Two hours and thirty minutes later.

“I don’t understand why we didn’t do this from the start,” Atlas cheerfully intoned, swinging his legs back and forth. “This is much more enjoyable.”

Huff. Huff. The large-bodied Baron huffed with difficulty as he struggled to maintain a straight back. Keeping his shoulders from trembling too hard, he tiredly replied, “I’m glad you’re feeling comfortable, my liege.”

“Look, Baron Helm,” Atlas rapped on the Baron’s bald head, pointing towards a specific spot. “I can see a clearing just upfront. It seems that we’ve arrived!”

“Oh, thank god,” Baron Helm quietly mumbled underneath his breath, being careful to avoid the prince’s ears. He was, quite frankly, on the verge of collapsing onto the ground.

Two and something hours of trekking through a forest while carrying someone on your shoulders was a hellish ordeal. It was difficult enough to carry someone on your shoulders through a flat path, not to mention doing so in uneven, sludgy terrain. The fact that the prince liked to frequently rock back and forth, swing his legs wildly, and tap against his bald head only served to increase the ordeal’s difficulty.

As much as it pained the Baron to admit, a part of him was glad that their destination had arrived. He, or to be precise his neck and back, sorely needed a break.

“What was that? Did you say something, Baron Helm?” Atlas piqued.

“It’s nothing, my liege. Oh look, we’ve arrived!” Baron Helm hurriedly deflected.

While wondering what that was about, Atlas shifted his attention to the scene before him. The encroaching darkness of the forest had finally retreated to expose light and space. A 50 sq. m. clearing chockful with people and activity presented itself before the young prince.

It was the mining site.

“Whoa…” Atlas absentmindedly remarked, his eyes glittering with light.

The base of a tall mountain rested at the back of the clearing, extending as far as the eye could see in both height and width. At its face, a man-sized crevice spilled ashy-black rocks, covering a quarter of the clearing. Shrubs, moss, and undergrowth plagued the walls of the mountain and much of the crevice.

“Line up accordin’ to the groups the little prince assigned to ya! We’ve already lost much time getting to this place, so let’s make the most use of the remaining daylight!”

“Remember not to push or swing too wide, folks! We don’t want anyone getting hurt here.”

“Dump the mined coal over here, ya hear me! Also, don’t break it too much when ya mine it!”

Atlas invested the majority of the town’s populace into the mining efforts. The result of it was evident to see.

Jason Porlicks, the ‘hero’ of the town, seemed to have adapted well to his posting of Foreman. Sitting atop the Baron’s shoulder, Atlas could clearly see the man standing in the middle of the busy crowd of workers barking orders. Nervousness, tenseness, and slight timidness were still present and plain to see on his face, however, the newly awarded promotion seemed to have put some color and confidence into the man.

“Oi! Oi! Oi! Don’t just–ah!” Jason’s eyes landed on the newly arrived figures of the Baron and the prince. “Lord Baron! My Lord!”

Jason’s scream drew the attention of the other workers as they immediately paused their work and turned to look at the newcomers.

“It's Lord Baron!”

“The little prince is with ‘im too!”

“Ah!~ Looking at ‘is highness’ cute face fills this maiden’s heart.”

“Maiden? What rubbish! Yer old enough to be my mother!”

“Ya old coot! Just ‘cause I’m old, doesn’t mean I can’t be a maiden! I’m still unmarried for god’s sake!!”

“Oi, both of you! Stop bickering like pantless children! Yer’ bringing us others a bad name.”

Ignoring the nonsense from the crowd, Atlas dismounted the Baron’s shoulders with the latter’s help –the latter releasing a short moan from the relief– and walked a few steps forward. He then met Jason, who had made his way towards the prince.

“My lord!” Jason immediately greeted, moving to get on his knees to greet the prince. Atlas hurriedly stopped him.

“Oh, don’t do that! It’s not required here.” He waved in denial. He then peeked at the bickering crowd behind Jason. They seemed to be in an argument.

“Foreman Porlicks. Please ask the workers to continue with their work. I’m only here to see if everyone has arrived safely with no issues and to meet with you.” Atlas ordered.

Jason foolishly chuckled after hearing the prince address him as ‘Foreman Porlicks’. Fortunately, he was quick to snap out of his fantasy and carry out his order.

Turning around to face the crowd, he loudly barked, “Enough with your silly chats! Get yer arse back to work!”

His order was met with a few annoying comebacks. However, the majority stopped their silly argument and returned to work. The prince had arrived to check up on them and it would only be right of them to leave a good impression.

Who knows, perhaps they might score a promotion too.

Seeing Jason’s words not being met with any dissent or insubordination, Atlas inwardly nodded his head with satisfaction. It seemed that the new foreman had established his authority with relative effectiveness.

How had he managed to do it? Atlas did not care. The result was all that mattered.

Jason was feeling quite satisfied too. The feeling of power and authority was quite addicting. Fortunately, he had no intentions of contesting against the young prince for his position.

The man was pleased with his current title and position. It was a position that was previously unthinkable for a mere peasant farmer to possess. Also, seeing the look of surprise from his wife, and harmless jealousy from his friends had been completely worth it.

