Banished Prince Charming

Chapter 91 - Improve, Improvise, Implement

Soon it was for Marcel to make his way back. Jennings had prepared at least another dozen of bread for the horses and it was packed on the saddlebags of the horses for easy-to-reach situations.

The 11 baskets of bread had been carefully placed in the wagon where Marcel was sitting and he would be clearing the bread as soon as he reached Corral. He was laughing out loud when he saw the state of his wagons as it was loaded so high with lots of wicker goods. He was wondering whether his relatives' shop would be able to accommodate all these.

Furthermore, the prices he got was rather low so he would make a sale based on the highest he could think of and then lower it down as they haggle. Once he finds the price to be favourable, he would stick the price at it is.

"My good friend, the young Master of GraceHaven, if I sell out these bread, I would be coming back for more. Hahaha. Of course, I will keep these bread baskets along with me. It's a good thing I have these ornamental baskets, the bread customers could buy them to carry these bread off. Hahaha."

"Haha...no problem. Feel free to come back anytime. The bakery has nowhere to run and hope you could at less clear half of those things that are on your wagon right now. Remember, my good man. Weekly supply of 250 pounds of grains and flour, please. Thank you... "

I waved Marcel off and watched the two wagons moved off swaying to the left and right, precariously as if it would be toppled on its side anytime...! Just like he had predicted, to and fro GraceHaven would be two wagons full.

=*=

"Whaaatt...? A loomer? I am a lady yes but I never have done such work before. I never even ever held a thread and needle before in my life. Do you think I best suited for that job?" Michelle shrieked when she heard from Eagle that her house arrest had been ceased and now is transferred directly to the loom/tailor section of the village.

"Well... If that's the case, since you could easily wield a sword, maybe you could wield an axe to chop down the trees instead? Or even work as a woodcutter and chop wood for the citizens of GraceHaven. I know such women who had taken such jobs before. They are not afraid of difficulties and challenges ahead of them." Eagle just suggested to her several alternatives nonchalantly.

"The ladies of this village could pick up a hoe and tend to the farmlands. I heard there's another expansion of farmlands that include more vegetables and fruits as well as grains. Why not I put up a recommendation for it?" added Eagle with a hint of sarcasm in his tone.

"Fine, Bishop Levingstone. I will try my hands at the loom. Give me about three days to get a hold of it and then I will let you know if I wanted to switch trades. I still favour uniform over an artisan." Michelle smugly answered Eagle and agreed to his proposal. However, she would gather as much information to see if the job is manageable for her or not.

"You are a swordsman with no basic ranged weapons training. I already had an addition of 5 men that just arrived this morning. How do you expect to go against those insurgencies with just your sword? You would be struck by raining arrows even before you could go near them." smirked Eagle at the idea of her being a single classed fighter.

Compared to a Shadow, one is equipped with at least 3 classes, one is ranged, another is melee while another would be stealth and ability to perform sneak attacks and sabotage. If one is just trained on one melee class alone, it's considered as pretty handicapped, not useless.

"Then teach me, Bishop Levingstone, train me up to be one of your men. I heard your men is pretty good at all 3 classes of jobs." pleaded Michelle with a look with an act of pity.

"You think this is Gillman? Going to that camp is a mistake, you should better be off to Sandhurst and why the sudden change in non-gender preferences of the militia nowadays? I don't quite understand." Eagle spoke of his own experiences when he was at Gillman and after several months, due to his academic, he was transferred to Sandhurst for a two-year training before he settled down as a Shadow and became an educator.

"I know... I know... It is because of a swordslady from France... Joan, Joanna, Joanne or something." Michelle somehow managed to answer a name close to it, but that name got swamped 9 years ago in 1431. History state that she was crazy and heard voices to wear men's clothes and bear arms.

"Quit your nonsense, you're not Joan the Arc. I know my history lady. As for you, you're Michelle the Pottymouth. So clean yourself up, especially that stinky potty of yours. Clear that up, and meet me at the courtyard by a quarter foot of a shadow's length."

Eagle turned away as he heads to the courtyard but somehow he knew that this Michele, even though she had shown an Unbecoming behaviour, is actually a versatile fighter. With the perfect grooming, she could be a good archer with the guidance of Gwen.

To really train this wild mustang, Eagle has to think of a way to diversify her role in the village and not stay at one position or else her talent would be wasted as well.

=*=

Heather approached me and inquired about my earlier tour with Marcel. "So what were you two discussing about? Seems so secretive and by the look of this paper here that he had signed, I could not believe that we had made a sales of over 12g...!"

