Chapter 323 - Chicks

There is indeed a lot of progress and set backs going on around Ignis, some can be happy about it and some can be angry. But we should take time to mention the progress going on the domains this story started gradually forming at.

Such as Gaster Kingdom, the domain who started off as the most struggling. To start it off, the Domain has got a good profitable order from the friendly neighbouring Kingdom. Specifically, from Pameres Kingdom.

Along with the Leather Jerkings that the King ordered, sadly with tens of it now not being able to be used due to all of those deaths. The King sent a letter of offerings.

The Striped Marlin deal that specifically ended in July, has been renewed. Originally the deal was to provide this type of meat for 6 months. Luckily, the sales there have been going tremendously well. People who had salaries bigger than the rest, tended to buy this cheap meat often.

It felt like a cheap luxury, because Striped Marlin meat is generally very expensive to buy yet the King offered it for half the price. The fact that it was offered half the price, increased sales greatly since even apprentices could spare to buy them.

Due to the fact of the sales going well, King Zar has offered a year long Contract here. Although trust has been built between these two Domains, it is always better to put words on Parchment.

The Contract started at July and will end on July in the next year (202), but this time it has minor differences order-wise. Last time, Gaster Kingdom was supposed to provide 2,500 Kilograms of Striped Marlin meat each month and earned an income of 7,500 Gold Coins each month because of it, no pay was too late or not handed.

Now, the Striped Marlin team (Including Saleem, Kaleem, Lia and Jim.) will have to provide 3,000 Kilograms of this meat each month. Which of course comes with more income, the Kingdom will receive 9,000 Gold Coins each month for 12 months.

When all put together, this brings a handsome total income of 108,000 Gold Coins. When including the salaries for these four special spearfishermen and woman, the total profit here would be 84,000 Gold Coins.

However, like in any Kingdom that profit would be spent on other affairs which are required to maintain the Kingdom. Such as paying on other salaries, yet the Kingdom still manages to earn enough to break even and put a few thousand gold coins to the royal treasury.

I realise such information thrown in a bunch might not look so appealing here, but these are important pieces of the story we need to cover. Each domain has its own type of progress after all.

I think you are going to get a big kick out of this one! Remember that poor little town that practically begged King Zar of Gaster Kingdom for help? Do you remember Bale Town?

Thanks to the fact that they started off with small salaries and free food and thanks to the great fact that they got their hands on a Coal Mine, they currently have the biggest Budget in the triangle of friendly domains.

Their budget counts up to 450,000 Gold Coins! Even Pameres Kingdom can't measure with it at the moment. Mainly because they've spent a lot of Gold Coins in the past battle that happened there but also because Bale Town out matched them with a pure profit of 37,000 in February. It is indeed a lot to compete with. We will get on better detail about that later on.

For now let us stick to the progress here in the loved Gaster Kingdom where our heroes used to take residence at. Chickens! How can anyone forget about the wonderful Chickens that forced the legendary King Michael to attain a face full of mud!

Thanks to spring providing warmer weather, eggs started hatching. King Michael has studied Chickens in the wild for a few years, but due to the fact that they tend to run away very fast and actually become very territorial, it was hard to study the reproduction part of that little journey.

So in the first time, a couple of chicks hatched unintentionally. This specific one Chicken has been very territorial about a handful of eggs and two weeks later, their mini version started following them and going "Kik Kik Kik Kik"

It was glorious to watch, as it resembles the joy of seeing new life. Fairly, the Chicks look adorable. But King Michael was never one with the Chickens, so when he tried to approach it and see what is study worthy, the mother Chicken went. "Grrrrrr." Softly and pecked him on the head about 7 times.

No big injuries but it was worth putting in to word. Yet he did not want to give up on finding out how to hatch them, these are chicks made without effort we are talking about!

He asked the Guards about what they did and did not see, any bit of information is worth hearing at this point. The lady who fed the Chickens daily and collected the eggs, is the best source of information here.

It is she who explained how one Chicken protected these eggs and under no condition let her pick them up unlike the other chickens who are three times softer about it, apparently that one chicken has chosen to become a mother.

Considering that bit of information, King Michael ordered for the lady to not touch any eggs of whom a Chicken violently protects, since they will bring along smaller chickens, respectively, chicks.

Although it was hard to tell their gender, some chickens showed difference in size and feather. Shortly described, they grew up prettier and had beautifully blended feathers. But they are more rare compared to the female chicks, which in another way is a good thing because they don't lay eggs and are territorial against other male chickens or best called, hens.

So far, 50 Chicks have cracked open from their shells and have filled the coop in a considerable amount of joy. Although feeding them is not neccesarily a problem, other issues arrived with their birth.

For example, a few of them got lost or snatched by an animal. They are just too small and can slip through the fence, so once noticing that three of them are missing and due to the fact that they had to chase a couple others through the field, action had to be taken to keep them safe.

King Michael ordered a few men to gather finger thick smooth straight branches from the forest, so they can isolate the fences better while at the same time a second wall of fences was being built 15 meters around the original one, since the coop was getting a bit tight for all of the chickens to fit in.

The situation was tamed, but sadly in the process a total of 15 baby chicks have been lost. They were most commonly snatched by foxes who have picked up on their scent, a couple of wild hounds looking almost similar to wolves, have snatched a few as well.

Now, a total of 40 Chickens run around proudly in the coop. The 15 dead chicks will be missed, but this result isn't exactly bad either. Of course, 30 of them are just chicks and hens who can't lay eggs yet. But eventually this will quadruple the profit, it will be just what the Kingdom needs to support the upcoming population rise.

With only 10 full grown Chickens, Gaster Kingdom managed to earn 5,000 Gold Coins a month. Easy math there, they will be able to gain 20,000 when they attain a business contract either here or on Zameria.

Another source of profit that fairly started bringing Gaster Kingdom great fortune, is the great business move of which King Michael made when he hired 30 Female Bowwomen hunters!

They are bringing in averagely 1,000 Kilograms of meat per month. It isn't particularly hard to bring such big game considering that they occasionally use nets as well, furthermore there are 30 Ladies putting in that work!

One animal, lets take Wild Boars for example, equals around a hundred Kilograms at average. Smaller animals are set free or not shot down at all, it would be like poisoning a food supply. Deer are also very common, accompanied by many species or subspecies who almost share the same gene.

The more people die in war here, the worse Ignis gets over populated with animals. In a way it is working to Gaster Kingdom's advantage big time.

Thanks to the usual 4,000 Kilograms of meat each month, the upcoming population rise will be easier to feed. The 20,000 Kilograms of extra wheat grain for example, won't be touched. There are fish meat and mammal meat to support such a population. The food situation will be barely touched.

To make this business investment a lot better, with the aid of King Zar they managed to strike a great deal with the financially great Bale Town. Every month at the first when transactions here in the port are handled, Wagons filled with 1 ton of meat of which Gaster Kingdom can afford to sell, are sent to Bale Town.

Mostly it is Wild Boar meat, it occupies 60% of the delivery. But regardless of the meat type, they just decided to stick on a fixed price of 7,000 Gold Coins.

This deal benefits both Kingdoms, as for now this meat at BaleTown is handed for free once bought. And here at Gaster Kingdom, 1 ton of the meat is handed out for free and the remaining two tons are stored in the cold bas.e.m.e.nt of the Castle just in case they might face a food shortage (Less likely to happen.).

Or with the winter season coming up now which can help them preserve the meat longer, they can sell it with a mass amount to the Zamerians.

Both of these domains deserved to taste such luxury, profitable for Gaster Kingdom enough this deal doesn't have a time limit.