Banished Prince Charming

Chapter 23 - No Discussion At The Dining Table, Please...

"Is that what I think it is? There's a full set underneath that right? Come... Come and sit here with me, my fine young Marcel. Maybe you could tell me more about it. Whatever it is, this seems to breathe a new life for me...! I'm simply delighted...!"

Jack gestured to Marcel to the long benches near the fireplace and soon was joined by the rest of the settlers. Whenever there's a discussion, no matter how minor or major it would be, everyone would drop what they were doing instantly and quickly joined up.

Bamboo cups were passed around and everyone had a round of hot tea. Seeing everyone had settled down, Marcel who sat between me and Jack stood up and announced. "Behind the wagon underneath the dark cloth held some tools and the trade for a Blacksmith. I had discovered the tools and equipment from a nearby village that was abandoned for some time."

"That villagers had decided to disband due to some differences with each other's opinions and views as there was some kind of power struggle happening. In the end, the Lord decided to gave up and moved away with his family."

"Losing their sense of lead and direction, the villagers slowly moved on, discarding their worldly possessions except for the things that they could carry with them. When I arrived at the village, it was almost like a ghost town with no one on sight."

"Only a few abandoned scrawny dogs and cats were left in the village. Almost anything valuable was not left behind."

"I checked some of the houses there and found that it had been looted where I chanced upon the Blacksmith store which had these c.u.mbersome tools of the trade, a few sacks of ores and coal, and so I decided to lug it on top of my wagon."

"I can't wait to get rid of that space behind the wagon so I would be able to load other provisions. So here I am, thinking about the tale of our Senior Master before and decided to give you a surprise."

Marcel sat down after he had shared his tales of his travels and I personally find that letting go of his predicament that lies behind the wagon would also greatly help him out in the long run. Besides, the stuff underneath the tarp was almost taking up half of the wagon's space.

I cleared my throat and stood up as I began to voice out my thoughts in order to secure a win-win situation. Jack was looking at me with his wistful eyes as the thought of having his own Blacksmith would definitely boost his morale and support for GraceHaven. I gave him a slight nod and I looked at Crystal.

As if she takes the cue, she too nodded as she wrung her fingers in anticipation. I took my time and turned around to watch the intent faces of everyone and felt that the decisions do felt heavy on my shoulders right now.

"What kind of price do you have in mind, my good man? Since you had procured those items at no cost at all, I am sure you would like to be compensated for all your troubles. How about this, take these pebbles in your hand."

"A pebble represents 2 silvers. Whatever amount that you have in your hand and mine, we meet the price in the middle. On top of that, if the price is right we would like to get our hands on the livestock as well. Plus we would like to replenish our grains and flour as well."

After saying so, I purposely placed 10 pebbles in front of Marcel and 10 pebbles in mine. I tried to play some psychology game with him knowing that 10 pebbles only costs 20s. I put on a poker face as I showed him the number of pebbles in my hand and place it behind my back. "Just drop the pebbles behind you if you may and show them at the count of three."

I looked at the children and they started to shout out in unison, "1... 2... 3...!!!" Their parents looked at them with surprise and never expected that they would be part of our discussion. During their time they were brought up as 'children are to be seen and not heard'.

At the count of 3, I dropped a single pebble knowing that Marcel would be holding on to the original 10 and would not yield. No matter how a tradesman is still a tradesman and any kind of business is equals to money. Only a person with a screw loose would deny money and wealth.

After the show of hands, what I had deduced finally come true. Marcel did not release a single pebble and from his look, it did show a bit of disappointment in not able to acquire more pebbles. "Hahaha, I guess we have to follow your price then. I've got 9 pebbles with me while you have 10. Children, if 1 pebble cost 2s, how much would 10 pebbles amounts to?"

There was a silence for a moment and the 3 children soon chimed in and announced, "20 silvers, big brother..." I smiled since the children learnt very fast despite less than an hour of learning simple multiplication. Their parents looked on with pride and realised that their doubts in education were soon lifted.

I reached for my coin pouch that I had handed to Heather earlier and she shook puff and retrieved 20 silvers from it. Judging from the bulge of it, Marcel can't help but lick his lips. "Here you go, Marcel. Here are the 20s I owned you for the Blacksmith tools and equipment. I believe that you would include in the coals and ores as well?"

