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

Extended Working Hours

It was time to prepare dinner and all the workers had their break from work earlier than usual as the ladies assembled at Old Kayla's side to check on what's on the menu today. The men cleared their working area, swept them clean and returned their tools if any to the storage areas.

Tonight for dinner, they would be preparing rabbit stew with potatoes and carrots with black pepper, onions, garlic, ginger and celery. It was a fairly simple stew and coupled with garlic loaf bread that we never get tired of, it was welcoming since the men and women had been toiling in the fields and were truly worn out.

Michelle had since returned to her house to take a rest before she joined the rest to help prepare dinner as well. Jennings, who was working tirelessly had finished baking a cake as she brought a square baking tin and placed it before us at the conference table inside the domain.

"Oh... What is this, Jennings... A new cake creation? It smells... Terrific. Something I never smelled before." I inquired as I looked at it and saw that it was brownish in colour. There were some dried apricots inlaid in them as well as bits of nuts as well.

"Your Majesty, this I present to you, the thousand layered cake. Its not actually a thousand layer cake but it consists of at least 15 layers that were baked precisely 3 minutes per layer. This is one of a kind cake that I came to learn during my time and this is a no-flour cake."

"The main ingredients are 30 egg yolks, one pound of butter and one pound of sugar. There's a special blend of spices that includes — cinnamon, cloves, mace and anises."

"Don't worry about the egg whites, they are being used by the Gracehaven's Greasy Spoon. I promised to err... Farah... That's right, that I would bake a cake for her and here it is. So instead of being an individual, this is for Your Majesty, the Minister as well as the Engineering Guild."

"If not for her, our ovens would need constant stocking of fire and too much fire, the bread might get charred and too little wood, the bake would be too slow."

"Careful Your Majesty, the cake had been sliced so just wiggle it a bit and you can see where it was being cleaved. You may have them later with tea after the post-conference. I heard that there's a conference after that right? So consider it as a treat from us."

Jennings excused herself, bowed before she left and headed back to the bakery where she shared some slices of the cake she had separated in a smaller baking tin with the other bakers.

I looked at the cake and decided to leave it for later and Heather took an anti-pest food cover and placed underneath it. "A no-flour cake...?this is the first time I had heard about it. How about you dear, you were always in the Royal kitchen so basically, you may have stumbled across it somewhere."

"Nope, darling. I have never heard about it but the smell is so rich and somewhat eggy. I wonder how it would taste. Furthermore... 30 egg yolks...! My gosh... Anyone who are watching their weight and waistline better be away because I don't know how long they need to starve to get rid of the extra pounds...!"

Heather replied and hooked her arm with mine as we went to the balcony and watched the whole panoramic view of Gracehaven Town in a more clearer picture. The view was magnifique and nearly everything could be seen from above.

Nearly every section of the work area was exposed once we were at the balcony and I could say that the whole town was nearly completed nearing its goal.

I could see the furthermost end of town where the privvy was set up even though the residential buildings were not being erected yet. This gave me an overview that the marked piece of land would soon be occupied in time to come.

300 residential lots — an approximate 1200 citizens. With Penelope help, our crops would be bumped up to 2 or even 3 harvests per month...! This would inevitably increase our output to almost 18 to 26 harvests per year...! While other wheat crops allow a harvest of 6 to 9 times per year, ours would be 2 to 3 times as much.

Without the Priests and Priestesses assistance, this feat would not be possible. This was the start of autumn and in 3 months time, there won't be any work in the fields due to the hard and frozen ground. I think the crops would not survive even if the winter wheat were cultivated on late spring / early winter or would they?

Only the answers would remain with the Priests and Priestesses as they are the ones with the special abilities to make things turn the other way around and to expect the unexpected. Such an event if it exists would really be a blessing since we would definitely have a full harvesting season even if its winter.

But would our citizens work in wintertime or would they prefer to work minimally due to the weather? They had been toiling ever since late winter / early spring early this year during the initial set up of this encampment to become a town of today.

Only the answer would be revealed tonight as it would be raised in advanced so everyone would have a set of mind to prepare for the upcoming future.

=*=

"Hey... Do you find it weird? The cultivation that was done less than 2 weeks ago has now ready to be harvested? Only last week the crops were only knee-high and now the spikes were all golden yellow and ready to be harvested. We only managed to clear part of the farmlands today and it would be completed once we deploy ourselves tomorrow."

A farmer was seen talking to her friend who was assigned to another part of the farmlands section. They were all intrigued about the speedy harvest they had gotten and they were even using the super seeds that had been supplied by old Kayla.

However, this was the second or third batch of the super seeds they had utilised and were equally surprised to find the crops had already matured way before its maturity period of the last harvest.

