Banished Prince Charming

Chapter 53 - A Job Well Done...!.

As everyone had left their work stations, cups of hot tea was passed around while waiting for the meal to be prepared. Today's meal was simple, it was just heaps of shredded dried fish in gruel with some condiments such as shallots, ginger, garlic and celery and long beans that had been harvested from the farmlands.

The meal was simple but was greatly welcomed by the citizens. I had announced earlier before the meal that tonight's conference would take much longer than it would be so I told them to bear with my rantings thereafter.

Hearing my lighthearted mood made the atmosphere loosened up a bit. Rows of benches made up for the citizens to comfortably sit and rested a while but to relax after a hard day's work.

To those who knew had every worked within the Royal grounds, getting to meet their leader daily was indeed rare. Unlike now, meeting me every day was something they looked forward to, unlike other ministers that would be in the receiving ends by their leaders.

I saw the head engineer that I had talked to earlier today before I had those 2 visions and he bowed slightly as he joined his group and acted nonchalantly. The rest were chatting and updating themselves as they relate to one another on their work and progress.

Ashworths and Burns had finished their work on the latrine pit on both sides of the residential plots and had joined to work at the bamboo areas and with the additional manpower, the team had actually managed to complete 15 barricades altogether complete with anchors that were placed at the residential lots first. It would take about 3 days to barricade the whole village in an effective manner.

After our meals, we all sat down back at the courtyard to discuss the progress on our work so far as each team leader would report their findings. The first to report would be the engineers.

"Sir, we wish to report that the windmill is fully operational and would be able to be in full operations by daybreak tomorrow. We had completed assembling the windmill within the stipulated time and we'll ahead of schedule. Even if we had been paid for 7 days work, could you ignore the fact and assumed that there is a delay that makes us stay for 30 days instead?"

"Thank you so much for your kind progress report. We are looking forward to seeing how it operates and also you could also inform the types of messages for each positioning of the windmill blades as mentioned by one of your juniors."

"Please don't take it too hard on you to stay for 30 days since the verbal contract is only for 7 days. There are 4 days free and you could take it as a bonus instead. There's no need to stay that long. Won't you be missing your families?"

"Why not take the 4 days to be together with your families?"

"The reason that we wished to stay for 30 days is to ensure that in those 30 days, the windmill would pose no problems. If there are some problems with it, our boys could fix it on the spot thus it won't affect much time lost on the production."

We understand that the wheat crops would still be waiting to harvest and there's a lot of flour in your stores left. Meanwhile, we insist on staying back. It's our responsibility and its an honour to serve you, kind sir."

"As to visit the families, I suggest only those with spouses leave to be with them for a duration of 5 days absence from their duties. It would be 6 of the boys including me and after visiting our spouses, we would be reporting directly to you and perhaps bring back something useful for this village."

I can feel my heart swell with pride at the mention of these men sacrificing their time and effort just to make sure the windmills were working fine. But the 10 of them to stay? Don't they have nothing better to do but earn a living and provide for their families?

"Alright then, if you insist, witnessed by the citizens of GraceHaven, I allow you to be here for 30 days. However, according to our verbal contract, there's no payment for 8 days thereafter. Would you agree to it or would you like to contest it?"

"There's no need to contest to it, sir. As long as food and drinks are provided, we would be happy with it. Just a small request, could we accommodate 2 plots of the residential area to rest our weary bodies? Furthermore, I would like to meet and discuss with you and the pioneers after this conference ended."

I looked at him and the rest of the pioneers as we looked at one another questioningly. Jack stood up and spoke up that it would be fine if they wished to speak to us in private. I was left in the dark on what this head engineer has in his mind. 2 residential lots to accommodate them is fine. Setting up the houses would commence once the barricades had been completed.

"Alright, the engineers and the pioneers would leave behind to discuss some matters that would be discussed in private."

Jack who was in charge of monitoring the children made patty cakes of mid to shape them into clay bricks was next to give his progress report.

"Young master, within the second period of the day, the children had completed 12 sets of 16 clay bricks that equal 192. Since we would need to furnish the orders from Marcel as well as to make the oven for the bakery, we need an enormous amount of earth. We had nearly used up the earth that was brought in by Ashworths and Burns. What would the next course of actions be?"

"That's a sweet surprise from you, Jack. 192 pieces on half a day...! That would make more than 2,000 bricks by the time Marcel comes to receive them. As for procuring the earth, it was pointed out to me that the knoll yonder could be used to flatten it. Do we have enough tools to go round?"

"Oh... We do have more than enough tools. There are wood and iron tools as well and we could use the horses to plough it up to loosen it before we flatten from the highest peak onwards."