"Y...Yes, of course. It comes together with the sacks of coals and ores. However, I do find out several miners staying in Corral and I will inform them to supply you with the coals and ores needed in your trade."

Jack stood up and gave me an enormous bear hug that nearly crushed my frail frame. He was so overjoyed that tears formed in his eyes shook my hands and thanked me profusely. "Its alright Jack, the guardian angel looks upon you and answered your prayers." I patted his shoulders and seated himself and I knew he can't wait to place his hands on his new 'toys'.

"Since there are no other people doing Blacksmithing, I guess I would be engaging your services for all the farming tools and other parts as well. As for broken parts like a windmill or other whatnot, I would bring the broken parts on my next visit."

Marcel pointed out as he spreads his hands in exasperation at the loss of a deal to acquire more silvers on his end. However, he was pinning some hopes for the livestock that he intends to sell to us and I could easily read his body language and his shifty eyes.

"The next topic that I would discuss with you would be the goats and piglets on the back of your wagon. I believe one of the piglets would be a male so that it would reproduce in the future, am I right? I do not know much about distinguishing their gender but I'm sure Crystal is able to point it out to us and also know the prices as well."

Hearing this, Crystal took the cue and she stood up so that she would be able to make her voice heard. With the knowledge of handling livestock and trading with the other merchants, she had the backhand experience in that aspect.

"As you know, I had been rearing this livestock for almost 5 years and been dealing with the merchants in and around our town before. The price for a 3 months old piglet would cost not more than 2s. The same price goes to the goats that you have tethered on your wagon, Master Marcel."

"I normally would perform the trade and got the pig feed for free for every piglet I trade or exchange. So these 4 piglets would come with 4 free sacks of feed grains, am I right, Master Marcel?" she pointed out the proper price, leaving zero allowance for Marcel to negotiate around as he knew that's the price after the trade from the herder that he got that livestock.

And so 16 silvers exchanged hands once again and this time we took a short break as dinner was being prepared while Jack and several others went to haul the blower, furnace, anvil and the rest of the tools down from the wagon.

Marcel blew out his breath through pursed lips as if he was trapped in a vise like grip and I knew what was happening so I consoled him by placing my hands around his shoulders and asked, "As long as one makes a bit of profit would be better than getting nothing at all, right?"

Marcel then sighed and looked at me with a downward glance and muttered a weak "Yes, how about I offer your settlers some barrels of ale? I've got some barrels there that I am willing to let you have them at 1c per gallon. It's considered as a first rate ale and a barrel is slightly more than 3 gallons. There's 6 barrels altogether, so what do you say? "

I saw the men ferried all the Blacksmithing tools in the courtyard and Jack was making close scrutiny towards the tools to ensure that he had checked out everything properly and had not missed anything.

"Alright, its 3c per barrel and you have 6 barrels, so I owe you 18c altogether. It would be a good morale booster for the men right now. I guess tmots been some time since they had tasted ale for sometime." I replied as I motioned for Heather and asked for the 18c to be handed to Marcel. She gave a silver and got the change back and immediately she places them back in the coin pouch.

After Jack was satisfied with his findings, he puffed out his c.h.e.s.t and marched back to where we were waiting for dinner to be served. "Young Master, yew 'ad made me day an' yew make dis old geezer pret'y 'appy until I could even smile in me graveyard. Could I request fer a small Blacksmithin' 'ut ter be erected so at least there's a proper place ter keep da an' allls away from rain?"

I patted his shoulders and gave an assurance that it would be erected the next following day according to his specifications and location. He gave me his widest grin in his life and I knew he would be extremely grateful deep right inside.

There's a grinding stone among the tools and it means that Jack would finally be able to perform blade washing on my short sword soon. I looked at Jack's antics as he went back to the tools area and was inspecting it once more as he smiled and dr.a.p.ed them carefully with the tarp.

From the distance, he gave me his thumbs up and sauntered over and sat with us at the dining table. Soon, we were savouring a simple gruel that had generous helpings of rabbit meat and assorted vegetables inside it. Fresh fish was roasted and everyone had some pieces each and to accompany the simple yet sumptuous gruel.

After we had our meals, Marcel began to speak to continue the trade when he was hushed by Ben, saying that any forms of discussions were prohibited at the dining table. The dining table is meant for dining and the only place to discuss would be at the be chew around the fireplace.

Marcel was left speechless by Ben's frankness and decided to hold the discussion in before we moved to the designated location to continue the discussion.