[INTERLUDE]The reach blooms II

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POV of Cleyton, sixth moon ,284 AC

I hadn't finished fixing up our new house with my family when I heard someone knocking on the door.

I went out to greet the visitor and found it was one of the mayor's assistants who was handing out some papers.

''Cleyton, citizen, protestant, baptized, head of household, composed of his mother and wife, by mandate of our mayor, representing the interests of our king Wilhelm von Hohenzollern, long may his reign be, I hand you the jobs that are being requested by the city, taking into consideration that you have learned to read you are handed the official copy issued by the city'' said the mayor's assistant handing over some papers.

''Oh, thank you...'' I said while checking the information I was handed.

''It should be noted that you received a recommendation from a Teutonic knight to apply for jobs in which a certain level of trust is required, a job not much different from what was requested in the paper, but with a much more generous pay'' said the assistant

''I will take it into consideration... from what I read, I should just go to the mayor's office to look for the job?'', I ask with interested

''That's right, unless you get a job with the private sector, that being said, I bid you good day'' said the assistant walking to the next house and repeating everything he had done with me.

The jobs you were offering were similar to the ones we did in our village before we had to move, considering that the city was relatively new, it needed a lot of workers to help with the fast expansion

Carpenters, blacksmiths, masons were the jobs most in need and offered higher pay than other jobs that required less effort than public bath workers or those who cleaned the facilities of public buildings

They were also offering jobs that required some time of practice, such as printing press assistant, court deputy workers, town hall workers, which were well paid, but we had to spend some months gaining experience before officially working, in addition to the skills of reading and writing and I only have one of them

I remembered what the assistant told me and quickly went to the mayor's office to inquire about the trust jobs I could perform.

A quick inquiry to one of the workers who was at the mayor's office and the trust work was a special project done by Prussian engineers

The pay was very high thirty-five silver coins every month for doing agricultural work outside the city, plus a payment in gold when it was all finished, I did not understand why this work was so well paid surpassing the remuneration of several other jobs the Prussians were offering

With the recommendation of our former mayor, he allowed me to take the job, but I had to take an oath before a priest to keep quiet about all the information I came to know.

I got a little nervous if I should have settled for a common job, as there was a lot of security measures that the Prussians were taking with this project.

Very early the next day the sun had not yet risen, but I had to get ready to go to the city gate to meet a group of men who had the same job as me and we got on one of the logistics wagons that the Prussian guards had brought to transport us.

We traveled a long way until we came to farmland that had already been worked, plowed and had irrigation canals operating.

When the wagons stopped we began to alight from them and a Prussian engineer came up to us and began to speak to us

''Well everyone you are here under oath, I remind you that you cannot talk about what you see, this is an important project for the interests of our king, and therefore you are expected to keep silent, what you will have to do for the next 3 months will be to work in these fields'' said the engineer pointing to the fields

''A job that you will be very familiar with, nothing out of the ordinary, plant seeds, eliminate weeds, eliminate pests that may affect the growth of plants, that's all, you don't need to know anything else, take the tools and divide yourselves into groups'' said the engineer pointing to boxes with tools and seeds in them.

Quickly, we obeyed and started with the work, which was to plant two types of seeds in two different fields for the next three months and do everything possible so that the growth would take place in an ideal environment, as the Prussian engineers said, who was observing our work attentively and writing everything down in his books.

We had planted and fertilized all the fields that had been assigned to us at the end of the workday and just as we arrived we were sent back to the city without much further explanation.

I returned home and as I had sworn to do, I avoided talking about what had happened and concentrated on helping to finish preparing my new home.

During the first days in the city I dedicated myself to doing my work in the mornings and getting to know the city in the evenings, the most common meeting place was a very busy bar that sold beer and distilled liquors that had the royal seal.

That was when I discovered a problem that was the result of the Prussian presence in the cities, it was known that the Prussians who had come to rule were only men and had been generously recommended by our king for their military service.

Since it was obvious that the Prussians were here to stay, many parents saw the Prussians as the perfect candidates for their daughters, since they were very wealthy and were slowly starting thriving businesses using skills they learned in their campaigns.

This had caused difficulties in getting a wife, as the interest was in the Prussians because no matter how austere a Prussian dressed they had a lot of gold stored in the banks, it was just seeing that every day Prussian merchants and craftsmen paid for a round of beer for their king with their earnings.

Luckily, I managed to get married before all this happened or I would have plenty of problems like most young people, as they would never get a father's approval if there is any candidate among the Prussians.

