Banished Prince Charming

Chapter 44 - The Stammering Prince

"A sea breeze occurs due to the difference in temperature between the ocean and the land. As the land heats up during the afternoon, the air above it begins to rise to form a low-pressure area near the land. ... Again, it heats up and rises. As this warm air is moving over the water, the colder water causes it to cool off and sink."

"So generally we live around 120 to 150 miles away from the sea. And the general direction of where the wind is blowing indicates a large body of water."

"The air over the ocean is warmer than the air over the land. The land loses heat quickly after the sun goes down and the air above it cools too. ... This causes a small temperature gradient between the ocean surface and the nearby land at night and the wind will blow from the land to the ocean creating the land breeze."

"Wind blows in from the back so no one does milling when it's cooler and when the sky gets dark."

I nodded in apprehension at the concept of not air rises while cold air sinks. This creates turbulence which generates wind and the concept applies to the oven where no smoke would be emitted from the front opening of the furnace as long as there's a vent for the heated air to escape.

Let's move to the next part where we discuss the blades of this windmill. It's a standard 5 bladed windmill. As it catches the wind, it will rotate either clockwise or counter-clockwise depending on the curve of this side here. As you can see from the side, the blades are positioned at and angle, right? So when the blade turns, it turns a horizontal shaft attached to a gear and this would turn these vertical shaft attached to these millstones."

"These millstones have a hole on top of it and an inclined groove. When the miller pours in the grains, this millstones would turn and turns the grains into flour. It's a fairly large millstone so it would turn slowly despite the blades were rotating very fast. This is due to the gears that have the same amount of teeth."

"If a gear turns one revolution up there, it would turn one revolution of the millstones. Unlike a sawmill, it was a big gear attached to a small gear thus one revolution of a big wheel would turn the sawblades attached to the smaller gear to turn 4 to 5 times."

"If you want to have a faster mill, you can change this gear to a bigger circ.u.mference one. But you might break the millstones due to its high revolution. You get what I mean so far? So how does the flour comes out? The same concept, what goes in would push this out through a chute and into your collection bin or sack."

"One person could work a mill alone but the miller would need to return to the ground level to replace the sack when it's full. So it would be advisable to have two people, one to carry the grains up to Mill, while the other waits below for the sack to be filled, replace another one and then stores the sack to a shed or staging area."

"Do you have any idea on any possibility for unhusked grains to be milled in the same process?"

"So you want to know how we get white grains and sometimes brown grains? During the milling or rice pounding processes, the hulls are removed from the raw grain to reveal whole brown rice, which may then sometimes be milled further to remove the bran layer, resulting in white rice.

"You can mill your wheat if you want to. Of course, it won't damage the millstones one bit. But make sure it's totally sun-dried after harvest and very light which means it will break up in the mill. Once your worker has collected the flour, he or she needs to winnow or run it through a sieve so separate the kernels. These kernels would be great to make loaves of bread for your horses. It's full of fibre. But humans won't eat wheat unless a severe drought or crop failure."

"How much did you buy your grains for per pound?"

"Marcel charges us 2c per pound for both grains and flour."

"My goodness, how much would Marcel earns per pound? It is about 1c per pound and Marcel loses a pound of grains for every 5 pounds and here you are buying at 2c."

"Then how much did you pay for the grain?"

"2c too... Hahahahaha. Its lucky Marc controls the market price for grains. He is the chairman of the Merchant's Association. No one dares to speak up against him when he drives the prices down to sell to the citizens. In fact, he only earns very marginally for grains as the prices were stable in spring or in autumn which means before and after harvesting."

"Go ask around on other towns, for prices will be as high as 6c in springtime and 3c in autumn. He profits only from the goods he buys and resells. He talks a lot about you, a very young lad with a very broad horizon. You two are like peas in a pod, do you know that? To earn his trust is like him giving you a part of his limbs."

I sat down on the platform thinking that there is no other person who has the same idealism as my father, the old king. This idealism was being poured into my blood that flows within the veins throughout my heart and mind.

"The people stand before you and not behind you. The people stand among you and not below you. You a Prince in title and heir, but stripped off all your clothes, you are still a human being, just like anyone in the streets. Take care of them and they will care for you."

That's what my father had taught me and when I go about the city, people would not be fear you but respect you through and through. We only instil fear in the hearts of our enemy. The 3 things are humility, respect and care for others first before you would be treated the same.

Never knew I would meet the same person with some traits as mine.

"You are a Macleod, an heir to the throne and you had been banished due to rebels that had overrun your kingdom. Your Lordship, we knew about you the day when we are being contracted to dismantle these windmill. How we know and who we know from remains as our secret. Your true identity remains safe with us. Even if we are to be disembowelled by the enemy, we would not leak out anything about, Young master, or shall we call you Your Lordship, Prince Audemars."

"Could it be any of the pioneers? I don't think so because they lost everything and regained their lives bit by bit. Could it be any of the 8 families? Even they don't even know who am I. Urgh...! How could people actually be able to see through me so easily?"

I was frantically thinking and I grew to panic. Panic because my identity had been compromised. Panic because rebels might hunt me. Panic because whatever we were building would all go down the waste disposal latrine put...!!!

"Would you like to send an expedition team there to gather whatever stuff that we think would be useful to you? Perhaps would you like to have someone to give the last respects to the old King, Queen and the Princess?"

"I... I don't know. But how ab... About the s... Safety of those who go for the ex... Expedition? Would there be a... Any risk of running in... Into the rebels?" I stammered out my vowels as I queried the engineer.

"We have our means to enter and leave like the shadows. Besides, don't worry. We would be here as long as you requested us to stay. All 10 of us are glad to see you doing well, Your Lordship."

"E... Eh... Don't call me that. I... I'm just a... A Commoner now. J... Just call me a young m... Master... Y... You really s... Stumped me right now a... And I... Can't think s... Straight now." I stammered more than the vowels this time as I was visibly shaken. I wanted my parents and sister to be properly buried. That's the least I could do for them. I don't think I would be able to see them in their condition right now too.

Its been some time but the sorrow grazes at my heart from time to time and it's raising its ugly head to me again and I can't think straight. Half part wanted me to join the expedition and half of me wanted to stay behind and finished the projects and bring hope to the people.

URGH... WHY WHY WHY...???

"Calm your heart and mind. We understand your anguish. If we are in your position, we would also feel the same. 18 years together and then gone in an instant. Go, Your Lordship, the future if this village is in your entire hands. Don't fail them and don't fail your father, King Richard the Wise. Your royal grandparents had every right to name their son Ric-Hard, your father because it means Ruler and Strong."

"Alright, go along now. Let us finish constructing these windmill. Actually the initial set up is complete but we need to board this all up. So, before you go, do you want us to stay for 3 days or for 30 days? Hahaha...!"

"If I think positively its 30 days and negatively it is 3 days. By the way, no one knows about my father's given name as Ric-Hard and only those within the circle knows very well about it. Haish... I really can't put a finger on it right now. If better see to the task at hand first, alright? See you again soon... Thanks for telling me all about the scientific details as well as the engineering know-how. Toodle do... "

I excused myself and quickly went back to the house where I grabbed a jar of water and drank from it without even pouring it into the bamboo cup. The water in the clay jar was cool and refreshing and it would stay that way even though how hot the summer weather would be.

Sitting at the doorway with the jar in my hands, I was awakened by Heather that shook me from my stupor...

"Mars... What's wrong... You look pale. Do you want Kayla to take look at you to see if you are feeling alright?"