Chapter 147 - Contract

After a couple of Compliments from Guard Commander Delrus Aze, one of the revolutionary leaders felt more and more comfortable towards Pameres Kingdom's approach. They seem to promise a lot, complimenting their own work with a lot of good will. He felt the urge to say, "I feel sure that after signing this parchment, Bale Town will finally prosper like never before."

With a wide smile on his face, Guard Commander Dalerus Aze replied with. "I'm glad you feel comfortable with our work." Afterwards gesturing as if he was writing, he stated. "We will make a request to King Zar to bring down people of other crafts here, experienced ones who can leave a mark by teaching others. Regarding that, I need to ask a few questions first so we can narrow the requests down instead of over or under requesting!"

"Of course!"

"Please, go ahead!"

Starting it off with compliments first, so he doesn't project his thoughts rudely. He expressed, "There are many farmers here. Your type of work is respectable, you have the capability to bring food to so many people!" Seeing their lips transform into smiles, he cut to the case fairly before one of the three leaders was about to say something. "But are there any people who know different crafts?"

Being a little confused at the thought of different crafts in general, one of the Leaders asked. "Different crafts? Such as?!"

Uncrossing his arms, Delrus continued with his right hand up near his face, numbering different crafts. "Hunting, Blacksmithery, Building Construction, Cargo delivery, Stonemasonry, Lumbering, Swordsmanship, Clay Sculpting. Basically any skill set."

Being a bit bewildered when he heard all those crafts projected at once. He took a few seconds to catch up and giving it a deeper thought. He found the decency to finally answer. "Oh, we don't have many."

Urging to know how much exactly that "not so many" is, Delrus kindly started guiding them. Helping them Narrow down stats. "We can start by listing each craft and the number of people skilled with it." He Clarified. As soon as he did, a couple of the leaders sighed in satisfaction once they found this task way easier now. "Let's start with hunters. Do we have any hunters in this town?"

His mood switching as soon as "Hunting" was mentioned, one of the leaders answered. "Hunting isn't exactly the safest work."

"Yes, we only have 2 Hunters as far as I know." Followed another leader, complimenting his statement.

Although not satisfied with the numbers, we can't say he was surprised. Hunting without tools that can't bring big game down is wildly dangerous. But those two Hunters can still prove very useful. "That's a small number but they can prove of big help when it comes to training willing apprentices."

Finding it difficult and a bit disrespectful to refer to these three as "you three", "you", "now you", etc etc. Delrus found it fair to ask, "Before we continue. May i please know all of your names?"

"Im Bert."

"I'm Mert."

"I'm Eert."

Impossible to not notice the strong name similarities. Delrus felt the urge to ask. "I'm guessing you three are related?"

"Yes. We are the Willson brothers." Answered Mert with a lot of pride!

"So you three are triplets?" Asked Delrus with one eyebrow raised in curiosity and his head tilted to the left a little bit while still keeping eye contact with them. They do sound quite proud of their identities.

"No no." Answered Bert while shaking his head from left to right in disagreement. I'm(Bert) 32 years old. Mert is 31 years old and Eert is 30 years old."

Amazed by such a streak. Delrus expressed while he crossed his arms. "Oh so in a way, you three are a year apart from the older?"

"Yes we are apparently. But getting back to the case... I doubt that people will be willing to become hunters." Expressed Eert with clear concern all over his face. 

"They will if we offer a good stable pay." Pointed out Delrus with a smirk across his lips. He did feel sure of the impact Pameres Kingdom can bring upon this town. "However moving on, how about Blacksmiths. Does the town have any of them?"

"No no. ill.u.s.tratian Guards usually got their weaponry from other domains, delivered here. We don't have any Blacksmiths. We don't even have a forge!" Upon expressing that fact, Bert felt uncomfortable. Thinking that the lack of skilled people will shun Pameres Kingdom's forces away.

But Bert calmed his thoughts down when Delrus answered with great understanding and sympathy. "Well, that's unfortunate but understandable. Even Pameres Kingdom used to lack enough Blacksmiths and still requires more. I'm sure King Zar will help us figure this out."

Feeling humble but also weird about asking and or receiving so much help by someone who literally doesn't have to help them at all. Mert expressed. "Our requests are getting rather extensive. We don't wish to burden King Zar after he offered us so much already, especially about Blacksmiths!"

Waving his hands up and down a little bit, in front of them in aims to try and calm Mert down. Assuring him to not worry about the expenses. Delrus simply expressed. "Don't worry, he is willing to provide a lot more than this, these are the bare minimums." Before he moved on to the next craft. "Let's continue with another craft, Building Construction."

Feeling sure about the amount they had but considerably not so proud, Bert swiftly answered. "We only have 3 people skilled at that craft here, but they don't have the tools to be of much help."

"That's easily fixable. We have 80 Construction Workers at Pameres Kingdom and the King is constantly expanding, we are able to provide the appropriate tools." Swiftly moving to the next craft, assuring them that the lack of skilled people isn't really a big problem. "How about Cargo delivery and stone Masonry?" After it, pulling out a Parchment so he could write these numbers down after realizing that he can't memorize them all. Awaiting for their reply.

Taking some time to count, Eert raised up 5 of his fingers and answered, "We have 5 Stone Masons here." Shortly after pointing at Gilbert, stating. "And good old Gilbert is great with deliveries, even with a horse."

"This is turning out great." Thought Delrus to himself. With likely over 35% of this town which includes elderly people and Children not being able to work for obvious age disadvantages, the other 65% are capable and the future shapers in this great Farming Town. If over 40 people here turn up with different skills, getting this place independence will be a breeze. Even if this town reaches to the point where they can't have any sales. Even if their income falls flat, they will have the capability to provide enough food and appropriate housing to their own town. In these times, it can't get better than this.

