring the 5 wicker baskets to the domain. I then introduced Marcel to the members of the Engineering Guild who were pondering over some blueprints to discuss further in their improvements for the citizens of Gracehaven.

As I was nearing the Engineering Guild, Eagle came up to me and pulled me aside along with Marcel. "Your Majesty, I have made some findings. Firestone is alive and well but he has a crushed leg and had crutches to move about as he works as a carriage driver in the town of Durham. A city in northeast England, south of Newcastle upon Tyne. It took us more than a week for us to locate him, Your Majesty."

I looked blankly at Eagle and furrowed my brows as I scratched my head. "Uhhh... Who is Firestone? Do we know him from somewhere?"

"Your Majesty, its Priestess Farah's father...! She was mentioning how bad she missed her father and an accident that occurred one time she had to take a man's life in order to save her father? That's Firestone... He is right here in Newcastle upon Tyne and its only 60 miles away. Do you wish to summon him over here to be reunited with his daughter?"

I finally came to realise that it was Farah's father that Eagle was talking about and I motioned for Eagle to make the necessary arrangements.

"It would take about 24 hours of travel, Your Majesty." beckoned Eagle as I nodded in apprehension.