"Alright, use the horses sparingly. Don't overwork them since they eat harder as they worked harder. Hahaha. Use them at intervals including Sir Hope. You may require till midday to loosen and ferry those back to the clay brick production area, any questions about it?"

"No young master, once these horses complete the first loosening of the earth, it could be placed on standby where it would ferry back the first mound of earth so the children wouldn't have to wait for too long."

"At the meantime, the children would pick dry grass, wood ch.i.p.s, and crushed stones to mix with the clay instead. At least work is still ongoing for them. It's light work but I'd say that these little devil's sure could work as sharp as any a.d.u.l.t. Bless these children...!"

"Hahaha... I would guess that these children would be awarded milk every night for their hard work. Soon once the bakery is up and running, they would have milk and cookies regularly too..."

The children, hearing that they would receive milk today were cheering. The Chadwell boy was gesturing with his mother and after understanding, it, stood up on the bench and clapped his hands and cheered while his mother was pulling his tunic to calm her son down in embarrassment.

After the children's wild cheering had settled down, I continued with the rest of the progress report. "Public Works Minster Frank and Domestic Affairs Jack will handle this levelling project. Jack would return with the 1st wagon load, followed by Frank and the rest of everyone once they finish the 3rd wagon load and return to your respective stations."

"Understood, young master..." both Frank and Jack understood since Kayla would be watching over the children and Ben would be left to handle bamboo production area along with some of those not involved in the levelling project.

Ashworths and Burns reported their progress and informed that they had moved to the bamboo production area to render their assistance. I listened and commended them for taking their own initiatives and I commended Ben and Frank as they reported that they had completed 15 barricades during the second period of the day.

I commended them for the job well done and continue to do so for the rest of the perimeter of the village.

The head engineer too was surprised that normally it would take some days to have these wooden stakes to be installed especially to stop the siege from enemies.

Being an engineer, he had also helped to build walls of fire before these stakes but due to the time-consuming and laborious undertakings, it would take days to properly make these stakes as deterrence and delay against trojan horses and escalade.

Next to report would be Jennings as she proudly showed her readied winnowing tray to the rest of the citizens. She reported that this tray would be used especially to separate the hulls from the flour that would be milled. She then pointed to her daughters to perform well or her daughters would get it from her. "I don't want a single hull or a single grain of gravel on my flour, you hear me or both of you will surely get it from me."

Everyone laughed loudly looking at the mother and daughters arguing after mentioning about the flour process. Guess we don't need to find the ones who handle the flour on the future after winnowing after all.

I will then inform Industry Minister Ben to look for 2 able-bodied youth to take care of the lifting of grains to the upper deck of the windmill to pour in batches inside the millstones. There won't be a need for 2 people to work on the windmill but since it was 2 tiered, I won't expect a lady to climb up and down and do all the work herself. Even a paid worker would run away from that kind of back-breaking labour...!

Jennings who was in charge of the bamboo strips project also informed about the progress of the soaking of the strips and would be drying them tomorrow. "Chadwell, have you got that loom of yours up and running already? Is half dried and pliable alright for you as requested?"

"My loom is already completed, my dear. Yes, please send them in before midday tomorrow as I would be taking a few pieces tomorrow to set on the loom as a test. Also, I would need some hide glue from Gwen, would that be alright?"

Gwen raised her head towards Chadwell and replied that she would pass some hide glue for her use. Chadwell would be using the glue to adhere those pieces that were under 10' wide. Since she was using the loom to generate a sunscreen shade, it would not be interwoven but instead, it is a single line design and secured by jute string. This enabled the sunscreen shade to unfurl easily during and after use.

The next to report was Crystal as she pointed out that she had already marked out a 2x2 plot of farmlands next to the enclosure and close to the riverbank. "Those reeds and cattails would be weeded out by me with some of the ladies help when the time comes."

"I also had marked out the 10 feet wide path for the wagon to pass through and there's quite a number of trees that need to fell. I've already made a mark on the tress to indicate which need to be fell by my husband and his buddy. Fortunately there stables would not need to be moved as it was not affected."

"By the way, as a young woman, I can't help to be jealous, young master."

"Eh...? Why is that?" I was perplexed at Crystal on her last sentence.

"The citizen houses are much nicer than ours... Could we upgrade our houses too? Hehehe... The insides of the house looked bright with the nice woven walls. Ours are still made by branches, tree barks and mud, remember? Hahaha..."

Crystal laughed and the rest of the pioneers laughed too. It seems that if Crystal didn't bring this up during the conference, the pioneers had forgone their simplest comfort due to the dedication they had poured for the 8 new families as well as the ongoing project.

I laughed as I waved my hands and replied that the fabrication is still in progress as the need to complete the defensive structures are still in its priority stage. Once it is completed, the next would be on the residential houses as well as the building of the bakery.

And so the conference progressed on...