"Well, the good thing is that our grains would never be a shortage at all in the next few harvests but the only thing is that we would be spending more time in the farmlands as before."

"That's the only issue but its rather a small one. There's no harm to be working continuously in the farmlands because we all know we won't go hungry when the winter comes."

"Yeah, that's one thing we won't be looking forward to. Furthermore, I find it that its a blessing you know. I just came into Gracehaven here and I am aware of the remuneration package that was offered to us."

"Besides, this work is not considered as heavy at all. We don't carry water ourselves to water the crops. Everything is done automatically. We also don't have to beat the spikes of the wheat to remove the grains, we just remove the spike itself and carry them in a basket."

"The others would be handling the removal of the stalk which would be dried to become straw. Even the process of turning these stalks into straw could be said to be achieved in a day."

"There's a plan I heard to make a kiln to dry process these grains after removal from the spikes and then dried for about 3 hours or so until dry and then would be hand-milled to dehusking the grains and stored into vats."

"How convenient could Gracehaven be?"

"Oh... That's right, girl. Look, there's the kiln they are constructing now beside the Gracehaven's General Store. I guess that placing these grains inside the kiln rather than the usual drying them out in the sun would definitely be more productive, don't you think?"

"All it needs was someone to man the kiln, another to man the hand mill and then another to store them at the storage barns. Or maybe they need more manpower but whatever it is, I'm happy that the end process made the work for us much easier. Don't you think so, girl? "

The citizens were elated to find that firstly Gracehaven was able to produce a harvest at a much faster rate. 45 farmlands each able to yield 7, 200 pounds of grains. 20% of this would be lost to the husks and that would only tally up to 5750 pounds give or take a few pounds off.

With the increased harvest speed, Gracehaven would yield 11,500 pounds of grains monthly. Although it might not be a good deal to sell these grains away we could somehow manage to store for our own consumption instead.

With the increased straw produced in the other kiln from the clay brick processing area, it would not disrupt the workflow of the drying of grains. Instead, workers would be placed there rotational to process those greens to become straw at the end of the shift.

=*=

After dinner, everyone had assembled at the courtyard as usual and was full of anticipation of the new signs of progress that Gracehaven has in store for everyone.

Not only would work be much simpler but also less burden to the citizens.

"Good morrow my fellow citizens of Gracehaven. We would like to highlight on the construction of a new kiln for the drying of grains which was currently being built next to the Gracehaven's General Store."

I had Crystal and Farah to explain the uses and the benefits. Everyone was elated since they discovered that they don't have to lay them on the ground to sun-dried them.

Then I invited Ben to take over to discuss the planned working shifts for the kiln, dehusking as well as storage and those who were not permanently assigned were glad to be of service. Since the work would be broken into 3 shifts, a total of 18 workers would be assigned to the 3 work areas.

Next would be the Frank who discussed the 300 individual commodes that would be completed within the next three weeks and everyone was ecstatic. However, Frank had other ideas since the production hours of the commode could be extended thus reducing the waiting time.

"Ben, do we have enough manpower to deploy for 3 shifts for the commode production? If one shift could produce 10 commodes, 3 shifts could produce 30. So instead of waiting for 3 weeks, the process could be shortened to a week...!"

Ben looked at me and I just show my open palm to him to proceed. He smiled and he asked the crowd, "For those who were not assigned to any work stations, and would like to volunteer, I need another 12 workers for the afternoon and night shift."

"I would split the working hours just like the bakers to accommodate the smooth transition of the commode productions. All of you wanted to have your own privvy right? So who is in?"

Within seconds a lot of hands showed up in the air and Frank helped to pick the workers as Heather helped Ben to take down their names and allocate their working shift.

The second and third shift workers were told to report to the station tomorrow morning to learn about the production of the commode and then proceed to rest before their shift starts.

Heather called for the actual shift and they all assembled as she announced, "The first shift starts quarter before 7 o'clock in the morning and ends by 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The second shift starts to come in by quarter before 3 o'clock in the afternoon and ends at 11 o'clock in the evening. Third shift starts at quarter to 11 o'clock in the evening and ends at 7 o'clock in the morning."

The workers acknowledged and knew this is a short term project to complete the production of their personal commodes but would also continue to contribute their work when the need arises.

After getting the deployment done for both the commode production area as well as the 3 areas for the drying, dehusking and storing, we concluded the meeting but before we informed the weaver production workers of their current project.

"Alright, could the Engineering Guild members and production team leaders proceed to the conference hall right after this? Everyone, the conference is adjourned. Thank you and be dismissed."

Everyone cheered and clapped their hands as they arranged the benches back and proceed to their usual meeting point — Gracehaven's Greasy Spoon.