Very satisfied with the understood results, Delrus Aze proceeded to ask about a few of the last skills. "I'm assuming that there are many Lumberjacks and Swordsmen too?"

Lumbering doesn't require much skill as much as it requires physical strength and willpower to cut down several to tens (depending on the tree's width.) of trees in a row, cut their branches one by one so they can be dragged across the ground easier and of course drag that lumber for a possibly extended period of time. For example if a Lumberjacks house is far, he will need to tie up the lumber together tight with a rope and start dragging it, and since there aren't many hills across Occidentis Ignis for the wood to slide easier, it does require a lot of strength for fulfilling results. And Swordsmen, well. They did manage to kill every Guard in this town from the ill.u.s.tratian Alliance after all. So forming a reliable Platoon might not be too hard compared to the rest of the mandatory tasks.

"Yes. There are many Lumberjacks, possibly over 20." Answered one of the leaders. Specifically, Eert.

"And there are over 15 people actually good with a Sword. All 15 are Warriors(Level 2)." Followed Bert in aims to convince Delrus Aze about Bale Town's quality. At least Guards and Lumberjacks is something they can guarantee to have enough compared to the town's population.

Moving to the possibly most important part, for Pameres Kingdom's progress at least. A craft not so popular in Kingdoms where there is a lot of traffic of merchants or a Kingdom where there are a lot of stores that sell daily necessities. "Well this is perfect. Now finally, tell me if there are any Clay Sculptures?"

A bit confused on why Guard Commander Delrus Aze put so much tension on the last craft, Mert answered while puzzled with his own thoughts about this. "The ladies are usually great with that, half of the houses here hold a lady gifted with such Craft!"

"So 25 people?" Asked Delrus with his eyes widened in shock. Pameres Kingdom holds over 2,500 people and yet Bale Town with 90% less of the population count seems to qualify enough to compete with them. Proving it well that where there is a smaller market, there usually are people who need to rely on their own skills to make daily necessities. Bale Town's gold income is flat after all. The ill.u.s.tratian Alliance invaded this little town just because there are a lot of farmers here. It proved well profitable for the Alliance.

"Yes, that's about right." Answered Eert, backing up his brother's assumptions. "So did we make it? Will King Zar help us now?"

Grabbing the quill with his entire hand to get a better grip on it, since there isn't anything else to write. Raising his right hand and waving it up and down, in aims to relax them. With a big smile on his face, Delrus added. "You misunderstood me sir Eert. King Zar would of helped you regardless. I just need this information so i know what to request from King Zar to bring here, or what for the rest of the people in this project should expect. This is just to help you."

Delrus' sounded like honey was coming out of his mouth, the amount of help Pameres Kingdom is offering is something no other King would offer. Even the richest Kingdom in Ignis wouldn't offer this much! Bert felt so much gratitude towards this project. Enough to put in 16 hours of work a day for free! Just to help. "Well that's fantastic. Can we be of more help?"

Finally getting to the point, Delrus felt at ease on his heart when he assured that these people are on board with this entire project, feeling proud of his skill and speechcraft. King Zar assigned this project upon him, it would be a shame if he didn't succeed. "I will take it from here, you just sign this parchment agreeing to accept Governors." Noticing that no Guard reported anything about any school, Delrus kindly asked. "Do you want me to read the Parchment for you?"

"Please."

"I am very curious."

Being handed the Parchment by a Guard who was awaiting for the Guard Commander to finish with his speech and offers, Delrus Aze proceeded to read the contents in it.

"By Signing this Contract, Bale Town agrees to accept governing from Pameres Kingdom for an entire year without discriminating even a day. By Signing this contract, Pameres Kingdom is obliged to provide any reasonable request which got approved by Guard Commander Delrus Aze and the temporary Governing Party. King Zar, the ruler of Pameres Kingdom promises a more stable economy, a stable year around food supply, good protection and an increase of individuals skilled in various Crafts. The Craftsmen (or women) sent from Pameres Kingdom as teachers, shall only stay temporarily upon requested time and will not be permanent Residents in Bale Town unless they choose so after a year when this project is over. If the Pameres Kingdom's governing party fails to provide at least 51% of the signed for promises, a compensation of 50,000 Gold Coins is to be given too Bale Town. Guard Commander Delrus Aze will be in Charge of the Governing Party and nothing shall be done without him being acknowledged and giving permission for governmental tasks and requests to proceed forward. Tradition based disagreements, Corruption, Physical Abuse, Verbal Abuse, Abuse of Signed upon Position, S.e.xual Abuse or Harassment, Intentional property and or Tool Damage and Disagreement to work if the person is clearly able. Will result into 5 years in the Dungeon in the Pameres Castle Dungeon. Both parties shall be held responsible if any of them are caught committing any of the above forbidden acts, clarifying that none has superiority over the other, any criminal shall be punished. If the above acts are committed with a c.u.mulative count of 15, the contract breaks and the two parties part ways."

X_______  X________ X________

At the bottom of the Parchment, there was King Zar's signature already signed, who is the provider of the governing party and everything else no doubt. Second came Guard Commander Delrus Aze's Signature. He will be in charge of the Governing party and no task shall be done without his knowledge and approval, he takes full responsibility for the governing party's actions.

And of course in the third underline, the 3 leaders have to give their signatures. It was a rather short underline so Dalerus had to extend it a bit right on the spot, it was acceptable.

The punishments for the above "crimes" might be just a little bit overdone, but King Zar doesn't need any petty acts slowing down or preventing his promised results. The last thing he would need, is to pay a Compensation of 50,000 Gold Coins after wanting to help this town.

"Do we have any questions?"