There was nothing better to end the day than to go to the public baths and take a bath with hot water, it seems quite strange, but most of the business between Prussian merchants and merchants from other areas is done here because being half naked they cannot hide daggers that can be used for extortion or that is what the Prussians themselves say.

The days went by until they finally became a habit, the work was quite simple, only occasionally it required us to fertilize a field much more often than the rest, but the people in charge just wrote down everything that happened with a lot of interest.

While in the city there were many things to do, the city market was very dynamic, every day something new was happening, as the city was slowly becoming a trading hub in the area where merchants from all over the seven kingdoms and even from essos were arriving, bringing numerous exotic things.

On one of the days I was returning from work I found a huge crowd of people waiting for the opening of a building in the main street of the city, curiosity got the better of me and i decided to go and see what was going on.

It was not the typical building in the city, they all complied with a standardization, but this one was different like the public buildings of the baths and hospitals, but what made it different was that it had the royal heraldry of the king in Prussia, which meant that it was the personal property of the king and not of the state.

''Supermarkt'' was what it said on the building.

A market...the king's property from what I understand....

After waiting a while, the doors were opened to reveal the interior.

The huge tide of people came in and I waited a bit to go in as many people were very anxious to see what's inside.

When things calmed down a bit, I entered the building and found a clean room with shelves of products.

I walked slowly and tried to see what was on the shelves.

Twenty-five kilos of salt-fifteen silver stags.

I stared at the sign for several seconds.

'WHAT, but this should be enough for a year or more, very cheap...'

I continued observing more products, there were sacks of sugar that like salt were quite cheap, although I had never bought sugar, I knew that only the nobles used it and it was worth a little more than salt.

Wheat flour, at an almost ridiculous price, a sack of twenty-five kilos for only five silver stags... grains are sold at a higher price... it doesn't make sense.

There were large rolls of cloth and huge balls of wool, as well as military boots in all sizes.

Everything sold here was in large quantities, no low quantities, as I continued to watch I found that they sold very fresh meat....

There was a large group of butchers who had slaughtered a few head of cattle and were selling the meat after cleaning off the fat and to ensure that the meat was truly fresh... it is likely that this is where my cows ended up.

next to this butcher shop I pointed out the days when more animals would be slaughtered, cows, chickens, ducks, pigs, sheep...everything.

In the end I took a sack of salt and some fresh cuts of meat, there was a huge tide of people who were buying sacks of salt like me, it is one of the biggest expenses that a household can have to keep food preserved and we had to take advantage of the fact that now the price of salt had been reduced by more than half.

Besides, flour would not be necessary, since we bought all the bread from the local bakery, it was cheaper, more convenient and tastier to buy it than to have my mother and wife work the dough.

When we got home my wife found out she wanted to go immediately to buy more meat to take advantage of the cheap salt and keep it for later, but at the end of the day, there was some unrest in the city, apparently the amount of products did not last for the mass of people and many people were angry because they would not get anything.

Luckily, everything was solved by the police without conflicts, although there was one of those crazy septon people saying that we should burn everything, but he was the first one who got arrested.

Quite a few days passed and I continued with my work, I was still quite surprised that the flour was selling cheaper than the kilogram of wheat grains and it depends on finding out when more merchandise arrived to the king market the prices were maintained, I had my doubts how it was possible to maintain the price, but conversing with some people in the bar the prices for selling outside the territory were maintained.

But the real answer I found in my own work, it was already the sixth month where one of the two annual harvests would officially begin, but our agricultural work began in the third month.

One field was growing, healthy, but not yet ready to be harvested because it still lacked several weeks of growth.

On the other side, a field of golden wheat, ready to be harvested, had grown at a surprising speed and at the same time required much more care, but while the engineers watched and noted everything they smiled like maniacs at the results of this harvest.

By the fact that the grain the Prussians observed was more abundant in the pod and the stalk was smaller in size, it seemed...more efficient

Since the grain on the other side was still green, much less grain was growing and the stalk was taller

''Cleyton... tell your coworkers to get everything ready to harvest these grains, their work must be fast, these grains must be delivered for the next harvest''one of the engineers told me.

I nodded and went to find my companions.

''The test is a success, the grains adapted to the climate, they show no deterioration in their ability to grow, it is safe to spread these seeds throughout the reach, the risk of failure is nil, the king will be pleased now that his fear has been allayed'' said another engineer as I walked near them.

''Eradicate hunger'' said the first engineer.

''Eradicate disease,'' said a second engineer.

''Eradicate ignorance'' they all said at the same time as they smiled.

I went on my way and we harvested the grains even working several hours of overtime at the end of the day they gave me several gold coins for my work and they fired me and recommended me for another trustworthy job.

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