"That amounts to 600 silvers and if we divide the amount for the work done for this village, the treasury has more than 490 silvers left...! If everyone is paid equally the young and the a.d.u.l.t as well as the kids, that is. Do you see what I mean?"

"Yup... This village is able to be self-sustained just by its produce and handicrafts. And that, milady... Is only amounts to work in 2 weeks. For a projected month, we could have 20 to 25 gold coins. And where does this wealth go? It is back to buying provisions so that our citizens would not go hungry."

Heather held the two papers before her and cannot help but exclaimed, "For an amount of 1 gold plus a few silvers, we had attained 900 pounds of grains and flours?! We need to expand our storage space for grains and flours...!"

"Don't worry dear. Come, follow me. I had an idea. Do you remember the slate we had used during our school days back in the university? Did we use to have a slate about this size and this size right? Come, I wonder if you would agree on this or not."

=*=

Author's Note:

(even if it's a university, a full framework of education was set in place from kinder to elementary, high school and college. So one need not move about to go to another institution to continue their studies. It is like an integrated education system, for the sake of fiction.)

=*=

I then led Heather to the bakery since they have the tools and equipment that I had. I asked for a cool clay baking tray and asked for some flour. After scooping a generous amount of flour on it, I shook its side and the flour covered the whole surface.

Then I wrote, "I love you, Lady Heather." and drew two entwined hearts with an arrow with a heart topped pierced together. I showed it to her and at first, Heather cannot catch what I was actually doing. "Mars, you're so childish... How could you go and play with flour like this... Do you know that..."

Realisation suddenly dawned on her as she looked at the clay baking tray and the layer of flour in it and then she looked at me and she shrieked in joy...!

"A writing slate for the children...! What a brilliant idea...! You are really a genius, my dear husband. I never regret being part of you...! *smooch*" Heather jumped and clung on me as she landed a few kisses on my cheek. Just by a bit of improvisation, the children could have their own slates and then able to finally learn how to read and write properly...!

"Alright... Alright... Look here. Find Jack. Inform him of the size that we wanted to have for the children. Then produce using clay and once air dried, fired them up in the baking oven in the evenings since it won't be operational. I think the ideal size is 10" by 10"? Have a shallow indentation for the flour to be easily written about a depth of 1" should be alright. Can you do that for the children? "

"Then the teacher had none? I should have one so the children can write and learn too." she pouted her lips like a little girl who was rejected from getting a lollipop.

"Alright, the teacher would have a 15" by 15". You sit on the floor and the children sit in a semi-circle around you so they would be able to view what you wrote and you could do the same to theirs. Understood?"

"Yes, my dear husband who loves giving ideas and improvising lives for others. I'd get to it immediately." Heather then slipped to meet Jack and they both kinda excited to make some mud pies to design the slate over at the clay bricks production area.

I returned the tray and I saw that the two Jennings girls were sort of gaping at the two of us the entire time and when I snapped my fingers, they were awakened from their stupor and bowed as they asked for forgiveness apologetically. "Hahaha. Just you wait till you find your own partners in the future, OK."

By this time, their mother came from behind and slapped the back of the two girls' heads while Hereford was laughing in the background. "Momma... momma, what happened?" the little girl asked the Hereford as Hereford was letting her daughter play with some dough that was meant for the horses and saw that the mother-daughter combo was making something unique.

"What are you both making? This is plain bread mix for the horses right?" I asked and soon I got a pleasant answer.

"They are trying to shape pretzels, Sir. It was one of a speciality kind of plain bread that was shaped into a long dough, and then was shaped into that and baked. It's a plain any time and any day bread but it may come in a variety of flavours and sprinkles."

"Pretzels originate from Germany and it was seen as a symbol of good luck, prosperity and spiritual fulfilment, pretzels were also commonly distributed to the poor, as a way of providing them with both spiritual and literal sustenance," concluded Jennings as it is a boon having her on board as a Baker due to her knowledge and experience.

"Well, it sure is a mouthful of information and I really appreciate what you and the rest had done so far. It's quite efficient to bake bread in this matter, no?"

"It couldn't get any better. This is the best concept oven I had baked from. Even Marcel was astounded by its capacity and output rate. What we can do in half a foot of shadow's length here in GraceHaven, is what we could only achieve in 3 feet on a day...!"

I nodded my head and told them to resume what they are doing. Soon I found out that they were practising to make pretzels for the horses, pigs and goats and its quite fun to make and since the children have an experience making mud pies, making these pretzels were considered easy-peasy...!