Jason Porlicks felt indebted and grateful towards the young prince.

“I hope you didn’t have any troubles reaching this place, Foreman Porlicks?” Atlas began the questioning.

“Not at all, my lord. The people here have experience with the forest. There were no troubles.”

“I see. That’s good.” Atlas replied. He then asked a series of questions ascertaining the things he wanted to ascertain.

After the rounds of questioning, the young prince then took a tour of the mining site. Led by the foreman and followed by the Baron, the prince went over the mining arrangements. All of the townspeople greeted him enthusiastically and the young prince responded in kind.

It went without saying how important ‘image’ was to a politician or leader.

Image was everything.

How the people viewed you defined what type of a leader you were. It also defined the level of control and authority you had over the people and controlled the odds of a rebellion occurring.

In his speech earlier today, Atlas showed himself off as a virtuous, sincere, holistic, and capable leader. Touring around the mining site, he was reinforcing this image into the minds of the people.

‘Ah, I miss having the media. Doing this manually is really tiring.’ But well, what had to be done, had to be done. Sparing some effort today might spare him from a coup tomorrow.

After finishing his tour, Atlas then inspected the coal deposit and the coal itself. He had no idea what he was looking at and holding in his hands, but the Baron assured him that the coal was quite high in quality.

As for the deposit, without proper tools to measure it, Atlas couldn’t say exactly how much coal was present. However, the foremen and the workers answered him with this.

“There is enough coal in here to power the kingdom, my lord!”

‘Yeah, right.’ Atlas was going to take that with a grain of salt.

Almost an hour later, Atlas was finally done with his tour. He arrived near the freshly built wooden shack –to be used for storing the mined coal– and spoke with Jason.

“You seem to have a good grip of the works here, Foreman Prolicks. I trust in your ability and leave you in charge of this operation.”

“I-I’m honored, my lord!” Jason replied with tears streaming from his eyes. Hearing praise from the person he held with the highest of regards moved him beyond comprehension.

“This wooden storage shack looks good too,” Atlas commented, tapping his hand against the walls. It was amazing what people could build given the appropriate knowledge and materials.

This wooden storage shack alone had cost 20 units of wood to construct, and it looked much sturdier than that barn they used for storing the food stock.

Atlas sent an accusatory glance towards the Baron, who immediately ducked his head in shame.

“Anyway,” he faced Jason once again. “How much coal do you estimate you can mine per day.”

“Well, my lord.” Jason bowed his head in consideration. His face showed a mixture of struggle, difficulty, shame, and a variety of other emotions.

Atlas was confused at this reaction but quickly realized something.

Jason wasn’t a learned man.

“My apologies, Foreman Porlicks,” Atlas apologized. “Just answer using whatever standard you are comfortable with.”

“My lord! You don’t have to apologize to an unlearned peasant like me!” Jason hurriedly refused, but inwardly felt validated. His respect for the prince soared even higher.

Rubbing his coarse beard, the man answered, “With the number of people we have working here, I would say… 5 cartfuls, my lord.”

“5 cartfuls?” Atlas turned around and looked at the Baron for conversion. The man soon replied.

“That should be 50 units per day, my liege.” The Baron replied. ( 1 unit = 10 kg. 50 units = 500 kg)

“That’s a lot,” Atlas honestly remarked. Not bad. Not bad at all.

“However, my lord, there is a little issue,” Porlicks nervously inserted.

“Oh?” Atlas looked at the foreman. “Please do tell, Foreman Porlicks.”

“We won’t be able to transport that much coal back to the town, my lord.”

‘Ah!’ Atlas felt enlightened. ‘I completely glossed over the issue of logistics.’

“Indeed, without a proper road, trekking through the forest while carrying that much coal would be impossible,” Baron Helm agreed. “The workers can only carry a little on-person while returning safely.”

“Righto’, my lord.” Jason intoned.

“How much would this ‘little’ be?” Atlas asked.

“About this much, my lord,” Jason gestured with his hands. It was roughly the size of a basket. “Around two, two and a half sacks worth of coal, my lord.”

“That’s two and a half kilos (2.5 kg), my liege.” Baron Helm translated.

Atlas calculated inwardly. ‘2.5kg per person over eighty-five (85) people, that comes up to… 21 units?’

“Roughly half of the daily mined amount, huh?” Atlas vocalized. “Well, it’s a start. I suppose there is nothing else we can do for now.”

“That’ll be fine then, Foreman Porlicks. I shall leave now. Remember to come to the Baron’s manor after you return this evening to give me your report.”

“Of course, my lord.” Jason bowed; his fist on his chest.

“Let’s go, Baron Helm.” Atlas exited the storage shack and the Baron followed. The two walked over to the edge of the clearing and disengaged themselves from Jason.

Entering the forest, Atlas immediately walked over to the Baron and spoke.

“We need to return soon, Baron Helm. I’ll have to ask you to make quick work of your feet.” He then widened his hands, clearly showing his intention of wanting to be carried.

A variety of emotions flashed across the Baron’s face before finally landing on resignation.

“Of course, my lord.” He sighed and mounted the young prince on his shoulders. After making sure that the prince was seated comfortably, the large-bodied man began his jog back towards the town.